ICC Registrar makes a satisfactory first visit to Chad

ICC-CPI-20090403-PR404

The Registrar of the International Criminal Court, Ms Silvana Arbia, expressed satisfaction following her first visit to Chad from 30 March to 2 April 2009.

This visit was an occasion to meet with members of the Chadian government, local authorities, representatives of United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations active in Chad as well as with Sudanese refugees.

In Ndjamena, Ms Arbia held discussions with Chadian Minister of Justice Jean Bawoyeu Alingué as well as with other high-ranking officials, to whom she expressed her gratitude for the Chadian government’s assistance for the Court’s activities in Chad. She also expressed hope that, as a State Party to the Rome Statute, Chad would continue to actively cooperate with the Court, particularly as concerns the execution of the arrest warrant issued for Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir.

The Registrar of the ICC also held an information session with representatives of United Nations agencies operating in Chad (UNDP, UNICEF, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees), informing them of the latest judicial developments in the situation in Darfur, Sudan. Finally, she met with the Head of the African Union Liaison Office in Chad, Ambassador Ki Doulaye Corentin, to whom she stressed the important contribution currently made by Africa to the Court’s emerging jurisprudence, given the fact that the four situations before the Court concern African States.

Ms Arbia later visited Abéché, in eastern Chad, where she met with the Governor, Adoum Moustapha Ibrahimi, whom she warmly thanked for his support for the activities of the Court’s local office. She also met the Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and in Chad (MINURCAT), Ms Rima Salah, with whom she discussed the possibility of adapting the framework agreement between the Court and the UN in order to better support the Court’s activities in the region, in particular, given the recent redeployment of MINURCAT.

While in Abéché, Ms Arbia held another working session with officials of various non-governmental organisations present in Chad. Finally, she visited the ICC local office where she congratulated the staff for their continuous commitment and assured them of her full support.

Wednesday 1 April was devoted to visiting two camps for Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad, in Bredjing (the biggest, with a population of 30,170 refugees) and Treguine.

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For further information, please contact Ms Laurence Blairon, spokesperson, by telephone on: +31 (0)70 515 87 14 or +31 (0) 6 46 44 88 89 or by e-mail: laurence.blairon@icc-cpi.int.