Sudan’s government has welcomed calls by Egypt, South Africa and Libya for a 12-month suspension of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) indictment against its President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes. This follows a joint news conference between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and South African President Thabo Mbeki in Cairo.

Both Presidents want the postponement in order to buy time to decrease tensions in the country. The Arab League held crisis talks in Cairo and its Foreign Ministers also called on the ICC to back off. The African Union says arresting Bashir would jeopardize attempts for a negotiated settlement to the crisis in Darfur and southern Sudan.

And Uganda is concerned as well, saying the indictment could negatively impact a possible settlement of the northern region crisis with rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army.

ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accuses the Sudanese President of personally instructing his forces to annihilate three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur. President Bashir is also accused of plotting murder, torture, pillaging and rape to commit genocide.

Ocampo wants arrest warrants issued against Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, where a civil war has been raging since 2003.

Kassulae Migala Katende is a former Ugandan journalist now living in the U.S. and I asked him about the argument that this is hindering the peace process and do we need peacekeepers before warrants…