UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The UN Security Council on Monday demanded Sudan cooperate with the International Criminal Court in bringing Darfur war crimes suspects to justice.
"The council urges the government of Sudan and all other parties to the conflict in Darfur to cooperate fully with the court ... in order to put an end to impunity for the crimes committed in Darfur," the council's 15 members said in a unanimously adopted declaration.
The declaration, read by US Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad, who is president of the council for June, did not mention two suspected war criminals, Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kosheib, but alluded to their arrest warrants issued in 2007.
The council "takes note of the efforts made by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to bring to justice the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur," it said, especially "the follow-up by the International Criminal Court with the government of Sudan, including the transmittal ... of arrest warrants."
Earlier Monday, the EU threatened to impose sanctions against Sudanese who do not cooperate with the court.
New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch hailed the Security Council's declaration, saying it signals "international impatience with impunity for Darfur war crimes suspects."
"The presidential statement ... is the first time that the Security Council has formally taken action on Sudan's failure to comply with the ICC arrest warrants for two Sudanese suspects," it said.
The declaration, drafted by Costa Rica, was changed from its original version, which mentioned the fugitives by name and the council's frustration with a "lack of cooperation" from Khartoum.
Libya opposed the text and the declaration was amended several times before being adopted unanimously, according to diplomats.
The declaration was drawn up June 5 after ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo called on the Security Council to send a "strong message" to the Sudanese government and urge it to arrest and hand over Haroun and Kosheib to the court.
He deplored that a year after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Haroun, Sudan's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs, and Janjaweed militia leader Kosheib, in May 2007, they remained free.
They are charged with 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including acts of murder, persecution, torture, rape and forcible displacement.
But Khartoum rejects the jurisdiction of the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court, and has made it clear it will not hand over the two men.
Next month, Moreno-Ocampo is expected to issue two new arrest warrants for people suspected of involvement in "large-scale crimes" committed in Darfur. Rights groups say they are likely to target high-ranking Sudanese officials.
Costa Rica's ambassador, Jorge Urbina, welcomed that there was a "consensus of the main elements of this statement to support the ICC and mainly to support the people of Sudan, to protect the people of Sudan from future suffering."
"We are not here to insult any government," he added to reporters when asked about remarks by his Sudanese colleague at the UN, Abdalmahmood Mohamad, earlier this month that Costa Rica was a "banana republic."
The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed Janjaweed militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.
Up to 300,000 people may have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease, according to a UN official. Sudan claims the death toll from the war does not exceed 10,000.
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