(AFP) – Jun 5, 2008

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Thursday implored the UN Security Council to demand Khartoum arrest two Darfur war crimes suspects and said he would unveil new evidence next month.

"I ask the Security Council to send a strong message to the government of Sudan... requesting that they arrest Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kosheib," he told the 15-member council.

In May 2007, the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court, issued arrest warrants for Haroun, Sudan's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs, and Janjaweed militia leader Kosheib.

They are charged with 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including acts of murder, persecution, torture, rape and forcible displacement.

Moreno-Ocampo said that at the council's request his office would next month present new evidence exposing the facts and identifying those most responsible for the Darfur crimes.

Richard Dicker, an official with New York-based Human Rights Watch, told AFP that Moreno-Ocampo was likely to then announce new arrest warrants.

"The message needs to be heard in Khartoum that this (ICC) investigation is going up all the way up the chain of command," Dicker warned.

"Those in the (upper) echelons of the Sudanese government ought to be curtailing their travel plans because they may find themselves the focus of an international arrest warrant," he said.

Three years after the situation in the western Sudanese region was referred to the council, "massive crimes are still being committed in Darfur," Moreno-Ocampo said.

He said the evidence showed that the commission of such crimes over a period of five years throughout Darfur "has required the sustained mobilization of the entire Sudanese state apparatus."

"Girls are still being raped. Children die as their schools are bombed. The entire Darfur region is a crime scene," the prosecutor said.

"I have collected compelling evidence. The evidence will identify those most responsible for crimes against civilians in Darfur, in particular the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa" ethnic groups, he added.

After Moreno-Ocampo's presentation, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned about the reported lack of cooperation of the government of Sudan."

Ban urged Khartoum "to comply with its international obligations and cooperate with the International Criminal Court."

And US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Washington shared Moreno-Ocampo's assessment that "accountability for past and present crimes against the people of Darfur is needed to enhance security and to send a warning to individuals who might resort to brutality as way of achieving their aims."

The prosecutor said the council had the power to ensure the cooperation of Sudan, which as a UN member "has the legal obligation and the ability to arrest and surrender" the two suspects.

But Khartoum rejects the ICC's jurisdiction, and has made it clear it will not hand over the two men.

Meanwhile, Costa Rica circulated a non-binding statement in the council to increase pressure on Khartoum to comply with a previous council resolution demanding cooperation with the ICC.

"The government of Sudan is toying with us, toying with human dignity, toying with the authority of this council," Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno Ugarte told the council. "Enough appeasement, the time has passed to continue accommodating evil."

But a Western diplomat said the statement would not be adopted until the outcome of a Security Council mission currently touring Darfur.

A Chinese delegate condemned the "atrocities" in Darfur but cautioned that "only with improvement of the situation and political stability can there be a solution to impunity."

France's deputy UN Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix for his part urged the council to back Moreno-Ocampo's mission "particularly at a time when the prosecutor announces the submission of new elements implicating persons who are responsible for crimes against civilians in Darfur."

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 UN humanitarian chief John Holmes. Sudan claims the death toll from the war does not exceed 10,000.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »