ICC prosecutor to investigate senior Sudanese officials
February 24, 2008 (THE HAGUE) — Nine months after the first arrest warrants were issued for those suspected of being behind atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region, the chief international prosecutor believes he has the masterminds in his sights.
He issued a warrant last May for the arrest of Sudan’s secretary of state for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Harun, but despite a UN resolution requiring Khartoum to comply with the court Harun is still at large.
“If Harun is not arrested and removed there will be no justice, no peace in Darfur,” Moreno-Ocampo said in a telephone interview with AFP from his native Argentina on Friday.
He said arresting Harun “is the condition for any solution in Darfur.”
The prosecutor also announced new investigations into crimes against refugees in the region blighted by five years of civil war after ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Sudan’s Arab-dominated regime in February 2003.
At least 200,000 people have died in the conflict and more than two million have fled their homes, according to UN figures, although the Khartoum government maintains that only 9,000 have been killed.
Moreno-Ocampo said he aimed to hunt down the top echelons above Harun in the chain of command and behind the savage atrocities in the west of the country.
Asked for details of new arrest warrants, he replied: “The second case will be different. Harun is instructed, he’s supported,” he added without elaborating.
The International Criminal Court, the first permanent tribunal set up to tackle war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, is based in The Hague and issued its first arrest warrants in May against Harun and Janjaweed militia chief Ali Kosheib.
They were accused of 51 crimes against humanity and war crimes — including murder, torture and mass rape.
Sudan has failed to hand over the two suspects, and in an act of defiance in November it appointed Harun to help overseeing the hybrid UN and Africa Union peacekeeping force currently deployed in Darfur.
“The most violent phase of the conflict in Darfur started in 2003, but it’s very important to realise that it is not over,” Moreno-Ocampo told AFP.
“It is still happening, before the very eyes of the international community,” he added, referring to reports of communities being displaced, bombing raids on villages and attacks on refugee camps.
He alleged Harun had played a “key role” in these incidents and was also responsible for slowing the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid.
“I think the Security Council has to do more for these mandates to be executed. I told them so,” said the prosecutor who in December drew up an indictment against Khartoum which he handed to the United Nations.
Last October Ocampo criticized the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for neglecting the issue of justice in his monthly reports on Sudan.
“Justice was not mentioned in the UNSG subsequent reports on Darfur where the UN secretariat developed a three prong approach with a humanitarian, political and security components only” Ocampo said in prepared remarks to the 11th diplomatic briefing at the ICC headquarters in the Hague.
Ocampo also disclosed for the first time that he has been approached by a number of countries suggesting that he should try and indict “lower level perpetrators, easier to arrest than Ministers or powerful militia leaders”.
However Ocampo emphasized that he will only prosecute individuals “based on the criminal evidence we collect and subject only to the judicial review of the Chambers [judges]”.
“What is at stake is simply the survival of 2.5 million people. As a prosecutor I do my part. My responsibility is to the victims.”
“Executing these arrest warrants is a test for the international community,” he said, but without answering questions about support from specific members of the UN Security Council.
Moreno-Ocampo pointed to frequent meetings held with regional powers, some of which are ICC members and others, which are not, and regional groups such as the Arab League.
“It is important to show that we are not in any kind of conflict between the West and the Arab world,” he said.
About Harun he added: “For me as a prosecutor, I know Harun’s destiny is in court.”
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the UN Security Council triggered the provisions under the Statue that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.
(ST)
Some information for this report provided by AFP