UK, Amnesty call on Sudan to hand over Darfur suspects
May 2, 2007 (LONDON) — The government on Wednesday called on the Sudanese government to arrest and hand over two men wanted by the International Criminal Court over the violent conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
They face a list of 42 and 50 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes respectively.
“Some crimes … are so serious as to make them of concern to the international community as a whole,” said David Triesman, Britain’s minister for Africa, in a statement released by the foreign ministry.
“There can be no impunity for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Where national governments cannot or will not act, those most responsible for such crimes must be prosecuted at the international level.
“I call, therefore, on the government of Sudan to co-operate with the court’s request for the arrest and surrender of Haroun and Kosheib.”
Triesman added that work must continue to address the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, calling on the government and rebel movements to abide by previous agreements and accept a beefed-up African Union-UN peacekeeping force there.
Meanwhile, London-based Amnesty International in a statement “urged the Sudanese government to immediately arrest the two and hand them over to the court in The Hague.”
“The UN Security Council must now demand that Sudan — or any other state in whose territory the two suspects are found — arrest and surrender them immediately,” said Erwin van der Borght, director of Amnesty’s Africa Programme.
“It is no longer seen to be enough to just conduct political negotiations over strengthening the current peacekeeping force in Darfur and try to further peace talks.”
According to the United Nations, some 200,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes since the start of the Darfur conflict, now in its fifth year. Sudan says that only 9,000 have died.
(AFP)