ICC prosecutor tells Sudan to hand over Darfur suspects

By Wasil Ali

May 28, 2007 (CAIRO) — The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo expressed his confidence that the arrest warrants against the two Darfur war crime suspects will be executed.

Earlier this month the judges of the ICC have decided to issue arrest warrants against Ahmed Mohamed Haroun the Sudanese minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kosheib. Ocampo had originally requested the judges to issue a summons to appear against the two Haroun and Kosheib.

However the ICC judges determined that a summons to appear will not be sufficient to ensure the suspects appearance in court. Sudan has so far rejected the judges’ decision and vowed not to hand over the suspects.

Ocampo briefed Musa on the activities of the ICC in Darfur in an apparent bid to rally Arab support for any looming showdown with Sudan over the handing over of the two suspects. Ocampo told reporters in Cairo that the ICC will “take all necessary measures should Sudan insist on defying the extradition request”. However Ocampo declined to elaborate on the kind of measures he will take.

The Sudanese ambassador in Cairo Abdelmoniem Mabrouk dismissed Ocampo’s remarks as contradictory to the principle of “complementarity” as defined by the Rome Statue which allows ICC to investigate only in the absence of “genuine national proceedings”. Mabrouk stressed that Sudan has already conducted its own judicial proceedings in Darfur war crimes.

Ocampo is expected to bring up the issue of Sudan’s non-compliance with the court in his semi annual briefing to the UN Security Council in mid-June. It is not clear if a new UN resolution will be drafted requesting that Sudan hand over the suspects.

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)