Call for UN to confront Sudan over alleged war criminals

March 31, 2008 (LONDON) — The letter, distributed by U.K. charity The Aegis Trust – which campaigns against genocide worldwide – called on members of the Security Council to “visit Khartoum at the earliest possible opportunity to demand that the suspects are handed to the ICC (International Criminal Court).”

Among the signatories are Carla del Ponte and Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda respectively, former U.K. justice minister Charles Falconer and former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler.

They called on the council to freeze the personal assets of Sudanese government officials harboring the two suspects – Ahmed Haroun and Ali Koshieb – and any others suspected of committed war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region.

“The government of Sudan has no serious intention to investigate past or ongoing crimes in Darfur,” the letter read.

Haroun, Sudan’s secretary of state for humanitarian affairs, and pro- government Janjaweed militia leader Koshieb have both been issued arrest warrants for war crimes by the ICC.

More than 2 million people have fled their homes and at least 200,000 have died from the combined effects of famine and conflict since Khartoum enlisted militia allies to put down a local revolt in Darfur in 2003, according to the U.N.

(AFP)