ICC prosecutor says he received ‘zero’ information from NGO’s in Sudan

March 20, 2009 (NEW YORK) — The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo denied allegations by Sudan that his office received information from aid groups operating in Darfur.

On March 4th the judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber I at the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape and torture.

Bashir afterwards expelled expel 13 relief organizations from Darfur and Northern Sudan accusing them of passing “false” information to the court.

But Ocampo said he relied on “zero” information from humanitarian agencies for his Darfur investigations.

“I respect different mandates — I never requested information from any of these NGOs” told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York following a UN Security Council (UNSC) briefing on Darfur humanitarian situation.

Reuters said that the ICC’s prosecutor was in New York to urge countries to act on the ICC arrest warrant against Bashir.

“As soon as he travels through the international airspace he could be arrested. Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor show that the destiny of Mr. Bashir is to face justice” he said.

“Two months or two years will depend on the state and how they act. But his destiny is to face justice” Ocampo asserted.

In an interview with Egypt’s independent Al-Isboa weekly the Sudanese leader stressed that he will fly to Doha to attend the Arab summit for which he received an official invitation a week ago.

On Monday the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa from the Syrian capital said that his organization as well as Qatar received the cooperation request but turned it down.

The ICC prosecutor rejected criticism by some states that his move to charge Bashir led to the expulsion of the relief groups.

“It is very interesting, the prosecutor is responsible not the criminal?” he said sarcastically.

“The king is naked” Ocampo said, referring to Bashir. “It is not my responsibility that he is naked”.

“The court decided that Bashir committed extermination against the civilians in Darfur including affecting humanitarian health in the camps” Ocampo said.

“Expelling them [humanitarian groups] is confirming the crime” he added.

The ICC prosecutor also told Reuters that the judges will soon decide on a case he submitted last year against three unidentified rebel figures accused of masterminding an attack on African Union (AU) peacekeepers in October 2007.

U.N. officials say that as many as 300,000 people have died in six years of conflict in Darfur between African rebels and the Arab-dominated government. Khartoum says 10,000 have died.

(ST)