ICC may investigate Darfur rebels child recruitment claims

June 3, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he is investigating allegations of child recruitment by rebels groups fighting in Sudan’s Western region of Darfur.

“We are monitoring the child soldier crimes. That’s a big deal and it’s possible that parties to the (Darfur) conflict use child soldiers,” he told Reuters in an interview.

The Rome Statute which forms basis of ICC criminalize recruitment of child soldiers and a Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanaga is being tried at the Hague based court on exclusively this charge.

Last year, the head of the UN children’s fund (UNICEF) in Sudan Ted Chaiban said that 6,000 children as young as 11 have been recruited by rebels and government forces in Darfur.

Chaiban singled out the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur in Darfur.

Ocampo said no decision has been made on opening new investigations with regard to child recruitments.

“Before we do any new case I will inform the Security Council in advance of what are my plans,” he said.

The ICC prosecutor will submit his semi-annual report to the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday.

The UNSC referred the Darfur situation to the ICC in March 2005 under a Chapter VII resolution.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir and two other Sudanese officials but Khartoum refused to extradite them.

Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, a Darfur rebel commander, has appeared voluntarily at the ICC last month to face charges of masterminding attack on African peacekeepers in 2007.

Sudan described his appearance as a “bad play” orchestrated by the ICC prosecutor to demonstrate impartiality of the court.

(ST)