KHARTOUM, Sudan – The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo is calling for the arrests of two men charged with war crimes in Darfur. Warrants for Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Haroun and Janjaweed leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abad al-Rahman were issued by the ICC in April. Sudan’s government has continued to assert that it is not bound by the ICC decisions.
Both men are wanted by the ICC on 51 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Ahmed Haroun was a minister responsible for the Darfur portfolio in 2003 and 2004 and allegedly was responsible for organizing and funding the Janjaweed militia. As the minister for humanitarian affairs, he currently has authority of the displaced persons camps and control over the flow of humanitarian aid. Mr. Ocampo has said that “there can be no solution to the crisis in Darfur while Mr. Haroun remained free.” Ali Muhammad Ali Abad al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, is accused of ordering the torture and mass rape of civilians during attacks on villages in west Darfur.
Ministers from 26 countries have been invited to attend a meeting on Friday chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare. The meeting is intended to discuss mobilizing support for new political negotiations, deployment of a 26,000 UN-AU force, and expansion of humanitarian assistance. Mr. Ocampo urged the international community to remind Sudan’s government of its duty to arrest those charged. “I am concerned that silence by most states and international organizations on the subject of the arrest warrant has been understood in Khartoum as a weakening of international resolve in support of the law, and in support of the arrest…It is time to break the silence.”
Political talks are set to begin in Libya next month between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels to discuss peace and to speed up deployment of peacekeepers to the region. The arrest warrants are not on the agenda for those talks.
For more information, please see:
BBC News – Prosecutor demands Sudan arrests – 21 September 2007
AFP – ICC prosecutor presses for arrest of Darfur war crimes suspects – 21 September 2007
Sudan Tribune – ICC Prosecutor urges world to be on side of Darfur victims – 21 September 2007
The Canadian Press – Prosecutors want arrest of alleged war criminals atop Darfur agenda – 21 September 2007
