ICC prosecutor urges UN to ramp up against Sudan
The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court asked the U.N. Security Council to ramp up its effort to persuade Sudan to arrest and surrender two officials indicted for war crimes in Darfur. Luis Moreno-Ocampo added that one of the wanted officials, Ahmad Haround, the Sudanese humanitarian affairs minister, may be orchestrating continued violence against civilians and suggested Sudanese authorities were protecting him. Ocampo noted the irony of naming a war crimes suspect to the post of humanitarian affairs minister – a post charged with overseeing human rights complaints from victims in Darfur and the joint African Union – United Nations peacekeeping force that deploys in Darfur in January.
“Ahmad Haroun, a man charged with 50 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes should not be entrusted with his victims’ safety,” Ocampo said. “He must be arrested.” Ocampo’s words come as criticism is mounting against the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for not speaking out against the Sudanese regime. Ban told the New York Times Wednesday that his actions reflected his decision upon taking office in January to lead the international body with a sense of quiet diplomacy, avoiding harsh statements directed at governments and national leaders. “Certain issues you can address in a public forum, but when it is necessary, I think it is more effective dealing in a behind the scenes, tête a tête manner,” he said.
The lack of cooperation from Sudanese officials prompted Ocampo to open a new investigation examining which officials in the Sudanese government were shielding Haroun from prosecution, affording him the opportunity to continue stoke the latest violence. “My office will proceed to investigate who is bearing the greatest responsibility for ongoing attacks against civilians,” Ocampo said. “Who is maintaining Haroun in a position to commit crimes? Who is instructing him?”
Ocampo continued by telling the Security Council he thought the Sudanese government was linked to the ongoing violence in Darfur. Ocampo said the Sudanese government was orchestrating a “calculated, organized campaign” to “further destroy the social fabric of entire communities.” The allegations prompted Sudan’s U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, to say that Ocampo had produced “the mother of all fabrications.”
“Ocampo showed today his moral and professional bankruptcy,” Mohamad said, “indeed moral because he told fabrications that you can never imagine and professional because he left side his legal framework, so to speak, and resorted instead to politicizing the whole issue.”
Sudan accuses Ocampo of trying to derail the peace process in Sudan. Mohamad stressed that Sudan would continue to defy the demands to hand over war crimes suspects. “If there are any accusations against our people, the Sudan judiciary is more than capable of doing that,” he said.