Save Darfur

ICC prosecutor to unveil new case next week against Sudan

THE HAGUE (AFP) — Urging decisive action against Sudanese warcrimes suspects, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said Friday he would announce details of a new case next week against senior players in the Darfur conflict.

“I will inform the … (United Nations) Security Council on June 5 when I will present my second case on Darfur,” prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters in The Hague, the tribunal’s permanent seat.

He is due to brief the Security Council in New York on the situation in Sudan’s eastern Darfur region next Thursday, the same week that a council delegation is due to visit Khartoum.

The new case would start “in the near future”, said Moreno-Ocampo, declining to reveal how many people would be targeted, or whom.

He did say they would be “at a higher level” than Sudanese secretary of state for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun, who has yet to be detained despite the ICC issuing a warrant for his arrest a year ago.

“Haroun is still in the middle of this operation … It is obvious that he is not arrested, he is a minister, so he is not alone,” Moreno-Ocampo said, adding he was collecting evidence “to prove criminal responsibility at a higher level than Haroun.”

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told the Security Council last month that the death toll in Darfur had risen to 300,000, with more than two million people having fled their homes since the government enlisted militia allies to put down a revolt in the region in 2003.

Moreno-Ocampo said Haroun was continuing to commit crimes against civilians in his ministerial position, and was undermining humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts in Sudan.

“Keeping Haroun in his position as minister of state for humanitarian affairs is affecting the humanitarian assistance to people in the country.”

He decided who got assistance and who not, and was also on a committee set up to facilitate the deployment of the UN/African Union hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID).

“So, Haroun who is committing crimes today in Darfur, is also involved in obstructing the deployment of UNAMID,” Moreno-Ocampo said. “Arresting Haroun is a duty of the Sudanese government.”

The Security Council, said the prosecutor, must ensure that Sudan complied with its resolutions on Darfur.

“The Security Council decided that justice in Darfur is a key element for peace. It is now time to put this message into reality,” he said.