Prosecutor demands Sudan arrests

Warrants for Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Haroun and Janjaweed leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman were issued by the ICC in April.

Sudan's government has said that it is not bound by the ICC's decisions.

Mr Ocampo urged delegates to raise the issue with Khartoum at a major UN meeting on Darfur on Friday.

ICC charges

Ahmed Haroun and Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, are wanted by the ICC on 51 counts of crimes against humanity and war-crimes.

Ali Kushayb, a leader of the Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, is accused of ordering the murder, torture and mass rape of innocent civilians during attacks on villages near Kodoom, Bindisi Mukjar and Arawala in west Darfur.

SUSPECTS' PROFILES

• Ahmed Haroun
  - In charge of Darfur in 2003 and 2004 as deputy interior minister
  - ICC says his work included recruiting, funding and personally arming Janjaweed militia
  - Quoted as saying that he had been given the authority to either kill or forgive in Darfur for the sake of peace and security
  - As humanitarian affairs minister he oversees Darfur's 2m refugees
  - Aid agencies accuse of him of hindering their efforts to access the displaced
• Ali Kushayb
  - Known as "colonel of colonels"
  - Commanded thousands of Janjaweed in mid-2003
  - Allegedly promoted and witnessed rape and torture as part of the war strategy
  - The government say he has been in detention since November for Darfur attacks
  - But witnesses told AP that he has been travelling in Darfur under police protection

Q&A: Sudan's Darfur conflict

Q&A: The ICC

Ahmed Haroun was a minister responsible for the Darfur portfolio in 2003 and 2004. According to the ICC he was responsible for organising and funding the Janjaweed.

As minister of state for humanitarian affairs, Mr Haroun currently has authority over camps for people displaced by the conflict in Darfur and control over the flow of humanitarian aid, Mr Ocampo said.

"Ahmad Haroun is not protecting the camps; he is controlling them. He forced millions into those camps; and he still controls them. He must be stopped; he must be arrested."

There could be no solution to the crisis in Darfur while Mr Haroun remained free, Mr Ocampo said.

The arrest warrants are not on the agenda for the UN talks on Darfur, to be attended by 26 countries on Friday.

UN agenda

They are due to discuss political talks in Libya next month between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebel groups, and how to speed up the deployment of peacekeepers to the region.

The UN needs the cooperation of the Khartoum government to start those talks and to deploy the 26,000-strong force.

Mr Ocampo said the meeting should be an opportunity to remind the Sudanese government of its responsibility to arrest those charged with war crimes.

"I'm concerned that silence by most states and international organisations has been understood in Khartoum as a weakening of international resolve," he said.

Sudan's UN ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, said the prosecutor was trying to destroy the peace process.

"We are very much concerned about the increasing politicisation of Mr Ocampo's office," Mr Mohamad said.

"He came here to influence the meeting on Darfur tomorrow, to make a negative build-up on Sudan in order that our position on that meeting be affected, negatively."