Prosecutions coming in Darfur atrocities

UNITED NATIONS - The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said today he expects to file a series of charges of atrocities against civilians in Sudan's Darfur region but gave no timetable.

His office had gathered evidence of thousands of killings of civilians -- including "a significant number of large-scale massacres" -- and hundreds of rapes, Luis Moreno Ocampo told the UN Security Council.

He also outlined significant obstacles to gathering needed evidence and getting testimony, including limited access to Khartoum and a lack of access to Darfur, where violence continues.

No charges would be announced until they were approved by the court's judges, said Moreno Ocampo.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes in three years of conflict in Sudan's remote western Darfur region. The United States has called the crisis genocide.

The mainly Arab militia known as Janjaweed are said to be behind the most of the murder, pillaging and rape in Darfur.

Complicating the case, the Khartoum government formed a special court in Darfur to look into the atrocities.

Under the Rome Treaty creating the ICC, The Hague-based court cannot prosecute suspects who have already been tried in fair trials in their home countries.

But Moreno Ocampo said the Sudanese court was not looking at any of the cases the ICC was focussing on in its search for those "bearing greatest responsibility for the crimes."

"It does not appear that the national authorities have investigated or prosecuted, or are investigating or prosecuting, cases that are or will be the focus of our attention," he told the 15-nation UN body.

Human Rights Watch charged last week that Khartoum had set up the court to head off the ICC investigation and had tried just 13 criminal cases unconnected to Darfur since the court was formed in June 2005.

Moreno Ocampo acknowledged that Khartoum faced a number of obstacles in trying to bring cases in Darfur.

The conflict had destroyed the region's criminal justice system, the court's judges were in Khartoum performing other duties, and witnesses and victims -- particularly rape victims -- were subject to harassment, he said.

Sudanese Deputy UN Ambassador Omar Manis told the council national prosecutors were working hard to bring perpetrators of atrocities to justice. The Sudanese court had "issued many sentences in many specific crimes, ranging between life in prison and execution," he said.

But he insisted the government had to take a balanced approach, stressing national reconciliation and peaceful coexistence among rival factions and ethnic groups, to ensure both justice and peace.

Some Security Council members quietly acknowledged that the ICC's slow pace suited for now UN efforts to persuade Khartoum to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur later this year, taking over from the small and ill-equipped African Union force now the sole line of defence in protecting civilians.

ICC charges against top government or rebel leaders might prove yet another obstacle if they came before Khartoum consented to a UN mission, they said. Some Sudanese officials also fear UN troops would arrest those the ICC wants to prosecute, although the institutions are separate.

- REUTERS