دارفـــــــــور: تصفية عرقية‘ إغتصاب‘ (...) فيديـــــــــــــــو

The Washington Times | Estados Unidos, Washington
La ICC se ocupa de Darfur




ICC takes up Darfur

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) gave Security Council members some unsettling information last week in his first public briefing on a three-week-old investigation into the situation at Darfur, western Sudan.

The Darfur probe is the court's third after those in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Uganda, and the first undertaken without an invitation from the government. Human rights advocates say it will be the first true test of the court's power.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina told Security Council members that aid workers had been targeted in Darfur and that his office feared for the safety of witnesses and the security of documents in Sudan.

"The protection of victims and witnesses is a major challenge in any conflict situation, and it is a core responsibility shared by my office," he said. "The information currently available highlights the significant security risks facing civilians [and] local and international humanitarian personnel in Darfur. ...

These issues will present persistent challenges for any genuine investigations."
The African Union has been struggling to field a credible peacekeeping force in Darfur, where government-backed militias have dislocated a largely farming population.

"There is a significant amount of credible information disclosing the commission of grave crimes within the jurisdiction of [the ICC] ... in Darfur. These crimes include the killing of thousands of civilians, the widespread destruction and #####ng of villages, leading to the displacement of approximately 1.9 million civilians," Mr. Moreno-Ocampo told the council on Wednesday.

The Rome Statute creating the ICC stresses that the international court is to defer to national prosecutions.

But Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said in his formal report to the council that any trials in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, are unlikely to interfere with ICC proceedings against the people "most responsible" for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC has not taken any formal steps toward the Sudanese government, nor has the court requested visas for international investigators. Legal specialists say the extradition of suspects, especially if they are high-ranking Sudanese government or military officials, is likely to be a difficult matter.

Sudanese Justice Minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin later told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the government has begun trials in southern Darfur against 10 suspects, accused of rape and other crimes.

"We are very transparent, we are cooperative, and we would like to use all the rational logic to convince the ICC that this matter can be retained locally," he said.