UN chief urges all nations to help arrest Sudanese and Ugandans charged by international court

Quote: Date: December 03, 2007 UNITED NATIONS_U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all nations Monday to help arrest two Sudanese accused of crimes against humanity and five Ugandans accused of abducting thousands of children and turning them into fighters or sex slaves. Ban's appeal came before the annual two-week meeting of the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands, which has issued warrants for the arrests of the seven men. "I urge all member states to do everything within their powers to assist in enforcing these warrants," Ban said, stressing that "the single most important determinant of success for any international tribunals is cooperation." Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, reiterated again that "our people will not be handed over to the Hague for any trial." "The Security Council is a political organization and this (court) is a legal body, not part of the U.N. apparatus, and the secretary-general and the Security Council has no role at all in these things," Mohamad said. "Our judiciary system is very capable of trying whoever is accused." The Ugandan goverment has promised the Lord's Resistance Army rebels not to hand over any members if they sign a peace deal. The court can prosecute cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity but steps in only when countries are unwilling or unable to handle justice themselves. Sudan is not one of the 105 countries that have ratified the 1998 Rome statute establishing the court, but the U.N. Security Council referred the Darfur case to the court in 2005, requiring that Sudan's government and all other parties cooperate. The tribunal has issued arrest warrants for former Sudanese interior minister Ahmed Muhammed Harun, who oversaw security in Darfur and was appointed Sudan's humanitarian affairs minister after his indictment was announced, and Ali Kushayb, known as a "colonel of colonels" among the Arab militias that have terrorized Darfur villages. The court issued arrest warrants for five top commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group based in northern Uganda that is notorious for cutting off the hands, lips and ears of its victims. The U.N. estimates the LRA has abducted 20,000 children who were forced to fight or become sex slaves during a 20-year anti-government insurgency. Ban said he took "some satisfaction" that since the tribunal began in July 2002, two rival Congolese militia leaders indicted by the court were arrested and transferred to The Hague for trial. Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, charged with war crimes for recruiting and using child soldiers, is scheduled to be the first person tried by the court early next year. But Ban noted there remain "a number of outstanding arrest warrants that have to be executed." He called the Congo "one of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa," where thousands of people "including countless children, have become victims of mass atrocities and abuse." The conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region has claimed more than 200,000 lives and uprooted 2.5 million people from their homes since early 2003, when rebels from the ethnic African majority took up arms against the Arab-dominated government. Critics accuse Sudan of retaliating by arming the Arab militias, known as janjaweed, and committing widespread atrocities against ethnic African civilians _ a charge it denies. Since July 2006, the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army have negotiated occasionally to end one of Africa's longest-running conflicts. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's government promised not to hand over LRA suspects if they sign a peace deal. The court's meeting opened Friday with tough words from its president, Judge Philippe Kirsch, and and its chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, on the obligation to enforce the tribunal's arrest warrants. Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said Friday that without a tough message from Ban, the Sudanese government may think it "can flout this court at will" without the U.N. doing anything about it