The outgoing International Criminal Court prosecutor has called on the UN Security Council and member nations to take stronger action against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who is accused of genocide in Darfur.
Al-Bashir has a warrant for his arrest along with three other other officials over alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. In his 15th and final report on Darfur to the UN Security Council, outgoing prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said,
Al-Bashir has a warrant for his arrest along with three other other officials over alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. In his 15th and final report on Darfur to the UN Security Council, outgoing prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said,
"The failure to arrest and surrender Mr. Harun, Mr. Kushayb, Mr. Hussein and President Al Bashir is a direct challenge to the Council's authority.”He went on to later say,
“When you review the situation of the last seven years, it’s time to do something new in Darfur. Nothing has worked.”Ocampo called on the council to,
“consider the possibility to authorize states to implement arrest operations. The council has the authority. I’m not saying they have to do it today or tomorrow. Consensus is required for these issues”.
"Such discussion will be problematic, but the victims will receive a clear message: they are not ignored. And the perpetrators will receive a clear message: there will be no impunity."
"They (the U.N. Security Council) try to imagine that nothing happens in Darfur today. It's important you are there reminding them that there's ongoing genocide,"
"The issues are not shooting so many people now because there are no more people in the villages, they are displaced. But the new weapons of the genocide - starvation and rape - are working, and fear, are working very well."
"The issue is when will we stop Bashir? How many people will die? How many people will die of starvation? How many girls will be raped?"
"Nothing indicates that the genocide is finished in Darfur, but because we don't talk people like to imagine it's finished."His comments drew an angry response from Sudan’s UN Ambassador, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, accusing the prosecutor of being in an “emotional state” and said,
“He speaks as if he were president of the world, issuing his instructions to the Security Council establishing options of which he will speak at the proper time.”
“Ocampo's remarks were a violation of political and diplomatic norms and were the statement of a terrorist.”Ocampo, however, went on to warn Osman that,
"His activities denying the crimes in Darfur could be considered part of the crimes."He also noted that the ICC would
"investigate if Mr Daff-Alla Elhag Ali Osman's denial of the crimes committed could be considered a contribution to the perpetrators, acting with a common purpose."