Darfur arrest warrants issued

UNITED NATIONS – The International Criminal Court issued its first arrest warrants Wednesday, for a Sudanese government minister and a former militia leader accused of war crimes in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

Sudanese officials, however, said they would not hand over the accused pair, charged with dozens of counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The case alleges that the government joined with militia groups in systematic attacks against civilians in Darfur as part of an effort to combat rebel movements.

The attacks have killed more than 200,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in four years.

The Sudanese government denies backing the militias, known as janjaweed.

The move by the court is a strong indicator it believes the Khartoum government is unlikely to fulfill its promise to prosecute the pair through its own judicial system. The court has jurisdiction only when a suspect’s country fails to put the suspect on trial.

How the warrants are handled by Sudan may be a test case for the fledgling court. Although Sudan made initial gestures toward cooperation with the ICC, officials said Wednesday that Sudan was not a signatory to the court and didn’t recognize its actions.

The court has no ability to serve the warrants and must rely on the goodwill of governments to deliver the suspects. That prospect appeared dim Wednesday.

“Sudan has nothing to do with this decision and had already announced that it would not cooperate with the ICC when it comes to trying Sudanese nationals outside of Sudan,” Mohammed Ali al-Mardhi, the country’s justice minister, told reporters in Khartoum.

The U.N. Security Council, which passed a resolution in March 2005 requiring Sudan to cooperate with the international court’s investigators, is preparing to consider sanctions if diplomatic efforts fail to stop violence.

“The government of Sudan has a legal duty to arrest Ahmed Harun and Ali Kushayb,” said ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo from The Hague.