UN Security Council urged to order arrest of Sudan's leader

The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court proposed Tuesday that the UN Security Council authorize a government to arrest Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for crimes committed in Darfur, dpa reported.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the 15-nation council to grant that authorization to a willing government to arrest al-Bashir in Khartoum or when he travels abroad. He said three other ICC-indicted Sudanese officials should also be arrested.

Moreno-Ocampo admitted the issue is difficult, but said ICC arrest warrants against indicted Sudanese officials have been ignored for the past five years.

"The council has the legal authority to order the arrest," the prosecutor told reporters at UN headquarters in New York. "It's your call, but you (council members) can think about that."

He said implementing the warrants to arrest al-Bashir and the other Sudanese officials would produce a "dramatic change" in the ethnic conflict in Darfur. The Hague-based ICC charged Al-Bashir in 2005 with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.

Ali Kushayb, the head of the Arab militia Janjaweed, as well as Ahmed Harun and Abdel Raheem Muhammed Hussein, both former ministers of the interior, were also charged with similar crimes.

"The reality is that UN Security Council members have to reconcile their national interests with their responsibilities for peace and security," Moreno-Ocampo said during an open meeting of the 15-nation council.

The council and the ICC had asked governments to carry out the court's arrest warrants. But Sudan is not a signatory of the ICC Statute and does not consider itself bound by the obligation. Some African governments have refused to arrest al-Bashir.

The UN said the conflict in Darfur, pitting black Africans against the Sudanese Arab-led Khartoum government, has killed more than 300,000 people and created more than 2.5 million refugees.

A 20,000-strong UN peacekeeping operation is maintaining order and helping people in Darfur.