International Criminal Court judges have issued their first arrest warrants for suspects accused of war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region, the ICC said on Wednesday, but Sudan said it would not hand over the men.
Warrants were issued for Ahmed Haroun, former state minister of interior, and militia commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb.
In a statement, the court said prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had found ``reasonable grounds to believe'' the two were responsible for murder, rape, and torture, as well as the forced displacement of villages, and other war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
"The judges have issued arrest warrants. As the territorial state, the government of the Sudan has a legal duty to arrest Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kushayb,'' the prosecutor said.
"This is the International Criminal Court's decision, and the government has to respect it.''
But Sudan's Justice Minister Mohamed Ali Al-Mardi told Reuters on Wednesday Khartoum would not hand over the suspects.
"We do not recognize the International Criminal Court ... and we will not hand over any Sudanese even from the rebel groups who take up weapons against the government,'' he said.
"Our position is clear and nothing has happened for us to change it.''
Prosecutors named the men in February as the first suspects in their investigations into the conflict, in which 200,000 people have been killed since it began in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government.
Sudan countered the rebellion by arming militias, who have been accused of atrocities in the conflict. Khartoum denies arming so-called Janjaweed militia, calling them outlaws.
In a 94-page filing, ICC prosecutors accused Haroun and Kushayb of criminal responsibility related to 51 counts of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 2003 and 2004.
Haroun is currently Sudan's state humanitarian affairs minister, a post below the full ministerial level. Prosecutors said he conspired with Kushayb, allegedly a Janjaweed commander who led attacks on towns and villages where dozens were killed.
Sudan has said the ICC has no jurisdiction to try its citizens for crimes in Darfur, and in February announced it would try Kushayb itself on unspecified charges related to Darfur. His case was delayed in March.
The Darfur special court was formed after a U.N. Security Council resolution referred Darfur's conflict to the ICC in early 2005, the first such referral.
Sudan has signed but not ratified the treaty which formed the ICC. The ICC cannot indict nationals who have been tried in fair and free trials in their own countries.
The ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court, started work in 2002 and is now supported by 104 nations, although still not by Russia, China and the United States.
Source: New York Times (By Reuters)