By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor urged the U.N. Security Council on Friday to support his crusade to apprehend two men indicted three years ago for suspected war crimes in Sudan.
The Hague-based court issued international warrants in 2007 for the arrest of Ahmed Haroun, a provincial governor and former state minister of humanitarian affairs, and a militia leader known as Ali Kushayb, for helping to organise mass killings and deportations in Sudan's western Darfur region.
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the 15-nation council it should ensure the United Nations makes the arrest of both men a priority and treat it "as a critical condition for securing peace and stability to Darfur."
In March 2009, the ICC announced a third indictment for war crimes in Darfur against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
Sudan rejects all three indictments as politically motivated and refuses to cooperate with the ICC.
U.N. officials say as many as 300,000 people have died and over 2.7 million been driven from their homes in seven years of ethnic and politically motivated violence in Darfur, a remote region of Western Sudan. Khartoum says 10,000 have died.
The Security Council will discuss Sudan and the situation in Darfur on Monday. Moreno-Ocampo said he hoped it would seize the chance to take a strong stand on Haroun and Kushayb.
It was not immediately clear whether Moreno-Ocampo would get what he wants from the council, where China has sometimes played a protective role for Khartoum.
Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller, president of the council this month, said members expressed "different views" during closed-door consultations, although they generally agreed that Sudan should "comply with the decisions of the court."
'I SALUTE HIM'
Elise Keppler of New York-based Human Rights Watch said "Sudan has thumbed its nose at the Security Council's authority for too long" and the council should "make it clear that Sudan cannot ignore its obligation to cooperate with the court."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said efforts to pursue justice for crimes in Darfur should be tempered with a push to achieve lasting peace. U.N. diplomats say that U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, has a similar view.
Last month, Ban sent his two top officials in Sudan -- Haile Menkerios, head of the U.N. Mission in Sudan, and Ibrahim Gambari, joint head of the African Union/U.N. Mission in Darfur -- to Bashir's inauguration, despite his ICC indictment.
Moreno-Ocampo said the United Nations had informed him of the "confidential reasons" for why their attendance was necessary, which he accepted. He added that "all unnecessary meetings (with indicted suspects) should be avoided."
Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, said Moreno-Ocampo's remarks were based on "lies and fabrications."
"He's one of the biggest impediments to peace in our country," he added.
Abdalhaleem noted he was a personal friend of Haroun, now governor of South Kordofan state, where the disputed oil-rich town of Abyei is located.
"He is a great man," he said. "I salute him on this day."
The ICC accuses Haroun of recruiting and arming 'Janjaweed' militias in Darfur while working at the Interior Ministry, and of being fully aware of their atrocities against civilians.
Moreno-Ocampo told the council that Haroun "should be arrested before he commits new crimes in his new position."
U.N. officials and analysts say the United States and other Western powers are now focussing less on Darfur and more on Sudan's north-south tensions before a January 9, 2011, referendum on independence in semi-autonomous southern Sudan.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
