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United Nations: The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor is turning his attention to a third war crimes case in Darfur, this one involving suspected rebel commanders directing attacks against peacekeepers.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Thursday his investigators are focused on violence against peacekeepers in Sudan's remote Darfur region, including a Sept. 29 attack on the Haskanita military base that left 10 African Union soldiers dead and 1 missing.
"I am focusing my efforts in the third case with the rebels attacking Haskanita," he said. "We have information about the names of two commanders who were allegedly responsible for this."
The prosecutor cautioned Sudanese rebels against carrying out attacks like the one he suspects them of orchestrating on the strategically important AU base, which is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the boundary between Darfur and the neighboring region of Khordofan.
The Darfur rebels have been trying to link up with new rebel groups in Khordofan, where there are large fields of Sudan's proven oil reserves.
"The rebels cannot commit crimes. They have to control their people," Moreno-Ocampo said. "And they have to help the court ... to provide evidence against those who commit the attacks in Haskanita, and even arrest them. So I think it's the time now for the case of the rebels."
The prosecutor spoke at UN headquarters while attending ceremonies marking the court's 10-year anniversary.
Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed said Thursday the UN Security Council should stop the prosecutor's work on Darfur for a year or the repercussions will open "a gate of fire" on the nation's peace efforts.
The prosecutor's first case resulted in the indictments last year of Sudan's acting humanitarian minister Ahmed Muhammed Harun, who was formerly in charge of security in Darfur, for crimes against humanity, and of Ali Kushayb, known as a "colonel of colonels" among the Arab militia, known as janjaweed.
Sudan refuses to hand over its citizens to the Dutch-based tribunal.
Then on Monday, Moreno-Ocampo announced his second, even bigger case: He is seeking a warrant to arrest the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The prosecutors said al-Bashir made what amounts to "a public confession" of orchestrating genocide last year when the Sudanese president said that "he would never hand over Harun, because Harun was following his instructions."
Moreno-Ocampo suggested his investigators also were looking at attacks this month on the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.
"I am excluding no one. I will follow my evidence," he said. "Anytime they commit any attack against peacekeepers, it's under my jurisdiction, and I will mitigate that."
On Wednesday, another peacekeeper was shot and killed, this time a Nigerian company commander who was killed while on patrol in West Darfur not far from a peacekeeping camp, UN officials said.
His death came exactly one week after an audacious attack on a peacekeeping contingent of mostly Rwandan soldiers that left seven UN-A.U. peacekeepers dead. They were ambushed and pinned down for more than two hours in a gunfight with about 200 gunmen on horseback and in SUVs.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday strongly condemned the July 8 attack and suggested it could be considered a war crime. At the end of July, council members also are expected to renew the Darfur peacekeeping mission for another year.
Fighting erupted in Darfur in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of discrimination.
In March 2005, the 15-nation council requested that the International Criminal Court prosecutor investigate crimes committed in Darfur since July 2002.
On Thursday, the court held celebrations at UN headquarters for the July 17, 1998, adoption of the treaty it is based on. The court is not part of the United Nations, but the 107 nations that have ratified the treaty and the UN are responsible for responding to the ICC's requests for cooperation.
Asked by reporters whether the announcement had been timed to help publicize the court's anniversary three days later, Moreno-Ocampo said it did not and was solely based on when the evidence was ready and the court's schedule.
"This was my last week to do it, so I did it when I had my evidence ready," said Moreno-Ocampo, noting that the court was about to take a summer recess.
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