THE CHIEF prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, yesterday called for arrest warrants for three Darfur militia commanders accused of attacks on UN peacekeepers.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo's call marks the first time his investigation has targeted Darfur's rebel groups, and follows his charge of genocide levelled against Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, last July.
The three men, whose names were given to the judges but not released, are accused of charges including the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita, southern Darfur, in September last year.
"I will not let such attacks go unpunished," said Mr Moreno-Ocampo. "They planned, led their troops and directed the attack which killed 12 peacekeepers," he said. "No one is above the law." The charges, which have still to be confirmed by ICC judges, were welcomed by human rights groups.
"Although the attacks on peacekeepers in Darfur have not been on the same scale as the atrocities committed as part of the Sudanese government's counter-insurgency campaign, they are still serious crimes," said Richard Dicker, director of International Justice at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
The chief prosecutor will hope that this show of even-handedness will deflect criticism from Sudan and its allies that the court has singled out government forces for punishment.
He will be hoping to head off calls among some UN members for Mr al-Bashir to be given immunity from prosecution by the Security Council.
The Arab League and the African Union have already called for the Security Council to use its powers, under Article 16 of the ICC constitution, to suspend the genocide charge Mr Moreno-Ocampo called for against the Sudanese president.
Four of the five permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, China, France and Russia, have signalled they may support such a move - if, in return, Mr al-Bashir can unlock stalled peace talks.
Of the four, France has been the most publicly outspoken, with President Nicolas Sarkozy saying: "In the event the Sudan authorities do change, totally change, their policy, France would not be opposed to using, I believe it is, Article 16." Article 16 allows the Security Council to suspend, on a renewable 12-month basis, any prosecution brought by the ICC.
Diplomats at the UN told The Irish Times that for this to happen, Mr al-Bashir must co-operate in peace talks, assist the AU/UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, and allow more than two million refugees to return home.
They also hope he will hand over two men already charged with war crimes by the ICC, humanitarian affairs minister Ahmed Haroun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kosheib, both accused of operating a campaign of genocide that has killed at least 30,000 Darfuri civilians.
But human rights groups say any such immunity deal will undermine the deterrent value of the court. Already, the Central African Republic and Uganda, where the ICC has active cases, have called on the UN to grant them the same immunities.
Rights groups are lobbying the one permanent member of the Security Council yet to give support to the plan - the United States.
The plight of the Darfur refugees has galvanised public opinion on both the left and the right in the United States.
A prominent adviser to the incoming Obama administration, former Balkans envoy Richard Holbrooke, has already signalled that offering immunity in exchange for peace is a false compromise.
"The US and the EU must resist efforts to suspend ICC prosecutions," he wrote in the Financial Times. "Bringing perpetrators of international crimes to justice is undeniably difficult when trying simultaneously to end a conflict, but it is the right choice."