Sudan ignores ICC arrest warrants

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, May 2 (UPI) -- The government of Sudan rejected arrest warrants issued Wednesday by the International Criminal Court at The Hague for two men involved in the Darfur crisis.

The warrants allege 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture and rape, Voice of America reported.

The two men named were Ahmed Haroun, Sudan's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs who was once in charge of the embattled western region, and Ali Kosheib, a leader of the Janjaweed militia.

"We completed an investigation under very difficult circumstances, from outside Darfur, and without exposing any of our witnesses," ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said. "We transformed their stories into evidence, and now the judges have confirmed the strength of that evidence."

However, Sudan, along with China, Russia and the United States, did not sign onto the ICC's charter in 2002, and does not recognize the court's jurisdiction.

The United Nations claims 200,000 people have died in the four-year Darfur conflict pitting tribal blacks against Islamist rebels.