Effort needed for al-Bashir arrest

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The United Nations needs to take unified action to ensure the execution of the arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, prosecutors said.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, lead prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, called on the U.N. Security Council to prepare for "united and consistent action" should the court decide to go ahead with executing a warrant next month. Bashir is facing an arrest warrant for 10 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The United Nations deployed a team of armed peacekeepers to Sudan's western Darfur region in an effort to stabilize the situation there. Moreno-Ocampo said that while there has been a concerted effort by the international community to find a solution to the Darfur conflict, Sudanese officials have exerted little effort, the U.N. Security Council said.

The prosecutor said Bashir could have taken steps to disarm militias and offered Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb and Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmad Harun to the ICC, but the Sudanese president did nothing.

The chief prosecutor, however, said the international community should consider the victims in the Darfur region and take action to put a halt to the situation.

"Faced with genocide and crimes against humanity, we know that inaction and business as usual are part of the crimes," he said.