ICC prosecutor won't back down on Sudan's Bashir

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court's top prosecutor said on Thursday he would not drop his call for the arrest on genocide charges of Sudan's president, but the United Nations said the court must weigh the impact of its work.

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has accused Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of a campaign of genocide that killed 35,000 people outright and at least another 100,000 through a "slow death" and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes in Sudan's western Darfur region.

He asked the ICC on Monday to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir on suspicion of genocide and other crimes against humanity. Sudan has dismissed Moreno-Ocampo's accusations as politically motivated and said it will ignore any warrant.

China, South Africa and others have expressed concern that an indictment of Bashir could damage the stalled peace process aimed at ending the 5-year-old conflict in Darfur.

Moreno-Ocampo, in his first public comments since asking for Bashir's arrest, said this was not a factor for him.

"I am the prosecutor and I have to do my judicial part of the work for the court," he told reporters. "I kept my independence and I cannot be a political factor," he said when asked whether arresting Bashir would harm peace negotiations.

ICC judges are expected to make a decision by mid-October on whether to issue a warrant for Bashir's arrest.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered a different view, saying the ICC also must consider ramifications of its work. "We must seek to strike the correct balance between the duty of justice and the pursuit of peace," he said.

Moreno-Ocampo is at the United Nations to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Rome Treaty that created the International Criminal Court.

ICC PROBES REBELS

Moreno-Ocampo reiterated that he is also investigating the rebels in Darfur, who he said were suspected of carrying out a number of attacks, including one on an African Union military base at Haskanita last year that killed 12 peacekeepers.

"If we can arrest the rebels who committed Haskanita, we'll make a difference, we'll change the dynamic of the conflict," he said.

Diplomats have said Khartoum might retaliate against an ICC arrest warrant for Bashir by withdrawing its consent for the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur if the Security Council does not intervene.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, has said he is working with Russia, China and members of the African Union and Arab League to persuade them to ask the U.N. Security Council to freeze any ICC indictment against Bashir.

Diplomats in New York say the Arab League and the AU's Peace and Security Council are expected to call on the U.N. Security Council soon to block any ICC actions in the interests of bringing peace to Darfur.

Several Western diplomats on the council have said Bashir could escape indictment if he ended what they see as impunity for two men the ICC charged last year over mass killings in Darfur. Khartoum has not handed them to the court or started legal proceedings in Sudan to investigate the allegations.

Speaking to reporters after Moreno-Ocampo's news conference, Abdalhaleem gave no details about how Khartoum might react if the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir but hinted that something big could happen.

"It's a recipe for disaster," he said. "It is a collective responsibility of the council to move together to halt it. Otherwise it is an invitation for a gate of fire on the country."

(Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip; Editing by Patricia Zengerle)