Al Arabiya reveals details of report to be presented to UN . The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, was set to brief the United Nations on Friday about his activities related to Sudan and was set to present a report denouncing the Sudanese government for not cooperating with the ICC, Ocampo told Al Arabiya TV.
The ICC prosecutor would not only slam Sudanese officials but would call for Security Council members to break ties with Sudanese officials wanted for war crimes and genocide in Darfur, including President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Al Arabiya TV reported based on a copy of Ocampo’s report obtained by New York correspondent Talal Hajj.
The pan-Arab station reported that Ocampo said Bashir’s arrest, although a priority, was on the back burner as the international community focused on the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Darfur and moved to extend the functions of the international forces operating there.
"The arrest of the Sudanese president is a matter of time but for now the current focus in on the situation of the refugees and displaced people," Ocampo told Al Arabiya’s Hajj.
Earlier this week Ocampo said the ICC was monitoring rebel groups’ use of child soldiers, which he labeled as "a big deal" and said he was mulling whether or not to press for further indictments in Darfur related to allegations of child soldier recruitment.
He is currently seeking the prosecution of six Sudanese men for crimes in Darfur, including Bashir.
The conflict in Darfur erupted after rebels took up arms against the government in 2003. U.N. officials say that as many as 300,000 people have died as a result of the conflict, with 2.7 million people displaced. Khartoum says 10,000 have died.
In March of this year, Bashir was indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Bashir has denied all charges.
Members of the African Union, Arab League and other nations have expressed concern that Bashir’s indictment could undermine the fragile peace process in Darfur and have urged the Security Council to intervene and halt the proceedings.
However, the United States, Britain and France, which are permanent veto-wielding council members, have said they see no grounds for deferring Bashir’s case.
He renewed his call for Israel to halt settlement activity in the West Bank and follow through on such previously made commitments, adding: "I recognize the very difficult politics in Israel of getting that done and I’m very sympathetic to how hard that will be." He also pressed Palestinians anew to dial back anti-Israel rhetoric that is not constructive to the peace process. Obama said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "has made progress on this issue, but not enough."
"All of these things are going to take time. But I’m confident … we are going to make some progress on it," Obama added.
Merkel, for her part, promised to cooperate in her own right on this long-sought goal. She said the two leaders discussed a timetable for a peace process but did not elaborate.
"I think that, with the new American government and the president, there is a truly unique opportunity to revive this peace process or, let us put this very cautiously, this process of negotiations," Merkel said.
Touching on an issue that has strained the American-German relationship, Obama also said he didn’t seek any commitments from Germany as the United States seeks to close the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and determines what to do with the terrorism suspects held there.
Merkel said her country is prepared to "constructively contribute" to US closure efforts and said she was confident of eventually reaching a "common solution" on the prisoners’ fate.
On other matters, Obama said he’s seen "some progress" in bringing stability to the world in the wake of the deep recession that has crisscrossed the continents in recent months, and said he and Merkel agreed that they must continue to "work very closely together" to restore stability. Addressing climate change, Obama also said "we’re going to have to make some tough decisions and take concrete actions if we are going to deal with a potentially cataclysmic disaster."
The two leaders spoke to reporters after meeting privately at a castle in this east German city. He was ready to tour the Buchenwald concentration camp, where an estimated 56,000 people perished.
Most were Jews – worked to death, shot or hanged by Nazi guards.
In his Thursday speech in Egypt, Obama issued a scathing indictment of those who question the Holocaust, saying that to do so "is baseless, it is ignorant, and it is hateful."
"Threatening Israel with destruction or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews is deeply wrong and only serves to evoke in the minds of the Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve," Obama added. It was a pointed message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has expressed doubts that 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis and who has urged that Israel be wiped from the map.
On Friday, the US president added: "The international community has an obligation, even when it’s inconvenient, to act when genocide is occurring."
Obama is the first US president to visit Buchenwald, and the stop was personal. A great-uncle helped liberate a nearby satellite camp, Ohrdruf, in early April 1945 just days before other US Army units overran Buchenwald.
Ohrdruf no longer stands. But Buchenwald’s main gate, crematorium, hospital and two guard towers have been kept as a memorial.
Accompanying Obama to the site was Elie Wiesel, a 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner, author and Holocaust survivor, who as a boy was taken to Auschwitz, then to Buchenwald, where his father died in 1945 three months before liberation.
Following the tour, Obama was flying to Landstuhl medical hospital for private visits with US troops recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he was ending the day in Paris – reuniting with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha, who planned a brief holiday in the City of Light after commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Allies’ D-Day invasion in France.