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UNITED NATIONS, Aug 29 (Reuters) It is important that victims of any war crimes in Darfur get justice but peace is equally crucial for the remote part of western Sudan, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
Last month, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, asked the court's judges to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes committed in Darfur.
Moreno-Ocampo accused the Sudanese leader of orchestrating a campaign of genocide beginning in 2003 that had killed 35,000 people outright and at least another 100,000 through starvation and disease, with another 2.5 million forced from their homes.
In a bleak new report on the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID, Ban said it was important to seek justice for any crimes committed in Sudan but made it clear that justice was not the only top priority.
''The international community also has the responsibility to seek agreement on the equal importance of peace and justice in trying to meet the needs of the people in Darfur,'' Ban said in the report.
Ban did not criticize Moreno-Ocampo's request, emphasizing that the ICC ''is an independent institution and the United Nations respects the independence of the judicial process.'' But he said the prosecutor's request had ''altered the political landscape, although it is too early to assess the impact it will have on the peace process.'' Whether or not the court's judges decide, as expected, to honor the prosecutor's request for an arrest warrant against Bashir, Ban said ''the international community should continue its engagement and support of the parties' efforts ... towards resolving the crisis.'' One UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of Ban's report: ''Peace is code for compromise.'' The ICC judges are expected to decide by late October.
Diplomats and UN officials have said Ban's legal advisers told him to ''distance himself politically'' from Bashir due to the possibility that the ICC will issue the warrant.
DIRE SITUATION IN DARFUR The African Union, Arab League and other alliances have urged the UN Security Council to block any ICC action against Bashir to avoid harming the fragile peace process in Darfur.
Several Western diplomats have indicated they could support the council invoking its powers to freeze any ICC probes or prosecutions under Article 16 of its charter -- provided the suspension were to have a number of conditions attached.
Such conditions could include requiring Khartoum to remove obstacles to the full deployment of UNAMID, take action to bring two Sudanese men already indicted by the ICC over Darfur to justice and seek a comprehensive peace agreement with the rebels in Darfur aimed at ending the violence.
Only some 10,000 of a planned 26,000 UNAMID troops and police have been deployed in Darfur.
In his report, Ban described the situation in Darfur as dire. He said that in July there was a ''worrying increase in violence,'' including several deadly attacks against UNAMID.
As a result, the United Nations raised its security level and relocated non-essential staff. The higher security level required UN humanitarian agencies to reduce staff focusing on ''life saving operations'' related to health, water, sanitation, food, shelter and protection.
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