A Sudanese governor wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes used a UN helicopter to attend a peace meeting in the flashpoint Abyei region.

Ahmad Mohammad Harun was allowed on Sunday to take the UN transport as he played a "critical" role in attempts to end ethnic clashes in Sudan's troubled Abyei region where dozens have been killed in ethnic clashes in recent days.

51 counts of war crimes
The ICC issued a warrant for Harun, a former minister who is now governor of South Kordofan province, in 2007. He is accused of 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, in the Darfur conflict. 

Sudan's President Omar al Bashir is also wanted by the ICC prosecutor, who believes he is responsible for a campaign of genocide in Darfur. Sudan has refused to recognise the ICC's jurisdiction and says its investigations are political.

The ICC is not a UN court, but the world organisation has promised under an agreement to cooperate with it. Moreover, in the Sudanese case, it was the UN Security Council which tasked ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo to investigate atrocities in Darfur. Besides Bashir and Harun, the ICC also issued an arrest warrant for former Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb. 

Peace meeting
Asked about the decision to help Harun, who is currently governor of Southern Kordofan province which surrounds Abyei, attend the meeting, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the Abyei clashes were threatening to turn into a wider war.

"And so, Governor Harun was critical to bringing the Misseriya leaders in Southern Kordofan to a peace meeting in Abyei to stop further clashes and killings," he told reporters.

Nesirky said the assistance given to Haroun was in accordance with the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission UNMIS to provide "good offices" to the northern and southern parties in Sudan "to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations."

Necessity?
But Richard Dicker, head of Human Rights Watch's international justice programme, said, "I have real concerns. Ahmed Harun is a charged war criminal linked to the worst abuses in Darfur." 

"The question I have really is was there no other means for Ahmed Haroun to make it to the meeting," Dicker told Reuters. "I think the UN's posture should be of keeping a distance from him. I think the UN should be held to a high standard with regard to their flying Haroun to a meeting. There needs to be a high threshold of necessity."

North and south Sudan fought a two-decade civil war which ended in 2005 with a peace accord. South Kordofan is a key province on the border between the two and also adjoining Abyei. Nesirky said UNMIS had been seeking to contain the new fighting in Abyei. "There have been hostilities in Abyei and these clashes had been threatening to escalate into a wider war.

Abyei
Misseriya Arab fighters and Ngok Dinka people based in Abyei have been involved in clashes since last Friday in which at least 33 people have been killed. Many have linked the violence to a self-determination referendum being held in southern Sudan.

UN peacekeepers have stepped up their patrols in Abyei and reinforcements have been put on standby to go to the region.

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