Officials Failed to Halt Deaths, U.N. Envoy Says

The U.N. envoy for Sudan accused the government of failing to stop the killings in the Darfur region and said a U.N. commission believed that more than 50 high-ranking civil servants should be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court.

Britain and France have backed holding Darfur trials before the ICC, but the United States opposes the court, arguing that enemies could use it to prosecute captured U.S. soldiers.

The U.N. envoy, Jan Pronk, said he saw evidence of widespread atrocities in Darfur, a western region of Sudan where a rebellion and counterinsurgency have raged for two years.