UNITED NATIONS, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The United Nations has told its top official in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region to avoid encounters like one last month when he met Sudan's president - wanted by the International Criminal Court - at a wedding, a U.N. spokesman said on Wednesday.
New York-based Human Rights Watch protested in a letter last week to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the meeting, in which a Reuters photograph showed Ibrahim Gambari talking to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir at the wedding in Khartoum.
"Mr. Gambari's attention has been drawn to the letter and to the need to avoid such encounters in future, however unintentional this particular encounter may have been," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.
Bashir was indicted in 2009 by the ICC for genocide in Darfur, where some 300,000 people are thought to have died in violence raging since a rebellion erupted there nine years ago. Sudan has refused to hand him over to the Hague-based court.
U.N. guidelines state that officials should limit contacts with people indicted by international courts to "what is strictly required for carrying out U.N.-mandated activities" and avoid attending ceremonial occasions with them.
In its letter to Ban, HRW executive director Kenneth Roth said "attendance at a wedding ceremony cannot, in our view, be justified as 'strictly required.'"
"Discounting these guidelines brings the U.N.'s credibility in disrepute and sends a terrible message to victims of heinous crimes in Darfur," Roth said.
The Jan. 20 wedding was between Chad's President Idriss Deby and a Sudanese bride. Neighbors Chad and Sudan improved their relations in 2009 after years of hostility.
Roth said in his letter that HRW had been told by the U.N. peacekeeping department that Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister, had been invited to the wedding by Deby and had "no control over the guest list." HRW said Gambari should have guessed that Bashir would be there.
The bride was a daughter of Musa Hilal, an alleged leader of Sudan's pro-government Janjaweed militia that has been accused of carrying out atrocities in Darfur. Another Reuters photograph shows Gambari shaking hands with Hilal, who is on a U.N. Security Council sanctions list.
The wedding affair was the latest problem for Gambari, the civilian head of the U.N.-African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force, which has struggled to protect civilians in Darfur.
A year ago, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice implicitly criticized Gambari, saying UNAMID needed to be more aggressive and that it was up to him "to ensure that this robust posture is pursued." Diplomats said at the time a number of other countries agreed with Rice. (Reporting By Patrick Worsnip; editing by Christopher Wilson)
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