Prosecutor says inquiry revealed grave crimes in Darfur
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 29, 2005 (Xinhua) — International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told the Security Council Wednesday that he had determined that there were cases that would be admissible in relation to the situation in Darfur, Sudan, and on June 1 initiated an investigation into the crimes committed there.
Briefing the council for the first time since it referred the Darfur situation to the ICC — by its adoption of a resolution in March — he said that the start of investigations marked an opportunity for all parties to take all possible steps to prevent the continuation of such offenses.
The prosecutor’s office would identify those bearing the greatest responsibility for the crimes and assess the admissibility of the selected cases, Ocampo said.
The decision did not represent a determination of the Sudanese legal system, he added, but was essentially the result of the absence of criminal proceedings related to the cases on which he would focus.
Once specific cases were selected, the prosecutor’s office would assess again whether or not they had been the subject of genuine national investigations or prosecutions.
He said there was significant credible information disclosing the commission of grave crimes within the court’s jurisdiction having taken place in Darfur, including the killing of thousands of civilians and the widespread destruction and looting of villages leading to the displacement of approximately 1.9 million civilians.
Fighting in Darfur flared in early 2003 after rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government. The United Nations says some 180,000 people have died as a result of the conflict, while another 1.8 million have been forced to flee their homes, including about 200,000 who fled across the border to neighboring Chad.
But the Sudanese government disputed the death toll, saying they estimated only thousands of people have died in the conflict. Khartoum is also strongly opposed to the referral of suspects of war crimes in Darfur to the ICC and the country’s courts have started to try some suspects.
The Sudanese government has also been strongly opposed to the referral of the alleged crimes in Darfur to the ICC, saying its judicial system has the ability to prosecute the suspects.