Evidence of mass civilian deaths found in Darfur – ICC
June 14, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The UN-backed court probing war crimes in Darfur has documented thousands of civilian deaths, hundreds of alleged rapes and a “significant number” of massacres that killed hundreds of people in the western Sudanese province, the top prosecutor said Wednesday.
Many witnesses and victims have reported that three ethnic groups in particular – the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa – had been singled out for attack in Darfur, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a report to the Security Council.
Those details are among the strongest indication so far that Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor with the International Criminal Court, has uncovered substantial evidence of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
“In most of the incidents … there are eyewitness accounts that the perpetrators made statements reinforcing the targeted nature of the attacks, such as ‘we will kill all the black’ and ‘we will drive you out of this land,”‘ his report said.
A special U.N. investigative commission concluded in January 2005 that crimes against humanity had occurred in Darfur, where around 300,000 people have died and 2 million have been forced to flee their homes as a result of violence that erupted in 2003. Three months later, the Security Council mandated the Hague-based ICC, the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal, with prosecuting those behind the slaughter.
In his briefing to the council, Moreno-Ocampo said Sudan’s national courts have shown little desire to investigate crimes against humanity in Darfur, despite Khartoum’s claims that the courts should pursue those allegations.
One of Sudan’s courts, for example, has held just six trials of fewer than 30 people – and they were charged with robbery, possessing weapons without a license and receiving stolen goods. Only two faced allegations of murder and one of rape.
Moreno-Ocampo presented the findings to the Security Council as clear evidence that his work is justified. Sudan has repeatedly insisted that there is no need for his prosecutors to get involved in Darfur,
“The president of the special court has stated that no cases involving serious violations of international humanitarian law were ready for trial,” Moreno-Ocampo said.
Decades of low-level clashes in Darfur over land and water erupted into war in early 2003 when ethnic African rebels based in farming villages rose up against Sudan’s Arab-led government, which responded by unleashing nomadic Arab militias known as janjaweed.
The janjaweed have been accused of widespread atrocities against farm villagers. Sudan’s leaders deny backing the militias, but agreed under a May 5 peace agreement with the largest rebel group to disarm and disband the janjaweed.
(ST/AP)