Sudanese justice minister rejects ICC indictments on Darfur

March 8, 2007 (RABAT, Morocco) — Sudanese Minister of Justice Mohamed Ali al-Mardi today in Rabat said his country stood by its “unchanging and fundamental” position that it would not accept the trial of any Sudanese outside the Sudanese judicial system.

The Sudanese minister, speaking at a news conference at the end of his visit to Morocco, renewed his country’s rejection of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) jurisdiction in this particular case. This position follows the ICC’s indictment of a Sudanese minister of state and a janjaweed militia commander on charges of war crimes in the Darfur region.

The ICC prosecutor accused a minister and a member of the security forces of a combined 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their actions in Darfur.

President Omar al-Bashir reiterated that Sudan will not hand over any Sudanese for trial abroad by international courts, such as the ICC which accused two Sudanese over Darfur atrocities.

The Sudanese official said “The current position of the chief prosecutor of the ICC is less of a legal position than it is an execution of a political agenda of countries targeting the Sudan”, reported the Maghreb Arab Press.

The minister said that the Sudanese president in 2004 formed a legal committee tasked with fact-finding in Darfur. The committee drafted a report and recommended the creation of a judicial committee to carry out investigations. The judicial committee, for its part, issued warrants for the arrest of a number of suspects.

In the same context, al-Mardi asserted Khartoum’s refusal of the deployment of an international force in Darfur, emphasizing Sudan’s commitment to the AU’s mandate.

The Sudanese minister denied information circulated by some international organizations and media outlets on the occurrence of ethnic cleansing in the province, noting that “conflicts can sometimes break out within the same tribe”.

(ST)