Sudan appoints special prosecutor for Darfur war crimes
August 5, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese justice minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat announced today the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into rights abuses committed in war ravaged region of Darfur since 2003.
The ministerial decree requests the newly appointed prosecutor to report monthly on the progress of his work.
The development comes three weeks after the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that he is seeking an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.
The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir’s arrest.
Sudan and a number of regional organizations including the African Union (AU), Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) condemned Ocampo’s request and called on the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution deferring Al-Bashir’s indictment.
However the UNSC is deeply divided on the issue making it unlikely for an agreement anytime soon.
Jan Grauls the Belgian UN ambassador told reporters yesterday that none of the UNSC members requested a consultation session on stalling the ICC’s work in Darfur.
The Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa met with Al-Bashir last month and presented a proposal for national proceedings to prosecute Darfur war crimes suspects.
But this week the French-Libyan born lawyer Dr. Hadi Shalluf, who was the ICC appointed defense counsel for Darfur case last year, told Sudan Tribune in an interview that any step by Khartoum to investigate Darfur war crimes now is “too late”.
“There can be no internal proceedings and it will not be acceptable anyways. As a starter it will not guarantee the rights of the victims. I am not questioning the integrity of Sudanese judiciary but things have changed today. Sudan could have moved to prosecute war criminals a long time ago” Shalluf said.
The ICC Statute prevents investigation into crimes that were looked into by local judiciary under the concept of “complementarity”.
The judges of the ICC issued arrest warrants last year for Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb in connection with Darfur war crimes.
Sudan must prosecute Haroun and Kushayb for the same accusations brought against them by the ICC in order for the latter to lose jurisdiction over their cases.
Last year the Sudanese prosecutor general Salah Abu-Zeid announced that Haroun would be probed on events relating to Darfur war crimes.
But a few days later after Abu-Zeid’s announcement the Sudanese president told the daily Al-Sudani newspaper in March 2007 that Haroun “will not resign and will not be dismissed”.
Al-Bashir also said in the interview that Haroun is cleared from any wrongdoings and that he was performing his duties in protecting the lives of citizens and their properties against rebel attacks.
“We don’t know how far up [chain of command] Ocampo’s intends to go to talk about Haroun’s resignation” he added.
Khartoum had long claimed that Kushayb was in custody since November 2006 for investigations into allegations of violations he committed during the peak of the Darfur conflict in 2004.
Sudan’s former Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi told a news conference in Khartoum in February 2007 that “”Ali Kushayb, along with two other individuals, was sent for trial. He was detained as a suspect, questioned, his statements were evaluated and witness statements recorded, and then the decision was taken to refer him to court”.
But in March 2007 Kushayb’s trial was delayed when the defendants filed an appeal with the Justice ministry after which Abu-Zeid told reporters that Kushayb’s appeal was denied that there is “sufficient evidence to proceed with the case”.
Shortly afterwards the Sudanese justice ministry ordered a ban on publishing reports or details relating to criminal cases on Darfur conflict and many observers at the time voiced skepticism over Khartoum’s seriousness to try perpetrators of crimes in the war ravaged region.
In early October Sudan’s former foreign minister Lam Akol told the pro-government daily Al-Rayaam from New York that Kushayb was freed “due to lack of incriminating evidence against him”.
However Al-Mardi issued a quick denial to the Al-Rayaam report describing it as “false” without directly commenting on Akol’s statements.
The former Justice Minister was asked again by Al-Rayaam last November on the whereabouts of Kushayb and he reiterated that the militia leader was “never released” before saying that he refrained from commenting on the issue “because it is under investigation”.
Then in April the spokesman for the Sudanese embassy in London, Khalid Al-Mubarak was quoted by Voice of America (VOA) as saying that Haroun and Kushayb were not prosecuted “because there is no evidence against them”.
In June Amin Hassan Omar, a leading figure in the National Congress Party (NCP) and a state minister also confirmed Kushayb’s release.
Sudan’s penal code does not include punishment for genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. Moreover Sudanese military officials enjoy immunity from prosecution for acts committed during their course of duty.
Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency quoted the Sudanese Media Centre (SMC), which is close to the intelligence services, that the justice ministry is making arrangements to draft new legislation that would incorporate crimes listed in international law.
However it is not clear how long the process would take.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statute, but the UNSC triggered the provisions under the Statute that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.
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biarawieu
Sudan appoints special prosecutor for Darfur war crimes
i condemn that appointment of the special prosecutors to dealt with darfur war crimes, genocide, and right abuses committed since 2003. mr justice minister Abdel-basit sabdarat, you are too late, iam sorry to say that because you have now bring another new tatic or plann to kill more, what you have committed is not enough for you as you wish . no way for your plann Human right may look at it and ICC will still going ahead with
their work. Night and day let your demn brother or great murderous of his own country citizen think of arrest.By Biar M Bul
Alaak, Lual
Sudan appoints special prosecutor for Darfur war crimes
Sudan, a self Evidence of Guil?
In knowledge of human ordinary experiences, such behaviours of Sudan and their kins AU and Arab League if construed restrictly indicates the continuance of the self- evidence of guil. In that, it is too delay for Khartoumers and their alliances to investigate Darfur war crimes when they were just sitting for the last five years doing nothing.
In fact, what El Bashir Sudan is doing has no indifferent from what deceased Saddam was doing. El Bashir’s tactics would not help him becuase they are reflection of state of mind of the accused as such of him. Circumstantially as be the case here, Sudan El Bashir state of mind is to employ the cat and rat formulae becuase his days are numbered. He has been impeached and his chances are very minimial. With all these sort of rubbish applying, he will find himself in the Hague while regretting his failure to mitigate his losses. There is total failure especially between Khartoum whose leaders does not understand the legal subtleties just because they want shield themselves China, Russia or so.
What Khartoum knows are the law of the jungle and to intimidate and kill while the ICC is to legalise, and put the criminal into the cell. There will be no defence for the crime of genocide or war crimes and so be the same of crime against humanity available for Sudan El Bashir. Bashir has been cornered and the options remaining for him is to commit another crimes of aggression so to complete the circle of the four crimes International concerns, and earn himself the biggest criminal in human’s history.
The formation of Sudanese penal to investigate International crimes which could lead to infringement of the world peace and security by way of destroying the evidences of crimes in Darfur afford a evidential saying of probity that would not outweighing prejudicial impacts. Intermingling around will not help and ICC Judges decisions are imminently, so Khartoum should note that.
A simple doing and compliance with ICC will help Sudan from the mess and so be the handing of Harun and leader of Janjaweeed and El Bashir to the ICC would be a relieve to others who complicited in genocide.
The appointment of prosecutors by the President who is also suspected infer to one that the Khartoum has step a big compaign so as to destroy all evidences that could connect to crimes humanity committed in Darfur.
Bol Madut
Sudan appoints special prosecutor for Darfur war crimes
I have NEVER heard or read in the history of the world where the criminals appointed themselves as the investigators and judges as the same time. Seriously, do the NIF think that they are in a different planet? One could not think but to laugh hysterically about this.
Daniel Kalaka
Sudan appoints special prosecutor for Darfur war crimes
Appointment of sudan special prosecutor can not work out now due to so many factors and of course it’s mess in the system of governceship of ruling .This would have workout since the first appointment of two thouasand four period but now I doubt it becouse it’s too late begin it at this stage ,ICC over streghting their confidential of human right to work and save the innocent shed blood in Darfur let them finish their task not man so call Nimr Ibrahim with the useless mess!!!!!
Yaak Barach
Sudan appoints special prosecutor for Darfur war crimes
The NCP war criminals are experimenting every power they have to pervert the cause of justice in Darfur but they are doomed to fail. There is no fair judicial system in Sudan as some compatriots have suggested and appointing a prosecutor by a criminal is a big crime on its own.
No thanks Mr. minister, you are a Beshir’s mouthpiece.