Sudan to incorporate war crimes into penal code per Arab request: official

March 15, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese justice minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said that the national assembly will soon meet to endorse changes to the criminal law that will incorporate war crimes into the penal code.

“The Sudanese parliament will convene next April to expedite the prosecution war crime suspects in Darfur” Sabdarat told the London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat from the Egyptian capital.

“That does not mean we fear the International Criminal Court (ICC) but Sudan is doing what it can to ensure justice” he added.

Sudan has insisted that it genuinely looking into right abuses since Darfur conflict broke out in 2003. However many observers and human right groups say that Khartoum is not serious about prosecuting war crime suspects.

One of the arguments brought forward by skeptics is that Sudanese laws does not provide for punishments to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Furthermore the Sudanese constitution does not allow for laws to be applied retroactively on crimes committed before a law is adopted.

Sabdarat said that the changes to the Sudanese law are in line with the agreement of Arab League justice ministers in their meeting last year.

The Sudanese official also said that his government “is doing all it can” to bring those suspected of committing atrocities in Darfur to justice.

“We are pursuing criminals under very difficult circumstances in light of their movement in and outside Sudan. However we are almost through with a number of allegations. We have been working on this since 2004 and sentenced some individuals to death” he said.

A report transmitted by the Sudanese government to the UN Security Council (UNSC) last September showed that Khartoum is investigating seven cases to date related to mostly individual crimes.

Sabdarat said that arrest warrants issued by the ICC against Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs and against militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb are “politically motivated”

“They [ICC] want to fuel a civil and tribal conflict since Haroun represents the government and Kushayb represents the Arabs tribes” he said.

This week the Darfur special prosecutor Nimr Ibrahim Mohamed said that he is “paying careful attention” to the ICC case against Haroun and Kushayb.

He described the allegations brought by the Hague-based court against the two men as “serious because it is related to the ICC”.

However he fell short of saying whether Haroun will be investigated. In March 2007 the Sudanese president blocked an attempt by the prosecutor general to investigate his role in Darfur crimes.

The Darfur prosecutor said that Kushayb is in detention and another member of the commission Kamal Mahjoub said that there is “preliminary evidence” to prosecute him.

Sudan has previously detained the militia leader and sent him to court but was later released for lack of incriminating evidence. Last year Khartoum said it will re-prosecute Kushayb on unspecified charges.

Some world officials called on Sudan to prosecute Darfur war crimes suspects internally in order to resolve row with the ICC which issued an arrest warrant for president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

Arab and African countries want the UN Security Council (UNSC) to suspend the arrest warrant against Bashir. But some countries have suggested that Sudan needs to demonstrate seriousness in judicial aspects of Darfur conflict to convince the UNSC on invoking Article 16 of the Rome Statute.

(ST)