Sudan sets up court for Darfur crimes

KHARTOUM, June 11 (AFP) — Sudan said Saturday that alleged Darfur war criminals will face trial in a newly formed court, after officials criticised international attempts to investigate atrocities in the troubled region.

Hadj Suleiman, one of six arrested Sudanese men, shouts from a cell inside the court in Nyala, September 30, 2004. (Reuters).

Sudan’s chief justice Jalaleddin Mohamed Osman instructed the court to look into cases of “violation of honour, murder and looting or property crimes committed in Darfur.”

“The Sudanese judiciary remains competent in carrying out justice and returning rights to their rightful owners without favouritism, fear or succumbing to influence,” he said.

Osman told SUNA news agency that a female judge would be included in the Darfur court because “there are cases which can best be examined by women,” in a reference to widespread allegations of rape.

On Monday, Khartoum warned that decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged war crimes in Darfur could poison efforts to bring peace to the conflict-ravaged region.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir said in April he would never hand over any Sudanese national to international jurisdiction.

The ICC inquiry is the first to be conducted by The Hague-based court at the request of the UN Security Council, after the United States dropped its objections, and was swiftly hailed by human rights activists.

A UN investigation in January gave the ICC the names of 51 potential suspects for war crimes and crimes against humanity, most of them on the side of the government and its Janjaweed militia allies.

The UN inquiry stopped short of indicating genocide but established that crimes, including murder, torture, rape and plunder had occurred in the suppression of an ethnically-based uprising in the region.

Between 180,000 and 300,000 people have been killed and 2.4 million made homeless in Darfur since the uprising in early 2003 prompted Khartoum to unleash militias in a scorched-earth campaign.

Sudan’s main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement, hailed the ICC decision and pledged full cooperation with the court.