Sudan insists its judges should try Darfur suspects
Dec 14, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan insisted Wednesday its own judges, not those of a U.N. war crimes court, should try suspects in Darfur’s atrocities.
“Our judiciary is capable of handling all the cases and Sudan is serious, desirous and capable of trying any of those who committed crimes,” Minister of Justice Mohammed Ali al-Mardi was quoted as saying by the state news agency.
The U.N. court “will have no jurisdiction to try any Sudanese national,” al-Mardi said, a day after the chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal described the difficulties his investigators had faced.
The Sudanese government has vowed it will never send suspects abroad for trial. Its own Darfur war crimes court issued its first known sentences last month, condemning to death two soldiers for torture and killing in a case about which little else has been reported.
U.N. officials have applauded Sudan for trying Darfur suspects, but said those trials were no substitute for proceedings before the Hague-based International Criminal Court.
The Security Council referred Darfur to the Hague court last March, in a resolution that requires the Sudanese government and all other parties to the conflict to cooperate with the prosecutor.
Al-Mardi said Sudan was cooperating with the U.N. court, but defined that as conducting its own trials. He said a delegation from the international court was expected to visit in February, and Sudanese officials would then explain the workings of their own Darfur court.
Luis Moreno Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the U.N. tribunal, questioned the effectiveness of the Sudanese probe during his presentation to the U.N. Security Council at U.N. headquarters Tuesday.
But Moreno Ocampo told the council a team he sent to Khartoum in November reached agreement with the government to return in February to assess Sudan’s national proceedings related to alleged crimes in Darfur. The prosecution team also requested several interviews and Sudanese officials also agreed that the Ministry of Defense would submit a preparatory report by March.
A special U.N. investigative commission concluded in January that crimes against humanity had occurred in Darfur and named 51 potential suspects. The U.N. has not publicly released the 51 names. Moreno Ocampo said his investigation would not be limited by that list.
On Saturday, Human Rights Watch said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and other senior officials should be investigated for crimes against humanity in Darfur and put on a U.N. sanctions list.
The Darfur conflict started in earnest in 2003 after decades of low-level clashes over land and other resources by the region’s clans. It has claimed the lives of more than 180,000 people, mainly through famine and disease. No firm estimates have been made of those killed in fighting. Several million of Darfur’s people have fled into neighboring Chad or elsewhere in Sudan.
(AP/ST)