ICC forced to investigate war crimes in Darfur outside Sudan
Dec 14, 2005 (UNITED NATIONS) — The International Criminal Court has been forced to investigate alleged war crimes in violence-wracked Darfur outside Sudan because of the danger to potential witnesses, the chief prosecutor said.
Luis Moreno Ocampo told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that his investigators have identified witnesses in 17 other countries. Over 100 potential witnesses have already been screened and hundreds of others are currently being screened by the court or with assistance from other states and organizations, he said.
The volatile security situation, resulting from continuing attacks and killings, has made it “impossible to go there to interview witnesses in Darfur itself,” he said.
“This has forced my office to investigate outside Sudan and represents a serious impediment to the conduct of effective investigations in Darfur by national judicial bodies as well,” he said.
The Security Council referred the case of Darfur to the the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal last March in a resolution which requires the government and all other parties to the conflict to cooperate with the prosecutor. Sudan later agreed to set up its own investigation and a Special Court for Darfur.
While Moreno Ocampo questioned the effectiveness of the Sudanese probe, he indicated that his investigation could be completed with witnesses outside the country if violence continues and witnesses can’t be protected in Sudan.
“The evaluation is there is no area in which they could be protected,” he told reporters after the briefing. “That’s why what we are doing is doing the investigation from outside Sudan, and we will do it.”
Moreno Ocampo said a list of 51 potential suspects named by a special U.N. investigative commission, which concluded in January that crimes against humanity had occurred in Darfur, remains sealed “and is in no way binding on the prosecutor.”
“We will conduct our own independent investigations,” he said. “In the coming months, upon completion of this first investigative phase, my office will identify persons to be prosecuted… I would like to emphasize that no decisions have been taken at this stage as to whom to prosecute.”
After a public briefing Moreno Ocampo met privately with the Security Council and elaborated on his initial findings.
“What the prosecutor told us was that the nature of the attacks in Darfur demonstrated a degree of coordination, a degree of strategic operation which implied that someone was in command and control of that operation,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the current council president, said afterwards.
“”The prosecutor was quite clear that he would pursue the path until he found whoever might have been ultimately responsible,” Jones Parry said.
The Darfur conflict started in 2003 and has claimed the lives of more than 180,000 people, mainly through famine and disease. Several million more have either fled into neighboring Chad or been displaced inside Sudan.
The violence began after rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government amid accusations of repression and unfair distribution of wealth. The government has been accused of supporting Arab nomads known as the Janjaweed, who have been blamed for a campaign of killings, rape and arson. The Sudanese government denies backing the Janjaweed.
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.
But the Security Council took no action on Tuesday, and members indicated that nothing was expected in the near future.
Moreno Ocampo told the council a team he sent to Khartoum in November reached agreeement 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.
“So right now we are working well,” Moreno Ocampo told reporters.
He expressed hope that an agreement of cooperation will be signed with the African Union, whose 7,000 troops are trying to stem the violence in Darfur.
Jones Parry said the council reiterated the need to end impunity, to prevent the recurrence of atrocities in Darfur, and to bring those responsible to justice.
“I think we still have very serious problems in Darfur,” said Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who attended Moreno Ocampo’s briefing. “We have criminal elements. We have violence. We have attacks on humanitarian activities.”
He urged the government and rebels to honor the ceasefire they signed and press ahead with peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria for a political agreement that would ensure long-term stability and security in Darfur.
(AP/ST)