Sudan will question state minister accused of Darfur war crimes

March 22, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Prosecutors will question a junior Sudanese Cabinet minister accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court, Sudan’s chief prosecutor said in a statement published Friday.

The minister of state for humanitarian affairs, Ahmed Mohamed Haroun, will be interrogated to clarify “essential facts” of his earlier testimony to a state commission that investigated atrocities in Darfur, Prosecutor-General Salah Eddin Abuzaid said in a statement published in several Sudanese newspapers.

Abuzaid also said he had rejected the appeals of three suspects charged with crimes in Darfur, meaning that their trial will now go ahead.

One of the three, Ali Mohamed Ali Abdelrahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, is a member of the Sudanese security forces and allegedly a leader of the janjaweed, the pro-government militia that is accused to widespread atrocities in Darfur.

In February, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor accused Kushayb and Harun of a total of 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Sudanese Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi rejected the accusations and reiterated that Sudan would not hand over anybody for trial before The Hague-based court.

However, the ICC’s move put significant pressure on Sudan to act against the two men.

Sudan has long argued that the international courts have no business in Darfur, and that its own courts can deal with any crimes committed there. But so far Sudan has prosecuted very few people for the Darfur conflict, and those convicted have received light sentences.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million others displaced in Darfur since early 2003, when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Khartoum government.

In March, Kushayb and two others appeared in court in El Geneina, the capital of Western Darfur, on charges that were not disclosed. State media reported that they appealed against the charges and their trial was postponed.

In his statement, Abuzaid said he had rejected their appeals because there is sufficient evidence to warrant a trial. He did not say when they would next appear in court.

One of the newspapers that carried the statement, the independent Al-Rai Al-Aam, said Kushayb and his two co-defendants, police captain Hamdi Sharaful Din and Abdelrahaman Dawood Humaida, are facing charges of murder, abduction, arson, destruction and criminal collusion. This could not be confirmed Friday, the weekend in Sudan.

Abuzaid did not say what Haroun was suspected of doing, but he said his answers would be assessed and an appropriate decision would be made.

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Harun of being the main recruiter and paymaster of the janjaweed. He was a junior interior minister at the time of the alleged offenses.

Haroun has dismissed the accusations as “political,” telling a Sudanese newspaper he felt no guilt because he was his job “as an official in accordance with the constitution and the law.”

In 2005 he gave evidence to a commission headed by a former chief justice, which cleared him of criminal acts.

(AP)