Sudan bans media from reporting on Darfur war crimes cases

By Wasil Ali

March 27, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese justice ministry last week ordered a ban on publishing reports or details relating to criminal cases related to Darfur.

In a letter addressed to the editors in chief of the major Sudanese newspapers on 24 March, the justice ministry, Ali al-Mardi, urged them to comply with the order as a prerequisite for justice.

The letter did not elaborate if the ban included news on the progress of the Darfur case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.

The Chief Prosecutor of the ICC Luis Moreno Ocampo announced on February 27 that he filed charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Ahmed Mhamed Harun the Sudanese minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kosheib.

This is the first time Khartoum instituted a ban on publishing material related to prosecutions in Darfur war crimes since it established the special court in June 2005 to try the suspected criminals.

It Is not clear what caused Sudan to impose a ban, but observers suggest that the statements made by President Omar al-Beshir in early this week in which he refused to have Ahmed Haroun, secretary of state for humanitarian affairs who is suspected by the International Criminal Court of war crimes in Darfur questioned or relieved of his duties.

The president’s remarks came in sharp contrast with statements made by Sudan’s general prosecutor Salah Abu Zeid last week in which he said that Haroun would be questioned over crimes in the troubled western Sudanese region.

The move is likely to increase an already existing skepticism in the international community about the seriousness of Khartoum to bring Darfur war criminals to justice. Mahmood Rifaat a law Professor at the La Sorbonne University in Paris, France and a former legal expert at the Yugoslavia war tribunal told Al-Jazeera news channel in Qatar early this month that transparency in legal proceedings is a fundamental principle in any law. Rifaat added that discreet prosecutions or trials violate criminal and international law codes and as such Sudanese courts handling Darfur war crimes do not seem to be consistent with this standard.

Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the UN Security Council triggered the provisions under the Statue that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.

(ST)