Military officers being sentenced for Darfur crimes – Sudan
July 11, 2007 (GENEVA) — Sudan on Wednesday told a key UN human rights panel that it was handling cases against military and police officers accused of crimes in Darfur, and insisted that the International Criminal Court had no jurisdiction over them.
In a hearing before the UN Human Rights Committee, Sudanese officials reiterated that their country had not signed up to the International Criminal Court.
They insisted that the country’s own judicial system was coming to grips with cases of murder, torture and rape in Darfur, while new draft police and army laws, and other measures overseen by the international community were expected to have a deeper impact.
“There is no complicity on the part of the state. Some state representatives were implicated and the government has refused to grant any impunity,” Sudanese government official Mustafa Matar told the 18-member UN legal panel.
“Our courts are doing quite well,” he said.
However, under questioning by the Committee, Sudan said that an amnesty agreement included in the Darfur peace accords with rebels would cover combatants officially listed by the factions there, including for attacks on civilians.
The listed combatants will received amnesty certificates signed by local authorities.
“That doesn’t include offences against private rights, or war crimes either as they’re covered by international conventions,” Matar said.
The delegation gave the UN committee lists of prosecutions against military or police personnel which have been brought to trial in Sudanese courts.
However, the total numbers relating to Darfur since the conflict with local rebels erupted there in 2003 were not immediately clear.
Sudan highlighted more than a dozen cases against soldiers or “senior officers” in Darfur which resulted in the death penalty, jail sentences and damages paid to victims’ families for murder, torture and rape.
Of 80 cases of violence against women handled by special courts in the province of North Darfur, 70 produced sentences, Matar said.
He acknowledged that Sudanese investigations in recent years had shown that some government soldiers in the region had links with armed militias or clan groups in Darfur.
UN agencies and human rights groups have accused government-allied militias of attacking villages.
At least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine in Darfur and two million were forced to flee their homes, according to UN estimates.
The hearing of Sudan by the UN Committee, which oversees the world’s primary human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is due to continue on Thursday.
The panel of legal experts is due to issue its findings, based on evidence from the Sudanese government, UN monitors in Sudan and human rights groups, on July 27.
(AFP)