Put the Abyei criminals in court
By Julie Kuol
When and how will the persons responsible for destroying Abyei be brought to justice?
August 12, 2008 — The town of Abyei was burned then looted by Brigade 31 of the Sudan Armed Forces on May 13 / 14. Witnesses who fled from Abyei told Human Rights Watch that SAF soldiers shot civilians as they ran and detained and then arbitrarily killed others. Over 50,000 citizens were displaced as they fled southwards to escape the northern Sudanese army. Within days the town ceased to exist. All items of use or value were stolen by the SAF troops and their militia allies.
Salva Kiir condemned the atrocities committed by Brigade 31 in his speech to the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly in Juba on May 28. He called for the command of Brigade 31 to be brought to justice. “I think if there is law and order in Sudan, the brigade commander should have been taken to court to answer for all these crimes he has committed against humanity,” Kiir said earlier on May 21.
Salva Kiir is a man of great influence in Sudan. He is President of Southern Sudan. He is First Vice President in the Government of national Unity. He is chairman of the committee formed to protect the President of the Sudan from the ICC arrest warrant issued for crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Salva Kiir did not say which court should prosecute Brigadier-General Muntasser Sabil Adam, who was in charge of the 31st brigade that led the operation in Abyei.
Sudan Justice Minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat, a lower level official than Salva Kiir, is pushing for the Sudanese legal system to try war crimes committed in the Sudan. Some see this as an attempt to counter the International Criminal Court’s bid to get an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Sabderat says Sudanese law contained all the necessary provisions to try anyone for war crimes. He has invited international legal experts to check that the legal system of the system is capable of trying war crimes.
First Vice President Kiir should ask Justice Minister Sabdarat to show the world that law and order applies in the Sudan before he applies the Sudanese legal system to Darfur, where there are difficulties in collecting evidence. He should start an investigation into the murders, burnings and robberies carried out in Abyei by SAF forces under the command of Brigadier General Adam.
The Human Rights Watch group published a 32 page report. “Abandoning Abyei – Destruction and Displacement, May 2008” contains witness evidence. One says that his wife had seen “a teacher from Abyei captured by SAF soldiers and his hands tied. Days later, the teacher’s body was found by the river, along with the bodies of eight other civilians”. This was later independently confirmed by two staff of the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC) interviewed in Agok, June 21, 2008.
The report recommends the government of the Sudan to carry out a full criminal investigation into any allegations against SAF or government-supported militia of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law amounting to serious crimes. It also asks them to prosecute those responsible, including those in a position of command who should have known about the crimes and failed to prevent them.
Justice Minister Sabdarat should now act swiftly to indict Adam and, if necessary, indict those who gave him his orders. Failure to do so would simply make the Sudan legal system look like a screwdriver in the workshop of double standards.
The author is a southern Sudanese living in the UK