Sudan establishes additional committees for Darfur war crimes

September 19, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government created committees assisting the recently appointed special prosecutor for Darfur rights abuses.

The decree issued by Sudanese justice minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said that there will be three committees covering all North, South and West Darfur states.

Sabdarat also named 43 members of these committees whose backgrounds include “civil administration, popular leaders and figures and honorable citizens”.

Last month Sabdarat appointed Nimr Ibrahim Mohamed as the Darfur prosecutor with 3 assistants; Kamal Mahjoub Ahmed, Al-Hadi Mahjoub Makkawi and Mamoun Mekki Hamid.

Mohamed is supposed to be looking into rights abuses committed in war ravaged region of Darfur since 2003.

The move was widely seen as an attempt to counter the move by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.

In an interview with Sudan Tribune last month the ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo dismissed Sudan’s move to probe Darfur war crimes. He said that Khartoum established special courts before but “end up investigating no one”.

Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder.

It was only this week that the ICC judges began consideration of the evidence submitted before making a decision which may take from a few weeks to several months.

Sabdarat said in the new decree that the mandate of the additional committees will include “receiving citizens complaints, facilitate meetings of victims and witnesses with the prosecutor, preliminary assessment of material damages, foster national reconciliation, blood money”.

Moreover the committees can utilize the expertise of additional advisers after consultation with the Justice Minister.

The special prosecutor is supposed to report monthly on the progress of his work. However nothing has emerged yet on the findings of his mission.

(ST)