First Darfur war crimes suspect to appear before ICC

By Wasil Ali

May 17, 2009 (ABU DHABI) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) managed to secure the appearance of the first suspect in relation to the Darfur case investigated by the Hague based court since 2005.

Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, the leader of the Darfur United Resistance Front, has arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday afternoon coming from Egypt aboard a commercial flight, according to an Egyptian journalist speaking to the Associated Press.

An ICC official speaking to Sudan Tribune declined to say whether the court coordinated Abu Garda’s route with Egyptian authorities.

The rebel leader was believed to have been residing in Libya over the last few months. He stands accused by the ICC prosecutor of being of the commanders who led a deadly attack on African peacekeepers in October 2007.

The assault left 12 African Union (AU) soldiers dead and wounded eight others. In December 2007, the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced that he opened an investigation into the incident.

Almost a year later Ocampo submitted his sealed case against three unnamed rebel commanders suspected of taking part in the attack. On March 27th he also filed a new unpublicized request for summons to appear on the case against unspecified individual(s).

The counts include war crimes of violence to life, intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission and pillaging.

The single judge at the pre-trial Chamber I issued a sealed decision on Abu Garda’s case on May 7th which was unsealed as soon as he arrived in The Hague.

The court did not reveal the status on the case against the other rebel suspects.

The decision posted on the court’s website cites the Pre-Trial Chamber I as saying that “it is appropriate, for the sake of expeditiousness and taking due account of the confidentiality issues, to decide only on the Prosecutor’s request to issue a summons to appear for Abu Garda at this stage”.

The ICC prosecutor has pushed the judges for months to issue a quick ruling on the case and argued that there are real prospects for the rebels to voluntary surrender themselves.

But the chamber rejected his requests saying that the case is complex and requires further analysis.

The judges have issued a summons to appear rather than an arrest warrant as the prosecutor has communicated to the chamber assurances from the rebels that they will turn themselves in should they be officially charged.

Abu Garda however has been ordered to remain within the confines of the confidential location that has been assigned to him by the court. He is also prohibited from discussing the case publicly or the evidence.

The rebel chief cannot make political statements while he is in The Hague. On Monday he will appear before the Italian Judge Cuno Tarfusser who handles the full function of the Pre-Trial Chamber I while the other two judges are in recess despite signing off to the decision.

Hypothetically the judges can still decide at any point to arrest Abu Garda.

The judge will inform Abu Garda of the crimes which he is alleged to have committed and of his rights under the Rome Statute. He is free to leave the Netherlands but must appear for the confirmation of charges hearings when he is requested to.

The Sudanese government downplayed the significance of Abu Garda’s appearance saying that they stick to their position on the ICC.

“We are sticking to our position that no Sudanese person should be handed over to the court, even a Darfur rebel” Ali Yusuf Ahmed from Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters.

“We feel that the Sudanese judicial system is quite competent to deal with all crimes related to Darfur. But we were not informed and we cannot stop a person who wants to surrender himself to the ICC” he added.

The ICC has issued three arrest warrants against Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, former Sudanese state minister for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun and Darfur militia leader Ali Kushayb.

Sudan said it does not recognize the court as it has not ratified the Rome Statute, despite the fact that the UN Security Council (UNSC) invoked its powers under the statute to refer cases in non-state parties in a Chapter VII resolution adopted in March 2005.

The ICC sent five missions to Sudan between 2005-2007 but Khartoum stopped cooperation after cases were formally filed for Haroun and Kushayb in February 2007.

Ocampo said in a statement that “voluntary appearance is always an option under the Statute including for President Al Bashir should he elect to cooperate”

He also disclosed that six states including the Netherlands, Chad, Senegal, Nigeria, Mali and Gambia cooperated with his office in the investigations of attack against the peacekeepers.

The victims of the attack on the peacekeepers came from Nigeria, Mali, Senegal and Botswana.

Today’s move will likely put many African countries as well as the African Union in an awkward position. On the one hand African politicians criticized the arrest warrant against Bashir and accused the ICC of targeting Africans in its work. Some states have even threatened to withdraw from the court if the case is not suspended.

However this case involves AU troops killed in an attack that was strongly condemned across the continent.

The AU Peace and Security Council issued a statement in the aftermath of the attack stressing “the urgent need to bring the culprits to international justice”.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement saying that the issuance of a summons to appear “underscores the gravity of attacks against those deployed to protect civilians”.

“The criticism coming from a few non-ICC members that the court is anti-African inexplicably ignores the thousands of African victims whom the court is fighting to defend” said Richard Dicker, director of international justice program at HRW.

“This criticism is even more dubious given the court’s effort to try those allegedly responsible for attacks on peacekeepers from Botswana, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal” he added.

Other Darfur rebel groups also welcomed Abu Garda’s surrender including Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) headed by Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur as well as Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Khalil Ibrahim.

Al-Nur lauded “courage” demonstrated by Abu Garda “in responding to call of justice”.

“This step should step an example to everyone; particularly Bashir and other suspects. If they are innocent it will show in this court of law. They should think twice about their position. We in SLM reiterate our full cooperation with the ICC” he said.

JEM spokesperson Ahmed Hussein said that this step proves that the ICC “is not targeting the Sudanese regime as they try to portray but it is prosecuting everyone who commits crimes in Darfur”.

The JEM official also called on the Sudanese president to resign and hand himself over to the ICC.

He noted that Abu Garda was not part of JEM when the attack on peacekeepers took place.

In October 2007 Abu Garda announced his defection from JEM and formed the JEM Collective Leadership. He blamed the JEM chairman, Khalil Ibrahim for a series of “conspiracies”.

(ST)