Sudan justice minister asks Bashir for forces to capture Darfur suspects

April 15, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s justice minister, Mohamed Bushara Dousa, disclosed on Monday that he had asked president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir to issue a decree establishing a joint force comprised of all regular forces under the command of Darfur’s special crimes prosecutor to assist in capturing fugitives.

The minister, who was addressing a conference on legal reform in Khartoum, disclosed that the special prosecutor has finished investigating 40 cases and referred them to courts. He did not provide a breakdown on the nature of the crimes.

Last June, Dousa appointed Yasir Ahmed Mohamed as new special prosecutor for Darfur crimes. He is the third to be appointed in the position after his two predecessors called it quits.

Khartoum created this position in 2003 to prove to the international community its seriousness in trying the perpetrators of crimes allegedly committed in the course of the Sudanese government’s war against armed rebels in western Sudan.

However, the previous three prosecutors who occupied the position failed to bring charges against any individual despite credible reports of atrocities committed during the zenith of the conflict in 2003 and 2004.

Abdel-Dayem Zumrawi, the second special prosecutor who also held the post of justice ministry undersecretary, has reportedly complained about the decision to grant judicial immunity to some of the individuals investigated.

Some legal experts also noted the lack of appropriate legal dispositions allowing the government to prosecute crimes against humanity and genocide.

In accordance with the Doha Document for peace in Darfur (DDPD), the government is committed to try all perpetrators of war crimes and to establish a special court to deal with them.

Sudan’s failure to go after those responsible for committing Darfur crimes led the UN Security Council (UNSC) in March 2005 to refer the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC) after a UN commission of inquiry concluded that the Sudanese judiciary was unwilling or unable to carry out credible prosecutions in the war-ravaged region.

However, the Sudanese government refuses to cooperate with the ICC which has indicted president Bashir, his defense minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein, South Kordofan governor Ahmed Haroun, as well as militia leader Ali Kushayb.

(ST)