Khartoum violated international law in Darfur
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31, 2005 (Reuters) – The Sudanese government and allied militia have systematically abused civilians in Darfur, a U.N.-appointed commission said on Monday, but it said Khartoum had not pursued genocide as Washington contends.
The report by international legal experts, however, said that some individuals, including government officials, may have committed “acts with genocidal intent” in the western Sudan region and said the attacks continued in recent months.
The report recommended the U.N. Security Council refer cases to the International Criminal Court, the first permanent global criminal tribunal, for trial. The Bush administration vehemently opposes that court, which Europeans support, and wants to set up a new court in Tanzania.
“International offenses such as the crimes against humanity and war crimes that have been committed in Darfur may be no less serious and heinous than genocide,” the report said.
“The conclusion that no genocidal policy has been pursued and implemented in Darfur by the government authorities, directly or through the militias under their control, should not be taken in any way as detracting from the gravity of the crimes perpetrated in the region,” it added.
The Security Council asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan in October to set up a commission of legal experts to probe human rights violations in Darfur, determine whether genocide had occurred and identify perpetrators. Tens of thousands of people have died and 1.8 million are homeless.
Pictures and reports of displaced and brutalized villagers prompted outrage around the world last year but the major nations that make up the council are still divided on what action to take to stop the turmoil.
The conflict erupted after rebel groups took up arms in February 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglect. The government retaliated by deploying Arab militias.
“In particular the commission found that government forces and militias conducted indiscriminate attacks including killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout Darfur,” the report said.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
“These acts were conducted on a widespread and systematic basis, and therefore may amount to crimes against humanity,” said the report.
The 1948 convention on genocide, to which Sudan is a party, obliges signatories to punish offenders and stop the carnage. It defines genocide as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
The commission identified suspected perpetrators of atrocities in a sealed annex to the report. They included government officials, rebels and “foreign army officers acting in their personal capacity.” There was evidence some fighters with the militia were from Chad and Libya, it said.
It said the government contended that any attacks were for counter-insurgency purposes.
The report said rebel groups were responsible for “serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law which may amount to war crimes,” although it did not find “a systematic or widespread pattern to these violations.”
The United States last year called the violence genocide.
In Abuja, Nigeria, Sudan’s foreign minister, who had received an advance copy of the report, noted the commission undermined the U.S. claims of genocide.
“We have a copy of that report and they didn’t say that there is a genocide,” Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said on the sidelines of an African Union summit.
The commission’s report said that since the Sudanese justice system was unable or unwilling to try suspects, the Security Council should call in the International Criminal Court.
The new Hague-based ICC is the first permanent global criminal court to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and massive human rights abuses. It can only prosecute when national governments fail to do so. (Additional reporting by Dino Mahtani in Abuja, Nigeria)