Security Council alone to determine venue for Darfur trials: UN

KHARTOUM, Feb 12 (AFP) — The UN Security Council alone will determine where individuals accused of crimes in Sudan’s war-torn western region of Darfur are to be tried, a UN spokesperson said Saturday.

The spokesperson for the United Nations advance mission in the Sudan, Radhia Achouri. (AP)

“The designation of the court which will examine the cases of 51 persons mentioned in the report as having committed crimes in Darfur is the responsibility of the Security Council,” said Radhia Achouri.

A UN commission last month found government forces and allied militias responsible for the killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape, and forced displacement in Darfur.

It named dozens of individuals it said ought to be held to account.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for the accused to be tried before the International Criminal Court, while the United States wants a dedicated war crimes tribunal for Sudan set up in Tanzania.

Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Taha on Tuesday rejected any overseas trials, saying it would only fan the ethnic violence in Darfur.

“There are no grounds to warrant taking suspects outside the country,” Taha told reporters, after addressing a special session of the Security Council on Sudan in New York.

“It will push things to degenerate rather than help people reconcile.”

Tens of thousands have died and 1.6 million been displaced, since the government unleashed Arab militias against an uprising launched by ethnic minority rebels nearly two years ago.

The militias carried out a scorched earth campaign against the rebels that the United States says amounted to genocide.