The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court charges that “the whole state apparatus” of Sudan is implicated in crimes against humanity in the Darfur region, linking the government directly with the feared janjaweed militia.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo says in a report to the UN Security Council, obtained on Tuesday by reporters, that he has uncovered evidence showing “high officials” in the Sudanese government are linked to many horrendous attacks in Darfur.
Atrocities include killing, torture and rape of civilians, even girls as young as five or six, with their parents forced to watch, the report says. It also says senior Sudanese officials are linked to the burning and looting of homes, bombing of schools and destroying of mosques.
The report does not identify any officials or present evidence of specific crimes. A spokeswoman said Moreno-Ocampo would name names and present evidence next month at a pre-trial hearing by three of the court’s judges in The Hague, Netherlands.
Court spokeswoman Florence Olara said this is the first time that the chief prosecutor has linked the entire Sudanese government to abuses in Darfur.
“It’s based on evidence from ongoing investigations in Darfur,” she said. “He’s looking at ongoing crimes, especially crimes targeting the 2.5 million already displaced in Darfur.”
DENIAL
Sudanese Ambassador to the UN Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem Mohamed rejected Moreno-Ocampo’s allegations yesterday, calling them “fictitious and vicious” and harmful to peace prospects.
The envoy accused Moreno-Ocampo of destroying the peace process with his charges and demanded he be held accountable.
Sudanese Ambassador to the US John Ukec Lueth Ukec had denied the accusations on Tuesday.
“Sudan is a government and it has to provide security, and it has used its forces for security,” Ukec said. “The government is exercising its right to protect the civilian people.”
Prosecutors have been investigating for some time from a field office in neighboring Chad, which borders on Darfur. Moreno-Ocampo has said in a past report that investigators collected evidence from more than 100 witnesses in 18 countries.
Human rights groups and others have long accused Sudan’s government of arming the janjaweed Arab militias that terrorize Darfur villages — a charge Sudanese leaders deny.
The use of janjaweed militia to commit crimes, and then characterizing them as “autonomous bandits or self-defense militia ... is part of the cover-up,” Moreno-Ocampo’s report says.
“These are evidence of a criminal plan based on the mobilization of the whole state apparatus, including the armed forces, the intelligence services, the diplomatic and public information bureaucracies, and the justice system,” it says.
WANTED MEN
The report repeats his call, first made in December, for the UN Security Council to demand that Sudan’s government hand over two Sudanese men who have been indicted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity.
They are Ahmed Harun, Sudan’s humanitarian affairs minister, who is accused of organizing a system to recruit, fund and arm janjaweed militia to support the Sudanese military, and Ali Kushayb, known as a “colonel of colonels” among the janjaweed.
The prosecutor says Harun’s “continuing role” as minister of state for humanitarian affairs “is indicative of the support he receives from superiors. But he is not alone.”
The treaty that created the ICC was intended to hold individuals, not entire states, responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
IMPLICATIONS
By accusing Sudan’s “whole state apparatus” of helping shield criminals, the prosecutor is implicating some of the highest officials of the government.
William Pace, with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, an umbrella organization of international groups, said the prosecutor is pressing the point that the highest Sudanese officials have a responsibility to investigate and prosecute those accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“When state officials protect those accused, they become complicit in the crimes under international law,” Pace said.
“They’ve promoted Harun to be a minister, so it’s implying that there’s direct leadership responsibilities — that the state apparatus is implicated in shielding Harun and the rebel leader from prosecution,” Pace said.
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