Court names first suspects in Darfur war crimes hunt

THE International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor named a Sudanese minister and a militia commander on Tuesday as the first suspects he wants tried for war crimes in Darfur and suggested more may follow.

Sudan said the ICC had no right to try the suspects and questioned the evidence gathered by its investigators.

“All the evidence the prosecutor referred to is lies given by people who bear arms against the state and kill innocent citizens in Darfur,” Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi said in Khartoum.

Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges to issue summonses for Ahmed Haroun, state interior minister during the height of the Darfur conflict, and militia chief Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb.

“Our work sends a signal: those who commit atrocities cannot do so with impunity,” Moreno-Ocampo said, adding that prosecutors were still gathering evidence.

Haroun is now Sudan’s state humanitarian affairs minister Kushayb was a commander of the Janjaweed militia who led attacks on towns and villages, where dozens were killed.

ICC prosecutors accused the two of criminal responsibility in relation to 51 counts of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in 2003 and 2004.

Experts say some 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million others driven from their homes in Darfur since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government, charging it with neglect. Khartoum says about 9,000 people have died.

Asked if he expected to name further suspects, Moreno-Ocampo would only say investigations were continuing and his office was monitoring the spillover of violence from Darfur into Chad and the Central African Republic. He said his team took 100 witness statements in 17 countries.

The prosecutor said the evidence showed Haroun funded the Janjaweed and was seen personally delivering arms and ammunition to the militia in Darfur.

He said Kushayb was seen giving orders to the Janjaweed, personally inspecting a group of naked women before they were raped and personally participating in summary executions, one involving at least 32 men.

The ICC, the world’s first permanent war crimes court, started in 2002 and is now supported by 104 nations, although still not by Russia, China and the US.