KHARTOUM/ABUJA, 13 June 2005 — Sudan has formed a special court to try alleged criminals in its remote Darfur region and its chief judge insisted yesterday it would be independent, amid international pressure for war crimes trials abroad. The president of the court, due to start work on Wednesday, told Reuters he would be ready to try anyone, no matter how senior, and said he would resign if there was any government interference in the court proceedings.
“Nothing that will interfere with our work has ever happened nor will happen and if it ever happens I as a judge will quit the court,” Mahmoud Mohamed Saeed Abkam, who is also one of the roving court’s three judges, said in an interview. Senior government and military officials, militia and rebel leaders, and foreign army officers are among 51 war crimes suspects on a secret list drawn up by a United Nations-appointed commission of inquiry into the Darfur conflict.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million driven from their homes since a rebellion against Khartoum began more than two years ago in the region. Abkam, a High Court judge, said he would be prepared to try anyone, whether they be senior government or military officials. But, he said, he did not yet know who would come up for trial because the attorney general’s office was dealing with the investigations and bringing charges.
Meanwhile, African Union mediators pushing for a solution to Darfur crisis managed yesterday to gather parties in a first plenary session at peace talks here, despite continuing splits, a spokesman said in Abuja. The meeting, after a similar attempt failed Saturday, was decided at the last minute, said Boubou Niang, a Senegalese spokesman for the AU mediators.
“The session was attended by all the parties, facilitators, partners and observers” in the bid to end two years of civil war in the western Sudanese region, he said.
Yesterday’s session was the first face-to-face encounter by parties at this 5th round of Darfur talks, which resumed in the Nigerian capital Friday after a six-month suspension. The last round foundered in December as each side traded accusations of truce violations. There were few immediate details about yesterday’s face-to-face, which the spokesman said lasted 40 minutes and followed separate, closed-door discussion earlier in the day.
