THE HAGUE, 28 February 2007 — The International Criminal Court chief prosecutor named a Sudanese minister and a militia commander yesterday as the first suspects he wants tried for war crimes in Darfur and suggested more could follow.
Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pretrial judges to issue summonses for Ahmed Haroun, state interior minister during the height of the Darfur conflict, and militia commander 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,” he told a news conference, adding that prosecutors were still gathering evidence of crimes in Darfur.
Haroun is currently Sudan’s state humanitarian affairs minister, a post below the full ministerial level. Prosecutors said Kushayb was a commander of the Janjaweed militia who led attacks on towns and villages, where dozens were killed.
In a 94-page filing, 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, and urged Khartoum to make sure the suspects appear at the court.
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.
UN and African Union observers blame pro-government militias for the worst atrocities. The Sudanese government has denied arming the Janjaweed, which it describes as outlaws.
Sudan said the ICC had no right to try the suspects and questioned the evidence gathered by its investigators.
“We are not concerned with, nor do we accept, what the International Criminal Court prosecutor has opted for,” Justice Minister Mohammed Ali Al-Mardi told The Associated Press in Khartoum.
“Our position (on handing over any indictees) remains the same,” Al-Mardi said. “All the evidence the prosecutor referred to is lies given to him by people who bear arms against the state, bear arms against citizens and kill innocent citizens in Darfur.”
Sudan has repeatedly said it will not respect any indictments handed down by the ICC, and it is not a signatory to the convention that created the international court.
Human rights groups welcomed the move, particularly as it targeted a minister, the first government figure the ICC has named as a suspect after focusing on rebel leaders in other investigations into Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The clear message from these prosecutions is that the world is watching, and the high and mighty are not immune,” said Gareth Evans of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
Asked if he expected to name further suspects, Moreno-Ocampo would only say investigations were continuing and noted his office was monitoring the spillover of violence from Darfur into Chad and the Central African Republic.
He said fighting in Darfur made investigations difficult, but his team had taken 100 witness statements in 17 countries.
The prosecutor said the evidence collected showed Haroun funded the Janjaweed from an unlimited budget that was not publicly audited and was seen personally delivering arms, ammunition and well-guarded boxes to the militia in Darfur.
