THE HAGUE: A Sudanese rebel leader told the International Criminal Court on Monday he had nothing to do with the execution-style killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.
Bahr Idris Abu Garda is the first Sudanese rebel to appear before the court in The Hague. He voluntarily attended a hearing to determine if he should face trial on three war crimes charges over the attack on an AU peacekeeping base in September 2007.
Deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the peacekeepers were sent to protect civilians from killings and rapes, but were murdered by combined rebel forces under Abu Garda’s control. She said they were not killed accidentally or in crossfire.
“Most of them were shot at close range. They were executed,” Bensouda told the three-judge chamber.
Abu Garda, 46, chairman of the United Resistance Front, told the court: “I have no relation to that incident, the planning for that attack or the preparing for the attack.” The AU peacekeepers, now a joint AU-UN force, have been unable to end fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region between government and rebel troops since hostilities erupted in 2003.
The UN says up to 300,000 people have been killed, but Khartoum puts the toll at 9,000.
Sudanese President Omar Bashir was indicted by the ICC in March for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has denied all charges.
Sudan in principle rejects the presence of any Sudanese national in front of the ICC.
