Juba, South Sudan,
June 14, 2021 – The outgoing prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is going after the Sudanese criminals indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity and needs them transferred from their current prison cells in Khartoum to The Hague.
Speaking on Wednesday during her final briefing to the United Nations Security Council, Fatou Bensouda said, Sudan has to tangibly demonstrate that the new Sudan is now retaining its full membership of the international community, has joined the fight against impunity, and is fully committed to justice and the rule of law.
“Almost all the suspects are in the custody of the government of Sudan, and there is no legal impediment to their surrender to the ICC,” Ms. Bensouda said.
The arrest warrant for the former Janjaweed militia commander includes 22 counts of crimes against humanity and 28 counts of war crimes, allegedly committed in 2003 and 2004 in Sudan’s Darfur region. He is suspected of planning and, in some cases, participating in attacks against civilians.
The years-long conflict between Darfur rebels and the Khartoum government killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2 million more, causing a humanitarian crisis that is still felt today.
Prosecutor’s ‘historic visit’
Bensouda just returned from her first trip to Darfur
“My historic visit to Darfur last week opened my eyes even more to the reality of what we and the people of Darfur have been fighting for over the years,” she told the council.
She said that another suspect, former Sudanese Interior Minister Ahmad Harun, who is in a Khartoum prison, reportedly needs to be handed over to the court, and that there is an “urgent need” to transfer him to The Hague soon.
Harun is charged with many of the same crimes as Kushayb. Their cases were separated because one is in the court’s custody and the other is not. Bensouda said there is still time to rejoin their cases, which would be more efficient and allow witnesses to testify only once about traumatic events.
“Sudan is under a legal obligation to surrender the suspects pursuant to Resolution 1593,” she said of the Security Council resolution that first referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC more than 16 years ago.
Bensouda said last year’s Juba Peace Agreement between Sudan’s government and various rebel groups also states that war crimes suspects must appear before the ICC and that Sudan should fully cooperate with the ICC’s investigations and prosecutions of these suspects.
Other warrants
The other three outstanding warrants are for former President Omar al-Bashir, who has been in a Khartoum jail since he was ousted during a popular revolution in 2019; Abdallah Banda, former commander of the rebel group Justice and Equality Movement; and former Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein.
Last August, Sudan’s prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, said the transitional government was ready to cooperate with the court. But so far, it has not handed over any of the suspects. His representative at the Security Council said Wednesday that ending impunity remains a top priority.
“Last week, the prime minister announced that the government ‘is working with the ICC and victim groups to find the best ways to bring wanted suspects to justice before the ICC,’ ” the representative said, quoting Hamdok.
Prosecutor Bensouda leaves the court this month after nearly 20 years, nine of them as the top prosecutor. Her tenure has not always been smooth.
In 2016, African countries threatened a potential exodus from the court over complaints that it disproportionately targeted Africans. They eventually backed down. And in 2019, the Trump administration revoked Bensouda’s U.S. visa and, the following year sanctioned her and a colleague over investigations into U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
The Biden administration lifted those sanctions in early April, and at Wednesday’s meeting, its envoy expressed support for the prosecutor’s work. The U.S. is not a member of the ICC.
1 comment
“ICC demands handover of Sudanese war criminals to The Hague”
I would be pleased to let these cowards come and taste their usual bullshits they often played over their Bantuses or Central African countries’ leaders here in South Sudan and take them to Hague. Mr. Hassan El Bashir even used to brag that he is a Muonyjieng/Jaang/Jenge/Dinka from Western bank of the Nile.
This woman is just a prostitute from a tiny West African state of Gambia—her country was over ran by the Nigerian a few and some of their low lives a few years ago. And thought, their cheap and intrigues would be extended to South Sudan. May gods help these evils, they are going to be bombed to near oblivion/extinction, reasons, pure HATRED and RACISM.
Ms. Bensouda, even wanted to go to US of A to investigate *The War crimes committed by the US army in Afghanistan, the US authorities refused her *a visa and got away with it.
Lowly informed South Sudanese fools. *We are the Ancient Egyptian fools, there will not be evil white people, evil English people, their cloned so-called arabs of North Sudan, Abeshas (so-called ethiopians) prostitutes, their gulf Arab states, their UN, their sleazy NGOs, and some of their creeps in between who have attached themselves to our country and over our people, once and for all. Reasons, pure HATRED and RACISM.