Suspect Named in Darfur War Crimes Case

02/27/2007

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The International Criminal Court's prosecutor on Tuesday named a former Sudanese junior minister and a janjaweed militia leader as suspects in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country's Darfur region.

It was the first time the court has unveiled details of its investigation, which was launched in March 2005.

Ahmed Muhammed Harun is accused of helping recruit janjaweed militias responsible for murders, rapes and torture, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said.

Harun, the former junior interior minister responsible for Darfur, and a janjaweed militia leader, Ali Mohammed Ali Abd-al-Rahman, who also is known as Ali Kushayb, were suspected of a total of 51 counts of war crimes, the prosecutor said.

Harun recruited janjaweed, "with full knowledge that they, often in the course of joint attacks with the (Sudanese) armed forces, would commit crimes against humanity and war crimes against the civilian population of Darfur," Moreno-Ocampo said in a 94-page document filed with the court's judges.

While the prosecution document is not an indictment, it does say that there are "reasonable grounds to believe" that Harun and Kushayb "bear criminal responsibility" for the offenses including murder, rape, torture and persecution.

There was no immediate reaction from the Sudanese government to the allegations against Harun.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes in Darfur since fighting erupted in February 2003, when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by their government.

Khartoum is accused of using the janjaweed militias of Arab nomads to retaliate, but the government denies backing or arming the janjaweed. Members of the janjaweed have told the media that they were armed by government forces.

The White House has labeled the attacks genocide.

After reviewing the prosecutor's evidence, judges can issue arrest warrants or summonses to the suspects to appear in The Hague. If they are charged, tried and convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment at the court, which does not have the death penalty.

However, the court has no police force and relies on other countries to carry out arrests. That could be a problem in Sudan, which has not signed the Rome Statute creating the court and does not recognize the jurisdiction of the court, which came into force in 2002.

Moreno-Ocampo's investigators have carried out 70 missions in 17 different countries, taking statements from more than 100 victims and witnesses and collecting documents.

They have been unable to carry out investigations in Darfur itself because of the ongoing violence there.

Prosecutors on Tuesday said the offenses occurred in four villages.

The "janjaweed did not target any rebel presence within these particular towns and villages. Rather, they attacked these towns and villages based on the rationale that the tens of thousands of civilian residents in and near these towns and villages were supporters of the rebel militia."

The strategy, "became the justification for the mass murder, summary execution, and mass rape of civilians who were known not to be participants in any armed conflict," prosecutors said. "Application of the strategy also called for, and achieved the forced displacement of entire villages and communities."