(United Nations) The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened a new investigation into war crimes in the Sudanese region of Darfur, its prosecutor announced on Thursday, calling not to allow “History to repeat itself”.
Karim Khan made the announcement in a report to the UN Security Council as the country has been plunged into chaos for three months due to a conflict between two generals who are vying for power.
And Darfur, where the civil war of the early 2000s killed around 300,000 people, is not spared from atrocities. The bodies of at least 87 people believed to have been killed last month by paramilitary forces and their allies have been buried in a mass grave in the area, the UN said on Thursday.
The ICC had been seized in 2005 by the Security Council on the situation in Darfur and had issued an arrest warrant against former leader Omar al-Bashir, including allegations of genocide.
” We risk […] to allow history to repeat itself; the same appalling story that prompted this Council to refer the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005,” Karim Khan said on Thursday.
“The oft-repeated phrase ‘never again’ must mean something, here and now, to the people of Darfur who have lived in uncertainty and suffering, with the scars of conflict, for almost two decades,” said he insisted before the Council.
His office, whose mandate is limited to Darfur, has thus “opened an investigation into the incidents that have occurred in the context of the current hostilities”, according to its report, which mentions a “wide range” of information concerning war crimes and alleged crimes against humanity since fighting began in April.
“I want to send a clear message to every belligerent, every commander, every soldier who owns a weapon and believes they can do whatever they want: that intentionally attacking civilians, attacking their homes, their businesses […] are crimes prohibited by the Rome Statute” which gave birth to the ICC, insisted the prosecutor.
” Accountable ”
Referring to looting, burning houses and extrajudicial executions, he said he had given “instructions” to his services “to give priority to crimes against children, sexual crimes and gender-based violence”.
Since April 15, the head of the Sudanese army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, a close ally of Egypt, has been at war against his ex-number two, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the paramilitaries of the Forces de rapid support (FSR).
The seven neighbors of the country, meeting Thursday in Cairo, called for help from the international community in the face of a conflict that has already left nearly 3,000 dead and three million displaced and refugees.
The United States “applauded” the new ICC investigation.
“The atrocities and violence in Darfur deserve accountability,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement, blaming the RSF and their allies for “targeted ethnic killings.” in West Darfur and for the bodies found in the mass grave.
Darfur, a vast region in western Sudan, has been ravaged by a civil war that began in 2003 between the Arab-majority regime of Omar al-Bashir and insurgents from ethnic minorities denouncing discrimination. Mr. al-Bashir had sent against the rebellion the armed militia of the Janjawids, which later gave birth to the FSR.
Omar el-Béchir as well as the leaders Ahmed Haroun and Abdel Raheem Hussein have been claimed for more than ten years by the ICC for “genocide” and crimes against humanity during the conflict in Darfur.
The only person to appear before ICC judges so far is Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, the former leader of the Janjawid, also known by his nom de guerre Ali Kosheib.
The lack of justice for crimes in Darfur in the early 2000s “sowed the seeds of this latest cycle of violence and suffering”, according to Mr. Khan.
Even before the recent fighting, there was an “even greater deterioration in the cooperation of the Sudanese authorities”, according to its report.
A charge rejected Thursday by the Sudanese ambassador to the UN Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, who assured that his government “(had) always cooperated with the ICC”.