Is history repeating itself in Darfur? The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on Thursday July 13 that it had opened a new investigation into war crimes in this Sudanese region. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan made the announcement in a report to the United Nations (UN) Security Council, as Sudan has been plunged into chaos for three months due to a conflict between two generals who compete for power.
And Darfur, where the civil war of the early 2000s killed around 300,000 people, is once again not spared. 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 this area, the UN said on Thursday.
The ICC, which sits in The Hague, had been seized in 2005 by the Security Council on the situation in this region, and had issued an arrest warrant against the former leader Omar Al-Bashir, including allegations of genocide.
“We risk (…) allowing history to repeat itself; the same horrifying story that prompted this Council to refer the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005,” said Karim Khan. “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.
Crimes against children
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 going after civilians, going after their homes, their businesses (…) are crimes prohibited by the Rome Statute”, which gave birth to the ICC, insisted the prosecutor.
Referring to looting, burning of 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-Bourhane, a close ally of Egypt, has been at war with his ex-number two, General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”, who leads the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR). The country’s seven neighbors, meeting in Cairo on Thursday, 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.
Absence de justice
According to Mr. Khan’s report, the risk of further war crimes is “compounded by the clear and long-standing disregard shown by relevant actors, including the government of Sudan, for their obligations”.
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 Al-Bashir, along with leaders Ahmed Haroun and Abdel Raheem Hussein, have been wanted by the ICC for more than a decade 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 Janjawid militia leader, 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 his report. A charge rejected Thursday by the Sudanese ambassador to the UN, Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, who assured that his government “has always cooperated with the ICC”.