ICC prosecutor says former Janjaweed leader ‘enthusiastically ordered atrocities’

The Hague — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor told judges on Wednesday that the suspect in the first trial examining war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region two decades ago was a feared militia leader who enthusiastically ordered atrocities including murder, rape and pillaging.

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, who is charged with overseeing thousands of pro-government Janjaweed fighters during the peak of fighting from 2003-2004, has pleaded not guilty and his defence has argued that he is not the militia leader also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb.

In his closing statement, prosecutor Karim Khan said that during the two-year trial, prosecution witnesses had given “detailed accounts of mass murder, torture, rape, targeting of civilians, burning and pillaging of entire villages” and that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The closing arguments mark the end of the ICC’s first and only trial looking at crimes in Sudan since the case was referred to the court by the UN Security Council in 2005. There are still outstanding arrest warrants against Sudanese officials, including one accusing former president Omar al-Bashir of genocide charges.

Darfur’s conflict first erupted when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan’s government, accusing it of marginalising the remote western territory. Sudan’s then government mobilised mostly Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, to crush the revolt, unleashing a wave of violence that the US and human rights groups said amounted to genocide.

Since the start of the ICC trial, conflict has erupted again in Darfur and the current 20-month conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has turned increasingly bloody as ceasefire efforts have stalled.

In June this year the ICC prosecutor announced that he is also urgently investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity currently being committed in Darfur.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday reports said at least 127 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Sudan by barrel bombs and shelling from the warring sides

Rights activists said the war between the Sudanese army and the RSF has been turning increasingly bloody in recent days as ceasefire efforts had stalled and crises elsewhere have dominated world attention.

The army had stepped up air strikes in the half of the country the RSF controls, while the RSF has staged raids on villages and intense artillery strikes. 

Both have targeted densely populated civilian areas. More than eight barrel bombs hit the market in the North Darfur town of Kabkabiya on Monday, the pro-democracy Al-Fashir Resistance Committee said.

Emergency Lawyers, a human rights group, said more than 100 people were killed and hundreds wounded. The army has frequently targeted towns in North Darfur with air strikes as it fights the RSF for control of the state capital, al-Fashir, its last foothold in the region. 

Reuters