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Africa Horn
ICC Prosecutor Considering New Darfur War Crimes Charges
2012-12-14
[An Nahar] The International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
prosecutor may seek new war crimes charges against leading Sudanese officials over the Darfur conflict, she said Thursday.
That's because the old war crimes charges worked so well.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the U.N. Security Council that aerial bombardments of civilians, deadly attacks on U.N. peacekeepers and humanitarian aid convoys "may constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide."

The ICC has already issued arrest warrants against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
and other top government and militia figures over the conflict, now nearing its tenth year in which the U.N. says at least 300,000 people have died.

Bensouda said her office is considering whether further charges are justified. Sudan's U.N. envoy called her comments "shameful."

The conflict has seen a new surge this year with Sudanese war planes attacking villages and at least six U.N. peacekeepers have been killed in ambushes and other incidents in the last six months.

A written report by the ICC prosecutor to the Security Council also highlighted attacks by rebel groups and their alleged use of child soldiers. But government forces are at the center of Bensouda's investigations.

"The words of the government of Sudan representatives, promising further peace initiatives, are undermined by actions on the ground that show an ongoing commitment to crimes against civilians as a solution to the government's problems in Darfur," the prosecutor said.

Bensouda urged the 15-member Security Council to take action to back efforts to carry out the existing arrest warrants.

"The question that remains to be answered is how many more civilians must be killed, injured and displaced for this Council to be spurred into doing its part?" she said.
Posted by:Fred

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