Sudan takes first step toward joining international court
- Country:
- Sudan
Sudan has approved a draft bill allowing the East African country to join the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court.
The decision by the Cabinet on Tuesday to join the Rome Statute is a step forward in the long-waited trial of suspects wanted for war crimes and genocide in the Darfur conflict, including former President Omar al-Bashir.
The bill, however, still needs to be ratified by a joint meeting of Sudan's ruling Sovereign Council and Cabinet. Together they serve as an interim parliament. The Cabinet did not offer a time frame for ratification.
Sudan has been led by a joint military-civilian government since a popular uprising led to the military's overthrow of al-Bashir in April 2019. That transitional government, which promised democratic reforms, has previously said that war crime suspects including al-Bashir would be tried before the ICC, but the trial venue is a matter for negotiations with The Hague-based court.
Samantha Power, who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide and now leads the US Agency for International Development, hailed the decision as "BIG news" on Twitter.
"A revolution for "Freedom Peace & Justice" just took a key step toward ending impunity," Power, who is on a visit to Sudan, wrote. She was referring to the uprising that led to al-Bashir's ouster.
Tuesday's decision came two months after a visit by the International Criminal Court's then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to Khartoum and Darfur, during which she urged the country's transitional authorities to hand over suspects wanted for war crimes and genocide in the Darfur conflict.
The Darfur conflict broke out when rebels from the territory's ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
Al-Bashir's government responded with a campaign of aerial bombings and raids by militias known as janjaweed, who stand accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.
The court charged al-Bashir with war crimes and genocide for allegedly masterminding the campaign of attacks in Darfur. Sudanese prosecutors last year started their own investigation into the Darfur conflict.
Also indicted by the court are two other senior figures from al-Bashir's rule: Abdel-Rahim Muhammad Hussein, interior and defense minister during much of the conflict, and Ahmed Haroun, a senior security chief at the time and later the leader of al-Bashir's ruling party. Both Hussein and Haroun have been under arrest in Khartoum since the Sudanese military, under pressure from protesters, ousted al-Bashir in April 2019.
The court also indicted rebel leader Abdulla Banda, whose whereabouts are unknown, and janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb, who was charged in May with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
- READ MORE ON:
- Arab
- The Hague
- al-Bashir
- Rome Statute
- International Criminal Court
- Omar al-Bashir
- Fatou Bensouda
- Abdel-Rahim Muhammad Hussein
- Ali Kushayb
- Cabinet
- Khartoum
- al-Bashir's
- International Criminal Court's
- Ahmed Haroun
- East African
- Darfur
- Pulitzer Prize
- Sovereign Council
- Freedom Peace & Justice
ALSO READ
South Sudan shutters all schools as it prepares for an extreme heat wave
Sudan enters downward spiral of extreme conflict-induced hunger
World News in Brief: Rights chief appalled at Nigeria mass abductions, ‘pervasive’ hunger in streets of Sudan, Syria child crisis
UNICEF warns of catastrophic loss of lives in Sudan as famine looms
South Sudan president fires finance minister amid an economic crisis