Originally published on the CGS blog on June 5, 2008.
It can no longer be glossed over that the government tasked with protecting people from atrocities in Darfur is the one carrying out the atrocities.
Today, Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of the International Criminal Court (ICC) reported to the United Nations Security Council that he will present a second Darfur case to the ICC judges that will implicate the “whole state apparatus” of Sudan in July.
Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo reports that he has uncovered evidence linking high officials in the Sudanese government directly with the Janjaweed militia, where armed forces, intelligence services and the justice system worked together to target the population of Darfur in this five-year conflict that has left 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced .
Stating that the Sudanese government are still targeting the population with bombs, torture, killings and rapes, Moreno-Ocampo repeats and stresses his call for the Security Council to demand the Sudanese government to enforce existing arrest warrants for Ali Kushayb, a leader of the Janjaweed militia, and Ahmad Harun, Sudan’s current Humanitarian Affairs Minister, both charged with 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including acts of murder, persecution, torture, rape and forcible displacement.
Unsurprisingly, the Sudanese government has outright refused to enforce the arrest warrants. And it is up to the Security Council and the international community to see the enforcement process through.
