ICC Prosecutor Khan: terror ‘has become common currency’ in Sudan

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced yesterday that he hopes to soon issue arrest warrants for those responsible for the current ‘nightmare’ experienced by the population of Darfur. Darfur lawyers and rebel leader Abdelwahid Mohamed Nur blame him for not insisting on the extradition of former Sudanese officials indicted more than 12 years ago.

In his briefing on Sudan, and in particular on Darfur, to the UN Security Council in New York yesterday, Khan deplored a “further deterioration” of the situation in Sudan’s war-torn western region and urged the international community to tackle “the climate of impunity that is fuelling mass violence in Sudan”.

The ICC in the Hague, earlier indicted Sudanese officials, including disposed President Omar Al Bashir, and militia leaders for crimes committed in Darfur between 2003-2004*.

On July 13 last year, following mass attacks on members of the Masalit tribe in West Darfur, whereby more than 5,000 people were reportedly killed, and which may constitute ethnic cleansing, the ICC announced that it launched an investigation into attacks on civilians in Darfur since war broke out in Sudan on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

“Terror has become a common currency” in Sudan, Khan told the UN Security Council yesterday. During his semi-annual briefing to the Council, he detailed human rights abuses, including rapes and crimes against children, and noted “the provision of arms, financial support and political triangulations enabling this”.

These abuses are also fuelled by “this feeling that Darfur or Sudan is a law-free zone in which people can act with abandon”, with nothing more than “a flicker of attention from the Council” every six months. 

The prosecutor said that by his next report, he expects to announce arrests warrants against those who are most responsible.

The UN Security Council needs to look at imaginative ways to stop the cycle of violence from persisting in Sudan, he said, adding that the Sudanese authorities must expedite their cooperation with the Court.  

The representative of Sudan to the UNSC responded by speaking about his government’s political will and commitment to engage with the ICC within the principle of judicial complementarity. He mentioned domestic efforts to strengthen judicial capacity, including steps undertaken to join the Rome Statute.  

In June, Khan announced that the ICC would step-up its investigations into atrocities committed during the course of the war in Sudan and called for videos, audios, testimonies, and other evidence from victims, witnesses, organisations, and government institutions, to advance the inquiries. He voiced concern “about allegations of widespread international crimes being committed in El Fasher [in north Darfur] and its surrounding areas as I speak”.

‘Grave concern’

In a joint statement yesterday, read by the Japanese delegate, the members of the Security Council expressed grave concern at the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Sudan. 

They welcomed the progress made by the ICC in seeking accountability for the crimes committed in the country. They called on the court to continue investigating allegations of crimes committed in Darfur since 2023, with particular priority given to gender-based violence and crimes against children.

Robert Wood, the US alternate representative for UN Special Political Affairs, reacted by referring to crimes against civilians committed by both the RSF and SAF.

“This past December, Secretary Blinken announced his determination that the RSF and allied militias are responsible for crimes against humanity and, in Darfur, ethnic cleansing, and that members of the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces committed war crimes. We continue to closely monitor the situation and will not hesitate to condemn violations when we see them,” he said in his remarks to the council.

He added that “The human catastrophe in Sudan demands decisive action by the entire international community. In particular, external actors must cease providing support to the warring parties and instead turn their attention to advancing peace talks. The causes of justice and accountability work hand in hand with the pursuit of peace.”

Doubts

The mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdelwahid Mohamed Nur and the Darfur Bar Association both expressed their doubts about the sincerity of the ICC prosecutor, as he did not call for the extradition of the indicted members of the dissolved Al Bashir regime (1989-2019).

In a statement seen by Radio Dabanga yesterday, Mohamed Nur accused Khan in of “seeking to undermine the efforts of the court, prevent it from carrying out its duties, and find excuses for not prosecuting [these] criminals who have fled international justice”.

Mohamed El Nayer, the movement’s spokesman, called via Radio Dabanga on the international community, the UN and the UN Security Council to play their role in pressurising the Port Sudan de facto government “to immediately and unconditionally hand over the criminals wanted by international justice”.

The Darfur Bar Association yesterday called on Khan to resign, as “he is not convinced of the sufficiency of the evidence in the case in which he is leading the criminal prosecution”.

The Darfur lawyers called on the UN Security Council to seriously follow up the attempts of the ICC prosecutor “to undermine the efforts to implement the court’s orders to arrest the wanted persons”.

Abdelsalam El Sayed, head of the Sudanese Observatory for Human Rights, however, welcomed Khan’s position and “his confirmation of the continuation of the court’s jurisdiction in Darfur to investigate crimes and human rights violations during this war”.

Talking to Radio Dabanga, he called for not anticipating events. “After completing the investigations, the prosecutor will present the facts he has gathered to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber. When sufficient evidence is obtained, he will issue arrest warrants.”

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* In 2007, following investigations into crimes committed against civilians in Darfur between 2003-2004, ICC issued arrest warrants against Ahmed Haroun (also spelled Harun), former Minister of Interior Affairs and Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, and janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb. President Omar Al Bashir was indicted by the ICC in 2009 for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s war-torn western region, and in 2010 for genocide. In 2012, the ICC officially accused former Interior and Defence Minister Abdelrahim Hussein of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

In February 2020, the new, civilian-led government agreed that Al Bashir, Haroun, and Hussein would be transferred to The Hague to face justice but this was not implemented. The three were detained in 2019 and held in Kober Prison in Khartoum North. Al Bashir was later transferred to a hospital in Khartoum. Haroun, Abdelrahim, and other ‘Islamist hardliners’ managed to escape days after war erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support forces (RSF) in mid-April 2023.

In 2014, the ICC issued another arrest warrant, accusing Abdallah Banda, commander-in-chief of a breakaway faction of the Justice and Equality Movement, of war crimes in Darfur. The former rebel leader is still at large. Kushayb is the only one being tried. He was transferred to ICC custody on June 9, 2020 after surrendering himself in the Central African Republic.