Sudan’s Islamic Movement condemns US efforts to pursue Ahmed Harun

The Islamic Movement in Sudan yesterday announced its rejection of the US decision to designate Ahmed Harun, Minister of Interior Affairs during the Al Bashir regime, under the War Crimes Rewards Program (WCRP). The Darfur Bar Association welcomed the step but seriously doubts its feasibility.

The US Department of State designated Harun, Minister of Interior Affairs and Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs under the Al Bashir regime (1989-2019), under the War Crimes Rewards Program on Monday. Since 2007, he is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Darfur.

Harun (also spelled Haroun) was arrested after the ousting of President Omar Al Bashir in April 2019 and held at Kober Prison in Khartoum North. Though the ICC repeatedly called for his extradition, this never happened.

In April last year, days after war broke out between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Harun and several other Islamist hardliners managed to escape and fled to eastern Sudan. After arrest warrants for them were cancelled in Kassala, they rare moving freely in Red Sea state, where the de Sudanese facto government is operating from, Kassala, and El Gedaref.

In a statement “to the Sudanese people” yesterday, the Islamic Movement described the US State Department’s decision on Harun, as “flawed and shameful”, stating that “the USA is not even a member of the [Rome Statute Rome Statute of the] ICC”.

The movement accused the US administration of “covering up the crimes of murder, rape, displacement, plundering and looting practiced by the sons of Dagalo [the RSF) and their militia fighters and support from known countries and regimes.

“The US administration is trying to link these crimes to the symbols of the Islamists, which is and immoral attack based on political bankruptcy.”

According to the Islamic Movement, the US government “is morally unqualified to address issues of defending victims of barbaric attacks, grave violations” and “allows rogue states to supply the [RSF] rebels with weapons and finances. The statement also accused the USA of “supporting the Israeli aggression against innocent people in Gaza”.

‘Overdue’

The Darfur Bar Association (DBA) said in a statement that it appreciates “the measures, decisions and actions by international institutions and nations to combat impunity in the Sudan,” though “they remain of no real value”.

The association said they will continue to examine the feasibility of such measures “issued from time to time” by the international community.

Eastern Sudanese lawyer Ramzi Yahya told Radio Dabanga from El Gedaref that “the decision is sound but long overdue”.

He said that Harun was present in El Gedaref during the past months. “We now have appealed the state prosecution’s dismissal of our official complaint against the man.

“Harun is moving around in full view of the authorities, but the de facto government so far has not taken any decision to arrest him, which means that the responsibility for his detention now lies with the people”.