Sudan cuts world-court ties
2007-03-18 21:05
Cairo - Sudan has decided to suspend all co-operation with the International Criminal Court in response to its accusations that Sudanese officials were involved in war crimes in Darfur, said the justice minister and a pro-government newspaper on Sunday.
Sudan has refused to hand over suspects to the international court for trial on Darfur war crimes.
Still, Khartoum has co-operated with the court on some levels, in particular by allowing its investigators to visit Sudan several times in recent years.
The government did not specify whether it would no longer grant them entry.
"We had extended our co-operation with the ICC for some time, but now the situation is completely different," justice minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi said from Geneva, where he was attending a United Nations human rights council meeting.
Minister accused
"It's not even a question of co-operation anymore, it's a question that they (the ICC) want to try Sudanese citizens, which is absolutely nonsensical," said the justice minister.
Last month, The Hague-based court accused a Sudanese minister of state and a militia leader of orchestrating massacres, mass rapes and the forcible transfer of thousands of civilians from their homes in the remote Darfur region of western Sudan.
The court's top prosecutor said Ahmed Muhammed Harun - formerly a junior interior minister responsible for Darfur and now minister of state for humanitarian affairs - and Ali Mohammed Ali Abd-al-Rahman - also known as Ali Kushayb, a suspected leader of the pro-government janjaweed militia -were suspected of a total of 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The janjaweed are blamed for widescale atrocities against ethnic African civilians in Darfur amid a government campaign to put down rebels in the large territory of western Sudan.
Turned down delegation idea
More than 200 000 people have died and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced in four years of fighting.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir chaired a meeting of cabinet ministers and high-ranking judicial officials that decided to cancel co-operation with the court, reported the Al-Ray Al-Aam daily newspaper, deemed close to government circles, on Sunday.
The presidential meeting turned down a suggestion from some government officials to send a delegation to The Hague to contest the case with the ICC, said the paper.
- SAPA