Sudan to hand former dictator to International Criminal Court
The transitional government of Sudan will surrender former dictator Omar al-Bashir and other indicted war criminals to the International Criminal Court for trial. “The cabinet decided to hand over wanted officials to the ICC," Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi said on Wednesday.
In 2009, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a global arrest warrant for Bashir related to war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by regime forces in Darfur. The ICC issued a second arrest warrant for Bashir the following year for the crime of genocide. The official charges stem from the 2003-2008 period:
Five counts of crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture, and rape.
Two counts of war crimes: intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking part in hostilities, and pillaging.
Three counts of genocide: by killing, by causing serious bodily or mental harm, and by deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction.
The decision to hand Bashir over to the ICC came during a visit to Sudan by the international court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
A changing Sudan puts Bashir on his heels
Bashir, who is now 77 years old, may face an uphill legal battle that he never anticipated. His regime refused to allow ICC investigators into Darfur while in power, restraining the court’s ability to build a more robust case against his government.
Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
But after Bashir and some of his henchmen were ousted by the military in 2019 following months of nationwide protests, the new transitional government has steadily became more open to the ICC. Sudan’s attorney general Mubarak Mahmoud said on Tuesday that his office will cooperate with the ICC on cases concerning Darfur in order to bring justice to victims.
Human rights investigators have long been denied access to Darfur, where millions of Sudanese remain oppressed. The transitional government’s new promises of support to the ICC could be the leverage that international prosecutors have long needed.
Getting into Darfur may still prove difficult though. The region remains under the iron fist of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful Bashir-era paramilitary outfit that has so far survived Sudan’s revolution. The commander of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hemeti), has also been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, although he has not been indicted by any court to date. Hemeti is also one of the key leaders in Sudan’s transitional government.
But this reality doesn’t mean that progress is impossible. Last year, Sudanese war criminal Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–Al-Rahman, aka Ali Kushayb, was forced to flee his stronghold in Darfur when forces under the command of the transitional government flipped on him. A few months later, he was captured in the Central African Republic and promptly turned over to the ICC.
Although it appears a handful of Sudan’s war criminals will soon face justice for their crimes, the damage they have left in their wake will take decades to repair.
The Bashir regime launched a second genocidal war against the southern Nuba Mountains region in 2011. Mass regime war crimes quickly gave way to a humanitarian crisis. Even though a ceasefire is in effect today, hundreds of thousands of the Nuba people still lack access to education, healthcare, and other basic services.
Operation Broken Silence is still the only nonprofit in the world funding community-led education efforts in Yida Refugee Camp, where many of the Nuba people now live. Without Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary Schools that we support there, the entire education system would collapse.
As we mentioned in our last update, we need your help to raise an immediate $5,525 for the following special projects at the schools:
$3,900 for classroom repairs, including replacement roofing from severe storm damage and some other minor upkeep.
$1,625 for textbook printing. After years of unfulfilled promises to deliver textbooks from the national education ministry, our education partner has secured a printer and binder and is moving forward with making their own.
There are three ways you can help. You can start a campaign and ask friends and family to give, setup a small monthly recurring donation, or make a generous one-time gift.
Additional ways to support:
Make checks payable to Operation Broken Silence, write Education in the memo line, and mail to P.O. Box 770900 Memphis, TN, 38177-0900
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