News report by Mohammad Abdel Aziz KHARTOUM, Oct 15 (KUNA) -- After two decades of war fares in the Sudanese region Darfur, the International Criminal Court in the Hague convicted the former chief of the notorious Janjaweed militia, Ali Mohammad Abdulrahman, known as Ali Kushayb, of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The verdict, issued on October 6, convicting Kushayb with 27 counts covering killing, rape, torture and oppression of civilians in Darfur between 2003 and 2004, was a historic turning point in the history of international justice regarding Darfur.
It was the first of its kind since the United Nations Security Council submitted the case to the ICC in 2005.
The case has drawn wide-scale interest and interaction from various quarters, amid calls in Sudan for prosecuting several other figures namely the former president, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.
The prosecution had depended in testimonies of 81 witnesses and 1,521 pieces of evidences.
Adam Rejal, spokesperson of the general coordination commission for the displaced camp in Darfur, said in a statement to KUNA that the court rule was a real victory for the victims.
He called for prosecuting other figures of similar records, namely the former president Al-Bashir, the ex-minister of defense Abdel Rahim Hussein, the former minister of state for humanitarian affairs, Ahmad Haroun.
Meanwhile, the Emergency Lawyers organization also hailed the ICC verdict, saying it proved that leaders of the former regime had been involved in the Darfur crimes.
Salih Mahmoud, the head of the Darfur attorneys' authority, said that crimes against humanity could be shunned by the statute of limitation and must not be pardoned.
He called on the ICC to broaden its jurisdictions in Sudan to cover other identical cases throughout the country.
He called for reforming the Sudanese judiciary and enacting laws that conform to international laws, noting that the genocides and war crimes were included in the national laws in 2009, but they could not be applied on retroactive basis in the case of the Darfur crimes.
Nazhat Shameem Khan, the ICC deputy general prosecutor, said the tribunal rule was a resounding message to perpetrators of atrocities in Sudan, expressing her belief that justice would ultimately prevail and the culprits of crimes would be brought to justice.
Analysts believe that the path to exacting justice on the perpetrators is dotted with plenty of thorns, such as local political divisions and need to reform the judiciary. (end) mam.rk