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Darfur: CICC and Justice for Darfur press releases anniversary of the referral of the Darfur situation to the ICC

25 Apr 2008

Darfur: CICC and Justice for Darfur releases on one year anniversary
(25 April 2008)

Dear all,

Please find below a CICC press release on the upcoming one-year anniversary of
the issuance of the Dafur arrest warrants on 27 April 2008. Please also find a
launch statement for "Justice for Darfur," a new campaign that includes the
Coalition and many of our members. Both releases urge stronger action from the
Security Council and the international community in general to ensure the prompt
execution of the outstanding arrest warrants for Ahman Harun and Ali Kushayb.

Also featured in this message are related media articles. In one, ICC
Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo calls upon the international community to "take
sides," three years after the United Nations Security Council mandated the court
to prosecute. "We are entering a decisive phase, a time of definition," he
added.

Please take note of the Coalition's policy on situations before the ICC (below),
which explicitly states that the CICC will not take a position on potential and
current situations before the Court or situations under analysis. The Coalition,
however, will continue to provide the most up-to-date information about the ICC.

Regards,

Mariana Rodriguez Pareja
[email protected]
CICC Communications

I. MEDIA STATEMENTS

i. CICC release

"Global Coalition Says Anniversary Of ICC Arrest Warrants For Darfur A Litmus
Test For Security Council,"CICC Press Release, 25 April 2008,
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/Darfur_anniv_2008_pr.pdf

"Exactly one year ago on 27 April 2008, the Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, issued warrants for the arrest of Ahmad
Muhammad Harun and Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (more commonly known as Ali
Kushayb), citing the two as bearing responsibility for grave crimes committed in
the troubled region of Darfur, Sudan between 2003 and 2004.

To date-despite the referral of the situation to the Court by the United Nations
Security Council in 2005-neither suspect has been apprehended.



'The issuance of the Court's arrest warrants in Darfur, which was the first
concerted action by the international community to address the conflict, is
testing the global resolve to end impunity for unspeakable horrors,' said
Program Director of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Tanya
Karanasios.



'Failure to ensure that both Kushayb and Harun are brought to the ICC
compromises the Security Council's legitimacy and its mandate to maintain
international peace and security. It has been one year too long for the victims
of the conflict who continue to pay the price for the Sudanese government's
blatant disregard for human rights,' she said.



On 31 March 2005, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1593 referring the
situation in Darfur to the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor. In accordance with
the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, the prosecutor officially
opened an investigation on 1 June 2005. Following an investigation that spanned
17 countries, the ICC prosecutor charged Harun and Kushayb with criminal
responsibility in relation to 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity. These include charges of rape, murder, persecution, torture, forcible
transfer, destruction of property, attacks against civilians and severe
deprivation of liberty.



Since the accusations were levied, the Sudanese government has openly defied the
Court and the international community. The government of Sudanese President Omar
al-Bashir has consistently refused to cooperate with the Court. In addition, Ali
Kushayb, who had been imprisoned by Sudanese authorities on unrelated charges,
was released in October 2007 for 'lack of evidence.' And Ahmad Harun who was
previously State Minister of the Interior responsible for the government's
Darfur Security Desk at the time of the crimes, was last year promoted to State
Minister for Humanitarian Affairs in Darfur with direct authority over the
victims of his alleged crimes. Most recently, Harun was tasked with the role of
Sudanese government liaison with UNAMID, the United Nations-African Union hybrid
peacekeeping mission in Darfur.



'Our call to the Security Council, and the international community at large, is
clear: ensure the immediate arrest and surrender of Harun and Kushayb,' said
Karanasios. 'Anything less than this calls into question the global commitment
to heed the cries of 'never again' that were issued more than a half century
ago."



ii. Justice for Darfur Release



"Justice for Darfur" Campaign Launched ;Sudan Should Arrest War Crimes Suspects
Now" Justice for Darfur, 27 April 2008

http://www.justice4darfur.org/letters/J4D.PressRelease.FINAL.pdf



"One year after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants
for two war crimes suspects in Darfur, human rights organizations around the
world are launching a "Justice for Darfur" campaign, calling for the two to be
arrested.



The organizations behind the campaign, including Amnesty International, Cairo
Institute for Human

Rights Studies, Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Human Rights
First, Human Rights

Watch and Sudan Organization Against Torture, have joined forces to call on the
United Nations

Security Council, regional organisations and individual governments to press
Sudan to cooperate with

the ICC.



The ICC has been investigating crimes in the region following a decision three
years ago by the UN

Security Council to refer to it the situation in Darfur. One year ago today - on
April 27, 2007 - the ICC

issued two arrest warrants against Sudan's former State Minister of the Interior
Ahmad Harun and

Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb for 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity. Today the

two men - who face charges of persecution, rape, and killing of civilians in
four West Darfur villages -

remain at large.



'The thousands of people who suffered murder, rape and persecution in Darfur
deserve

justice,' said Dismas Nkunda, Co - Chair of the Darfur Consortium, a group of
African and Middle

Eastern NGOs. 'Instead, all they have had is disdain from their own government,
and empty

words from the international community. It is time for that to change.'



The Sudanese government has publicly and repeatedly refused to surrender either
Ali Kushayb or

Ahmad Harun to the Court. Instead, Ahmad Harun has been promoted to State
Minister for

Humanitarian Affairs, responsible for the welfare of the very victims of his
alleged crimes. As well as

having considerable power over humanitarian operations, he is responsible for
liaison with the

international peacekeeping force (UNAMID) tasked with protecting civilians
against such crimes. The

other suspect, Ali Kushayb, was in custody in Sudan on other charges at the time
the ICC warrants

were issued, but in October the government announced he had been released,
reportedly due to 'lack

of evidence.'



'The Sudanese government has shown blatant disregard both for the authority of
the Security

Council and for the victims of their brutality,' said Richard Dicker, director
of the International

Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. 'So far, Sudan has faced no consequences
for this

brazen snubbing of the Court and the Council'.



The members of 'Justice for Darfur' are urging the UN Security Council to pass
a resolution calling on

Sudan to cooperate fully with the ICC and immediately arrest Ahmad Harun and Ali
Kushayb and

surrender them to the Court.



'Now is the time for the Security Council to act to ensure that the men are
arrested and

surrendered to the ICC without further delay, as a first step towards ending
impunity for the

vast scale of horrific crimes committed in Darfur,' said Christopher Hall,
Senior Legal Adviser for

Amnesty International's International Justice Project.



The group also called on the European Union, a strong supporter of the Court and
key player in

bringing the Darfur crimes to the ICC Prosecutor, to press Sudan to cooperate
with the ICC and

comply with the warrants. They called on other states and regional organizations
to do so too.

"Through the 'Justice for Darfur' campaign, organizations will work together to
generate as

much pressure as possible on the international community to follow through on
its

commitment to justice for the victims of these crimes," said Moataz El Fegiery,
Executive Director

at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.



The following organizations are part of the "Justice for Darfur" campaign:

Action des chrétiens pour l'abolition de la torture - France

Aegis Trust

Amnesty International

Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession

Bahrain Centre for Human Rights

Bahrain Human Rights Society

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

Center for Peace, Legal Advice and Psychosocial Assistance - Vukovar

Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre - Nigeria

Coalition for the International Criminal Court

Collectif Urgence Darfour

Darfur Consortium

Darfur Union UK

Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l'Homme

Human Rights First

Human Rights Watch

International Criminal Court Student Network UK

Kalangala District NGO Forum

Land Center for Human Rights

League of Human Rights

Prepared society Kenya

Recherches et Documentation Juridiques Africaines

Save Darfur Canada

Society for Threatened Peoples International

Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project

Students Taking Action Now: Darfur - Canada

Sudan organization against Torture

UN Watch

Waging Peace

For more information on the "Justice for Darfur" campaign, see:
www.justice4darfur.org





II. MEDIA ARTICLES



i. "Human rights groups call on UN, EU to press for Darfur arrests,"
International Herald Tribune, 25 April 2008,

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/25/news/International-Court-Darfur.php



"Human rights groups appealed Friday to the United Nations and European Union to
press Sudan to hand over two suspects - including a government minister -
charged with war crimes in Darfur.



The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants a year ago for
Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Muhammed Harun, a former interior minister
responsible for security in Darfur, and Ali Kushayb, known as a "colonel of
colonels" among the janjaweed Arab militias that have terrorized Darfur
villages.



The pair face 51 charges including murder, rape and forced expulsions in 2003
and 2004.



Twenty-nine rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International, sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council urging it "to take
immediate steps" to ensure the two suspects were promptly arrested and turned
over to the court."



ii. "Human rights organisations call for Darfur arrests,"AFP, 25 April 2008,

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jm534puN8oJ6vb7E3JurxKVees3w



"International human rights organisations on Friday launched a campaign calling
for the arrest of two leading Sudanese war crimes suspects, accused by the
International Criminal Court of atrocities committed in Darfur.



Called Justice for Darfur, the campaign for the arrest of Sudan's secretary of
state for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun and pro-government Janjaweed militia
leader Ali Kosheib is supported among others by Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch, the Darfur Consortium and Aegis Trust...."



iii. "Rights Groups Call for Darfur Arrests,"Voice of America News, 25 April
2008,

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-25-voa40.cfm



"Leading international human rights groups have launched a campaign calling for
the arrest of two Sudanese war crimes suspects accused of committing atrocities
in Darfur.



The campaign has appealed to the United Nations Security Council to press for
the arrest of Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs, Ahmed Haroun, and
militia leader Ali Kosheib.



Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among other groups, made the
appeal in a letter Friday...."



III. THE ICC CALLS FOR PRESSURE ON SUDAN



"ICC urges pressure on Sudan over Darfur suspects,"AFP, 25 April 2008, link
unavailable



"The International Criminal Court (ICC) and human rights campaigners on Friday
called for global pressure on Sudan to hand over two Darfur war crimes suspects
for trial.



Almost one year after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Sudan's secretary of
state for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali
Kosheib, a "Justice for Darfur" campaign was launched by some 30 groups
including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Darfur Consortium and
Aegis Trust.



Accused by the ICC of atrocities in Darfur -- where the United Nations this week
said the death toll from five years of war, famine and disease is now up to
300,000 -- the pair have come under no visible internal pressure to face
justice, according to campaigners.



ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told AFP the time has come for the
international community to ' take sides,' three years after the United Nations
Security Council mandated the court to prosecute.



'We are entering a decisive phase, a time of definition,' the Argentine official
said. 'You have to choose which side you are on -- we need a consistent
approach.'..."





CICC's policy on the referral and prosecution of situations before the

ICC:



The Coalition for the ICC is not an organ of the Court. The CICC is an
independent NGO movement dedicated to the establishment of the International
Criminal Court as a fair, effective, and independent

international organization. The Coalition will continue to provide the most
up-to-date information about the ICC and to help coordinate global action to
effectively implement the Rome Statute of the ICC. The Coalition will also
endeavor to respond to basic queries and to raise awareness about the ICC's
trigger mechanisms and procedures, as they develop. The Coalition as a whole,
and its secretariat, do not endorse or promote specific investigations or
prosecutions or take a position on

situations (potential and current), or situations under analysis before the ICC.

However, individual CICC members may endorse referrals, provide legal and other
support on investigations, or develop partnerships with local and other
organizations in the course of their efforts.



Communications to the ICC can be sent to:
ICC
P.O. Box 19519
2500 CM The Hague
The Netherlands