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Sudan: Reuters - UN Official Says Sudan Unable to Try Darfur Suspects

06 Mar 2006

Please find below a Reuters article reporting that Sima Samar, the U.N. special
rapporteur on Sudan, has stated that Sudan's special court for Darfur is not
able to try Sudanese officials responsible for war crimes. Excerpts from this
article are below.

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 or
pending situations before the Court. The Coalition, however, will continue to
provide the most up-to-date information about the ICC.

Warm Regards,
Esti T. Tambay
Information and Analysis Officer
Coalition for the International Criminal Court

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Reuters, "Sudan unable to try Darfur suspects - UN official" - 6 March 2006
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MCD652175.htm

"Sudan's special court for Darfur is not able to try Sudanese officials
responsible for war crimes and authorities continue to abuse freedom of
expression, a top U.N. rights official said on Monday.

Sima Samar, the U.N. special rapporteur on Sudan, also said after a 10-day visit
to Sudan that intelligence services continue to carry out arbitrary arrests,
detention and torture with impunity.

"Freedom of expression and association unfortunately continue to be abused by
the national intelligence services or military intelligence," she told reporters
in Khartoum.

She added arrests and torture have been documented in Khartoum, North Kordofan,
and also in the remote Darfur region and the east, where emergency law is still
in place. [...]

Khartoum rejects the charge but the International Criminal Court (ICC) is
investigating alleged war crimes there.

Sudan says it will not allow ICC investigators to work in Darfur, and set up
special Darfur courts which it says were a substitute for the ICC.

But Samar said the courts had not yet tried anyone with command responsibility
for crimes in Darfur. She had only been given a list of 15 officers from the
police and army who had been tried for crimes between 1991 and 2003, before the
Darfur conflict even began.

"We did ask for information and they didn't provide much information so that
means that maybe they are not able to bring anybody to justice," she said.
[...]"

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CICC’s policy on the referral and prosecution of situations before the ICC:

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