The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court is alleging that Sudan's current minister for humanitarian affairs colluded with militias to commit war crimes.
And suddenly, the difficulties everyone is having in dealing with humanitarian affairs in Sudan become much more understandable. Conditions are, again, so bad that humanitarian aid people are extremely limited in what they can do and where they can go.
A top Sudanese government official colluded with militias to commit atrocities against civilians in the Darfur region, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Tuesday. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo presented results of a 21-month investigation that he said showed "reasonable evidence" that Ahmed Haroun, then state minister for the interior, and imprisoned militia leader Ali Kushayb, "bear criminal responsibility" for mass executions, rapes and the forcible removal of thousands of people from their homes. The allegations, which are not an indictment, are a first step that could lead to arrests and prosecutions by the court at The Hague, and they come amid an international campaign to halt the violence in Darfur, which has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million in the last four years. Prosecution, however, will not be easy. Sudan's justice minister immediately rejected the allegations and said the suspects would not be handed over for trial.
Haroun is Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs. Kushayb, whose real name is Ali Mohammed Ali Abdalrahman, has been under arrest in Khartoum, the capital, since November, on unspecified charges....
