International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Sudanese Minister: Darfur must have justice!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has called for active involvement of the international community in the struggle to bring perpetrators to justice for genocide and war crimes in Darfur. "To date, the international community has failed miserably in efforts to hold the guilty accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide in western Sudan," stated Ulrich Delius of the STP's Africa section on Friday in Göttingen. This situation has not been changed by the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, who is currently being sought for alleged crimes in Darfur. "As long as European Foreign Affairs Ministers see the main problem merely as the need to avoid running into persons from Sudan who are wanted for war crimes when traveling, there is clearly an utter lack of political will to enforce serious punishment of those responsible for genocide."

"It is strange that three of the Sudanese politicians militia leaders for whom the ICC has issued arrest warrants enjoy complete freedom of movement in Sudan, as well as in other African and Asian countries," said Delius. "The Sudanese government has repeatedly compared the ICC to a toothless tiger. The international community does not even remark upon the constant affront, and this harms worldwide efforts to end the immunity from punishment."

Sudanese Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs Ahmed Haroun, wanted for alleged crimes against humanity in Darfur, is still acting as Governor of the embattled province of South Kordofan. "In Kordofan he has again been accused of crimes against humanity because he is not permitting urgently needed humanitarian to reach the civilian population." Several hundred thousand people in the conflict region have been waiting months for humanitarian aid, which has been repeatedly blocked by Haroun and the Sudanese authorities. At the beginning of this week, Haroun boasted to a subcommittee of the Sudanese parliament that the situation in South Kordofan has "stabilized" since the latest army offensives. More than 400,000 people have fled this region since June 2011 from offensives by the army and the SPLM-North liberation movement.