Frank Nyakairu & Agencies
20 March 2007
Kampala — THE Sudanese government will suspend all cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to accusations that Sudanese officials have committed war crimes in Darfur.
The action will also affect Khartoum's commitment to cooperate in the arrest of rebel leader Joseph Kony and his commanders in the Lord's Resistance Army who are under indictment by the Hague-based court.
"We had extended our cooperation with the ICC for some time, but now the situation is completely different," Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi told journalists yesterday in Geneva where he was attending a UN Human Rights Council meeting.
"It's not even a question of cooperation anymore, it's a question that they (the ICC) want to try Sudanese citizens, which is absolutely nonsensical," he said.
On October 3, 2005, the ICC, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the arrest of Kony and four LRA commanders. The rebel group had been operating from South Sudan for years and had also moved into northeastern Congo.
Daily Monitor has seen the document signed by Abdul Kassim, Sudan's ambassador in The Hague, that commits the signatories to arrest Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and commanders Dominic Ongwen, Okot Odhiambo and Raska Lukwiya, who has since died.
The other four are wanted in connection with war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during their 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda.
Uganda's Justice Minister Khiddu Makubuya said he couldn't comment on possible implications of the decision to suspend the agreement until receiving an official note from Khartoum.
Regional Cooperation Minister Isaac Musumba acknowledged that the suspension of cooperation between Sudan and the ICC "has huge implications for the dynamics of the Kony case."
The government of South Sudan is mediating peace talks between Uganda and the LRA, which are currently in suspension.
Khartoum has rejected ICC allegations made late last month against two Sudanese officials of committing war crimes in Sudan's western Darfur province.
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said there was evidence that Sudan's Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs Ahmad Muhamad Haroun recruited people for the Janjaweed, an armed group allegedly backed by Khartoum. Khartoum denies the claims, but there is increasing evidence backing them.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo said Mr Haroun and a Janjaweed leader known as "Ali Kusheib" were suspected of committing 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Sudanese justice minister said Khartoum did not accept the indictments and would not hand over the suspects.
The ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court, has authority to prosecute when national courts are unwilling or unable to act. Its mandate does not cover crimes committed before 2002.
Khartoum maintains that the ICC has no right to try Sudanese citizens because Sudan did not ratify the convention creating the international court.
The Sudanese government says it is investigating the two suspects named by the ICC.
An estimated 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and more than two million displaced since the conflict between local rebels and the Janjaweed erupted in 2003.
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