THE HAGUE: A former Sudanese militia chief oversaw murder, rape and torture across Darfur, the International Criminal Court heard on Tuesday, as the first trial for war crimes in the region got underway.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, an ally of deposed Sudanese strongman Omar Al-Bashir, faces 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the conflict almost 20 years ago.
His trial is the first before the Hague-based ICC for crimes in Darfur, in which 300,000 people were killed and two and a half million fled their homes, according to UN figures.
It comes as the world’s eyes turn to possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.
“You will hear evidence that he (Abd-Al-Rahman) and his forces rampaged across different parts of Darfur,” the ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan told judges.
He “inflicted severe pain and suffering on women, children and men in the villages that he left in his wake,” Khan said.
Abd-Al-Rahman, 72, a senior commander of the Janjaweed militia — a notorious armed group created by the Sudanese government — pleaded not guilty after the historic trial opened.
“I reject all these charges. I am innocent of all these charges,” Abd-Al-Rahman told judges at the ICC, a court set up in 2002 to try the world’s worst crimes.
Wearing a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and fiddling with his maroon tie, Abd-Al-Rahman sat motionless as the 31 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity allegedly committed in 2003-04 were read.
The long charge sheet describes acts of murder, rape, torture and pillaging.
Fighting broke out in Darfur when black African rebels, complaining of systematic discrimination, took up arms against Bashir’s Arab-dominated regime.
Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a force drawn from among the region’s nomadic tribes.
Rights groups described it as a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
In April 2007, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Abd-Al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre of Ali Kushayb.
He fled to the Central African Republic in February 2020 when the new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICC investigation.
Four months later, he surrendered voluntarily.
Abd-Al-Rahman’s trial is the first-ever stemming from a UN Security Council referral.
Former president Omar Al-Bashir and three others are still being sought by the ICC for crimes in Darfur.
Following his ouster in 2019, Bashir remains in Sudan despite calls for him and two other associates to be handed over to the ICC for prosecution.
Asked about efforts to get Bashir to The Hague to stand trial, Khan said negotiations with Khartoum’s military government continued, but “cooperation is challenging.”
“The situation has improved, but I would really like to close this situation,” Khan said.
“But I can’t do that unless we move forward... and it will be made much easier with an ever... deeper cooperation with the government of Sudan.”
Prosecutors said Abd-Al-Rahman, who carried the title of “colonel of colonels” in the Janjaweed, played a central role in a series of attacks on at least four villages in West Darfur.
He is charged with both directing attacks, as well as mobilizing, recruiting, arming and supplying to Janjaweed militia under his command.
Abd-Al-Rahman “took pride in the power that he thought he exerted... and a strange glee in his feared reputation,” Khan told the judges.
During these attacks, at least 100 villagers were murdered, women and girls were raped and the members of the predominantly Fur ethnic group subjected to forcible transfer and persecution.
After one such an attack in late February and early March 2002 on a village, 100 Fur men including community leaders, doctors and teachers were taken to a police station in the town of Mukjar, where they were interrogated and tortured.
Fifty detainees were driven out into the countryside, told to lie face down and were then executed, prosecutors said.
Still languishing in refugee camps today, victims of the Darfur conflict said they were relieved that justice was finally being done.
But Adam Musa, speaking from the sprawling Kalma refugee camp in Darfur, said: “I was surprised to hear that Kushayb denied the charges of killing our people.”
“I have seen him take away men from our village and none of them came back,” Musa said.
Sudan militia chief ‘rampaged’ across Darfur, court told
https://arab.news/2s95z
Sudan militia chief ‘rampaged’ across Darfur, court told
- Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman faces 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the conflict almost 20 years ago
- His trial is the first before the Hague-based ICC for crimes in Darfur
Family of Palestine Action hunger-strike detainee warn she could die
- Teuta Hoxha, among 8 people held on remand for over a year, has not eaten in 43 days
- Campaigners slam treatment of pro-Palestine prisoners on hunger strike
LONDON: A Palestine Action prisoner in the UK could die if the government does not step in over her hunger strike, her family have warned, amid claims that authorities have been “deliberately negligent” in the treatment of other detained hunger strikers.
Teuta Hoxha, 29, is on day 43 of her strike, having been held on remand in prison for 13 months over charges relating to a break-in at an Israel-linked arms manufacturing facility in August 2024.
She is one of eight people on hunger strike who were detained for their part in the incident at the Elbit Systems UK site.
Her sister Rahma said she can no longer stand to pray, and suffers from headaches and mobility issues.
“I know that she’s already instructed the doctors on what to do if she collapses and she’s instructed them on what to do if she passes away,” Rahma, 17, told Sky News.
“She’s only 29 — she’s not even 30 yet and nobody should be thinking about that,” Rahma added. “She’s been on remand for over a year, her trial’s not until April next year and bail keeps getting denied.”
The eight hunger strikers charged over the Elbit Systems break-in, who deny all charges against them, are demanding an end to the operation of weapons factories in the UK that supply Israel.
They are also calling for Palestine Action, which is banned in the UK, to be de-proscribed, and for their immediate bail.
They are not the only members of Palestine Action in prison carrying out hunger strikes. Amu Gib, imprisoned over a break-in at a Royal Air Force base earlier this year, was taken to hospital last week, having not eaten in 50 days.
Gib was initially denied access to a wheelchair after losing mobility, and campaigners said it was “completely unacceptable” that this had led to a missed doctor’s appointment, adding that Gib was also denied access to the vitamin thiamine.
Campaign group Prisoners for Palestine said: “At this trajectory, the hunger strikers will die unless there is urgent intervention by the government.
“It is completely unacceptable and deliberately negligent to pretend the hunger strike is not happening, or to dismiss the prisoners’ demands.
“They are in the custody of the state, and any harm that comes to them is a deliberate outcome of the government’s negligence and the politicisation of their detention.”
A relative of Gib told The Independent: “We wouldn’t know if Amu is in a coma or had a heart attack. I’m the next of kin and it’s on Amu’s medical record that I am to be contacted in the event of their hospitalisation.
“But it’s been complete agonising silence for 57 hours. I’m furious and outraged that the prison was withholding thiamine from the hunger strikers, without which they are at high risk of brain damage.”
The treatment of the hunger strikers has drawn high-profile criticism, with Dr. James Smith, an emergency physician and lecturer at University College London, telling The Independent that they “are dying” and would require specialist medical help.
Around 900 medical professionals in the UK have written to government ministers David Lammy and Wes Streeting urging them to facilitate medical treatment for the strikers.
Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the governing Labour Party, posted on Instagram that he had visited Gib in prison.
Seven hunger strikers have so far been hospitalized since Nov. 2, when the first prisoners began to refuse food.
Jon Cink and Umar Khalid both ended their strikes for medical reasons, having been hospitalized, while Kamran Ahmed told the Sunday Times last week that dying for his cause would be “worthwhile.”
He added: “Every day I’m scared that potentially I might die. I’ve been getting chest pains regularly … There have been times where I felt like I’m getting tasered — my body’s vibrating or shaking. I’ll basically lose control of my feelings.
“I’ve been scared since the seventh day when my blood sugars dropped. The nurse said: ‘I’m scared you’re not going to wake up (when you go to sleep). Please eat something.’
“But I’m looking at the bigger picture of perhaps we can relieve oppression abroad and relieve the situations for my co-defendants … Yes, I’m scared of passing away. Yes, this may have lifelong implications. But I look at the risk versus reward. I see it as worthwhile.”
Under UK law, time limits are set out for those in custody awaiting trial to prevent excessive periods in pre-trial detention.
But UK Prisons Minister Lord Timpson said in relation to the Palestine Action detainees: “These prisoners are charged with serious offences including aggravated burglary and criminal damage.
“Remand decisions are for independent judges, and lawyers can make representations to the court on behalf of their clients.
“Ministers will not meet with them — we have a justice system that is based on the separation of powers, and the independent judiciary is the cornerstone of our system.
“It would be entirely unconstitutional and inappropriate for ministers to intervene in ongoing legal cases.”
Rahma says her sister calls her from prison every day, despite her predicament, to help with her studies.
“Our mother passed away when I was really young. Teuta took care of me and my siblings and made sure to read us bedtime stories.
“She’s always there for me and even from prison, she’s helping me do my homework and revise for exams.”
Rahma added: “My sister is a caring and loving person It feels like the state has taken a piece of me.”
She continued: “The only form of resistance she has is her body and that’s what she is using against the state.”
