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A bi-weekly audio series and podcast service, hosted by Committee on Conscience Project Director Bridget Conley-Zilkic, that brings you the voices of human rights defenders, experts, advocates, and government officials. Vital voices addressing one of humanity's most vital issues. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not necessarily represent those of the Museum.
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2/27/07
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ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo named two suspects for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, asking the Court to issue arrest warrants for Ahmed Muhammed Harun and Ali Mohammed Ali Abd-al-Rahman (aka Ali Kushayb). Ali Kushayb is a leader of the so-called janjaweed militia from West Darfur. But Harun is the bigger fish -- in 2003-2004 he was minister of state at the Interior Ministry with responsibility for the "Darfur Security Desk." By naming Ahmed Harun, Moreno-Ocampo has identified a figure who is senior enough to implicate the Sudanese government at a policymaking level, but not so senior as to suggest that the chain of responsibility ends with him. And though the case presented today focuses on attacks against a few specified villages, those attacks are placed in the context of a broader strategy of human destruction: As is described below the Armed Forces and Militia/Janjaweed did not target any rebel presence within these particular towns and villages. Rather, they attacked these towns and villages based on the rationale that the tens of thousands of civilian residents in and near these towns and villages were supporters of the rebel militia. This strategy became the justification for the mass murder, summary execution, and mass rape of civilians who were known not to be participants in any armed conflict. Application of the strategy also called for, and achieved the forced displacement of entire villages and communities. The immediate next step will be for a three judge panel to review the evidence and, if they are persuaded a reasonable case has been made, issue the requested arrest warrants (or summon the defendants to appear). Then responsibility will shift to the UN Security Council as well as the 104 members of the ICC (including all European countries and many African ones) to pressure Khartoum to surrender the suspects. And that will be a pivotal moment for the ICC -- if its member countries do not have the political will to enforce these arrest warrants, the institution may be doomed to oblivion in spite of the chief prosecutor's best efforts.
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