Sudan: We Won’t Prosecute Haroun or Kushayb

As I have mentioned before, France and the UK have expressed their willingness to support deferring the ICC’s investigation of Bashir if the Sudan prosecutes Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kushayb domestically.  It doesn’t look like the Sudan is going to take them up on their offer:

[Ali Karti, the State Minister at Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs] reiterated the ability of the Sudanese judiciary to deal with Darfur crimes and stressed that there is no evidence implicating two suspects wanted by the ICC including Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb.

“All criminal investigations commissions did not press any charges against Haroun… Even Kushayb there were lots of allegations against him but none were confirmed. They mention his name [Kushayb] without asserting it was his him. They [victims] say that all attackers masked… then how did they identify him?” Karti said.

The Sudanese diplomat’s statements on Kushayb contradict those made by Khartoum that it will move forward to prosecute him.

The Sudanese government often promises to prosecute the individuals responsible for the atrocities in Darfur.  What will it take for the international community to realize that they have no intention of actually doing so?