EL FASHER/WASHINGTON

(

16 Dec

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The Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association has called upon the international community, the members of the UN Security Council, the EU, and the AU to “actively cooperate with the International Criminal Court, and arrest the perpetrators of crimes in Darfur”.

The spokesman for the Association, Hussein Abu Sharati, told Radio Dabanga on Sunday that the displaced are disappointed about the international community’s silence regarding the ongoing violence in Darfur. He praised ICC prosecutors Luis Moreno Ocampo, who filed the case against Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, and his successor Fatou Bensouda, for “their efforts to reach justice for the people in Darfur”.

He expressed the Association’s strong criticism of the UN Security Council’s inertia regarding the arrest warrants for Al Bashir, Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Hussein, North Kordofan Governor Ahmed Haroun, and militia leader Ali Kushayb, and urged the Council to “fully cooperate with the ICC”.

Bensouda issued a statement to the council on Monday, explaining the hibernation of the investigations into war crimes in Darfur. She stated to remain “open to constructively engage with the Council on the Darfur issue”.

Deteriorating conflicts in Sudan

“In the almost ten years that my Office has been reporting to this Council, there has never been a strategic recommendation provided to my Office, neither have there been any discussions resulting in concrete solutions for the problems we face in the Darfur situation,” the ICC prosecutor stressed.

The recent allegations of a mass rape in North Darfur “should be a matter of great concern to this council”, and it should strongly condemn the Sudanese government's “failure to facilitate access to Tabit [village, where the rape reportedly took place on 31 October] and should demand unimpeded full investigations of these crimes without delay”.

Bensouda shared the council’s “deep concern at the serious deterioration of the security situation in Darfur”. Last Friday, the members of the UNSC released a press statement, in which they said to regret the deadlock in the two peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebel parties on the conflict in Darfur, as well as in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (‘the Two Areas’).

The members called upon all parties in Sudan to allow humanitarian organisations into the Two Areas, where fighting continues to affect civilians. They further noted that process has been made in the two peace tracks under the auspices of the African Union panel (AUHIP), and asked the parties to re-join the negotiation tables in January 2015.

File photo: Woman in a camp for displaced people in North Darfur (UN)

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