International court issues arrest warrant for Sudanese defense minister

[News_Editor]

International court issues arrest warrant for Sudanese defense minister

2012-03-02 08:22:10 GMT+7 (ICT)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (BNO NEWS) -- The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese National Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

The ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I issued the arrest warrant which charges him with 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes. The charges include persecution, murder, forcible transfer, rape, inhumane acts, imprisonment or severe deprivation of liberty, torture, attacks against civilian populations, destruction of property, pillaging and outrage upon personal dignity.

These crimes, the ICC said, were allegedly committed against the primarily Fur populations of the towns of Kodoom, Bindisi, Mukjar, Arawala and surrounding areas by the Sudanese armed forces and the Militia/Janjaweed in the context of a counter-insurgency campaign against the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and other groups opposing the Sudanese government.

In addition, the ICC explained that the plan of the counter-insurgency campaign was "allegedly formulated at the highest levels of the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and had allegedly as a core component an unlawful attack on that part of the civilian population perceived by the Government as being close to the rebel groups."

Hussein is also the former Interior Minister and the former Sudanese President's Special Representative in Darfur, and at these positions, the ICC alleges, he made essential contributions to the formulation and implementation of the common plan, inter alia, through his overall coordination of national, state and local security entities and through the recruitment, arming and funding of the police forces and the Militia/Janjaweed in Darfur.

"Furthermore the Chamber considers that his arrest appears to be necessary to ensure his appearance at trial and to ensure that he will not obstruct or endanger the investigations," the ICC said in a statement. It is unlikely that Sudan will surrender Hussein to the court, even though the situation in Darfur was referred to the ICC by the UN Security Council in March 2005.

ICC judges have previously issued arrest warrants against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and summonses to appear for rebel leaders Abdallah Banda, Saleh Jerbo and Abu Garda for war crimes.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-03-02

[Steely Dan]

It's a shame they were not quicker off the mark, if memory serves me correctly he headed up the Arab league observer mission to Syria, he could have been arrested in transit. I'm sure the OIC member states will make strenuous efforts to prevent him ever standing trial as they did with Omar Bashir, after all they are far too busy trying to ram their blasphemy laws past the incompetent appeasers who pass for western leaders.

[Morch]

if memory serves me correctly he headed up the Arab league observer mission to Syria

Different guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Rahim_Mohammed_Hussein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Ahmed_Mustafa_al-Dabi

[Steely Dan]

if memory serves me correctly he headed up the Arab league observer mission to Syria

Different guy:

http://en.wikipedia....ohammed_Hussein

http://en.wikipedia....Mustafa_al-Dabi

Thanks for the correction, I see they are indeed different men, however their C.V's make it highly unlikely they were not both fully aware and very possibly complicit to the atrocities committed by the Ganjaweed militia.

[OzMick]

if memory serves me correctly he headed up the Arab league observer mission to Syria

Different guy:

http://en.wikipedia....ohammed_Hussein

http://en.wikipedia....Mustafa_al-Dabi

Thanks for the correction, I see they are indeed different men, however their C.V's make it highly unlikely they were not both fully aware and very possibly complicit to the atrocities committed by the Ganjaweed militia.

Understandable, there's probably only a million or three with the same name with slight variations in the spelling. The telephone book would be a nightmare, if they had telephones.