Security Council refers Darfur crimes to ICC

The UN Security Council decided on Thursday, after weeks of deliberations, to try the suspected perpetrators of human rights abuses and war crimes in the western Sudanese region of Darfur in the International Criminal Court (ICC), a UN spokesman said. "The Secretary-General welcomes the adoption today of Security Council resolution 1593 [2005], which refers the situation in Darfur since 1 July 2002 to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court," Fred Eckhard, spokesman for the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said in a statement on Thursday. Annan commended the Council for using its authority "to provide an appropriate mechanism to lift the veil of impunity", which had allowed human rights crimes in Darfur to continue unchecked, Eckhard added. He further congratulated all members for overcoming their differences and allowing the Council to act to ensure that those responsible for atrocities in Darfur were held to account. The resolution was made possible by last-minute concessions in the text, including assurances that would bar the ICC, or other courts, from prosecuting citizens within Sudan from countries that were not a party to the ICC, including the US. The US, a staunch opponent of the international court, had threatened to veto the resolution for fears that Americans could become targets of politically motivated lawsuits. The resolution forced the country to either drop its objections to an ICC referral or veto a resolution that would try people for large-scale atrocities committed in Darfur, which the US had itself called genocide. "This historic step by the Security Council offers real hope of protection for people in Darfur," Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Programme of the advocacy organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement on Thursday. While welcoming the abstention of the US in the vote, HRW opposed the exemption given to non-ICC states, however, as it violated long-established principles of jurisdiction. "We now look to the ICC prosecutor to respond swiftly and assume the responsibilities entrusted to him," Dicker added. While the referral to the ICC was a decisive step toward preventing further abuses, HRW noted that other concrete measures were required, including an increase in the protection force in Darfur and the monitoring of the Sudanese government's commitment to end its military flights in the region. Annan emphasized that lasting peace in Darfur could only be based on a negotiated settlement between the parties to the conflict and called on them "to return to negotiations in Abuja to bring it to a speedy end". As Sudan was not a party to the treaty establishing the court, a referral from the Council was the only way for the court to have jurisdiction over the Darfur cases. The resolution was adopted with 11 votes in favour and four abstentions. The US, China, Algeria and Brazil declined to vote. Brazil, which is a supporter of the court, abstained on the basis of its disagreement with the resolutions' concessions. China and Algeria preferred a referral to an African court. The resolution marked the first time the Council referred a case to international court. The court was established in July 2002 to prosecute individual perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It is based in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Council can refer a case to the ICC if the country where the crimes took place is unwilling or unable to bring those responsible to justice. The report of the UN Commission of Inquiry for Darfur, released on 31 January, which found that grave crimes committed in Darfur "may be no less serious and heinous than genocide", strongly recommended the Council refer the situation in Darfur to the ICC. The commission provided a sealed list of 51 suspects the ICC should investigate. Thursday's Council decision marked the last of three resolutions aimed at putting pressure on Sudan to stop the crisis in Darfur. On 24 March, the Council voted unanimously to deploy a 10,000-strong peace force for southern Sudan to monitor the January peace accord that ended the 21-year civil war in the south. On Tuesday, the Council adopted a resolution which strengthened the arms embargo and imposed an asset freeze and travel ban on those who were deemed responsible for the atrocities in Darfur, or who were violating the ceasefire agreement. The war in Darfur pits Sudanese government troops and militias -allegedly allied to the government - against rebels fighting to end what they have called marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state. Over 2.4 million people continue to be affected by the conflict, 1.85 million of which are internally displaced or have been forced to flee to neighbouring Chad.