Mick Hartley

From the Scotsman:

Sudan has for the first time arrested military and security officials accused of raping and killing civilians and burning villages in Darfur, the country’s justice minister said yesterday, responding to the demands of the international community to bring to account those accused of committing atrocities in the region.

Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin said a government committee had arrested 15 members of the police, military and security forces in Darfur for human rights abuses and they would immediately be sent to court.

“They are military people … from army, military and security,” Mr Yassin said, adding all the accused were from these “disciplinary forces”.

“[They are accused of] different crimes. It includes rape, killing, burning and other things – different kinds of atrocities,” he said.

With France pressing for a Security Council resolution calling for those committing mass murder and ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region of Sudan to be tried by the International Criminal Court (with the no doubt unintended consequence of placing the US in an awkward position) the timing of these arrests is significant:

If past examples of Khartoum’s “justice” are anything to go by, these men – guilty or not – will be tried and executed very quickly, thus evading UN involvement.

For two years now, the Arab Janjaweed militia has been murdering African farmers in Darfur, with the connivance of the Sudanese government, which wishes to put down a separatist rebellion in the province. At least 70,000 people have been murdered. For more than a year, the UN has been calling on the Khartoum regime to disown the Janjaweed, but to no avail.

The arrests are only a charade designed to delay compliance as long as possible. Khartoum will only be made to end the mass murder in Darfur if the UN is willing to back words with action. The UN must impose sanctions on the regime and indict the real murderers – who are not a million miles from Khartoum itself.