Darfur Rebels Vow to Hunt Down Foreign Minister

22 June 2011

Khartoum — The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has reacted strongly to accusations by Sudan Foreign Minister Ali Karti that Darfur rebels are fighting alongside the Libyan leader Muammar Al-Gaddafi against rebels in his country, saying it will seek to have the minister prosecuted for his “crime” against Sudanese people in Libya.

Sudan top diplomat Ali Karti told the national parliament on Monday that investigations conducted by his ministry had concluded that rebel groups from the country’s war-battered, western region of Darfur were fighting alongside Al-Gaddafi forces as they battled rebels backed by a Nato-led coalition.

Karti, however, strongly denied that the accusation, which was previously made by the ministry’s official spokesman, had caused harm to any Sudanese citizen living in Libya.

His statement drew an angry response from Darfur rebel group JEM whose official spokesman, Jibril Adam Bilal, on Tuesday called for prosecuting Ali Karti following his “persistence on racial incitation” against Sudanese people in Libya.

“This deliberate mistake by the minister must not go unpunished. He [Karti] must face legal accountability if there was a free, fair and independent judiciary in Sudan,” Adam said.

“Unfortunately,” the spokesman added, “all judicial bodies in Sudan render absolute allegiance to the [ruling] National Congress [Party], starting from the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and Ministry of Justice. Many judges are affiliated to the ruling party and even the Sudanese bar association was not saved from the NCP.”

JEM official went on to deny that the ministry’s accusation did not result in any harm to Sudanese people in Libya.

“What happened to the Sudanese people in Libya as a result of Karti’s statements constitutes a crime against them,” he said, adding that some of the Sudanese people in Libya were killed and some are in prison due to the minister’s statement which is an “incitation to kill.”

Adam further declared that JEM would instigate legal proceedings against Karti in all the countries he will visit in the future, especially in Europe and America.

“We will take this matter to the judiciary in these countries because it now involves many victims,” he said.

He claimed that the families of those who were killed in Libya want Ali Karti to be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

JEM spokesman said that Karti’s statement came as a no surprise to them given the man’s security background as a commander of the notorious paramilitary Popular Defense Forces.

He lamented the fact that Karti’s statement was endorsed by many parliamentarians, saying it proves the claim that justice in Sudan will not be served unless through international mechanism.

Sudan has hitherto failed to prosecute any individual for the atrocities committed in the country’s western region of Darfur since rebels there took up arms against the government in 2003, accusing it of marginalizing the region.

The Khartoum-led counterinsurgency in Darfur has led to the killing of 300, 000 people and displacement of 2.7 million, according to UN figures.

The ICC has issued arrest warrants for three Sudanese officials including the country’s president Omar Al-Bashir on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed in Darfur.

AllAfrica – All the Time