KHARTOUM, March 4 (Reuters) – President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has vowed not to send any Sudanese national for trial outside the country, after an international court said it suspected a minister and militia leader of war crimes.
The International Criminal Court last week presented evidence against state minister for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun and a pro-government militia leader Ali Koshayb for crimes against humanity in the violent Darfur region.
Sudan, which signed but has not ratified the treaty forming the ICC, has always said the court based in The Hague has no jurisdiction in Sudan and that national proceedings would judge those accused of crimes in the four-year-old Darfur conflict.
“The Sudanese president swore that the government would not send any Sudanese national outside the country for trial,” the state news agency SUNA quoted him as saying during a trip to South Kordofan state late on Saturday.
He added the Sudanese judiciary was more than capable of delivering justice for anyone accused of crimes against humanity in Darfur, where experts estimate that 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes.
Darfur was the first case to be referred to the ICC by the U.N. Security Council, despite opposition to the court from Council members including the United States, which calls the Darfur violence genocide. Khartoum rejects the term genocide and European governments are reluctant to use it. Bashir also said the court should deal with crimes against the Iraqi people by forces from a U.S.-led coalition which toppled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Saddam was tried for war crimes by an Iraqi court, sentenced to death and hanged. Sudan’s Haroun said he was inspired by Hussein’s steadfast attitude during his execution.
Sudan has also rejected a U.N. Security Council authorising a U.N. takeover of a struggling African Union mission in Darfur, accusing the world body of trying to colonise Sudan.
