\n A former Sudanese militia leader Tuesday becomes the first person to go on trial at the International Criminal Court for atrocities in Darfur, which was ravaged by a brutal conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n The trial at the Hague-based tribunal opens as some 45 people were killed last week in Darfur in fresh clashes between rival ethnic groups.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, 72, an ally of deposed Sudanese strongman Omar al-Bashir, was a senior commander of the Janjaweed militia -- a notorious armed group created by the government.\n<\/p>\n
\n Abd-Al-Rahman faces 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2003-04 in the arid western Sudanese region.\n<\/p>\n
\n The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million people were displaced in the 2003-4 Darfur conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n Back then, fighting broke out when black African rebels, complaining of systematic discrimination, took up arms against Bashir's Arab-dominated regime.\n<\/p>\n
\n Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a force drawn from among the region's nomadic tribes.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rights groups said it was a \"systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing\" targeting the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.\n<\/p>\n
\n In April 2007, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Abd-Al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre of Ali Kushayb.\n<\/p>\n
\n He fled to the Central African Republic in February 2020 when the new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICC investigation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Four months later, he surrendered voluntarily.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Colonel of colonels' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Prosecutors said Abd-Al-Rahman, who carried the title of \"colonel of colonels\" in the Janjaweed, played a central role in a series of attacks on at least four villages in West Darfur.\n<\/p>\n
\n He is charged with both directing the attacks, as well as mobilising, recruiting, arming and supplying to Janjaweed militia under his command.\n<\/p>\n
\n During these attacks, at least 100 villagers were murdered, women and girls were raped and the members of the predominantly Fur ethnic group subjected to forcible transfer and persecution.\n<\/p>\n
\n After one attack in late February and early March 2002 on a village, 100 Fur men including community leaders, doctors and teachers were taken to a police station in the town of Mukjar, where they were interrogated and tortured.\n<\/p>\n
\n Fifty detainees were driven out into the countryside, told to lie face down and were then executed, prosecutors said.\n<\/p>\n
\n In another incident in March 2004, between 100 to 200 Fur men were detained and taken to an open area at the Deleig police station where they were tortured, prosecutors added.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Abd-Al-Rahman stood or walked on the backs of detainees, hit them... kicked them, and verbally abused them,\" they said.\n<\/p>\n
\n He then allegedly hit three men with \"a stick or an axe-like object.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"These males died as a consequence of his conduct,\" prosecutors said.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Long-awaited chance' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Abd-Al-Rahman is the first suspect to be tried for war crimes committed in Darfur -- \"a rare long-awaited chance for the victims and the communities the Janjaweed terrorised to see an alleged leader face justice,\" Human Rights Watch said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n His trial is also the first-ever stemming from a UN Security Council referral.\n<\/p>\n
\n Former president Omar al-Bashir and three others are still being sought by the ICC -- which opened its doors in 2002 to try those responsible for the world's worst crimes -- for crimes in Darfur.\n<\/p>\n
\n Following his ouster in 2019, Bashir remains in Sudan despite calls for him and two other associates to be handed over to the ICC for prosecution.\n<\/p>\n
\n ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said a military coup in Sudan in October marked a setback in the court's work, with the northeast African country roiled by deepening unrest.\n<\/p>\n
\n But \"accelerated cooperation with the International Criminal Court is the only viable path to ensuring long-delayed justice for the survivors of crimes against humanity in Darfur,\" Khan told the UN Security Council in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former Sudanese militia leader Tuesday becomes the first person to go on trial at the International Criminal Court for atrocities in Darfur, which was ravaged by a brutal conflict. The trial at the Hague-based tribunal opens as some 45 people were killed last week in Darfur in fresh clashes between rival ethnic groups. Ali […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-89971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n