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	ICC confirms charges against suspects in attack on Darfur peacekeepers

The International Criminal Court’s pre-trial chamber confirmed on Tuesday 8 March 2011 that it will try Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus, two rebel leaders from Sudan's Darfur region, for their alleged involvement in the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers in an attack on the AU's Haskanita camp in September 2007. The chamber found that there were "substantial grounds" to proceed with a trial against the accused, who both voluntarily surrendered to the court in June 2010 following the issuing of warrants for their arrests in 2009, and urged other war crimes suspects to surrender to justice.

Banda had been a senior military commander in the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) before he was dismissed in 2007 and went on to form a rival faction  - the JEM Collective Leadership – with former JEM vice president Bahar Idriss Abu Garda. The attack was allegedly carried out by the troops belonging to the Sudanese Liberation Army-Unity (SLA-Unity), which had broken away from the Sudanese Liberation Movement-Army (SLA/M), under the command of Jerbo, jointly with JEM Collective Leadership forces under the command of Banda. Garda appeared voluntarily before the ICC to answer charges relating to the same incident but  the Court dropped all war crime charges against him in February 2010 on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to produce enough evidence to proceed with a trial.

In a hearing in December 2010 to confirm the charges against the two men, prosecutors accused them of leading the attack on the MSG Haskanita military base in northern Darfur in September 2007, killing 12 peacekeepers from the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), and wounding eight others. Essa Faal, for the prosecution, told the court that Banda and Jerbo headed a convoy of vehicles armed with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers that opened fire on the base. About 1,000 assailants took part in the attack and looted the camp of 17 vehicles, refrigerators, computers, mobile phones, ammunition and money.

The pre-trial judges said that they were satisfied that there are “substantial grounds” to believe that Banda and Jerbo “were part of a common plan to attack the MGS Haskanita compound and made essential contributions in a coordinated manner – namely designing and planning the attack, ordering and providing the necessary troops, equipment and materials as well as personally participating and leading the attack and looting property from the MGS Haskanita". In accordance with article 61 of the Rome Statute, the pre-trial Chamber found substantial grounds to believe that the two rebel figures are criminally responsible as co-perpetrators within the meaning of article 25(3)(a) of the Statute for three war crimes: violence to life and attempted violence to life; intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units and vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission; and pillaging. The judges gave the defendants five days to appeal this ruling.

In a new approach,  the defense and the prosecution had filed a joint motion prior to the hearing in which they informed the pre-trial Chamber  that the parties had agreed on the facts in the document confirming the charges and that  the defence waived its rights to challenge evidence or to present its own evidence during the confirmation hearing.  The hearing was therefore limited to a short oral presentation by the prosecution and the Legal Representatives for Victims. The prosecution described this approach as "novel" and "could save judicial time and resources".

This decision by the pre-trial Chamber was widely expected and a date for the trial, the first for crimes committed in Sudan's Darfur region, will be set later. It is not immediately clear whether the Banda and Jerbo will be asked to turn themselves in following today’s decision.

The investigation into the situation in Darfur was officially opened by ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo on 6 June 2005, following referral to the ICC by the United Nations Security Council in March 2005. Since then, public arrest warrants have been issued against Ahmad Muhammad Harun, Ali Kushayb and current president Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir. Thefirst ICC warrant against Bashir was issued on 4 March 2009, on charges of two war crimes and five crimes against humanity for allegedly orchestrating a campaign of murder, torture, rape and forced expulsions in Darfur. The second warrant was issued on 12 July 2010, and added three counts of genocide to the list of charges.
 

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