ICC chief prosecutor shelves Darfur war crimes probe

David Smith, Africa correspondent
The Guardian, Sunday 14 December 2014 19.12 GMT

The war crimes investigation in Sudan’s Darfur region had already been stagnant for five years when the international criminal court formally suspended it last week, a lawyer representing the victims has claimed.

Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced on Friday that she was shelving the Darfur probe, prompting a triumphant response from Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir and renewed concerns over the viability of the Hague-based institution.

But ICC defence counsel Nick Kaufman, acting on behalf of victims in Darfur, described Bensouda’s move as “grandstanding” and an attempt to put pressure on the UN security council.

“There has been no substantial investigation of the Darfur case since 2009,” he said by phone from the Hague in the Netherlands on Sunday. “I’m surprised the victims were not consulted before the chief prosecutor went to the UN.”

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Omar al-Bashir celebrates ICC decision to halt Darfur investigation

Agence France-Presse in Khartoum
theguardian.com, Sunday 14 December 2014 05.31 GMT

The Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, has hailed the international criminal court’s suspension of its investigations into alleged war crimes in Darfur, accusing it of trying to “humiliate and subjugate” his country.

Bashir is wanted by the ICC over alleged war crimes in the western region, where the government has been trying to crush an insurgency since 2003.

The ICC’s prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said on Friday she was halting investigations to “shift resources to other urgent cases”, and criticised the UN security council for failing to push for Bashir’s arrest.

Bashir said in a speech in Khartoum that the decision came about “because of the Sudanese people’s refusal to be humiliated and to kneel down”, state news agency SUNA reported.

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