Sudan: Amnesty International seeks AU support for ICC referral
Amnesty International has written to the chairman of the African Union, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, urging him to support a Security Council referral of the situation in Sudan to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This is becoming more urgent as the Sudanese government continues to downplay the human rights violations and war crimes committed during the recent conflicts. Earlier this week while addressing the Security Council Ali Osman Taha, the First Vice President of Sudan, rejected the prospect of any tribunal outside Sudan, while Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) leader John Garang allegedly said that issues of human rights violations and war crimes should take a back seat to peace and aid efforts in the region.
Sudan: Amnesty International seeks AU support for ICC referral
Press release, 02/11/2005
Amnesty International has written to the chairman of the African Union, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, urging him to support a Security Council referral of the situation in Sudan to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This is becoming more urgent as the Sudanese government continues to downplay the human rights violations and war crimes committed during the recent conflicts. Earlier this week while addressing the Security Council Ali Osman Taha, the First Vice President of Sudan, rejected the prospect of any tribunal outside Sudan, while Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) leader John Garang allegedly said that issues of human rights violations and war crimes should take a back seat to peace and aid efforts in the region.
Amnesty International remains convinced that there can be no lasting solution for the conflicts in Sudan without first seeking justice for victims of these crimes, and that the ICC is the most effective means of achieving this. This was also the conclusion of the report by the Security Council-appointed Commission of Inquiry.
Over 21 years, successive conflicts in Sudan have left more than 2 million dead, 6 million displaced, thousands of women and children abducted and/or raped and hundreds of villages destroyed, yet not one perpetrator of war crimes or crimes against humanity is known to have been brought to justice in Sudan.
Please go to http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGIOR630012005 to read the letter to President Obasanjo.