A Sudanese Darfur rebel leader appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Monday charged with war crimes over the killing of 12 African Union (AU) peacekeepers in 2007.
Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, the first rebel to appear before the ICC, has denied involvement in the deaths.
At his first appearance after voluntarily agreeing to attend, he confirmed he had been informed of the charges against him and was not asked to enter a plea. He thanked the court for making arrangements for him to attend.
Under questioning by Judge Cuno Tarfusser, Abu Garda said he commanded a resistance movement.
“I am a political commander by profession,” he added.
Abu Garda, 46, chairman of the United Resistance Front, is accused with two other rebels of orchestrating what AU officials described as the bloodiest assault on peacekeepers since the Darfur conflict began in western Sudan in 2003.
“I am looking forward to clearing my name from this case. I am absolutely not guilty of all charges,” he said later at a news conference outside the court.
The AU peacekeepers, now a joint AU-UN force, have been unable to end the fighting that UN officials say has caused up to 300,000 deaths and the displacement of 2.7 million people.
Khartoum says 9,000 people have been killed.
The conflict erupted after rebels took up arms against the government in 2003.
In March this year, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Bashir has denied all charges.
Sudan said on Sunday the prosecution of Abu Garda had not changed its opinion of the ICC, which it has dismissed as part of a Western plot.
“We are sticking to our position that no Sudanese person should be handed over to the court, even a Darfur rebel,” Sudanese Foreign Ministry official Ali Youssef Ahmed said.
Abu Garda appealed to all Sudanese accused of crimes in Darfur, including Bashir, to face justice.
He called on the outside world to put pressure on the Sudanese government to allow humanitarian aid back into Darfur.
Abu Garda, who arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday on a commercial flight, was free to leave the country again after Monday’s hearing.
The judge said a hearing would be held on Oct. 12 to determine whether there was enough evidence to put Abu Garda on trial.
Defense lawyer Karim Khan said it was too early to say whether his client would attend the October hearing, which could be held in his absence.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS