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.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not