RESEARCH WAR CRIMES DARFUR FAR TOO SLOW

The Dutch Minister of Development Mrs. Van Ardenne argued that the International Criminal Court in The Hague, should do a lot more to research the war crimes in Sudan. She says that the researchers of the criminal court are not visually present in Sudan and that it all takes far too long. Van Ardenne and the Dutch UN- delegate for Sudan, Jan Pronk, are now in Sudan for talks about the peace agreement for Darfur.

The Criminal court in The Hague is asked by the UN to research the war crimes in the West-Sudanese region Darfur. Van Ardenne stated that it is very strange that the Criminal court did not yet open an office in Sudan, and that they should not wait any longer to make the list of suspects of war crimes public. Van Ardenne: ‘When all this takes too long, it is very bad for the trust in the international community’.     

Since 2003 the Arabic Janjaweed-militias, who are supported by the Sudanese government, killed an estimate of 200.000 people under black communities. More than 2 million people escaped the violence.

According to the UN- delegate for Sudan,  Jan Pronk, the future UN-peace mission should be carried out without white soldiers. Because armed white soldiers bring back bitter remembrances of the colonial times. Pronk: ‘besides African troops, also Asian troops can be brought into action’.

According to Van Ardenne the Sudanese government did not yet agree on the arrival of UN-troops. It is said that this can still take till early next year. The only thing the government okayed is the arrival of UN-experts that will research how a recent peace agreement can be carried out in Darfur. According to Jan Pronk the peace agreement is very vulnerable, because many armed groups did not back up the peace plan.  

In the mean time the violence continues in the Darfur area and the 8000 soldiers of the African AU-peace force are absolutely too weak to keep the two fighting parties apart, like decided in an armistice  two years ago. According to Pronk a peace force of around 12.000 should be sufficient. more features

May 30, 2006