Darfuri civil society and human rights activists: Justice for victims in Darfur

The Hague, The Netherlands

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 31 October 2008

Darfuri civil society and human rights activists: Justice for victims in Darfur

The Hague- Supporting the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on his quest of an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, president of Sudan, on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Darfur civil society submits a letter of gratitude to the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, outlining their strong and genuine support to the endeavour of the Chief Prosecutor in pursuit for justice for the innocent civilians of Darfur.
Darfur civil society worldwide and human rights activists express their full support for Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s work and stressed the importance of the international community’s pursuit of justice for the victims of crimes against humanity in Darfur.

“Sudanese regime and its allied janjaweed militia continue to commit gross crimes against humanity and intentionally maintain inflicting on the people of Darfur the worse conditions of life to create the physical destruction of the civilian populations. To end the suffering of the people of Darfur, perpetrators must be brought to justice. Organizations such as African Union, Arab League and Organization of Islamic conference should not be rewarding perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by attempting to derail ICC indictment on Darfur crimes ” said Ahmed M. Mohamedain, leader of Darfur Union, a Darfuri civil society group based in The Hague.
Darfuri civil society and human rights activists have long stressed the paramount importance of pursuing justice while continuing to seek a political resolution to the conflict in Darfur.

“We call the international community to extend their strong support to the Chief Prosecutor to exercise his duties and to translate the ‘’NEVER AGAIN’’ slogan into reality” said Mohamed Ibrahim Abdelwahab, Spokesman of Darfur People’s Union in U.K and Northern Ireland.
The activists have called especially on the members of the United Nations Security Council to show strong support for the Prosecutor’s work and to insist on Sudanese compliance with the ICC.

Abdelbagi Jibril, Executive Director of the Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre, noted: “The decision to refer the situation in Darfur to the ICC was done by a means of UN Security Council resolution 1593 (2005) of 31stMarch 2005. As such the ICC action on Darfur is a mechanism for implementation of the provisions of UNSC resolution 1593. We wish to remind all UN member states, whether they are State Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC or not, to fully support the ICC work on Darfur and meet their obligations to cooperate in implementing mandatory UN Security Council resolutions”

Darfuri activist and Liaison Officer with the Save Darfur Coalition Niemat Ahmadi said: “As Darfuri woman I strongly believe that justice for the genocide victims must be an uncompromised right. I believe the suffering that came as the result of the injustice will not be alleviated without a proper trial and investigation, which will only be found in the ICC. Albashir has been given the last six years to make peace, but instead we have only seen the suffering of our people increase and the situation worsening. This gathering of the Darfuri civil society from all over Europe today is to press for justice to become a reality now in Darfur. The world must take into account that Darfuri concerns should be the priority among any other concerns. We are the victims and we want justice to be allowed to take its course.”

For further information contact:

Darfur Union, The Hague
Ahmed M. Mohamedain: +31 642 330 058

Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre, Geneva
Abdelbagi Jibril: +41 22 747 00 89

Darfur People’s Union in UK and Northern Ireland
Mohamed Ibrahim Abdelwahab, London +44 7717 408 966

Liaison Officer with the Save Darfur Coalition,
Niemat Ahmadi, Washington + 12022239541