The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, requested the UN on Tuesday to investigate allegations that UNAMID intentionally covered up crimes in Darfur.
Bensouda presented the UN Security Council (UNSC) with the ICC’s 19th and latest report on the situation in Darfur on Tuesday. In an accompanying statement, she pointed to allegations that UNAMID “had been subject to manipulation, with the intentional effect of covering up crimes committed against civilians and peacekeepers, in particular those committed by the Government of the Sudan.”
She called for “a thorough, independent and public enquiry,” adding, “While the responsibility for this manipulation may lie with a handful of individuals, it impugns the credibility of the mission as a whole and deprives advocates of peace and justice of an essential tool for evaluating the ever-evolving situation in Darfur.”
The prosecutor expressed her hope “that this Council and indeed the United Nations as a whole would take immediate and concrete steps to establish the full facts and take appropriate action if the allegations prove to be well founded.”
Several UNSC members supported the request for an investigation.
In April this year Radio Dabanga published a series of interviews with former UNAMID spokeswoman Aicha Elbasri, in which she revealed that UNAMID had misinformed the UN by withholding important details about events in Darfur.
She said the mission observed government ground and aerial attacks on villages but did not publically report them or include them in regular updates by the UN Secretary General to the Security Council.
The ICC report in particular criticised UNSC’s inability to enforce its resolutions, and arrest those indicted by the ICC, including the Sudanese president.
“The Office notes with great concern that despite the fifty-five UN Security Council resolutions adopted on the Sudan since 2004, hardly any of them have been implemented. Repeated demands from the Security Council to the Government of the Sudan, ranging from disarming the Janjaweed to ending aerial bombardments, to ending impunity and bringing justice and accountability to the victims, have gone deliberately unfulfilled.”
President Omar Al Bashir, the report said, moves freely on a regular basis between several African nations that are members of the International Criminal Court. “What is needed is a dramatic shift in this Council’s approach to arresting Darfur suspects,” she added.
Photo: ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda
Related coverage:
Sudan Leaks: ‘UN Security Council was misinformed about Janjaweed’ (11 April)
Sudan Leaks: Ethnic killings at Sigili in 2012 (11 April)
Sudan Leaks: UN admits Darfur reports slanted to please Sudan (8 April)
Sudan Leaks: UN surrendered displaced to abductors (7 April)