AU and Khartoum to decide on Darfur judges
The African Union has decided to establish a new court to try those involved in atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region. Global rights groups insist that the top perpetrators should be tried by the International Criminal Court in The Hague and many AU countries are members of the ICC. But since it issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, members of the African body have obviously decided not to set a precedent for their own possible arrests for past misdeeds. An AU panel led by Thabo Mbeki suggests that a court be set up that consists of Sudanese and foreign judges appointed by the AU in consultation with the Khartoum government. Khartoum is accused of being responsible for the atrocities (or, at the very least, for not bothering to stop them). The UN says some 300,000 people have died in the six-year conflict, while Sudan’s government estimates 10,000. Read more: BBC, USAID
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