Sudan should set up a court which includes foreign judges to try the gravest crimes committed in Darfur, according to an African Union report obtained by Reuters on Friday. The 148-page report's findings on justice for the victims in Darfur recommended that Sudan's judicial system, which faces a crisis of confidence, needs to be strengthened to cope with such cases.
The document, compiled by a panel headed by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, said Khartoum should accept non-Sudanese help to investigate and try atrocities in Darfur. "It will ... require a strengthening of the existing system with new mechanisms, including a special criminal chamber which shall be a hybrid court drawing on the expertise of qualified and appropriate judges from outside Sudan," it said.
It said judges need not only be African. However, the court should operate within the Sudanese judicial system and work alongside traditional justice mechanisms. Sudanese law should be amended to fully incorporate international law, and the country's security forces should no longer enjoy immunity from prosecution.
The report's findings had been keenly awaited as the African Union had supported Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir after the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued a warrant for his arrest for war crimes in Darfur this year. The report did not take a position on the ICC's arrest warrant for Bashir but said the ICC investigation should be included on the agenda of Darfur peace talks.
The report had not been expected to be made public before an AU Peace and Security Council meeting later this month. The report also said a truth, justice and reconciliation commission should be formed as a part of any Darfur peace deal. The United Nations estimates 300,000 people have died in Darfur and more than 2 million have been driven from their homes since a major insurgency erupted in early 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
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