Credit: Wikipedia Commons / Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman,  alias Ali Kushayb; an alleged senior Janjaweed commander who supported the Sudanese government against Darfur rebel groups, was sought under an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes.

By Gary  Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC TIMES

Alleged former Darfur Janjaweed commander  Ali Kushayb  was transferred today to the International Criminal Court in The Hague after surrendering in the Central African Republic, according to the ICC.  Kushayb is accused of commanding the Janjaweed militia that attacked villages in Darfur between 2003 and 2004 as part of a strategy by the government of then-president Omar al-Bashir.  The warrant accuses the militia leader of war crimes as well as crimes against humanity, which includes murder, rape and pillaging. 

“Mr. Kushayb’s surrender and transfer, almost two decades after his alleged crimes, is a powerful and sombre reminder that the victims of atrocity crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan have waited too long to see justice done. The victims in the Darfur situation deserve to finally have their day in court. The suspect’s transfer to the Court also sends a clear and unequivocal message that no matter how long it takes or the obstacles placed in our path, my Office will not stop until the alleged perpetrators of Rome Statute crimes are brought to justice.”

-Fatou Bensouda,  Prosecutor of International Criminal Court 

Credit: icc.int /  Fatou Bensouda,  ICC prosecutor of The Hague, Netherlands-based war tribunal

“The investigation conducted by my Office demonstrates that between 2003 and 2004, Ali Kushayb, a senior militia leader in West Darfur, allegedly commanded thousands of “Janjaweed” militia to implement a counter-insurgency strategy by the then Government of Sudan, which resulted in the commission of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of Sudan,” ICC prosecutor Bensouda said in a statement.

Arrest of Sudanese war crimes suspect ‘extremely significant’:  UN rights chief

The arrest of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–Al-Rahman, commonly known as Ali Kushayb, an alleged former Janjaweed militia leader in the restive Darfur region of Sudan, has been hailed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as an “extremely significant development”. 

“For too long those responsible for the large-scale international crimes committed in the western Sudanese region of Darfur have escaped prosecution. Ali Kushayb is the first, and so far only, major figure to be arrested and handed over to the ICC, in connection with the numerous killings, rapes, pillage and other crimes that occurred when he was commander of the pro-government Janjaweed militias”. 

-UN Human Rights chief, Michelle Bachelet

Bachelet, noted her “profound hope” that four more suspects indicted in connection with the counter-insurgency campaign, will join him before the ICC in the near future, and declared that Kushayb’s detention “serves as a warning to all those responsible for such horrendous acts of violence in Sudan, and in many other parts of the world, that one day their crimes will catch up with them”.