One Minute For Darfur

Unlike many other campaigns this really is only a one minute job. Reading the details takes longer.

In August 2003 the International Criminal Court's Chief prosecutor that Ahmad Harun, a Sudanese Government Minister, and Ali Kushayb a leader of the Janjaweed, organised the destruction of Bindisi - a town in Darfur. The ICC prosecutor states that their followers murdered over 100 civilians from the Fur tribe, raped women and girls, destroyed the mosque and food stores, and forced 34,000 people to flee.

Since the warrants for their arrest were issued by the International Criminal Court neither man has been handed over to the ICC or prosecuted by Sudanese courts. Instead, Ali Kushayb has been freed from prison while Harun has remained in his post as State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and was appointed to co-chair a committee charged with investigating human rights complaints, including those committed in Darfur. As Minister he is responsible for those displaced by the violence in Darfur, and is also charged with liaising with the UNAMID peacekeeping force currently being deployed to protect those same people. Thus one of the chief suspects in an investigation into mass murder is now responsible for the fate of the victims.

Due to China's veto the United Nations Security Council did not even issue a Presidential Statement about Sudan's refusal to hand over the suspects - it will soon be almost one year since the arrest warrants were issued.

Please express your deepest concern at Sudan's defiance of international law and call for the United Nations Security Council to:
- visit Khartoum in May 2008 to ask for the Sudanese government to hand over the two suspects
- impose targeted sanctions (asset freezes) on the Sudanese Government ministers protecting these two men.

Please visit Wanted for War Crimes to send an email to all fifteen members of the UN Security Council - this should only take ten seconds.

For more information on Darfur please visit the wonderful Aegis Trust.