22 more Darfur Rebels Sentenced to Death by Sudanese Courts

August 1, 2008

     Damanga has just received information that the government of Sudan has sentenced 22 Darfuri rebels to death. These alleged rebels are being punished due to an unprecedented attack on the capital last May in which more than 222 people were killed. It is said that these people were all rebels belonging to JEM, the Justice and Equality Movement, however some of them, we believe, were simply innocent civilians who happened to be living in the area. One of the rebels was only sixteen, making punishment of death illegal. The judges are ignoring this boys age, rather making the case that he was merely trying to find evade the charges. The twelve rebels in one court were given five days to appeal, and the ten rebels in the other court were given fifteen days. The condemned rebels, ranging between eighteen and twenty-five years of age, reacted by yelling out “God is great!” and “Thanks be to God!” Defense lawyers of Sudan argue that the special courts are unconstitutional and do not guarantee their clients' legal rights. Yet, the defense lawyers are in no hurry to appeal either. Two days ago, eight men, all accused of belonging to JEM, were also sentenced to death for the same attack. Some of the main rebels brought before the courts have included Abdul Aziz Ashur, senior JEM commander and brother-in-law of overall leader Khalil Ibrahim. Ashur, though, has not yet been sentenced. In the Sudanese court systems, any death sentence must be ratified by both an appeals' court and the high court. Therefore, all death warrants must be signed and approved by President Omar al-Bashir who, as the news continues to tell, has been indicted by The International Criminal Court prosecutor, demanding Bashir's arrest for directly ordering his forces to demolish three ethnic groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape as a weapon of war.
Damanga is greatly upset by the abrupt unconstitutionality of these sentences. How is it fair to charge the rebels, who are fighting for the Darfuri peoples cause, with death-- when the government, the source of the problems, gets no charge at all? The deaths are not only taking place in the attacks on the capital. The Janjaweed Arab militias, proven to be run by Sudanese government, have been killing these Black-African ethnic groups in Darfur on a regular basis. Yet, they get no charge because they are connected with the courts! These trials have no hope of being fair because of this fact. Therefore, Damanga continues to hope and beg the ICC to follow through with its charges against al-Bashir. If a country can not prosecute a criminal as hugely terrible as he is, than it is the international community’s job to do so.