On May 6, 2004, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report alleging that the Sudanese government and its allied “Janjaweed” militias had committed systemic attacks against civilian populations of the African Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups that They were equivalent to “ethnic groups.” cleansing and crimes against humanity.”
The government and its Janjaweed allies, according to the report, deliberately massacred thousands of Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa; raped women; and demolished villages, food reserves and other critical supplies.
On May 9, 2024, almost 20 years to the day it exposed the genocide in Darfur, HRW published another report titled “The Massalits Will Not Return Home”: Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El Geneina, Western Darfur, Sudan .
In it, HRW alleges that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – the formalized version of the Janjaweed militia – and allied paramilitaries committed a new genocide in el-Geneina, the capital of the Sudanese state of West Darfur, from April to last November. year, killing thousands of people and leaving hundreds of thousands as refugees.
And the carnage in Darfur is far from over. HRW's Belkis Wille condemned the ongoing RSF siege of the North Darfur capital, El-Fasher, and called for an end to the “new cycle of atrocities in Darfur” last week on this same page.
The RSF and its allies are still able to systematically kill, maim and displace the people of Darfur with almost total impunity because African leaders have repeatedly missed opportunities to bring justice to the region over the years.
Indeed, the atrocities we are witnessing today in Darfur and throughout Sudan could well have been avoided if the architects and perpetrators of the genocidal atrocities of the 2000s had been brought to justice in the first place.
In the last 20 years, countless opportunities for justice have been lost.
In 2004, then-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan established the International Commission of Inquiry into violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in Darfur.
The commission's damning report, published in January 2005, led the UN Security Council to refer Sudan to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In 2009, the court issued an arrest warrant for then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed under his direction in Darfur. He later added genocide to the charges.
The arrest and prosecution of the president would undoubtedly have changed the trajectory of the country and restricted the powers and reach of the genocidal militias he armed and supported.
Stating that the pursuit of justice and accountability would be an obstacle to realizing peace in Sudan, African Union (AU) leaders refused to cooperate with the ICC and arrest al-Bashir. As such, they helped al-Bashir evade international justice.
Unfortunately, while undermining the ICC's efforts to deliver justice internationally, African leaders also failed to heed the advice of the AU's own officials and experts, missing opportunity after opportunity to deliver justice to the suffering Darfurians in the region.
In 2004, recognizing its responsibility to deliver justice to the people of Sudan, the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) took steps to investigate human rights violations and chart a way forward for the country.
To this end, the Mission of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights to Sudan took place from 8 to 18 July 2004.
The fact-finding mission visited camps for displaced people and met with Sudanese government officials, senior officials and representatives of national and international humanitarian organizations in Khartoum.
Following the visit, the mission recommended the establishment of an International Commission of Inquiry, comprising the UN, AU, Arab States and an international humanitarian and human rights organization, to investigate human rights violations in Sudan and ensure that perpetrators of atrocities are brought to justice. .
Specifically, the mission wanted the commission to investigate the role of the army, police and other security forces in the Darfur conflict, as well as the involvement of rebel movements and armed militias, particularly the Janjaweed, the Pashtun, the Pashmerga and the Torabora.
The commission, he further explained, would identify those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the country and ensure that they are held accountable for their actions.
The mission's recommendations included the disarmament and demobilization of all irregular armed groups operating illegally in the Darfur region. And he urged the Government of Sudan to fulfill its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and in particular under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights to guarantee the basic human rights of the Sudanese people.
Al-Bashir, predictably, ignored an overwhelming majority of the mission's recommendations.
Surprisingly, however, African leaders also failed to follow the well-intentioned advice of their leading human rights experts.
So the International Commission of Inquiry, as envisaged by the ACHPR, did not materialize and al-Bashir continued his reign with impunity.
Any talk of regional accountability and justice mechanisms for Sudan was largely abandoned until the ICC took action at the international level.
In July 2008, just a week after ICC prosecutors announced their request for an arrest warrant for al-Bashir, the AU Peace and Security Council expressed its demand for a local judicial process for Sudan.
He called for the creation of an African Union High-Level Panel on Darfur to present recommendations on “accountability and combating impunity, on the one hand, and reconciliation and healing, on the other.”
Led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, the panel consulted widely in Sudan and ultimately recommended a hybrid court for Darfur with Sudanese and non-Sudanese legal experts, a truth and reconciliation panel, and wide-ranging reforms of the country's criminal justice system. .
Al-Bashir resisted the idea of launching a comprehensive judicial process, especially one involving foreign experts, and also largely ignored the advice of this panel.
In the years that followed, African leaders refused to push for any other instruments of transitional justice, international or regional, apparently fearing that the pursuit of justice would derail peace efforts. As a result, al-Bashir was never held accountable for the crimes he facilitated in Darfur and the RSF was able to continue its abuses against Darfurians with impunity.
Today, as Darfur suffers a devastating new wave of atrocities, the AU must change course. It must recognize that sustainable peace requires accountability and an end to impunity. It must make a strong and explicit commitment to achieving justice for all in Darfur, whether through Sudanese, African or global legal instruments.
Of course, African leaders have every right to criticize the ICC's methods and approaches. They also have every right to demand justice through local and regional instruments in Africa.
However, in their approach to the conflict in Sudan, they missed a crucial opportunity to make this point clear and lay the foundation for a strong, independent and responsive human rights culture in Africa.
If they had agreed to implement the proposals put forward by the ACHPR and the African Union High-Level Panel on Darfur, they would not only have helped Darfurians find justice, but would also have demonstrated to the ICC that it is not actually needed in the region.
Unfortunately, they chose to ignore the advice of their own experts and allowed the perpetrators of egregious human rights violations to go unpunished. As a result, we are where we are today. The culture of impunity remains strong in Sudan, and the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa communities continue to face massacres.
All those who have facilitated the genocide in Darfur must be subjected to transitional justice and other accountability processes and mechanisms, regardless of their positions. This is the only way to achieve peace. African leaders can no longer afford to deny justice to Africans.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
