September 4, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government has acknowledged that immunities enjoyed by government officials, military, security, and police personnel, and MPs undermine people's faith in law and justice, affirming its intention that it will embark on a comprehensive review for the current immunity laws.
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- Sudan Justice Minister Mohamed Bushara Dosa (Sudan TV)
Sudan's minister of justice, Mohamed Bushara Dousa, called in a workshop held on immunity laws in Khartoum on Wednesday, for close examination of all laws regulating immunity, saying that Sudanese laws have expanded the right for immunity to the extent that it undermined the rule of law.
Dousa cautioned that immunity should be granted within very narrow limits and according to objective procedures, saying that immunities hampers the course of justice and delays the prosecution of lawbreakers.
The deputy speaker of the parliament, Samia Ahmed Mohamed, for her part, said that immunities have come to represent a real challenge for achieving justice, pointing that immunities have overly expanded to the extent that people lost trust in enforcing justice.
She described immunity as a “virus” which weakens justice and wondered who government officials are being immune against, saying that it would only lead to create wary and fearful communities.
Samia went on to say that most immunities were abused both internally and internationally, calling for a major overhaul in order to avoid the international claims that Sudan protects influential government officials against being subjected to the law.
She further pointed to the growing numbers of foreign nationals working for the UN agencies or missions who enjoy diplomatic immunity, stressing that it is a matter of concern in light of what she said was the international new order's animosity to Sudan's progressive cultural orientation.
On Monday, the opposition downplayed the impact of the workshop and said that recommendations provided by the ministry of justice will not be implemented due to structural problems in the nature of governance, emphasizing that legal reform would only take place through a transitional period involving truth and reconciliation.
The head of the opposition Democratic Lawyers Alliance, Amin Mekki Medani, blasted the Sudanese judiciary, saying it is not impartial and turns a blind eye to violations committed by security forces against activists and opposition.
Medani recalled that perpetrators of crimes against innocent citizens in Port Sudan events in 2005 and Kajbar in 2007, which led to the death of more than 30 people have yet to be prosecuted.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, his defence minister, Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein, and the governor of North Kordofan, Ahmed Haroun, in connection with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed in Sudan's western Darfur region.
The Sudanese opposition asserts that the ICC rulings are further evidence about the weakness of the local justice system.
In 2004, the UN Security Council (UNSC) formed a commission of inquiry headed by former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Antonio Cassese, to look into Darfur abuses.
The commission concluded that Khartoum and government-sponsored Arab militias known as the Janjaweed engaged in “widespread and systematic” abuse that may constitute crimes against humanity.
They further said that Sudanese judiciary is “is unable or unwilling” to prosecute those crimes and thus recommended referring the situation to the ICC.
Over the years Sudan has appointed several special prosecutors and established special courts to go along with them in order to deflect the criticisms over Darfur justice and convince the UNSC to freeze proceedings against Bashir. But to date no high-profile prosecutions have taken place.
(ST)