Sudanese minister named as war-crimes suspect

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court's prosecutor named on Tuesday a former Sudanese junior minister as a suspect in war crimes in Darfur, saying he helped recruit janjaweed militias responsible for murders, rapes and torture.

Ahmed Muhammed Harun, the former junior interior minister responsible for the western Darfur region, and a janjaweed militia leader, Ali Mohammed Ali Abd-al-Rahman, who is also known as Ali Kushayb, were suspected of 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, said the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

Harun recruited janjaweed, "with full knowledge that they, often in the course of joint attacks" with the Sudanese armed forces, "would commit crimes against humanity and war crimes against the civilian population of Darfur," Moreno-Ocampo said in a 94-page document filed with the court's judges.

The investigation by officials at the world's first global war crimes court established a clear link between the Sudanese authorities and the janjaweed, the prosecutor said.