"Sudan is not a member of the Statute of Rome – it is not bound by the International Criminal Court," Foreign Minister Lam Akol told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The ICC said it is seeking the detention of Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Haroun and Janjaweed leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, also called Ali Kushayb, on 51 counts.
At least 200,000 people have died in the four-year conflict between rebel groups in the Western region of Darfur and two million people have been displaced, according to several estimates. While a separate conflict, the warrants were expected to open the door for investigations into other violence, including what human rights groups have described as the policy of forced Islamization launched by the government based in northern Sudan.
Church groups say the policy resulted in "virtual genocide" of non-Muslim Sudanese peoples including many Christians, in especially the southern part of the troubled nation. The latest developments came just days after an Egyptian and three Sudanese Christians were reportedly killed when their truck came under gunfire after holding an evangelistic meeting in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains region.
EVANGELISTS IDENTIFIED
Egyptian Daniel Girgis, 37, and local Sudanese Christians Markous Tiya, Rihab Kafi Jadeen and an unidentified young boy were killed when unknown assailants opened fire on their vehicle last Friday night, April 27, Compass Direct News agency reported. At least five others, two foreigners and three Sudanese, were apparently injured in the attack that began when the truck driver refused to stop at a makeshift roadblock of large rocks.
"When they finished [showing] the Jesus film [in the village of Gnaya] they were going back to the town they were visiting," Barnaba Timothous, evangelism coordinator at the Bahry Evangelical Church, was quoted as saying.
"On their way there, someone behind the mountain fired at them. It was night, they saw just two men."
MOTIVE UNCLEAR
While the motive for the attack remained unclear Thursday, May 3, Timothous said it was believed Muslim militants were unhappy that Christians were doing evangelism in the region. Government backed groups have often been involved in attacks against Christians and other religious minorities, human rights groups say.
As of late 2006, peacekeeping troops have been struggling to stabilize the situation, which analysts say has become increasingly regional in scope, bringing instability to eastern Chad and Sudanese incursions into the Central African Republic.
Sudan also has faced large refugee influxes from neighboring countries, primarily Ethiopia and Chad, said the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Sudan).
