U.S. and European media

May 19, 2023

New York Times: Darfur Rebel Faces International Court in Hague. After a long and secret trip from the theater of war, a Darfurian rebel commander faced a judge on Monday at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the first suspect to do so in connection with the violence in Sudan. The rebel, Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, turned himself over to the court and, when asked for his profession, quietly replied that he was "a commander of a resistance movement." The judge read him his rights and the charges: three counts of war crimes, including murder and pillaging. He and two other rebel chiefs have been accused by the court prosecutor of being involved in an attack in September 2007 in which about a thousand rebels stormed a base of African Union peacekeepers, killing 12 of them and seriously wounding 8. After the attack on the base, in Haskanita in Darfur, the rebels fled with the peacekeepers' equipment and vehicles, the prosecutor said. The two other rebel leaders have yet to go to The Hague.

Reuters: Darfur rebel appears at Hague war crimes court. A Sudanese Darfur rebel leader appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Monday charged with war crimes over the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers in 2007. Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, the first rebel to appear before the ICC, has denied involvement in the deaths. At his first appearance after voluntarily agreeing to attend, he confirmed he had been informed of the charges against him and was not asked to enter a plea. He thanked the court for making arrangements for him to attend. Under questioning by Judge Cuno Tarfusser, Abu Garda said he commanded a resistance movement. "I am a political commander by profession," he added. Abu Garda, 46, chairman of the United Resistance Front, is accused with two other rebels of orchestrating what AU officials described as the bloodiest assault on peacekeepers since the Darfur conflict began in western Sudan in 2003.

Reuters: Sudan accuses Chad of sending troops to aid rebels. Sudan's top official in North Darfur accused Chad on Monday of sending troops into his territory to fight alongside Darfur rebels, raising the stakes in the simmering tension between the two countries. North Darfur governor Osman Kebir said Chadian forces had reinforced fighters from Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in an attack on the strategic town of Kornoi on Saturday. Sudan accused Chad of carrying out three air strikes on its territory last week, calling the raids an "act of war." However, this was the first occasion in recent times that it had said Chadian ground troops had breached its border.

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