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Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), spoke to FRANCE 24’s Marc Perelman on the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly in New York. He discussed the ICC’s investigation of alleged crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine, but also the situation in Sudan, where a new ICC probe was opened two months ago into alleged war crimes in the Darfur region.
When asked about the ICC’s warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for the unlawful deportations and transfers of children from Ukraine to Russia, Khan assured that “investigations [are] ongoing” on a “wide spectrum of crimes that appear to have been committed and seem to be committed every day”.
“Our obligation is to get to the truth,” Khan said.
Turning to the Sudan crisis and the situation in Darfur, Khan explained that the ICC has “a responsibility not only to look at the events since 2005, but this new spike of violence that happened since April and the stories of misery that we are hearing”.
‘Not one scrap of paper’ received from warring sides in Sudan
Khan added that he recently met General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese armed forces, and that although a lot of promises have been made about justice, there has not been “not one scrap of paper”, nor “witness of truth” given to the ICC from either side to the conflict.
“We are determined to make sure that we get to the truth,” he said, adding that “the people in Sudan, the people in Darfur, the refugees in Chad need to realise that decisions and promises that we make here in New York, or the promises that have been made by the Rome statute, result in an impact” so that “they’re not invisible to the international community”.
Khan announced that he would travel to neighbouring Chad and that he hoped to be able to go to Sudan.
“The words that are made in the Security Council, the promises that have been made to the people of Sudan since 2005 ring hollow, and I feel ashamed that we haven’t done a better job collectively as the international community for the last 20 years,” Khan said. “What we’re seeing now is the result of that – this climate of impunity. So we’ve got to find ways to finally step up and deliver,” he added.
