00:00The International Criminal Court has convicted former leader of the Janjaweed militia of past
00:07war crimes committed in Sudan's western Darfur region. Ali Muhammad Ali Abdelrahman was unanimously
00:14convicted by a three-judge panel on 27 charges of playing a leading role in the atrocities
00:19committed between 2003 and 2004. Abdelrahman was also found guilty of ordering summary executions
00:27of scores of prisoners and of personally killing captive civilians. The judges ruled that he was
00:32a senior commander in the Janjaweed militia during the Darfur conflict. The conflict erupted when
00:38rebels from the region began fighting the armed forces under then-President Omar al-Bashir.
00:44Al-Bashir's government responded with a scorched-earth campaign of aerial attacks and raids
00:48carried out by the Janjaweed, killing over 300,000 people and displacing almost 3 million.
00:55Abdelrahman is set to be sentenced at a later date and faces a maximum life sentence. The ruling
01:02marks the first time the Haque court has convicted a suspect of crimes in Darfur.
Comments