SUDAN:The Sudanese government has appointed a minister accused of war crimes to lead an investigation into human rights abuses.
The controversial decision emerged yesterday as UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and Sudanese president Omar el-Bashir announced the government would meet Darfur rebels for peace talks next month.
Human rights activists said the appointment of Ahmed Haroun, wanted by the International Criminal Court for allegedly inciting Janjaweed militias to kill civilians in Darfur, was the latest example of Khartoum thumbing its nose at the West.
"The timing is no coincidence," said Elizabeth Hodgkin, Sudan researcher with Amnesty International.
"It's a snub to the UN, a snub to international justice. It means that those in the leadership of Sudan don't care for international justice and that impunity will continue for war crimes." Mr Haroun was named earlier this year by the ICC as a war crimes suspect.
He is accused of recruiting, funding and arming Janjaweed militia while deputy minister of the interior in 2003 and 2004.
Prosecutors say they have eyewitness accounts of Mr Haroun ferrying guns and ammunition into Darfur in his own helicopter.
The militias were used in a scorched earth policy against civilian villages which were believed to back rebel movements.
In all more than 200,000 people have died in 4½ years of fighting.
Since then Mr Haroun has been appointed junior minister of humanitarian affairs and jointly chairs a two-year-old commission monitoring security between Sudan's north and south, following the end of a bloody civil war.
Last weekend the commission's remit was extended to cover allegations of human rights abuses committed anywhere in Sudan, including Darfur.
An analyst in Khartoum, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "It's an attempt to say to the ICC that the government doesn't need anyone else to prosecute war crimes - leave us alone and we'll do it our way." The decision comes at a time of heightened diplomatic activity focused on speeding the deployment of a 26,000-strong international peacekeeping force.
Yesterday Mr Ban met the president in Khartoum. Afterwards they issued a joint statement saying that a new round of peace talks would be held in Libya next month between government officials and rebel leaders.
"The government of Sudan pledges to contribute positively to secure the environment for the negotiations, fulfilling its commitment to a full cessation of hostilities in Darfur and agreed upon ceasefire," it said.
In June the Sudanese government agreed to the presence of UN peacekeepers in Darfur - so long as they were part of a hybrid force with African Union soldiers.
Since then security forces have rounded up opposition figures, expelled two western diplomats and told the head of the aid agency Care he was no longer welcome in the country.