By Spy Uganda Correspondent
Sudan: Authorities in Sudan on Monday announced the discovery of a mass grave in the country’s capital Khartoum.
The announcement was made by Sudan’s public prosecutor Taj Al-Sir Ali Al-Hebr, who revealed that there had been discovery of a mass grave east of the capital Khartoum.
“Investigations have reached advanced stages and the file will be put before the judiciary within two or three weeks,” he told reporters. He added that the grave contains remains of recruits allegedly killed in 1998.
In 1998, security forces reportedly opened fire at some recruits who were trying to flee an obligatory recruitment training camp to spend Idd-al-Adha with their families after the authorities refused to grant them leave.
According to media reports then, around 200 recruits were killed, most of them drowned in River Nile near the Ailafoon camp, east of Khartoum.
However, the Sudanese government is yet to give an official statement about the remains after the government conducting DNA tests on them.
Meanwhile, Darfur militia leader Ali Kushayb is in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity after surrendering to authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR).
The court issued an arrest warrant for Kushayb in 2007, accusing him of murder, rape and pillage in the western Sudanese region of Darfur between 2003 and 2004, crimes his militia committed against Sudanese people in Darfur.
Prosecutors say Kushayb was a commander of the pro-government Popular Defence Forces that led attacks on towns and villages during a conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people and drove more than two million from their homes.
However, the court did not specify where Kushayb was being held.
A government source in CAR told the media Kushayb was arrested in the northern town of Birao and sent on a plane to the Netherlands on Tuesday morning.
Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is also wanted by the ICC on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed by pro-government forces in Darfur.
“Darfuri victims and their families have waited 13 years for this,” said Elise Keppler, associate director of the group’s International Justice Program.
“The world watched in horror as Sudan’s government carried out brutal attacks on Darfur civilians, killing, raping, burning and looting villages, starting in 2003,” Keppler added.
