Ahmad Mohammed Harun

Ahmad Mohammed Harun was born in 1964, in the tribe Bargou, in the state of North Kordofan, Sudan. He was appointed as head of the “Darfur Security desk” in early 2003.

He studied in the University of Cairo and he trained as a judge. After 1990, he entered the Sudanese Intelligence and Security Service where he worked until 2005. In 1995, he became team leader of the governor of the state of North Kordofan.

One of his task was to recruit local tribes in order to integrate them in the Peoples Defence Forces (Reserve paramilitary units of the army, generally described as having a military training) and used them for internal repression of uprisings in the province - a tactic that was used later in Darfur.

Harun is a member of the governmental National Congress Party. He was Secretary of State for the interior at the beginning of 2003 to head the “Darfur Security Desk”.

The most prominent of his coordination tasks was his management of, and personal participation in, the recruitment, funding and arming of Militia (Janjaweed) – forces that would ultimately number in the tens of thousands.

According to the ICC prosecutor, Harun has involved the Janjaweed militias knowing that they were committing atrocities. The militias are accused of committing regularly, often against units of the Sudanese army, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and numerous atrocities against civilians.

Since April 2003, Ahmad Harun himself would have regularly visited Darfur and proceeded to the recruitment and equipping of Janjaweed. Witnesses saw him meet with leaders of the Janjaweed militias, including Ali Kushayb.

During a public meeting, Ahmad Harun said that as the head of the Darfur Security desk, he had been given “all the power and authority to kill or forgive whoever in Darfur for the sake of peace and security.”

The conflict involved rebel attacks on Sudanese Government installations in Darfur and a counterinsurgency campaign by the Sudanese Government against the rebels. The attacks carried out on towns and villages in Darfur did not target any rebel presence. Rather, they targeted civilian residents based on the rationale that they were supporters of the rebel forces.

According to the Prosecutor's evidence, Ahmad Harun incited the Militia on several occasions to carry out such attacks.

The crimes invoked in the indictment were allegedly committed between August 2003 and March 2004 during attacks against four towns and villages, namely Kodoom, Bindisi, Mukjar and Arawala (in the west of Darfur).

For example, in early August 2003, prior to an attack on Mukjar, Ahmad Harun gave a speech where he stated that “since the children of the Fur had become rebels, all the Fur and what they had, had become booty”.

The Darfur conflict has been going on since 2003. According to UN-sources, at least 200'000 people have been killed and more than 2 million are thought to have been displaced.

The crimes investigated by the Prosecutor took place during attacks on the towns and villages of Kodoom, Bindisi, Mukjar and Arawala in West Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004.

On 31 March 2005, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1593, whereby it deferred the Darfur situation to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based on Article 13 let.b of the Rome Statute of the ICC.