By Paul Rinefierd
Rwandan soldiers airlifted to Darfur in July 2005.
On October 19, 2009, a confirmation hearing began in the case of Prosecutor v. Bahar Idriss Abu Garda before an ICC Pre-Trial Chamber. Abu Garda is the Chairman and General Coordinator of Military Operations of the United Resistance Front, a rebel group fighting the Sudanese government. He is the first accused from the Darfur situation to appear before the ICC. The hearing addressed allegations from a summons levied in May 2009 that Abu Garda commanded an attack on peacekeepers of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) at Haskanita in Northern Darfur on September 29, 2007. As a result of the attack, twelve AMIS soldiers were killed, eight were wounded, and AMIS equipment was destroyed.
