Darfur arrest warrant issued against Sudan president
More than 300,000 people are thought to have died in Darfur in the last six years
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Wednesday, 04, Mar 2009 06:13
Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has become the first sitting head of state to be indicted for war crimes after judges at The Hague issued a warrant for his arrest over alleged war crimes in Darfur.
Mr al-Bashir was charged with ten counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes over Darfur, where 300,000 people are said to have died since 2003 according to the United Nations, last July.
The international criminal court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, says he has 30 witnesses willing to provide testimony against the Sudanese president.
Although the ICC judges had been expected to indict Mr al-Bashir, the practicality of carrying out such an arrest is extremely problematic.
Their arrest warrant does not include the charges of genocide, which judges said there was insufficient evidence for.
"He is accused of... coordinating the design and implementation of the counterinsurgency campaign [in Darfur]," a statement from the ICC said on Wednesday.
A spokesman urged signatories to the Rome Statute to participate in the arrest and surrender of Mr al-Bashir.
"Only states have the power and jurisdiction to arrest and surrender suspects to the ICC," the court's registrar said.
"[The court] relies on cooperation of states to end impunity relied on by perpetrators of such alleged crimes."
Mr al-Bashir refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the court and previously said any decision issued by its judges would "not be worth the ink it is written in".
Speaking at the opening of a hydro-electric dam in the north of Sudan, Africa's largest country by area and home to almost 40 million people, on Tuesday, Mr al-Bashir said: "They will issue their decision tomorrow, and we are telling them to immerse it in water and drink it."
His words were greeted by cheering from massed crowds, who burned and stamped on effigies of Mr Moreno-Ocampo.
Mr al-Bashir is accused of masterminding the genocide against the mostly-black African residents of Darfur in Sudan's west.
He allegedly mobilised Sudan's military and Arab Janjaweed militias in a campaign of murder, rape and forced displacement following a rebellion against Khartoum's pro-Arab government.
As well as at least 300,000 dead the UN says two million people have been forced to flee their homes.