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Sudan president is accused of crimes against humanity
Ed Harris04.03.09
The International Criminal Court today issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
There were immediate fears that the decision against Bashir, the most senior figure pursued by the court since it was set up in the Hague in 2002, could spark more turmoil in Sudan and the region.
A spokeswoman for the court, Laurence Blairon, said the violence was the result of a plan organised at the highest level of the Sudanese government.
The ruling, the first warrant issued against a sitting head of state, could also damage prospects for peace in Sudan and see Western powers pitted against supporters of the Khartoum government, analysts fear.
Bashir has dismissed the allegations made by the ICC, the world's first permanent court for prosecuting war crimes, as a Western conspiracy. "They can eat it (the warrant)," he told a crowd of cheering supporters in northern Sudan today.
A UN peacekeeping chief said his troops were watching a military build-up along the border with Chad.
Alain Le Roy welcomed assurances that the government will protect the two UN peacekeeping missions - in southern Sudan and Darfur - against "any negative impact" from the court decision.
Some Western embassies have warned their citizens that there could be violent protests.
China, the African Union and the Arab League suggested that an indictment could destabilise the region, worsen the Darfur conflict and threaten a troubled peace deal between north Sudan and the semi-autonomous south, which is potentially rich in oil.
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accuses Bashir of orchestrating genocide in Sudan's western region of Darfur, starting in 2003. As many as 300,000 people have been killed, UN officials say.
Khartoum says the real figure is 10,000. Another 2.7 million people are estimated to have been uprooted by the conflict, which began when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government.
