Africa News
Sudan's president could be charged in genocide case (2nd Roundup)
Jul 11, 2008, 19:49 GMT
A file picture dated on 24 September 2006 shows Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir gesturing during a press conference in Khartoum, Sudan. EPA/PHILLIP DHIL
Amsterdam/Washington - The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague said Friday it could neither confirm nor deny that it would announce plans Monday to prosecute Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
The Washington Post earlier had quoted unnamed United Nations officials as saying that chief prosecutor Luis Moreno- Ocampo planned to issue an international warrant for al-Bashir's arrest.
If the judges agreed to such a request, it would be the first time that the tribunal would charge a serving head of state, although such leaders as Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Charles Taylor of Liberia were charged by other UN-established war crimes courts while in office.
On Friday, ICC-spokeswoman spokeswoman Florence Olara told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa she could neither confirm nor deny the report about al-Bashir, but said there will be a press conference and case presentation on Monday in The Hague, where the ICC is located.
'We will present our case before the judges on Monday. At the press conference, also on Monday, we will announce which person or which people will be prosecuted,' she said.
Since 2003, at least 300,000 people have been killed in ethnic violence in western Sudan's Darfur, and 2 million have become refugees. The conflict in Darfur began when black tribesmen took up arms against what they called decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum.
The Sudanese government is blamed for retaliating by using proxy Janjaweed militia to carry out mass killings.
In 2003, the UN Security Council ordered the ICC in The Hague to investigate the events in West-Sudan.
If Moreno-Ocampo asks the court to issue an international warrant for the arrest of Bashir, the court would take several weeks to study the evidence.
The move worries some UN officials, media reports said, with concerns that bringing charges would shut down diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in Darfur.
Sudan's ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, denounced any idea that Bashir could face prosecution for genocide.
'We strongly condemn any such attempt like this. We support our leadership. It will be condemned by 40 million Sudanese,' the ambassador said Friday in broadcast remarks.
Supporters of such charges said that charges might push the resistant Bashir to the negotiating table.
The ambassador said any such charges against Bashir would 'destroy' the international community's efforts to find a peaceful solution.
'Ocampo is playing with fire,' the Washington Post quoted Mohamad as saying. 'If the United Nations is serious about its engagement with Sudan, it should tell this man to suspend what he is doing with this so-called indictment. There will be grave repercussions.'
Both critics and supporters, however, agreed that at least some initial repercussions were likely, such as restrictions on relief work in Darfur. Fears also surfaced that the 10,000 UN and African Union peacekeepers in Darfur might face more attacks.
On Tuesday, seven peacekeepers - five Rwandans, a Ghanaian and Ugandan - were killed and 19 wounded in an ambush by unidentified militiamen in northern Darfur.
So far, two Sudanese officials have been indicted by the court, but Bashir has refused to turn them over. Instead, he promoted one of them, Ahmed Haroun, to oversee peacekeepers and relief work.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday the US stood by its long characterization of the Darfur situation as genocide, but would not confirm reports of the arrest warrant for Bashir.
'The humanitarian horror that has occurred in Sudan ... is something that is unacceptable to humanity, unacceptable to the international system,' he said.
The ICC was established by the UN in 2002 as the permanent tribunal to deal with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Sudan, like the United States, has refused to join the court.
On July 3, Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, the first to be tried at the ICC, was granted provisional release after the court found the prosecution had made mistakes with the evidence. The court found he could not be guaranteed a fair trial.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Africa
- 1. Several dead in car bombing in northern Nigeria
- 2. Mogadishu blast kills seven, including sports chiefs
- 3. Seven dead in Mogadishu suicide bomb attack
- 4. ANC suspends Youth League leader with immediate effect
- 5. Police arrest Uganda's opposition leader and others at protest march
Older Talkback
page: 1
Janjaweed?
bush will veto and release him ,
he has the power
Bush has taught us: One man's genocide is another man's justice.
... And more importantly, Bush has taught us: One man's justice is another man's genocide.
Who has been there and seen the real destruction caused by the rebels?
NONE OF THE COMENTATORS OR NEWS WRITER! All COLONISTS AND CRUSADERS SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE!!
The destruction brought on by these evil rebels is beyond comprehension. If I was the ruler, half of their fighting force would be dead by last year, and they would come to conference table for negotiations.
i love bush ..he's my favorite turd
If that is the case than three consecutive US presidents MUST be charged with the genocide in Iraq.
And MOST importantly, than the illegal white christian devil settlers from Europe MUST be charged with genocide of an estimated ten million Native People in North America.
NOW, honkeys can you dig that.....SUCKAaaaaaaaas
SP4: You finally have it right. Except charge people that have performed genocide, not their relatives. There is an important legal concept there. But, yes, no one should be above the law. Unfortunately, there are different laws for different people in the united states, so that the cliche 'no one is above the law' is meaningless.
This wierdo Muhammed must have had a wierd sense of humour, he persuaded all those around him that he had herd the voice of an angel and a god called Allah had spoken to him. Of course lots of the people who did not believe him tended to get murdered, I don't know how he kept his face straight, what an actor.
If he was in paradise rather than oblivion he would be still laughing, it's the worlds oldest con-trick and they are killing themselves and others and they can't see the irony of it all.
Don't pick on other people's religeons. It is customery for the western degenerates, who have an edge over technology, but who are lowest of the low creation for human values, who copy the lower animals, to hurt other people by their uncontrolled tongue.
Porky, I am sure you cover 0.5% of your body at the beach just like a monkey or female dog, don't you? What is the difference between you and monkey? NOT TOO MUCH!!
Unlike yourself I consider myself to be a fellow traveller on this planet together with all the creatures upon it. I do not consider myself a superior being that was created by a god. I may have superior intellect but I am still an animal. I am a product of evalution and the evidence for this is overwhelming. The evidence that I was created by a God is absolute zero. The evidence of their being a God is absolute zero.
Incidentally I tend to go 100% naked on a beach because I have not got the inhibitions that religion teaches. You may want me to burn in Hell but you have to believe there is a paradise or a heaven before you can believe there is a hell. I will take my pleasures in this life rather than be a slave to some mythical being that man invented so that he could twist the minds of other men so that they would do his will.
yep I,ve been around for as long as the universe been here....just at this point in time the atoms have formed into an inteligent cohesive enitity...who knows a billion years from now some of them will once again achieve inteligence.
page: 1
john afraidiJul 11th, 2008 - 20:50:11
Sudan current president, Omar Hassan al Bashir has been rightly charged for Genocide by the International Criminal Court for killings in Drafur, however American President, vice President, Tony Blair and many others who are directly or indirectly involved in illegal War, butchering and torturing of millions Iraqis that too mercilessly, destruction of the ancient civilization using smart bombs and other immunation for the last 5 years and it is still continuing unabated have not been charged for their crimes of war crime, crime against humanity and genocides. Also, the current and past leaders of Israel should be arrested and sent to Haige for facing similar charges.
It is a fashion in the white and western world to pin point Muslim and African criminals only but treat others as the super human beings above all the international and U. N. laws and Resolutions.
Report this comment