From: Tsegai Emmanuel (emmanuelt40@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Mar 04 2009 - 08:58:05 EST
<http://www.sudantribune.com/> Wed, Mar 04, 2009 13:54 UT Sudan’s Bashir
formally charged by ICC on Darfur war crimes but not genocide Wednesday 4
March 2009.
By Wasil Ali
March 4, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — The International Criminal Court (ICC)
announced that its judges approved charges made by its prosecutor against
Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.
The ICC announced that the arrest warrant was issued for seven counts out of
for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. However the gencoide
charges were dropped.
On July 14th 2008 the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges:
three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder
and accused Al-Bashir of masterminding a campaign to get rid of the African
tribes in Darfur; Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.
The spokeswoman for the court in The Hague, Laurence Blairon, said the court
would transmit as soon as possible to the government of Sudan a request for
his arrest and surrender.
"He is suspected of being criminally responsible ... for intentionally
directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of
Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly
transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property"
Blairon said.
Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail said the government was
not surprised by the decision.
"They do not want Sudan ... to become stable," he said.
US based Human Rights Watch (HRW) hailed the decision saying it means that
"even those at the top may be held to account for mass murder, rape and
torture".
“With this arrest warrant, the International Criminal Court has made Omar
al-Bashir a wanted man,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International
Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. “Not even presidents are guaranteed a
free pass for horrific crimes. By ruling there is a case for President
al-Bashir to answer for the horrors of Darfur, the warrant breaks through
Khartoum’s repeated denials of his responsibility.”
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