First international arrest warrant for head of state issued to Bashir over Darfour
Thursday, March 5, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
LONDON Ñ Sudanese President Omar Bashir has become the first head of state under an international arrest warrant on charges of war crimes, in what could spark attacks on Westerners.
The International Criminal Court, in a 2-1 decision, has issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the civil war in Sudan's Darfour province. On March 5, ICC, based in the Hague and with 108 members, rejected a request to charge the Sudanese president with genocide. An estimated 300,000 people have died in Darfour since 2003.
"He is suspected of being criminally responsible for intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfour, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property," ICC spokesperson Laurence Blairon said.
Bashir, who faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted of the five counts, has threatened to retaliate. Western embassies in Khartoum as well as United Nations peace-keepers have already increased their security.
"This decision was not a surprise to us, but all the mechanism of the state will react," Bashir's foreign police adviser Mustafa Othman Ismail, said. "We in the Cabinet will meet tomorrow [March 5] to see what steps are to be taken."
In 2009, Egypt recruited an Arab and African coalition to oppose any ICC arrest warrant for the 65-year-old Bashir. Diplomats said any attempt to capture and prosecute Bashir, particularly if he visits Western nations, could destabilize Africa.
"As soon as Mr. Al Bashir travels in international airspace, his plane could be intercepted and he could be arrested," Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said. "That is what I expect."
Hours after the ICC announcement, the Khartoum regime began organizing protests, including plans for a "million-man march" in the Sudanese capital on March 5. Western diplomats and relief personnel were ordered to stay home to avoid becoming targets of attack.
"The government of the Sudan is obliged under international law to execute the warrant of arrest on its territory," Moreno-Ocampo said.
The British-based aid agency Oxfam said Khartoum has revoked the agency's licence to operate in northern Sudan. Oxfam, with 450 staffers in the country, has been operating in northern Sudan since 1983.
"Oxfam does not have an opinion on the court's [ICC] activities, and our sole focus is meeting humanitarian and development needs in Sudan," Oxfam said on March 4.