Arrest warrant for Umar Albashir

[HUSNAA]

An arrest warrant may soon be issued for Umar Hassan Albashir, the Sudanese president. This is welcome news. I hope that the  judges at the Hague who are currently deliberating the issue arrive at a concensus for issuance of the warrant.
Comments from forum members welcomed.

[bamalli]

Sudan head accused of war crimes 

Sudan says an indictment of Mr Bashir would harm any prospects of peace
Sudan's president has been accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo told judges at The Hague that Omar al-Bashir bore criminal responsibility for alleged atrocities committed over the past five years.

The three-judge panel must now decide whether there are reasonable grounds for an arrest warrant to be issued.

Sudan's foreign ministry said it did not recognise the ICC or its decisions.

"This document is certainly politically motivated," one cabinet minister, al-Samani al-Wasila, told BBC Arabic TV.

Accusing Mr Moreno-Ocampo of taking sides, the official recalled that he had previously likened Sudan to a Nazi state.

ACCUSATIONS AGAINST BASHIR
Genocide:
Killing members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups
Causing these groups serious bodily or mental harm
Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about these groups' physical destruction
Crimes against humanity:
Murder
Extermination
Forcible transfer
Rape
Torture
War crimes:
Attacks on civilians in Darfur
Pillaging towns and villages


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Noose tightens around Bashir
China's secret war in Sudan

"We shall adopt all measures necessary to ensure the security of our country and people, the head of the state and Sudan's sovereignty," he added.

Sudan has refused to hand over two suspects who Mr Moreno-Ocampo charged last year, Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmad Harun and militia leader Ali Kushayb.

It has also labelled Mr Moreno-Ocampo a criminal, and warned that any indictment could stall peace talks and cause mayhem in Sudan.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he expected Sudan to "ensure the safety and security of all United Nations personnel and property" there despite the allegations.

The White House urged all parties in Sudan to "remain calm", saying it would "monitor the situation" in The Hague.

US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe stressed that the US was not part of the ICC.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged Khartoum to co-operate with the ICC.



Luis Moreno-Ocampo on the accusations
There was no immediate formal reaction from Russia or from China, which is Sudan's biggest arms supplier.

Some 300,000 people have died as a result of the conflict in Darfur since 2003 while more than two million people have fled their homes, the UN estimates.

Sudan's government denies mobilising Arab Janjaweed militias to attack black African civilians in Darfur since rebels took up arms in 2003.

'Absolute control'

Mr Moreno-Ocampo's report found "reasonable grounds" for believing Mr Bashir bore criminal responsibility on 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

He had allegedly "masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups, on account of their ethnicity" after they rebelled.

"His motives were largely political," Mr Moreno-Ocampo said.

"His alibi was a 'counterinsurgency'. His intent was genocide."

Pro-government militias allegedly followed Mr Bashir's orders to attack and destroy villages from the three groups, pursuing survivors into the desert.

Those who reached camps for displaced people faced further violence, Mr Moreno-Ocampo alleged:

"In the camps Bashir's forces kill the men and rape the women. I don't have the luxury to look away. I have evidence."

Mr Moreno-Ocampo accused the Sudanese president of using his "absolute control" of the state apparatus to conceal the truth and protect his subordinates "in order to secure their willingness to commit genocide".


HAVE YOUR SAY I strongly support the ICC's move, I do not want to see people dying anymore.
Job, Sudan
Send us your commentsThe UN has already raised the security alert level for its staff in Darfur. The joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (Unamid), which has 9,000 troops, has been struggling to contain the violence.

The ICC was set up in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes court.

Other international courts have previously indicted Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic and President Charles Taylor of Liberia.

[Dan-Borno]

i hate this international politics and how it is being played.
i believe there are more ways of resolving such an international
crisis other than taking over a whole sovereign country's
leadership.  the results in iraq and afghanistan is still a case
study for everyone to see.  iraq's situation is now worst than
when saddam was busy throwing people out of the window, so
also afghanistan.

i dont support any form  of injustice no matter how little it is,
Islam has condemned it in its entirety.  it is my believe that
particular people should be allowed to solve their own problem
in their own ways.

Albashir might go to the court, however, the crisis sudan is going
to be plunged into is a thing to be concerned about.  the Hague
should look at this case in a different way rather than the
criminal-face manner.

Long live Sudan (some part of my family are there)

[Dave_McEwan_Hill]

Nigerian troops were the major part of the UN force sent to Sudan to try to protect the people of Darfour from the murderous militia being set on them by their own government.
However before the UN declared the President of Sudan guilty of genocide(which is a fact) they should have supplied the Nigerian troops of the UN force with the weapons and equipment they needed.

[King]

Dan Borno, in what other way should the ICJ look at the case? How would you propose to resolve this crime against humanity? Is Al Bashir not the President of Sudan and the man behind the enforcement of genocide on millions of Sudanese people? If your relatives are there as you claim, then I would imagine you ought to commend the direction of the ICJ for pursuing justice in this manner rather than turn a blind eye to the monstrosity of that Lunatic, Bashir. Well, if you are not concerned about the wellbeing of your relatives, perhaps they are not victims of rape, abuse, murder, displacement, etc. I have no relatives in Sudan, but I support the decision of the Prosecutors at the Hague. It is also an embarrassment and an indictment on African leaders for their failure to step up when necessary to prevent sick people like President Bashir and others like him from inflicting unnecessary pain and suffering on their people. The United nations didn't have to take the lead here. African leaders should have shown leadership here, but as always they dropped the ball until someone else comes along to take charge.

[HUSNAA]

This issue of arrest warrant seems to have shaken Albashir to his core. Its turned out to be  a great threat even if its not carried out. Let's hope they hang the spectre of the warrant over his head for a while longer and see how he continues to respond. His present actions seem to indicate that he is really scared of being indicted. So much the better.