THE INTERNATIONAL Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday ended months of speculation and indicted Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Mr Bashir has become the first president to be indicted for war crimes by the ICC, the world’s only permanent war crimes court.
He faces five counts of crimes against humanity and another two of war crimes, with prosecutors claiming he masterminded a five-year programme of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, a region of western Sudan.
However, the judges did not agree to add the charge of genocide requested by the court’s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who says Sudanese forces targeted three of Darfur’s tribes for annihilation. “The warrant does not mention genocide, but the court may issue an amended warrant to include that charge later,” said ICC spokeswoman Laurence Blairon.
The charges accuse Mr Bashir of co-ordinating an Arab militia, the Janjaweed, and air force units in attacks on civilians that led to murder, rape, forcible transfer and torture.
The indictment, requested in July last year by Mr Ocampo, was welcomed by human rights groups who have been highlighting the suffering in Darfur since fighting broke out there in 2003.
“The ICC was created to enforce the principle that no one, not even the president of a country, is above the law, ” said William Pace, convener of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, an US-based rights group. “The president of Sudan is now a fugitive from justice in his own country.”
The UN estimates that the ethnic cleansing campaign has left more than 300,000 dead and forced another 2.7 million to flee their homes, most now living in overcrowded refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.
Sudan has said it does not recognise the authority of the court, which was mandated to carry out its investigation by the UN Security Council in 2005, and it has refused to consider handing over its president for trial. Mr Bashir said earlier this week that he was unconcerned with the impending indictment against him.
An early test of the resolve of the international community will come later this month when Mr Bashir is due to visit an international conference in the Gulf state of Qatar. UN rules stipulate that all member nations must arrest any war crimes suspect arriving on their territory, and it is unclear if the president will now make the trip.