Sudanese president charged with genocide

[The Minx]

CNN

(CNN) -- The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is seeking an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and other crimes for a five-year campaign of violence in the country's Darfur region.

The warrant, if issued by the ICC, would make al-Bashir the first sitting president to be indicted by the ICC for genocide.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo presented his evidence against al-Bashir to the judges at the Hague in the Netherlands on Monday. The judges must now decide whether to issue the warrant, and it is widely expected that they will; the judges have approved all 11 of Moreno-Ocampo's previous submissions to the court.

In his request, Moreno-Ocampo says there are reasonable grounds to believe that al-Bashir bears criminal responsibility for five counts of genocide, two counts of crimes against humanity, and two counts of war crimes.

The alleged crimes stem from a brutal counter-insurgency campaign the Sudanese government conducted after rebels began an uprising in Sudan's western Darfur region in 2003. The United States and much of the world has already characterized the campaign as genocide.

The authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels draw strength.

About 300,000 people have died in Darfur, the United Nations estimates, and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes. Video Watch a tour of Darfur's deserted Northern Corridor »

Moreno-Ocampo says al-Bashir targeted three ethnic groups living in the region -- including the Fur group, for whom Darfur is named -- solely on account of their ethnicity.

Al-Bashir bears responsibility, Moreno-Ocampo says, because he sat at the apex of the government.

"For such crimes to be committed over a period of five years and throughout Darfur, al-Bashir had to mobilize and keep mobilized the whole state apparatus; he had to control and direct perpetrators; and he had to rely on a genocidal plan," Moreno-Ocampo wrote as background for arrest warrant request.

Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations has already condemned the charges. Video Watch how some are concerned by the move »

"It is a criminal move that should be resisted by all," Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad said Friday amid reports that the charges were imminent. "We will resist it by all possible legal means."

Mohamad accused Moreno-Ocampo of "playing with fire."

In Khartoum, a crowd of about 2,000 people greeted al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 coup, when he arrived for an emergency meeting of his Cabinet Sunday to discuss the charges.

When he saw the crowd, al-Bashir climbed onto a pickup truck and pumped his fist in the air, whipping the group into a frenzy.

Some held signs saying, "You are joking... Ocamp-who?" and "Death to America."

A high-ranking ambassador at the presidential palace called the possible prosecution stupid and malicious, and warned that the Sudanese people would see it as proof of a larger conspiracy against the country.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Nic Robertson at the Hague, the prosecutor said he had a responsibility to bring charges against al-Bashir.

"The (U.N.) Security Council referred the case to me and requested me to investigate," Moreno-Ocampo said. Read a transcript of the interview

"After three years I have strong evidence that al-Bashir is committing a genocide. I cannot be blackmailed, I cannot yield. Silence never helped the victims. Silence helped the perpetrators. The prosecutor should not be silent."

In 2005, the Security Council cleared the way for possible war crimes prosecutions related to Darfur by the ICC, a permanent tribunal set up to handle prosecutions related to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court is based on a treaty signed by 106 nations -- excluding Sudan.

In addition to Sudan, ICC prosecutors are investigating offenses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and the Central African Republic.

The attacks in Darfur over the past five years have followed a common pattern, Moreno-Ocampo's evidence says.

Members of Sudan's armed forces, often acting together with the militias and under al-Bashir's command, singled out villages and towns inhabited by tribal groups. Troops and militia members shot and killed civilians, and sometimes the Sudanese air force was called in to bomb villages and towns in support of the ground forces, the prosecutor's evidence says.

"They destroyed farms and looted grain stores or set them on fire. They burned residential and other dwellings and community facilities including schools, mosques and hospitals. They also poisoned sources of water including communal wells, destroyed water pumps, stole livestock and stripped the towns and villages of virtually all other household and community assets," the prosecutor's evidence says.

Residents who fled were often chased and attacked or left to fend for themselves in the wilderness, the evidence says.

The attacks, it says, undermined the ability of the targeted groups to survive in Darfur. The destruction of their homes scattered entire communities, and the pervasive rape and sexual violence against girls and women -- who are often targeted when they are out collecting firewood or water -- has torn families apart. Video Watch how UNICEF is trying to prevent rape in Darfur »

"They are raping women, raping girls, raping in groups -- raping to destroy the communities," he told CNN. "Rape is a tool in the genocide -- the most important tool today."

The chief U.N. humanitarian coordinator, John Holmes, said Friday that aid workers were already preparing for the effects of an arrest warrant against al-Bashir, making sure staff members are safe.

Moreno-Ocampo said any attacks on peacekeepers would be another reason to bring al-Bashir to justice.

The ICC has already indicted two men for Darfur crimes -- Ahmad Harun, Sudan's former minister of the interior who is now in charge of humanitarian affairs for the Sudanese government and militia leader Ali Kushayb -- but neither has been brought to justice.

Once the ICC indicts someone, authorities in that person's native country -- or the country in which the indicted person is located -- have the power to detain the indicted person for trial at the Hague.

Kushayb and Harun both remain in Sudan where they enjoy the protection of al-Bashir, Moreno-Ocampo said. Since they have not been arrested, the prosecutor says, it is unlikely al-Bashir will be -- and he says it will probably take a U.N. Security Council resolution for al-Bashir to be brought to justice.
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Senior Sudanese government leaders have previously told CNN that reports of atrocities in Darfur are exaggerated.

"Yes, there has been a war and some people have died, but it's not like what has been reflected in the media," Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid said last month.

[LadyTevar]

So how will they capture him and make it stick?

[Rogue 9]

Barring something unforeseen, they can't. Even if someone with the special forces who might be able to pull it off (i.e. the United States, Britain, Russia, and a select few other countries) were interested in 1.) risking their assets and 2.) even doing so in the first place, there's so much that could go wrong with any sort of raid to seize a well-protected head of state that it would be simply crazy to try it.

[General Havoc]

Nobody's going to try. This is largely pro-forma, even for the western countries. A means of applying more indirect pressure to the Sudanese government.

[frigidmagi]

It's a nice piece of paper and I'm sure the Sudanese President will be impressed but not frightened. We should have invaded Sudan instead of Iraq.