Sudan's president faces genocide charge by tribunal
Some at the U.N. fear an arrest warrant in the Hague complicates peace efforts in Darfur.
UNITED NATIONS - The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant Monday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity in a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the nation's Darfur region, according to U.N. officials and diplomats.
The action by the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, will mark the first time that the tribunal in the Hague charges a sitting head of state with such crimes, and represents a major step by the court to implicate the highest levels of the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur.
Some U.N. officials raised concerns yesterday that the decision would complicate the peace process in Darfur, possibly triggering a military response by Sudanese forces against the nearly 10,000 U.N. and African Union peacekeepers there. At least seven peacekeepers were killed and 22 were injured Tuesday during an ambush by an unidentified armed group.
Representatives from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - met with U.N. officials yesterday to discuss the safety of peacekeepers in Darfur.
Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, said that rebels were responsible for the attack on U.N. peacekeepers, and insisted that Sudanese forces would not retaliate against foreign peacekeepers. However, he warned that the announcement of charges against Bashir or other senior officials would "destroy" international efforts to reach a peace settlement in Darfur.
Bashir has been at the center of efforts to seek a political solution to the crisis. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President Bush have reached out to Bashir on such issues as counterterrorism.
Moreno-Ocampo's office said in a statement yesterday that the prosecutor would "summarize the evidence, the crimes and name individual(s) charged" on Monday.
Up to 300,000 people have been killed since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003.