UPDATED: ICC Seeks Arrest of Bashir, Sudan Expels Aid Agencies

Update (5 March): The Sudanese Government responded to the ICC's arrest warrant by expelling international aid agencies, including Oxfam, Medicins Sans Frontieres, and Mercy Corps, from the country.

As expected, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Al-Bashir is is charged with seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with the violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur since 2003. Five counts are for crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture, and rape. The other two counts are for war crimes, direction of attacks against civilians, and pillaging.

The ICC chief prosecutor had filed charges of genocide against al-Bashir. These were not included in the warrant; an ICC spokesman said evidence submitted to date did not support those charges. They be added in an amended version at a later date.

For a useful analysis of the ICC proceedings, see Simon Tisdall in The Guardian earlier this week.

Comments

[Norm Thomson]

Well, all of these leaders of genocide should be placed on trial. But, that would also include George W. Bush whose claims are "collateral" damage.

[UJ]

I'm with Norm. Going after Bashir is certainly empowering to the ICC, but in order for it to have real credibility it must have jurisdiction over truly epic criminals, including those in the United States, the European Union, and the PRC.

[Scott Lucas]

A reader has e-mailed us:

"Excellent after Dafur , now start on the other disgusting African "leaders" who understands democracy to mean getting power by the ballot and then use the army to stay there forever. Next on the list should be Mugabe of Zimbabwe. While close on 100,000 of his people are victim of cholera -4000 dead allready -he throws a party for his 85th birthday of which the crayfish alone cost R700,000- that`s $70,000. When he came to power he killed tens of thousands of Nkomo`s( his major opponent) Matabele followers. The area around Victoria falls stank so badly of rotting corpses that travel was impossible. Starving Zimbabwean people now have him to thank for the famine after he confiscated the productive farms that have given the country the appelation of the breadbasket of Africa from whites that had a history in the country going back over 100 years. His cronies who were given these farms immediately allowed the lush lands to revert back to bush. His record of the destruction of a prosperous country and managing to create inflation rates of millions of % is unmatched in history."