Finally, a genocide case against Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir

Monday, July 13, 2009, 19:45 By GSerrano
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Sudan's Omar al-Bashir

On March 4, Sudanese President, General Omar al-Bashir, was issued a warrant of arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and missed on the ultimate prosecution for genocide. He simply snubbed such warrant and flaunted his impunity through his trips outside Sudan. This time, the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague will finally go after him for three counts of genocide based on additional sufficient evidence.

“The prosecution submitted detailed evidence on the mobilization and use of the entire Sudanese state apparatus for the purpose of destroying a substantial part of the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups in the entire region of Darfur during more than six years,” said Luis Moreno-Ocampo, ICC Prosecutor, who presented more evidence to ‘prove the genocidal intentions’ of al-Bashir. Moreno-Ocampo requested the appeals chamber to ‘correct the error’ of earlier omitting the genocide allegations against al-Bashir.

The United Nations asserts that more than 300,000 people died during the war in the western Darfur region that cloaked what really was ethnic cleansing. 2.7 million people have fled their homes and became refugees in camps reeling in squalor. al-Bashir’s government claims that only 10,000 have been killed.

The African Union (AU) has declared that it will not cooperate in implementing the warrant. It has also appealed to the United Nations to delay the indictment, citing reasons that such prosecution would affect international peacemaking efforts in Darfur. In reality, there are 30 African states that signed the Rome statutes which creating the International Criminal Court, making these countries obligated to arrest al-Bashir by virtue of the ICC warrant should the Sudanese president travel to their respective countries.

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Via Yahoo! News

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