International Criminal Court charges Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur

Int’l Court charges Sudan president with genocide

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The International Criminal Court on Monday charged Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with three counts of genocide in Darfur, a move that will pile further diplomatic pressure on his isolated regime.

The decision marked the first time the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal has issued genocide charges.

An arrest warrant for al-Bashir said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that since April 2003 Sudanese forces attempted genocide against the Darfur tribal groups Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

Last year, judges issued a warrant against the president for crimes against humanity, but refused to indict al-Bashir on genocide charges as sought by prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. The prosecutor appealed that ruling, and four months ago an appellate court ruled that the lower court’s decision was legally wrong.

Prosecutors then filed their case again, and on Monday judges issued an arrest warrant charging al-Bashir with three counts of genocide: by killing, by causing mental and physical harm, and “by deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction.”

Genocide, the gravest crime in international law, requires proof of an intent to wipe out “in whole or in part” a racial, religious or ethnic group.

Moreno Ocampo accuses al-Bashir of keeping 2.5 million refugees from specific ethnic groups in Darfur in camps “under genocide conditions, like a gigantic Auschwitz.”

Al-Bashir, who was re-elected to a new five-year term earlier this year, refuses to recognize the court’s authority and has repeatedly said he will not turn himself in to stand trial.

He was charged in March 2009 with five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes for allegedly orchestrating atrocities in Darfur.

The United Nations estimates 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been forced from their homes since ethnic African rebels rose up in 2003, accusing Sudan’s Arab-dominated central government of neglect and discrimination.