THE HAGUE, July 14, 2008
Sudan's President Charged With Genocide
ICC Accuses Omar al-Bashir Of Masterminding Attempts To Wipe Out African Tribes In Darfur
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Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir gestures to pro-government demonstrators gathered outside a cabinet meeting, where they were protesting against the possibility that he could be indicted for crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court, in Khartoum, Sudan, July 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)
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In this Wednesday, June 11, 2008 file photo, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir prays during the mass funeral of 30 victims killed in a plane crash, in Khartoum, Sudan. (AP PHOTO)
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Play CBS Video Video Stories From Darfur An aid worker in Darfur is trying to draw the world's attention to the conflict in Sudan with a petition. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are telling their stories. Mark Phillips reports.
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Video George Clooney Visits Darfur "CBS News RAW": Actor George Clooney visited the war-torn region of Darfur, Sudan on a technical assessment mission that also included tours in Central African Republic, Chad, the Congo, and India.
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Video Notebook: Darfur Genocide has claimed 400,000 lives in Darfur, a war-torn region of Sudan, and 4 million more hang in the balance. During a time of peace and joy, Katie Couric questions the world's response.
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Fast Facts Sudan Learn about the people, economy and history.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir to prevent the slow deaths of some 2.5 million people forced from their homes in Darfur and still under attack from government-backed janjaweed militia.
"Genocide is a crime of intention - we don't need to wait until these 2.5 million die," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"The genocide is ongoing," he added, saying systematic rape was a key element of the campaign. "Seventy-year-old women, 6-year-old girls are raped," he said.
Moreno-Ocampo was undeterred by concern that his indictment against Al-Bashir might ignite a storm of vengeance against Darfur refugees and lead to the closing of Sudan's doors to relief agencies and possibly peacekeeping troops.
"I am a prosecutor doing a judicial case," he said.
Al-Bashir "wants to end the history of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa people. I don't have the luxury to look away. I have evidence," the prosecutor said in a statement.
"His motives were largely political. His alibi was a 'counterinsurgency.' His intent was genocide," the statement said.
"The purpose of a trial at the ICC is to make those responsible for crimes against humanity accountable and, in the case of Darfur, to stop the ethnic cleansing that has been occurring for almost five years,” said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk.
But, said Falk, there are concerns within the human rights community about whether an arrest warrant for Bashir
Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir's arrest.
One witness cited by prosecutors said rapes are woven into the fabric of life in Darfur.
"Maybe around 20 men rape one woman. These things are normal for us here in Darfur," her statement said. "I have seen rapes too. It does not matter who sees them raping the women - they don't care. They rape girls in front of their mothers and fathers."
Moreno-Ocampo said the rapes were producing a generation of so-called "janjaweed babies" and "an explosion of infanticide" by victims.
Despite Moreno-Ocampo's bold move, Al-Bashir is unlikely to be sent to The Hague any time soon. Sudan rejects the court's jurisdiction and refuses to arrest suspects.
In Khartoum, Fathi Khalil, a senior member of Al-Bashir's party and head of the bar association, denounced Moreno-Ocampo's move, which he said was made under international pressure and undermined its reputation for independence.
The indictment "proved that he is playing a political role, not a legal one," Khalil told The Associated Press.
The Sudanese Liberation Movement-Unity, a rebel group in Darfur, welcomed the move and offered to help arrest and extradite any war criminals from Sudan.
The filing marked the first time prosecutors at the world's first permanent, global war crimes court have issued charges against a sitting head of state.
Moreno-Ocampo's decision to go after Al-Bashir is expected to cause further turmoil in Sudan, and some analysts fear it could make life even worse for refugees living in Darfur's sprawling camps and reliant on humanitarian aid for food and water.
A group of human rights groups from around the world said Sudan already is blocking peacekeepers and humanitarian aid.
"Given the track record of the regime, the international community must be ready to respond quickly and appropriately to any reprisals that may be threatened following today's announcement," the groups said in a joint statement. "If there are such actions, the responsibility will be on those who perpetrate them."
An arrest warrant would effectively turn Al-Bashir into a prisoner in his own country. In the past, Interpol has issued so-called Red Notices for fugitives wanted by the court, meaning they should be arrested any time they attempt to cross an international border.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Monday's move sent a clear message to perpetrators of atrocities.
"Charging President Al-Bashir for the hideous crimes in Darfur shows that no one is above the law," said Richard Dicker, director of the group's International Justice Program.
Moreno-Ocampo said most members of the three targeted ethnic African groups were driven from their homes by Sudanese forces and the janjaweed in 2004. Since then, the janjaweed have been targeting the camps aiming to starve the refugees.
"These 2.5 million people are in camps. They (Al-Bashir's forces) don't need gas chambers because the desert will kill them," Moreno-Ocampo said, drawing comparison's with Nazi Germany's most notorious method of mass murder during the Holocaust.
The refugees "have no more water, no more food, no more cattle. They have lost everything. They live because international humanitarian organizations are providing food for them," he added.
An estimated 300,000 people have died in Darfur since conflict erupted there in 2003 when local tribes took up arms against Al-Bashir's Arab-dominated government in the capital, Khartoum, accusing authorities of years of neglect.
Moreno-Ocampo said that the most conservative estimate put the death toll at 118,000. He estimates about 35,000 of them were "directly killed" and the remainder died indirectly - likely as a result of hunger or disease.
He said the international community needs to act to prevent more deaths.
"We are dealing with a genocide. Is it easy to stop? No. Do we need to stop? Yes. Do we have to stop? Yes," he told the AP.
"The international community failed in the past, failed to stop Rwanda genocide, failed to stop Balkans crimes," he added. "So this time, the new thing is there is a court, an independent court ... who is saying 'this is a genocide."'
Al-Bashir's ruling National Congress Party had warned Sunday of "more violence and blood" in the vast western region if a warrant for his arrest is issued, state Sudanese TV reported.
There are also fears the case could spark a backlash against the 9,000-strong U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.
Moreno-Ocampo said any attacks on peacekeepers would be "further evidence that he's committing genocide - attacking those that like to protect these people."
A spokeswoman for the force said it had not suspended any military operations.
"All essential peacekeeping operations are being carried out by troops," Shereen Zorba told the AP by e-mail from Khartoum.
The U.N. Security Council referred the case to the ICC three years ago, deciding there was enough evidence to begin an investigation into Sudanese government officials alleged involvement in the atrocities taking place in Darfur, explained Falk.
The prosecutor said it is up to the Security Council to "ensure compliance with the court's decision."
But achieving unanimous backing for any action will be fraught with problems since two of the council's members, China and Russia, are Sudan's allies.
Indicting a sitting president is not unprecedented.
Other international courts previously have indicted Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor of Liberia while they were in office. Milosevic died in custody in The Hague in 2006 shortly before the end of his trial, while Taylor is on trial in a courtroom just four stories above the room where Moreno-Ocampo made his announcement.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 27 Comments
- Darfur is about OIL nothing more, nothing less.
The Saudi''''s have invested heavily in Sudan. The people of Darfur will never see any benefit from their countries wealth. US strategy is to let them all die for Big Oil & Saudi investors.
Sudan is one of seven countries on the administrations HIT LIST........
Amy Goodman''s interview with General Wesley Clark. Clark stated he viewed a defense department memo that described how the U.S. was going to take out seven countries in five years...."starting with Iraq,then Syria and Lebanon, then Libya,then Somalia and Sudan, and back to Iran."
And the extermination continues............ - Reply to this comment
- WHEN WILL BUSH AND HIS DUEL PASSPORT HOLDING NEOCONS BE TRIED?
AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!
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Posted by bluestardad at 11:18 PM : Jul 14, 2008
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I''''m looking forward to the day when Bush and Cheney are hauled before a war crimes tribunal too!
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Posted by SgtRDS10-4 at 11:02 PM : Jul 14, 2008
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Ihave this feeling that you really dont give a sh*t about middle east or sudan..pretty all you care about is whine..you have no solid foundation on anything other than whine..
we do this..you whine
we dont do this..you whine
we give them that..you whine
we dont give then that..you whine.. - Reply to this comment
- Bloody savages,animals the whole lot of them.
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- Good, charged by ICC. USA is off the hook for saving yet another country. We need to focus here on our own issues and save our own legal, hard-working, underpaid people right now. Think of all the fuel we saved not going in as a nation and interfering with Sudan''s problems.
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- Posted by bluestardad at 11:18 PM : Jul 14, 2008
-Just what are you doing to stand up? Please share. As individuals we feel our voice isn''t heard and there''s not much we can do. So, what''s your suggestion?? - Reply to this comment
- bluestardad, SgtRDS10-4 and others;
surely you aren''t suggesting the US go in and forcebly take the man out of power and try to "nation-build?" That would be oddly similar to what we are doing in Iraq - which, of course, you are completely against because it happens to be a country far more important to the economic health of the planet. Yes, they have oil, which runs our economy, which is a major force to the economies of the rest of the planet. Are you seriously suggesting the US intervene in Sudan? - Reply to this comment
- WHEN WILL BUSH AND HIS DUEL PASSPORT HOLDING NEOCONS BE TRIED?
AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP! - Reply to this comment
- I''m looking forward to the day when Bush and Cheney are hauled before a war crimes tribunal too!
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- THERE WILL BE BLOOD in Africa...it''''s sad, true, and unavoidable...but the bottom line is, Africa''''s problems can only be solved by Africans and if there is bloodshed...so be it...after all European developed came at the price of many lives lost for over two-thousand years, is it really surprise that this is happening elsewhere?
Posted by ozilot at 12:59 PM : Jul 14, 2008
Interesting observation, but perhaps you are missing the point and bigger picture here ... history should not have to repeat itself merely to allow equality in stupidity and heartlessness ... such savagery is wrong. Why don''t you move there and get raped by 20 men or watch your 6 yr old daughter have 15 men climb on her and do their disgusting acts, her leaving her with who knows what physically and emotionally, and tell me it''s progress?! Shame on YOU! - Reply to this comment
- These people are savages,amimals.
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- CBS: In Khartoum, Fathi Khalil, a senior member of Al-Bashir''s party and head of the bar association, denounced Moreno-Ocampo''s move, which he said was made under international pressure and undermined its reputation for independence.
-The USA, UK and some other Western Countries tried to do to Sudan what they did in Iraq. Divide the country into parts, because of the Oil in Sudan soil. The Souther State of Darfur is full of Oil and is not said Publicly.
-The West has tried to strenghten the Sessessionist South by Arming them and letting them fight a war of Insurgency against the Khartoum Government, pretending Human rights, Democracy and all the Bullsh*t we hear on our media!...
-The real deal is not in bringing AlBashir in front of Puppet Justices in the Hague, because that will not bring those dead back to life, but to put more pressure on Omar AlBashir and prevent him from moving abroad...
-Truely this is a political decision. Not a Human Rights Criminal Decision. If that is true and Sudan could also prove the Insurgency was armed by foreign countries, and meant to break a democratically elected government in charge of the Country which he had to defend. It''s a lost case because most probably the rape was a reciprocal practice done by both sides... - Reply to this comment
- CBS: In Khartoum, Fathi Khalil, a senior member of Al-Bashir''s party and head of the bar association, denounced Moreno-Ocampo''s move, which he said was made under international pressure and undermined its reputation for independence.
-The USA, UK and some other Western Countries tried to do to Sudan what they did in Iraq. Divide the country into parts, because of the Oil in Sudan soil. The Souther State of Darfur is full of Oil and is not said Publicly.
-The West has tried to strenghten the Sessessionist South by Arming them and letting them fight a war of Insurgency against the Khartoum Government, pretending Human rights, Democracy and all the Bullsh*t we hear on our media!...
-The real deal is not in bringing AlBashir in front of Puppet Justices in the Hague, because that will not bring those dead back to life, but to put more pressure on Omar AlBashir and prevent him from moving abroad...
-Truely this is a political decision. Not a Human Rights Criminal Decision. If that is true and Sudan could also prove the Insurgency was armed by foreign countries, and meant to break a democratically elected government in charge of the Country which he had to defend. It''s a lost case because most probably the rape was a reciprocal practice done by both sides... - Reply to this comment
- But what does Sudan, Darfur, Zimbabwe, Myanmar (a.k.a Burma)or any other country ruled by what the west would describe as tryant have to with us here in the good old U.S.A...not a dam.n thing!
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Posted by ozilot
A) Darfur is a region of Sudan, not another country.
B) What happens in Sudan definitely affects us here in the US. Good old Osama Bin Laden was the guest of Omar Bashir for several years. Sudan has looked the other way as terrorist groups and terrorist money has flowed in.
C) To stop this genocide would be incredibly easy. It''''s worth the $ 1million worth of bombs and jet fuel to make it happen. But then again, you''''re a limosine liberal, and you are too self-interested and cowardly to act in the interest of humanity.
Posted by diatreme
Actually it is a global responsibility not to permit genocide and violent crimes in the region.
It''s a moral obligation of the big nations.
And ozilot, what if it were you and your family being raped and burned in those villages...Im sure you would talk so cheap. - Reply to this comment
- send the US troops - america likes putting thier nose in other people''s business
- Reply to this comment
- various comments
Posted by ozilot at 12:59 PM : Jul 14, 2008
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My response: Many assert your point that the USA has no business in Africa, S.E.Asia, or other points around the globe! And, it''s not one that I would choose to argue---in a debate---against!
Unfortunately, historically presidents of both parties have gone into other areas around the world---primarily, when they WANTED something!
Our current situation in Iraq is NO exception to that tendency! We''re NOT there to instill democracy or any other such nonsense---Bush took us there to get the oil. It''s just that simple!
So, if your point is, future presidents need to use good judgment, let other nations tend to their own affairs, and the USA become involved ONLY under the most extreme conditions, then I''m in complete AGREEMENT with you! - Reply to this comment
- While they''re at it, the International Criminal Court should have a look at Janet Reno and the Waco caper.
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- And the Arab''s & the USA will take control of Darfur''s massive oil reserves. Mission accomplished.
Just another one of seven countries Bush & Cheney planned to take out when they took office.
In an interview published by the French, dedefensa.org journalist Amy Goodman''s interview with General Wesley Clark.
Clark stated he viewed a defense department memo that described how the U.S. was going to take out seven countries in five years..
.."starting with Iraq,then Syria and Lebanon, then Libya,then Somalia and SUDAN, and back to Iran." - Reply to this comment
- With over a million verifiable Iraqi deaths attributed to George Bush''s illegal attack and occupation of Iraq, isn''t about time the world court files charges against Junior Bush?
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- it never ceases to amaze me how you people can blame Bush for every ill in the world. There was genocide in Sudan long before Bush took office..Talk to some missionaries who worked there, then you''''ll get the truth with no spin....
Posted by blessed1959 at 10:17 AM : Jul 14, 2008
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My response: True, there was genocide there before Bush took office! But the point is, as president of the U.S., he could have used his authority to help put an end to it, or lessen it! And, he chose NOT to!
But, he had time to concoct a phony war in Iraq for oil---certainly that ruse wasn''t on any ''high moral plain''! He didn''t start the trouble there, but he had the oppurtunity to end it, and he didn''t! - Reply to this comment
- Well, at least Luis Moreno-Ocampo has some guts to do what''s right---even if Omar al-Bashir never gets extradicted or tried!
- Reply to this comment
The road ahead in Afghanistan, and the crucial decision Obama faces.
