Darfur Ruling: Sudan's President Charged With Genocide

The prosecutor at the international criminal court has called for the arrest of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, alleging that he orchestrated a campaign of killings, rape and deportation against three tribes in Darfur.

Last night Bashir rejected the charges and said the ICC had no jurisdiction in Sudan. "From the beginning we said we are not a member of the court ... the court has no jurisdiction over Sudan. Whoever has visited Darfur ... will know that all of these things are lies," he told a state-run television station.

The indictment will now be considered by three ICC tribunal judges, before a decision on an international arrest warrant is taken, which is likely to take months.

Yesterday Washington ordered extra security at its embassy in Khartoum, and the UN pulled out non-essential staff for fear of a backlash against foreigners. Deputy parliamentary speaker Muhammad al-Hassan al-Ameen warned that his government was unable to guarantee "the safety of any individual". "The UN asks us to keep its people safe, but how can we guarantee their safety when they want to seize our head of state?" he said.

A joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force, Unamid, has also raised security and pulled out non-essential workers, but a spokeswoman said this was influenced primarily by attacks on its soldiers.

Yesterday the African Union called for any indictment to be suspended pending fragile peace talks in both Darfur and southern Sudan. Tanzania's foreign minister, Bernard Membe, speaking on behalf of the AU, said: "We are asking the ICC to re-examine its decision." And Alex de Waal, at the New York-based Social Science Research Council, said that for now any backlash had receded: "The AU has sent reassuring signals to Bashir. Whereas last week Bashir was under pressure and angry, people who've seen him today say he's calm and relaxed.

The charges leveled by the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, went further than most lawyers had expected. He alleged the Sudanese president had "masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups, on account of their ethnicity".

The plan was put into action, in the form of killings, mass rape and ethnic cleansing, after a revolt broke out in Darfur in 2003. "His motives were largely political. His alibi was a 'counterinsurgency'. His intent was genocide, " Moreno-Ocampo said.

Three years ago a UN commission on Darfur ruled that the killings, despite their scale, did not constitute genocide. But Moreno-Ocampo argued that Bashir's guilt was far greater now because forces under his control had pursued the 2.5 million Darfuris made homeless in the conflict into the relief camps.

"Al-Bashir organized the destitution, insecurity and harassment of survivors. He did not need bullets. He used other weapons: rapes, hunger, and fear. As efficient, but silent," Moreno-Ocampo said. "They are raping women, raping girls, raping in groups - raping to destroy the communities," he told CNN.

The prosecutor's announcement was welcomed by Darfuri rebels. Ahmad Hussain Adam, of the Justice and Equality Movement, said: "It sends a very strong message to dictators that they cannot get away with their crimes."

But some lawyers question whether Moreno-Ocampo can prove his charge of genocide. William Schabas, of the rights center at the National University of Ireland, said: "Genocide is reserved for the physical extermination of ethnic groups, and I think most observers would agree that's not what we're seeing here. The wise course would have been to charge crimes against humanity. This looks like a bit of grandstanding popular in some quarters - but, if the judges follow the law, they will acquit Bashir."

Explainer: Genocide

The international legal definition of genocide was laid down in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. To prove genocide the prosecutor will have to demonstrate "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" and the consequent actions taken against that group. Those actions can include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, creating conditions calculated to bring about the group's destruction - to prevent births within the group, for example, or forcibly transferring children out of the group. In this case the international criminal court prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is alleging that mass rape has been used as the principal tool of genocide, as it is aimed at destroying the society of the targeted tribes.