ICC to review absence of genocide on Beshir warrant
Posted by Yahoo! News
by Mariette le Roux Mariette Le Roux
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
AFP
AFP/File – Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir
is pictured here in 2009. Genocide may be added
to the list of charges …
THE HAGUE (AFP) – Genocide may be added to the
list of charges against Sudan's president Omar al-Beshir after a war
crimes court Wednesday ordered a review of his arrest warrant for
alleged atrocities in Darfur.
An appeals chamber directed judges to rethink their decision to omit
genocide from the warrant issued in March last year, saying they had
made "an error in law".
"The standard of proof developed and applied ... was higher and more
demanding than what is required," said presiding judge Erkki Kourula,
upholding an appeal by prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo who repeated his
accusation that Beshir had "genocidal intent".
"I believe the decision of President Beshir to expel humanitarian
organisations (from Darfur following the issuing of the warrant) is
confirming his genocidal intention," the prosecutor told AFP after
Wednesday's ruling.
Thousands of people "were in the desert with no food and no water. When
President Beshir ordered the expelling he basically is confirming that
his intention is to physically destroy them."
Khartoum accused the ICC of trying to influence ongoing peace talks with Darfur rebels.
"If you look to the time of this process, it shows that the ICC wants
to stop the political development in Sudan," Kamal Obeid, state
minister for information, told AFP.
The ICC decision came as Beshir briefly visited Doha for talks related to the Darfur peace process.
ICC decision important for Darfur victims: prosecutor
The Justice and Equality Movement rebel group welcomed Wednesday's
ruling as a victory for "the population of Darfur and justice", adding
it remained committed to peace negotiations that other groups have
boycotted.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Beshir in March last year on five
counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes committed in
Sudan's western Darfur region -- its first-ever warrant for a sitting
head of state.
Moreno-Ocampo, having implicated the Sudanese leader in the deaths of
35,000 people, subsequently lodged an appeal against the court's
decision not to include the three counts of genocide he had asked for.
The prosecutor accuses Beshir of having "personally instructed" his
forces to annihilate three ethnic groups -- the Fur, Masalit and
Zaghawa in Darfur.
The tools used by Beshir's forces, says the prosecutor, were killings,
rapes, destruction of livelihoods and the forcible transfer of
survivors to camps without food and water.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million
have fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur rose up
against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in February 2003.
Sudan's government says 10,000 have been killed.
The ICC ruling was welcomed by rights groups, with the Save Darfur
Coalition warning that: "The US and the international community must
immediately make it clear to Khartoum that no retaliation against
civilians, humanitarian aid operations or peacekeepers in Darfur will
be tolerated."
The court has no means of enforcing the warrant on its own, and relies
on states to execute it. It cannot try Beshir in absentia.
Beshir has visited several countries, non-signatories to the ICC's
founding Rome Statute, since the warrant was issued. Many African and
Arab states along with Sudan's key ally China have called for the
warrant to be suspended.
News Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100203/wl_africa_afp/ iccsudanbeshirgenocide 
