Sudan president steps up rhetoric against ICC, France

December 23, 2008 (KHARTOUM) –The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir reiterated his position with regards to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and singled out France accusing it of targeting his country.

Al-Bashir who faces a possible arrest warrant by the ICC in the coming weeks rejected any compromises to hand over two other suspects wanted by the court.

“If Bashir extradites Haroun and Kushayb he does not deserve to be a president of Sudan and the Sudanese who refuse to see their homeland and people attacked” he told a rally in North Darfur.

“We are not prepared to hand over the nail of a Sudanese to the ICC” he added.

Al-Bashir toured North Darfur state today to inaugurate new development projects in the region.

The embattled head of state has recently become more outspoken on the issue of the ICC vowing not bend to international pressure demanding that Sudan cooperate with the court.

In April 2007 the ICC issued arrest warrants for Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb in connection with Darfur war crimes.

More than a year later Al-Bashir himself became a suspect after the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo submitted a new case accusing him of masterminding genocide against the African tribes in Darfur.

Khartoum has lobbied the UN Security Council (UNSC) to use its power to suspend the ICC move but Western countries asked him to boost efforts to end Darfur violence.

One of the issues raised was the fate of Haroun who is still a cabinet minister despite being accused by ICC of war crimes.

“The international community can’t talk with someone who appoints someone to his government who is charged with a crime,” the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) said earlier this month.

“Either he changes his attitude and the international community can hold discussions with him, or he does not change his attitude and will have to face up to his responsibilities, including before the International Criminal Court” said Sarkozy.

Observers in Khartoum say that Sarkozy’s statements shocked the Sudanese government given the fact that Paris has appeared more willing than other western nations to negotiate a deferral. The French president met privately with his Sudanese counterpart in Qatar last month.

Al-Bashir today blasted France specifically saying they have hidden agendas in Sudan.

“Those who target Sudan and its president specially the French and Denmark have and still are insulting the Prophet because they have no morals. Their plans will fail” the Sudanese president said.

“Their targeting of Sudan is not new and the goal is to derail the country’s Islamic orientation. Stop the development projects and take over the vast natural resources that we enjoy” he added.

He called on rebel groups “to return to their senses” saying that the “money and people of Sudan and their blood is more precious than any dollar”.

Al-Bashir expressed readiness to work with other Arab and African countries as well as the joint mediator to search for a peaceful settlement in Darfur.

International experts also say more than 300,000 were killed and 2 million have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Darfur, a region that is roughly the size of France.

(ST)