Sudan’s Bashir warns foreign diplomats that they face expulsion

March 16, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir warned in an interview today that his government is prepared to expel foreign missions if they exceed their mandate.

Bashir also said that the order he gave to expel more than a dozen aid groups from Darfur was a message to the Western world.

“We have 87 NGOs in Darfur and we expelled 12 of them which had intelligence-linked activities” he said in an interview due to be published in Egypt’s independent Al-Isboa weekly on Saturday.

“Their expulsion is a clear message and I hope that the West and the Americans will understand it. We will not be afraid of their threats or of their media which tell lies” the Agence France Presse (AFP) published as translated text of the interview.

The Sudanese leader stepped up his anti-Western rhetoric since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape and torture.

Khartoum has expelled the UN Special representative to Sudan Jan Pronk 2006 after writing about military defeats of the Sudanese army in Darfur.

In the past Sudanese officials have made several threats to evict other Western diplomats including the US charge D’Affaires Alberto Fernandez.

(ST)