KHARTOUM (AFP)
More than 1,000 protestors gathered outside the republican palace in Khartoum on Thursday, shouting death to the world court prosecutor who is seeking an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir.
Shouting "God is Great" and "Go Forward Bashir" students and Arab tribesmen from western Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur angrily condemned allegations that the head of state was guilty of genocide and war crimes.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Bashir on Monday of masterminding a genocidal campaign against three ethnic groups in Darfur and requested an arrest warrant on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Any formal arrest warrant, if granted, would be the first issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.
Participants in the demonstration, organized by members of the president's National Congress party, cried "We the Darfur tribes support al-Bashir" and "death for Ocampo."
An AFP correspondent estimated there were around 1,000 people in the crowd making it the biggest such rally since Monday.
Khartoum has braced for angry protests since the ICC move, although numbers so far have fallen short of those at other protests in recent months.
Sudan, which has refused to surrender two suspects named last year for war crimes in Darfur, is hoping to persuade veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to defer any ICC prosecution.
The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum and state-backed militias.
The United Nations has said 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million been displaced. Khartoum puts the number of dead at 10, 000. |
