Warrant latest twist in Sudan's many conflicts
On July 14, the first sitting head of state was charged with war crimes and genocide by the International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecutor.
ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court for an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accusing him of masterminding a campaign of genocide in Darfur, that has killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through "slow death" and forced 2.5 million from their homes.
Bashir is the most senior figure pursued by the court since it was set up in 2002 and the first sitting head of state charged by an international court since Liberia's Charles Taylor and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic.
The Sudanese leader has dismissed the charges and said the ICC had no jurisdiction in Sudan. Khartoum has emphasized that it will pursue diplomacy rather than encouraging any violent backlash.
Implications of warrant
World opinion is split on the court’s actions, with China, Arab and African countries expressing concern over the ICC’s move and its implications for the peace process. The African Union has urged the U.N. to put on hold the process initiated by the ICC.
Sudanese opposition parties are among those voicing concern at the international court's move. They fear a warrant could prevent next year's election, planned as the first democratic vote in 23 years.
Aid agencies taking part in the world's largest humanitarian operation in Darfur fear a longer-term security deterioration.
Sudan, whose economy is growing rapidly thanks to an oil boom, has described U.N. moves to raise security, evacuate staff families and withdraw non-essential personnel as an overreaction.
Country of crises
The ICC indictment against Bashir is only the latest in a string of crises that plague the Sudanese president.
Bashir, a former Sudanese army general, came to power in June 1989 by overthrowing the democratically elected civilian government of former Prime Minister Sadeq al-Mahdi.
In October 1993, he dissolved the military junta which brought him to power and appointed himself civilian president, in a move designed to establish Islamic government in Africa's largest country as stable and civilian-based.
After nearly two decades of fighting in alliance with Sudan's powerful Islamist movement, Bashir’s government surprised many analysts when it forged a peace deal in 2004 with rebels seeking greater autonomy for the mostly animist or Christian south from the Muslim north.
The crucial agreement between Khartoum and southern rebels ended a 21-year civil war that killed 2 million people and forced 4 million from their homes. Under the peace deal, South Sudan formed its own government and is due to hold a referendum on secession in 2011.
And in Darfur, rebels rose up against the government in February 2003 saying Khartoum discriminated against non-Arab farmers in favor of Arab tribes. Since then, international experts say at least 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been displaced. Khartoum says 10,000 people have been killed.
The Sudanese government has accepted a hybrid peacekeeping force of 26,000 African Union and United Nations troops, but only 9,000 are on the ground.
Meanwhile, clashes between Sudanese and Chadian forces along Sudan's western border have strained relations with Chad, causing bilateral relations to deteriorate. Accusing each other of supporting rebel forces in their countries, Chad and Sudan broke off diplomatic relations in May.
Adding to all its internal strife, the 2008 worldwide bread crisis and skyrocketing inflation once again threatens to propel Sudan into famine.
"Genocidal orders"
With so many world powers expressing concern over the charges, the arrest of Bashir seems highly unlikely.
Moreno-Ocampo said it usually took two to three months for ICC judges to rule on an application for an arrest warrant, but it could take longer as this case was so complicated.
He said he would also ask the court to freeze Bashir's assets.
The prosecutor said Bashir masterminded a plan to destroy the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in Darfur who launched a rebellion in 2003 against the Khartoum government, accusing it of marginalizing the vast western province.
"The decision to start the genocide was taken by Bashir personally," Moreno-Ocampo told a news conference. "Bashir is executing this genocide without gas chambers, without bullets, without machetes. It is a genocide by attrition."
He charged Bashir with three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape, and two of war crimes.
The prosecution said Bashir promoted those who complied with his "genocidal orders", such as Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Haroun, whom the ICC charged last year over Darfur.
"The decision on this indictment is a victory for humanity," said Suleiman Sandal of the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement.
"Now this decision will put Bashir in a corner and will help us now to overtake this regime. A criminal man cannot be a president of a member state of the United Nations," Sandal added.