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Strong evidence against Bashir - prosecutors
THE HAGUE: Sudan's president was warned by prosecutors Tuesday that strong evidence has been compiled of his involvement in war crimes in Darfur, on the eve of a decision by judges over whether to seek his arrest. While President Omar al-Bashir said he would regard any decision by the International Criminal Court as worthless, the ICC's chief prosecutor said he had dozens of witnesses ready to prove the veteran leader's guilt.If the warrant is granted and an arrest carried out, the 65-year-old would become the first sitting head of state to be hauled before the ICC since the UN court opened in 2002. "We have strong evidence against Bashir," chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters in The Hague, the seat of the court. "We have more than 30 different witnesses who will present how he managed and controlled everything," Moreno-Ocampo added. In July last year, Moreno-Ocampo asked a pre-trial chamber to issue a warrant for Bashir's arrest on 10 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in a decision that triggered outrage in Khartoum. Moreno-Ocampo reiterated his allegation Tuesday that genocide was being committed in camps for people displaced from their villages in Darfur where a six-year conflict has cost several hundred thousand lives. "The weapons in the camps are rape and hunger. Five thousand people are dying each month." As for witnesses, Moreno-Ocampo said some were being protected "because we foresaw what is happening now: they are attacking people who they believe could be our witness." The decision of the judges is set to be announced at 1300 GMT on Wednesday. However on Tuesday Bashir said any decision by the ICC on whether to seek his arrest would be disregarded. "Any decision by the International Criminal Court has no value for us," Bashir said at the inauguration of a dam on the Nile north of Khartoum. "It will not be worth the ink [with which it is written]." "The Western world is targeting Sudan in order to stop ... its development projects but we absolutely don't care," Bashir said. "We will respond to all these decision with new development projects." Posted by: Fred 2009-03-04 |
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