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| Africa Horn |
| Sudan's Bashir 'stashed $9bn in UK' |
| 2010-12-19 |
| [Al Jazeera] Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, has transferred up to $9bn out of the African nation, with much of it sent to banks in the United Kingdom, according to leaked US diplomatic cables reported in the Guardian newspaper. A US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website on Saturday details a conversation between Alejandro D. Wolff, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society, and Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor to the International Criminal Court (ICC). During a meeting in March 2009, Moreno-Ocampo is quoted as saying that the disclosure of the alleged "illegal accounts" could help garner support for al-Bashir's arrest. "Ocampo suggested if Bashir's stash of money were disclosed [he put the figure at $9bn], it would change Sudanese public opinion from him being a 'crusader' to that of a thief," the cable says. "Ocampo suggested exposing Bashir had illegal accounts would be enough to turn the Sudanese against him." Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world with an estimated 40 per cent of the population living below the poverty line, despite being a sizable exporter of oil. War crimes charges The meeting between Wolff and Moreno-Ocampo was held shortly after the ICC ordered the arrest of the Sudanese president on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country's western Darfur region. A further three counts of genocide were added to the charges in July. Khartoum has repeatedly dismissed the arrest warrant as "a political decision" and African nations have refused to comply by detaining al-Bashir during overseas visits. Rabie Abdul Atti, a senior member of the governing National Congress Party (NCP), described the allegations as lies. "These allegations by Ocampo are proving that he is a big liar internationally and I don't think that the Sudanese people will look at them seriously," he told Al Jizz. "These are political allegations [intended to] to press the Sudanese government to comply with the agenda of Europeans and the United States of America." Earlier, Dr Khalid al-Mubarak, a front man at the Sudanese embassy in London, called the allegations a "laughable claim". "To claim that the president can control the treasury and take money to put into his own accounts is ludicrous," he told The Guardian newspaper. The leaked cable also hints at efforts to bring major world powers on board over the arrest warrant. "Ocampo suggested it would be beneficial to reassure China that its access to oil would not be jeopardised," the cable says. "If China believed Bashir was becoming a destabilising influence, Ocampo said China might be more open to his removal as long as his replacement would guarantee support for China's economic interests." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 "To claim that the president can control the treasury and take money to put into his own accounts is ludicrous" Why? That's the history of post-colonial Africa. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2010-12-19 11:50 |
| #1 RBS or the various London banks should be very good at losing that 9BN in fees and mistakes.... |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2010-12-19 01:09 |