DTN News - GADDAFI'S FAMILY AFFAIRS: Libya's Saif al-Islam Bids To Escape Father's Fate

DTN News - GADDAFI'S FAMILY AFFAIRS: Libya's Saif al-Islam Bids To Escape Father's Fate

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Aaron Gray-Block - Reuters

(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - October 29, 2011: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is expected to try to surrender to the International Criminal Court or seek refuge in a friendly African country as he races to escape his father's fate.

The Hague-based ICC said on Friday the 39-year-old had been in touch. It urged him to turn himself in, warning it could order a mid-air interception if he and his mercenary guards tried to flee by plane from his desert hideout for a safe haven.

The ICC's comments offered some corroboration of reports from Tripoli's new National Transitional Council (NTC) leaders and African neighbours that he has taken refuge with Tuareg nomads in the borderlands between Libya and Niger.

"Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Saif," ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement.

"We have learnt through informal channels that there is a group of mercenaries who are offering to move Saif to an African (state) not party to ... the ICC. The Office of the Prosecutor is also exploring the possibility to intercept any plane within the air space of a state party in order to make an arrest."

In Beijing on Saturday, Moreno-Ocampo said Saif al-Islam was saying he would prove he was innocent of alleged crimes against humanity.

NTC officials told Reuters earlier this week that monitoring of satellite calls and other intelligence indicated Saif al-Islam was considering turning himself in to the ICC, and trying to arrange an aircraft to get him there and out of reach of NTC fighters, in whose hands Muammar Gaddafi was killed a week ago.

DESERT FRIENDS

However, surrender is only one option. The Gaddafis made friends with desert tribes in Niger, Mali and other poor former French colonies in West Africa, as well as farther afield in countries like Zimbabwe and Sudan, some of them also recipients of largesse during the 42-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi, a self-styled African "king of kings".

France, a key backer of February's revolt, reminded Africans of obligations to hand over the surviving ICC indictees - former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Saif al-Islam.

"We don't care whether he goes on foot, by plane, by boat, by car or on a camel, the only thing that matters is that he belongs in the ICC," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero. "We don't have many details, but the sooner the better."

Niger, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, a swathe of arid states to the south of Libya, are all signatories to the treaty that set up the ICC, established to give a permanent international tribunal for crimes against humanity after ad hoc bodies set up for Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone.

"If we reach agreement, logistical measures for his transfer will be taken," ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said. "There are different scenarios, depending on what country he is in."

Without its own police force, the ICC depends on cooperation from member states, which do not include world powers the United States, Russia and China.

Algeria, which took in Saif al-Islam's mother, sister, brother Hannibal and half-brother Mohammed, is not a signatory. Nor are Sudan or Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

AFRICAN MERCENARIES

As well as enjoying protection from Tuareg allies who traditionally provided close security for the Gaddafis, Saif al-Islam may still be in the company of mercenaries from elsewhere in Africa, including possibly South Africa, NTC officials say.

A South African newspaper, in an unconfirmed report, said South African mercenaries were working to fly him out.

A bodyguard who saw Saif al-Islam as he fled last week from one of the Gaddafi clan's last bastions near the capital told Reuters that he seemed "nervous" and "confused". He escaped even though his motorcade was hit by a NATO air strike as it left Bani Walid on Oct. 19, the day before his father died in Sirte.

Three of Saif al-Islam's brothers were killed in the war. Another, Saadi, has found refuge in Niger.

The arrest or surrender of Saif al-Islam would bring a new prominence for the nine-year-old ICC, whose highest profile suspect to date is Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who remains defiantly in office, defended by many fellow Africans.

Following the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, most probably at the hands of fighters who filmed themselves battering and abusing him, Western allies of Libya's new leaders urged them to impose respect for human rights.

NTC leaders would like to run their own trials, but acknowledge that their writ barely runs in the deep south.

Their NATO allies, now winding up a mission that backed the revolt, have expressed little enthusiasm for hunting a few individuals across a vast tract of empty continent -- though French troops based in West Africa might be best placed to step in with transport if Saif al-Islam did choose to surrender.

The ICC's Moreno-Ocampo said in his statement: "If he surrenders to the ICC, he has the right to be heard in court, he is innocent until proven guilty. The judges will decide.

"If the judges decide that Saif is innocent, or has served his sentence, he can request the judges to send him to a different country as long as that country accepts him."

Saif al-Islam was once seen as a liberal reformer, architect of a rapprochement with Western states on whom his father waged proxy guerrilla wars for decades. But he responded with belligerent rhetoric after the revolt erupted in Libya.

The ICC accuses him of hiring mercenaries to carry out a plan, worked out with his father and Senussi, to kill unarmed protesters inspired by "Arab Spring" uprisings elsewhere.

WARM WELCOME

Niger's government in the capital Niamey has vowed to meet its ICC commitments. But 750 km (400 miles) north in a region where cross-border allegiances among Tuareg nomads often outweigh national ties, the picture looks different.

For now, some of the tens of thousands of people who eke out a living in the deepest Sahara, an expanse roamed by smugglers and nomadic herders, say there would be a welcome for the younger Gaddafi.

"We are ready to hide him wherever needed," said Mouddour Barka, a resident of Agadez in northern Niger. "We are telling the international community to stay out of this business and our own authorities not to hand him over -- otherwise we are ready to go out on to the streets and they will have us to deal with."

Mohamed Anako, president of Agadez region, the size of France, said: "I am ready to welcome him in. For me his case is quite simply a humanitarian one.

"Libya and Niger are brother countries and cousins ... so we will welcome him in."

(Additional reporting by Sara Webb and Aaron Gray-Block in Amsterdam, Samia Nakhoul in London, Mark John in Dakar, Ibrahim Diallo in Agadez and Barry Malone in Tripoli; Editing by Myra MacDonald and Ralph Gowling)

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Sri Lanka Army Accused Of Carnage Against Tamil Population

Sri Lanka Army Accused Of Carnage Against Tamil Population

*Analysis: The action taken by Sri Lankan army against local Tamil population, uprooting and displacing them is totally not acceptable. Sri Lanka must understand that Sri Lanka is not Israel and these actions taken by Sri Lankan army could provoke India to involve in war and could escalate to a major conflict in the region. Sri Lanka government must immediately cease and desist actions against local Tamil population prior the factor is raised at The International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sri Lankan forces. (DTN Defense-Technology News)

(NSI News Source Info) COLOMBO - April 21, 2009: An exodus of civilians fleeing Sri Lanka's war zone topped 39,000 and more were coming, the military said on Tuesday before its final deadline for the Tamil Tiger rebels to surrender or die was to expire. In this photograph released by the Sri Lankan military April 20, 2009 shows what the army says are thousands of people fleeing an area held controlled by the Tamil Tiger separatists in northeastern Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka on Monday gave the Tamil Tigers 24 hours to surrender or die after troops breached a huge earthen defence and unleashed an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians held there by the rebels, the military said. The huge outpouring of people started on Monday after soldiers breached an earthen berm blocking the main route out of a 17 square km (6.5 sq mile) no-fire zone on the northeastern coast, the last redoubt controlled the separatist Tigers. The presence of tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been the main obstacle for the Sri Lankan military, which has cornered the rebels with the aim of finishing the 25-year-old war. The United Nations and western governments have urged the military to renew a brief truce to negotiate the peoples' exit, a plea the government has rejected on the grounds that the Tigers have dismissed all entreaties to let the people out. "There are 39,081 civilians that have arrived and they are still arriving," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. "Military operations are still continuing." With Asia's longest-running civil war now nearing its end, Sri Lanka will face the twin challenges of healing the divide between the Tamil minority and Sinhalese majority, and reviving an $40 billion economy that is suffering on multiple fronts. The island nation is seeking a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund loan to shore up a balance of payments crisis and boost flagging foreign exchange reserves, half of which were spent defending the rupee in the last four months of 2008. On Monday, the military had given the LTTE a last ultimatum to surrender by noon on Tuesday (0630 GMT). It has given similar ultimatums in the past, and it was not clear what would happen once it passed. It was also unclear how many civilians remained inside the no-fire zone, but the military operation triggered protests by expatriate Tamils in London and Paris on Monday. In the latter city, around 180 people were arrested and four injured when the demonstration turned violent as protesters blocked an intersection and threw objects at buses and police, police said. AERIAL FOOTAGE Sri Lanka's military on Monday released video shot by unmanned aerial drones it said showed the throngs of people waiting to be checked by soldiers outside the no-fire zone, and one showing people running out of the LTTE-held area. Late on Monday, the military released another video shot by a drone, which it said showed several hundred people in a tight cluster along the shore. A few seconds later, two people outside the cluster aim and fire what appears to be a rifle toward the people several times. Muzzle flashes are visible in the video, which the military said was taken near the northern border of the no-fire zone on Monday. "They were being shot at by the LTTE. From the information we got from the 55 (army) Division, which was closest, quite a number of people were wounded by gunshots," air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said.

The United Nations has long said the LTTE was forcibly preventing people from leaving and forcing others to fight. The LTTE insists people are staying out of choice, and on Monday the pro-LTTE web site www.Tamilet.com reported that a large number of people had fled toward Tiger areas as the military moved into the no-fire zone. TamilNet also said nearly 1,000 were killed in the assault, quoting LTTE political head B. Nadesan. The military denies killing civilians. It was impossible to independently verify the competing accounts since the battlezone is off-limits to most outsiders.

Bangladesh Wants To Try Pakistani Soldiers For 1971 War Crimes / Bangladesh Begins Process For Trial Of 1971 War Criminals On April 8!

Bangladesh Wants To Try Pakistani Soldiers For 1971 War Crimes / Bangladesh Begins Process For Trial Of 1971 War Criminals On April 8!

(NSI News Source Info) Dhaka, Bangladesh - April 11, 2009: Bangladesh wants to try Pakistani military personnel for war crimes during the 1971 freedom movement. The process for holding the war crime trials formally began Wednesday. Dhaka has got the assistance of four UN experts and is moving as per a resolution passed by parliament in February. A high level probe body is expected to be named.

The extent of casualties in East Pakistan is not known. R.J. Rummel cites estimates ranging from one to three million people killed. Other estimates place the death toll lower, at 300,000. On the brink of defeat around December 14, the Pakistani Army, and its local collaborators, systematically killed a large number of Bengali doctors, teachers and intellectuals, part of a pogrom against the Hindu minorities who constituted the majority of urban educated intellectuals. Young men, especially students, who were seen as possible rebels were also targeted.

The cost of the war for Pakistan in monetary and human resources was high. In the book Can Pakistan Survive? Pakistan based author Tariq Ali writes, "Pakistan lost half its navy, a quarter of its airforce and a third of its army." India took approximately 90,000 prisoners of war, including Pakistani soldiers and their East Pakistani civilian supporters. 79,676 prisoners were uniformed personnel, of which 55,692 were Army, 16,354 Paramilitary, 5,296 Police, 1000 Navy and 800 PAF. The remaining prisoners were civilians - either family members of the military personnel or collaborators (razakars). 'We will take the matter to the International Criminal Court and seek the trial of the members of the Pakistani occupation forces who committed crimes against humanity,' State Minister for Liberation War Affairs A.B. Tajul Islam told New Age newspaper Tuesday. A Pakistan stamp depicting the 90,000 PoWs in Indian camps. This stamp was issued with the political aim of raising global awareness of the POW issue to help secure their release. The POWs were released by India after the Simla Agreement. The perpetrators of the atrocities belonging to the Pakistani forces are not in Bangladesh now so the country needs to seek international assistance to bring them to justice, the minister said. 'We will request the world body now to bring them to justice as many of them are beyond any doubt guilty of crimes against humanity,' said the minister who is himself a war veteran. Those who collaborated with the Pakistan government during the freedom struggle are also referred to as 'war criminals' in Bangladesh. Bangladesh's liberation was facilitated by neighbouring India and the forces fought under the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Command. More than 80,000 officers and soldiers of the Pakistani army, the paramilitary and police forces and 13,000 civilians were repatriated from Bangladesh after their surrender to the joint command led by the Indian Army. The process for their prosecution was never initiated. As a gesture of goodwill, India unilaterally decided not to try the prisoners of war for war crimes and released them in accordance with the July 3, 1972 Simla agreement between Pakistan and India. Bangladesh, however, was not a party to the agreement, the newspaper noted. The process of holding the trial has gained momentum after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her allies swept the polls held last December. The premier father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led the freedom struggle. Dhaka is approaching Pakistan which has conveyed through a special envoy of President Asif Ali Zardari that 'time is not ripe' for holding such a trial and that bilateral relations could be damaged. Dhaka has also decided to approach the US, whose Richard Nixon administration sided with Islamabad and opposed what it considered Pakistan's 'dismemberment'. According to historians, some three million people were killed during Bangladesh's freedom struggle against Pakistani forces in 1971.

Pakistani army rapes 200,000 innocent Bangladeshi women Around 200,000 women were raped and tens of thousands of homes were torched by the Pakistani army and its local collaborators. Some of the alleged local collaborators now head the Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh's largest Islamist party. They have been stopped from leaving the country pending the completion of the trial.

Sudan Welcomes U.S. Special Envoy

Sudan Welcomes U.S. Special Envoy

*The Sudan, A Saga of Genocide and Enslavement....The Sudan Slave Story

(NSI News Source Info) Khartoum - April 5, 2009:The Sudanese government welcomed the decision by the U.S. to send a new special envoy to Khartoum, a representative of the Sudanese leader said on Friday. U.S. special envoy Scott Gration, who arrived in Sudan on Thursday, said he hoped for friendship and cooperation from Khartoum. "We welcome the U.S. idea to send a special representative to Sudan, but only if he has come here with an open heart," Awad Ahmed al-Jaz told a news conference. He added that previously U.S. envoys had distorted the situation in the country or made the wrong decisions. "We hope that things will be different now," he said. Gration said on Thursday: "I come here with my hands open. And it will be up to the Sudanese government to determine how they want to continue with the relationship. Hopefully it will be with hands of friendship and cooperation." He appealed for stronger relations with Sudan, whose president, Omar al-Bashir, is accused of war crimes in Darfur. "The United States and Sudan want to be partners and so we are looking for opportunities for us to build a stronger bilateral relationship," he said. The International Criminal Court has accused al-Bashir of criminal responsibility for "intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property." Bashir expelled 13 international aid groups from Darfur after the International Criminal Court issued the warrant for him on March 4. Al-Jaz said the Sudanese authorities would not allow these groups to return to the country "This decision is final and will not be reviewed," he said.

Sudan Envoy To Visit Moscow To discuss al-Bashir Arrest Warrant

Sudan Envoy To Visit Moscow To discuss al-Bashir Arrest Warrant

(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW - April 1, 2009: The special envoy for the leader of Sudan will arrive in Moscow on a two-day visit on April 2 to discuss President Omar al-Bashir's arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, as well as Sudanese-Russian relations. Russia has joined Arab countries in criticizing the arrest warrant for al-Bashir, who faces charges of war crimes in committed in Darfur, saying the ongoing dispute threatens to harm relations between the West and the Arab world. Envoy Awad Ahmed al-Jaz, who is also Sudan's finance minister, is expected to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Margelov, who heads the Federation Council's foreign affairs committee and is the president's special representative on Sudan. The envoy will also deliver a message from President al-Bashir to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The Sudanese president is currently in Qatar for the ongoing Arab League summit. In a draft communique issued on Monday, the Arab leaders said they considered the warrant to be in violation of the 1961 Vienna agreement. The International Criminal Court accuses al-Bashir of criminal responsibility for "intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property." The warrant is the first ever to have been issued by the ICC for a serving head of state.

Sudan: Defiant President Omar Hassan al-Bashir In Doha Ahead Of Arab Summit Monday / Sudan Leader Thanks Arab Summit For Support

Sudan: Defiant President Omar Hassan al-Bashir In Doha Ahead Of Arab Summit Monday / Sudan Leader Thanks Arab Summit For Support

(NSI News Source Info) March 30, 2009: Sudan's embattled President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is in Qatar's capital, Doha ahead of an Arab Summit scheduled to begin today despite an arrest warrant against him issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The summit, however, is expected to support President Bashir officially over the ICC-issued directive despite deep divisions in the Arab world over the indictment. Some political observers believe Qatar will not enforce the arrest warrant since it is not a signatory to the ICC charter establishing the court. The Hague-based international court issued the arrest warrant after Bashir was accused of masterminding war crimes in Darfur. Claude Salhani is the editor of the Middle East Times newspaper. He tells reporter Peter Clottey that President Bashir's presence tarnishes the significance of the Arab summit. "It is going to be an interesting meeting, especially given the fact that the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon is going to be present at this meeting. And he will attend this Monday's session in the presence of Mr. Bashir, and that is going to be an embarrassing moment for Ban Ki-moon. Other than that, I think the Arab League seems to be divided, nothing new in this sense over the issue of Bashir. Some are supporting him, others are not. What's interesting is Mubarak (Egypt's president) is not going to attend this meeting, although he had hosted Bashir a few days ago," Salhani noted. He said the motivations behind the support of Bashir over the ICC arrest warrant could be attributed to several reasons including noncooperation. "It seems that some are making a stance and some are saying like Colonel Gaddafi of Libya for example said that this is an attempt by west to re-colonize their former colonies. He has always got something interesting to say, and he called it a practice of first-world terrorism. So this is a sign of defiance, I guess. On the one hand, I think Qatar is in a peculiar situation, where as the host of this meeting, it would have been hard for them to say no to President Bashir. But on the other hand, Qatar is not a signatory. They haven't signed a charter, which obliges member states to arrest those indicted once they land on their territory. So they get off the hook that way," he said. Salhani said if an Arab League member country has not signed the charter establishing the ICC, it is under no obligation to enforce the arrest warrant against Sudan's President Bashir. "First of all they have to be signatories of the charter. I don't think all of them are. So it depends on if they have signed the declaration of the charter. Then they are obliged by international law to abide by the ruling and to arrest those indicted by the International Criminal Court. But as long as they haven't signed, it's up to the individual leader of that country to decide whether he wants to follow the international ruling or not. He is under no international obligation to do so," Salhani pointed out. He said President Bashir's presence will undermine the importance of the Arab summit in Doha. "In a way it is disadvantage that Mr. Bashir is going to be in Qatar because he is going to take away some of the spotlight on the real issues, and I'm not saying this is not important. But I'm saying for the Arab world, there are some much more urgent matters that they need to discuss and focus on rather than the presence or not of one particular man. Because the presence of President Bashir is not going to change anything in global geo-politics, whereas decisions made on the ground there can change things in the Middle East," he said. This is Bashir's fourth international trip after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against him accusing him of being the brain behind the massacre of Darfuris in the troubled Darfur region. He arrived in Qatar Sunday, after visits to neighboring Egypt, Eritrea, and Libya last week. Some in the Arab world including Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi have sharply denounced the arrest warrant, describing it as an orchestration by western countries to re-colonize the Middle East and adding that it amounts to first-world terrorism. Experts believe that up to 300-thousand people have died and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the Darfur conflict since 2003. According to the joint UN- African Union peacekeeping mission, currently around 15-thousand strong is deployed in Darfur, but its forces remain under-equipped, and it has been attacked by warring factions. The United Nations and humanitarian workers say Sudan's order to expel the 13 aid groups, including Oxfam GB and CARE International punches a giant hole in the safety net that has kept many Darfur civilians alive during six years of war in the vast, arid region of western Sudan. The ICC accuses Bashir of leading a counterinsurgency against Darfur rebels that involves rapes, killings, and other atrocities against civilians. Bashir rejects the charges and refuses to deal with the ICC. Arab and African countries are pressing the UN Security Council to defer any prosecution for at least a year, hoping to defuse the crisis. They contend that the move will worsen conditions on the ground and put in jeopardy the lives of people living in Darfur. Khartoum expelled 13 of the largest aid groups operating in Darfur as part of its defiant response to the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant. The Bashir government accuses the agencies of working closely with the ICC.

Libyan Leader Moamer Kadhafi Slams ICC As 'New Form Of World Terrorism'

Libyan Leader Moamer Kadhafi Slams ICC As 'New Form Of World Terrorism'

(NSI News Source Info) ADDIS ABABA - March 29, 2009: Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi lambasted the International Criminal Court on Sunday as representing a "new form of world terrorism" that wanted to recolonise developing countries. Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, seen here on March 11, recently elected chairman of the 53-nation African Union, said Sunday that the International Criminal Court represented a "new form of world terrorism". "It is a known fact that all Third World countries are opposing the so-called ICC," the recently elected chairman of the 53-nation African Union told a press conference at the AU headquarters here. "This is the case right now. This court is against the countries colonised in the past and they want to recolonise now. It is a practice of a new world terrorism that is not below the standard of the other terrorism." Kadhafi's condemnation followed a call by Arab foreign ministers on Saturday on the Hague-based ICC to annul its arrest warrant against Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir. "It is not fair that a head of state should be arrested," he said. "If we allow such a thing... we should also try those who killed hundreds and millions of children in Iraq and in Gaza." The ICC issued a warrant for Beshir arrest earlier this month, accusing him of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. Many African and Arab states along with key ally China have condemned the ICC move and called for the warrant to be suspended. Beshir faces five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes. He is the first sitting president to be issued with a warrant by the ICC. The AU has argued that the prosecution jeopardised peace efforts in Sudan and on March 18 chided the UN Security Council for ignoring its requests to defer the warrant. The bloc's Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said they were awaiting a decision on the issue by Arab leaders due to their start their annual summit Sunday to make a united move. "We are about to set up a high-level delegation to go to New York to lobby the UN Security Council," Lamamra said. Beshir himself has made foreign trips to Eritrea, Egypt and Libya since the March 4 ICC arrest warrant. The ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, does not have a police force and calls on signatory states to implement warrants. None of the three countries Beshir visited are parties to the court's statute. Kadhafi is to leave Addis Ababa later Sunday for the Arab summit in Doha. It is still unclear whether Beshir will attend the two-day meeting. Beshir is the first sitting president to be issued with a warrant by the ICC. The United Nations says 300,000 people have died in the six-year-long conflict between Darfur's ethnic minority rebels and the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which puts the figure at only 10,000. An estimated 2.7 million people more have fled their homes.

Sudan's al-Bashir To Visit Darfur / Sudanese President Bashir Arrives In North Darfur

Sudan's al-Bashir To Visit Darfur / Sudanese President Bashir Arrives In North Darfur

(NSI News Source Info) Khartoum - March 9, 2009: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday will attend a rally in Darfur, the western Sudanese region where he stands accused of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (2nd, L) inspects troops upon his arrival at Fashir, capital city of North Darfur state, March 8, 2009. Bashir said Sunday in Fashir, capital city of North Darfur state, that the country will fight against "neocolonialism".

The Sudanese Ministry of Information said al-Bashir will attend a rally in al-Fashir, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur province and the site of sprawling camps where tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting in the area have gathered for aid hand-outs. The planned visit is a further sign of al-Bashir's defiance in the face of a warrant for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court last week. The Sudanese president appeared at a rally on Saturday brandishing a traditional Sudanese spear and defended his decision to expel 13 international aid organisations on the grounds that they were "spies" and "thieves." "If people want to fight us... they should come here and fight us face to face," al-Bashir said. He said he would not let the arrest warrant "sabotage peace" between northern Sudan and the south. "Nobody will die in the south. We will not fight each other," he told supporters gathered for a fourth day of mass demonstrations in his support. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussam, visiting al-Bashir at his presidential palace in Khartoum on Saturday, pledged the Arab League's support for the Sudanese president. "The Arab League will continue to try to defuse the crisis," Moussa said, adding that the 22-member body would send a delegation to lobby members of the UN Security Council to suspend the warrant.

World Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Sudan's Bashir / Arrest Warrant Will Harden Sudan Regime / Sudan Leader Appeals For Calm Ahead Of ICC Verdict

World Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Sudan's Bashir / Arrest Warrant Will Harden Sudan Regime / Southern Sudan Leader Appeals For Calm Ahead Of ICC Verdict

*Omar al-Bashir is the first sitting president to be indicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Critics worry the move could destabilize the country.

(NSI News Source Info) March 5, 2009: Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday became the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. At a press conference held at The Hague, Netherlands, The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced its indictment of Mr. Bashir for a range of crimes, including the deliberate attempt to destroy ethnic groups deemed to be supporting rebel factions in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. In this Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007 file photo, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, foreground left, gestures as he arrives for an EU Africa Summit in Lisbon. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Wednesday, March 4, 2009, for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. He is the first sitting head of state the court has ordered arrested. "He is suspected of being criminally responsible ... for intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan; murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing, and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property," said ICC spokeswoman Laurence Blairon. The three-judge panel said there was insufficient evidence to support the more controversial charges of genocide, however. Nearly 300,000 Darfuris have died in the past six years of conflict, either in combat or through starvation and premature death due to displacement. The United Nations estimates that nearly 2.5 million Darfuris have been forced to flee their homes because of the fighting. Bashir's government denies ordering the deliberate murder of civilians in Darfur, and says that the death toll is much lower than the UN and the ICC estimates. "This is a significant step for the hundreds of thousands of victims of conflict in the past six years," says Ariela Blatter, senior director for international programs at Amnesty International in Washington. "The fact that the ICC issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state is a signal to Bashir that there is no 'get out of jail free card here.' " The indictment comes at a time of great political instability in Sudan. Darfur rebels are expanding their operations into neighboring states as the country prepares for crucial national elections this year. And relations between Khartoum and the semiautonomous southern portion of Sudan are coming under increasing strain. Campaigning for his National Congress Party (NCP) outside Khartoum on Tuesday, President Bashir discounted the importance of the ICC's looming decision, saying that the Court could "eat" the indictment. Vice President Salva Kiir, a former southern rebel leader who now shares power with Bashir in a coalition government, struck a more conciliatory line. "In the event of the court agreeing with the chief prosecutor," Mr. Kiir said on Tuesday, "the [Sudan People's Liberation Movement] will work with its partners in the NCP on how to politically and diplomatically handle the decision of the court." He urged the international community to remain engaged in Sudan, whatever the decision, warning, "The collapse of peace in Sudan shall not only hurt the Sudan itself, but shall also have serious repercussions in the region." Beset by a north-south civil war for nearly 20 years, which claimed millions of lives, Bashir ended it in 2003 by signing a comprehensive peace accord and agreeing to share power in a coalition government with the southern rebel movement, the Sudanese People's Liberation Army. Despite Mr. Kiir's reassuring words, some experts worry that the peace deal could be dealt a fatal blow, as well as similar peace talks with Darfur rebels, if SPLA leaders deem Bashir's government to be on its way out. For this reason, leaders of the African Union and the Arab League have been working furiously to persuade the United Nations Security Council to encourage the international court to delay its indictment and arrest warrant for at least a year. This, many African leaders believe, would give enough time for current peace talks with Darfur-based rebels to begin to bear fruit. But human rights groups insist the world should support the ICC's ruling. "The international community should affirm its support for the court and insist that Sudan and other countries cooperate with it as required by the UN Security Council," says Nick Grono, deputy president of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.