Sarkozy warns time running out for Sudan's Beshir

4 hours ago

PARIS (AFP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Sudan's leader Omar al-Beshir on Monday that he must take action for peace in Darfur in the coming days or be forced to answer to the UN war crimes tribunal.

"We need the help of the Sudanese government to finally find peace in Darfur," Sarkozy said in an address to mark 60 years since the adoption of the UN rights declaration.
"But President Beshir has very little time to decide, his fate is in his hands.

"Either he changes his attitude and the international community can hold discussions with him, or he does not change his attitude and will have to face up to his responsibilities, including before the International Criminal Court," said Sarkozy.
"This is a choice that he must make -- not in the coming weeks, but in the coming days."

War crimes prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in July asked the Hague-based International Criminal Court for an arrest warrant against Beshir on 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

He accuses Beshir of personally instructing his forces to wipe out three ethnic groups in the western Darfur region, where conflict has been raging since 2003.
France has called on Beshir to show cooperation and raised the possibility of deferring the arrest warrant.

UN officials say that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million others have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan insists the death toll stands at 10,000.