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صدر الأمر .. المحكمة أقرت محاكمة البشير
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Court Approves Warrant for Sudan’s President Bashir
Article Tools Sponsored By By MARLISE SIMONS and NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: February 11, 2009
THE HAGUE — Judges at the International Criminal Court have decided to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, brushing aside diplomatic requests to allow more time for peace negotiations in the conflict-riddled Darfur region of his country, according to court lawyers and diplomats.
It is the first time the court has sought the detention of a sitting head of state, and it could further complicate the tense, international debate over how to solve the crisis in Darfur.
Ever since international prosecutors began seeking an arrest warrant last year, opponents have pressed the United Nations Security Council to use its power to suspend the proceedings. But a majority of Council members have argued that the case should go forward, saying Mr. Bashir has not done enough to stop the bloodshed to deserve a reprieve.
Many African and Arab nations counter that issuing a warrant for Mr. Bashir’s arrest could backfire, diminishing Sudan’s willingness to compromise for the sake of peace. Others, including some United Nations officials, worry that a warrant could inspire reprisal attacks against civilians, aid groups or the thousands of international peacekeepers deployed there.
The precise charges cited by the judges against Mr. Bashir have not been disclosed. But when the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, first requested an arrest warrant in July, he said he had evidence to support charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide related to a military campaign that “purposefully targeted civilians” and had been “masterminded” by Mr. Bashir.
Lawyers familiar with the case said the court had already sought to freeze the president’s assets but had found his possessions to be hidden behind other names.
The decision to issue a warrant against him, reached by a panel of judges in The Hague, has been conveyed to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and is expected to be formally announced at the court, officials at the United Nations said.
The prosecutor became involved in the case after the Security Council asked him to investigate the conflict in Darfur, where massacres, disease and starvation have led to the deaths of up to 300,000 people and driven millions from their homes.
Although there has been sporadic fighting in Darfur for decades, the conflict significantly intensified in 2003, when rebel groups demanding greater autonomy for the region attacked Sudanese forces. The Arab-led government responded with a ferocious counterinsurgency campaign, which the court’s prosecutor called a genocidal strategy against Darfur’s black African ethnic groups.
Relations between Mr. Ban and Mr. Bashir continue to be strained by Sudanese government actions in Darfur and by Mr. Ban’s refusal to deal with Mr. Bashir directly.
But on Sunday the two men had an unscheduled encounter at a summit meeting in Ethiopia. Diplomats described it as “a stormy meeting” and “a shouting match” in which Mr. Bashir vented his anger at the court, though it is independent of the United Nations. Mr. Ban, in turn, insisted on the safety of United Nations staff members and peacekeepers, and demanded that Mr. Bashir stop the attacks on civilians.
The prospect of an arrest warrant for Mr. Bashir has already caused a diplomatic rift, with the African Union and members of the Arab League asking the Security Council to exercise its right to postpone any moves against the president for a year, arguing that he might still help bring a settlement in Darfur. Once an arrest warrant is issued, the Council can request that it be postponed.
There is broad concern that removing Mr. Bashir from power could threaten a landmark peace treaty between the Sudanese government and rebels in the southern part of the country. The treaty was signed in 2005 to end a civil war in which 2.2 million people died, far more than in Darfur.
Mr. Bashir fought members of his own party to approve that peace deal, and it is widely seen as critical to holding the country together.
On Wednesday, the Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, dismissed the court’s decision as “not deserving the ink used to print it.” The ambassador accused the court of being a political tool of mostly Western powers that want to fragment Sudan.
Mr. Abdalhaleem contended that in separate talks at the United Nations last fall with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top European officials, Sudan was promised that Western powers would support a suspension of the prosecution if the country cooperated with United Nations peacekeeping efforts, pursued peace talks and more aggressively pursued war criminals.
“We are moving on all those tracks,” he said, though human rights groups and diplomats disagree.
A top United Nations official said Mr. Ban’s advisers were now struggling to forge a policy that supports the court’s pursuit of justice but avoids wrecking Sudanese cooperation with the complex missions there.
The court has issued two other arrest warrants in connection with the Darfur conflict, one for a former government minister, Ahmad Harun, and another for Ali Kushayb, a leader of a government-backed militia. Neither has been arrested.
The prosecutor has also accused three rebel leaders of the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers. They have said publicly that they will surrender to the court.
Marlise Simons reported from The Hague, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations. Next Article in World (6 of 43
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/world/africa/12hague.html?_r=1&ref=world
(عدل بواسطة Elbagir Osman on 02-12-2009, 03:30 AM)
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Re: صدر الأمر .. المحكمة أقرت محاكمة البشير (Re: Elbagir Osman)
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من أجل أرواح ملايين السودانيين
في الجنوب
ودارفور
وكجبار
وبورتسودان
والعيلفون
من أجل ضحايا التعذيب في بيوت الأشباح
من أجل من ألقي بهم في السجون بغير حق
من فصلوا من أعمالهم
وسدت أمامهم فرص العمل في القطاع العام
من أجل كل من أذلته سلطة الإنقاذ
وكل "الكبداتن في ولادن طابقة"
الباقر موسى
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Re: صدر الأمر .. المحكمة أقرت محاكمة البشير (Re: Elbagir Osman)
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ترجمتي لأجزاء من المقالQuote: قررت قاضيات المحكمة الجنائية الدولية إصدار أمر قبض على الرئيس السوداني عمر حسن البشير، مزيحات جانبا الإلتماسات الدبلوماسية لمنح وقت أضافي لمفاوضات السلام بخصوص إقليم دارفور السوداني الذي مزقته النزاعات، حسب رواية محامي المحكمة وبعض الديبلوماسيين.
وهذه أول مرة تسعى فيها المحكمة للقبض على رئيس دولة في الحكم، ...
غالبية أعضاء مجلس الأمن تمسكوا بالاستمرار في القضية ، قائلين أن البشير لم يفعل ما يكفي لوقف سفك الدماء ليستحق التأجيل. ... لم يفصح عن التهم المحددة التي تبنتها المحكمة ضد البشير . ولكن كان مدعي المحكمة الرئيسي لويس مورينو أوكامبو قد قال عندما طلب أمر القبض في يوليو، إن لديه أدلة تدعم تهم جرائم الحرب، وجرائم ضد الإنسانية وجرائم إبادة أرتكبت في حملة عسكرية " أستهدفت المدنيين عمدا" وأن البشير كان "الرأس المدبر" لها.
وقال محامون ممن لديهم معرفة بالقضية أن المحكمة قد سعت فعلا لتجميد أرصدة الرئيس ولكنها وجدت أن ممتلكاته مخبأة خلف أسماء أخرى.
صرح موظفون بالأمم المتحدة أنه قد تم أطلاع الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة بان كي مون على القرار الذي توصلت له القاضيات في لاهاي بإصدار أمر القبض، ويتوقع أن يعلن رسميا في المحكمة. |
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Re: صدر الأمر .. المحكمة أقرت محاكمة البشير (Re: Elbagir Osman)
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وأوردت رويترزQuote: ICC to indict Sudan's Bashir over Darfur: diplomats Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:14pm EST
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Judges at the International Criminal Court have decided to indict Sudan's president for war crimes in Darfur and issue a warrant for his arrest, U.N. diplomats and officials said on Wednesday.
"The ICC decided it wants him arrested," a diplomat at the United Nations told Reuters on condition of anonymity, referring to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
Some U.N. officials also said they understood that to be the decision by the ICC, based in The Hague. They said it had been widely expected and would be made public later this month.
Last year, chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo asked the court's judges to indict Bashir for orchestrating what he described as a campaign of genocide in Sudan's western Darfur region that killed 35,000 people in 2003 and at least 100,000 more through starvation and disease.
Khartoum rejects the term genocide and says 10,000 people died in the conflict. U.N. officials say at least 2.5 million were left homeless and put the death toll as high as 300,000.
Sudan has ruled out handing over Bashir or two other Sudanese citizens previously indicted by the court for suspected war crimes in Darfur. But Bashir's ability to travel outside Sudan will likely become difficult once an international arrest warrant is issued.
An ICC spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the decision was in the hands of the judges. It was not immediately clear whether Bashir had been indicted on all 10 counts of genocide and other war crimes listed by the prosecutor or just some of them.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office has not been notified by the ICC of its decision, although he expects to receive some form of official notification before the end of the month, diplomats and U.N. officials said.
Khartoum has said it would continue cooperating with U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan even if Bashir is indicted, but has warned there may be widespread demonstrations of public outrage.
'DIFFICULT SITUATION'
Britain's Africa minister, Mark Malloch Brown, spoke to reporters on Tuesday as if an ICC indictment of Bashir had already been decided. He also expressed the hope the fragile peace process would continue.
"We will face a very difficult situation after this indictment, and I just hope people of goodwill will go on trying to find ways forward," Malloch Brown said.
Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, dismissed the decision of the court.
"It will mean nothing to us and doesn't deserve ink with which it is written," he told Reuters. "We will never be shaken by this criminal attempt to pollute our political life and sabotage our efforts for development and peace."
Some U.N. officials worry the Sudanese government might encourage reprisals against international peacekeepers. Ban said on Tuesday that Bashir and his government must "react very responsibly and ensure safety of (U.N.) peacekeepers." The secretary-general met Bashir on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Addis Ababa last week.
U.N. officials said blue helmet peacekeepers in Darfur had no mandate to act on ICC arrest warrants in Sudan but would go about their business of protecting civilians there.
The Save Darfur Coalition of over 180 organizations and activist groups issued a statement saying it was time for the world to shun Bashir.
"A regime led by an indicted war criminal cannot possibly be treated as a full member of the community of nations," it said. "The international community must press Sudanese authorities to comply with their obligations to cooperate with the ICC, including executing all outstanding warrants."
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE51B08120090212[/QUOTE]
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