21.04.11 - ICC/DARFUR - « I AM RESPONSIBLE ABOUT EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN THE COUNTRY"

The Hague, April 21, 2011 (FH) - In an interview to the British daily news The Guardian, President of Sudan Omar Al-Bachir declared on Wednesday that he felt, as a Head of state, responsible for the war in Darfur: « I am the President so I am responsible about everything happening in the country », he stated.

1 min 26Approximate reading time

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued in March 2009 and July 2010 two arrest warrants against Omar Al-Bachir for " genocide, crimes against humanity and crimes of war".

According to the UN, since the beginning of the war in Darfur in 2002, 300,000 people have been killed and 2,7 millions had to be displaced.  Khartoum states that the figures are closer to 10,000 killed and 70,000 displaced.

According to President Al-Bachir, "There were armed people who attacked the state, attacked people, attacked cities, so, it's the government's duty to fight the insurgents but we did not fight the people of Darfur".

He further criticizes "the behaviour" of Luis Moreno Ocampo: "It was clearly the behavior of a political activist. Not a member of a legal profession".

ICC Prosecutor has denounced several times Khartoum's regime, once comparing it to Hitler's Germany in 1993, a declaration which was strongly condemned by the African Union (AU).

In his interview to The Guardian, Omar Al-Bachir accused Moreno Ocampo of lying: "The biggest lie was when he said I have 9 billion dollars in one of the British banks. Thank God, the British bank denied this".

Lloyd had denied hosting such a secret bank account. In an interview to the BBC, Luis Moreno Ocampo then had to admit there had been a mix-up and that no bank in the United Kingdom was keeping Al-Bachir secret funds.

" I't s a political issue", said Al-Bachir to The Guardian, reproaching the ICC its "double standards".

"There are obvious crimes like Palestine, Irak and Afghanistan that have not found their way to the International Criminal Court. Also the same ruling in which the Darfur case was transferred to the Court stated that American soldiers would not be questioned by the Court. "

ICC Prosecutor is expected to present his progress report on Darfur before the UN Security Council on June 7, 2011.

SM/ER/GF

© Hirondelle News Agency