THE HAGUE — In an unprecedented ruling expected to have far-reaching repercussions, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued on Wednesday, March 4, an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the troubled region of Darfur.
"Today, pre-trial chamber one of the International Criminal Court ... issued a warrant for the president of Sudan for war crimes and crimes against humanity," court spokeswoman Laurence Blairon told a televised press conference at the seat of the court in The Hague.
Last July, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo called for issuing the warrant against Bashir on 10 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Blairon said Bashir will face five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes, accusing him of "exterminating, raping and forcibly transferring a large numbers of civilians" from Darfur.
She accused him and other high level Sudanese political and military leaders of orchestrating and coordinating the attacks.
But the 65-year-old Sudanese leader will not face charges of genocide as requested by Moreno-Ocampo because there was not enough evidence.
Bashir denies all the charges and has refused to acknowledge the authority of the court.
This is the first ever warrant against a sitting head of state.
Darfur has been ravaged by violence since 2003 when rebel groups took up arms accusing the Khartoum government of neglect and marginalization.
The UN says over 300,000 have died as a result of conflict, disease and malnutrition and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur.
The Sudanese government says only that 10,000 have died.
Defiant
Soon after the ruling, the Sudanese government stressed it would not cooperate with the ICC on the warrant.
"We will not deal with this court," Justice Minister Abdel Basit Sabdarat told Al-Jazeera television.
"It has no jurisdiction, it is a political decision."
He vowed that his country would not hand anyone to the ICC.
The court has no powers of enforcing its own warrants, but suspects can be arrested on the territory of states that have signed up to the ICC's founding Rome Statute.
Minutes after the ruling, thousands of Sudanese took to the streets of the capital Khartoum in protest.
Banner-waving crowds massed on the banks of the Nile, chanting "We love you President Bashir."
"We will protect President Bashir with every drop of our blood," chanted another group near Khartoum university.
The ruling party said it plans a "million man march" in Khartoum on Thursday, March 5, to protest the warrant arrest.
Security was beefed up around foreign embassies, while diplomats urged expatriates to avoid public places.
The Paris-based Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, leader of the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM-Nur) faction, hailed the warrant as a "great victory".
Another rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), also hailed the ICC move.
"We consider this day a great day for the Sudanese and Darfur people," said Mohammed Hussein Sharif, the Cairo representative of the JEM.
"We renew our call on Bashir to appear before the court to plead his innocence, if he were indeed innocent."