The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has asked the court’s judges to issue a warrant for the arrest of Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, the Sudanese Defence Minister.

He accuses the minister of crimes against humanity and war crimes between August 2003 and March 2004 in the western Sudanese region Darfur. The ICC already issued an arrest warrant against President
Omar Hassan al-Bashir in March 2009 following atrocities in the region.

Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein was foreign minister in 2003. President Bashir charged him with control of Darfur. Two members of his staff, Ahmed Harun and Ali Kushayb, have been sought by the ICC since April 2007.

The war in Darfur flared up in 2003, when Arab gangs and militias, together with government forces, killed and drove away the local population . An estimated 300,000 people were killed and more than 2.5 million displaced. The Sudanese government rejects these figures.
 

(nc/imm)
 

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