There is no hiding place from international law – this is the message from International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo to indicted Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.
In an interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide the top prosecutor says the message is clear not just to Bashir but to all world leaders – international law is not an optional extra but a benchmark against which all will be measured, according to Moreno Ocampo.
The ICC says Bashir's government, which seized power in a 1989 military coup with Islamist backing, committed numerous atrocities while fighting rebels in Darfur and the president stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
More than 200,000 people are estimated to have died in Darfur since 2003, in a campaign that the Bush Administration described as government-sponsored genocide.
The ICC indictments, the first to be handed down against a sitting head of state, obligate the world’s nations to arrest al-Bashir on sight.
Despite this he has attended summits and meetings in seven African and Arab countries over the past few months.
“I have not felt restrictions of movement,” al-Bashir told TIME in an interview in Khartoum in early August.
President Bashir strongly denies the charges and says the ICC is ““is a tool to terrorise countries that the West thinks are disobedient.”
Not surprisingly the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor sees that differently: “We are living in a new world. The communication is global, people see what is happening in different countries immediately and they want justice,” he told RNW.
Email this Video
Printer-friendly version
Post new comment
Please be reminded all comments must be in English, short and to the point - guideline 250 words. Abusive and inappropriate comments will be removed.