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Egypt Today
Sudanese government and rebel groups agreed upon handing over the ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and others to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Member of Sudan’s Sovereign Council and the spokesperson for the government delegation for the Juba peace talks, Mohamed el Taayshi is quoted by the Saudi Arabian Okaz newspaper as saying, “we have agreed and we are committed to refer all those who received arrest warrants to stand before the ICC”.
He added that this agreement “stems from a belief in justice and not impunity”, adding that the parties agreed to establish a special court for crimes in Darfur.
This step is contrary to previous announcement made by the Sudanese transitional military council last April, ensuring that the country will not hand over Bashir to any foreign organization and that he will stand for trial at home.
The ousted President was indicted by the UN’s International Criminal Court (ICC) of genocide charges. In March 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges he and his Arab tribal allies were responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity against non-Arab Sudanese in Darfur, South Sudan.
According to U.N. statistics collected on the Darfur Genocide since August 2007, more than 200,000 people were killed and at least 2 million have been displaced from their homes after fighting broke out in 2003 between government forces and their Arab tribal Janjaweed militias allies on one side and rebel groups on the other.
