Kerry in Sudan

The Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, has been charged with war crimes over the conflict in Darfur, becoming the first sitting head of state issued with an arrest warrant by the international criminal court (ICC).

The court, based in The Hague, upheld the request of the chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, to charge Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity. More than 200,000 people have died since 2003 in the country's western Darfur region.

Judges dismissed the prosecution's most contentious charge of genocide. Prosecutors had alleged Bashir tried to wipe out three non-Arab ethnic groups.

Within minutes of the announcement, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

Mustafa Osman Ismail, an aide to Bashir, described the decision as "neo-colonialism ... They do not want Sudan to become stable."

The ICC spokeswoman, Laurence Blairon, said the indictment, drawn up by three judges, included five counts of crimes against humanity: murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape. The two counts of war crimes were for directing attacks on the civilian population and pillaging.

Blairon said Bashir was criminally responsible as the head of state and commander of the Sudanese armed forces for the offences during a five-year counter-insurgency campaign against three armed groups in Darfur.

Yasser Arman is a senior member of the SudanPeople's Liberation Movement (SPLM) Political Bureau. He tells reporter Peter Clottey that Senator Kerry's visit would help push to the forefront implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the war between the north and South.

"It is an important event and as you know Senator Kerry is a prominent figure and he is adding value after the U. S envoy came here when he presented the administration's point. Senator Kerry is adding another angle of the congress and of the legislature of the United States. And a man of his caliber coming at this critical stage to Sudan will open new doors, new avenues, and new opportunities and trying to work out resolutions of the Darfur crisis as well as implementing the CPA. He would also be trying to strengthen peace and democracy in Sudan, "Arman noted.

He said Senator Kerry's visit would have an enormous impact on the full implementation of the CPA.

"Absolutely, he would add his voice which is a strong voice to the need of implementing the CPA and honoring the commitment from the National Congress side. And he will help both parties and most importantly he would also be visiting Darfur and that would bring more focus on the issue of Darfur and the issues of the CPA. And we think his presence is of value to us (SPLM) and we encourage more visits from him and others to focus on the implementation of the CPA and the democratization and transformation of the country and the comprehensive resolution of the Darfur crisis," he said.

Arman described the Darfur humanitarian crisis as reprehensible.

...

Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) effectively ended what was widely described as Africa's longest war between Khartoum government and the insurgent Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

Political analysts see the main obstacles to the full implementation of the 2005 CPA to be President Bashir's ruling National Congress Party's of unwillingness to embrace genuine power sharing and elections, and ultimately allow a referendum for southern self-determination after the six-year interim period.

Sudan has told the United States it will allow some aid back into its Darfur region, U.S. Senator John Kerry said on Thursday.

"Thanks to the leadership of the president's special envoy General Scott Gration and thanks to the willingness of the government here to engage in a new dialogue with us, some of that capacity for humanitarian assistance will be restored," Kerry told reporters after meeting senior members of the Sudanese government.

<snip>
"Today I emphasised, to all the leaders I met with, that a partial restoration of capacity is not sufficient," Kerry said.

"Time is of the essence to avert a humanitarian catastrophe."