Sudan to Hand over Al-Bashir for Genocide trial

JUBA – Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir and three others indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be handed over to the war crimes tribunal, a government spokesman has confirmed.

“We agreed that we fully supported the ICC and … [that] the four criminals wanted to be handed to the ICC,” Mohammed Hassan al-Taishi told journalist Nichola Mandil in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, the venue for peace talks between Sudan’s government and rebel groups from the Darfur region.

“One of them is al-Bashir and three others,” Taishi said, making clear this was the position of Sudan’s government and not his personal view.

Bashir, who was toppled in a coup last April after months of street protests, has denied accusations of being behind war crimes and genocide in Darfur where conflict erupted in 2003.

Taishi said Sudan’s new transitional government had the political will to end the crisis in Darfur, but justice was the only way a comprehensive peace deal could be reached.

Asked if supporters of the ousted president would accept this decision, Taishi replied that no-one was above justice.

“We are doing what the Sudanese people asked us to do,” he added.

“We are working very hard to reach a comprehensive peace agreement that ends the causes that led to the war… and we’re trying to fix our country’s problems to prepare our country for the future.”

Taishi is a civilian member of Sudan’s sovereign council, the body overseeing the country’s transition to democracy.

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By Agencies

Image: Omar al-Bashir, who is 76, was ousted last April after nearly 30 years in power