Cairo - The Arab League is considering Sudan's call for an
emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss reports that
the International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecutor may seek a
warrant for the arrest of the Sudanese president, a spokesman for the
Cairo-based body said Saturday.
The Arab League's spokesman, Hesham Yussif, told al-Arabiya news
channel that the league was in consultation with Arab foreign
ministers over the 'serious crisis.'
However, Yussif said, no action will be taken until Monday when
the ICC prosecutor is expected to open a new war crimes case on
Darfur.
An ICC prosecution statement said Thursday that prosecutor Luis
Moreno-Ocampo was due to put forward to judges evidence on crimes
committed in Darfur in the past five years and would seek to make
charges against individuals.
No further details were revealed but United Nations officials were
quoted by The Washington Post as saying Sudanese President Omar
Bashir would be charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.
Sudan has formally asked the Arab League to hold an emergency
meeting to discuss the crisis.
Last year, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for two Sudanese, the
minister Ahmed Harun and militia commander Ali Kushayb, but the
Sudanese government said it would not hand not them over.
The crisis in Sudan's western Darfur province erupted when non-
Arab rebels staged an uprising in 2003 against the predominantly Arab
central government and Khartoum-backed nomadic militias.
Some 200,000 people have died, according to international
estimates, and about 2.5 million have been displaced since 2003.
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