Eritrea dismissive of Beshir arrest warrant

07/23/08
    

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Eritrea dismissed Tuesday as an "insult" a bid to put Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir on trial for war crimes in Darfur and said the move must be rejected.

"The drama that has unfolded in the past few days in the name of the 'International Criminal Court' has baffled many observers," a foreign ministry statement said.

"This phenomenon, which can only be interpreted as an 'insult', is a manifestation of the harassment that has been accumulating. As such it must be rejected and challenged.

"The people and political forces of the Sudan should go beyond this to prevent interference in and 'internationalization' of their domestic affairs. This can only be done if mistakes done in the past are rectified to pave the way for a genuine Sudanese internal solution," it said.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accuses Beshir of personally instructing his forces to annihilate three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and the use of rape to commit genocide.

Last week, Moreno-Ocampo asked ICC judges to issue a warrant for Beshir's arrest. If granted, which could take several months, it would be the first issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.

The UN says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

It began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.