ICC warrant means 'nothing'- Sudan
An International Criminal Court warrant issued against Sudan's
defence minister means "nothing" and Khartoum does not care about the
decision, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
The reaction came after the Hague-based court said it has issued an
arrest warrant for Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, for
alleged crimes against the civilian population in Sudan's western region
of Darfur.
"The government will not issue any statement reacting to the ICC
decision because we believe it means nothing to us," since the country
is not a party to the Rome Statue governing the court, foreign ministry
spokesman Al-Obeid Meruh told AFP. "We don't care about any decision
coming from the ICC." Hussein, 60, is the sixth person sought by the ICC
or before the court for crimes committed in Darfur, where rebel groups
drawn from Darfur's non-Arab tribes rose up against the Arab-dominated
Khartoum government in 2003.
Among those sought is Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
The court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said in December
when he asked for the warrant against Hussein that it would cover crimes
against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur from August 2003 to
March 2004.
Hussein, who was interior minister from 2001 to 2005 and also
Bashir's special representative for Darfur from 2003 to 2004, is wanted
for allegedly coordinating attacks against civilians in villages in west
Darfur. AFP |