From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Jul 23 2008 - 10:41:24 EDT
Eritrea dismissive of Beshir arrest warrant
*Tue Jul 22, 2:36 PM ET*
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.
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