• 02:01
  • Tuesday ,13 July 2010
العربية

Darfur warrant for Sudan's Bashir: ICC adds genocide

By-BBC

International News

00:07

Tuesday ,13 July 2010

Darfur warrant for Sudan's Bashir: ICC adds genocide

 The International Criminal Court has issued a second arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir - this time for charges of genocide.

He already faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which he denies.
 
The ICC first indicted him in March 2009 but he has not been arrested.
 
He is accused over the conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur, where some 300,000 people are said to have died in seven years of fighting.
 
The ICC had initially declined to add genocide to the indictment but this has been overturned on appeal, with the judges finding "there are reasonable grounds to believe him responsible for three counts of genocide".
 
Pro-government Arab militias are accused of ethnic cleansing against civilians from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa communities after rebel took up arms in Darfur in 2003.
 
Mr Bashir has denied that his government armed the militias, known as the Janjaweed.
 
"This second arrest warrant does not replace or revoke in any respect the first warrant of arrest," the ICC said.