Region | Sudan
Defiant Al Bashir rejects Darfur genocide charges
Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, on his first trip abroad since the International Criminal Court moved to indict him for war crimes, on Tuesday denied that his forces had committed genocide in Darfur.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:32 August 19, 2008
Istanbul: Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, on his first trip abroad since the International Criminal Court moved to indict him for war crimes, on Tuesday denied that his forces had committed genocide in Darfur.
Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last month asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for Al Bashir on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, saying his state apparatus had killed 35,000 people and indirectly at least another 100,000.
Al Bashir, who has defied the ICC and calls the court's move part of a neo-colonialist agenda to protect the interests of developed countries, said that his government forces were not responsible for crimes in Darfur.
"We are not committing genocide in Darfur," Al Bashir told Turkish President Abdullah Gul during a meeting in Istanbul, according to a Turkish official close to the talks.
"We are saddened by the events there," Al Bashir was quoted as saying.
The two men, who met for 30 minutes in an Ottoman-era palace by the Bosphorus strait on the sidelines of a Turkey-Africa economic summit, did not discuss the ICC nor the case against Al Bashir. Al Bashir does not accept the legitimacy of the court.
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