ICC to charge Sudan's Bashir over Darfur

• UN officials say at least 2.5 million Sudanese were left homeless and put the death toll as high as 300,000.
• Khartoum has said it would continue cooperating with UN peacekeepers in Sudan even if Bashir is charged.

UNITED NATIONS

Judges at the International Criminal Court have decided to charge Sudan's president for war crimes in Darfur and issue a warrant for his arrest, UN diplomats and officials said on Wednesday.

"The ICC decided it wants him arrested," a diplomat at the United Nations told Reuters on condition of anonymity, referring to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Some UN officials also said they understood that to be the decision by the ICC, based in The Hague. They said it had been widely expected and would be made public later this month.

Last year, chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo asked the court's judges to charge Bashir for orchestrating what he described as a campaign of genocide in Sudan's western Darfur region that killed 35,000 people in 2003 and at least 100,000 more through starvation and disease.

Khartoum rejects the term genocide and says 10,000 people died in the conflict. UN officials say at least 2.5 million were left homeless and put the death toll as high as 300,000.

Sudan has ruled out handing over Bashir or two other Sudanese citizens previously charged by the court for suspected war crimes in Darfur. But Bashir's ability to travel outside Sudan will likely become difficult once an international arrest warrant is issued.

An ICC spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the decision was in the hands of the judges. It was not immediately clear whether Bashir had been charged on all 10 counts of genocide and other war crimes listed by the prosecutor or just some of them.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office has not been notified by the ICC of its decision, although he expects to receive some form of official notification before the end of the month, diplomats and UN officials said.

Khartoum has said it would continue cooperating with UN peacekeepers in Sudan even if Bashir is charged, but has warned there may be widespread demonstrations of public outrage.

Britain's Africa minister, Mark Malloch Brown, spoke to reporters on Tuesday as if an ICC charge of Bashir had already been decided. He also expressed the hope the fragile peace process would continue.

"We will face a very difficult situation after this indictment, and I just hope people of goodwill will go on trying to find ways forward," Malloch Brown said.

Sudan's UN ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, dismissed the decision of the court.

"It will mean nothing to us and doesn't deserve ink with which it is written," he told Reuters. "We will never be shaken by this criminal attempt to pollute our political life and sabotage our efforts for development and peace."

Some UN officials worry the Sudanese government might encourage reprisals against international peacekeepers. Ban said on Tuesday that Bashir and his government must "react very responsibly and ensure safety of (UN) peacekeepers."