Sudan

Beshir calls on Darfur rebels to lay down their arms

Article published on the 2009-03-18 Latest update 2009-03-18 18:45 TU

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir
(Photo: AFP)

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir Wednesday called on fighters to lay down their arms during a visit to the Darfur region. It was his second visit to Darfur since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest on 4 March. Among the charges on the warrant for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity are murder, torture, rape, and pillage during the Darfur conflict.

Beshir vowed to develop the Darfur region, which has suffered through six years of conflict and decades of neglect.

"We want to reunify the people of Darfur and we call on all our sons and brothers who bear arms to put them down," he said. "Our response [to the ICC] is to bring electricity to Darfur, more schools, water, more hospitals.

The crowd beat and burnt an effigy of ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo.

Sudan has said it will not cooperate with the court and has taken steps to defy mounting Western criticism, including expelling 13 international aid agencies.

The United Nations says the aid agency expulsions will leave 1.1 million people without food, 1.5 million without healthcare and more than a million without water.

"It's not the US or Britain who chooses the president of Sudan but the Sudanese people," he yelled to an audience of thousands of supportive militiamen.

On Tuesday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Beshir's defiance and explusion of the aid agencies, saying "he will be held responsible for every single death that occurs in those camps."