Appeals Court says ICC Could Charge Sudan President with Genocide

Appeals court judges have ruled the International Criminal Court was wrong to decide Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir could not be charged with genocide for his actions on Darfur.

The ruling by the appeals judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague was unanimous.

The appeals judges ruled to reverse a previous court decision, saying it had used an overly high standard of proof to dismiss genocide charges against Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir.

Last year, the court charged Mr. Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity - including murder, extermination, torture and rape. Seven years of conflict in Sudan's Darfur province have killed about 300,000 people and displaced nearly three million.

But the appeals judges did not agree to the prosecutor's request to rule Mr. Bashir was responsible for genocide. The pre-trial chamber must take up that issue again.

Amnesty International senior legal advisor Christopher Hall hailed the appeal judges' ruling.

"I think little by little, the vice is closing in on him and at some point he will have to face a trial in the International Criminal Court in the same way that President Milosevic or President Taylor or numerous other officials from Rwanda and Sierra Leone have had to face trials," said Christopher Hall.

In remarks to the Associated Press news agency, a spokesman for the Sudanese government dismissed the court's decision as having no consequence, and said Mr. Bashir would run for re-election in April. While several countries have ignored the court's international arrest warrant against Mr. Bashir, he is increasingly isolated.

The court's arrest warrant against Mr. Bashir is its first against a sitting head of state.

Source:voanews.com/

Four Million Hungry People In Southern Sudan

ROME, Feb 3 (Bernama) -- The Rome-based World Food Programme said that there are nearly four million hungry people in southern Sudan since last August due to the drought that hit the region and internal conflicts, the Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

The coordinator of the WFP Leo Van Der Velden said that the rise in the number of hungry people came shortly before the rainy season, which leads to difficulty in delivering food aid to the population centres.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said that the internal conflict and attacking the so-called IRA, Uganda and the drought that hit the region had led to the suffering of almost half the population in the south and to the scarcity of food.

The conflict in southern Sudan between the northern and southern tribes has resulted in the killing last year of 2500 people and to displacing about 350 people.

The news agency, citing a broadcast on Radio London, reported that the total population in need of food aid in Sudan amounted to some 11 million people.

In a statement, United Nations said that they are trying to ensure that Sudanese people have enough food aid until next season to harvest in October.

Source:bernama.com/