Darfur rebels call on Kenya to arrest Bashir

HARTOUM: Darfur rebels called on Kenya on Friday to hand over visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to an international court that wants him on charges of genocide in the war-torn western region. Abdelwahid Nur, who heads a key faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, said he wanted Bashir arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court before he had a chance to return to Sudan. “We feel extreme sadness and regret over the way the international community has dealt with the matter of arresting Bashir, and the behaviour of neighbouring states that receive a person wanted for genocide against his own people,” Nur said. “We call on Kenya and the international community to arrest him and hand him over to international justice before he returns to Sudan,” he said. Jibril Ibrahim, a senior official of the Justice and Equality Movement – the most heavily armed of the Darfur rebel groups – told AFP that Kenya’s decision to host Bashir was “unacceptable.” “If the African Union switches from defending people to defending leaders, then genocide will continue in Africa,” he said. Also on Friday, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Kenya to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and hand him over to an international court to face genocide charges. “The high representative is concerned by the visit of President Omar Al-Bashir to Kenya, a State party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC),” Ashton’s office said in a statement. “She urges Kenya to respect its obligations under international law to arrest and surrender those indicted by the ICC,” it said. afp

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\28\story_28-8-2010_pg4_4