Court weighs charging Sudan's Beshir with genocide

THE HAGUE (AFP) - – Genocide charges could be added to the list facing Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir after a war crimes court on Wednesday ordered a review of his arrest warrant for alleged atrocities in Darfur.

An appeals chamber of the International Criminal Court directed judges to rethink their decision to omit genocide from the warrant issued in March last year, saying they had made "an error in law".

Presiding judge Erkki Kourula said the standard of proof applied in their decision had been "higher and more demanding than what is required."

Wednesday's ruling upheld an appeal by prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who repeated his accusation that Beshir had "genocidal intent."

"President Beshir's intention is to destroy the Fur, Masalit and Zagawa" ethnic groups, Moreno-Campo said.

"Hunger and rape are his weapons. This is genocide."

Sudan, however, accused the ICC of trying to influence ongoing peace talks with Darfur rebels -- the court's decision coinciding with a brief visit by Beshir to Doha for talks related to the Darfur peace process.

"If you look to the time of this process, it shows that the ICC wants to stop the political development in Sudan," Kamal Obeid, state minister for information, told AFP.

The foreign ministry said Sudan rejected "this political act and its destructive goals" which aimed to "jeopardise the current peace process in Doha... and the elections". ICC decision important for Darfur victims: prosecutor

For its part, the Justice and Equality Movement rebel group welcomed the ruling as a victory for "the population of Darfur and justice", adding that it remained committed to peace negotiations that other groups have boycotted.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Beshir in March last year on five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes committed in Sudan's western Darfur region -- its first-ever warrant for a sitting head of state.

Moreno-Ocampo, having linked the Sudanese leader to the deaths of 35,000 people, subsequently lodged an appeal against the court's decision not to include the three counts of genocide he had asked for.

Wednesday's ruling had no effect on the validity of the existing warrant, the prosecutor's office said.

Moreno-Ocampo accuses Beshir of having "personally instructed" his forces to annihilate the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa in Darfur.

"I believe the decision of President Beshir to expel humanitarian organisations (from Darfur following the issuing of the warrant) is confirming his genocidal intention," the prosecutor told AFP.

Thousands of people "were in the desert with no food and no water. When President Beshir ordered the expelling, he basically is confirming that his intention is to physically destroy them."

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur rose up against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in February 2003.

Sudan's government says 10,000 have been killed.

The court has no means of enforcing the warrant on its own, and relies on states to execute it. It cannot try Beshir in absentia.

Beshir has visited several countries, non-signatories to the ICC's founding Rome Statute, since the warrant was issued. Many African and Arab nations along with Sudan's key ally China have called for the warrant to be suspended.

Moreno-Ocampo said a new decision on the warrant should follow "not before four months, I suppose no later than one year."