Sudanese columnist says insiders provided Intel to ICC prosecutor Friday 10 October 2008.
October 9, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – A pro-government columnists accused some parties inside Sudan of disseminating sensitive information to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) used in his case against president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir. “The government must uncover the loopholes from which information was leaked used by Ocampo in his evidence” Kamal Hassan Bakheit editor in chief of the daily Al-Rayaam said. Bakheit, who is also Al-Bashir’s nephew, said that different agencies within the government are aware that there are loopholes. In mid-July the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced that he is seeking an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir. The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. It was only last week that judges have started reviewing the case in a process that could possibly drag on to next year. Last month the ICC released a 113-page heavily redacted version of the application containing detailed information on incidents committed during the five year conflict in Darfur. Khartoum has said that the ICC’s investigation is lacking because it was not conducted inside Darfur. However Ocampo said that security situation on the ground does not enable him to protect witnesses in Darfur. The ICC prosecutor said he screened 600 potential witnesses in 18 countries out of which only a 100 were identified to provide testimonies. This is in addition to report provided by the UN Commission of Inquiry and other sources. The Al-Rayaam editor in chief urged the government to crackdown on the insiders who disseminate information to The Hague based court. “What has happened from them [insiders] is national treason requiring severe punishment” Bakheit said. “The government got us used to dealing carelessly with people who play roles against the country….In these cases of treason the country is targeted first” he added. This editorial in Al-Rayaam is the first subtle acknowledgment by a pro-government figure that information contained in Al-Bashir’s arrest warrant may be correct. The Sudanese president told British Channel 4 News from Khartoum today that the ICC sources of information are “hostile”. “These allegations are not correct. Everything is fabricated and made up. Anything saying that we ordered killing people is untrue. The sources used by the ICC prosecutor are all hostile; they are from the rebels who revolted against the state” he said. International experts also say more than 300,000 were killed and 2 million have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Darfur, a region that is roughly the size of France. (ST) Copyright © 2003-2008 SudanTribune - All rights reserved. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
