Bashir on last Darfur pit stop

2008-07-24 16:33

El Geneina - A smiling Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir pressed ahead with a heavily guarded tour of Darfur on Thursday, with a rally called to defy accusations that he masterminded genocide in the region.

Wearing a safari suit and sunglasses, and smiling widely, he sat in a giant armchair in the shade at a rally attended by hundreds of loyalists who fanned themselves under the burning sun in the West Darfur state capital El Geneina.

He was the first head of state accused by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on 10 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sudan's western region of Darfur, gripped by more than five years of war.

He faced a possible international arrest warrant for allegedly ordering his forces to annihilate three non-Arab groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape to commit genocide.

2.2 million people displaced

On his first Darfur visit in a year, on Wednesday Bashir danced and waved his walking stick before thousands of supporters in El Fasher and Nyala, the two other state capitals under firm government control in Darfur.

"What Ocampo said about Darfur is lies... We have to find a solution to the Darfur crisis," Bashir told people made homeless in El Fasher.

Bashir had inaugurated development projects and met state and UN peacekeeping officials, but had avoided the sprawling, impoverished camps for the more than 2.2 million people estimated to have been displaced by the war.

In El Geneina, he was greeted at the airport by the strains of the Sudanese national anthem from a military band before his heavily-armed convoy guarded by police, army and national security drove to an organised reception ceremony.

The few people who came out onto the streets kept quiet and did not cheer as the convoy sweep past, said an AFP correspondent.

10 000 people killed

Two helicopters circled overhead as children, students, local government employees, tribesmen and women attended an organised rally.

The United Nations said that up to 300 000 people had died and more than 2.2 million had fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan said 10 000 had been killed.

The war began after African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.

Beshir's regime was trying to persuade the UN Security Council to freeze possible legal proceedings should International Criminal Court judges actually issue an arrest warrant, charging that it could jeopardise peace prospects.

West Darfur shared a porous border with Chad. Sudan and Chad agreed to restore relations, severed by Khartoum over accusations that N'Djamena backed a rebel attack on the capital in May, just days after Ocampo's announcement.

- AFP