Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, could face genocide charges in the international criminal court after a legal ruling over his role in the conflict in Darfur. Bashir already faces an arrest warrant on seven charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is accused of having personally instructed his forces to annihilate three ethnic groups, the Fur, the Masalit and the Zaghawa.
A ruling saying there was insufficient proof to charge him with genocide was overturned by the ICC's appeal chamber today . Legal experts said the prospect of such a charge was now a step closer. If a genocide charge is brought it will be the first by the international criminal court against a serving head of state. Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader, faced genocide charges but only after he had stepped down; he died in custody before his trial at the Hague war crimes tribunal could end.
The Justice and Equality Movement, Darfur's main armed anti-government group, welcomed the ruling: "This is a correct decision," Ahmed Tugud, the movement's chief negotiator, said. "We believe that what we have seen on the ground in Darfur amounts to a crime of genocide." Sudan's government is accused of backing Arab Janjaweed militias who killed thousands of Darfuris in 2003 and 2004. Bashir insists he did not control them.
The international criminal court's prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, included genocide on his original charge sheet, but the pre-trial judges left off the charge when they approved the arrest warrant last March. Moreno-Ocampo appealed, saying the judges' standard for adding the genocide charge was set too high.
The UN estimates that more than two million people have fled their homes in Darfur and more than 200,000 have died. Khartoum has challenged these figures, claiming the death toll is no more than 10,000, and has refused to co-operate with the court in the Hague. The ruling was welcomed by the Save Darfur Coalition which said: "The US and the international community must immediately make clear to Khartoum that no retaliation against civilians, humanitarian aid operations or peacekeepers in Darfur will be tolerated."
The Coalition for the ICC, an NGO that supports the court, said: "The ruling is hugely significant, as it could lead to the inclusion of charges of genocide by ICC judges for a sitting head of state and for the first time in the history of the court."