President Omar al-Bashir's dramatic indictment as Sudan's head of state
Updated on 13 July 2008
It is dramatic when a serving head of state gets indicted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The last time it happened was with Milosevic. Before that it was Charles Taylor of Liberia.
Now Sudan's head of state, President Omar al-Bashir, faces indictment by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. It's their first indictment of a head of state and he is going to be accused of command responsibility.
This in international law is the principal by which as president he either knew or should have known about what was happening in Darfur and the atrocities being committed there and that he did nothing to stop it or punish those that perpetrated the crimes.
So far since April 2003 at least 300,000 in Darfur have died and 2.7 million have been left homeless. al-Bashir is taking the wrap for his military and their proxies and their actions in Darfur.
The implications for this on the ground however are very serious. There are genuine and very real fears of a backlash say UN organisations and aid agencies operating there and indeed by the 9,000 or so peacekeepers who are trying to protect the people of Darfur.
