EL FASHER, Sudan: Sudan’s president threatened to kick out more aid groups and expel diplomats and peacekeepers yesterday during his first trip to the beleaguered Darfur region after an international court issued an arrest warrant against him.
Sudan has already expelled 13 of the largest aid groups operating in Darfur as part of its response to the International Criminal Court’s decision last week to indict him on war crimes. Sudan has accused them of cooperating with the Netherlands-based ICC.
President Omar Bashir was greeted by thousands of cheering supporters, including some on horse and camel back, in the North Darfur capital of El Fasher. He told the throngs that others could also be told to leave if they got involved with the ICC case.
The rally was attended by a number of Arab diplomats, including Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese. Western envoys did not accompany the president on the trip.
“Those who respect themselves, we will respect them. Don’t interfere in something that doesn’t concern you,” Bashir said. “Don’t do anything that would harm the country’s security and stability. Whoever deviates, we will not let them stay, whether a voluntary organization, an envoy, a diplomatic mission or a security force,” the president added.
A Chinese company signed a contract to build a road in the area during the ceremony, reflecting Sudan’s continuing close ties with China despite the crisis.
The ICC accuses Bashir of leading a counterinsurgency against Darfur rebels that involved rapes, killings and other atrocities against civilians. Up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the conflict since 2003, according to the UN. Bashir rejects the charges and refuses to deal with the ICC.
Arab and African nations are pressing the UN Security Council to defer any prosecution for at least a year, hoping to defuse the crisis.
The crowd waved aloft pictures of Bashir as well as posters of ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo with an X drawn over his face.
“Tell them all, the ICC prosecutor, the members of the court and every one who supports this court that they are under my shoe,” Bashir said.
Hundreds lined the streets of El Fasher as Bashir paraded through the town waving from the back of an open pickup truck. The governor of northern Darfur, Mohammed Kebir, told the crowd at the ceremony that this showed that the president was not afraid to visit a region where he had supposedly committed war crimes.
Bashir accused aid groups of stealing funds allocated to Darfur, saying only a fraction of the donated money actually makes it to the people. “We tell them this is not going to continue,” he said to the cheering crowd. “We are ready to fill the gap ... we will spend it from our pocket.”
The United Nations and aid workers say the order punches a giant hole in the safety net that has kept many Darfur civilians alive during six years of war.
