I’m not guilty, pleads Bashir

• Sudanese President says he had a duty to suppress rebellion in the Darfur region

LONDON, Thursday

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has said the international arrest warrant issued against him for war crimes in Darfur is part of a plot against Sudan.

The wanted leader denied responsibility for large-scale killings in his country.

President Bashir told the BBC in an interview broadcast today that the fighting in Sudan’s western Darfur region began as an insurrection and that he had had a responsibility to send troops to fight the rebels there.

Much of the fighting was between local tribes, and allegations of large-scale killing by government forces and government-backed militias were hostile propaganda, he said.

Issued a warrant

UN officials say the six-year conflict in Darfur has resulted in up to 300,000 deaths and the displacement of more than 2.7 million people.

The International Criminal Court in the Netherlands has issued a warrant against President Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

“The ICC ruling is fundamentally null and void,” said President Bashir. “For us, the ICC’s ruling is a political one,” he added, saying of the ICC charges against him: “This is all lies.”

“We do not recognise the court,” he stated. “We refuse to negotiate with them, and we will not hand over anyone.” The ICC has issued arrest warrants for two senior Sudanese officials who Khartoum has refused to send to The Hague to stand trial.

“I challenge anybody to bring me evidence that proves the Sudanese armed forces attacked and killed citizens in Darfur,” President Bashir said.

Dismissing UN estimates of the number of deaths in the Darfur conflict, President Bashir said the toll “did not reach 10,000.”

Playing down the scale of the insurrection in the largely desert region, President Bashir said: “We can say that now Darfur is 90 per cent peaceful.”

He said the insurgent movements represented “only two per cent” of the population of Darfur, and called on them to “lay down their arms and prepare for elections” due next year.

Members of the joint UN/African Union peacekeeping force said on Wednesday they had seen Sudanese Government aircraft bombing suspected rebel positions in the North Darfur town of Umm Baru, but the Sudanese armed forces said no bombing had taken place.