Hague tribunal issued arrest warrant for Lukashenka's friend

The International Criminal Court in the Hague has indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with war crimes in Darfur and issued arrest warrant for him.

It has been informed by Reuters with a reference to unnamed UN diplomats. As said by them, it is to be announced officially later in February.

An official representative of the International Criminal Court declined comment on this reports, noting that the decision on this issue is to be adopted by judges. As said by the official representative, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hadn’t received any information from the International Criminal Court until now.

As we have informed, the court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo asked to issue an arrest warrant for Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir in July 2008, charging al-Bashir with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Al-Bashir's government has been accused of encouraging Muslim militias to commit atrocities against ethnic Africans in Darfur, Sudan, since a rebellion broke out there early in 2003. Ethnic Africans demanded more independence from the Arab government of the country, which resulted in clashes with military forces of Sudan. U.N. officials say up to 300,000 people have died in the conflict and 2.7 million have fled their homes. In 2007 joint peacekeeping mission of the African Union and the U.N. was deployed in Sudan.

In 2007 the Judges of the ICC issued arrest warrants against the former Minister of State for the Interior, Ahmed Haroun, and a Militia Janjaweed leader, Ali Kushayb, for crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Sudan Government said that the ICC had no jurisdiction to try Sudanese citizens and that it will not hand the two men over to its custody.

It was a landmark decision of the court, as no other leader of a state had been subject to arrest before.

Lukashenka was charged with weapons deliveries to Sudan

As the Chater’97 informed, in 2002 Washington Post published an article that “Belarusian weapons was used for civil wars and inciting internal discord in such countries as Tajikistan, Angola and Algeria. It is most alarming that Sudan is the country where Osama bin Laden lived once, and which is considered to be a hub of terrorism, bought such reliable and functional weapons from Belarus as T-55 tanks and military helicopters Mi-24”.

The Sudanese president visited Belarus in 2004. He met with A. Lukashenka.

The Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung wrote then that Belarus is becoming increasingly prominent as an active supporter of counties suspected of terrorism. Despite of the fact that the Sudanese government is criticized worldwide for its treatment of non-Arab population, Lukashenka offers military assistance to Khartoum. Majority of the Belarusian export to Sudan are former Soviet arsenals.

In 2006 Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhei Martynau (Martynov) was in Sudan on a visit. He met with al-Bashir, who is the president and head of the government. The head of the Foreign Ministry gave an address by A. Lukashenka dedicated to issues of enhancement of Belarusian-Sudanese relations.

In 2008 the U.S. magazine Parade published a list of the worst dictators of the world created since 2003 with the help of such organisations as “Freedom House”, “Amnesty International”, “Human Rights Watch” and “Reporters Without Borders”. Both Omar al-Bashir and Alyaksandr Lukashenka were on the list.