Outcry at Sudan President Arrest Warrant

Syrian media organisations expressed support for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir after the International Criminal Court, ICC, issued an arrest warrant against him last week.



Al-Bashir is wanted by prosecutors at the Hague-based court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sudan’s western Darfur region.



The ICC arrest warrant will not bring justice to the Sudanese people, according to Samira al-Masalma, editor-in-chief of the state-run Tishreen newspaper.



Rather, he wrote, it is a purely political resolution aimed at dividing the country and weakening its standing in the world.



Al-Masalma called for a review of all international conventions and legal bodies, which he accused of favouring the interests of powerful western nations at the expense of smaller and less powerful nations.



The arrest warrant violates Sudan’s sovereignty, wrote Asad Abboud, editor-in-chief of the official newspaper Al-Thawra.



Abboud accused the ICC of double standards, arguing that the court often overlooks more serious crimes in other parts of the world.



“This arrest warrant is a threat to all of our values,” he argued.



The pro-government newspaper Al-Watan also claimed that the ICC showed bias in favour of certain countries.



“Nobody cares about the Israeli massacre in Gaza,” wrote the newspaper. “This shows that the court should not be taken seriously.”



Meanwhile, the Damascus regime has officially condemned the warrant.



A Syrian foreign ministry source told the state-run SANA news agency on March 5 that the government regards the ICC action with “deepest concern and uneasiness since it is a dangerous development violating the system of international relations”.