Sudan's president told thousands of cheering supporters on Thursday an international call for his arrest on war crimes charges was a colonialist ploy and announced the expulsion of 10 foreign aid agencies. The arrest warrant issued for Omar Hassan al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court on Wednesday for atrocities in Sudan's western Darfur region is the first against a sitting head of state by the Hague-based court. Bashir responded with defiance, accusing the aid agencies of breaking the law and saying the government would tackle any move to undermine stability. "We will deal responsibly and decisively with anybody who tries to target the stability and security of the country," Bashir told a meeting of top politicians on Thursday.
"We have expelled 10 foreign organisations ... after monitoring activities that act in contradiction to all regulation and laws," he said. He later addressed thousands of protesters carrying banners branding the court's prosecutor a criminal. Bashir said the ICC was a tool of colonialists targeting Sudan for its oil, natural gas and other resources. "We have refused to kneel to colonialism, that is why Sudan has been targeted ... because we only kneel to God," he told the crowd outside the Republican Palace. Cheers of "We are ready to protect religion!" and "Down, down USA!" interrupted his speech.
China urged the UN Security Council on Thursday to heed calls from African and Arab countries and suspend the case against Bashir, but the United States has welcomed the action. The ICC, set up in 2002, indicted Bashir on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which included murder, rape and torture. The three-judge panel said it had insufficient grounds for genocide. Hours after the warrant was issued, Sudan revoked the licences of several foreign aid agencies.
UN and other agencies are running the world's largest humanitarian operation in Darfur, a mainly desert region in western Sudan. International experts say at least 200,000 people have been killed there, while Khartoum says 10,000 have died. A further 2.7 million people are estimated to have been uprooted by the conflict, which began when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003.