Sudan President: No Handover of Citizens

Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, right, chats with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before their talks in Khartoum, Sudan, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007. The Iranian president, is on a two-day visit to Sudan, to discuss bilateral relations, the Darfur situation and signing economic agreements. (AP Photos/Abd Raouf) (Abd Raouf - AP)

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Sudan's president said again on Saturday that his country would not hand over for trial any citizen sought by international courts for crimes against humanity.

The International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands this week accused a junior Sudanese Cabinet minister and a member of the security forces of war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed in Darfur, the conflict-ridden region in western Sudan. Sudan has denied the accusations.

"(The) Sudanese judiciary is honest and qualified to try any Sudanese" who commit crimes against humanity, President Omar al-Bashir was quoted as saying by the official SUNA news agency. "The government will not hand over any citizen for trial outside the country."

In Sudan, "anyone who makes a mistake will be held responsible for it, but we are not going to take any dictates from abroad," the agency quoted al-Bashir as saying.

The ICC prosecutor accused a minister and a member of the security forces of a combined 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their actions in Darfur. Sudan's government has rejected the allegations and said it would not hand over the two men for trial.

The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms against what they saw as decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab government in Khartoum. The government responded with a counterinsurgency campaign.

Arab militias known as the janjaweed committed widespread rape, looting and killing. An International Criminal Court prosecutor said the janjaweed was armed and financed by the Sudanese government, a charge Khartoum has always denied.

More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million people have been displaced in four years of Darfur fighting.

Al-Bashir focused instead on the U.S. occupation of Iraq, saying he wanted people who "committed crimes against the Iraqi people _ who are being killed, displaced and their infrastructure destroyed at the hands of the alliance forces ... to be brought before courts of law and find prompt justice."

The Sudanese leader's comments come a day after U.S. envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios arrived in Khartoum for talks with officials on the Darfur crisis and how to draw into negotiations rebel factions who did not sign a peace deal last year in Abuja, Nigeria.

SUNA described Natsios' meeting Saturday with the No. 2 in the ruling National Congress Party, Nafie Ali Nafie, as reflecting "rapprochement of viewpoints between the two sides" to speed up the political process.

Nastios is expected to visit Darfur, as well as Juba, the southern capital, during his seven-day trip.