Sudan: President Bashir says allegations against him \"fabricated\"

(SomaliNet) Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudan\'s President said on Thursday that war crimes allegations against him were fabricated and the people would decide in elections next year if the country\'s rulers were criminals.

The International Criminal Court\'s (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the tribunal for an arrest warrant for Bashir in July on charges of genocide and war crimes in Sudan\'s Darfur region, scene of a long conflict.

In an interview, Bashir told Britain\'s Channel 4 News that the allegations against him were \"fabricated\".

\"Anything saying that we ordered killing people is untrue,\" he said.

Bashir said the Sudanese people would be the \"referee\" when he stands for re-election next year.

\"They should decide if we are really criminals, or if we are leaders of the people who should govern them in the future,\" he said, speaking through an interpreter.

National elections are due in Sudan next year under a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa\'s longest civil war, although a senior southern official said last month that the elections might be delayed by at least six months.

Bashir said he was issuing a challenge: \"If I get less than 50 percent of the people\'s vote in Darfur then truly I don\'t deserve to lead the country.\"

In July, Moreno-Ocampo said that, in addition to the thousands killed by Sudan\'s armed forces and the militia they support, 2.5 million people were subjected to a campaign of \"rape, hunger and fear\" in refugee camps.

Bashir said allegations of mass rape in Darfur were false.
\"We are fully convinced that no rape took place. It might have happened at an individual level, but this is a normal crime that can happen in any country in the world. Mass rape does not exist,\" he said.

\"The Darfurian society does not have rape. It\'s not in their tradition.

\"The women inside the camps are under the influence of the rebels and some are even relatives of the rebels. That\'s why they make these claims,\" he said.

The United Nations\' human rights office in 2007 accused forces allied with Sudan\'s government of mass abduction and rape of women and girls in Darfur, acts it said could constitute war crimes.

International experts say the Darfur conflict has killed 200,000 people, while Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing the central government of neglecting the Darfur region of western Sudan. In response, Khartoum mobilised mostly Arab militia.-Reuters