Bashir defiant about war crimes warrant

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, March 5 (UPI) -- Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was defiant after a tribunal ordered his arrest for war crimes, telling a rally he wouldn't bow to outside pressure.

"We are not succumbing, we are not bending," Bashir told a crowd gathered Thursday in Khartoum, The New York Times reported.

The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday ordered an arrest warrant be issued for Bashir, accused of orchestrating a vicious campaign that left more than 300,000 civilians dead and drove more than 2.7 million people from their homes during a five-year period. The arrest warrant listed five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes.

It is the first warrant the tribunal has issued against a sitting head of state.

Bashir said the court's decision was a conspiracy aimed at recolonizing Sudan.

"Sudan is raising its voice. It rejects the hegemony, the colonialists," he said.

"We are ready to face you," Bashir said of the International Criminal Court and the U.N. Security Council, television reports indicated.

"We strongly condemn this criminal move," said Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, the Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations. "It amounts to an attempt at regime change. We are not going to be bound by it."

Ever since Bashir was accused by the ICC prosecutor last year, the Sudanese government has vowed to resist and threatened retaliation. After the warrant was announced, government officials summoned several humanitarian organizations to a meeting, ordering as many as 10 to either leave or curb their work, people attending the briefing told the Times.