The International Criminal Court (ICC) plans to seek an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo will seek the warrant on Monday. It would be the first time the Hague-based court has sought to charge a sitting head of state with those crimes, the Post reported, citing diplomats and UN officials.
But some UN officials are concerned that Moreno-Ocampo’s move could complicate the peace process in Darfur and trigger a military response by Sudanese forces or proxies against UN and African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, the Post said.
Sudan’s UN ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad warned the newspaper of “grave repercussions” if Ocampo indicts Bashir.
On Thursday the office of Moreno-Ocampo said he planned to unveil a new case involving crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region next week, but it did not give the names of those to be charged.
His office said, however, that the case would cover “crimes committed in the whole of Darfur over the last five years.”
The tribunal will then decide whether to issue arrest warrants or summons for the individuals to be named.
Mohamad told the Post that ICC charges against Bashir or other Sudanese officials would “destroy” the international Darfur peace process.
“Ocampo is playing with fire,” he said. “If the United Nations is serious about its engagement with Sudan, it should tell this man to suspend what he is doing with this so-called indictment. There will be grave repercussions.”
The move comes two days after seven UN peacekeepers were killed and 22 were wounded in an ambush of a UN convoy in Darfur.
UN officials in Sudan said that the Janjaweed — state-backed Arab militia — were suspected of carrying out the attack, while the Sudanese government blamed the attack on rebels in Darfur.
The Post said that representatives of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members — China, Britain, the US, France and Russia — met with UN officials on Thursday on the safety of Darfur peacekeepers in the wake of the attack.
It said that peacekeepers are already being moved to safer areas, and that the UN was distributing food and equipment in preparation for a possible disruption of supplies to the force by Sudan’s government.
“All bets are off; anything could happen,” one UN official told the newspaper.
“The mission is so fragile, it would not take much for the whole thing to come crashing down,” the official said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
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