Prosecutor: Sudan's Al-Bashir stole billions

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Saturday he has evidence Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has stolen billions of dollars from his impoverished country.

"From different sources, we have information about possible accounts that could belong to President Bashir in foreign banks," Luis Moreno Ocampo said in a statement to The Associated Press.

But he said that his prosecution is focused on al-Bashir's alleged orchestration of genocide in Darfur and not suspected embezzlement.

"The most urgent reason to arrest Mr. Bashir is not because he could have billions in his secret accounts but because he is still controlling an ongoing genocide in Darfur," Moreno Ocampo said. He gave no further details of the information his office has about the alleged foreign accounts, but said they were not in Britain.

The court issued arrest warrants for al-Bashir in July on three charges of genocide for allegedly masterminding atrocities in his country's Darfur region. He also was charged last year with crimes against humanity in the war-torn region.

Al-Bashir, who was re-elected to a new five-year term earlier this year, refuses to recognize the court's authority and has insisted he will not turn himself in to stand trial.

Sudan's Information Ministry rejected the embezzlement claim and called the court "a wretched political action."

"The allegation of the ICC prosecutor is meant to convince the U.S. administration to support him in propagating this lie which he thought will make the Sudanese people turn against him (al-Bashir)," the ministry said in a statement.

The United Nations estimates 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have be forced from their homes in Darfur since ethnic African rebels rose up in 2003, accusing Sudan's Arab-dominated central government of neglect and discrimination.

The embezzlement accusations were first reported Saturday by British newspaper The Guardian, based on a diplomatic cable provided by the Wikileaks website.

Citing a "senior US official" in a leaked cable, The Guardian said Moreno Ocampo had suggested revealing the embezzlement allegations as a way of turning the tide of public opinion against al-Bashir. The cable said Moreno Ocampo put the amount of stolen funds at $9 billion.

Moreno Ocampo said he could "make no judgment on the authenticity of the alleged US State Department cables."

But he said that if stolen money could be found in al-Bashir accounts it could eventually be paid out to victims of allegedly state-sponsored violence in Darfur if al-Bashir is convicted.

"As part of its mandate, the (prosecutor's) office is investigating money that could belong to President al-Bashir," Moreno Ocampo said. "This money could be used to compensate President Bashir's victims."

Mariam Sadiq, a senior member of the opposition Umma Party in Sudan, called the allegations "disgraceful and sad."

"This is something we knew for ten years when petrodollars were pouring into Sudan but never trickled down to the people of Sudan," she said. "Instead, the Sudanese citizen became poorer and needy."

She said that the theft along with the possible secession of the south following a referendum scheduled for January and the Darfur crisis could mark the end of al-Bashir rule in Sudan.

"These accumulations will end up with a regime change in Sudan and it will have broad and heavy impact on the public since these practices are threatening the existence of Sudan as a nation and a state," Sadiq said.