RELATED ARTICLE - Q&A: What is the current status of Basheer's case on the Darfur issue in the International Court of Justice?
THE HAGUE (Agencies)
The International Criminal Court issued a second arrest warrant on Monday for Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for the crime of genocide, a move that will pile further diplomatic pressure on his isolated regime.
Four months ago an appeals panel at the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal ruled that judges made an "error in law" when they refused last year to indict al-Bashir on international law's gravest charge.
Prosecutors then filed their case again and on Monday judges issued an arrest warrant charging al-Bashir with three counts of genocide.
Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo accuses al-Bashir of keeping 2.5 million refugees from specific ethnic groups in Darfur in camps "under genocide conditions, like a gigantic Auschwitz."
Rebels' response
" JEM considers it as a victory for the people of Darfur and the entire humanity. It will give hope to the people of Darfur that justice will be made "
JEM spokesman Ahmad HusseinA key rebel group hailed ICC's decision as a "victory for Darfur."
"JEM is very pleased by the ICC decision," Justice and Equality Movement spokesman Ahmad Hussein told AFP.
"JEM considers it as a victory for the people of Darfur and the entire humanity. It will give hope to the people of Darfur that justice will be made," he said, speaking in English.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that (Bashir) acted with specific intent to destroy in part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups," said a new warrant which listed three genocide charges.
In Monday's decision, the court said there were reasonable grounds to believe that villages and towns targeted by government forces "were selected on the basis of their ethnic composition".
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