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Sudan's president boogies on last Darfur pit stop
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Jul 24, 2008 - 6:11:23 AM

Sudan's president boogies on last Darfur pit stop

5 hours ago

EL GENEINA, Sudan (AFP) — A dancing Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir paraded as a man of peace on Thursday during a heavily protected tour of Darfur defying accusations that he masterminded genocide in the region.

Wearing a safari suit, shades and a giant ring, he danced on stage and beat his silver-topped cane to nationalist music as several thousand fanned themselves in the scorching heat of the West Darfur state capital El Geneina.

Pressing a second day on a tour of the three government-controlled state capitals in the vast western region, Beshir presented himself as a man of peace despite stalled international efforts to find a political solution.

"We will exclude no one (from peace): tribal leaders, politicians, signatory movements and even non-signatories," he told the crowd who wilted under the sun but responded to the Islamic slogan chants habitual at Beshir rallies.

He is the first head of state accused by International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on 10 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sudan's western region of Darfur, gripped by more than five years of war.

He faces a possible international arrest warrant for allegedly ordering his forces to annihilate three non-Arab groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape to commit genocide.

His first visit to Darfur in a year, Beshir has spent two days dancing and talking about peace to thousands of supporters, promising to do whatever possible to allow the displaced to return home and guarantee security.

"We don't need lessons from anyone. We don't need to be told how to behave. Peace is the responsibility of Darfuris," he said in El Geneina, adding he had come to Darfur to "share the pain" of the people and listen to their requests.

Beshir has inaugurated development projects and met state and UN peacekeeping officials, but has avoided the sprawling, impoverished camps for the more than 2.2 million people estimated to have been displaced by the war.

In El Geneina, the few people who came out onto the streets to watch his heavily armed convoy -- guarded by police, army and national security -- drive to the organised reception, kept quiet and did not cheer, said an AFP correspondent.

West Darfur is the poorest state in the region and parts are strongholds of the Justice and Equality Movement rebel group that attacked the capital in May, for the first time bringing the conflict close to the seat of power.

Two helicopters circled overhead as school pupils, government employees, tribesmen perched on the back of camels and women attended an organised rally where microphones blared out speeches from officials and traditional music.

"Ocampo, you are a coward, an agent of the Americans!" shouted someone in the crowd, considerably smaller than those in North and South Darfur states.

The United Nations says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

The war began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.

Beshir's regime is trying to persuade the UN Security Council to freeze possible legal proceedings should International Criminal Court judges actually issue an arrest warrant, charging that it could jeopardise peace prospects.

Sudan and Chad agreed to restore relations, severed by Khartoum over accusations that Ndjamena backed the rebel attack on the capital, just days after Ocampo's announcement.

Top Western and Arab diplomats, who on Thursday flew into El Geneina on a UN aircraft, have accompanied Beshir. They include US charge d'affaires Alberto Fernandez and British ambassador Rosalind Marsden.

In an interview published on Thursday, the outgoing head of UN peacekeeping justified a reluctance to send large numbers of peacekeepers to Darfur, where a UN-led mission is running at a third of its billed capacity.

"There is not enough of a political process for a peacekeeping operation to be really successful," Jean-Marie Guehenno told the Financial Times.

"The danger is that you go do something and then, if you go into a failure, you compromise an instrument that could make a real difference in other places," he said.