KHARTOUM (AFP) — Fears were mounting on Friday of a new humanitarian disaster in Darfur after Sudan ordered the expulsion of aid agencies, with the United Nations warning that thousands of people could die.
The grim assessment came as Sudan said it would not alter its policies in the wake of the International Criminal Court decision to seek the arrest of President Omar al-Beshir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"If the government does not reconsider its position, with the departure of the NGOs 1.1 million people will be without food, 1.5 million people will be without health care and more than one million without drinking water," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian coordinator's office.
Beshir is due to travel to Darfur on Sunday, a trip seen as a deliberate show of defiance to the ICC, which accuses him of orchestrating a campaign of extermination, rape, forcible displacement, torture and and pillaging over the six-year conflict in Darfur.
"The ICC will not change anything in the government's plans and programmes," Beshir said, according to a statement published by the state news agency SUNA.
"The government will press ahead with all steps for peace... and will conduct free and fair elections," he told a meeting of top politicians late Thursday.
Sudan sent a clear message to the world about the course it will pursue following the warrant decision by ordering the expulsion of 13 international aid agencies it accuses of collaborating with the ICC.
The United Nations, the United States and the European Union have all issued urgent calls for the decision to be revoked, warning of the harsh consequences for the hundreds of thousands of people reliant on aid.
Many in Darfur live in already miserable conditions, often without access to water or electricity, in one of the remotest areas of the planet.
Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, said in Geneva that Sudan's decision to expel the NGOs "could threaten the lives of thousands of people".
He indicated that the commissioner's office would be examining whether the deprivation of aid in a conflict area might constitute violations of international law or war crimes.
The United Nations says that 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million made homeless by the conflict which erupted in February 2003, when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime for a greater share of resources and power, triggering a scorched earth campaign by Sudanese forces and allied militias known as Janjaweed.
The warrant against Beshir -- the ICC's first against a sitting president -- has deeply divided the international community.
The United States, which has said genocide was being committed in Darfur, is leading calls for Beshir to be brought before international justice but Sudan's allies including Africa, the Arab world and China want the warrant suspended.
Human Rights Watch said the expulsion of the relief agencies was "nothing less than retaliation against the millions of people" of Darfur, a vast region the size of France.
"The Sudanese government should reverse this decision immediately, or civilians in Darfur will again suffer the consequences of Khartoum?s abusive policies," said Georgette Gagnon, the group's Africa director.
Despite the warrant, Sudanese officials say Beshir will fly to the Qatari capital Doha to attend an Arab League summmit at the end of the month.
The ICC has called on all 108 countries party to the Rome Statute that created the court to cooperate with the arrest warrant, but Qatar is not a signatory.
Khartoum and the Justice and Equality movement, the most active Darfur rebel group, signed a confidence-building pact in Doha last month designed to lay the groundwork for broader peace talks.
A JEM official said on Wednesday it was no longer possible to talk peace with Khartoum and that it was time to "get rid of Beshir," although the group has since signalled it may return to Qatar for negotiations.
The African Union said after an emergency meeting in Addis Ababa it will send a delegation to the United Nations to try to halt the warrant "to give a chance for peace in Sudan."
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