THE HAGUE, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The International Criminal Court(ICC) on Wednesday issued an international arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

This is the first time the court has decided to issue an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state since it was established in July 2002.

At a press conference at The Hague, court spokeswoman Laurence Blairon said the ICC issued a warrant for Bashir for alleged "war crimes and crimes against humanity" committed in Sudan's western Darfur region between April 2003 and last July, when the court's chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the judges for an arrest warrant against Bashir.

The warrant lists five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes, but omitted the crime of genocide as was requested by the chief prosecutor.

Two of the three-member pre-trial chamber found the prosecutor "failed to provide reasonable grounds to believe that the government of Sudan acted with specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups," which are three ethnic groups in Darfur.

Moreno-Ocampo filed an application last July, asking the court for an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president. He said he had evidence to support charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Darfur region of Sudan since March 2003.

The prosecutor accused Bashir of allegedly instructing his forces to destroy the three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur with the intention of genocide.

In their decision announced on Wednesday, the judges found that Bashir, "as the de jure and de facto president of Sudan and commander-in-chief of the Sudanese armed forces, is suspected of having coordinated the design and implementation of the counter-insurgency campaign," in which the civilian population from the three ethnic groups were "unlawfully attacked."

According to the judges, Bashir's official capacity as a sitting head of state "does not exclude his criminal responsibility, nor does it grant him immunity against prosecution before the ICC."

The court's registrar Silvana Arbia said on Wednesday she will send a request for cooperation for the arrest and surrender of Bashir to Sudan and all the 108 states parties to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC.

Such requests will also be sent to all U.N. Security Council members that are not party to the statute, she said.

If Sudanese authorities fail to comply with the arrest warrant the court may make findings on the non-cooperation and may refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council, Arbia said.

Moreno-Ocampo hailed the judges' decision, saying "today is a historical moment."

He said the issuance of a warrant means that as soon as Bashir travels through international air space, he can be arrested.

"Like Slobodan Milosevic or Charles Taylor, Omar Al Bashir's destiny is to face justice," the Argentinian prosecutor said.

Sudan is not a member of the ICC and does not recognize the court's jurisdiction. The Sudanese government has repeatedly said it will never turn over suspects to the court.

Many African and Arab nations oppose the idea of issuing a warrant for Bashir's arrest, saying that could further complicate the situation in Sudan and affect the peace negotiations in the conflict-riddled Darfur region.

The Hague-based ICC is the world's first permanent international tribunal to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It was created by the Rome Statute, which was adopted in 1998 and entered into force in July 2002. Currently 108 states are members of the court.
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