http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/world/story/Sudans-president-wanted-for-war-crimes/dbK7lwNZz0KI8dkhqYKCyQ.cspx

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The International Criminal court at The Hague has, for the first time, accused a sitting head of state of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The U.N. court today indicted Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for crimes committed against the people of Darfur. As many as 300,000 have died there and more than two and a-half million others have been uprooted from their homes.

Al-Bashir's government denounces the indictment as a Western conspiracy to destabilize oil-rich Sudan, and immediately expelled 10 humanitarian groups from Darfur in retaliation.

Sudan says it does not recognize what it calls "the white man's court" which it says "has no mandate in Sudan."

The crowd at a pro-al-Bashir rally in Khartoum waved posters portraying the chief prosecutor with a pig face and shouted: "Cowardly pig. You will not get to the Sudan."

U.N Ambassador Susan Rice says the U.S. supports holding accountable those responsible for "heinous crimes."

Meantime a U.N. spokeswoman says Sudan has ordered the expulsion of six to 10 humanitarian groups from Darfur and seized assets after the International Criminal Court issued the warrant.

U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe says the aid groups include Oxfam, Solidarities and Mercy Corps. The others were not identified.

Okabe says U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling the move a "serious setback to lifesaving operations in Darfur."