Sudan's President is indicted for war crimes and US is working hard on finding a solution to stop the violence in Darfur and in all of Sudan.

Since last year a coalition, headquartered in Washington, has been a vocal critic of China's support for the Sudanese government and its refusal to allow anyone to pressure Khartoum to end the conflict. The group has urged China -- Sudan's chief diplomatic sponsor, major weapons provider and largest foreign investor and trade partner -- to use its position as a member of the U.N. Security Council to bring peace to the region.

"Someone in Beijing is clearly trying to send us a message," coalition President Jerry Fowler said. "But they're mistaken if they think these attacks will end efforts to bring peace to Darfur."

Now Gen. Bashir is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. He is also the first sitting president to be interdicted by the ICC.

China expressed opposition against ICC's arrest of Bashir The Chinese envoy said the International Criminal Court was wrong to interfere with the peace keeping process in Sudan. While addressing the media in Kampala, Mr Liu Guijin, said: "It is a wrong choice by ICC to issue an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir at this time."

"We issued a statement that when the ICC wants to get involved in the Darfur issue, then it must get consent from the Sudan government which is a sovereign state and should also give contribution to the Darfur people," he added. Mr Guijin said allegations reported in the media that China is not interested in humanitarian efforts in Darfur to restore peace were false. China is one of the five permanent member states on the UN Security Council. Other states include France, Russia, UK and US.

Omar el-Bashir is unconcerned according to an article by JIm Lehrer of PBS. He sais that el-Bashir told Sam Marks of Time Magazine :"Up until now, I haven't felt restrictions on my movement. I am not a minister of foreign affairs where I am supposed to travel frequently to other countries, conferences and meetings. A president has his deputies, assistants, and his specialized ministers, so it's not necessary for a president to travel to every country. But I have made all necessary travels.

Simon Marks told Jim Lehrer: " In fact, as soon as he made history, becoming the first sitting president of a country to face an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, he hit the road.He's visited friendly countries, including Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, participated in the Hajj in Saudi Arabia, and attended an Arab League summit in Qatar. Last month, the African Union declared its member states would not enforce the ICC's arrest warrant."

The African Union claims: " The ambassador said President Bashir is still in power and so the ICC had no right to interfere with him because it would lead to more bloodshed. "If it was like the case of Joseph Kony, it would be okay because the government came up and reported the case to ICC, but this is different in Sudan." They state in a media release: "Darfur: the need for enhanced security is paramount and this will be possible through the full deployment of UNAMID, continued cooperation between the Government of Sudan and the peacekeeping mission, restraint between Chad and Sudan and parties to the conflict agreeing to negotiate in good faith."

Yet, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations estimate more than a quarter of a million people have died and at least 2.5 million have been displaced in a conflict that pits predominantly African rebel groups against the Arab-dominated government and its allied militias. President al-Bashir rejects the numbers he is reported to say that there were only 10,000 death.

Omar Bashir is claimed to say that this: "We think that the ICC is a tool to terrorize countries that the West thinks are disobedient. The African position today, by consensus, is not to cooperate with this court, and it has reached a conclusion that this court is directed against the countries of the third world and a tool of neocolonialism."

It is alleged that el-Bashir personally directed a campaign of rape, torture, and inhuman and degrading treatment and forcible displacement. He's accused of being in full control of all branches of the apparatus of Sudan's government. Control, the prosecutor concludes, was not only formal; it was absolute.

Omar el-Bashir responds to the allegations like this: "It is not possible for a president in a country like Sudan, the size of Sudan, with the immense problems of Sudan, to administer and manage everything. For example, the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan mistakenly bombed a wedding and killed 147 civilians. But you can't say that the U.S. president should be tried for this because he is the commander-in-chief of U.S. forces. In the U.S., not even the chiefs of staff would be put on trial. "

"With this arrest warrant, the International Criminal Court has made Omar al-Bashir a wanted man," said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. "Not even presidents are guaranteed a free pass for horrific crimes. By ruling there is a case for President al-Bashir to answer for the horrors of Darfur, the warrant breaks through Khartoum's repeated denials of his responsibility." In August el-Bashir started cancelling several trips.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and Google Earth released updated maps that show the destruction to the Darfur region of Sudan was far greater than previously documented. By joining forces with the Humanitarian Information Unit at the U.S. State Department, Google Maps now show viewers more than 3,300 villages in Darfur that were ravaged during the genocide. The new maps provide a comprehensive picture of how the conflict unfolded, and offer clarification as to the extent of the devastation. For example, the new data shows that there were twice as many villages destroyed than previously gauged by a 2007 U.S. government assessment. The updated maps also provide a before-and-after glimpse of the villages to further illuminate the devastation. Jerry Fowler, the president of the Save Darfur Coalition said, “The U.S. Holocaust Museum and Google Earth have allowed us to build real-time evidence against the perpetrators of the genocide in Darfur. Thanks to their efforts, we have a tool that can educate people about the suffering in Darfur, and at the same time compile data for lasting accountability.” To view the maps and install Google Earth, please visit http://www.ushmm.org/maps/.

CNN reports: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that there had been no decision whether to remove Sudan from a list of terrorism-sponsoring countries. Sudan is hoping to improve diplomatic ties with the United States. The U.S. is now reviewing how best to deal with the government of Sudan and the crisis in Darfur where an estimated 300-thousand people have been killed and more than two million forced to fell their homes. “We have made no decision to lift the listing on the terrorist list of Sudan,” Clinton said at the State Department Friday during a picture-taking session. “As you know there is a very intensive review going on within the Administration concerning our policy toward Sudan, but no decisions have been made.”

Reuters reports: "President Barack Obama's special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force General Scott Gration, said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday his priorities include bringing peace to Darfur and ending the humanitarian crisis in the remote and vast region of western Sudan. He also wants to ensure that a fragile 2005 peace agreement that ended a 22-year civil war between Sudan's Muslim North and mostly Christian South is fully implemented and put an end to what he said was Sudan's "proxy war" with neighboring Chad. Gration said he was working hard "to unify the (Darfur) rebels so that there is a spokesman for that group." He is also trying to unify the Darfur diaspora and refugee communities so that they can play a role in peace talks in Doha. U.N. officials have repeatedly warned that the fragmentation of rebel movements in Darfur into smaller groups is one of the reasons the peace process has stalled. "

Gration grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where his parents worked as missionaries; during the Congo Crisis in the early 1960s, his family was evacuated three times and became refugees. After his family returned to the United States, he studied at Rutgers University, where he enlisted in the ROTC program and earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Upon graduating he joined the United States Air Force in September 1974. He earned a master's degree in national security studies from Georgetown University in Washington in 1988. In March he was appointed by President Obama to deal with the situation in Sudan.

The ultimate goal is peace for the residents of Darfur as well as a balanced approach to US relations with China and all members of the Security Council. Mr. Grafton has a big job ahead.

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