Sudan's Bashir calls expelled aid groups 'spies'

Wearing a feather headdress and lofting a spear, the Sudanese president said he expelled foreign aid workers following his indictment for war crimes in Darfur because they were "spies" and "thieves."

President Omar al-Bashir railed against the aid groups at a rally protesting the decision by the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for war crimes committed while suppressing a rebellion in Darfur.

Al-Bashir's Arab-dominated government retaliated by accusing the aid groups of working with the Netherlands-based ICC and expelling them. With traditional African garb and denunciations, al-Bashir has cast the decision as a new form of colonialism against the entire Sudanese people.

The move to expel 13 of the largest aid groups operating in Sudan's devastated Darfur region has prompted an outcry from the United Nations and many nations including the United States, who fear it could create a new humanitarian crisis.

U.N. officials say the decision would harm 2 million people in Darfur, as nearly 40 percent of the aid workers were affected by the expulsion decision.

Ethnic African rebels in Darfur rose up against the Arab-dominated central government in 2003, complaining of neglect and mistreatment. In the ensuing war, 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million driven from their homes.

Al-Bashir's comments suggest his government will stand by the decision. The U.N. Human Rights Council called the expulsion a "grievous dereliction" of duties and said they are examining if it constitutes a human rights violation or even a war crime.

"These organizations are for spies ... they are thieves," al-Bashir said at the rally in Khartoum for southern Sudanese. He said aid money donated to Darfur is used up by the groups themselves.

The Sudanese leader also said the ICC is a political tool aiming to undermine the north-south peace deal.

Al-Bashir and former southern rebels signed a much-praised peace deal in 2005, that ended Sudan's other war in the south after more than 21 years of fighting. The peace deal brought the southerners into a unity government with al-Bashir. More than 2 million people died in that conflict.

Southern Sudan's leaders have expressed worry that indicting al-Bashir would endanger the fragile peace agreement.