ICC prosecutor: World is 'marginalizing' Sudan's Bashir

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been increasingly marginalized on the world stage since being indicted for alleged war crimes, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Thursday.

"Even his planned trip in November to a non-state party, Turkey, was canceled," Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a gathering of the 110-member Assembly of States Parties to the ICC.

"The process of marginalization is in process," Moreno-Ocampo said.

The ICC has issued a warrant for al-Bashir's arrest on five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes committed in Darfur – its first-ever warrant for a sitting head of state.

Al-Bashir had been invited to attend a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Istanbul this month, but the trip was canceled despite support from Turkey – not a signatory to the treaty that set up the Hague-based ICC.

Since the warrant was issued for al-Bashir in March, he has canceled plans to visit ICC state parties like South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria and Venezuela.

Moreno-Ocampo said arresting a serving head of state "requires a process of marginalization both at the national and international levels."

He cited the case of former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who was surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia by his own state "after a process of marginalization." Milosevic died mid-trial.

ICC president Sang-Hyun Song told the gathering that the biggest obstacle faced by the court was "the lack of arrest and surrender of suspects." Apart from al-Bashir, seven ICC suspects remain at large.

"It is the responsibility of states to arrest and surrender these persons," he said.

According to the Copenhagen Post, al- Bashir has been officially invited by Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen to attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, or COP15, this December.