A look at genocide charges against Sudan president

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed three counts of genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, as well as seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Here is the basis for the genocide charges, as described in the indictment:

_Genocide by killing members of three ethnic groups in Darfur, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes.

Sudanese forces and janjaweed military would target villages because of the ethnicity of its inhabitants. "The ground forces would then enter the village or town and attack civilians inhabitants. They kill men, children, elderly, women; they subject women and girls to massive rapes. They burn and loot the villages," the indictment says. Survivors "were pursued into deserts, killed or left to die."

_ Genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of each target group.

"Particularly in view of the social stigma associated with rape ... these acts cause significant and irreversible harm, to individual women, but also their communities," it says.

_ Genocide by deliberately inflicting upon members of each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction.

Sudanese forces and janjaweed "destroy food, wells and water pumping machines, shelter, crops and livestock, as well as any physical structures capable of sustaining life or commerce," the indictment says. "They destroy farms and loot grain stores or set them on fire. The goal is to ensure that those inhabitants not killed outright would not be able to survive without assistance."