Sudan leader accused of genocide

(CNN) - The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for a five-year campaign of violence in the country's Darfur region.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Nic Robertson at the Hague, Luis Moreno-Ocampo vowed he will not yield. "Silence never helped the victims. Silence helped the perpetrators. The prosecutor should not be silent," he said.

At a news conference Monday in Khartoum, Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha rejected the authority of the ICC, saying Sudan was not a signatory to the court's creation. "Hence there is no legal obligation or power over Sudan, whether Sudanese organizations or citizens," he said.

Taha also called the charges an attempt to "paralyze" his country.