allAfrica.com: Sudan: Al-Bashir - International Criminal Court Lacks Locus Standi (Page 1 of 1)

The Monday, July 14th announcement of the ICC chief prosecutor that he has requested the court to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar AI-Bashir came to the majority of those familiar with the Sudanese politics as a rude shock, not only because it has no precedence in international law but the very irrational reasons advanced to justify his funny request.

To say the least, this request betrayed some of his outstanding achievements as a lawyer of repute and a humanist.

Mr. Ocampo's justification does not need an expert of international law or domestic law to reduce it to the miserable level it is. A simple question to him is that:

What serious danger would some selected tribes in far away Dafur constitute to Mr. AI-Bashir's presidency? What would be his motive to exterminate or embark on an ethnic cleansing of his own people? Rulers of very little perception may embark on different ways to quell a rebellion, but this could not be one of them. Mr. Ocampo's ignorance of the nature of the Sudanese people and their unique peaceful nature did not help his wild imagination, scanty information in uttering words such as rape. This is an abomination in the Sudanese culture. The most villain criminal could think of it. It is a taboo. I refer him to the Sudanese criminal courts records to single out a case of rape. I appreciate his background where rape is the order of the day.

Mr. Ocampo was huffing and puffing that he was mandated by the United Nations Security Council to investigate the war crime charges against the Sudanese leadership. Even though the United Nations has since abandoned some important aspect of its charter and behaves like a world government which it is not, certainly there are more serious issues to be investigated. Get a statistics of the extrajudicial killings and bombings of civilian homes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza Strip. Who is behind this? In fact these are the actions of some and the inactions of others that indeed endanger international peace and security - not a rebellion in far away Africa that does not threaten a government in Khartoum, talk less of international peace and security.

I do agree that the rebels were properly coached by their instigators to use such important key words in their campaign - which will appeal to the International community - such as ethnic cleansing, rape and what have you, during their media assaults on the government. Rational expectation, history, and common sense would however depict such ugly insinuation as rubbish. The truth is that they are developmental issues, inter-tribal conflicts and hence, socio-economic problems which could be addressed in any ways by the rebels, but certainly not by war. Government reluctance to bring the full force of law to bear in the mid eighties could have contributed immensely to the proliferation of weapons among the nomadic inhabitants. This contributed to the present unfortunate situation in Darfur.

Be it as it may, Sudan is not a signatory to the Rome Declaration establishing ICC, just as USA wasn't. May I remind the secretary general of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon who kept on emphasising the independence of ICC of two important concepts of the UN. " Sovereign Equality of all States" and "Equal Sovereignty of all States" This is what should be emphasised to avoid another Panama palaver. May I, at this junction draw the attention of the leaders of the African Union, that as a continental organisation, Darfur remain their child. Preference given to regional organisations by the United Nations charter to handle regional conflicts should be religiously adhered to and do not allow the western world's interest motivate groups wherever they may be, to strip AU of its very essence of existence and turn it into a bull dog that barks but never bites. This ridiculous unprecedented attempt by the prosecutor of ICC to issue an arrest warrant to a serving African head of state should be vehemently resisted by all and sundry.

The Sudanese government on the other hand, should take the issue very seriously. We are all witnesses to the quality of information about the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and what it eventually culminated into. Let the government preempt this calculated effort by it detractors to call a dog a bad name in order to hang it. I do recollect when Al Shiffa Pharmaceutical Factory was bombed by the U.S. during President Clinton's regime, under the pretext of manufacturing chemical weapons. Mr. Cohen, the then US government spokesman said that this was just to remind the Sudanese government that we have a long memory. So let the government of Sudan put a formidable media campaign in place and open up Darfur for the African media to visit the region and make special field coverage about the allegations of war crimes and publish their findings to the world. I am confident in their impartiality towards this matter. Let the government of Sudan not be misled by the diplomatic niceties and smile. When some envoys from the West visit Darfur in their various so-called fact finding missions in their different capacities and exchange pleasantries with some government officials, perhaps over dinner, more often than not such government officials were naive to think that all is well, only to be shocked by the official report written by the aforementioned envoys.

My last word goes to the distinguished judges of ICC: you lack locus standi but if, however, you went ahead to consider these wild allegations as submitted by Mr. Ocampo, kindly make history by throwing them in the dustbin of history.

Usman Ibn Foda writes from Maitama, Abuja.

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