Michael Chebud
30 January 2009
Addis Ababa — African governments have rallied behind Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir in rejecting a possible international arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court on charges of orchestrating genocide in Sudan's volatile western region of Darfur.
"The continent, through the African Union, has requested the UN Peace and Security Council to suspend the indictment of President Omar Al-Bashir," chairperson of the African Union Commission Jean Ping told IPS on the sidelines of a high-level meeting of African foreign ministers in Addis Ababa on Jan. 29.
Following a three-year investigation at the behest of the U.N. Security Council, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe that Bashir bears criminal responsibility in relation to 10 counts of Genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Moreno-Ocampo alleges that Bashir masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantive part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups in Sudan, on account of their ethnicity.
"His motives were largely political. His alibi was a 'counterinsurgency.' His intent was genocide," the prosecutor said the prosecutor in its evidence presented to Pre-Trial Chamber on Jul. 14, 2008.
The UN estimates the Darfur conflict has cost 300,000 lives in five years while over 2.7 million people have been displaced.
Deployment of a joint U.N./AU peace-making force has not gone according to plan. Little more than half of the authorized 26,000-member African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID) is in Sudan at present. By March, more troops are expected to arrive by March from Egypt, South Africa, Senegal, Bangladesh and other U.N. member states.
Chairperson Ping says things are moving in the right direction regarding UNAMID. Eighty percent of the full troop deployment target will be reached in the next three months, he said.
An analysis published by Foreign Policy in Focus, a U.S. based think tank on Jan. 27 is not so optimistic.
"This will be a critical year for Sudan's future. The crisis in Darfur has grown and now affects the entire region's stability. The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) authorised in July 2007 remains too understaffed and under-equipped to be effective," reads the report. "Civilian displacements and killings in Darfur continued throughout 2008 as UNAMID was reduced to bystanders because of acute shortages of troops, road transport, and helicopters."
Khartoum says the West is exaggerating the severity of the situation, putting the total death toll at around 10,000. The country's authorities are pleased by the backing of the AU.
"The move by the ICC distracts [from] the peace process. We are glad that the African Union Commission reflected the united stand of Africa against the court," Molieldin Salim, Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, told IPS in Addis Ababa.
Human Rights Watch's London director, Tom Porteous, rejects the assertion that Bashir's indictment would harm the peace process.
"There hasn't been much progress on Darfur in terms of a peace process. In our view, sustainable peace in Darfur and the region can only be achieved if those responsible for human rights abuses are brought to justice. We don't think that any peace process that depends on people against whom there is credible evidence of responsibilty for serious crimes is going to be a fruitful peace process in the long term."
Speaking to IPS on the phone from London, he said HRW hoped the pre-trial judges at the ICC will issue the arrest warrant in the next few weeks.
"Obviously, Human Rights Watch was one of the first to document human rights abuses in Darfur, and we have been consistently calling for accountability for those who bear the greatest responsibility to be brought to justice. We hope that a warrant for the arrest of al-Bashir will be issued as we feel this would be an important step forward for justice for the victims of Darfur and accountability for the perpetrator of the crimes that have been committed."
Sudan is just one of many urgent issues tabled for discussion at the AU summit of heads of state beginning Feb. 1. The summit's theme is "Infrastructure Development in Africa", but other matters of concern include continued conflict in Somalia and the DRC, coups in Mauritania and Guinea-Conakry within the last six months and the humanitarian crisis and political deadlock in Zimbabwe.
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HURRAH AU! The ICC indictment is biased and a perverse of justice. President Omar Al-Basir is defending his country and the citizens of Sudan against foreign organized agression to create genocide in Sudan.
Well.
Africa and the AU (- regardless of the reticence of the white man's client states of Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, ... - ) can be more forceful than that ..
For instance, what stance did the USA take when in the wake of the atrocities committed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, some among the EU countries moved to bring up indictments against Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, .. at the ICC?
Africa, you have the critical bargaining chip - your resources.
You are faced with a clear and present danger.
Africa, the danger inherent in your lack of cohesion and your inaction in the face of danger must be clear - especially with regard to the declaration of war on you by foreign plunderers in the virulent form of the imposition of economic sanctions that have devastated one of your members and caused the death of thousands of Africans.
Why aren't you pushing for indictments of the foreigners who have done that to you? [ Burt it is the foreigners' ICC. DO you see the light and the hoodwink?]
Africa, you have a backbone that has been demonstrated again and again in Cleopatra, Nzingha, Yaa Asantewa, Shaka, Lobengula, Nehanda, Lumumba, Nkrumah, Nasser, .....
Use it.
Use it for the survival of your people and the survival of the ancient civilizations of the African Child.
Use it - for our ancestors who were murdered and held in bondage by the multitude - so that you may live free on Mother Africa's bounteous savanna - today and your tomorrows.
" in the wake of the atrocities committed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, some ..moved to bring up indictments against Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, .. at the ICC? .."
Consider this,
1) The invasion of Iraq is considered to be a willful act of aggression - that even the UN deplored. Why is the UN NOT bringing up charges against those people mentioned above at the ICC? Why is the UN and its handlers in USA, and EU countries now so shrill about Bashir?
2) It is estimated that as a result of the west's murderous adventurism in Iraq, over a million INNOCENT people have been dislocated or slaughtered in that country - for nothing. Is that number less that what Bashir is accused of - or is there an element of racism expressed in all this?
3) Would Bashir be accused of rapes, tortures and murders that are any more heinous that what the west committed in Iraq?
This is the best thing that has happened in recent African Affairs. There has to be a first to bring to justice these killers who call themselves leaders.
A few more remain, like Mengistu/Meles/Isayas of Ethiopia, Kibeki of Kenya, Mugabe and a few more. Enough is enough and AllAfricans must unite against these killers and bring them to justice. No more Rwanda, end of story.
African
Wake up! Arab world is showing you love and care but they have their own AGENDA! Don't think that Arabs love african...they never did and they will never do! African,stop being naive! Justice is justice! Bashir kills africans in their own country ; Sudan is in Africa not in Middle East... Stop mixting issues, Bashir is a killer and negociation is not an option after 6 years of killing more than 300 000 african (black) in Darfur! African president are on Bashir's side because they know that most of them do the same in secret... God forgive them and Justice catch them!
I think that the UNSC must go ahead with indictement of of Bashir. The AU is a useless organizatin. It is a kind of presidents union and they defend and protect each other because many of them are also criminal. They never tell the thruth to each other. You can call it as you want new form of colonialism etc. but it his the the only way peple from africa can get rid of all these criminals we have as presidents members of government and in the armies.
If the UN did not put Charles taylor in Jail and tranfered him to the Hag for trial it would never be done by AU.
Africa still have a lot of criminals in power that need to be also tried and put in jail fro the rest of their life.
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