AFRIPOL.ORG IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
The indictment of Omar al-bashir, Sudanese President
Editorial by Nigerian Tribune Thursday, July 24, 2008
THE indictment of Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, on genocide and war crime charges, among other vicious crimes, by the International Criminal Court (ICC), should have happened much earlier. The ICC was born in Rome in 1998, but came of age — the treaty became a statute — in 2002 after the treaty was ratified by 106 countries. A further 40 countries signed the agreement establishing the ICC but have not yet ratified it.
THE violence in the Darfur area of Sudan began in 2003 when some black Sudanese took up arms to fight the oppression of the black population by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. The armed groups targeted only government groups and military installations; they did not kill Arab civilians.
PRESIDENT al-Bashir responded with diffuse and deadly force. His air force deliberately bombed villages. There was no attempt to engage the elusive guerrillas. BUT al-Bashir’s most effective weapon was the Janjaweed, Arab men on horseback. They rode like the wind and wiped out villages. They would ride into a village, separate the women from the men and boys. They would rape the women and girls and kill the men and boys. They would then set the village on fire after looting the villagers’ few possessions.
LUCKY villagers in other settlements fled ahead of the maniacal Janjaweed. Tens of thousands of them are now refugees in Chad while hundreds of thousands are displaced. THE Janjaweed ensures that the refugees live in fear in their miserable camp in Chad. It killed many refugees when it attacked the camp a year or so ago. It regularly attacks the displaced persons’ camps.
PRESIDENT al-Bashir claims that the Janjaweed marauders are freelance mass murderers. But it has long been established that the Khartoum government arms and funds the Janjaweed. One of the murderous militant’s leaders was photographed disembarking from a government aircraft. He was received by a top government official.
THE brutal ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region continues even with the presence of a peacekeeping force. The African Union force is hamstrung by a critical shortage of men and equipment. The force has trouble protecting even itself. MR. al-Bashir did not want peacekeepers brought in from outside Africa. He claimed that the presence of non-African peacekeepers, especially from the West, would threaten Sudan’s sovereignty. Mr. al-Bashir’s opposition to a strong peacekeeping force was to give the Janjaweed and government forces more time to completely alter the geography and the demographics of the Darfur region.
THERE is no doubt that President al-Bashir is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. His indictment by the ICC is proper, though some people have claimed that it is pointless because of the alleged impracticability of a trial. Mr. Bashir, who seized power in 1989, is not likely to be tried in absentia and his capture is unlikely as long as he remains in power and does not travel to a country where he is seen as a genocidal maniac.
THE ICC’s Prosecutor, Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has asked three judges to issue a warrant for the arrest of President al-Bashir. The judges will examine Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s evidence and it is only after going through the last bit of proof that they will give their verdict. This is likely to take months and the judges are not bound to issue the warrant for the arrest of President al-Bashir, though the evidence of his genocidal doings is overwhelming.
THE ICC is the world’s first permanent criminal court. The Nuremberg courts were disbanded after leading Nazis were tried and punished. The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia was set up to try those who allegedly committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the wars that led to the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Former president of Yugoslavia and Serbia, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, was the most prominent person put on trial in the court. He died during his trial.
MR. Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, is also being tried in The Hague. Like the late Mr. Milosevic, Mr. Taylor is being tried by an ad hoc court, the special court for Sierra Leone. Funding for the court is being provided by the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Canada. The court was set up with the approval of the United Nations.
THE ICC can only try human rights crimes committed after July 1, 2002, when the statute of Rome came into force. The United States, based on manufactured evidence and against strong international opinion and opposition, invaded Iraq in 2003. American soldiers have committed atrocious crimes in Iraq, but they cannot be tried by the ICC because America does not recognise the global criminal court. America is not a signatory to the treaty establishing the ICC.
THE ICC only tries suspected criminals when their countries refuse to do so or brazenly work for their acquittal, or are unable to put the suspects on trial, as in the case of Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, and Joseph Kony of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
AMERICAN soldiers tried in the United States for killing Iraq civilians are given ridiculously light sentences while many others are acquitted. The soldiers are natural candidates for the ICC, but the American government will never send them to The Hague for trial.
SOME people have called President George Bush the world’s worst war criminal. But will he be indicted by the ICC even after he leaves office? This makes the indictment of President al-Bashir — Sudan is not a member of the Assembly of State Parties, as the countries which have ratified the ICC treaty are categorised — somewhat hollow