U.N. court indicts Sudan leader—thousands protest

In a move that can only be interpreted as an act of war, the International Criminal Court on July 14 indicted Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for alleged crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity. The global corporate media, which have never favored Sudan’s present government, have given widespread coverage to the indictments.

On the website for the International Criminal Court it states: “The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The ICC is based on a treaty, joined by 106 countries.

“The ICC is a court of last resort. It will not act if a case is investigated or prosecuted by a national judicial system unless the national proceedings are not genuine, for example, if formal proceedings were undertaken solely to shield a person from criminal responsibility. In addition, the ICC only tries those accused of the gravest crimes.”

ICC member countries include those in Latin America, Europe, Canada, Africa and Asia. The United States is not a member of the court because it rejects the right of any other state or international body to exercise legal sanctions and prosecution against its soldiers or political figures.

In response to the prosecutor’s charges, thousands of people in Sudan have gone into the streets to demonstrate against the decision to prosecute President al-Bashir. The indictments imply that a warrant will be issued at some point for his arrest.

Demonstrators in the capital of Khartoum on July 14 chanted, “Down, down, USA!” They also exclaimed, “With our souls, with our blood, we die for Bashir.” The demonstrators also said during the protest: “The ICC does just what the European Union, the United States of America and Israel tell it to do.” They also delivered a statement to this effect to U.N. offices in the Sudan.

‘Indictment will sabotage peace efforts’

In addition, Sudan has proclaimed that this move against its top governmental officials will inevitably sabotage efforts to reach a lasting peace agreement with rebels based in the western Darfur region of the country. Two senior Sudanese officials told Reuters news agency that they would solicit Chinese, Russian and African support through the U.N. to obstruct the issuing of an arrest warrant for President al-Bashir.

The U.N. Security Council has the power to pass a resolution that suspends an ICC-issued warrant. However, many agree that since al-Bashir has already been mentioned in the indictments, the damage will be done in regard to any potential improvement of relations between Sudan and the Western countries.

On July 12, the African Union said that ICC’s threat to prosecute the head of state of Sudan could jeopardize peace efforts in the Darfur region. A statement issued in the aftermath of a meeting at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia through its Peace and Security Council of the continental organization, composed of all African states “expressed its strong conviction that the search for justice should be pursued in a way that does not impede or jeopardize efforts aimed at promoting lasting peace.”

The AU Peace and Security Council stated that it had been advised of the plans to indict the Sudanese leader on July 12 and “reiterated the AU’s concern with the misuse of indictments against African leaders.”

Also the Peace and Security Council of the AU pointed out that the United Nations Security Council has addressed the issue in a March 2005 resolution which “emphasized the need to promote healing and reconciliation” in the western region of the country.

This action by the ICC, which is based in The Hague, represents the first ever indictment the ICC leveled against a sitting head of state. The International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)—a special court that predates the ICC—had indicted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 1999 in the midst of U.S.-NATO bombardments of that country.

Other developments surrounding this attempt to prosecute the Sudanese president, saw the Arab League warning on July 12 that the “politicizing” of the ICC had prompted the call for an emergency summit of Arab foreign ministers to discuss these charges against al-Bashir among member countries.

The spokesperson for the Arab League, Hesham Yussif, said to journalists that Secretary-General Amr Mussa was in close discussions with various foreign ministers throughout the Arab world and Africa in regard to this issue.

During 2007, the ICC judges issued warrants for two other Sudanese officials, the minister Ahmed Harun and the militia commander Ali Kushayb. The government has stated emphatically that it will not hand over these nationals to the ICC.

Meanwhile in China, a senior Sudanese official, Mustafa Ismail, who is a senior advisor to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, stated that this close ally had done more to bring peace in Sudan than any other country had.

Ismail said to the Xinhua press agency: “In my opinion, China has played the most positive role in Sudan among countries outside the region. In sharp contrast, some Western countries have been playing up the Darfur issue as a conflict between the Arab and the African groups, to impose pressure on the Sudanese government for their own interests.”

Ismail continued: “To that effect, a number of media outlets in the West have distorted the role of China in the Darfur issue, while some politicians have threatened to boycott the Beijing Olympics. We should know their tactics.”

Ismail also mentioned that, “China’s achievements in the Sudan peace process stems largely from its pure and transparent motive. China does not have an ulterior motive for being involved in the peace process. It is doing so for peace itself, which has won great trust both from our government and from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement,” Ismail said, referring to the leading organization in the south of the country that reached a comprehensive peace accord with Khartoum during 2005.

The People’s Republic of China has provided over $15 million in humanitarian assistance to Sudan. The Sudanese presidential adviser expressed appreciation for the assistance given by the Chinese government including the 10,000 peacekeeping forces deployed in Darfur, which Ismail claims are “doing a great job by providing technology and experience to the United Nations-African Union (UN-AU) mission charged with providing humanitarian aid.”

Ismail, who is a leading official of the ruling National Congress Party, was in China on a five-day, inter-party visit to Beijing at the invitation of the Communist Party of China. He stated that the Chinese government’s involvement “greatly influences the Darfur peace process. We believe the Darfur issue has entered the road to settlement,” Ismail said.

See panafricanews.blogspot.com