Sudan’s Bashir offers to share Darfur wealth with US
August 24, 2008 (WASHINGTON) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir offered to allow US companies to explore for oil in the war ravaged region of Darfur.
“We have no problem with them [Americans] coming and sharing it with us but they want to take it all” the Sudanese president said.
Al-Bashir has been under the international spotlight ever since International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges in mid-July to issue arrest warrants for Al-Bashir.
Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir’s arrest.
The Sudanese head of state accused the US of standing behind the ICC indictment and targeting him because he is opposed to Washington’s policies in the region.
The US is not a party to the ICC and has remained hostile to it. Washington had threatened to veto resolution 1593 referring Darfur case to the ICC adopted in March 2005 but eventually bent down to domestic and international pressure and abstained from voting.
“There is no reason for targeting us except first of all we are against Israel’s policies in the region and the Palestinian people. We are also opposed to US policies going at the Arab and Islamic region” he said.
Al-Bashir also said that Washington wants Darfur to have the right to secede in a manner similar to that of the South.
“They [Southern Sudanese] have a right of self determination by the end of the interim period in 2011. This is one of their [US] goals; to have Darfur reach this stage [self determination]” he added.
He also said that Western powers want to divide Sudan into 5 states; one in southern Sudan, one in Darfur, one in Kordofan, one in the east of Sudan, and one in the centre of Sudan.
“They think that the Darfur issue is the last means to undermine Sudan because if peace is realized in Darfur and a solution is found, there will be no other problem left” Al-Bashir added.
Moreover Al-Bashir alleged that unidentified powers want to de-Arabize and de-Islamize Sudan.
“The first project was the New Sudan Plan. This means that Sudan must be emptied of the Arabs and kept distant from Islam” he said. “They hoped to do this through the SPLM and the war in southern Sudan, or through the Darfur war” adding that all these attempts failed.
The Sudanese president also lashed out at the ICC accusing it of being a “colonialist tool”.
“The ICC is a new colonialist tool to bring to their knees all the states that they want to force to capitulate. The leaders of these states might be charged. These courts are aimed against the third world states” he said.
“For instance, all the atrocities that the US and Israel perpetrated, in terms of killing and bombing of civilians, were not questioned by the court. When asked about that they said that the United States was not a member of the court…Sudan is also not a member” he added
Al-Bashir ruled out any dealings with the ICC or handing the other two suspects Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb.
“The target is not Ahmad Haroun or Ali Kushayb. The target is Sudan. If we start dealing with this court or making concessions, other ones will be requested” he said.
“We will not hand over any Sudanese citizen, as I have said in the news conference, no matter what the pressures are. Even if we go to war, we are willing to fight a war with superpowers to protect the Sudanese citizen” Al-Bashir warned.
Asked about what will happen if an arrest warrant is approved by the ICC judges Al-Bashir denied threatening the peacekeepers.
Last week Ashraf Qazi head of the UN mission charged with monitoring a 2005 peace accord between Sudan’s north and south said Khartoum warned the UN of “serious consequences” for its staff and facilities in the event of an arrest warrant.
“The government has conveyed to me that the issuance of an arrest warrant against President Bashir could have serious consequences for U.N. staff and infrastructure in Sudan” Qazi said.
But Al-Bashir said that the worst his government would do to peacekeepers is ask them to leave and not target them.
“If the government rejects the UN forces, it will ask them to leave. We will not target these forces. These are African forces in the first place” he said.
The Sudanese president has been misquoted last week by news agencies as saying that he would kick out peacekeepers following an arrest warrant for him.
Al-Bashir said he is ready to fight a war with the superpowers “to protect the Sudanese citizen”.
“We will not submit Sudan by an agreement or as a concession. Those who want to take Sudan must come with their armies and occupy it” he warned.
The Sudanese head of state said that the internal front is strong and that the ICC prosecutor’s move “unified the Sudanese people around the government”. He stressed that the country is strong politically and economically.
He also described the situation in Darfur as calm for the most part saying that the region is “90 per cent peaceful”.
“17 out of 18 localities in Darfur are safe” he said.
He further said that he inaugurated “major development projects in Darfur” and that the ultimate aim is to bring the displaced people to their homes.
Al-Bashir hailed the support Sudan received from world countries after the ICC’s indictment.
“Most of world nations support us, including the UN Security Council (UNSC) permanent member states” he said likely referring to China and Russia.
But Al-Bashir angrily accused Western countries of backing Darfur rebels and singled out France for hosting Abdel Wahid al-Nur, the chief of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and previously leader of Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim.
He expressed confidence that Sudan will be able to foil “US and Western plots”.
(ST)