Watch out there is a Janjaweed inside the UN

By Justin Ambago Ramba

June 5, 2009 — The UN this week witnessed one of the funniest and most embarrassing of all dramas coming from the Sudan, a country most famously known for killing its own citizens with the highest degree of impunity, first in the southern part of the country and now in its western province of Darfur.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Marino-Ocampo, in his semi-annual report to the UNSC on development on Darfur urged the Sudanese Government to arrest President Omar Al Bashir for crimes he ordered in Darfur.

“The arrest warrant concerning President Al Bashir has been sent to the Sudanese authorities. The Government of the Sudan has the responsibility to arrest him. Their legal obligation stems from the UN Charter and UNSC resolution 1593,” Ocampo told the Security Council in an open meeting.

Ocampo also insisted that the Sudanese Government “has also the duty” to arrest Ahmed Haroun, a government official, and Ali Kushayb, a Janjaweed leader supported by the Sudanese Government. He also called on all States Parties to the Rome Statute to arrest and surrender any indictee travelling to their territory.

Though many diplomats consider Ocampo’s moves as completely naïve, but he strongly supported his stance by giving the cases of Charles Taylor and sobovisc as examples and insisted that the arrest of sitting heads of states though difficult and takes time that may even extend to years, but at the end it is still achievable.

But the most shameful bid came when the Sudanese Janjaweed to the UN after reiterating Khartoum’s stance of not ever recognising the ICC and that it would never cooperate, the Janjaweed, supposed to be a diplomat with a wide range of diplomatic options available to him, chose to confront Ocampo in a very rare event in the history of this diplomatic institution of the highest level in the world.

And while Ocampo was giving interviews to journalists the Janjaweed representative, immediately moved and stood besides him interrupting him in whatsoever he said. And he went to tell Ocampo that he has outlived his usefulness if any as well as describing him as a “lier and mercenary of death.”

“You are not welcome to this organisation. You reduce the image of the UN,”

The Janjaweed said while standing close to Ocampo in front of reporters in a rare case of confrontation, with security people in plain clothes hovering around the area.

He warned Ocampo that he is a “fugitive of the Sudanese justice,” and if caught, “the Sudanese people will teach him a lesson in Justice”. This not a diplomat but rather what the Sudanese commonly call “Fatuwa”, an Arabic for a gangster.

To those who have any bit of doubt, all that which took place at the UNSC is typical of the Janjaweed government in Khartoum and their diplomatic representative is but another Janjaweed commander. And all that he lacks is a horse and AK-47 rifle to turn the whole UN Headquarters in New York into another make shift camp similar to what they are currently doing in Darfur.

The UN Security Council should be keen and observant, because the attitude shown by this Janjaweed in suite is as dangerous those being carried by his kinsmen wearing turbans in Darfur. This is a serious precedent and there must be a code of conduct which regulates the behaviour of the participants and other camouflaging Janjaweed.

I am glad that Ocampo did not react to the Janjaweed’s charges, telling reporters that he is simply trying to stop the extermination of 2.5 million Darfuris affected by the ongoing fighting.

The UN has estimated that the war in Darfur has resulted to the loss of 300,000 lives and the displacement of over 2 million people mostly to camps in eastern Chad and the miseries continue.

The author is a Sudanese doctor living in the UK and can be reached at: [email protected].