Other Sudanese issues besides the ICC indictment
By Dr. Justin Ambago Ramba, MD.
July 23, 2008 — The indicted President Omer Al Bashier a well known Sudanese dictator and tyrant has ruled the country with an iron fist and Arab arrogance over the last two decades since he came to power through a military coup, which makes it no surprise to anyone that he would one day find himself in today’s situation which no fool can ever envy him for it.
So, what next? Is Al Bashier going to change the way he treats the marginalized black Africans of the biggest country in the continent, called the Sudan (Land of Black Africans – In Arabic language). Is he now going to implement the CPA in a quick march or does he still entertain the idea of dragging his feet over the whole agreement ?
Abyei is another catastrophe in Al Basher’s neck, especially when he authorised his troops and the Messiriya militia to set the whole town ablaze. If Abyei’s massacre were to be added to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s home –work list, believe me this young man from Hosh Banaga would have been sentenced even in absentia, by now.
Buying Russian jet fighters using the money from the south Sudan’s oil fields and yet possibly in an anticipation to re-suppresses southern Sudanese if they opt to vote for separation is something which the world community is as well watching with concern.
The crazy war in Darfur must come to an end and the Sudan government has to learn its lessons so are the south Sudanese. Who would want to be ruled by a criminal gang which has already been indicted by the International Criminal Court? This should make a case for the total separation of south Sudan from this criminal rule of NIF.
If the truth has to be said, Al Bashier is now completely hated and unpopular in Eastern Sudan, South Blue Nile, South Sudan and MORE WORSE in Abyei and Darfur and the memories of his mistreatment through his security agents and military men assisted with his Arab militias are nowhere to be forgotten soon. And if at all he had expected anything different than this (ICC Indictment), and then he was just fooling himself. OR otherwise he should go back and revisit his rhetoric speeches during his two decades in power.
Leaders come and leaders go and it is now time Al Bashier goes. In April 1984 when Nimeiri the ex- president found himself in hot soup, with all his strong security and the elites of his one party system of the Sudanese Socialist Union (SSU) had to quit the scene. The mass protest now mushrooming in the Sudanese big towns in support of Al Bashier are all fake loyalties, which he (Al Bashier) and his mentor Al Turabi should know better because they were there when the other opportunists were making a fool of Nimeri.
The bottom line is that if Al Bashier still wants to buy sometime out of the ICC arrest warrant , then he better occupy himself by fully and speedily implementing the CPA, sorting the situation in Abyei per the agreement, stop cheating the government of south Sudan (GOSS) on their share of the oil money, and seriously reach a confederation with Darfur in a similar way he was forced to do with SPLM/A. though doing all these may NOT guarantee him being taken to ICC one day, but as he claims to be a good believer in God, it may win him some forgiveness and mercy from the Creator .
But deep inside me I know very well that Al Bashier would never live to his words or to the expectation of the oppressed masses of the Sudan. He stood in support of the late Saddam Hussein of Iraq and gave the late Saddam all the false sense of security and hope from the eminence of a collusion strike. Saddam was already drunk with power and could only listen to those who said what he wanted to hear until he found himself in a short lived refuge in that sewage tunnel.
The whole regime in Khartoum has been indicted by ICC for 10 very serious crimes against humanity and as a survival strategy they will all still stay together in order to give support to each other until the hour comes for them to face their ultimate fates at The Hague. Their cronies and all the other major benefactors will of course continue to organize these well known good for nothing mass rallies and the Islamic anti –everything western demonstrations in the hope of defaming the ICC and the UN, at the same time hoping that some miracle happens. Not long ago one suspended minister earlier on, called the Sudan a failed state and this very much angered Al Bashier, but what should we call a state where the whole government is accused of nearly a dozen of crimes against humanity ?
Even this infamous the so called crisis committee formed to diffuse Al Bashier’s indictment is also another knee jerk reaction largely an out come of the tremendous panic being experienced in the presidential palace in Khartoum. But why get the First V.P and the president of south Sudan involved is rather puzzling issue? SPLM/A which fought to protect the rights of the marginalized people of the Sudan should not ever in any way be made to stand in the same trench with Omer Al Bashier who only signed the CPA under the severe and sustained USA and the International Community’s pressure. President Kiir has still a big battle in hand and he knows very well the NIF partners in the CPA only take things serious when they come under fire from the International community. This could be the only chance that the CPA will be implemented swiftly and to the letter, then why dilute this golden opportunity?
The argument put forward by some wishful thinkers that the indictment of Al Bashier is a threat to the CPA is null and void. CPA is between the SPLM/A as a representative of the oppressed and marginalised people of south Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and the south Blue Nile on one hand and the National Congress Party (NCP) representing the Northern Arab Islamist oppressors. History still reminds us that this very Al Bashier is not for any peace and the proof is that when the Late Garang and Al Marghani were about to sign a peace agreement in 1989, Omer Al Bashier out of mere anger and Arab Islamic arrogance toppled the democratically elected government in an Islamist plotted military coup. He went further to say that and peace deal with the SPLM/A , the Southern Infidels would have meant nothing but a defeat to Islam. What followed after this was a more intensified war where civilians were murdered in cold blood, churches, hospitals and schools were bombed on regular basis. This CPA is still there to stay even if Al Bashier goes to The Hague or to hell. It is an agreement and that is why even when our great leader Dr. Garang died in the tragic plane crush, the CPA still continued up till today. Is the presence of Al Bashier more precious to the CPA than the late Garang? Of course not. Keep pressure on the Arabs if you want any thing good done.
The Arab League‘s position in stressing and insisting that, if Khartoum government could bring to trial both of Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kushyeb, then this could avoid Al Bashier being arrested by ICC. This is a very lame argument in the sense that Al Bashier himself and eleven other prominent Sudanese government figures are themselves already indicted for around ten serious crimes against humanity. So who in the Sudanese judiciary system is practically going to take Al Bashier and his eleven strong National Islamic Front (NIF) members for a trial locally within Sudan? These men being the strongest icons of the Islamic Movement in the Sudan and prominent members of this very rogue government of Khartoum, it is beyond any doubt that they will always evade justice in Sudanese courts. As such for the sake of fair justices for them and their victims, I strongly believe that they MUST proceed to The Hague.
The African Union’s (AU) futile attempt to stand by Al Bashier is as well bias and wicked. They have not been able to stop these ruthless Arabs from carrying out this dreadful genocide in Darfur despite their presence on the ground, so what is the point that they are trying to make when justice is about to be carried for those girls and women raped while they buried their heads in the sand? The blood of every innocent Black African killed by Al Bashier shall haunt the whole of the Union members until the day that justice has been fully carried out. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accuses al-Bashir of having personally instructed his forces to destroy in substantial part three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur: the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. So, where has the prosecutor gone wrong?
In conclusion I can only say that, this is the eventuality of a country ruled for more than half a century by a few almost entirely chosen from one ethnic group with an alien agenda to the indigenous population. And as such every time they only come up with policies which only suite their narrow interests of clinging to power, while the whole country’s interest is not being well addressed or even taken into consideration. I hope that as the ICC grows stronger day by day, the Sudan, the African continent and the whole world would become a safer place for all.
The author of this article is a south Sudanese medical doctor currently living in the United Kingdom and can be reached at: [email protected].