Old habits still die hard among Sudan ruling party
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
February 28, 2009 — News media quoted the Director-General of National Security Intelligence Services (NSIS) General Salah Abdallah (AKA gosh),has warned supporters of the International Criminal Court (ICC) saying that anyone who dares to introduce his plans for the enforcement of indictment of NCP president Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir:”We will cut off his hand and his head and carve up his joints, as it is a cause that does not compromise”!Furthermore, the spy chief said that the NCP government will continue exercising its efforts to provide security for the citizens, foreign organizations and diplomatic missions that respect conventions, «but all those who behave contrarily should, at that time, they can blame nobody but themselves”.
Apparently, Mr. Gosh who was speaking at a ceremony organized by the people of South Sudan to mark his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General, he sent a warning message to supporters of The Hague Tribunal, saying that they (NCP al-Mutamar al-Wattani) used to be fundamentalist Islamists but have become moderate believing in peaceful coexistence, but that should not be taken for granted. In other words, the NCP will inevitably return to the battle to manage extremism in the enemy.
Lieutenant General Salah Gosh seems to have started to long with nostalgia to the era that was dominated by hard-core Islamist extremism. He is planning for revival of the infamous brigades of the Popular Defence Force (PDF) and mujahideen. That was period when the National Islamic Front (Arabic: ?????? ????????? (NIF) security agents arrested and detained opponents in “ghost houses” where torture was used to suppress dissidents. The NIF detention and torture chambers in Sudan are known as “ghost houses,” because their occupants see their humanity disappear as they become living ghosts. Those dark days’ victims are taken in blindfolded to experience atrocities in the dungeons of Islamist dictator Omar al-Bashir and similar tyrannies of our day. It was said in the past, from time immemorial that Snakes will not leave their venom and wolves will not abandon their silliness and the foxes will never give up their deviousness. This seems to be breeding true for the NIF/NCP regime and its supporters. Observers believe that it is high time for al-Bashir to stop the demagogy and face up to the reality of the consequences of the atrocities he has committed against the people of Sudan in Darfur.
The referral of the Darfur situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1593 under Chapter VII of the United Nations (UN) Charter, is the hardest ordeal and the most critical challenge the ruling junta ever faced since it imposed itself illegally to assume power in Sudan by a coup d’état in 30th June 1989. The NIF/NCP 20 years’ despicable reign of terror and intimidation that escalated into war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur should not dream of impunity or expect the international community turn a blind eye to those atrocious acts endured by the innocent Sudanese civilians in Darfur. There is no way for the perpetrators of those appalling crimes to escape punishment. Whether NIF/NCP likes it or not, their Chief Field Marshal Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, who masterminded the most serious international crimes, will be indicted inevitably by the Three Judges at the Trial Chamber One of the International Criminal Court (ICC), that was created through the International Treaty in Rome in 1998 and entered into force on the 1st July 2002, in The Hague, the Netherland on Wednesday the 4th March 2009. Omer al-Bashir is not different from his fellow tyrants of a kind that of Charles Taylor (Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor) (born 28 January 1948) served as President of Liberia from 2 August 1997 to 11 August 2003. He was once Africa’s most prominent warlord during the First Liberian Civil War in the early 1990s and was elected president at the end of that conflict. He was subsequently forced into exile, and is currently being held in the United Nations Detention Unit on the premises of the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden, location Scheveningen in The Hague, and on trial by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Omer al-Bashir’s other counterparts include former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba who was arrested near Brussels on 24 May 2008 on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. He is charged with three counts of crimes against humanity and five counts of war crimes. The Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and the former Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic are racist genocidaire and others of that ilk. Nothing new in Omer al-Bashir being tried for his internationally serious crimes he presided on to happen in Darfur 6 years on. He is in a situation similar to the 19 leaders of Nazi Germany who were tried before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg after the Second World War convicted of crimes against humanity. Furthermore, Omer al-Bashir is akin to the dangerous Warlord Thomas Lubango Dyilo, the alleged founder of Union des Patriotes Congolois accused of war crimes.
The continuing rhetoric of denial of existence of war crimes in Darfur and declaration of non compliance with the ICC by the NIF/NCP regime and supporters will not offer immunity to al-Bashir. The NIF/NCP must remember that the doctrine of The Responsibility to protect which argues that when a state fails to protect its citizens adequately, other Nations have the Right and Duty to intervene that overrides the presumptive principle of nonintervention. Protection and Justice of World Citizens and the Right of every person to be free from political tyranny and related abuse considered paramount.
The use of rhetoric to win over the crowds and that Omar al-Bashir will not surrender himself voluntarily to the International Criminal Court would not deter the ICC to track him down for arresting him. No matter how long it takes the inevitable fate for Omer al-Bashir is custody in the cells of the International Criminal Court, like those who went to the dustbin of history. The future of Sudan can not and should not become a hostage for the sake of one military officer against whom the ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder and accused al-Bashir of masterminding a campaign to get rid of the African tribes in Darfur; Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.
Will the Spy Chief Salah Abdalla Gosh seize the window of opportunity for peace in Darfur hosted by the State of Qatar in which the Government of National Unity (GoNU) and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) signed an accord of Declaration of Intent that incorporated the agreement of Good Will and Confidence Building for the Settlement of the conflict in Darfur instead of making ultimatums and the threats of doom and gloom? That’s the Sixty-Four Dollar Question (64 US$)!
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]
Akol Liai Mager
Old habits still die hard among Sudan ruling party
“Apparently, Salah Al Gosh who was speaking at the ceremony organised by Southern Sudanese people to mark…..”
That ceremony was not organised by Southern Sudanese people, it was organised by two south Sudan’s NIF leaders namely; Riak Gai Kok and Ali Tamim Fartak. Yes, they are southerners, but their political direction is what motivated them and should be refer as NIF leaders from the south.
Southern Sudanese are very innocent people to be blackmail by some power-thirsty individuals in Khartoum. Why don’t you and repoting journalists just put the correct name of Al Gosh ceremony’s organisers?
Southern Sudanese have never, and will never worship human butchers like Salah Al Gosh, Mustafa Osm. Ismael, Not-Nafie Ali Not-Nafie etc.
Mohammed Adam
The yet to be uncovered Rwanda by the JEM Leader Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed and his representatives in Chad for Sudanese Darfurians
On the first of January 2009, Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed the leader of the so-called “Justice and Equality Movement” that operates in the buffer zone between Chad and Sudan where his army structure is combined of all races and Tribes of Darfur, and their priority target is to overcome the Khartoum’s regime, but the reality is Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed’s political tacts is to maximize Zagawas power, by creating and broaden a land for Zagawa, and also creating Zagawa’s existence in Sudan and in Darfur in particular as they seen by the majority of Darfurians and Sudanese as Chadian roots.
For the above political reasons Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed and his representatives planed to keep all the possible political appointees in his army structure to his Tribe Zagawa. Therefore other non Zagawan Tribes in his army Meidob, Massaleet, Berti, Tunjur and others raised a complaint letter to Khalil in order to look at his appointment procedure again, so after a meeting with his representatives they decided to disarm any of his army member who is non Zagawan and they refuse to do so therefore he ordered to get rid of anyone who is a non Zagawan.
So the battle is started between his troops,since then hundreds of Meidob, Berti, Massaleet, Tunjur and others no one knows how many are massacred, injured, detained as it took place in a Chadian territory of Um Jurus.
Therefore Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed and his Zagawas are not actually fighting to rescue Darfurinas from Khartoum’s regime instead they are using and deceiving other Darfurian Tribes to fight for them to achieve their goal, because his own Tribe Zagawa cannot fight for him, and when the power sharing comes khalil finds a way of getting rid of all who is non Zagawa (his Tribe) so all the sensitive power gained to his own people and to Chadians to control other Darfurian, so what happen this time is, he took all the other Tribes that he should get rid of them to Chad in order to deny access to international mediators with the knowledge of Chadian President Idris Deby and massacred, tortured, detaind hundred of Meidob, Berti, Massaleit, Tunjur, and others, Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed the Zagawan leader of Chadian origin playing a game of political tactics which he is not an expert on, and covered up the massacre to avoid sensitive information being leaked out of Chad and left hundreds of relatives of his massacred individuals in an unknown destiny.
As one of the massacred Tribe member just letting Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed to know that no matter how long it will take you to explain this very urgent matter locally and Internationally and release the number of deaths, injuries, detentions, torture of each of the above Tribes we will take the necessary steps that set by the International Criminal Court against inhumanity and forward and application to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other related organisation in order to assess the human loss that occurred on 01.01.2009, no matter how long it takes these individuals do have families and relatives, up to now Meidobies are over two hundred individuals therefore I would like say to Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed, Gibreel Ibrahim Mohammed the Asylum seeker in London who claims to JEM’s economic advisor, and their representatives; and also the Chadian President Idris Deby who by knowingly allowed this massacre to happen in Chad where is Khalil’s safe heaven the destiny of these people it is not over yet, if Khalil and his representatives thinks so there is measure on the way.
Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed and his representatives also needs to explain the following:
1. why this massacre took place in Chad instead of Sudan, if this massacre is not planed in advance?
2. Why order to disarm Tribes that are non Zagawans in Chad where they are complete strangers?
3. Why this massacre took place only on the day of appointment of different ranks in his military structure?
4. Why the Berti Tribe of your own army decided to join the Sudanese government on the 01.01.2009 which is the same day, and sign a peace a agreement with their weapons and trucks where they should be fighting a against the Sudanese government?
5. Why all the sensitive and senior positions in the Justice and Equality Movement that you lead are held by Zagawan’s (your own Tribe) and worst of all your own relatives?
6. If not planed why you are not released the deaths, injuries, detentions up to this date and denying it even though you have been asked by many ?
7. What humanity characters do you have that actually better than AL- Basheir to represent Darfurians? Do you forget that you are a former member of AL- Basheir’s government? My personal opinion considers you even “worse” than AL- Basheir at least he is in the government but what about you even before you come to power? Which you never will! for you to know that Sudan is a multi-racial Country, and also you don’t even actually know what the word “Justice and Equality Movement” means, and yet more unexpected questions on the way.
It has been a reasonable amount of time for Khalil and his representatives to release the necessary information that required by the victim’s families and relatives, so that each family of each Tribe will have a complete picture, but the fact he is not released what is required because this massacre took place in Chad therefore if the required information cannot be released then the only solution is an application to the International Criminal Court (ICC) should be forwarded and also to Amnesty International and to other relevant organisations to assess the massacre, by all these Darfurian tribes that massacred by Khalil’s order just to gain more power to Zagawa.
We urge the concerned International Organisations to intervene immediately, the Red cross, Amnesty International, the United Nations high commission for human rights, and International observers to investigate the massacre of hundreds, tortures, detentions without any delay for these Sudanese Nationals of Darfur for this hidden matter, and uncover this hidden truth.
the author can be reached at [email protected]