Sudan’s “Elbow-licking” diplomacy: A fiasco tops Guinness Records
By Trayo A. Ali
(1) The Consequences of Elbow-licking diplomacy
To tell your international opponents “to lick their elbow”, is not a diplomatic tact. Neither acceptable to consider them are “under your boots”. Publicly confessing to have killed “only ten thousand innocent civilians” and insisting to evade the international justice and challenging the ICC “to go to hell” is at best a kind of total ignoramus. A crude diplomacy inevitably corners dictators to face their fate. One can state in no uncertain terms that, nowhere and at no point in history of international diplomacy (including ancient, medieval, modern or current) a country had messed up its diplomatic affairs, pitied its conduct in an unprecedented manner and at intolerable level, humiliated and disgraced its image and turned it into a gallery of “laughing stock” like the way Sudan did under the Presidency of Gen. Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir.
The “bizarre” has not only become a source of mockery and stuff for sarcastic entertainment that generate laugh within international diplomatic corridors, but also is an intolerable open secret in Khartoum’s streets, a favourite subject matter of international media commentary, film makers, satirists and cartoonists alike everywhere.
From dozens of comments made by many international affairs critics, one seasoned columnist of international repute described Sudan’s diplomatic state of affairs as “a naïve, bogus, irrational, irresponsible, incapable, infantile, and amateurism that is simply unacceptable”. Another leading International News Magazine simply put it that “Sudan’s diplomatic fiasco tops Guinness Book of World Records”.
Though pity as it stands, I, as a keen observer, can’t but to agree with the above. It is not a matter of uttering sweeping statement or posing condemnatory judgment, but it is one based on overwhelming substantiated state of affairs.
(2) President “hand-cuffed” and the “Sexual Jihad”
The captivating episode, this time round, started in one go, when in South Africa on June 2015, everything began falling apart. The “president-fugitive” was about to be “captured, hand-cuffed, caged, deported, and arraigned” before the court of justice (the ICC) in order to face charges on crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. While he was narrowly escaping in a miserable manner and unceremoniously heading to Khartoum through an undisclosed route, as everybody was held in total pause, other dramatic scandalous events followed including that of his minister for foreign affairs literally wept furiously in public to fuel the already charged political atmosphere. Before the dust was settled, the situation further worsened as additional messy news dominated the headlines carrying a sensationally scandalous story related to his foreign affairs spokesperson’s daughter fleeing to join the queue and line-up with the volunteering ladies of the so-called “sexual Jihad” to comfort and boost the morale of the militant “Jihadists” forces of ISIS in their “liberated area” in Syria and Iraq who are fighting to liberate the “Land of Islam” from the “western infidel crusaders” and their local “puppet and tutelage rulers”.
(3) Loosing UNAMID Battle
Coincidentally or intentionally, the Wikileaks released documents that reveal information in which it exposes president al-Bashir literally begging in a humiliating diplomatic manner asking to be granted an audience by the late King of Saudi Arabia, His ‘Majesty’ King Abdullah.
Against, for the fourth consecutive time the government miserably lost the long standing battle to UNSC when on…….the Council passed resolution 2228 to maintain the UNAMID in Darfur for another year in a clear undermining of government’s hue and cry to expel the mission. The council decision came a week after Sudan government got a terrible blow from the US government automatically maintained Sudan in the “list of state sponsoring terrorism”, the most obnoxious list that includes Iran, North Korea, Syria and Cuba.
The latest attempt aims to curb and clip and further limit al-Bashir’s move (at least within Sub-Africa) is one initiated by a potentially powerful and determined consortium of African civil society. Statement issued on June 10, 2015 by group consists of more than hundred organizations from more than forty countries and supported by Human Rights Watch promises to leave no stone unturned until Sudan’s president is captured and brought before justice.
(4) Threat of making hard choice: Iran or Saudi Arabia
The above developments were not isolated cases. The chronology is spiralling hip of diplomatic disasters. Remember the disappearance of Sudan’s presidential plane in June 2011, over Uzbekistani air space when the president was forced to re-route his way to China. President al-Bashir faced similar predicament in August 4, 2013, when Saudi Arabia denied a permission for a plane carrying him to cross its airspace to attend the swearing-in of the Iranian president. A shameful and uncalculated diplomatic statement was issued by Sudan’s presidential press secretary stated that “the Saudi authorities refused to give the plane carrying president al-Bashir permission to cross their airspace”. To further add sault into injury, the flip-flop statement added that “Al-Bashir was not flying in his normal presidential aircraft but was using a plane rented from a Saudi company”.
In Abuja, Nigeria in August 22, 2013 the president un-ceremonial left the AU Summit as he was threatened by Nigerian local court move while he was clandestinely attending the event before was detected by human right groups and blew the whistle to alert the court to take action.
The chain of diplomatic shamble goes on unlimited. In October 23, 2012, Sudan’s “Military Industrial Complex”, munition factory known as Yarmuk, located inside Khartoum was bombed to the ground by an unidentified jet fighter attackers. Sudan’s feeble diplomatic reaction was the “easy option” of accusing the state of Israel!! Until this moment the government woefully failed to take any retaliatory action including simple identification of the attacker, thus leaving the Sudanese people at state of suspense. The government never bothered to provide any credible public information. Obviously it is thinking that the people will forget as time goes. Indeed it is a kind of stupid “ostrich diplomacy”.
Remember too, back in 2000, Sudan was literally knocked out by the tiny “Tourist Island” of Mauritius when it was defeated by secret ballot in competing to occupy Africa’s position in UN Security Council membership. The incident showed how Sudan was diplomatically isolated as the whole “African block” did line up to prevent Sudan from resuming the post in favour of Mauritius. The scandal was summarized by Ambassador Richard Holbrook; the then US representative to UN when he described Sudan’s bit as “a gamble at best”
(5) The bite of UN sanctions continue
Furthermore, in 1996 Sudan caused another diplomatic crisis between Egypt and Ethiopia when it attempted to assassinate the then Egyptian president, Mr. Hosni Mubarak in the streets of Addis Ababa as his convoy was heading to AU conference Hall to participate in Summit meeting. That diplomatic disaster resulted into UN imposing sanctions against Sudan for which the country is battling till today for its waver.
Experts of international law and scholars of diplomatic behaviours are by no means puzzled in analysing this phenomenon of intolerable diplomatic fiasco. It is not even near comparable to that of Kaddafi of Libya (who torn UN Charter right before UN General Assembly), Sani Abacha of Nigeria (who was reported to have died under mysterious circumstances while accompanying an Indian young lady), or former Panama dictator, Manuel Noriega (who was forcefully abducted by US marines to life-long imprisonment), or Idi Amin of Uganda (. Indeed It is a unique diplomatic “Water-Gate” par excellence. It is by no means an unprecedented, irrational, irresponsible, and insensitive.
From the indications it all means that the GoS is fast gearing to face the “moment of truth”, while leaving an unprecedented legacy behind that indisputably tops the Guiness Book of World Records in an uncompetitive manner.
Looking into the chronology of the Sudan diplomatic scandals (ever since the advent to power in 1989); the diplomatic behaviours remained characteristically unchanged, stories are repetitively similar, the character involved acting like-minded fashion.
Dervish diplomacy
Foreign policy is not a joke or an instrument through which to provoke other countries and when face the “moment-of-truth” you wake up and desperately attempt to make cosmetic arguments to cover-up your failures and expecting other to tolerate your intolerable behaviour. Rational diplomacy that spares you to relief your ever mounting foreign debts or biting UN sanctions will take more tact, calculus, cooperation and consistency. But hold on. Your foreign policy is essentially a reflection that mirrors your internal policies. You cannot have a totally devastated and oppressive internal situation and expect to have an ideal foreign behaviour. Does Sudan expect to have a genocidal system and a “Jihadist” and dervish character like Ali Kerti, as minister for foreign affairs and expect things to turn normal or run rosy? No, you can never have your Cake and eat at the same time; you can only harvest what you plant.
The author is the head of external relations of the Sudan Liberation Movement Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) Sudanese Revolutionary Front secretary of humanitarian affairs. He is reachable at [email protected]