Sudan’s Bashir remains recidivist war criminal in Darfur
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
Recidivism according to Wikipedia the free encyclopedia is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behaviour after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behaviour or have been trained to extinguish that behaviour. Recidivist is the individual repeating an undesirable behaviour as al-Bashir is doing.
Omer al-Bashir decided to re-commit his heinous crimes against the Sudanese people in Darfur. His games of peace with the people of Sudan in Darfur had been characterized by the endless back – and forth and backwards renege of covenants to re-ignite the absurd proxy wars for the survival of Omer al-Bashir away from the most dreaded grip of the International Criminal Court.
Thus, under this al-Bashir and the former rule of the National Islamic Front (NIF), Sudan was ranked the seventh most failed country in the world, the fifth most corrupt country in the world and at the bottom of the list of countries that do not apply the purposes of Islam.
The wise people in the countryside ask Bashir with sorrow and pity for what the country has reached at of sad deterioration as to why not leave power voluntarily instead of waiting for forced removal? This is if there is still remaining a glimmer of dignity, Omer al-Bashir has to give up Sudan’s rule voluntarily to show some courage and credibility to his political life, which has been plagued by failures and crimes, has made him a pariah. Though this proposal may seem ideal, but in fact it is a timely proposal. Despite the delay, the question directed to Omar al-Bashir is: Why do not you leave with some of your dignity instead of being forcefully removed without your will in humiliation. That fate is seen far away, but it is likely to happen if you read modern history thoroughly.
With regard to the UNAMID in Darfur, the people there say the following: What is required in Darfur is not to withdraw or to reduce the strength of UNAMID, but rather to keep it stronger and give it more authority – Mandate- to carry out the tasks of protecting the citizens and deterring the militias of the regime from harming the citizens in the region. This statement has come from the Testimonies made by Sudanese People from all the Five Federal States in the Darfur region. The people in Darfur consider UNAMID’s presence was and is still regarded as a deterrent, and persons from the villages that live nearby still seek their help when they know an attack by the Janjaweed (Rapid Support Force) or other government militia is imminent. They go to where UNAMID is residing and stay there until they feel it is safe to manoeuvre.
The crimes and misdeeds committed by the International Muslim Brotherhood Movement (IMBM) Khartoum branch, sometimes referred to as political Islam against the people in Sudan, cannot be counted due to their large numbers on one hand and on the other hand to the terrible damage they tended to cause to human beings, animals and land, as well as its subsequent effects in the years after.
According to statistics of crimes documented during the Twenty Nine lean years of the rule of the Islamic syndicate entity, the so-called Political Islam in Sudan led by genocidal criminal Marshal Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, in nearly three decades, characterized by uncountable crimes but the main ones included the crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Darfur, the division of the country to the north and south on racial basis, which made the Sudanese people in the southern region choose to secede and establish their own state of South Sudan. This is in addition to the Permission and codifying of corruption which took to the level of epidemic in all Government Institutions. Moreover, the regime has sponsored terrorism and its export to the neighboring countries of Africa and around the world and continued harbouring different factions of terrorists. The regime has tirelessly worked under the divide to rule doctrine that resulted into the fragmentation of the fabric of Sudanese societies. Furthermore, al-Bashir and his entourage worked tirelessly armed with the tool of corruption towards the destruction of state productive institutions, such as the Gezira Irrigated Agricultural Project along with the sale of Sudan’s maritime fleet, known as Sudan Line, which was sold to foreigners. The foregoing is just the tip of the iceberg. The systematic institutional corruption along with mismanagement and assignment of unqualified, incapable and inexperienced people to the leadership responsibility of production and financial institutions through nepotism led the country to the brink of bankruptcy. As a consequence of that has been the recent bankruptcy of the Central Bank of the stocks and economic collapse that led to a catastrophic situation in the daily life of the citizens of Sudan throughout the country, including the capital Khartoum where it is difficult to get a loaf of bread at a reasonable price especially during the scarcity of fuel, which negatively leading to the difficulty of obtaining drinking water in the regions of Darfur and Kordofan. The Pastoral areas witnessed the death of livestock from the lack of drinking water let alone water for irrigated projects. The crimes committed by the Khartoum Political Islam regime against the Sudanese citizens in the Darfur region since the outbreak of the revolution in 2003 and according to UN figures that suggested approximately 3 million people remain displaced from their homes, as refugees in eastern Chad and well over 500,000 people have been killed directly or indirectly by the violence imposed by Khartoum and along with tens of thousands of girls and women have been raped as sexual violence continues to be deployed as a brutal weapon of war. http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article62255
This article comes against the backdrop of the new wave of violence and the freshly committed heinous war Crimes Perpetrated in Darfur by the government-backed tribal militias known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of the former notorious Janjaweed militias who committed the crimes against humanity, war crimes and Genocide in Darfur, in the beginning of the crisis, under the orders of Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, the fugitive from international justice and chased by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands and a pariah of the peoples of the civilized world.
The Janjaweed Tribal Militias are wreaking havoc on large swaths of Darfur.
The past few weeks have seen a dramatic deterioration in the security situation in large parts of the Darfur region, especially in the Jebel Marra area where some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, including the Khamsa Dagayig (translated five-minute) camp in Zalingei and the Aradeiba camp in Garsila, as well as repeated attempts by the government of Sudan to remove and evacuate the Kalma camp for the Internally Displaced persons (IDPs) in Nyala using force.
Among the serious and ongoing developments in the Jebel Marra area is aerial bombardment using military aircraft targeting villages and populated areas, which forced tens of thousands of unarmed civilian Sudanese citizens to flee again under extremely harsh humanitarian conditions.
The region is also witnessing the return of armed militias supported by the government, which has continued its criminal activities of burning villages, looting property, killing dozens of defenseless citizens, committing rape as a war weapon and various violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
On May 30, 2018, the militias affiliated with the NCP government attacked the Mount Arai farms in Krainik Locally, West Darfur. The attack injured four internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Krainik camp. This attack coincided with the regime’s attempts to dismantle the displaced camps since the announcement of the operations of this so-called arms collection, as already announced by the South Darfur Governor Adam Al-Faki. The authorities arrested seven leaders of the Kalma displaced Camp and among the detainees is the Coordinator General of the Camp Yagoub Frey.
The disenfranchised Sudanese people in the Darfur region of Sudan have already suffered the woes of the proxy wars waged by Omer al-Bashir using the Janjaweed militias when the rebels took up arms and when the then the National Islamic Front (NIF) declared that it would only negotiate with those carry arms as it came to power through the barrel of the gun but today the people in Darfur are facing “another very challenging year” when it comes to those dwelling in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have been threatened by ultimatum of being driven out of their Camps which are planned to be dismantled and the residents would face grim and uncertain future without anybody helping and protecting them.
The Khamsa Dagayig (five-minute) camp in Zalingei and the Aradeiba camp in Garsila have witnessed attacks by government-backed militias that killed and wounded dozens of residents of the two camps. Several attempts have been made by South Darfur state authorities to vacate the Kalma camp to displace the already displaced people and repeat the protracted humanitarian disaster in Darfur Since 2003.
On the other hand, the infamous Ingaz – meaning rescue – referring to the National Islamic Front (NIF) regime continues its policy of systematic targeting against Darfur students in higher education institutions and universities as happened in the Bakhtalruda University and targeting Darfuri activists in all areas. Some of them are still being held on arbitrary charges including charges of cooperating with armed movements.
These grave developments come in the light of the recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions concerning the reduction of UNAMID without providing an appropriate alternative to the responsibility to protect the lives and property of the people of Darfur in accordance with the resolutions of the Council under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
The Sudanese opposition parties, in particular, the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) warned and pointed to the adverse consequences of this decision, which ignores the nature of the deteriorating security situation originally. The party said in a statement issued at the end of last year that the reduction of UNAMID forces will create a security gap and a wide vacuum leading to the renewed violations throughout the region and the National Congress Party (NCP) regime that was waiting for UNAMID to leave the field for Tribal militias to restore their former criminal activities.
The occurrence of these violations is accompanied by the absence of rule of law in the region and the widespread phenomenon of impunity and lack of accountability in light of the inability of the judicial institutions responsible for the implementation of justice because of the existence of extensive immunities and the continuation of the Arbitrary Emergency law imposed on the region since 1989.
The Sudanese Communist Party calls on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to take urgent measures to protect the lives and property of the people of Darfur, based on the resolutions adopted by the Council on the situation in Darfur under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. It also calls on the African Peace and Security Council to play its role in protecting the lives of Darfurians, to take measures to ensure justice and bring those involved in such violations to the courts to face the predicaments of their crimes.
The Sudanese Communist Party appeals to the people of Darfur to take decisive action to counter the policies of the National Congress Party (NCP) regime, which aims to fragment the unity of the region and impose the phenomenon of ethnic cleansing by burning villages, evacuating camps, preventing the return of displaced persons to their villages of origin and eventually appropriating the land and its resources to those mercenaries brought by the regime from the outside and within the country.
The Sudanese Communist Party demands all the Sudanese people to show solidarity with the people of Darfur in these harsh times and grave conditions, considering that the Darfur problem is an integral part of the comprehensive national crisis.
This appeal is addressed to the Sudanese Political Opposition factions to Unite and do not try to help lifting the sunken ship of (NCP) regime led by the genocidal criminal Omer al-Bashir. Furthermore, you shouldn’t try to raise the wreck of the Pirate ship from the sea bed, let it be food for the hungry whale and other starving sea creatures! Try to agree on the minimum if it deems necessary. The NIF/NCP regime has taken the advantage of the Divided and Differing Opposition Components in order to extend its presence on the helm and Ruling of Sudan without a competitor for so long. We must not grant the ruling regime of the National Congress Party (NCP) a New lifeline where we have given it enough over the past lean three decades which it took as an advantage for the oppressing the people of Sudan and to perpetrate more crimes of genocide.
While the NCP regime is committing further crimes against the Sudanese people in Darfur, the news media reported quoting the United States Chargé d’Affaires in Khartoum, Steven Koutsis has expressed his country’s readiness to continue the dialogue with Sudan. Furthermore, Steven Koutsis, the U.S. envoy expressed his hope for the normalization talk’s which move to the second phase which involves removal of Sudan’s name from the terror list.
On Sunday the 27th May 2018, Sudan’s State Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdallah Idris has been quoted as saying that the NCP regime has embarked on making arrangements to launch the second phase of dialogue with the U.S. according to the five-track engagement plan.
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article65518
These actions of the Sudanese government do not warrant any sanctions relief given the clear evidence of Omer al-Bashir’s failure to abide by the requirements of the US President’s Executive Order 13761. The US sanction relief has begun empowering a genocidal regime with additional capacity to acquire more military equipment, train more soldiers and militias to commit more war crimes in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan. Three of the five tracks of Sudan’s commitment to a cessation of hostilities, unimpeded humanitarian access to regions under siege by the Sudan Armed Forces, and cooperation on counterterrorism remain unmet in an explicit and complete violation of the US executive order.
The so-called Five-track engagement process between the US administration and Omer al-Bashir has been an abject failure in taming the genocidal regime which returned to its old bad and evil habits of killing, rape, displacement and appropriation of properties of the long-suffering people of Sudan throughout the troubled Darfur region.
There has been substantial renewed fighting in Darfur in the past two weeks, as referred to above. There is evidence of targeting of civilians by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their affiliated Rapid Support (RSF) militias and, as expected, no humanitarian access has been granted to South Kordofan and Blue Nile states where atrocities continued to be committed and only limited access to Darfur.
New reports have surfaced indicating that the US Administration has recently called on the regime in Sudan to adopt new approach to achieve peace in Darfur. The Sudan Tribune Cyber journal of May 30, 2018, reported that the United States Chargé d’Affaires in Khartoum, Steven Koutsis has called on the Sudanese government to adopt new mechanisms to achieve sustainable peace in Darfur. http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article65527
The US Chargé d’Affaires Koutsis who was visiting North Darfur State demanded the government to continue the disarmament campaign and meet the holdout groups in order to join the peace process.
Here, the American politician seems to have forgotten or trying to discard the cunning tricks of the NCP ruling regime led by al-Bashir, is not expected to reach a just and sustainable peace with the parties in Darfur. History has repeatedly proved that Omer al-Bashir will not respond to peace for his fear of being overthrown and of being handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) which he fears a lot and remains obsessed with and a nightmare. The US Chargé d’affaires should have visited the Central Darfur state in which Sudanese civilians have been attacked and killed by the government forces and the allied militias of the Rapid Support Force (RSF) and resulting in thousands of villagers to flee into the middle of nowhere including the IDPs Caps in the State. Perhaps, what has the new Governor of Central Darfur State, Mohamed Ahmed Gad al-Sayyid, makes him one of the heroes of the provocative statements that the affiliates of the so-called National Salvation Revolution have called for since their ill-fated arrival. He reiterated the boring statement threatening the forced evacuation of the IDP camps and the provision of security and stability throughout as his mandate which are obviously the highest priorities of his Government.
By any all measures, the existence of Omer al-Bashir and his ruling regime in Sudan is a stumbling block to the survival of Sudan as a unified state after the secession of the south, besides the instability and along with Sudan being at the tail of the world’s countries in all fields of progress but at the summit of failed countries around the world in all areas of modern life. Furthermore, the continuation of futile wars will be continued unabatedly to protect the genocidal criminal from the grip of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Therefore, there is no magic wand to reform the situation in Sudan in the presence of Omer al-Bashir and his corrupt criminal entourage in the rule of Sudan and the only option to resolve the chronic fateful problems of Sudan, is the getting rid of the ruling regime of the National Congress Party (NCP) and its demise by all available means to the people of Sudan.
As for the opinion of the Sudanese people regarding the so-called 2020 elections, they are meant to extend the arbitrary rule of Omer al-Bashir as well as the distraction the people of Sudan away from the issues that concern them. The so-called elections in 2020 are nothing but allow al-Bashir competing alone and earns the votes alone by fraud, as happened in the past! Counterfeiting is the master of the situation in the elections of the ruling regime of the National Congress Party (NCP). Therefore, 2020 elections mean anything to the Sudanese individual who suffers from his daily livelihood and eager to get drinking water and a loaf of bread for himself and his family who is living under the poverty line. And the provision of health and education services and drinking water and improvement of the daily living for the citizen has become irrelevant to the ruling regime and thus became null and void because the (NCP) regime has resorted to the privatization of public services and privatised to the beneficiaries of his fat cats and the corrupt parasitic capitalists.
In the midst of this dilemma, we say that it is enough to groan and complain which would not lead us to anything concrete that changes the situation of the Sudanese people, given the fact that the rope of patience on the suffering has ended and we are left with only one option which is the uprising and the declaration of the great popular long-awaited Revolution to overthrow the corrupt criminal regime. Thus, we do not expect the help of anyone but ourselves. The only option left for the Sudanese people to escape from all of the foregoing entanglements is Our collective action backed by sincerity as the people of Sudan and with the Bless of God Almighty and we will be victorious.
Francis Eugene “Hill Harper” the American actor and author has been quoted as saying: “Once you have a Felony Conviction on your record, one of the most difficult things to do is to Break the Cycle of Recidivism”.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/