OUR NEWS
Special Screening of "Hotel Rwanda" at Achill Half Marathon July 5th 2008
We held a special screening of Hotel Rwanda in the Cinemobile at the Achill Half Marathon Tented Village. There was a talk on genocide and about Silent Masses, all to create awareness on Darfur. Everyone was able to sign our petition and express their disgust as to the awful continued genocide in Darfur.
Achill Half Marathon 2008
The Achill half marathon took place again on July 5th this year and kicked off our mainfundraising and awareness campaign for Silent Masses. There was over 1250 entrants this year and was sold out for the first time ever. The event was chosen because it is all about participation and human endevour for a cause which is all about people. This event is the main annual fundraiser and awareness provider for our cause and we are delighted that it again turned out to such a hugely successful event. We would like to thank all our sponsors and contributors and participants for their continued support. We would also like to thank all the people of Achill who helped beyond measure particularily Achill Tourism, CFAA, the Order of Malta, the Gardai, Mayo County Council and every volunteer that gave generously of their time.
Looking forward to 2009 we hope to put on a much bigger event moving the tented village to the finish line area and scaling up the events and activities around the event.
Click on www.achillmarathon.com to find out more.
News on Darfur
AU chief urges Sudan to cooperate further
4/8/08 AFP
KHARTOUM (AFP) — The African Union on Monday urged Sudan to cooperate further with peace efforts in the country's Darfur region amid efforts to head off a possible arrest warrant against the head of state.
AU Commission chairman Jean Ping held what he described as "long" talks with President Omar al-Beshir, three weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor sought Beshir's arrest warrant for alleged crimes in Darfur.
The AU strongly supports Sudan against the ICC and has asked the UN Security Council to delay any legal proceedings against Beshir, saying such a move could inflame the five-year conflict in Darfur.
An AU-United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) in the western Sudan region is struggling to deploy adequate troops and air power -- still not pledged by the international community -- and unblock a stalled peace process.
Ping expressed hope that the Security Council would discuss "as soon as possible" a resolution that would delay ICC proceedings against Beshir.
"We think that the Sudanese government has accepted to cooperate with us since the beginning... and we want them to show it more. That's what we have been discussing with the authorities here," Ping told reporters.
Ping said he had received a "very positive answer" from Sudan in backing political efforts headed by new chief mediator on Darfur, Djibril Bassole, and promised to cooperate with the deployment of UNAMID troops and equipment.
Sudanese officials said that Ping presented close cooperation with the AU as a way of decreasing tensions on the ICC issue.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq said talks focused on the obstacles facing the UNAMID deployment, allowing Bassole to make political progress where his predecessors failed, and the ICC issue.
Sadiq said the perception was that "if Sudan and the African Union made major breakthroughs in UNAMID and the political process... (this) may ease tension between Sudan the ICC."
Ping said the AU had advised ICC prosecutors not to level accusations against Beshir, before the request for his arrest was made on July 14.
"While we are trying to extinguish the fire here with our troops, we don't understand very well that they choose that moment to put more oil in the fire by taking the decision," Ping said.
"You (the ICC) are dealing with people who died. We are also dealing with people who are still alive. You should take into account, not only the problem of justice, but also the problem of peace," said Ping.
Far from the angry reprisals that some predicted against UN peacekeepers in Darfur or mass demonstrations, Sudan has been pressing a diplomatic campaign, harnessing chiefly Arab and African support, to freeze possible proceedings.
In renewing the UNAMID mandate last week, the UN Security Council noted concern that any indictment of Beshir might jeopardise peace efforts.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Beshir of ordering his forces to annihilate three non-Arab groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape to commit genocide.
According to the United Nations, up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.
The war began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.
Darfur rebels appeal against death sentences
Tue Aug 5, 6:48 AM ET
KHARTOUM (Reuters)
Eight Darfur rebels convicted of terrorism offences for attacking the Sudanese capital have appealed against their death sentences, a member of the defense team said on Tuesday.
Lawyer Muez Hadra also told Reuters they had lodged a case at Sudan's highest Constitutional Court asking it to stay the execution orders on the basis that the special courts formed to try them contravened Sudanese laws."We have made one appeal for the eight people from the Khartoum court," Hadra said. "The rest we will appeal in the coming two days," he added.
According to the rules of the special courts trying the rebels they have one week to make their only appeal against their sentencing before the execution order is signed by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
The International Criminal Court last month moved to indict Bashir for genocide and war crimes in Darfur.
Last week, three courts sentenced 30 accused rebels to death by hanging.
Of the eight, Hadra said the appeal was based on the fact their lawyers were not allowed access to them ahead of the trial. "Also there is no evidence against these men - it's all based on the testimony of children who said they were tortured," he said.
Bashir last month pardoned the children Sudan said had taken part in the unprecedented attack on Khartoum by the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The minors remain in custody.
JEM denies having any child soldiers. More than 200 people were killed and hundreds of others injured in the May attack where rebels were stopped at a bridge over the river Nile leading to the presidential palace and army headquarters.
The defense team of Sudan's most high-profile rights lawyers say the rules of the special courts contravene the constitution of Sudan with trials allowed to continue even in the absence of the defense lawyers or the accused.
The lawyers had previously petitioned the land's highest court to stop the trials saying they were unconstitutional but that request was refused.
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect.
(Reporting by Opheera McDoom)
Darfur rebels unhappy at U.N. show of concern on ICC By Opheera McDoom Reuters Friday August 1, 09:33 PM Darfur rebels on Friday criticised a U.N. Security Council resolution linking a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force to African concerns at a move to indict Sudan's president for war crimes. But the rebels said it was no victory for Khartoum and urged the world body to support the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor last month sought an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the remote west. "They should not have linked the security and the legal issues in Darfur -- this is international justice," Abdallah Harran, political secretary of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction led by Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, told Reuters from Darfur. The African Union and the Arab League have expressed their support for Sudan, saying the ICC move could threaten the peace process. Rights groups hailed the move as a blow to impunity. Sudan and its allies had wanted the resolution on renewing the mandate of the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) also to suspend the investigation of the ICC but the compromise was the promise to discuss it. "They haven't made a full commitment to really say that they are going to delay the court's work," said Sherif Harir from the powerful SLA Unity faction. "It's not a victory for Khartoum." JEM's deputy chief of staff, Suleiman Sandal, told Reuters from Darfur the Security Council should regard the concern of Arab and African countries in the context of their own fears of being brought to account by international justice for crimes against their own people. "All these countries are dictatorships and many violate human rights and commit crimes against their people," he said. "They are afraid also to be accused and go to the court." WOMEN NOBEL LAUREATES A delegation of women's Nobel laureates in south Sudan criticised the African Union on Friday for backing Bashir, saying it was clear the body could not deal with its own crises. "As an African, I feel embarrassed and shocked by the action of the African Union," said Kenyan Wangari Maathai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work in protecting the environment. She added that if Bashir had done nothing wrong, he had nothing to fear from appearing before the court. The United States abstained on the resolution because of the reference to African concerns on the ICC move against Bashir, and the rebels joined rights groups in praising Washington. The U.N. Security Council can suspend the ICC investigation for 12 months at a time if it feels it is detrimental to peace in the region. Western nations have shown reluctance to do this. International experts estimate some 200,000 people died and 2.5 million were driven from their homes in Darfur after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing the government of neglect, and Khartoum mobilized mostly Arab militia to quell the revolt. Last year the ICC indicted a militia leader and a junior government minister for war crimes. Khartoum refused to hand them over. |
Sudan's al-Bashir vows never to deal with ICC
By SARAH EL DEEBThe Associated Press
Thursday, July 31, 2008; 1:09 PM
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Sudan's president said he will never deal with the International Criminal Court where he faces charges of genocide in Darfur, according to a newspaper interview published Thursday.
The interview with Khartoum independent daily al-Ayyam was Omar al-Bashir's first comment on how he planned to respond to his July 14 indictment on charges of war crimes in the 5-year-old Darfur conflict.
"The government will never deal with the court. It doesn't recognize it, and will not appear before it," al-Bashir was quoted as saying.
The United Nations estimates up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million uprooted in the Darfur conflict since it began in 2003 when ethnic Africans took up arms against the mainly Arab government to press demands for more state funds and services. Government-allied militias are accused of some of the worst atrocities in the war, though the government denies it.
Al-Bashir also said in the interview that a comprehensive peace deal for Darfur that he has been pursuing could be ready in a week. He said a committee of political parties has been formed to flesh it out but he did not provide any details of the plan. He first announced he was working on a peace deal shortly before his indictment.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has asked the international court to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir, but it may be weeks before the court rules on the request.
Al-Bashir said no one knows where Moreno-Ocampo got his findings from, adding he is using a number of legal experts to challenge the legitimacy and legality of the indictment. But no Sudanese defense team will travel to the ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, to argue his case before the court, al-Bashir insisted.
Sudan has in the past consistently rejected the ICC's jurisdiction on the grounds it is not a signatory to the 1998 Rome Statue that set up the court. Last year, it refused to hand over two Sudanese nationals indicted on charges of crimes against humanity. But this is the first time an indictment was issued by an ICC prosecutor against a sitting head of state.
Al-Bashir said a team of legal experts will challenge the indictment's legality and the evidence it contains before the U.N. Security Council and the International Court of Justice. He said Sudan will only deal with the International Court of Justice because it is part of the U.N., which his country is a member of.
He also said Sudan would not object to regional bodies taking up its case with the ICC. The Arab League and the African Union already have asked the Security Council to suspend the case for 12 months, something that only the U.N. body can do under the ICC statue.
Al-Bashir, who has led an Islamist regime in Sudan since he seized power in a 1989 military coup, repeated his allegations that the indictment is part of what he calls a "historic plot" to destabilize Sudan and break it up into smaller entities.
"There is confirmed information from trusted sources that there is a plan to divide Sudan into small states, to turn Sudan into another Yugoslavia," he said.
Meanwhile, two Sudanese courts convicted 22 people from Darfur of taking part in a rebel attack on the capital in May and sentenced them to death. Three minors were referred to a juvenile court, defense lawyer Adam Belaila said.
The May 10 attack, carried out by fighters of the Justice and Equality Movement, was the closest that Darfur's rebels have gotten to the seat of the government. Hundreds of Darfurians were arrested after the attack, which shocked the government. It was not clear how many remain in detention.
At least 100 security officials, 90 rebels and 30 civilians died in the attack, defense officials have said.
Darfur Investigator Finds Refugees' Voices In Tune with Sudan Indictment
By Howard Lesser
Washington, DC
18 July 2008
With the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo's application for an arrest warrant this week against Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the volley of threats between the international community and the Sudan government is intensifying. What do Darfur's own citizens feel is the best way to get Khartoum to stop bankrolling the janjaweed attacks and letting them return to rebuild their ravaged communities? Attorney Sara Darehshori is Senior Counsel with the International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch. After traveling to the region and listening to others who have spoken extensively with Darfur refugees, she says that given the sense of hopelessness that negotiations to stop the government-sponsored attacks were at an end, many Darfuris passionately want the international community to intervene and indict Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir for genocide.
"Today, I heard a woman who just spoke to a bunch of people in refugee camps and they said that after the prosecutor's announcement, this was the first time they could sleep. It was a big deal for them to hear that the international community was going to hold Bashir accountable," she said.
Darehshori herself interviewed dozens of refugees at the Darfur border with Chad in July of last year, shortly after the ICC's indictments of two Sudanese officials, cabinet minister Ahmad Haroun and janjaweed militia commander Ali Kushayb.
"I went to Chad to the border, where there are over 200-thousand Darfuri refugees last summer, as part of, basically, a research mission to investigate how the International Criminal Court is performing on the ground because we wanted to see what kind of impact the court is having on the communities most affected by the crimes and how they perceived justice. When I was there, I talked to numbers of refugees in four different camps about their perception of justice issues. And at the time, there had been two arrest warrants issued, the first two against Haroun and Kushayb. And they were pleased with those warrants, but they were hoping for more," she said.
Darehshori found the refugees convinced that Khartoum's intractability to international demands, coupled with a faint exhibition of world determination to take action to punish Sudanese officials had embedded an overriding mood of hopelessness. But she was encouraged to detect a spirit of resolve in the refugee camps that international institutions would find the means to make Khartoum pay for its crimes.
"The perception was: there's no justice in Sudan. So their only hope for justice was the International Criminal Court, and the fact that the ICC was investigating was encouraging to them. But they wanted them to go up the chain of command. And what surprised me was how many people said, 'When are they going to bring charges against Bashir'?" she said.
Despite fears of government retribution against humanitarian workers and attacks and other crippling moves against UN and African Union peacekeepers, refugees, according to the Human Rights Watch legal counsel, were determined to press their grievances in the hope that the outside world would listen and take action. She discounted warnings by some African Union officials that this week's start of investigations against President Bashir were "dangerous" A threat of repraisals, she said, was no "reason to drop charges against a suspected war criminal criminal because there's a fear that they are going to commit more war crimes. It's kind of a self-defeating argument in that you can't have the international community or the court held hostage to threats of additional violence."
From a historic perspective, Sara Darehshori points to several high-profile indictments for war crimes that initially were given little chance of success, but which ultimately paved the way for groundbreaking achievements in the restoration of human rights and the rule of law in other unresolved conflicts.
"We can look to other examples in which sitting heads of state have been charged with war crimes, like Milosevic or Karadzic, or Charles Taylor. At the time when those warrants were requested, they were all seen as controversial, but in the long run, they all eventually contributed to peace and stability. And the sky that was supposed to fall never actually fell," she pointed out.
Sudan rules out deal with ICC over Bashir warrant
By Opheera McDoom Reuters - Thursday, July 17KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan on Thursday rejected a deal with the International Criminal Court to hand over two indicted officials in exchange for dropping the court's arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo however ruled out dropping his call for a warrant for Bashir on suspicion of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, a move that some powers fear could derail peace efforts there."There will be no direct cooperation with the International Criminal Court and no sending any Sudanese citizens to The Hague," Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail told a forum on Thursday.
The decision to refer Darfur to the ICC came from the U.N. Security Council so any proposal to resolve the crisis should also come from there, he said.
ICC judges are expected to decided in October or November whether to issue a warrant for Bashir's arrest.
Moreno-Ocampo asked the ICC for the warrant, accusing Bashir of a campaign of genocide in which 35,000 people were killed outright, at least 100,000 died a "slow death" and 2.5 million were forced to flee their homes in Sudan's Darfur region.
China, South Africa and others have expressed concern that an indictment of Bashir could damage the stalled peace process aimed at ending the 5-year-old conflict in Darfur.
Moreno-Ocampo, in his first public comments since asking for Bashir's arrest, said this was not a factor for him.
"I am the prosecutor and I have to do my judicial part of the work for the court," he told reporters. "I kept my independence and I cannot be a political factor," he said when asked whether arresting Bashir would harm peace negotiations.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered a different view, saying the ICC also must consider ramifications of its work. "We must seek to strike the correct balance between the duty of justice and the pursuit of peace," he said.
Western diplomats in New York have said a deal could be struck to drop or suspend the warrant for Bashir if he agreed to hand over Humanitarian Affairs State Minister Ahmed Haroun and militia leader Ali Kushayb, indicted by the ICC last year.
DEAL RULED OUT
A senior Sudanese government official, agreeing with Ismail's stand, ruled out a deal. "This is non-negotiable," the official told Reuters. "Any talks will be held within the declared position of Sudan."
Sudan has asked Russia, China and members of the Arab League and the African Union to help it pursue a Security Council resolution suspending a warrant for Bashir for 12 months.
Diplomats in New York say the Arab League and the AU's Peace and Security Council are expected to call on the Security Council soon to block any ICC moves in the interests of bringing peace to Darfur, devastated by the five-year-old conflict.
Sudan is likely to get both Arab and African support at the United Nations. AU officials have expressed concern that the ICC's first four cases have all focused on Africa.
Senegal's president said on Thursday that U.S. President George W. Bush had told African leaders at one point that the United States might send troops to Darfur if they did not act to halt what he saw as genocide there.
"Myself and other African colleagues tried to dissuade him from this and convince him to leave us to try to sort out this problem among us Africans," President Abdoulaye Wade said in a statement issued in Dakar on Moreno-Ocampo's request for an arrest warrant for Bashir.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "The president is committed to supporting the AU-UN peacekeeping force."
Only about 2,000 people attended the latest in a series of demonstrations against the ICC in Khartoum on Thursday, but for the first time senior government officials addressed the crowd.
Bashir's top adviser, Nafie Ali Nafie, told the rally: "The court will not find any respect from anyone in Sudan."
The protests have been organised by Bashir's ruling National Congress Party, but opposition politicians and other Sudanese have also expressed concern the ICC action could be at odds with the causes of peace and justice in Sudan.
The United Nations strengthened security before the ICC announcement, withdrawing non-essential staff from Darfur and evacuating families from Khartoum in case of a backlash.
On Wednesday, an officer from the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission was shot dead in a carjacking in Darfur.
Just north of that attack, in Beida town, the aid agency Tearfund's said its premises were broken into and staff were beaten by armed men.
Bush Warned He Might Send Troops to Darfur: Wade
DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal's president said on Thursday George W. Bush told African leaders at one stage the United States might send troops to Sudan's Darfur if they did not act to halt what he saw as genocide there.
President Abdoulaye Wade said Bush, who has lobbied strongly for robust international action to end the five-year-old conflict in Darfur, had made the warnings to him, but he did not specify when or in what circumstances.
Commenting on the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor's move this week to seek a war crimes arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Wade said Bush had "always proclaimed loudly and clearly that the United States considered Bashir had committed genocide in Darfur."
"I've had to transmit to President Bashir and to my other African colleagues President Bush's warnings that if Africa didn't do anything to end the tragedy in Darfur, the United States could bypass the (United Nations) Security Council and send contingents to Darfur," the Senegalese leader said in a statement issued in Dakar.
"Myself and other African colleagues tried to dissuade him from this and to convince him to leave us to try to sort out this problem among us Africans," he added.
The United States has supported the deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur and has even helped to airlift international peacekeepers to and from the violence-torn western Sudanese region.
However Washington, stretched by heavy military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, has stopped short of sending its own troops to Darfur, where foreign experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in five years of political and ethnic conflict.
Asked about Wade's comments, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "The president is committed to supporting the AU-UN peacekeeping force."
SUFFERING OF CIVILIANS
Wade said he had taken Bush's warning to send troops to Darfur "very seriously ... especially since in the case of (the U.S.-led invasion of) Iraq, he'd informed me two days in advance."
Wade, who has tried to mediate to help end the fighting in Darfur, said he was aware of the suffering of civilians there and, as a defender of human rights, could not stand by while a crime was being committed.
"It's not up to me to defend President Bashir if he is guilty," he said in his statement.
Echoing a view taken by the African Union this week, Wade said the ICC prosecutor's indictment against Bashir could worsen the situation in Darfur and create "indescribable chaos."
He added he would prefer to see a one-year suspension of any arrest warrant against the Sudanese president, which would allow investigations into his case to continue.
"In law, you are innocent until proven guilty," the octogenarian Senegalese president, a lawyer by training, said.
"Myself and other heads of state in Africa, in cooperation with the African Union Commission, will do what is necessary in relation to President Bashir so that all measures can be taken to achieve a just and lasting solution to this crisis," Wade said in his statement, without giving further details.
Prosecuting Genocide
|
Many aid workers and diplomats suffered a panic attack when the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant this week for the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for committing genocide. They feared that Mr. Bashir would retaliate by attacking peacekeepers and humanitarian workers.
But instead of wringing our hands, we should be applauding. The prosecution for genocide is a historic step that also creates an opportunity in Sudan, particularly if China can now be induced and shamed into suspending the transfer of weapons used to slaughter civilians in Darfur.
If China continues — it is the main supplier of arms used in the genocide — then it may itself be in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Article III of the convention declares that one of the punishable crimes is “complicity in genocide”; that’s the crime that China may be committing if it goes on supplying arms used for genocide, even after the I.C.C. has begun criminal proceedings against the purchaser of those weapons.
Beijing seems unabashed. Incredibly, China and Russia are acting as Mr. Bashir’s lawyers, quietly urging the United Nations Security Council to intervene to delay criminal proceedings against him. Such a delay is a bad idea, unless Mr. Bashir agrees to go into exile.
Still, China does care about its image. Beijing supplied arms to Pol Pot’s genocidal regime in Cambodia but later distanced itself from the Khmer Rouge as international criticism grew. China also supported Slobodan Milosevic until he was indicted, but then almost immediately let him hang out to dry.
One test of China’s attitudes will be whether President Bashir is welcomed at the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony next month. (If President Bush is not careful, he may find himself seated at the ceremony between Mr. Bashir and Robert Mugabe.)
If Beijing reacts to Mr. Bashir the same way it did to its other war criminal pals and suspends arms transfers, then there is real hope for Sudan. If Mr. Bashir feared losing his weapons and spare parts, he would be willing to make significant concessions that would make a peace deal more likely — and ultimately an enforceable peace agreement is the only way that Darfur can recover.
According to United Nations data, 88 percent of Sudan’s imported small arms come from China — and those Chinese sales of small arms increased 137-fold between 2001 and 2006. China has also sold military aircraft to Sudan, and the BBC reported this week that two Chinese-made A-5 Fantan fighter aircraft were spotted on a Darfur runway last month. The BBC also said that China is training Sudanese military pilots in Sudan.
Likewise, Human Rights First, in a report on Chinese weapons sales to Sudan, suggests that Chinese engineers supervise arms production at the Giad industrial complex outside Khartoum. Chinese military companies have also helped set up arms factories outside Khartoum at Kalakla, Chojeri and Bageer.
Instead of lashing out in reaction to the prospect of an arrest warrant, Mr. Bashir may be forced to take the opposite tack: He may become more cooperative.
Mr. Bashir first used brutal methods — militias and a proxy invasion of a neighboring country — in his long war against South Sudan. He didn’t pay a steep price, so he adopted the same scorched-earth policy in the Nuba Mountains. When he again went unpunished, he quite rationally adopted the same measures to suppress insurgency in Darfur.
Now, finally, we have a stick that has Mr. Bashir alarmed, and that gives us leverage. So far, Mr. Bashir is responding by trying to win support from the African Union and the Arab League, and that may restrain him from killing and raping too many aid workers and peacekeepers in the coming months. It may even induce him to cooperate with the U.N. in permitting more peacekeepers.
Unfortunately, the Arab League’s secretary general, Amr Moussa, who quite properly denounces abuses when suffered by Palestinians, has chosen to side with Mr. Bashir rather than the hundreds of thousands of Muslims killed in Darfur. If Israel bombed some desert in Darfur, Arab leaders might muster some indignation about violence there.
A final thought: this prosecution for genocide offers a hint of historical progress.
Throughout most of history, genocide was simply what happened to losers in a conflict. In the Bible, if we are to take it literally, there are cases when God gives a nod to genocide (“Now go and completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation — men, women, children, babies”). Such divinely sanctioned ethnic cleansing reflected the norms of war for much of history, finally beginning to yield in the last couple of centuries.
Now this prosecutor’s pursuit of a head of state suggests that human standards truly are changing — and that is a prerequisite for ending genocide itself.
Warrant for Sudanese Is Talk of Security Council
UNITED NATIONS — Russia and China voiced concerns on Wednesday about the pursuit of Sudan’s president by international prosecutors, raising the possibility that the United Nations Security Council could intervene to forestall the prosecution, diplomats said.
In a closed session on Wednesday, the Council began its first discussions on Sudan since prosecutors at the International Criminal Court requested an arrest warrant for Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.
Russian and Chinese delegates said they feared that the prosecutor’s request, announced Monday, could jeopardize efforts to bring peace to Darfur, a conflict-ridden region of Sudan, diplomats said.
The delegates did not explicitly bring up the Council’s authority to postpone the court’s investigation or prosecution, diplomats said, but did suggest that something should be done.
“The whole question of whether the Security Council should invoke the power within the statute is a matter which a number of delegations have raised today,” Britain’s United Nations ambassador, Sir John Sawers, told reporters afterward.
But, for now, “there is no proposal on it,” he said.
The meeting was long planned to discuss the renewal of the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan, whose mandate expires at the end of the month, as well as a report on the status of that force.
In the report, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, wrote that he was “deeply disappointed by the lack of progress” made in Darfur. He acknowledged that the deployment of peacekeepers was “far behind schedule.”
At the meeting, the Council also adopted a statement condemning “in the strongest possible terms” an attack on the peacekeeping force last week that left seven members dead. Another peacekeeper was shot and killed in west Darfur on Wednesday, United Nations officials said.
Envoys seek to free Sudan leader from war charges; another peacekeeper killed in Darfur
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
July 16th, 2008
UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ African envoys sought support Wednesday from Russia and China for ways of letting Sudan's president dodge a global court prosecutor's Darfur war crimes charges.
"The search for justice should not jeopardize the other priorities in Sudan," South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said.
Also Wednesday, gunmen in Darfur shot and killed another United Nations-African Union peacekeeper, just as the Security Council voted to condemn the killing of seven Darfur peacekeepers a week ago as a possible war crime.
The latest attack killed a Nigerian company commander in Forobaranga in West Darfur while he was on patrol not far from a U.N.-A.U. peacekeeping camp, U.N. officials said.
Sudan, South Africa and China expressed concern that indicting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir could further damage the peace process, diplomats said. Some Western diplomats and U.N. officials also say they fear an arrest warrant against Bashir could unleash reprisals against the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID.
But to many, that process already is withering and the mission has no peace to keep.
"There is no peace agreement. The peace process has been stalled for the last few months," British Ambassador John Sawers said. "There's an urgent need for renewed effort on the peace process side."
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges Monday against al-Bashir related to a campaign of extermination the U.N. says has claimed 300,000 lives and driven 2.5 million people from their homes. Moreno-Ocampo, based at The Hague, Netherlands, said survivors are preyed upon by government-backed janjaweed Arab militia and regular troops. It could take judges months to rule on whether to issue an arrest warrant.
Sudanese Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed said some African diplomats were discussing with China and Russia ways of persuading the 15-nation council, which asked the court in 2005 to investigate the Darfur crisis, to block Moreno-Ocampo's work for a year. Neither China's nor Russia's diplomats commented publicly Wednesday.
Last week seven U.N.-A.U. peacekeepers were killed and at least another 19 wounded in Darfur during an ambush by about 200 gunmen on horseback and in SUVs.
The council on Wednesday condemned the July 8 attack as "premeditated, deliberate and intended to inflict casualties," and said attacks on U.N. peacekeepers "can constitute war crimes."
Fighting erupted in Darfur in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of discrimination.
Along with less-than-adequate cooperation from the Sudanese government, the U.S. and other governments haven't provided the peacekeeping force with needed attack and transport helicopters. The purpose of the force is more to protect civilians and ensure access for humanitarian workers than to keep any peace.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council in a report that he is "deeply disappointed" by the situation, but he still set the ambitious goal of doubling the number of peacekeeping troops to 80 percent of its authorized strength by year's end.
As of June there were 11,359 personnel in Darfur — two-thirds of them soldiers — as part of the peacekeeping mission, which is authorized to have 26,000 troops, police, civilians and other personnel, Ban reported.
With the U.N.-A.U. peacekeeping mission's mandate set to expire at the end of this month, the council debated Wednesday extending the Darfur mission for another year. Such an extension is expected to be granted two weeks from now.
OLYMPICS
Athletes Call for 55-Day Truce in Sudan's Darfur
Washington Post July 2nd, 2008
The somber realization struck speedskater Joey Cheek during the 2006 Turin Games: While he was competing, it was likely innocent people in Darfur would be driven from their homes and left for dead.
"I began to realize my obligation and my opportunity as long as I have the spotlight is to be able to help those who are not able to help themselves," he said.
Cheek, co-founder and president of Team Darfur and a three-time Olympic medalist, led a five-member panel at the National Press Club yesterday that released a letter calling upon international leaders to pressure the Sudanese government to observe a 55-day Olympic truce period for the Darfur region, starting Aug. 1.
The letter has ample support. More than 130 athletes from 22 countries have co-signed, including 18 who have qualified for the Beijing Games. The letter asks leaders to insist that the Sudanese government not bomb its unarmed civilian population, to make progress in the peace process and to use the period to allow humanitarian workers to have access to those without food, water and medical care.
The Olympic truce has ancient roots. It began in Greece in the 9th century B.C., and in recent years, world leaders have invoked the tradition to promote international unity. On Oct. 31, 2007, China introduced a U.N. resolution supporting a truce for the Beijing Games; 186 nations adopted the initiative, including Sudan.
Experts estimate as many as 450,000 people have died in Darfur since fighting began in 2003.
U.N.'s Ban calls on China to be bigger peacemaker
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Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged China to match its growing economic and political clout with more funding and troops for peacekeeping operations to meet growing international crises.
China, a relative latecomer to global peacekeeping, has about 1,800 peacekeepers deployed abroad, making it the second largest contributor after France from among the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
"This is an area where China stands tall," Ban said in a speech given to students at Beijing's Foreign Affairs University.
"You are one of the U.N.'s leading member states, and you now rank among our top 10 contributors of both funds and peacekeeping forces. China will need to rise even higher in both rankings if we are to meet growing global challenges," Ban said.
China last year agreed to send a 315-member engineering unit to Sudan's strife-torn Darfur, where international experts say the conflict between insurgent groups, the Sudanese government and state-backed militias has killed 200,000 people and driven millions from their homes.
The Sudanese government has accepted a hybrid peacekeeping force of 26,000 African Union and United Nations troops, but only 9,000 are on the ground.
China, which sent a first deployment of 142 troops to Darfur last November, will send the remaining engineers in mid-July, Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
China has advised Sudan to cooperate with U.N. efforts to resolve the crisis but has faced widespread Western criticism as the African country's biggest arms supplier and for not using its oil and investment stakes to press harder for an end to bloodshed in the arid Darfur region.
The U.N. chief, who will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders on Wednesday, told Chinese journalists he hoped Beijing would be "more proactive" on other global issues ranging from food security to climate change, the China Daily said.
"I expect that China's people and government will actively participate, commensurate with your economic development and political responsibility," the paper quoted Ban as saying.
Who’s the Worst Dictator?
New York Times,June 30, 2008
So who is the world’s worst dictator? I was thinking about that after seeing Slate’s article suggesting that Africa’s worst dictator isn’t Robert Mugabe but Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea. It’s true that Obiang fritters away his country’s money on fast cars and other toys, but he’s nothing like his uncle, the previous dictator. One of the legends in the State Department is of the American diplomat who killed another during their posting in Equatorial Guinea; his defense was that he had gone mad listening to the screams of men being tortured in the nearby police post.
So here’s my list of the world’s worst dictators:
1. Kim Jong Il, North Korea. This is the most ruthless and totalitarian regime in the world, by a good margin. I’ve been to North Korea and all the other contenders for nastiest country, and it is simply in a class by itself. Every home has “the speaker” in the wall, to dish out propaganda all day, and radios can be only tuned to preset stations. If someone makes a political mistake, the whole family is sent off to a political concentration camp, and in the late 1990’s Kim Jong Il presided over the death by famine of some 2 million people. When the wife of one of Kim Jong Il’s bodyguards complained about the Dear Leader’s womanizing, she was arrested and brought out before the guests at one of Kim Jong Il’s parties. Everyone denounced her and then Kim Jong Il allowed the bodyguard the opportunity to execute his own wife — and he did so.
2. Omar al-Bashir, Sudan. Bashir launched the genocide in Darfur, but he also engaged in the slaughter of southerners in the north-south war in Sudan, as well as mass killings in other parts of Sudan. He backed the Lord’s Resistance Army to invade Uganda and organize mass rapes and initiate children by having them kill their parents. Lately, he has tried repeatedly to invade and overthrow Chad, and in his spare time he sent a force to invade Central African Republic.
3. Than Shwe, Burma. In Burma we’ve seen a brutal repression of the Karen and other ethnic groups and most recently the suppression of the democracy movement led by Buddhist monks. The regime stifles the country and destroys the economy, and it didn’t lift a finger to help people in the aftermath of the recent cyclone — except that it blocked foreign assistance.
Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Chad, China, Cuba, Syria, Turkmenistan and other central Asian countries all are autocratic and repressive, but I don’t think they compare to these three.
So which are your suggestions for the top three dictatorships (or top five or top ten). Please post below.