Sudan president 'masterminded' Darfur genocide: ICC

By Peter Goodspeed
July 14, 2008
National Post  
Original Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=654422
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court formally requested an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Monday, accusing him of masterminding and implementing a plan to wipe out three African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of mass murder, rape, torture and genocide.
But while the ICC is being praised for bringing charges against Sudan's President, some observers say the charges might complicate efforts to negotiate with the Sudanese government to deploy more United Nations peacekeepers in the troubled region.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, of Argentina, presented a three-judge panel in The Hague with evidence he has amassed to support 10 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Mr. Bashir, who, if the indictment proceeds, will become the first head of state to face charges before the ICC.
He accused Mr. Bashir of personally directing a campaign to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribal groups in Darfur.
His motives were largely political. His pretext was a ‘counterinsurgency'. His intent was genocide, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo told the judges.
Over a period of five years, Arab militias worked with the armed forces of Sudan to destroy more than 1,500 villages in Darfur, causing the deaths of more than 300,000 people and displacing another 2.7 million, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said. The attacks were typically launched against civilian targets and were not simply the collateral damage of a military campaign, he added.
Al Bashir specifically and purposefully targeted civilians, who were not participants to any conflict, with the intent to destroy them as a group, the prosecutor said. Almost the entire population of the three targeted tribes have been forcibly displaced. 
Survivors of the attacks were pursued into deserts, killed or left to die, he said. 
The three judges who received the case - from Brazil, Latvia and Ghana - are expected to spend two months reviewing the evidence before deciding whether to charge Mr. Bashir and issue an international warrant for his arrest.
The case underlines and aggravates the competing demands of international humanitarian law and international diplomacy. 
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has already said he is fearful of the repercussions the charges may have and has ordered the UN to start withdrawing non-essential staff from its mission to Darfur.
He warned Mr. Bashir he is counting on the government of Sudan to guarantee the safety and security of UN personnel and property and also humanitarian workers.
Former U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, says laying charges against Mr. Bashir may result in a disaster.
This indictment may well shut off the last remaining hope for a peaceful settlement for the country, he said in an article on the Web site of the Social Science Research Council.
Without a political settlement, Sudan may go the way of Somalia, pre-genocide Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of Congo: a real potential for widespread atrocities and bloodshed as those in power seek to keep it at any cost.
To complicate things further, the ICC case comes as the UN Security Council negotiates with Sudan for the renewal of the UN peacekeeping mandate in Darfur. The current operation's mandate expires on July 31.
Even though the UN authorized the establishment of a 26,000-member joint UN and African Union peacekeeping force a year ago, bureaucratic delays and stonewalling by Sudan have resulted in the deployment of fewer than 11,000 troops.
The ICC case could also lead to the disintegration of Sudan's power-sharing government which helped end Africa's longest civil war in southern Sudan three years ago. 
Former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement have already said they would advocate compliance with the ICC. But if they stick to that decision, it may be impossible for them to continue sharing power with Mr. Bashir's ruling National Congress Party.
That could mean a return to war in oil-rich southern Sudan where up to 2 million people were killed and 4 million displaced in 21 years of fighting.
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo's report describes in detail how Mr. Bashir's forces operate.
Typically, the armed forces would arrive in trucks and land cruisers mounted with Dshkas (a high-calibre machinegun), and the militia/Janjaweed would arrive on camels and horseback, the arrest warrant application says. These forces would then surround the village and, on occasion, the air force would be called upon to drop bombs on the village as a precursor to the attacks. The ground forces would then enter the village or town and attack civilian inhabitants. They kill men, children, elderly women; they subject women and girls to massive rapes. They burn and loot the villages.
He said Sudan's strategy in Darfur goes beyond simply killing people and driving them from their homes, but seeks to destroy their very means of survival. 
They destroy food, wells, and water pumping machines, shelter, crops, livestock, as well as any physical structures capable of sustaining life or commerce. They destroy farms and loot grain stores or set them on fire. The goal is to ensure that those inhabitants not killed outright would not be able to survive without assistance.
Once Darfur's victims are in overcrowded refugee camps, Mr. Bashir's government has done everything it can to systematically refuse to provide any meaningful aid and hinder other efforts to bring humanitarian aid to the 2.45 million civilians displaced, the report to the court said.
At least 100,000 people have endured slow death in Darfur's refugee camps since 2003, the report says. 
Mr. Bashir is identified as the mastermind behind the alleged crimes.
He has absolute control, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said. Al Bashir controls and directs the perpetrators. . . Al Bashir controls the implementation of such a plan through his formal role at the apex of all state structures and as Commander-in-Chief. His control is absolute.
Al Bashir organized the destitution, insecurity and harassment of the survivors, he added. He did not need bullets. He used other weapons: rape, hunger, fear. As efficient, but silent.
Furious Sudanese government officials have said they will lobby the UN Security Council to intervene to set aside the case against Mr. Bashir, saying the ICC is being used as a stooge for Sudan's enemies.
If an international organization or organizations working in the humanitarian field are behind such an indictment of the head of state, our symbol of national sovereignty, then no one should expect us to turn our left cheek, Sudan's government spokesman Mahjoub Fadul Badry said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television.