The arrest of Sudan’s Bashir should proceed

The request from the International Criminal Court prosecutor for an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s president, caused much hand-wringing by diplomats and others who say the search for justice will derail peace negotiations or endanger humanitarian relief workers. Fearing that the crisis in Darfur will worsen if the prosecutor is allowed to proceed, they have launched an ill-considered campaign at the United Nations Security Council to delay the court’s proceedings, perhaps for a year. The very nations that created the ICC appear to be afraid to let it do its work. A vote for deferral might come as early as next month.

For me, this is familiar terrain. When Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb leaders, were indicted by the Yugoslav tribunal in July 1995 for orchestrating atrocities in Bosnia, the media and many diplomats lamented that we would be unable to negotiate peace for Bosnia. Less than five months later, an agreement was reached in Dayton to end the war.

What had seemed an insurmountable obstacle turned out to be an unexpected opportunity. Before the indictments, we had already decided to marginalise Gen Mladic and Mr Karadzic and force Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president, to take full responsibility for the war. Our negotiating team met them only once – in a hunting villa just outside Belgrade in September 1995 – but only with a prior understanding that Mr Milosevic would be responsible for their conduct, and only to lift the three-year siege of Sarajevo, which we accomplished that night. Later, when Mr Milosevic insisted that to achieve peace the two men had to participate in negotiations, I offered to arrest them personally if they set foot in the US. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>

UN rights body renews job of Sudan investigator

GENEVA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday renewed the mandate of its specialist on the Sudan for six months despite charges from Khartoum that she was working with the West to besmirch the country's image.

Diplomats said the consensus decision among the body's 47 members was part of a compromise between mainly European states and Islamic and African nations that softened EU-proposed criticism of the Sudanese government's rights record.

Sima Samar, formally the Council's special rapporteur, had angered Khartoum and its allies with a strongly worded report this month contradicting Sudanese assertions that the rights situation was improving, and saying it was in fact grim.

She said government and rebels were killing civilians in Darfur and accused Khartoum's forces of launching deadly ground and air attacks in the region, the scene of 5 years of violence that international experts say has killed some 200,000 people. Read more >>>>>>>>>>

'Nieuw soort regeringsgeweld in Darfur'

DEN HAAG - Het Sudanese regeringsleger gebruikt een nieuw soort geweld in de regio Darfur. Zo is in augustus het vluchtelingenkamp Kalma overvallen. Er werden granaten tussen de burgers gegooid en militairen "schoten midden in de gezinnen". Er vielen "tientallen doden".
Dit heeft hoofdaanklager Luis Moreno Ocampo van het Internationaal Strafhof (ICC) vrijdag gezegd tegen het ANP. De Argentijn onderzoekt oorlogsmisdaden in Darfur in opdracht van de VN-Veiligheidsraad.

Marginalized Sudanese Activists Support International Criminal Court

Marginalized Sudanese Activists Support International Criminal Court

Sudanese civil society activists, movements and civil rights advocates will jointly organize a demonstration in support of the International Criminal Court's Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in indicting Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Exhibitions of gross crimes against humanity committed by the current regime in Kajbar, Abei, Port Sudan and currently being committed in Darfur will be presented.
Place: Dam in Amsterdam
Date: July 29th, 2008
Time: From 12:00 till 20:00 hours

Invitation is open to all.

Organizers:
Sudan Liberation Movement
Sudan Justice & Equality Movement
Kush Liberation Movement
Bija Conference
Kordofan Alliance for Development
Darfur Call
For more info, please contact the following numbers:
+31 616583546
+31 649319350
+31 645660524

Beyond Darfur

By ANDREW S. NATSIOS

Few international issues have caught the attention of the American people as much as have the atrocities in Darfur. The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias, an Arab supremacist movement, have been carrying out a horrifying campaign of ethnic cleansing against African tribes.
Some 2,700 villages have been destroyed, and as a result of the violence and the related starvation and disease, some 250,000 Sudanese have died, most in 2003 and 2004, and another two million have fled to refugee camps. The Bush administration has called these atrocities a genocide. U.S. human rights organizations, U.S. religious institutions, and a burgeoning U.S. student movement have organized a national campaign to ensure that policymakers in Washington do not overlook the crisis. Both the Democratic and the Republican candidates for president have put Darfur on their foreign policy agendas. Read more >>>>>>>>>>

'Whole state' behind Darfur crime

The "whole state apparatus" of Sudan is implicated in crimes against humanity in Darfur, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has said.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo's report into the crisis in western Sudan, due on Thursday, coincides with a visit to the region by the UN Security Council.

Sudan's ambassador to the UN said the comments were "fictitious and vicious" and harmful to the prospects of peace.

The UN ambassadors are in the country to try to end the conflict.

In the report on the situation in Sudan, to be delivered to the UN Security Council, Mr Moreno-Ocampo repeats his earlier call for the council to demand that Sudan hand over two men who face charges of crimes against humanity. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>

'Nog steeds geweld tegen burgers Darfur '

DEN HAAG - Het geweld tegen burgers in de Sudanese regio Darfur gaat door. „Vrouwen worden verkracht, scholen worden gebombardeerd”, aldus hoofdaanklager Luis Moreno Ocampo van het Internationaal Strafhof (ICC) in een maandag uitgegeven verklaring. „De mensen in Darfur worden aangevallen in hun dorpen en hun kampen.”

De VN-Veiligheidsraad vroeg de Argentijn in 2005 onderzoek te doen naar oorlogsmisdaden in Darfur, nadat berichten waren binnengekomen over zo'n 200.000 doden door etnisch geweld. Vooral de zwarte burgerbevolking van Darfur moest het ontgelden bij gewapende aanvallen van Arabische Janjaweed-milities, die volgens veel waarnemers door de regering in Khartum worden gesteund.

In april 2007 vaardigde het ICC een arrestatiebevel uit tegen Ahmed Haroun en tegen Ali Kushayb, een leider van de beruchte Janjaweed. Haroun is nog steeds minister in de regering van Sudan. Lees meer >>>>>>>>>>>>