International Criminal Court (ICC) is the Beacon of Hope for People Oppressed by Tyrants
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
This article comes against the backdrop of the recent news media reports indicating that some African governments called on the African Union (AU) to convene a summit/ meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa with a view to its members withdrawing from the (ICC) treaty, the Rome Statute. Apparently, the meeting seems to have been convened on the pretext that the ICC aims exclusively at targeting the African countries. Sudan and Kenya have spearheaded the initiative. Moreover, the Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir will be heading on Friday, October 11, 2013 to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to participate in the emergency summit on the (ICC) to be held on 11 and 12 October to discuss the relations between Africa and the member states in the court that called earlier by the Kenyan government. The newspaper “the Next Day ” that issued in Khartoum on Thursday 10th October 2013 reported that the President al-Bashir was scheduled to leave, after his return from Addis Ababa, to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj. Political observers commented on this news item and said: “This is the usual behaviour of the serious offender Omer al-Bashir. He believes that whenever he committed terrible crimes forbidden by the Islamic Religion, he scrambled to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah or Hajj ritual. And now, after killing more than two hundred fifty civilians demonstrating peaceful during the ly23rd September 2013 uprising, Omer al-Bashir decided to go to Saudi Arabia to perform pilgrimage, thinking that will pardon the sins of his crime. He thinks that would be enough to atone for the sins he committed against the innocent citizens of children, women, the elderly and the other people of the homeland, Sudan. Omer al-Bashir has permitted the violation of all the taboos that Almighty God (Allah SHWT) has forbidden such as wealth, honour and blood of a human being without legal right. This racist tyrant, Omer Hassan- his name prior to his fateful coup- would neither repent nor learn from the deadly mistakes he repetitively commits; his became insight is blinded. What matters, in Omer Hassan’s case, is not the blindness of the sight; It is the absolute lack of insight of Omer Hassan contributing, as an important factor, for the scourges that the Sudanese people suffer from for so long.
The United Nations (UN) has been considering the establishment of a permanent international criminal court since its creation on October 24, 1945. Following years of negotiations, a Diplomatic Conference held during the period 15 June to 17 July 1998 in Rome, Italy, which finalised and adopted the Statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC). One hundred twenty (120) United Nations (UN) members voted in favour, seven members voted against and 21 abstained. It was decided that the Headquarters of the ICC will be in The Hague, the Netherlands. Moreover, it would have jurisdiction over suspected perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or aggression, including superiors or military commanders. The Court may exercise its jurisdiction, if the State on the territory of which the act or omission occurred or the State of nationality of the suspect is Party to the Statute or has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court. The Prosecutor can refer cases on his/her own initiative. The Court has not a retroactive effect.
It is Ironical, that the African countries played pivotal role in the negotiations to establish the Court in 1998. In addition, 34 African Union members are ICC members. African governments have sought out from the outset that the ICC to try grave crimes committed on their territories. Africans are among the highest-level ICC officials as well as serving as judges. The establishment of the ICC represented a major achievement for better implementation of international humanitarian law and a clear step forward in the battle against impunity.
Sudan was among the African countries that have agreed to the establishment of the ICC, but it did not ratify to become a member then. The rejection of the ICC by the Sudanese National Islamic Front (NIF) came when the heinous crimes committed in Darfur implicated the Islamist autocratic leader Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir as a perpetrator.
The ICC became fully convinced that Sudan led by Omer al-Bashir would not cooperate to access justice for the people of Darfur. Furthermore, the ICC found out that the (NCP/NIF) regime in Khartoum has no desire (Unwilling) to cooperate with the ICC because the leaders of the regime including al-Bashir himself have been charged. Furthermore, the National Congress Party (NCP) regime has no ability (Unable) to meet the demands of the ICC because that would lead to head on collision with the bands of Janjaweed, the perpetrators of the heinous crime of genocide in Darfur in the proxy war waged by the (NIF). Accordingly, on Monday July the 14th 2008, Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state, par excellence, to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for committing ten charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity, and two of murder. The mayhem caused by the militias allied to al-Bashir caught the imagination of the good people of the world who named and shamed al-Bashir and his ilk. The Rome Statute that established the ICC did not intend to take over jurisdiction exercised by national courts. However, when the ICC realized the true intentions of Sudan’s NCP regime of prevarication and proved to have been exercising both of the foregoing: unwillingness and inability, the Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo resorted to the Court for the indictment. States continue to have the primary duty to prosecute suspected war criminals before their own courts. One wonders, then where is the problem? The answer is so simple that the whole problem lies squarely back to the NCP regime’s denial and invention of evasive tricks and excuses that convince nobody. Omer al-Bashir admitted to the killing of “only” 10,000 whereas the UN puts the number of people killed in the Darfur region at 300000. Omer al-Bashir is also fully responsible for those killed in South Kordofan (Nuba Mountains), Blue Nile region, Eastern Sudan, Kajbar Massacre of Sudanese Nubians protesting in the far Northern Sudan region. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) 28 military officers who were extra judicially executed in the early hours of April 24th , Ramadan 29th 1990, by the National Islamic Front (NIF) military regime their culprit is the Génocidaire Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir.
Sudan’s NCP regime elements indicted by ICC include NCP President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, Minister of Defense Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussein, former State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs- currently- governor of North Kordofan State and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kosheib. All remain fugitives from the international justice at large with impunity despite the heinous crimes they have committed. Without a doubt there will be another set of figures of the ruling (NCP) regime will be named by the ICC for the crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. That is why the criminals in the NCP regime hold on power for impunity and immunity in Khartoum to protect themselves despite their abject failures in all aspects of governance over the period of a quarter of a century.
The survival of these perpetrators of crimes in Sudan is nearing to an end given the current popular Sudanese Uprising supported by opposition political parties, civil society organisations and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF). The ICC remains chasing the NCP regime president and his clique besides the determination of the Sudanese people to oust their rule by all the available means.
Long live the (ICC) as a beacon of hope for oppressed people and a deterrent for the Tyrants.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]