World Court Issues Warrent for Sudan's President

by purplesofa 7 Replies latest social current

• 

  purplesofa

  World Court Issues Warrant For Sudan's President

  Listen Now [7 min 44 sec] add to playlist

  All Things Considered, March 4, 2009 · Judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. It is the first arrest warrant issued by the ICC for a sitting head of state.

  The court named Bashir as an "indirect (co)-perpetrator" on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the warrant details Bashir's alleged crimes against civilians in Darfur: murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, as well as pillaging their property.

  But the court said there was not enough evidence to charge Bashir with the crime of genocide.

  In Sudan, reaction from the government was swift. At least half a dozen aid groups received notice from the government that their licenses to operate in Darfur are going to be revoked, Edmund Sanders of the Los Angeles Times tells Melissa Block.

  The government had been threatening to take this action for months against foreign aid groups such as Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders that Khartoum suspects of providing information to the ICC.

  If these revocations occur, they will have a "devastating impact on displaced people in Darfur, who really are living off this $1 billion humanitarian effort from foreign aid groups," Sanders says.

  People in Khartoum received the news with mixed reactions: Bashir has some supporters who say they think the ICC decision is unfair. And Sanders notes that the case also has stirred up nationalist sentiment.

  "Even people who … oppose Bashir will say they really don't like the ICC coming in and trying to arrest their president or telling them what they should do," he says. "Even a human rights activist I was talking to was saying this is something that should come from within Sudan."

  When asked if Bashir could be overthrown and turned over to the court for prosecution, Sanders says it is "certainly possible." But the president has no clear successor, Sanders notes, a fact that is working to his advantage.

  "People are very concerned that if Bashir were to be arrested … that it would just create a real chaos in the country, and people are more afraid of that chaos and that unknown of the future than they are of letting Bashir stay in power," Sanders says, adding that Islamist extremists or the military could step into any power vacuum.

  Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, tells Block that Wednesday's decision is an important one for the victims in Darfur.

  "[The victims] always were saying … Bashir was responsible," he says. "Now, the court found evidence showing that Bashir is responsible for serious crimes — crimes against humanity and war crimes."

  Moreno-Ocampo says that 2.5 million people are dying slowly in the refugee camps and that the court's decision recognizes that what is happening is extermination, or a crime against humanity.

  The ICC stopped short of charging Bashir with genocide, although Moreno-Ocampo says one of the three judges agreed there was evidence of genocide, while the other two said they would like more evidence.

  The prosecutor says the crimes against humanity enumerated by the court include extermination, which he says is a close equivalent to genocide.

  He says it's possible to appeal the judges' decision, but that arresting Bashir is a "priority" and that stopping the crime is "urgent."

  Bashir has denied the charges, and the Sudanese government has been defiant, arguing that the country is not a member of the ICC and that its decisions are irrelevant.

  But Moreno-Ocampo notes that Sudan is a member of the United Nations.

  "Sudan is not a failed state. Sudan has to be respectful and, if not, the Security Council has to take measures to ensure the execution of the warrant," the prosecutor says.

  In the meantime, Moreno-Ocampo says that as soon as Bashir travels in international airspace, his plane can be intercepted and he can be arrested.

  "The destiny of Mr. Omar al-Bashir is to face justice," says Moreno-Ocampo. "[It may] take two months or two years, but he will face justice."

  Related NPR Stories
• 

  purplesofa

  The government of Sudan has ordered Oxfam to shut down the majority of its aid operations in northern Sudan. Other groups were also affected, and millions of lives are now at risk.
  
  The move effectively halted the ability of Oxfam Great Britain, our largest affiliate in the region, to provide critical aid to those affected by the conflict in Darfur.
  
  Now Oxfam America and two other affiliates are left to support the 600,000 people who were dependent on Oxfam Great Britain's relief efforts. We need immediate assistance to begin filling the vast need for critical aid – losing that aid could have a devastating effect on these people.
  
  
  Oxfam Great Britain's aid license was revoked just hours after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's president for crimes against humanity in Darfur – despite the fact that Oxfam is an impartial organization with absolutely no links to the Court.
  
  This move could have deadly consequences for men, women, and children affected by the conflict in Darfur. Disease and malnutrition are already a constant threat in the vast, crowded camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad. Without Oxfam's life-saving aid, like clean water and sanitation, cholera and other diseases could become a serious threat.
  
  And the problem is growing. In recent weeks, more people have fled their homes to escape violence, and the camps need new, safe latrines, or deadly diseases will spread.
• 

  OUTLAW

  I wonder who they are going to send,to arrest him..Canada and the USA are still busy in Iraq....Israel is always busy.....China is busy in Tibet....The only ones left are Eskimo`s....The International Criminal Court in Hague,is going to have to send in a "Black Op`s Eskimo Swat Team"..

  ...OUTLAW
• 

  Alpaca

  The development of international law has a fascinating history and it is not as impotent as many people think.

  Under the best of circumstances maturation and implementation of law is a slow, ponderous process, but this is clearly an important development in the international arena.

  Just to put things in perspective, if more information about the shenagins of the Bush Administration surface and enough legally provable evidence comes to light about extreme renderings and other human rights infringements, such as violating the Geneva Convention treaties (to which the United States is a signatory) officials like Alberto Gonzalez could forget about EVER travelling outside of the United States.

  Under international law, if a nation knows that someone who may be guilty of violations is visiting on their soil, they don't have just the option of turning them over to the World Court, they have an affirmative obligation to do so.

  Will that ever happen? Probably not, but the legal mechanisms are in place and that is enough of a threat that Cheney, Gonzalez, Rove, and countless others would be idiots to tempt fate and leave U.S. soil.
• 

  Warlock

  Yeah, charged after he killed just about everyone he wanted to kill. What a joke.

  Warlock
• 

  purplesofa

  Yeah, charged after he killed just about everyone he wanted to kill. What a joke.

  Warlock

  I thought that too, Warlock. Now aid is being cut off from Darfur.

  http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0306/p12s01-wogi.html?page=2

  IS THE ICC'S GLOBAL PURSUIT OF JUSTICE ACTUALLY UNDERMINING PEACE IN AFRICA?

  Some argue that ICC action can be counterproductive to ending violence and negotiating peace in certain situations, and they will likely point to Sudan as an example. In response to Mr. Bashir's arrest warrant, Sudan expelled 13 aid agencies from the country, leading some to warn of a possible humanitarian disaster in Darfur, where more than 2 million displaced people depend on humanitarian aid. The African Union warned that the move would hurt Sudan's peace negotiations, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said in February that the indictment would distract attention from the peace process. Aid agencies have also voiced fears that the government could retaliate violently against aid workers and peacekeepers on the ground.
• 

  read good books

  The UN is kind of like the cop that shows up after the murder to put the body in a body bag and mug for the newspaper photos. Only as in this case the cure can be worse than the illness.
• 

  purplesofa

  Things are getting worse over in Africa.

  http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0314/p25s13-woaf.html

  Doctors Without Borders exit Darfur Three aid workers were kidnapped this week, while others express concern about the health of the 1.1 million Darfuris left without assistance. By Shashank Bengali | McClatchy Newspapers from the March 14, 2009 edition E-mail a friend Print this Letter to the Editor Republish ShareThis E-mail newsletters RSS NAIROBI, KENYA - On her last day in the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan, Gemma Davies, a British staffer with Doctors Without Borders, helped arrange for a gunshot victim to be transferred from the charity group's remote mountain clinic to a faraway state hospital. She watched as doctors discharged a young mother a day after a difficult delivery. Then she and about a dozen colleagues lifted off in a helicopter, leaving behind a small local staff, a few weeks' worth of supplies, and a promise to make radio contact twice a day. Their departure, three days before the International Criminal Court was due to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al Bashir in connection with atrocities in Darfur, was a security precaution. Ms. Davies figured she'd return to the clinic in a couple of weeks. Now, however, Davies and her team, part of the Dutch arm of Doctors Without Borders, are banned from Darfur after Sudan expelled 13 international humanitarian agencies and three domestic groups last week who were working in the troubled region. Soon after the warrant was announced, Mr. Bashir accused the foreign agencies of collaborating with the court – which they deny – and Sudanese authorities began freezing their bank accounts and confiscating computers, telephones and radios. AID WORKERS KIDNAPPED [On Wednesday, three members of the Belgian branch of Doctors Without Borders were kidnapped at gunpoint from their compound in northern Darfur. The aid organization said Thursday that it would now withdraw most of its remaining international staff back to Khartoum, forcing the closure of several more clinics and medical facilities. The gunmen seized a Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French coordinator, along with two Sudanese guards who were later released. Negotiations for their release are underway, the Associated Press reports.] The future of the clinic where Davies worked – and that of scores of programs throughout Darfur that provided clean drinking water, sturdy latrines, prenatal care, vaccinations, schooling, and emergency food for malnourished children – is in doubt. The clinic and many other sites are cut off from communication and supply lines, reduced to islands in a harsh, sprawling scrubland the size of Texas. Relief groups are scrambling to shutter their offices, pay off local staff members and vacate the country, with no idea how – or whether – their programs will continue. The United Nations estimates that the expulsions will affect 1.1 million people. "We're very concerned that we've left patients behind," Davies said in an interview in Nairobi, in neighboring Kenya, where many expelled aid workers are beginning to arrive. WHO WILL HELP DARFUR'S NEEDIEST? A day before flying home to London, Davies sat in a plush banquette at a sleek new Nairobi coffee shop, 1,500 miles and a universe removed from the craggy Jebel Mara mountains in southern Darfur, where she'd worked for the previous six months in a village called Feina. She had three months remaining on her contract. The free clinic in Feina, established two years ago, is the only health facility serving some 90,000 people who've been displaced by fighting and are scattered throughout the mountains. The nearest decent hospital, in the city of Nyala, is an eight-hour drive away, if rains haven't washed out the road. In an average month the clinic saw about 3,000 patients. "The population is scattered all over and access is a huge problem," said Davies, who previously worked for Doctors Without Borders in Turkmenistan. "With us gone, they have no one." The agency also was forced to end services in Kalma, a camp that houses 90,000 displaced people, and in the town of Muhajariya, where it helped to operate the only hospital in an area, which has 70,000 residents. Darfur has been a killing field since 2003, when rebel groups launched an uprising and the Sudanese government responded with a brutal scorched-earth campaign. Perhaps the only bright spot has been the response by humanitarian agencies, which braved the tough terrain and byzantine government bureaucracy to build from scratch the world's most complex relief operation, dramatically curbing deaths from malaria, cholera, and other treatable illnesses. "The immediate future for Darfurians is a sharp decline in the remarkable humanitarian work that has reduced mortality rates to near-normal levels in the aftermath of the massacre years of 2003-04," Julie Flint, a leading expert on Darfur, recently wrote on the website of the Social Science Research Council, a New York-based research center. HALF THE AID WORKERS EXPELLED The expelled US- and Europe-based groups provided about half the relief services in Darfur, says the UN, which has warned of catastrophe if the groups aren't reinstated. There are no signs that Sudan will reverse the decision, however, and ousted aid workers aren't optimistic that the Sudanese government or the remaining relief groups will be able to fill the gap quickly. "There are no NGOs" – nongovernmental organizations – "with the capacity to do it," said David Clatworthy, a water and sanitation coordinator in Darfur for the International Rescue Committee, a US-based group that also was expelled. Mr. Clatworthy helped run projects in three sites in Darfur, pumping some 1.5 million gallons of drinking water daily into camps that house 167,000 displaced people. When diesel fuel for the pumps runs out and the water taps need replacing – 250 taps wear out every month from overuse – no one will be around to do it, he fears. Aid groups long have complained about the strictures of operating in Darfur, including lengthy delays to obtain travel permits and authorizations for deliveries. Once, Davies' team's monthly shipment of food to Feina was delayed for several days because authorities objected to one item: canned peaches. "You face barriers to what you're doing," Davies said. "You can have all the will and capacity, but you still need permission to get food, logistical support, medical supplies." In the end, the team in Feina never numbered more than 12 foreigners. That was the maximum that could be carried out by helicopter in an evacuation. More than 50 local staff members remain, but on the other end of the radio – where Davies and her team were supposed to check in twice daily – there's only silence. "I would think they would keep running as long as they could," Davies said. "But we have no way of knowing. To know you have more than 50 staff there, totally unsupported, their level of knowledge not great – it's very difficult to imagine what will happen."