After arrest warrant issued, Bashir alleges aid agencies were covert tool of ICC.
The Sudan story has been in the headlines all week with the issuance of an arrest warrant by ICC (International Criminal Court) for President Bashir.
I was talking with a broadcast journalist yesterday and commented that Bashir is a political survivor and would likely out-maneuver the ICC. Sure enough, Bashir has turned the warrant into a domestic political gain for himself by holding a rally, rebuking the US. This is a bit nutty since the US has not even signed the ICC charter!
In the meantime, Bashir alleges aid agencies have been feeding evidence against him to the ICC. So what does he do? Kick the agencies out.
Here's a report from CNN:
Sudan told as many as 10 humanitarian groups to leave Darfur, and seized the agencies' assets, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. The aid groups include Oxfam, Solidarities and Mercy Corps, she said. The exact number of groups involved was not given and some groups were not identified, both to protect their people on the ground in Sudan and because they are hoping to reverse the decision. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is "concerned" about the reported expulsions, a spokeswoman said. "He notes that this represents a serious setback to lifesaving operations in Darfur, and urges the government of Sudan to act urgently to restore these NGOs to their full operational status," spokeswoman Michelle Montas said. Sudanese government officials "have insisted on accompanying some (international non-governmental organization) staff members into their offices and taking lists of assets and staff," Montas said. She called the aid agencies who had been kicked out "the main providers of life-saving humanitarian services, such, as water, food, health, and sanitation. Their departure will have an immediate and serious impact on the humanitarian and security situation in North Sudan, (and) especially in Darfur."
So this debate between Franklin Graham of Samaritan's Purse and retired Archbishop Tutu over the wisdom of the arrest warrant is hardly academic. Real lives hang in the balance. Pray for the Sudanese church.
share thisPosted by Tim Morgan on March 5, 2009 8:35AM
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The Bashir warrant is purely political and should not be enforced but, rather, should be cancelled. The ICC is an illegitimate court, whose very existence opposes the principles on which the UN was founded, and it opposes the principles of the sovereign nation state.
March 5, 2009 -- Sudanese President Gen. Omar Hassan Al-Bashir addressed what Sudanese sources estimate to be hundreds of thousands of Sudanese citizens who gathered in the capital Khartoum to protest the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant against their president. Al-Bashir started by blasting the British Empire, invoking the fight the ancestors of the Sudanese people launched against the British in the 19th and 20th centuries, saying that that fight continues now against neo-colonialism. He thoroughly described how the Sudanese tried and punished the British empire for its crimes against the Chinese people and other Asian and African peoples by executing the British governor Gordon Pasha, here in the presidential palace (in 1885). Al-Bashir said that Gordon, who was known as Chinese Gordon, was famous for torturing and killing masses of people in China and Asia. He said the British never forgave the Sudanese people for doing that, and brought new armies and modern weapons to subdue the Sudanese people, but they resisted.
Al-Bashir gave an account of the many battles the Sudanese people and the different tribes and groups have fought against the British armies, which includes every part of the country in reality. Al-Bashir emphasized that this is what the whole issue today is about. They want to subdue Africa, stop its economic development and loot its natural wealth.
President Al-Bashir vowed to continue the development process in the country. He also called for establishing a new international front against the neo-colonial policy. He attacked the genocide committed by the British and other empires in Africa including the slave trade, the U.S. attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Israeli war against Lebanon and Gaza, and said that all these constitute war crimes. He added that the perpetrators of these crimes come now to try the Africans. He said that the road to the invasion of Iraq was paved with lies and that the allegations raised by the ICC are just similar lies.
Posted by: Sean O'Leary at March 5, 2009
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