The Paris Globalist - Association loi 1901 -
The Hunt for Al-Bashir
27 rue Saint-Guillaume 75007 Paris Responsables : Nathan R. Grison, Eléonore Peyrat, Inès Levy
Directeur de la Rédaction : Nathan R. Grison Rédactrice en chef : Eléonore Peyrat
The elusive President of Sudan has evaded trial, imposed on him by the International Criminal Court, for the genocide in Darfur. What does this mean for global justice?
I
magine a world where a man wanted for murder can be president of a nation of forty-two million people. Sound plausible? Perhaps—after all, people have done stranger things for power. “Now imagine a world where that man is wanted in not one but 110 countries, for not only the crime of murder but also those of rape, extermination, forcible transfer, pillaging, and torture, and not only remains in high office but also plans to run for another term in 2010” said Josh Rubenstein, a thirty-year veteran of human rights policy and regional director for Amnesty International USA. Still sound plausible? It shouldn’t—but this is real. Welcome to the world of Omar al-Bashir.
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On March 4th, 2009, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, head prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), issued an indictment against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, on five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes in the region of Darfur. The warrant placed square blame for the conflict in Darfur—in which an estimated 300,000 people have been killed—on al-Bashir and his administration. Al-Bashir is the first head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court while in office. The warrant has been lauded by the international human rights community and supported by NATO and the European Union. Of course, the indictment is not without its opponents. The day the warrant was made public, the permanent representative of Sudan to the United Nations lambasted the ICC in the tiny, blue-walled pressroom at UN Headquarters. “This verdict does not deserve the ink used to print it,” the ambassador said, pounding his podium at intervals. “The message that the [ICC] has sent to the entire world is that it is a tool of imperialism and double standards.” Thousands of Sudanese marched in the capital Khartoum following the release of the warrant, rallying in support of al-Bashir. “Some Sudanese don’t agree with al-Bashir’s politics, but at the end of the day, they’re nationalists, and they will support their leader against what they perceive as a patronizing and pro-western system of justice—especially in the northern part of the country” said Beatrice Mategwa, a journalist with the UN who has spent four out of the past five years in Sudan. Darfur, where most of the violence has occurred, lies far to the west of Khartoum.
Most of the African Union (AU) and the Arab League joined the Sudanese government in condemning the warrant as an expression of western hegemony—despite the fact that 30 member nations of the AU are also parties to the Rome Statue, the document that gives the ICC its jurisdiction. Supporters of the ICC allege that the current president of the AU, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, intimidated and bullied the representatives of other nations into supporting the resolution. Days after the release of the warrant, the Sudanese government expelled most of the nonpolitical international aid organizations working in Darfur, including Oxfam International, Médecins sans Frontières, and Mercy Corps. Al-Bashir accused the organizations of being “spies” and “thieves”—though he made sure to seize their assets before kicking them out of Sudan.
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Seven months have passed since the warrant was issued, and Omar al-Bashir remains comfortably in power in Sudan. In the months following the indictment, al-Bashir has not curbed his international travel, travelling to conferences in Qatar, Egypt, Libya, and Eritrea. Does this mean that the ICC—an institution founded with the goal of ending impunity for even the most powerful perpetrators of atrocities—is doomed to fail? “Absolutely not,” Rubenstein said firmly, when posed with the question. “The fact that the international community has gotten to the point where it can hold accountable a sitting head of state for human rights violations marks an enormous milestone. Sure, we haven’t gotten al-Bashir yet—we always knew he wouldn’t come easily. But we’re alienating him—no one likes to be seen dealing with a war criminal.”
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For now, al-Bashir is free and in power, and he will seek to extend his reign in the 2010 Sudanese elections. The overriding politics of regional affiliation, race, and oil make it unlikely that he will face trial at The Hague during the remainder of his presidency. But if there is one message that the International Criminal Court wants to pass along, it is this: Watch out, Mr. al-Bashir, when you leave your presidential compound, when you travel outside of Sudan for medical treatment, and when you attend conferences in other nations. Your days are numbered. We know your game, and we will bring you to justice.
L’équipe du Paris Globalist remercie pour leur soutien l’Association Française pour les Nations Unies SciencesPo.
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