From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat May 30 2009 - 06:27:57 EDT
I'm innocent, insists the world's most wanted man
Sudan's ruler stands accused of being the architect of Darfur's suffering.
But the blame lies elsewhere, he tells Katherine Butler
Saturday, 30 May 2009
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/im-innocent-insists-the-worl
ds-most-wanted-man-1693162.html?action=Popup> Rousing slogans celebrating
the Sudanese President Omar al Bashir decorate billboards in the streets of
Khartoum
A permanent and enigmatic smile plays on the lips of Omar al Bashir. At
least it does in the portraits of him which bear down on the streets of
Khartoum. The billboards carry rousing slogans: "The man of our epoch", "Al
Bashir, symbol of national pride and dignity" or "A leader who is targeted
for his successes".
In person, the smile is there too. The military dictator may be a pariah who
could, in theory, be bundled away in handcuffs at any moment and put on
trial charged with masterminding acts of murder, rape and ethnic cleansing
on an industrial scale in Darfur. But for a wanted man, he looks relaxed,
grinning and nodding as a delegation of British Muslims, led by the former
Labour peer and would-be peace broker Lord Nizar Ahmed, prods him about his
decision to expel the leading international charities from Darfur.
Bashir, a former army General who seized power in Sudan in a 1989 coup,
installing an Islamist regime, was indicted on seven counts of war crimes
and five counts of crimes against humanity in March. But if he lies awake at
night, either because his conscience is troubling him or because he fears a
jail cell in The Hague awaits him, it doesn't show.
He moves freely about the capital, attending his favourite mosque on Fridays
with little or no visible security, according to one worshipper who prayed
near him last week.
At his presidential palace on the banks of the Blue Nile, where General
Gordon met his end in 1885, speared to death on the staircase, security is
low key. There are no airport-style scanning machines. You are asked
politely to leave your bag or any recording equipment in a reception room
before being ushered upstairs to a grander space with a tiled floor,
chandeliers overhead and a grandfather clock in the corner.
When a slight figure dressed in long white cotton robes slips in, you don't
feel you are immediately in the presence of one of Africa's Big Men –
except, perhaps, for the large gold ring on his left hand and the
throne-like gilt chair on which he sits.
In a low monotone, he expounds on what he calls the "realities" of Sudan.
"Definitely we have a problem in Darfur," he begins. "We admit that fact."
When he presses on, however, pausing only for prayer when the call of the
muezzin echoes through the stiflingly hot Khartoum night air, it is to give
his unapologetic version of what the UN has called the "world's greatest
humanitarian crisis".
In Bashir's account, he and the Sudanese people are the victims, the Darfur
atrocities and massacres the fault of insurgents egged on by the
"incitement" of foreign enemies. "We gave the priority to a peaceful
settlement of the conflict, but after we had exhausted all the possibilities
then there was no other alternative to military action," he says.
Sudan is vilified by a hypocritical West, he says, ready to brand every
insurgent movement in the world as terrorist, "with one exception, Sudan".
If the Government of Sudan was so vile and murderous, he asks, why would two
million displaced Darfuris have flocked into government-run displacement
camps? "The government received these people, provided them with food water
and protection when there was no African Union or UN presence."
He makes no mention of his undoubted contempt for George Clooney, the
hunger-striking Mia Farrow or the other American stars who have turned the
plight of Darfur into a cause célèbre; but then, the most notorious
foreigner in this part of Sudan is not from Hollywood. It is Luis
Moreno-Ocampo, the Argentinian chief prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) whose name is, to put it mildly, mud in Khartoum. ("Get
out of our face Ocampo," goes a popular song.)
Ironically, contends Salaheddin Ghazi, the President's adviser, Ocampo's
action, far from incentivising any rivals to mount a coup or depose the
Sudanese ruler, has martyrised him. "It may have made him look like a
villain in Western countries, but it has so maximised his popularity here
that nobody in his wildest dreams could hope to compete with him."
Moreover, he claims the indictment has emboldened Darfur's rebels. "Why
should they negotiate if they can sit idly by and just wait for the downfall
of the government and for Bashir to be taken to court? And this is what has
happened, there has been a complete abortion of the negotiating process."
While the ICC is clearly not the only threat to Bashir's survival, some in
the international community would agree that Ocampo's campaign to try him
has not been entirely helpful. Like him or not, some diplomats reluctantly
acknowledge, Bashir negotiated the 2005 peace deal which ended two decades
of civil war between north and south Sudan. Can it be implemented without
him? Tribal conflicts in the South, which holds 85 per cent of Sudan's oil,
have been intensifying ahead of a possible referendum on secession. South
Kordofan, a restive new state in the oil-rich territory that straddles the
north and south, could be the next Darfur, some analysts believe. This week,
200 tribesmen were killed there in clashes over grazing land.
Darfur itself, while quieter than at the height of the violence in 2003/04,
is far from peaceful. From the air, the scorched red earth of the battered
province looks endlessly barren and hopeless. El Fasher, the
government-controlled capital of north Darfur, is booming; a new airport has
just opened. But several low intensity wars continue and there has been a
proliferation of rebel movements.
"Darfur is still in conflict," says Nawan Hassan, a South Darfuri woman
working with the USAid programme in the province. "The situation is in some
ways worse now and we are moving towards becoming the next Somalia. When all
this started up, there were only two rebel movements. Now there are 26."
Meanwhile, clashes with neighbouring Chad are threatening to spin into a
regional conflict.
Sudan's extreme volatility explains why, away from the headlines, diplomatic
efforts are quietly under way which may see the US talking again to the
reviled regime in Khartoum. Barack Obama called Darfur "a stain on our
souls" during his election campaign. But in office he has ordered a review
of policy on Sudan. Scott Gration, Obama's newly appointed envoy for Sudan,
travelled to Khartoum, Darfur, and the southern capital, Juba, last month,
meeting government officials as well as opposition parties. John Kerry, the
Democratic senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
has also visited.
But could Obama unclench his fist to the point that he lets Bashir off the
hook legally, in the hope of a political settlement in Darfur and of
establishing intelligence co-operation with Khartoum (which for several
years was the home of Osama Bin Laden) in the fight against terrorism? And
could Bashir, despite his public defiance, be showing signs of wanting to
"do a Colonel Gaddafi" and thus negotiate himself a free pass from
international justice?
Khartoum is, according to one highly placed official in the ruling party,
"tired of war". It has pledged to hold democratic elections in February. And
Bashir sent delegates last week to a women's conference in Darfur, where
Darfuris openly and loudly demanded justice for rape victims and condemned
Khartoum's failure to provide them with security.
Some European governments are beginning to contemplate the idea that if
Bashir were willing to hand over other indictees, engage convincingly in
peace negotiations and prosecute the rapists and murderers, then the case
for suspension of the indictment could be argued under Article 16 of the ICC
treaty.
In Abu Shouk refugee camp, the biggest in North Darfur, the women (90 per
cent of those in the displacement camps are women) are not preparing for an
imminent political settlement. They're busy making mud bricks to strengthen
their dwellings with walls. Across Darfur, more than two million people are
stuck in similar camps. Ibrahim al Khalil, Abu Shouk's administrator,
insists that the people are desperate to "return to their villages and
rebuild their homes". This rings hollow with Mohamed Mattar, 55, who has
been in the camp since 2004, when the Janjaweed, the Arab militia sent by
the government, attacked his village. He has the look of a proud man and
tells of his farm in Taweela, where he grew tobacco, tomatoes and sorghum.
"We had a comfortable life back there. We were producers. Now we depend on
relief". So would he go back to rebuild his farm? "Absolutely not, it's too
dangerous".
The administration in Washington is mindful of the Christian Right, who have
campaigned loudly on Darfur, and want to see Bashir behind bars. The
conflict has evolved to a new complexity, with several different conflicts
now running in parallel, but US faith-based groups still see it in the same
moral terms as they did five years ago.
Yet as Bakri Saeed, the president of Sudan International University and a
member of Bashir's ruling NCP party, points out: "Obama can't afford to get
sucked into a military confrontation here. It would be 10 times worse than
Iraq. He knows it is a no-go area militarily". This reality has strengthened
Khartoum to ram home the warning that if America pursues Bashir to trial,
they may face a worse nightmare.
Ghazi claims he already senses a cautious shift towards detente in
Washington. "I would say Obama is much more pragmatic on Darfur. You have
people in his administration who are very hostile to the Sudan government
and they have not changed, but they have toned down their rhetoric. And
there's a growing body of people in Washington who take a different view of
us. We are counting on them".
Engagement is one thing, but suspending Bashir's indictment would be a
travesty for those who argue there is no peace without justice. Others, like
Alex Meixner, from the Save Darfur coalition, say that relying on a freed
Bashir to bring peace to Darfur would be naïve, given his track record.
"We're not against engagement, but the current government has huge crimes to
answer for," Meixner says. "We would be against blind engagement which
ignores the lessons of dealing with Khartoum. They relieve the pressure on
them by making promises. It's a game they play."
An alternative path would involve the Chinese. The Sudanese capital Khartoum
has been enjoying a Chinese investment-led oil boom. Cranes jut into the
skyline and there are plans to turn the banks of the Nile into a Dubai-style
sprawl of resort hotels, golf courses and skyscrapers. If China can be
persuaded its big interests are jeopardised by Bashir's regime, Beijing
could agree to a tightening of UN sanctions to include, for example,
penalties on countries that support him.
Back in the parched barren landscape of the Darfur camps, Mattar the tobacco
farmer would simply like an acknowledgement that grave injustices were
committed. "It was all a political game, we had no hand in it. Peace is
possible if Bashir apologises for all the violations and gives us
compensation for our losses," he says. "Then reconciliation can begin."
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