Al-Bashir Arrest Warrant and his collaboration with America to Split Darfur

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem

Political Analysis

Al-Bashir Arrest Warrant and his collaboration with America to Split Darfur

The International Criminal Court issued on 4th March 2009 an arrest warrant against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for his indirect involvement in killing civilians, displacement, torture and rape in the province of Darfur. The court cleared him of the genocide charge according to the arrest warrant. The ICC called for the cooperation of the international community in bringing al-Bashir to justice, in line with the Rome convention. The ICC stated it would refer the matter to the Security Council if al-Bashir failed to comply with its decision. The Court's decision is in fact political because it was the Security Council led by America that had, on 31st March 2005, raised the issue of charging Omar al-Bashir and other officials with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur. On 14th July 2008, the general prosecutor of the ICC, the Argentine Luis Moreno-Ocampo instructed the judges to issue an arrest warrant against Omar al-Bashir and charge him with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

This request came after Omar al-Bashir had refused to hand over Ahmed Mohammed Haroun, the former government minister in the interior ministry and the chief executive of the Darfur file, who is currently Sudan's Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, and Ali Abdul Rahman Kushayb, who was the Emir of a Sudanese paramilitary squad known as the popular defence Mujahideen forces, and who is accused by the Darfur opposition of being one of the Janjaweed militia leaders, whom the court had ordered the arrest of in March 2007 for having perpetrated war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur. On 4th March 2009, Omar al-Bashir became the first serving president to have an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court and the third president overall to be served with such a warrant after Liberia's former president Charles Taylor and the former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Al-Bashir's response to the arrest warrant was confined to a number of propagandist speeches in which he attacked the "new colonialism" by saying: "The real criminals are the presidents of the United States and Europe." He added: "We have for the past twenty years been subjected to the pressures of neo-colonialism and its tools, such as the International Criminal Court, the Security Council and the IMF." Omar al-Bashir also announced the expulsion of several NGOs that had been working in Darfur: "We will expel ten NGOs because they have violated the country's laws and failed to respect the terms of their mandate." Al-Bashir mentioned during a mass rally in al-Fashir, the provincial capital of Darfur, that "Sudan was the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence and it cannot be the first country to be colonised again." He pledged to respond to the "allegations of the so-called ICC with more development." Omar al-Bashir described the West as "unqualified to talk about justice and human rights, and about genocide since they were the ones who exterminated the red Indians in America, threw the African slaves into the oceans and exploited the rest in building their economy. They also attacked Japan with two atomic bombs." He added: "If people wanted to fight us, let them come here and confront us face to face."

As for the fallouts of this resolution from a legal aspect, the ICC has no executive powers to implement it; hence it will rely on the cooperation of the United Nations member states to implement its rules, in which case it could approach the Security Council to procure an arrest warrant, knowing that it was the Security Council that referred the case to the ICC. In this case, the Security Council would have two choices: 1 - To freeze the resolution by activating Article 16 of the Rome convention, which gives the Security Council the right to suspend the Court's activities vis-à-vis Sudan for one year, renewable indefinitely; 2 - To issue the arrest warrant according to Chapter 7 and it is only in this case that the Security Council would be eligible to instruct the member states, or to form an executive force to implement the arrest warrant with all possible means, including piracy and kidnapping.

The court's ruling carries no significant weight in legal terms because Sudan is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court in the first place. However, it could be detrimental to Sudan if the Security Council adopted it, thus turning its execution into a political decision just like it was in its instigation. Hence, this resolution will become a sword that America brandishes in the face of Sudan and a pretext for its treacherous rulers to abuse the unity of this Islamic land and accept its fragmentation.

The timing that America chose to procure this resolution from the International Criminal Court indicates that the Sudanese government led by Omar al-Bashir is set to make more significant concessions in the issue of Darfur to those it had made in the Abuja treaty of 2006. The arrest warrant against Omar al-Bashir came only two weeks after the Sudanese government had signed a "goodwill agreement" with the Justice and Equality Movement in Doha on 17th February 2009. Most observers deemed the "goodwill and confidence building agreement to settle the Darfur crisis", which was concluded after eight days of consecutive negotiations, as an indication of the two parties' desire to achieve peace in Darfur and a prelude to a second round of talks expected to begin after a few weeks from this agreement to formulate a framework that leads to endorsing a final agreement on the crisis of Darfur which has lasted more than five years.

Amid these "optimistic vibes" and a week before the warrant of the ICC had been issued, the Emir of Qatar Hamad Bin Khalifah Aal Thani visited Khartoum on 21st February 2009, which coincided with the release of 24 Justice and Equality Movement operatives by the Sudanese government, in a move deemed as a gesture of goodwill within the framework of the agreement signed in Doha between the Sudanese government and the Movement on Darfur. It was announced that the visit dealt with the issue of resuming the dialogue between the government and the armed movements, and the means to heal the rift between Sudan and Chad, as well as the file of the ICC. The following day, 22nd February 2009, Omar al-Bashir flew to Cairo for urgent talks with Hosni Mubarak on the current developments in Sudan, the efforts to achieve peace in Darfur and the issue of the ICC.

These political moves made by Khartoum, Doha and Cairo before the arrest warrant against al-Bashir was issued indicate that the rulers of Sudan, Qatar and Egypt are part and parcel of the American conspiracy against Darfur. This is what we are going to prove with evidence by listing the aims that America is working to achieve by inspiring the ICC on 4th March 2009 to issue an arrest warrant against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for his alleged indirect involvement in "war crimes and crimes against humanity in the province of Darfur".

Ever since the signing of the Abuja treaty in 2006,
America and her agents have been exerting numerous pressures on the Sudanese government and demanding more concessions on the Darfur file. America hinted through Congress at the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over Darfur on the Sudanese air forces, and inspired the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against some Sudanese officials. America also insisted on the deployment of the United Nations peacekeeping forces alongside the African forces and her wishes were granted when the UNAMID began operating in Darfur. America ordered the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement Abdul Wahed Nour to boycott all the rounds of talks of Abuja, Sirt and Doha in order to keep the crisis of Darfur a burning issue on the international scene, while America reaps more concessions at the hands of the other opposition groups, until she turns the political status of Darfur similar to that of southern Sudan, i.e. self-rule and then separation under the theme of the right to self-determination. Eventually, America inspired the International Criminal Court to issue the arrest warrant against Omar al-Bashir to crown the episodes of pressure and achieve the following aims:

1 - The Court's resolution will encourage the rebellion and the armed groups to be more obstinate and to raise the stakes of their demands to gain more than the concessions they have achieved from the Abuja agreement so far. Hence, it came as no surprise when the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement Khalil Ibrahim said: "We are the International Criminal Court's mechanism in executing the resolution to arrest al-Bashir." This announcement indicated that America intends to exert more pressure on Sudan in the next Doha round of talks on Darfur to achieve more than an agreement on a referendum to be held by July 2010 at the latest, to determine whether Darfur would become a federal entity with a separate administration, as stipulated in the Abuja treaty. After the arrest warrant had been issued, America placed the opposition in a strong position during the negotiations by exerting this pressure on the Sudanese government and, at the same time, she gave Omar al-Bashir the pretexts and the justifications to wiggle out of his responsibilities and to proceed in the path of treason and the fragmentation of Sudan. What America wants is to force Sudan to accept a political settlement that will turn the three governorates of Darfur into a single province with a regional government, as is the case with Southern Sudan. Then this government will be granted major powers which will restrict the intervention of central government in Khartoum and places the riches of the province in the hands of the elements being groomed from now, such as Abdul Wahed Mohammed Nour, who admitted lately on Aljazeera channel that he had visited "Israel", met with its officials and that he would open an embassy for it once when he seizes the reins of power.

2 - The second aim that America is striving to achieve from issuing the arrest warrant is related to the 2005 Naivasha agreement between the Sudanese government and the SPLA. The agreement stipulates holding elections later this year to pave the way for the expected referendum to determine the final status of Southern Sudan in 2011. Since America works towards separating the south and linking it geopolitically to the Great Lakes region, and since she cannot guarantee the success of this endeavour through the referendum, she may use the arrest warrant to generate tension and erupt a conflict between the Sudanese government and the regional government of the south, thus generating the political atmospheres to annul or suspend the referendum stipulated in the Naivasha agreement; then the southern parliament would declare total separation without the need for a right to self-determination referendum.

3- America is not serious about the arrest of Omar al-Bashir because he has been one of her best agents throughout the history of modern Sudan in helping her on the issue of dividing and fragmenting Sudan. Furthermore, America still needs him to fulfil the requirements of the rebel factions, not only in Darfur, but also in other provinces in the east and in the Kordofan region, where America is encouraging its breakaway, in emulation of the south and the west. The arrest warrant is one of the best international means that America is using to fragment Sudan into politically meagre statelets, but rich in raw materials, animal and water resources, as well as huge oil reserves. Hence, it came as no surprise when several media, legal and political institutions in the United States and Europe, including the International Crisis Group, called for the adoption of alternative measures to the arrest warrant against the Sudanese President, such as deferring the arrest and prosecution procedures for a year renewable, according to the rules of the International Criminal Court itself, in order to enable Omar al-Bashir to implement the peace agreement with the south and cooperate with the United Nations in achieving stability and political reconciliation in Darfur.
Here follows further proof about Omar al-Bashir's collaboration in the crime of dividing Sudan and, in particular, his collusion with America to steer Darfur towards the separatist status that the south has reached, through the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court:

1-The release of Hassan al-Turabi:

Many observers were surprised when Omar al-Bashir released Hassan al-Turabi from jail two months after he urged the President to turn himself over to the International Criminal Court and soon after the arrest warrant was issued on 4 March. However, the surprise dissipated when Hassan al-Turabi admitted that "voices from abroad", including the US embassy, had campaigned for his release. Al-Turabi then received the US Chargé d'Affaires Alberto Fernandez at his home in Khartoum a day after his release. The two men announced after their meeting on 11th March 2009 that they had reviewed together the latest developments on the Sudanese scene, according to Aljazeera Channel. Furthermore, Hassan al-Turabi announced upon his release that "international relations would improve if the Sudanese president turned himself over to the court", and yet the regime took no action against him.

The release of Hassan al-Turabi at this time indicates that he has been one of the most faithful agents of America, just like Omar al-Bashir. Despite the two men's political differences and their partisan estrangement since 2000, they have however remained in service to America, each one from his own position since the coup of 1989. Was it not Hassan al-Turabi and Omar al-Bashir who together rigged the 1998 referendum on the constitution, claimed that the Sudanese masses endorsed it and introduced clause G of article 139 that stipulated: "South Sudan is governed by a transitional government that shall strive towards union and coordinate the exercise and termination of the right to self-determination"?

2- Inviting America to take a share in the oil:

Omar al-Bashir was expected to launch a campaign against America after the Argentine Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had instructed the International Criminal Court's judges on 14th July 2008 to issue an arrest warrant against him, since she was the instigator of Ocampo's move. Instead, the Sudanese president opened Sudan's doors for America and her companies to gain the lion's share in the oil of the Darfur province. In an interview with al-Arabiya channel on 22nd August 2008, Omar al-Bashir said: "The Darfur province floats over a river of oil and we would have no objections if the Americans wanted to share these riches with us. However, we do not want them to seize everything." Al-Bashir also mentioned that Sudan was engaged in talks with the United States on the means to solve the Darfur crisis.

3- Resumption of the talks in Doha:

The resumption of the talks in Doha between the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudanese government proves that the arrest warrant is but part of the international styles agreed upon between America and Omar al-Bashir to justify the betrayals and the concessions made over Darfur. Suspending the talks would be the easiest response the government of Omar al-Bashir could make against the arrest warrant. However, Qatar's minster of state for foreign affairs Ahmed Bin Abdullah Aal Mahmoud announced that the "second round of talks on Darfur would begin soon, probably within weeks". His announcement came shortly after his meeting with joint United Nations, African Union mediator Djibrill Yipènè Bassolé and delegates of the Sudanese government and the Justice and Equality Movement, to review what has been executed so far from the goodwill agreement signed on 17th February 2009 in Doha. Aal Mahmoud hinted that he reviewed with Bassolé the arrangements made for other groups who had expressed their willingness to partake in the talks.

The joint United Nations, African Union mediator Djibrill Yipènè Bassolé, for his part, said that the parties' representatives would remain in Doha to prepare for the next negotiations process to achieve a final agreement. He described the signing of the document of understanding as a significant step that would be built upon to solve the Darfur crisis. He mentioned that the Justice and Equality Movement would abide by the agreement and that the Sudanese government has requested guarantees ensuring that the released operatives of the movement would not return to armed struggle. Djibrill Yipènè Bassolé said he would meet the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim in Khartoum to agree on a timetable for a comprehensive peace in Darfur. He stressed the need to pursue the negotiations with the other groups who did not partake in the Doha talks. He also appealed to the international community to support the reconciliation efforts. In the same context, the African Union Commission Chairman Jean Bing said that the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir would hamper the peace efforts and reconciliation in Darfur and in Sudan in general.

Hence, is there still any doubt that the arrest warrant is but another style used by America to speed up the process of settling the Darfur issue in collaboration with the rulers of Sudan and Qatar? All the slogans and jingoistic announcements made by Omar al-Bashir from time to time are designed for domestic consumption and cover up his high treason, aided by the rulers of Qatar and Egypt, namely dismembering the body of the Islamic Ummah. They are not contented with implementing the rules of Kufr, squandering the riches of the Muslims and enabling the colonial Kafir to dominate us; they also want to dismember the Islamic lands according to a new American "Sykes-Picot".

Hizb ut-Tahrir

22 Rabi' al-Awwal 1430h
18th March 2009

www.hizbuttahrir.org