IJCentral’s Most Wanted: #1 Omar al-Bashir
by Aneil Sharma on 08 Sep 2011 | Comments
Who?
Omar al-Bashir was welcomed into the world on New Year’s Day, 1944. The son of a farmer, al-Bashir joined the Sudanese Army at the age of 16 and quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant-general, serving the Egyptian Army in the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Israel along the way.
In June 1989, as Sudan was in the midst of a 21-year civil war, al-Bashir led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup, ousting then-Prime Minister Sadiq Al-Mahdi. Disbanding the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation - the military junta that brought to him power - and suspending all rival political parties, he appointed himself President in 1993. Islamic law was introduced and out went music, dance and wedding celebrations. In came the Guardians of Morality and Advocates of the Good, as well as Osama bin Laden.
And so began Bashir’s fierce, detestable grip on power.
Why?
Al-Bashir, indeed Sudan, is probably best known for the brutality of the ongoing Darfur conflict and the civil war between North and South, which ended in 2005.
As the civil war (which resulted in millions of people being displaced, starved, deprived of education and medical attention, and up to 2 million casualties) was coming to an end, al-Bashir was confronted with unrest in the Darfur region. Emboldened by the significant concessions the Southerners were gaining in their peace talks, the native African population of Darfur rebelled against what they saw as government favoritism towards the Arab population.
In response to this rebellion, al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed (literally, ‘devils on horsebacks’) militia. Targeting mainly civilians, whose ethnicity meant they were deemed supportive of the rebel groups. The Janjaweed, under the control of al-Bashir, executed a scorched earth campaign, involving the wholesale rape, torture and forced removal of tribal peoples from their traditional lands. It is reported that nearly 3 million people have been forcibly displaced and that between 200,000 and 400,000 people have died, either as a result of disease, starvation or murder.
Where?
Despite international support for the arrest warrants of al-Bashir, he continues to defy the ICC, maintaining his tyrannous grip on power. Frustrating the efforts of the ICC, and international justice, some ICC member states have invited al-Bashir in spite of their commitment to arrest him, as well as China, and the African Union which has repeatedly called on the UN Security Council to defer the ICC’s investigations, insisting that “African problems need African solutions”.
When?
After countless reports of mass atrocities being committed in Darfur, as well as a Security Council request to investigate the atrocities in 2005, Luis Moreno Ocampo concluded that the mass killings, rape, torture and displacement of civilians in the Darfur conflict amounted to war crimes, crimes against humanity and, eventually genocide, and applied for an arrest warrant on July 14th 2008. Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court.
What he says?
Al-Bashir has denied all allegations against him, repeatedly claiming that the death toll reported by Western media is part of a “campaign of lies”, and that the number is closer to 10,000. Retaliating against the arrest warrants, al-Bashir expelled Western aid agencies in Darfur. In an interview with Time magazine in August 2009, shortly after the ICC issued its first indictment against him, he staunchly defended his actions. Claiming a “constitutional, legal and moral obligation” to resist the Darfuri rebellion that he implies are terrorists, he asserted that the accusations against his government represented a “clear targeting [of Sudan]” by the international community.
Maintaining this line of defense, which incidentally and very unfortunately has been echoed by other African leaders, he insisted that “the ICC is a tool to terrorize countries that the West thinks are disobedient. The African position today, by consensus, is not to cooperate with this court, and it has reached a conviction that this Court is directed against the countries of the Third World and a tool of neo-colonialism.”
What now?
In a major blow for the many victims of the Darfur conflict and international justice, Omar al-Bashir remains the President of Sudan having successfully evaded the clutches of the ICC. What is just as unfortunate, indeed abhorrent, is that many countries, including ICC members, have aided his hitherto impunity.
In light of al-Bashir’s continued evasion, some commentators have asked whether the ICC is yet another impotent, idealistic international body. It is not, and opinions to the contrary only serve to strengthen the resolve of wanted criminals. Of the five situations being investigated by the Court, three were voluntarily referred, and the Security Council requested the investigations into Sudan. The ICC has seen wider international acceptance in recent years, evidenced by the Obama administration’s policy of ‘positive engagement’ and the unanimous Security Council referral of the situation in Libya.
Yet as these arguments continue, so too does the plight of the Darfuris. Whilst the darkest days of the conflict may be over, the victims of al-Bashir’s alleged atrocities continue to suffer. Of paramount concern in the pursuit of international justice should be the countless numbers caught up in this human tragedy. The victims of Darfur have virtually no other way of seeking justice for what happened to them; standards of justice in Africa are largely poor and as a court of last resort, the ICC still symbolizes hope for Darfuris. International justice and ending al-Bashir’s impunity should be pursued vigorously and every effort should be made to ensure international justice serves those subjected to mass murder, rape, and torture, whose livelihood, families and futures have been completely and unconscionably destroyed.
IJCentral’s Most Wanted is written by Aneil Sharma.
Aneil studied for his LLM in International Criminal Justice and Armed Conflict at University of Nottingham (2006) and recently graduated law school (2010), where he was also an editor of the students’ human rights law journal. He has done internships with Oxfam and The British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London and has completed casework for Amicus, who assist US lawyers on capital punishment cases. He intends to return to school to study for his PhD.
Follow Aneil on Twitter: @theSharmz
