AU Should Investigate Bashir

(PANA)—Uganda wants the Africa Union (AU) Peace and Security Council to investigate the alleged crimes against humanity committed by Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir in his country’s restive Darfur region.

International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Luis Ocampo-Moreno, last week sub mitted an application asking the UN-sponsored court to issue a warrant of arrest against El-Bashir to answer to multiple charges of atrocities he masterminded in Darfur. “AU Peace and Security Council should set up an investigation into allegations t hat the Sudanese President El-Bashir committed crimes against humanity as allege d by ICC prosecutor,” Uganda Foreign Affairs Minister, Sam Kutesa, said Monday. “It is after AU comes up with a report that Africa and Uganda in particular can take up a position based on proper facts. “As of now Africa can neither say El-Bashir actually committed the alleged crimes, nor can we say those crimes were not committed,” Kutesa said.

The unprecedented decision by the ICC prosecutor to seek charges against Preside nt El-Bashir has thrown a sharp light on his part in the conflict in Darfur, a r e gion where some 250,000 people have died and two million fled their homes since 2 003. But El-Bashir has always accused the international community of exaggerating the scale of the crisis, notably in 2004, he said, the Darfur issue was a "traditio n al conflict over resources… coated with claims of marginalisation". “Strangely, the Darfur crisis, according to them (the UN), has become the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. The report about the crisis occupies the bes t part of the influential media by those who have a hidden agenda,” he charged. American watch dog, Human Rights Watch (JRW), documented atrocities in the weste rn Sudanese region, three years ago, accusing the El-Bashir-led Sudanese governm e nt of ethnic cleansing and saying it was “strategic and well-planned”.

“Khartoum has relied on the civilian administration, the Sudanese military and J anjaweed militias to implement a counter-insurgency policy that deliberately and systematically targeted civilians in violation of international law,” HRW said i n a 2005 report. Earlier this year, Sudan was again pinned for aerial bombardment and ground atta cks that drove thousands from their homes. Human rights organisations accuse El- Bashir of overseeing these atrocities — allegations that have now resulted in the current indictment. Critics of El-Bashir say that he has ruled Sudan in the interest of the northern Sudanese who live along the River Nile. Anyone from the south of the country, o r from a peripheral area like Darfur, has had little say in the running of the co u ntry.

The uprising in Darfur has been ruthlessly repressed. And suggestions that the U nited Nations might send international forces to the region were strongly resisted by El-Bashir, insisting that only African forces be deployed to Darfur. “The AU troops, after their experience and real practice in resolving conflict i n Africa, are completely capable of playing their role without international int e rvention,” El-Bashir said in 2006. “We renew our call to the international community, as well as our Arab and Afric an brothers, to provide the necessary financial support to these troops and to i n crease the participation of Arab and African troops in the mission by the requir e d numbers, so that the AU can continue playing its role,” he said. The US has been at the forefront of pressing for action on Darfur. But, strange as it might seem, it has also maintained close intelligence links with the Sudan e se government. In 2005, for example, the head of Sudanese intelligence was flown in a CIA jet t o Washington. And US officials have worked closely with Sudan on anti-terrorism issues.

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