YOU WOULD THINK THAT ONCE GENOCIDE IS IDENTIFIED,
our sense of morality would impel us to act in ways to end it.

But as Darfuri people have been targeted for over 5 years to be extinguished, that has not happened.Perhaps the latest move by the International Criminal Court (ICC) will make a difference for the better of the Darfuri people.

ICC calls for arrest of Al Bashir

July 14, 2008

Ocampo: "His motive was power, control, but his intent was to commit genocide."
Bashir is accused of: 3 counts of genocide; 5 counts of crimes against humanity; and 2 counts of war crimes committed in Darfur.

He is accused of masterminding and implementing a plan to partially wipe out ethnic groups (Fur , Masalit, Zaghawa ) that were producing the rebels that were challenging his rule in Khartoum..
"This was no counterinsurgency", Ocampo says, "The alibi of the president was 'a counter insurgency'. His intent was genocide."

This is the first time a sitting head of state has been accused of genocide.
UN currently has evacuation plans in place, in case aid workers or peacekeepers are again attacked.
Source: www.miafarrow.org/

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir: The Record Speaks for Itself

Article link: www.enoughproject.org

by David Sullivan

“I gave the army a free hand to move out in all directions, to use all of its weapons, with no restraints, no restrictions, whatsoever” – Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, in Agence France-Presse, September 3, 2002

With indications that the International Criminal Court will move against Sudanese President Bashir for crimes against humanity, we here at the ENOUGH Project thought you might like to be reminded of some of his past comments and behavior:

On June 30, 1989, led fellow officers in a mutiny against the democratically elected Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. General Bashir announced “Your armed forces have come to carry out a tremendous revolution for the sake of change after suffering” and said in a televised communiqué that the coup was “to save the country from rotten political parties.”
From 1991 through 1996, hosted Osama bin Laden and turned Sudan into the world headquarters for international terrorism. Bashir later said of bin Laden, “He is a very normal person and he is very religious.”
In 1992, declared jihad against the people of the Nuba Mountains, launching a massive offensive targeting civilian populations. During this genocidal campaign, the government forced conversions to Islam, displaced populations into government controlled ‘peace villages,’ and denied access to humanitarian aid.
Beginning in 1994, became the only government sponsor of the Lord’s Resistance Army, as it abducted thousands of children in its campaign of terror in northern Uganda. According to a 13-year old child who spent two years in LRA captivity in Sudanese government-controlled territory: “I saw Sudanese Arab soldiers deliver weapons to the commanders of the LRA. The guns were brought to the LRA camp by airplane, and the soldiers unloading the guns were Arabs. They were big guns, machine guns.”
Continually used arbitrary detention, disappearances, and torture to stifle political opposition. In 1995, a notorious “ghost house” located near a Citibank branch in Khartoum was used to torture dissidents. On civil liberties, Bashir has said: “When we talk of handing power to the people, we mean the people will be within certain limits but no one will cross the red lines which are aimed at the interest of the nation.”
In the 1990s, revived the practice of slave raids against the people of southern Sudan. NGOs have suggested that as many as 200,000 southern Sudanese have been enslaved, and a UN report stated slavery there was “deeply rooted in Arab and Muslim supremacism.”
In 1998, engineered a famine in the Bahr el-Ghazal region of southern Sudan that killed hundreds of thousands of people. The lethal combination of militia attacks on civilians and systematic denial of humanitarian aid transformed a drought into a crime against humanity.
From 2000-01, systematically depopulated the oil fields of western Upper Nile. According to the United Nations: “government bombers, helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery were used against unarmed civilians to clear a 100-kilometer area around the oils fields. Witnesses reported that over 1,000 government soldiers swept through Ruweng county, wreaking human and material destruction, including destroying 17 churches.”
Continually used aerial bombing of women and children, aid workers, and hospitals. Among the hundreds of air strikes from 2000-01 were a World Food Program airlift, a church school, a hospital, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
In 2003, organized the creation of the Janjaweed militias to commit genocide in Darfur. On the Today Show, Bashir claimed: “I would confirm that we have never targeted civilian citizens and we can never target citizens.” Of Musa Hilal, the notorious Janjaweed commander, Bashir said: “He has contributed to peace and stability.” Also: “The so-called Darfur conflict is an invention by foreign interests.”
Orchestrated insecurity, rape, and malnutrition against displaced Darfuris. In August 2006, more than 200 women were sexually assaulted in five weeks in Kalma camp, South Darfur. But according to Bashir: “It is not in the Sudanese culture or people of Darfur to rape. It doesn’t exist. We don’t have it.” On the humanitarian conditions: “The food and health situation in Darfur is acceptable for me, because it is comparable to situation in the rest of the country” and "any talk of a humanitarian crisis is not true."

Watch Bashir assert “all figures about the deaths in Darfur are fabricated” on Al Jazeera on YouTube here.

The above report is originally posted as a guest blog on the Wonk Room.

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David Frost speaks to President Omar al-Bashir June 20, 2008

Sudan's President being charged with genocide. It is the first time the International Criminal Court issued charges against a sitting head of state. it isn't likely Omar al Bashir will face the charges. Sudan doesn't recognize the war crimes court. The U.N. estimates 300,000 people have been killed in darfur. Two and a half million people have been displaced. View this Headline News report

China asked the criminal court to rethink its arrest warrant for sudan's president. and on monday they filed 10 charges against Omar al Bashir and they accuse his government of waging a campaign of genocide and terror in darfur. And China buys two-thirds of Sudan's petroleum exports and is also accused of violating the arms embargo against Sudan. View this Bloomberg report