A pronounced criminal Al Bashir looks set to evade justice

A pronounced criminal Al Bashir looks set to evade justuce
Shashank Shekhar
It’s hard to analyse whether any punishment will be enough for the heinous crimes that Sudan’s president Omar Al Bashir has been a party to. But then, the International Criminal Court (ICC) verdict delivered months ago has at least, made the stand of a rational legal system clear. Al Bashir is now a criminal unacceptable on much of the soil outside Sudan. The trouble is that as months pass by, the opinion that had once built up against him is getting gradually diluted.
Amidst the numerous calls for replacing Al Bashir, one very important fact is being missed. That hypothetically, if Al Bashir indeed does get arrested on one of his trips abroad, the ethnic tribes who have suffered so far, will be tortured even more. And then, his likely replacement, the former Vice President Hassan Al Turabi who is accused of having once invited Osama bin Laden to Sudan, may turn the beautiful country into a terrorist’s paradise.
In what sets a precedent for future attempts to bring powerful oppressors to justice, prosecutors did not mince words when they spoke about Al Bashir’s horrendous crimes. Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told reporters at that Sudan’s president had stooped to the lowest levels of humanity while perpetrating ethnic cleansing. Forced starvation and soul-destroying gang rapes are a part of Al Bashir’s horrendous strategy in Darfur's genocide Ocampo said.
Al Bashir’s policies of hate are admonished by Muslims within the Arab world. In a debate organised in Doha by journalist Tim Sebastian on whether the Arab world was doing enough to contain the Darfur crisis, the lone Sudanese participant, Sirajuddin Hamid Yousuf, the director of crisis management department at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was cornered off and almost asked to shut-up by a predominantly Arab crowd. Even Ahmed Ibrahim Diraige the former governor of Darfur had strongly castigated the Sudanese government. Nadim Hasbani a Lebanese Muslim and an Africa specialist at International Crisis Group who turned emotional in describing the magnitude of the events in Darfur, emerged the hero of an hour long session which was later broadcasted on the BBC.
Curious as it may seem, none of the Arab states have denounced Al Bashir. Equally intricate has been the role of countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia in fermenting the crisis. Janjaweed the government backed militia needs funds to operate. Accusations have been leveled in the past that funds from the oil rich nations has flowed to the Janjaweed coffers.
Moreno Ocampo filed 10 charges against Al Bashir related to a campaign of rapes and murders that allegedly has claimed 300,000 lives and driven 2.5 million people from their homes. Those who have survived the vicious campaign are in danger from Janjaweed and the Sudanese Army personnel. Three ethnic groups of Sudan -- Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa-- have lost all their belonging due to vicious campaign and are surviving on handouts from the government.
A three-judge panel was expected to take two to three months to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.
Sudan denounced the indictment as a political stunt, saying it would ignore any arrest order and was considering a military response to the verdict. While it was not announced against whom will such a response be directed, going by the Sudan’s history, it’s apparent that UN forces and foreign aid agencies will be at the receiving end.
In fact, a Sudanese parliamentarian has already said that his government could no longer guarantee the safety of U.N. staff in the troubled region. All the more, it ordered Doctors Without Borders a Noble Prize winning group out of its frontiers. Oxfam and Mercy Corps are the other two groups that have been recently expelled.
Al Bashir, who has ruled Sudan for 19 years, appears invulnerable in his capital, though an international warrant would leave him open to arrest outside Sudan, restricting his travel and putting him in a category of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who faces a U.N. travel ban.
Al Bashir came to power through a coup in 1989. Since then he has introduced elements of Sharia law which are opposed by the mainly Christian and animist rebels in the south.
His career has been marked as much by the civil war with the forces of rebel leader John Garang, as by his power struggle with Hassan Al Turabi, an erstwhile ally.
While Al Bashir faces admonition the world over, there are two issues that reflect a conflicting view of his persona. One: He has opposed Al Qaeda in Sudan and two he has been able to bring economic growth in his country. Opposition to Al Qaeda, in fact, put him at loggerheads with Al Turabi. Therefore, it remains difficult for the international community to make out whether Bashir’s removal from the post (which may never happen!) will improve or worsen things for Sudan.