30 Mar 2009 |
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| Even though the League of Arab nations are shelter-me politics with one of their own, but conssidering the humanity of those that have died and those other endangered, we should welcome the indictment of the current President of Sudan, the biggest country in Africa by the International Criminal Court (ICC). First, President Omar al-Bashir is another of Africa’s series of forever presidents. He came to power in 1989 through a coup promising, "to save the country from rotten political parties.” In 1993 he transformed himself into a civilian president. Sounds familiar? What is not familiar is he found an ally in Hassan al-Turabi, an politician with links to Arab militant groups who had invited the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden, to set up an ‘embassy’ in Sudan. When the south section of Sudan challenged their marginalization, he sensed trouble. He armed the janjaweed militias who systematically maimed, raped and murdered the people in Darfur. Today, over 300,000 are dead and 2.7 million people displaced. Around half a million have migrated to Chad a neighboring country to Nigeria. When the ICC issued him a warrant of arrest he condemned it as “neocolonialism.” Mr. President, that is absurd; there is nothing neocolonial about the ICC with its 108 state parties of which 30 African nations are members Nigeria included. And he has also responded by expelling major foreign aid agencies on which the unfortunate people of Darfur depend on for food, water and healthcare. Starvation and diseases would again be the lot of Darfurians. Outbreak of meningitis has recently been reported in some camps. This expulsion of aid agencies only seals President al-Bashir’s image as a monster. The signal we should pass to him should be strong: Nigeria is not interested in expressing any solidarity with him. He is not welcomed. He should be kicked out of African Union. He should without delay go and answer for his genocidal crimes against humanity. Lastly, all media should desist from covering the Darfur crisis under African affairs, it should be covered under CRIME.
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