Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir’s Record Speaks for Itself
Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir’s Record Speaks for Itself
Our guest blogger is David Sullivan, a Research Associate with the ENOUGH Project.
“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 2, 2002
With a report that the International Criminal Court will move against Sudanese President Bashir for crimes against humanity, we thought you might like to be reminded of some of his past comments and behavior. Here is a brief resume of his long and illustrious criminal record:
- On 30 June 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 thirteen 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. NGO’s 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 2000-2001, systematically depopulated the oil fields of western Upper Nile. According to the UN: “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 2000-2001 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.
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All the Sudan is living now the aftermath of two centuries of intensive and wide spread atrocities of slavery. The old conventional forms of slavery had died out; but now new forms and practices of exploitation, violence and deception were reinvented and emerging. No sector of the Sudanese population or state institutions were not corrupted by slavery. And the post-slavery practices and “Mafia” did not save any of them. The range of victims extends from the status of children, women and manual laborer to political parties, the Judiciary and businesses.
August 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pmPost-slavery practices and mentality degenerate and block the aspirations and endeavors of state building and nation building since they took over power in 1956 and it consolidated elite illegitimate privileges and powers while createing underdevelopment and poverty nation wide.
In fact, the roots of the various violent problems in the Sudan lay in the control of the post-slavery advantaged elite and heirs over the economy; society and politics creating a state within a state. Some reasons of rebellion have sprout while others are still growing.
All civic organizations and political parties have to enhance practical moves towards truth; reconciliation and affirmative actions. One of the most essential elements in facilitating socio-economic and political participation on equal footings in order to achieve democratic transition to good governance is to bring the recent history of slavery into the lime light. Both the poor victims and the influential post-slavery elite and heirs are suffering under the burden of immoral legacy.
Slavery and post-slavery have always sought support, protection and legitimacy from extreme Islam; corrupt Sufism and fanatic Arab pan-nationalism. All the Sudanese ethnic groups had participated and also fell victims of slavery and post-slavery with different degrees and forms of involvement. Contrary to what happened in most parts of the World, the post-slavery elite in the Sudan is trying to fight instead of showing willingness to pay the dividends of sincerer democracy and prosperous peace.
Recovery from post-slavery in all of its forms is a prerequisite for real and wide social and political participation for democratic transition. The current limited margin of freedom must be cultivated, protected and developed.