Don't Permit an ICC Crime Against Africa
by Douglas DeGroot
Feb. 20—Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor Kuol told reporters in Cape Town, South Africa today that Sudan wants the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s ongoing efforts to issue an arrest warrant (effectively an indictment) against Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes, to be postponed for a year, to give the government time to negotiate a peace deal in Darfur. Previous such efforts by Sudan have been rejected or boycotted by the approximately 15 rebel groups, except for one group. Kuol made his statement after Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), reportedly the best-armed of the rebel groups, reached an agreement to negotiate on Feb. 17.
The ICC, created and funded by the Anglo-Dutch imperial financial cartel, with financial backing from George Soros, wants to indict Sudan's President, to plunge the country deeper into bloody chaos, leading to its disintegration as a nation.
Lyndon LaRouche responded:
There should be no recognitions of the ICC. It's a complete violation of international law. The people who are pushing it should be questioned as to their morals and sanity. This very indictment is a crime against humanity, and the sponsors of the indictment should be brought to trial by some suitable agency.
On the day that Sudan and the JEM agreed to negotiate, the Obama Administration's UN Ambassador Susan Rice expressed her support for an indictment of the Sudanese President, despite the ongoing efforts to negotiate with Darfur rebels. At that point, concerned about the Administration's support for the indictment, LaRouche said: "It's the International Criminal Court which is criminal. The issuance of such an indictment would be a criminal attack on Africa, and we must not let a crime be committed against Africa, by the Obama Administration."
LaRouche reiterated that the ICC is simply a tool of Britain's Mark Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and his partner-in-crime, the world's top drug-pusher, George Soros (see this week's Feature). EIR's dossier on the funding of the ICC by Soros was first published in June 2008, and is available here. A prescient memorandum by Lyndon LaRouche in 2002, when the drive to create the ICC was underway, is available here.
The Attack on Sudan Continues
So far, the ICC has been used as a tool only against Africa. Despite having received over 1,700 complaints from at least 103 countries, according to a Human Rights Watch report, it has only conducted investigations in African countries.
The UN Security Council could defer the indictment by a year if progress is made on Darfur-related issues, or, if an indictment is seen as a threat to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended the prolonged civil war between the North and South. But despite the negotiations between the government and the JEM, and the desire by both the Sudan government and South Sudan government to implement the CPA, the ICC continues its drumbeat for a warrant against Bashir.
A Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) member from South Sudan, who is part of the Sudan government, said recently that if Bashir is indicted, and the UNSC does not defer the case for a year, the South will face economic doom. With the President viewed as an indicted criminal, investment will decline, he pointed out.
Yesterday, the panel of three ICC judges rejected an appeal against an indictment by two pro-Sudan groups (a labor federation and an NGO), saying they had "no procedural standing to appeal" a prior decision against them by the judges. There are still rumors, spread through the press, that the arrest warrant will be issued soon.
Why the Vendetta?
Sudan is geographically the largest country in Africa. If it were to successfully develop as a unified nation, as opposed to being a collection of autonomous regions (the way it was run under British colonial rule), it could spark the development of the entire northeast of Africa, and become the breadbasket of the continent.
For over 40 years of the 50 years, from independence from the British in 1956, until 2005, a civil war raged between the Sudan government in Khartoum and the South, the basis for which was created by the British during colonial rule. The formal signing of the CPA between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), which ended the war, took place Jan. 9, 2005. Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha (originally from the South), and SPLM/A leader John Garang signed the accord. Taha, a member of Bashir's party, but from the South, had been given responsibility for the negotiations by Bashir, who had to lead a fight within his own party to get the peace agreement. The result was a unity government joining the two parties.
Expressing optimism about building a unified nation, Garang said at the signing: "This peace agreement will change Sudan forever.... Sudan cannot and will never be the same again, as this peace agreement will engulf the country in democratic and fundamental transformation instead of being engulfed in wars.... We believe that a new Sudan is possible, for there are many in the North who share with us ... a belief in the universal ideals of humanity." In an interview on Dec. 31, 2004, Garang said "Our priority begins with infrastructure," referring to the lack of development in the South, a carryover from the colonial period.
The day before the signing, Taha said: "The situation in southern Sudan was the result of backwardness, scarcity of resources, people's dissatisfaction, and shortage of services. The agreement calls on the Sudanese people to pool their resources rather than fight politically on empty slogans and struggle over power. Thus, the emphasis and the priority would be on taking care of the poor classes, returning of the refugees, and ensuring essential services for the citizens, including health care, education, and job opportunities for productive manpower."
The Darfur Destabilization
In 1999, Hassan al-Turabi was ousted from the ruling party by Bashir and his allies, who wanted Sudan to have a nationalist government. As part of the shift leading to Turabi's ouster, Osama bin Laden, who had been brought into Sudan by Turabi, had been kicked out in 1996. An opponent of the CPA, Turabi was allied to the British-intelligence-controlled Muslim Brotherhood. It was in the period between his ouster, and the signing of the CPA, that unrest in the Darfur region was blown up into a major insurgency. Networks associated with Turabi played a significant role in carrying this out. Well before the CPA was signed, there were reports of arms supplies coming into Darfur from outside Sudan. The insurgency made it impossible for the government to take advantage of the CPA to develop the most undeveloped regions of the country into a unified nation.
The formal conflict began with Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) attacks in 2002. By February 2003, JEM rebels attacked larger towns and government garrisons, killing many poorly equipped policemen. The decimation of law enforcement in the region led to a chaotic every-militia-for-itself situation.
According to Sudan expert Alex de Waal, in a region where every community has armed itself for years, there are many militia groups. De Waal, who is not a supporter of the government's approach in Darfur, although he opposes the ICC campaign against Bashir, points out that the groups termed "rebel groups" by the media campaign against the Sudan government, range from nomadic clans that have armed themselves to protect their herds, to trained fighters headed by Musa Hilal (leader of one of many militias referred to as Janjaweed), and some of his Chadian Arab comrades in arms.
Abdel Wahid, a key early organizer of the SLA, later indicated his recognition of the manipulated nature of the rebellion, as the rebels split and fought each other, when he said: "If I had known what would happen, I would not have started this revolution."
