Sudan's President Bashir charged with war crimes

By Edmund Sanders

March 5, 2009 12 AM PT

KHARTOUM, SUDAN —

In a challenge to one of Africa’s most defiant strongmen, the International Criminal Court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s president on charges of war crimes in Darfur, a quest for justice that immediately complicated relief efforts for hundreds of thousands of people and raised the specter of more violence.

A three-judge panel found that President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir “intentionally directed attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians and pillaging their property,” ICC spokeswoman Laurence Blairon said.

Within minutes of the court’s announcement, thousands of Bashir supporters poured into the streets of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, carrying banners condemning the U.S. and ICC.

About the same time in Darfur, several displacement camps erupted in celebrations, despite a strong show of force earlier in the day by Sudanese soldiers, United Nations officials said.

Government officials reiterated their refusal to turn over Bashir to the court, which they consider a tool of the U.S. and Europe.

“We will not be humiliated by the international community,” said Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein. “This is just another attempt to destroy Sudan.”

Experts said the court’s legal action could result in renewed bloodshed in the country and further interfere with efforts to stop the violence and suffering in Darfur. Several humanitarian organizations said after the announcement that the Sudanese government had revoked their licenses to operate, and Doctors Without Borders said it was ordered to evacuate staffers from four Darfur towns because of security concerns.

U.N. agencies and foreign embassies in Sudan remained on high alert amid rumors that militias, both for and against the government, might use the announcement as an opportunity to attack foreigners or government institutions.

Bashir was expected to address the country at a giant rally this morning.

In the much-anticipated ruling, ICC judges accused Bashir of seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from his government’s counterinsurgency campaign in the nation’s western region of Darfur.

Charges of genocide -- which the U.S. alleges has taken place in Darfur -- were dropped by the judges for lack of evidence. According to the court, 35,000 people were killed in Darfur and at least an additional 100,000 died from disease and starvation. More than 2.5 million remain homeless.

The United States is not a signatory to the ICC, but State Department officials said the arrest warrant “can be a helpful step” in resolving the crisis.

The Obama administration urged restraint by all parties to avoid further violence. A spokesman said President Obama supports efforts to help displaced people.

Human rights activists heralded the ICC decision as a victory against impunity.

“This message should be heard loudly and clearly around the globe: If you kill, maim and rape your own citizens, there will be a cost,” said John Norris, executive director of the anti-genocide group Enough Project.

There was no consensus on whether Bashir would be damaged, or strengthened, by the charges.

Bashir will keep his job, predicted Eltayeb Hag Ateya of the Peace Studies Institute in Khartoum, because Sudan’s ruling party is unprepared to select a replacement and many worry the country could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists or the military.

“Bashir will not be able to continue as a normal president for long,” Ateya said. “He’ll become a burden to everyone around him and this will snowball, leaving him crippled.

“The real issue is not Bashir,” Ateya said. “It’s the succession question.”

U.S. and European officials are hoping the warrant will either force Bashir to make reforms or drive him from power. But political experts here say such hopes are misplaced.

“It’s wishful thinking,” said Alfred Taban, editor of an opposition newspaper. “If anything, the ICC is going to entrench Bashir rather than weaken him.”

On Tuesday, Bashir, 65, who seized power in a 1989 coup, struck a defiant tone at the opening of the $2-billion Merowe Dam, which he boasted was built without help from the Western world. Dancing, smiling and waving his walking stick, Bashir said the international community could take the arrest warrant, “dissolve it in water, and drink it.”

His government has silenced most opponents, either through payoffs or intimidation, diplomats said. The ICC has also stirred nationalist and anti-Western sentiments, with many Sudanese, even those against Bashir, viewing the case as an attack on the country’s sovereignty.

The only political party strong enough to challenge Bashir’s power is the former southern rebel army, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which thus far is supporting the president. That’s largely because southerners worry that Bashir’s arrest or replacement would threaten a 2005 peace deal that gave southerners autonomy, half the nation’s oil revenue and the chance to vote for independence in 2011.

Bashir is also benefiting from a divided international community. Russia, China and many Arab and African countries have called upon the U.N. Security Council to defer the ICC case for a year to give peace talks more time in Darfur. The U.S., France and Britain oppose deferment.

African Union Chairman Jean Ping said Wednesday that he was “deeply concerned” about the arrest warrant’s effect on regional stability. Egyptian officials called for an immediate Security Council meeting to halt the case. Some African countries are reportedly considering whether to suspend their participation in the ICC as a protest.

African leaders have been voicing growing concern over the fact that all four current ICC cases involve African countries: Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and the Central African Republic. Critics have dubbed the ICC the “African Criminal Court” and noted that large nations, including the U.S., Russia, China and India, have refused to subject themselves to the court’s authority.

“Where was international justice during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing of Gaza, and the crimes committed in the prisons of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib?” Bashir said last weekend during a rally in Khartoum.

Blairon said the ICC is investigating cases involving Colombia, the Palestinian territories, Georgia and Afghanistan, but that the initial cases have focused on Africa because African governments were the first to refer their cases to the court. “It’s not because the court chose to be active in Africa,” she said.

The quality of the ICC’s work has also come under scrutiny. Last year a Congolese defendant was almost freed after a judge ruled prosecutors had withheld evidence. In another case, a key prosecution witness recanted his testimony during his first day on the stand.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said this week that he has “strong evidence” against Bashir, including dozens of witnesses.

But Sudanese expert Alex de Waal, a program director with the nonprofit Social Science Research Council, issued a scathing critique of Moreno-Ocampo’s evidence, citing a pattern of mistakes and flawed legal theories. He said there’s a strong case to be made against Bashir, but questioned whether the ICC has made it.

De Waal said the case, particularly the genocide charges that the judges threw out, “would be completely shredded by a good defense counsel. It’s a very poorly put together case.”

edmund.sanders@latimes.com

Paul Richter of our Washington bureau contributed to this report.

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Sudan ruling: Darfur at a glance

A look at Sudan’s Darfur region, the conflict and the International Criminal Court that issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir.

The region

A vast, arid plateau in western Sudan about the size of France with a population estimated at about 6 million.

The conflict

Ethnic African tribes took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in February 2003, alleging discrimination and neglect. The government responded with a military campaign in which pro-government Arab militias, known as janjaweed, are alleged to have committed widespread atrocities. The court estimates that 135,000 people have died from the fighting, disease and starvation, though other estimates put the number at 200,000.

The players

Sudanese government: Bashir took power in a 1989 military coup and rules on an Islamic platform. He doesn’t recognize the ICC and refuses to cooperate with the court. The government in February held the first round of peace talks since 2007 with Darfur’s most powerful rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement. But other groups are boycotting the talks. The JEM also says it could help implement the ICC arrest warrant if mandated to do so.

Darfur’s rebels: The JEM is led by Khalil Ibrahim, a veteran politician and former ally of the government. It calls for more autonomy for Darfur but not outright independence. Another group, the Sudan Liberation Army, splintered into two main factions in 2005. The leader of one faction, Minni Minnawi, signed a peace deal with the Sudanese government in 2006 and is now Bashir’s advisor.

The military forces

Joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission: The 15,000-member contingent, which by November is expected to grow to 26,000, remains underequipped and has been attacked by warring factions.

Sudanese armed forces: Believed to number more than 100,000.

SLA and JEM: Their combined forces number about 10,000, according to Jane’s Information Group. The International Crisis Group puts the figure at 7,000 to 15,000, though some estimates put it much lower, about 1,200 to 2,000.

Janjaweed: Peaked at about 10,000, but figures fluctuate.

The ICC

The International Criminal Court is the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal, coming into force in 2002 and headquartered in The Hague. It is an independent body, not a U.N. court. The ICC acts only when member countries are “unwilling or unable” to dispense justice themselves. It may prosecute individuals responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed after July 2002.

Sources: Associated Press and Times staff reports

Voices

Reactions to the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese

President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir:

‘The court is only one mechanism of neocolonialist policy used by the West against free and independent countries.’

-- Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudanese presidential advisor

‘The charging of President Bashir by the ICC has complicated things. The rebels ask how they will be able to negotiate with a president who will go to prison. That is what is blocking negotiations.’

Abdoulaye Wade, Senegalese president

‘Bashir and his Islamic fundamentalist government will never give up power. But the Sudan Liberation [Army] and other believers in justice and human rights are ready to remove him from power through a popular uprising and a hundred other ways.’

-- Abdel Wahid Nur, founder of the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Army

‘The United States believes those who have committed atrocities should be brought to justice.’

-- Robert Wood,

U.S. State Department spokesman

‘The untimely fulfillment of the ICC decision to arrest the president of Sudan will create a dangerous precedent in the system of international relations.’

-- Mikhail Margelov, Russia’s special envoy to Sudan (quoted by RIA Novosti news agency)

‘Not even presidents are guaranteed a free pass for horrific crimes.’

-- Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch