30 Mar Should the ICC Oppose Sudan’s Election?
Sudan is preparing for a national election next month. It may not be the solution for Sudan, given that it is still very doubtful that there is enough cohesiveness for a genuine democratic result. Still, I wonder if the ICC’s Prosecutor may be going a little far here.
A day after Sudan president Omar al-Bashir threatened to cut the fingers off election observers, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, called Sudan’s upcoming vote “a Hitler election.”
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo, who seeks to prosecute Mr. Bashir for crimes committed in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region during a war that killed at least 1.9 million people, today said election observers face “a big challenge” in Sudan.
“It’s like monitoring a Hitler election,” he said at a press conference in Brussels, according to Agence France-Presse.
What exactly is the proper international policy toward Sudan? The ICC arrest warrant locks everyone into a confrontational position, but since there will be no arrest of Bashir anytime soon, all of Sudan will have to lurch along without any political resolution for the foreseeable future. The U.N. is going to monitor the election. Should they even bother?
The Sudanese people know Bashir is innocent . He is just a responsible leader who did what he should do as ruler when confronted with armed outlaws insurgency. Many lies followed to explain this Civil War and those were readily believed by activists like Mr Ocampo.The fact is that the people of Sudan overwhelmingly support Bashir not because they are all evil and genocidal but because they know the truth.
Hey, Bashir is posting at OJ under an assumed name! Cool.