Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir

[Team Sergeant]

A bit of background:

Sudan's President Managed to Hold Power Over 20 Years

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was hit by a war crimes arrest warrant Wednesday, has managed to hold power in Africa's largest nation despite 20 years of turmoil, including a long civil war, U.S. airstrikes, Western sanctions and bloodshed in Darfur.

The 64-year-old al-Bashir, Sudan's longest-serving president since independence in 1958, has been able to weather the storms by keeping a firm hold on his ruling coalition of the military and Islamic fundamentalists — and by knowing when to make limited concessions to the West.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,504469,00.html

[Team Sergeant]

I envision a "wag the dog" scenario emerging very rapidly. Sudan's president (and islamic idiot) begins to starve a few million non-muslims, Obama & george clooney send US Soldiers to stop the bad islamic men, we lose a few hundred soldiers because of extremely restrictive rules of engagement (ROE). And only after we leave in disgrace the left wing democrats admit it was a mistake. All the while this country falls into a deep economic depression. (see article below)

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/08/administration-backers-plead-patience-economic-recovery-efforts/

Administration Backers Plead for Patience on Economic Recovery Efforts
Concern is growing that the Obama administration's prescriptions for the ailing economy aren't working but the president's supporters say patience will pay off.

It worked for blowjob bill clinton, why not for Obama?

Good luck sheeple. And good luck you soldiers about to deploy to the islamic nation called sudan.

Team Sergeant






Sudan's President Threatens to Kick Out More Aid Groups

EL FASHER, Sudan — Sudan's president threatened to kick out more aid groups and expel diplomats and peacekeepers on Sunday during his first trip to the beleaguered Darfur region after an international court indicted him on war crimes.

Sudan has already expelled 13 of the largest aid groups operating in Darfur as part of its defiant response to the International Criminal Court's decision last week to issue an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir. Sudan has accused them of cooperating with the Netherlands-based ICC.

Al-Bashir was greeted by thousands of cheering supporters riding camels and horses in the North Darfur capital of El Fasher on Sunday. During a rally in an open field, al-Bashir warned that others could be told to leave if Sudan determines they were involved with the ICC case.

"Those who respect themselves, we will respect them. Don't interfere in something that doesn't concern you," al-Bashir said. "Don't do anything that would harm the country's security and stability."

"Whoever deviates, we will kick them out," he said, referring to aid groups, diplomatic missions and peacekeeping forces.

The ICC accuses al-Bashir of leading a counterinsurgency against Darfur rebels that involved rapes, killings and other atrocities against civilians. Al-Bashir rejects the charges and refuses to deal with the ICC. Arab and African countries are pressing the U.N. Security Council to defer any prosecution for at least a year, hoping to defuse the crisis.

Up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the Darfur conflict since 2003, according to the U.N. A joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission, currently around 15,000 strong, is deployed in Darfur, but its forces remain under-equipped and it has been attacked by warring factions.

The crowd in El Fasher waved pictures of al-Bashir as well as posters of the ICC prosecutor with an X drawn over his face.

"Tell them all, the ICC prosecutor, the members of the court and every one who supports this court that they are under my shoe," he said. In the Muslim world, stepping on somebody or striking them with shoes is considered an insult.

The United Nations and humanitarian workers say Sudan's order to expel the 13 aid groups, including Oxfam GB and CARE International, punches a giant hole in the safety net that has kept many Darfur civilians alive during six years of war in the vast, arid region of western Sudan.

Without the groups, 1.1 million people will be without food, 1.5 million without health care, and more than 1 million without drinking water, the U.N. has said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506817,00.html

[Surf n Turf]

From the Foreign Press, which has become the only source I can get to find out what is happening in my country
I am inclined to believe that something is happening, just not the degree.
SnT

International Criminal Court (ICC)
But the people who should be feeling really nervous about this development are the citizens of the United States and more especially their armed forces. The signs are that the grandstanding Barack Obama is preparing to subject the United States to the jurisdiction of the ICC. In May, 2002 President Bush withdrew the United States from the Rome Statute which established the ICC. With America heading into global conflict, he had no wish to see US troops arraigned for alleged war crimes before a kangaroo court.Last month US Ambassador Susan Rice, in a closed meeting of the Security Council, supported the ICC, saying it "looks to become an important and credible instrument for trying to hold accountable the senior leadership responsible for atrocities committed in the Congo, Uganda and Darfur". A week later Ben Chang, spokesman for National Security Advisor General James Jones, took a similar line, telling the Washington Times: "We support the ICC in its pursuit of those who've perpetrated war crimes."
The next logical step is for the United States to sign up to the ICC. That would flatter Obama's ego as the conscience of the world. It would also put US servicemen at the mercy of any American-hating opportunists who might choose to arraign them on trumped-up charges before an alien court whose judges are likely to be ill-disposed towards America too.
"If the United States were to join the ICC, one would have to accept at least the theoretical possibility that American citizens (particularly political and military leaders) could be prosecuted before the ICC on charges of committing atrocity crimes."
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/gerald_warner/blog/2009/03/06/barack_obama_may_subject_us_troops_to_internationa l_criminal_court

[Richard]

U.S. Policy Regarding the International Criminal Court

http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/73990.pdf

Richard's $.02 :munchin

[Richard]

False bravado and promises on the one hand...

Defiant Beshir in Darfur, warns foreigners
Abdelmoniem Abu Edries Ali, AFP, 8 Mar 2009

The United Nations says the aid agency expulsions will leave 1.1 million people without food, 1.5 million without health care and more than a million without drinking water.

Beshir promised Sudan would replace the work of the expelled aid agencies. "We will fill the gap left by the NGOs," he said, without elaborating.

The Sudan Media Centre, a website close to the security services, said Khartoum was preparing an "alternative plan" to fill the gap, collaborating instead with "national and friendly foreign NGOs."

"Friendly NGOs" - read oil partner China and Co there. ;)

And harsh reality on the other hand...

Sudan can't fill gaps from expelled aid groups: U.N.
Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, 9 Mar 2009

The Sudanese government lacks sufficient capacity to do the work of the aid groups it has ordered out of the country's war-ravaged Darfur region, the top U.N. humanitarian affairs official said on Monday.

Sudan has targeted 13 foreign and three local aid groups saying they collaborated with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which last week issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem on Friday told reporters that the Sudanese government would have no problem filling in any gaps in aid distribution created by the expulsion of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

But U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters on Monday that this was not the case.

"We do not, as the U.N. system, the NGOs do not, ... and the (Sudanese) government does not have the capacity to replace all the activities that have been going on, certainly not on any short- or medium-term basis," he said.

That, Holmes said, "is why the challenge is so daunting if the decision of the government of Sudan is not reversed." He said the NGOs targeted by Khartoum accounted for approximately 50 percent of the humanitarian aid capacity in Darfur.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week that U.N. humanitarian operations in Darfur, where some 4.7 million people rely on aid, would face "irrevocable damage" if the decision to shut down the aid groups was not reversed.

U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Ban had not spoken with Bashir in the aftermath of the ICC announcement.

Holmes said Ban, who is on a trip to Haiti, had been working the telephone in an attempt to resolve the crisis and might personally appeal to the president, now an official war crimes suspect, to permit the return of the NGOs.

"One possibility is a discussion between him (Ban) and the president of Sudan at the appropriate moment," he said.

Holmes added that U.N. and NGO staff have faced harassment at the hands of Sudanese security forces, including "intimidatory behavior." He added that U.N. officials had complained about this to the government.

"Assets of international NGOs have been confiscated, including in some cases United Nations assets I have to say, things like vehicles and computers, vital data for assistance to beneficiaries, ... food and non-food items," he said.

Holmes said there were one or two warehouses containing World Food Program food seized by local authorities, which he hoped would be returned.

He added that the supply of food and water at camps for displaced persons in Darfur would become increasingly problematic in the coming days.

Holmes also dismissed Abdalhaleem's assertion on Friday that the decision to expel the NGOs was not retaliation for the ICC decision.

"I think its reasonably clear this was a political response to a decision that has nothing to do with the U.N. or any of the NGOs," he said.

[Team Sergeant]

False bravado and promises on the one hand...

Defiant Beshir in Darfur, warns foreigners
Abdelmoniem Abu Edries Ali, AFP, 8 Mar 2009

The United Nations says the aid agency expulsions will leave 1.1 million people without food, 1.5 million without health care and more than a million without drinking water.

Beshir promised Sudan would replace the work of the expelled aid agencies. "We will fill the gap left by the NGOs," he said, without elaborating.

The Sudan Media Centre, a website close to the security services, said Khartoum was preparing an "alternative plan" to fill the gap, collaborating instead with "national and friendly foreign NGOs."

"Friendly NGOs" - read oil partner China and Co there. ;)

And harsh reality on the other hand...

Sudan can't fill gaps from expelled aid groups: U.N.
Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, 9 Mar 2009

The Sudanese government lacks sufficient capacity to do the work of the aid groups it has ordered out of the country's war-ravaged Darfur region, the top U.N. humanitarian affairs official said on Monday.

Sudan has targeted 13 foreign and three local aid groups saying they collaborated with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which last week issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem on Friday told reporters that the Sudanese government would have no problem filling in any gaps in aid distribution created by the expulsion of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

But U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters on Monday that this was not the case.

"We do not, as the U.N. system, the NGOs do not, ... and the (Sudanese) government does not have the capacity to replace all the activities that have been going on, certainly not on any short- or medium-term basis," he said.

That, Holmes said, "is why the challenge is so daunting if the decision of the government of Sudan is not reversed." He said the NGOs targeted by Khartoum accounted for approximately 50 percent of the humanitarian aid capacity in Darfur.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week that U.N. humanitarian operations in Darfur, where some 4.7 million people rely on aid, would face "irrevocable damage" if the decision to shut down the aid groups was not reversed.

U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Ban had not spoken with Bashir in the aftermath of the ICC announcement.

Holmes said Ban, who is on a trip to Haiti, had been working the telephone in an attempt to resolve the crisis and might personally appeal to the president, now an official war crimes suspect, to permit the return of the NGOs.

"One possibility is a discussion between him (Ban) and the president of Sudan at the appropriate moment," he said.

Holmes added that U.N. and NGO staff have faced harassment at the hands of Sudanese security forces, including "intimidatory behavior." He added that U.N. officials had complained about this to the government.

"Assets of international NGOs have been confiscated, including in some cases United Nations assets I have to say, things like vehicles and computers, vital data for assistance to beneficiaries, ... food and non-food items," he said.

Holmes said there were one or two warehouses containing World Food Program food seized by local authorities, which he hoped would be returned.

He added that the supply of food and water at camps for displaced persons in Darfur would become increasingly problematic in the coming days.

Holmes also dismissed Abdalhaleem's assertion on Friday that the decision to expel the NGOs was not retaliation for the ICC decision.

"I think its reasonably clear this was a political response to a decision that has nothing to do with the U.N. or any of the NGOs," he said.



This is going to go back and forth until george clooney goes on oprah and starts crying begging the president of the United States to "do something".

If I remember correctly clooney was invited to the white house just a few weeks ago to meet with the pres..... I'm guessing the pres asked george if he wasnted to be the Sec of State or Amb to the UN......:rolleyes:

[Richard]

Here's a follow-up; this one could quickly turn into another big guilt trip for the West and become even uglier than it is now really fast. :(

Richard's $.02 :munchin

UN: 1 million in Sudan won't get food aid from May
John Heilprin, AP, 24 Mar 2009

More than one million people in Darfur will not get their food rations starting in May if Sudan and the United Nations can't fill gaps left by the expulsion of more than a dozen foreign aid groups, a joint U.N.-Sudanese assessment team said Tuesday.

Even if other relief organizations in the region help, those are "Band-Aid solutions, not long-term solutions," John Holmes, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official, said.

Sudan expelled 13 foreign aid organizations and closed three local ones this month after the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western region of Darfur.

Sudan's government refuses to have any dealings with the court and has accused the aid groups of collaborating with its case. The groups deny it, and they warn of a humanitarian crisis in Darfur without their presence.

The U.N.-Sudanese assessment team toured Darfur from March 11-19 after the groups were expelled.

About 1.1 million people now dependent on food aid will not receive their rations starting in May if the aid gaps aren't filled, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Ameerah Haq, said on behalf of the team.

She warned that money will run out within four weeks for spare parts and fuel needed to provide drinking water for 850,000 people.

And more than 600,000 people are in danger of not getting materials needed to build shelters before the upcoming rainy season, Haq said.

"The risks are high," Holmes told reporters Tuesday. "The key tests still lie ahead."

He described the summary of the assessment tour, which had to be signed by both the U.N. and Sudan, as a compromise document — but he denied that the U.N. was downplaying the potential dangers to try to mollify al-Bashir.

Holmes said the aid gaps would not immediately lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, but said it is "something where the issues build up over time."

The summary, signed by Haq and the head of Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commission, says the government and the U.N. will continue working together with existing aid organizations in Darfur to ensure "that civilians in need can continue to receive lifesaving food, health care, shelter, and water and sanitation."

Holmes also said security remains a top concern after a 39-year-old Sudanese relief worker was shot dead at his home in western Darfur on Monday by gunmen who came looking to steal satellite phones.

And less than two weeks ago, three foreign aid workers and one local colleague were kidnapped in Darfur by what one local governor called a group seeking to retaliate for the court's warrant for al-Bashir. The Doctors Without Borders workers were released three days later.

[Ret10Echo]

International Criminal Court (ICC)
But the people who should be feeling really nervous about this development are the citizens of the United States and more especially their armed forces. The signs are that the grandstanding Barack Obama is preparing to subject the United States to the jurisdiction of the ICC. In May, 2002 President Bush withdrew the United States from the Rome Statute which established the ICC. With America heading into global conflict, he had no wish to see US troops arraigned for alleged war crimes before a kangaroo court.Last month US Ambassador Susan Rice, in a closed meeting of the Security Council, supported the ICC, saying it "looks to become an important and credible instrument for trying to hold accountable the senior leadership responsible for atrocities committed in the Congo, Uganda and Darfur". A week later Ben Chang, spokesman for National Security Advisor General James Jones, took a similar line, telling the Washington Times: "We support the ICC in its pursuit of those who've perpetrated war crimes."
The next logical step is for the United States to sign up to the ICC. That would flatter Obama's ego as the conscience of the world. It would also put US servicemen at the mercy of any American-hating opportunists who might choose to arraign them on trumped-up charges before an alien court whose judges are likely to be ill-disposed towards America too.
"If the United States were to join the ICC, one would have to accept at least the theoretical possibility that American citizens (particularly political and military leaders) could be prosecuted before the ICC on charges of committing atrocity crimes."
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/gerald_warner/blog/2009/03/06/barack_obama_may_subject_us_troops_to_internationa l_criminal_court

:munchin

Court Orders Probe of Afghan Attacks
By JOE LAURIA
UNITED NATIONS -- Investigators at the International Criminal Court have begun looking into accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan to determine whether there is cause to open a formal investigation, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court's chief prosecutor, said on Wednesday.

The prosecutor said forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- which include U.S. servicemen -- could potentially become the target of an ICC prosecution, as the alleged crimes would have been committed in Afghanistan, which has joined the war-crimes court. However, every nation has the right to try its own citizens for the alleged crimes, and the ICC can step in only after determining a national court was unable or unwilling to pursue the case.

The specter of international trials of U.S. troops was central to the Bush administration's objection to joining the court, and the U.S. hasn't ratified the Rome Statute that set up the ICC in 1998. While the Obama administration has spoken more positively of the court, the president hasn't signed the treaty, which would need Senate ratification.

Mr. Ocampo said the court was also looking into the actions of the Taliban.

"We have not seen [Mr. Ocampo's] comments, but I can assure you that allied forces are operating under very difficult circumstances and are doing everything they can to avoid hurting civilians," a U.S. official said. "It is the Taliban that have been intentionally killing people, maiming them, taking them hostage, executing them.

"There are cases and incidents of misbehavior of troops, and every country is obligated to take steps against these folks. We take those types of things seriously. Our military courts would obviously investigate those things first, and where there needed to be prosecutions and sentencing, all of that would happen," the U.S. official said.

The ICC's preliminary inquiry is "very complex," Mr. Ocampo said. The court is trying to assess allegations of crimes including "massive attacks," collateral damage and torture, he said, adding that his investigators were getting information from human-rights groups in Afghanistan and from the Afghan government.

Under its statutes, the ICC can prosecute alleged crimes committed by nationals of a country that has joined the court; alleged crimes by nonmember nationals if they are committed on the territory of a state that has signed and ratified the treaty; or cases referred by the U.N. Security Council.

Mr. Ocampo's remarks come after NATO forces this week acknowledged that civilians were among the dozens killed in an airstrike on two hijacked fuel trucks. They were struck by U.S. warplanes after being called in by German ground command.

The killings were the latest in a series of U.S. airstrikes that have inadvertently killed Afghan civilians, U.S. officials say.

Mr. Ocampo said that under certain circumstances, so-called collateral damage -- the inadvertent killing of civilians in a military strike -- could be prosecuted as a war crime. "It's very complicated," Mr. Ocampo said. "War crimes are under my jurisdiction. I cannot say more now because we are just collecting information."

Controversy could arise, for instance, if the U.S. and the ICC disagreed on whether an alleged incident involving a U.S. serviceman amounted to a crime.

Mr. Ocampo said on Wednesday that his investigators have also opened preliminary inquiries in Gaza, Georgia, Kenya and Colombia.

The ICC came into force in 2002, and 109 nations have joined. Mr. Ocampo, an Argentine, became prosecutor in 2003. Since then the court has opened formal investigations into alleged crimes in Northern Uganda, Congo, the Central African Republic and the Sudanese province of Darfur. It has indicted 14 people, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir earlier this year. Seven are free, two have died and five have been apprehended.

The court began its first trial in January against Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese militia leader.

[akv]

It seems some despot in Africa is bent on mass murder again, but that seems to be the MO in that part of the world. It appears the world sees Obama as a lightweight and hostile nations will test him. As the ultimate populist I don't think he has the stones to risk American troops after seeing Clinton's foibles, unless they insult Obama's eminence, in which case he will definitely send troops. UBL sheltered in Sudan in the early 90's, but barring solid terror targets, Sudan is not worth losing one American soldier. This part of the world used to be European colonies, so maybe Obama as a UN guy can have France send in the French Foreign Legion. Dirty African wars are their specialty, no?

[rltipton]

This guy scares me. He is quite accomplished with international war crime trials. It would be such a hateful thing for Obama to get in his corner, but I could totally see it happening. If the US joins the ICC...scary scary stuff.

From 1984 to 1992, Moreno-Ocampo worked as a prosecutor in Argentina. He first came to public attention in 1985, as Assistant Prosecutor in the "Trial of the Juntas"—the first time since the Nuremberg Trials that senior military commanders were prosecuted for mass killings. Nine senior commanders, including three former heads of state, were prosecuted and five of them were convicted. He served as District Attorney for the Federal Circuit of the City of Buenos Aires from 1987 to 1992, during which time he prosecuted the military commanders responsible for the Falklands War, the leaders of two military rebellions, and dozens of high-profile corruption cases. In 1987, he helped United States prosecutors extradite General Guillermo Suárez Mason to Argentina.

He resigned as a prosecutor in 1992 and established a private law firm, Moreno-Ocampo & Wortman Jofre. He defended several controversial figures, including Diego Maradona, former economics minister Domingo Cavallo, and a priest accused of sexually abusing minors. He represented the victims in extradition proceedings against Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, and also in the trial of the murderer of Chilean General Carlos Prats.

During this time, he was also an Associate Professor of criminal law at the University of Buenos Aires and a visiting professor at Stanford University and Harvard Law School. He has acted as a consultant to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations. He is a former member of the advisory board of Transparency International and a former president of its Latin America and Caribbean office.

During the late 1990s, he starred in a reality television programme, Fórum, la corte del pueblo, in which he arbitrated private disputes.