Crisis Group Calls for Political Pressures Against Sudanese Dictators!

Crisis Group calls the regime in Sudan to dismantle the system of impunity for atrocity crimes to pave the way for settlement and peace in Darfur, and to prevent the war from erupting in the South.

In a recent report about Sudan, Justice, Peace and the ICC, the international Crisis Group makes examinations to the root cause of many crises in the country of Sudan. The report notes the reluctance of the long-ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to curry out policies that would bring justice to the victims of many conflicts.

In addition, the report calls to end centralised, exploitive and unaccountable governance, the NCP must accept judicial reforms and transitional justice mechanisms as key elements to settle Darfur crisis and to fulfil at the same time its side of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which halted decades of civil wars.

The Crisis Group says the International partners of the Sudan peace process should increase pressures on the NCP in order to enhance meaningful policy changes.

"The best way to do so," Crisis Group says, "is to reconfirm their support for execution of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants, including the warrant issued against President Bashir in March, and to deliver a firm message in Khartoum that they will only consider a UN Security Council resolution suspending execution if Khartoum first makes those reforms." Crisis Group suggests.

The danger, according to the group is that the international community might accept an ICC deferral "too cheaply", as Fouad Hikmat, Crisis Group’s Sudan and African Union Adviser puts it. "If it demands only national elections as envisioned in the CPA while ignoring the Darfur issue, including its justice aspects, Sudan will not find peace," He said.

The NCP has refused and disobeyed the ICC arrest warrant against the dictator, al Bashir for atrocity crimes in Darfur. The African Union and the Arab League have requested the Security Council to suspend the ICC proceedings, through the procedure for a one-year renewable period provided in Article 16 of the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

The International Crisis Group says, since the first case announced by the ICC on Sudan in 2006, there has been no genuine attempt to deal with systemic crimes and lack of accountability, makes it difficult to achieve peace in Darfur. Humanitarian aid there is still restricted, putting several million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and others at risk.

Crisis Group warns that Sudan will face increased turmoil if the NCP is allowed to maintain the status quo and close the door to political accommodation of Darfur through a fraudulent electoral process in 2010 that disenfranchises many Fur. That result would undermine conditions for the promised 2011 referendum in South Sudan on independence, which in turn could lead to the return of full-scale civil war.

While critical of some of the tactics of the ICC prosecutor, the report concludes that international pressure on the NCP regarding the Bashir arrest warrant can be effective. That warrant has created a critical dilemma for his party, which must now decide whether to genuinely work to resolve the crisis in Darfur and elsewhere in the country or accept pariah status in much of the world.

"Sudan needs institutional reforms and new policies directed at instituting a culture of accountability", says Daniela Kroslak, Crisis Group's Deputy Africa Program Director. "Short-term deals and quick fixes that ignore the core issue of impunity for atrocity crimes cannot advance a sustainable political settlement to the country's conflicts".

Everything said by the Crisis Group is right and should be implemented to enforce justice in Sudan.

Here are some supportive lines to this article on About Darfur, Write about Darfur and Add Your Comments on Darfur

If you want to support Crisis Group, please do it here at their website.

If you want to support our Squadron of Poets' Project, please do it at the Squadron of Poets' Nadiana here.



If you want to comment on this article, please use the form below and upload your picture too or perhaps any picture of the crisis. When you do upload pictures, please write descriptive captions.

Have a Great Story about or from the Horn of Africa?

Do you have a great story about or from the Horn of Africa? Share it! Note that you can use the forms in this platform to comment and write about political topics in the Horn of Africa. Some pages about other countries may fall out of this map. However, they may have some impacts on some countries in this map. You can use the same forms anyway to comment or write about them too.