Darfur: Open response to Sudan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson

We all understand that you are just carrying out your official duty and you are not necessarily the policy maker,” writes Dr Justin Ambago Ramba, USSP Secretary General, addressing the Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ali Al-Sadiq. [This is in response to the Sudan Government's criticism of the reference made by U.S. President Obama to the Darfur crisis as “genocide” and cited by Sudan Tribune's article of 7 June 2009—accessed by USSP on 08-Jun-2009.] “It is clear that you have to fight for [Sudan's President] Al Bashir as long as he pays you,” Dr Ramba continues, “but for the poor Sudanese masses that are languishing under your totalitarian regime the perception is different.

We are all aware that it was only last month (May 2009) that Sudan was forced to adopt a new criminal law that added war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide into its penal code. This clearly shows that, until then, your Islamic government in Khartoum and its proxy agents were killing with complete impunity first in the South, then the Nuba Mountains and now in Darfur. Amr Moussa [Secretary-General of the League of Arab States] is a friend of the Arabs of Sudan, but still he was quick to realize the dangerous situation posed by your Jihadist laws. You said that the Sudanese laws now criminalize what is taking place in Darfur and that the laws do not need an amendment by including the Rome Statute [of the International Criminal Court] which the Sudanese Government is not a signatory to. The truth is that the amended Sudanese laws can still criminalize what is taking place in Darfur, yet it cannot be applied back-dated to address the crimes for which President Al Bashir, Ahmad Harun [former Minister of State for the Interior] and Ali Kushayb [alleged leader of the Janjaweed militia] are indicted. It is only the Rome Statute which can bring to book the above fugitives for the crimes they committed in Darfur in the period 2003–2004.

Your government is not also happy with the position of COMESA [Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa], which requests the UN Security Council to suspend Al Bashir’s arrest warrant for a year, as you consider it recognition of the ICC. This as well has been the Arab League’s position as declared in [the 2009] Doha [Summit], yet you are not satisfied with both simply because you have guilty conscience. However, you and your arrogant government in Khartoum must understand that the so-called friends of the Sudan—be they in the Arab world, the regional African countries or sympathetic individuals all over the world—will only come to your help using the law and not otherwise. And they can only say and do what is allowed by the UN which recognizes the ICC to which the UN Security Council referred the Darfur issue.”