U.S. and European media

October 2, 2023

Reuters: Arrest threat bad for Darfur talks-Sudan's Bashir. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Thursday a possible indictment against him for war crimes threatens to derail Darfur peace talks. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, asked the court's judges in July to charge Bashir with genocide in the western Sudanese region of Darfur and to issue a warrant for his arrest. "It impedes the Darfur peace talks by sending negative signals to Darfur rebel movements to distance themselves from the negotiating table," Bashir said.

Los Angeles Times: Sudan presidential race may test fragile coalition government. The U.S.-brokered coalition government that has run this country since 2005 has survived Cabinet reshuffles, oil revenue disputes and even armed skirmishes this year. But can the partnership that ended a 21-year civil war between Muslim Arab northerners and mostly Christian and animist rebels from the south survive a knock-down, drag-out presidential race? That's what many have been asking since the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, or SPLM, announced that its chairman, Salva Kiir, would seek to unseat President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir in next year's election.

Reuters: Ukraine arms deals may fuel Africa conflicts-report. Ukraine's choice of trading partners may risk putting small arms and light weapons in the hands of rebel groups in Chad and Sudan and fuelling other conflicts in Africa, according to a Swedish report on Wednesday. The report, by Paul Holtom of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), said Ukraine may not have gone far enough in trying to shake off its post-cold war image as an arms exporter.

The Guardian: 'When the bombing stopped we fled Darfur'. A move by the Sudanese government to bomb a region in Darfur thought to be a rebel stronghold has resulted in the deaths and mass displacement of thousands of civilians on the ground. When a shell hit her house in July this year Zenaba pulled her children out of the burning rubble and carried them to the Chad border, where they are still struggling to rebuild their lives.

The following editorial appeared Monday in the San Antonio Express-News.  

Proceed with al-Bashir's indictment for war crimes

Protectors of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir are making a strange argument to the United Nations Security Council. They're claiming that the best way to bring peace to the bloodstained Darfur region of Sudan is to shield al-Bashir from prosecution for war crimes in Darfur.

Follow that logic? Al-Bashir is the architect of the genocidal policies that have caused the deaths of more than 300,000 black Africans since 2003 and driven another 2 million from their homes. A broad range of human rights groups and even the United Nations' own humanitarian affairs agency have documented the extent of the atrocities.

Those atrocities continue. Within the past week, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator reports an increase in violence that has displaced thousands more civilians. Meanwhile, the European Union condemned the Sudanese military for using attack aircraft deliberately painted to look like U.N. aircraft that deliver humanitarian aid.

Yet al-Bashir's diplomatic defenders in Africa and the Islamic world are arguing that the International Criminal Court's indictment of the Sudanese leader jeopardizes the prospects for peace and endangers humanitarian relief workers.

Nothing could be further from the truth. But the Security Council is seriously considering blocking the work of the International Criminal Court for at least 12 months. China and Russia, permanent members of the Security Council with veto power, appear set to continue their roles as enablers of ethnic cleansing.

The other members of the Security Council and the international community need to be clear. Any delay in the effort to bring al-Bashir to justice will mean more death and destruction in Darfur.

The U.N. body's abysmal record on Darfur has thus far been marked by the failure to take action that might have saved lives. The additional fiasco of blocking the ICC from prosecuting al-Bashir will only add to the Security Council's irrelevance to international security.

The Darfur Daily News is a service of the Save Darfur Coalition. To subscribe to the Daily News, please email [email protected]. For media inquiries, please contact Ashley Roberts at (202) 478-6181, or [email protected].