IRD Joins in Letter to United Nations Security Council on the Tenth Anniversary of the Security Council’s referral of the genocide in Darfur to the International Criminal Court.
Today, March 31, 2015 marks the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Security Council’s referral of the genocide in Darfur to the International Criminal Court. Several top leaders of Sudan’s National Islamic Front regime, including President Omar al Bashir, were indicted as war criminals. But, outrageously, up to now, there have been no arrests, no prosecutions of these genocidaires.
The Institute on Religion and Democracy has joined with 77 other advocacy organizations and human rights experts in a letter organized by our friends at Sudan Unlimited, and released today, urging the UNSC to end impunity and pursue the arrests of Sudan’s indicted war criminals.
In January 2005, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement was signed. Southern Sudan was on its way to becoming a regional government and then an independent nation. But the National Islamic Front regime was continuing to wage genocidal war in Darfur the whole time. Typical Khartoum behavior that I have previously referred to as Sudan’s Shell Game. Distract the world with all the signing of peace agreements in the south so you can continue to prosecute the war in Darfur with impunity.
There was a glimmer of hope for Darfur in spite of ongoing atrocities, when the UNSC adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1593, to “promote the rule of law, protect human rights, and combat impunity.” At that moment, as our letter reminds the UNSC, the people of Darfur and throughout Sudan thought that “the regime responsible for destroying the people and stealing the resources of such a great land would be held accountable for its crimes.” Today, in light of ten years of inaction by the ICC and of continued brutal, violent action by the Sudanese government, that hope is almost a mockery of the death and despair under which the Darfuris and other marginalized Sudanese people groups have continued to suffer.
Our letter lists Khartoum’s continued egregious violations of human rights, such as:
The Sudan government continues its onslaught of violence against the people of Darfur to this day. International humanitarian organizations have been banned from the region, bombs are dropped indiscriminately, violent attacks and rape are routine and refugees and internally displaced are without food, water and basic necessities, utterly abandoned by the international community. Over 400,000 are estimated to have died, and currently, 2.5 million are internally displaced and 373,000 are refugees in Chad and the Central African Republic.
The Sudan government violated the Comprehensive Peace Agreement by failing to complete the popular consultations in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and instead attempted to forcibly disarm military of the SPLM-North, sparking a war along its new southern border in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, where it has dropped over 3,740 bombs, blocked access for international humanitarian aid and caused the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands Sudanese.
After reminding the UNSC of these and numerous other violations by Khartoum, we make such recommendations as that they:
- “reaffirm their support of the ICC’s investigations in Darfur”
- hold a special session on Sudan’s continuing violence and non-cooperation with the ICC
- declare that the upcoming elections in Khartoum not be considered legitimate as they are not being held in an environment that allows for free and fair elections
We don’t know if the UNSC, under the leadership of Francois Delattre, France’s Ambassador to the United Nations and the President of the United Nations Security Council, will listen to our urgent pleas, but you can help to put pressure on them with us by spreading the news that, yes, there is still genocide in Darfur, and, no, none of the perpetrators have been punished.
Here is a tweet you can use, and please also tweet this blog post and re-post on Facebook:
78 orgs/experts urge #UNSC to enforce arrest warrants on 10th anniv of referral of #Darfur to #ICC @AmbassadorPower http://www.scribd.com/doc/260469424/Letter-to-UNSC-re-Sudan-and-the-ICC
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