The NCP and the Justice of Convenience

Published July 25, 2009 @ 07:38AM PT

From The Hague, on Wednesday July 22^nd, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) has announced its ruling on the disputed area of Abyei.

The two parties, the Southern Sudanese Government represented by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), and the Northern Sudanese Government, represented by National Congress Party (NCP), declared their acceptance of the ruling. The NCP went further and hailed the ruling as just and in the interest of peace in Sudan. The regime in Khartoum praised the ruling simply because the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) has awarded North Sudan most of the oilfields in Abyei area.

Another court in The Hague, the International Criminal Court (ICC), on March 4^th of this year has issued a warrant of arrest of the President of Sudan (Omer Hassan Al-Bashir) for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ruling party of Khartoum (NCP) rejected the ICC warrant of arrest. Al-Bashir said the ICC is a tool in the hands of the Western Countries to destabilize Sudan, therefore he will not acknowledge the existence of such institution.

There were prior two warrants of arrest issued by ICC against two Sudanese individuals. One of them Ahmed Haroun (was a Minister in the cabinet during Darfur conflict), the other one is a Janjaweed leader Ali Kushaib. The regime defied the ICC by declaring publicly that it will not hand over the two individuals to the ICC to stand trial in The Hague.

The International Community should not allow a fugitive dictator to choose and pick justice at his convenience.

Since Al-Bashir has accepted happily the ruling of one international judicial institution, then the world must make him accept all decisions taken by all other international judicial institutions. Otherwise, Al-Bashir would be considered by his victims in Darfur as a dictator who is above the law.

That would be a devastating blow to the credibility of the International Community.

[Photo from Reuters: Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir gestures as he speaks to his supporters at an event organized by the Sudanese embassy in Cairo July 17, 2009.]

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Author

Mohamed E. Suleiman is a Darfur native currently residing in the San Fransisco Bay Area, where he is an active member of several activist endeavors, including the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition. Mr. Suleiman translates news from Darfur for the While We Wait blog, and travels across the U.S. to advocate for the Darfur cause.