{UAH} OMAR EL-BASHIR & UGANDA'S INCONSISTENCIES WITH INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE?

Photo: My colleagues at the UN peace-keeping mission in Khartoum,
Sudan. I am not
sure if that is me on the left back row looking sideways and wearing a
white shirt. The big white guy next to the right pillar was our unit boss
Mr. Leon Willems. A determined Dutch national who really wanted to make a
difference and therefore made us all give our best to assist the people of
Sudan as much as possible in our humanitarian/peacekeeping work. In the
center wearing a blue tie is the actual overall Head of UNMIS Public
Information Section Mr. George Sommerwill, an experienced but very cordial
British national. At the time of this picture, the late Koffi Annan was
ending his tenure as UN Secretary General, and some of the brightest,
dedicated and most hardworking colleagues I ever had in my professional
life were the Sudanese women seen here.
I also remember the military UN peace-keepers guarding these premises were
from the Rwanda Defense Forces. During breaks I would share Sudanese tea
with them and chat in Swahili just to connect as East Africans away from
home.
I read recently that Uganda is in discussions to host the former Sudanese
President Omar Al Bashir. While Uganda's open door policy on refugees has
set commendable standards in the international community, the person in
question is not any ordinary refugee. As we all know, Mr. Bashir has been
indicted by the International Criminal Court for serious crimes against his
own people in Sudan's Darfur region. It is not just empty western media
propaganda accusations like in known international demonization campaigns
against strong panAfrican leaders. In this instance there is an actual
arrest warrant issued by a court of law following a serious investigation
that has unearthed evidence of genocide. Having served in Darfur, I have a
good idea of what the UN and the African Union have jointly discovered on
the ground. I used to collate and draft the Situation Report (SitRep) with
daily information from all UNAMID military & police commanders from all the
troop-contributing countries positioned across the Darfur peace-keeping
mission area.
Meanwhile, the ICC is an institution which Uganda is cooperating with on
LRA trials including that of Mr. Dominique Ongwen, and possibly soon
another trial of former LRA commander Thomas Kwoyelo who just recently
requested that his trial in Uganda be transferred to the ICC in The Hague.
Uganda is simultaneously also the country that has been leading African
resistance to the court, claiming that the ICC, an institution created
under the Rome Statute to prosecute the crimes of genocide, war crimes and
crimes against humanity, has turned out to be a racist institution that is
prosecuting only Africans. However the same Uganda has said nothing in
support of the court when the Trump White House slapped sanctions on ICC
staff for attempting to investigate possible US war criminals for their
crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Today all eyes are still watching developments in Khartoum. Omar El Bashir
is not the only person wanted by the ICC for crimes of genocide in Darfur.
In fact all the subsequent military council leaders after him are also on
the same international Wanted list.
The Sudanese revolution unfolding today is an event that was long overdue.
I volunteered in UN peacekeeping on both the conflict with South Sudan and
the genocide in Darfur. The two conflicts had two separate, dedicated UN
peacekeeping operations. I however quickly discovered the truth about these
two conflicts. The one thing they had in common was racism. The
discrimination against black people by the Arab regime. That is the
indisputable truth. And the Sudanese government itself was perpetrating the
two conflicts on those grounds. The black people in South Sudan and the
black tribes from Darfur in the West of the country, had the same
grievance. Being marginalized, discriminated against, and generally being
considered lesser humans with no equal rights in society simply because of
the color of their skin.
Therefore I note with sadness that it did not take the death of countless
black Southerners over decades for people in Khartoum to rise. It also did
not take an entire genocide in Darfur for Arabs in Khartoum to rise against
their discriminatory regime. It took the scarcity of their own daily bread
for them to finally overthrow the government.
But that does not take away from all those who tried in all sorts of ways
and suffered the consequences. I saw their endless frustrations but never
saw them quit despite the great odds against them as humble individuals.
Both Arabs and Southerners alike. I saw the suffering of Darfurians with my
own eyes, and how the government was doing everything to prevent us from
knowing what they were doing to those impoverished people. I also saw the
even worse state of South Sudanese when I first set foot in the country.
For the record, I started work with the UN on the very day the late Dr.
John Garang died in a helicopter crash. As my Kenya Airways flight was
taxying out from Entebbe airport, there was the South Sudan leader boarding
the ill-fated Ugandan helicopter. After reaching Khartoum, I could not
believe that nobody knew where he was. I remember lifting my hand during
the induction briefing the next morning at UN Headquarters and telling them
"I actually saw him boarding a Ugandan military helicopter yesterday at
Entebbe international airport as I boarded my flight to come here."
That information was passed on as eye witness confirmation of last sighting
by a UN staff member.
I also remember the day I was to start working in Darfur. I had been
preparing to fly at 6am the next morning from Khartoum to UNAMID
Headquarters at El-Fasher, North Darfur. That evening, a rebel group that
had driven all the way from Darfur, over 1300 kilometers, were suddenly
storming the capital and heavy fighting had erupted in the city's vast
Omdurman suburb. We could here the shelling and gunfire, and could see
several plumes of black smoke in the distance as we were in the complete
opposite side of town near the international airport.
After all that long journey, the rebels had reached barely one kilometer
from the presidential palace, but for some reason they had stopped at the
bridge and never managed to cross the river Nile to attack Omar Al Bashir's
palace right in front of them on the other side of the Nile.
I remember thinking that while I was preparing to go to Darfur, suddenly
Darfur had come where I was.
But my personal experiences can never make me forget the suffering of the
Darfur people. I visited countless IDP camps in a region almost eight times
the size of Uganda. Men, women and children with barely anything to
survive. I can never forget the brave women who stood up and told the
stories of how they were systematically raped during Janjaweed attacks.
Knowing the conservative culture in the country, it must have taken all the
courage in the world for those women to stand before the crowd and tell
their disturbing experiences to the gathering with their faces visible to
everyone in attendance. These brave women and their people had gone through
indescribable horrors and managed to continue life as best they could.
Suddenly I felt it so important to be able to help them as a UN volunteer.
Humanitarian work is really about helping the most impoverished people to
first survive their indescribable ordeals, and then try to restart their
lives again. A job that can feel very fulfilling, but also sometimes
extremely dangerous and traumatizing. The death and injuries we sometimes
saw remain in our minds forever.
I always narrate to friends how once we ourselves in our clearly marked UN
convoy came under attack by the infamous Janjaweed militia after we went to
investigate a village that they had attacked the night before. While over a
hundred villagers had been killed and countless others had fled, the attack
on our convoy as we returned from the site saw 7 peacekeepers also killed,
six of whom were Rwanda Defense Forces peacekeepers, plus a Ugandan
policeman. The Ugandan got a direct hit from a Janjaweed Rocket Propelled
Grenade (RPG) which also overturned the military pickup truck he was
sitting in with the RPF soldiers. While the policeman died instantly, the
soldiers fought back bravely until they run out of bullets and were
literally murdered at point blank while defending themselves in
hand-to-hand combat. My driver was injured. A bullet in the shoulder. I had
to pull him from the driver's seat and tell a colleague who was in the
front passenger seat to take the driver's position and get us out of the
hail of bullets still passing all around us fired by the screaming rebels
on their pickup trucks. Had it not been for the leading UNAMID Armored
Personnel Carrier (APC) of South Africa National Defence Forces to bulldoze
the Janjaweed vehicles that were blocking our exit from their ambush, we
would not have made it out alive.
What made me have no illusions about Omar Al-Bashir was when we later
checked the movement of his troops and accidentally discovered that a big
unit had exited a nearby government army barracks the evening before the
attack on the village. They had spent time in the desert, then returned to
their barracks right after the attack on the village and our convoy. The
national broadcaster had confirmed six peacekeepers dead that same evening
of the attack. They had not known that there was a seventh. The body of the
Ugandan had been quickly put in another UN military pickup track as the
gunfire went on.
It was a heart-sinking feeling when it dawned on all of us simultaneously
who was behind the two attacks. On top of the 7 colleagues killed, about 27
were injured, some extremely seriously.
But it turns out that the person who was trying to kill us, premeditatedly,
for nothing, while we were helping the poor people of his own country, was
the Khartoum regime that had dressed as Janjaweed before returning back
dressed in their normal Sudan Armed Forces Uniforms and number plates. So
sad.
And the people having to endure not only their government, but also a
society and culture that provides little space for them as equal citizens
no matter their race or religion, are the Sudanese women.
All my work in their country was for the people of Sudan both South and
North, and even now I stand with the people of Sudan in their noble
struggle for liberation, respect and their individual rights.

Signed: Hussein Lumumba Amin
Kampala, Uganda.

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