Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist September 2019 | Page 53

A frica Diary
implicated in atrocity crimes in Darfur,
handing over the former President to The
Hague is not in Sudan’s interest as the
military regime is reluctant to set a precedent
by letting Sudan’s head of state being
targeted by the ICC.
As for the second stumbling block, the
ICC Prosecutor’s strategy of targeting the
sitting head of state has given Khartoum
leverage to stir up the sentiment that the
ICC record of prosecutions shows an anti-
African bias. In fact, Khartoum’s portrayal
of the ICC as a neo-colonial institution has
been successful in drawing support from the AU, as the Pan-
African body urged its member states not to comply with
The Hague. Notwithstanding the fact the AU had suspended
Sudan’s membership after the 3 June massacre, the AU’s
hostility toward the ICC would embolden its member states
to refuse to arrest and surrender Bashir to The Hague, thereby
enabling the Sudanese government to try its former President
in its domestic courts instead.
Indeed, while the country’s top opposition leader called for
Sudan to become a State Party to the Rome Statute, the ICC
Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda also demanded the deposed
President to stand trial for the mass killings perpetrated in
Darfur by appealing for the UN Security Council’s strong
and effective support.
Yet, the ICC’s pursuit of a judicial strategy that labels the
Sudanese government officials as alleged international crimi-
nals is incompatible with the UN Security Council’s aim of
securing Khartoum’s cooperation on the deployment of the joint
U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID). Perhaps
not surprisingly, Sudan’s ambassador to the UN (predictably)
urged the Security Council to withdraw all peacekeepers by
June 2020 despite the current political upheaval since Bashir’s
ouster. As the Darfur conflict entered into its sixteenth years
(since its eruption in 2003), the AU-UN hybrid operation has
failed to provide adequate protection for civilians, while the
ICC indictees relating to the Darfur conflict remain at large.
Therefore, to ensure a smooth transition and save the
country from a new wave of chaos and violence in the post-
Bashir era, the international community must help mobilize
support for the Sudanese people’s democratic aspirations and,
perhaps more importantly, the efforts to stop what is widely
acknowledged as ‘the first genocide of the 21st century’ in
Darfur. With this in mind, steps must be taken to strengthen
UNAMID’s efforts to protect civilians before the ICC judicial
intervention because the activation of the ICC by the UN
Security Council will not provide immediate and adequate
protection to the civilian population in Darfur.
The international imperative, at this stage, is to press for
nonviolent, gradual, civilian-led transition in Sudan, rather
than the immediate handover of Bashir to
the ICC. After all, the ICC’s responsibility
for justice is not to be instrumentalized
for political purposes by the UN Security
Council. n
References
https://au.int/sites/default/files/
decisions/9560-assembly_en_1_3_
july_2009_auc_thirteenth_ordinary_
session_decisions_declarations_message_
congratulations_motion_0.pdf.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/
world/africa/sudan-leader-hemeti.html.
https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/
sudan/events/article/sudan-signing-of-constitutional-
declaration-17-08-19.
https://www.jww.org/conflict-areas/sudan/darfur/.
http://www.icccpi.int/menus/icc/situations%20and%20
cases/situations/situation%20icc%200205/press%20
releases/a.
https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/icc-accuses-
un-of-failing-to-act-against-counties-refusing-to-arrest-
bashir-20161214.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-politics/
sudanese-factions-agree-plan-to-pave-way-for-transitional-
government-idUSKCN1UT003.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-politics-bashir/
military-council-says-will-not-extradite-bashir-may-try-him-
in-sudan-idUSKCN1RO154.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/06/1040841.
h t t p s : / / w w w. a l j a z e e r a . c o m / n e w s / 2 0 1 9 / 0 4 /
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rule-190427161933411.html.
https://www.dw.com/en/sudan-plots-path-towards-
democracy/a-49903317.
https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/thetake/2019/06/
sudan-muted-massacre-190621133114104.html.
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/
sudan-s-new-prime-minister-sets-peace-and-economy-as-
top-priorities.
https://unamid.unmissions.org/
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/17/africa/sudan-
protests-sign-power-sharing-agreement-intl/index.html.
* Author is a lecturer at the History Department, Hong
Kong Baptist University. He holds a PhD in Political
Science from the University of Queensland, Australia. His
primary research focuses on the international response to
genocide and mass atrocities in Africa, and the relationship
between the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle and the
International Criminal Court (ICC).
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 9 • September 2019, Noida • 53