Hours after the International Criminal Court ordered the arrest of Sudanese president Al- Bashir on war crimes last 4 March 2009, Abdelbagy H. Abushanab, a Darfuri activist for more than three decades and founding member of the non-governmental organization Darfur Rehabilitation Project, discussed his reaction to the warrant with the CICC Secretariat in New York. Here are some excerpts of that conversation:
“…This is a day Darfur victims have been waiting for; this is also a great victory for the advocates for justice…I think it is a victory for the international community. I feel very pleased of the extensive efforts in making sure that this crisis in Darfur stopped. This can serve as one of the pillars of actually securing and sustainable peace in Sudan in general, and in Darfur particularly….”
“…[Y]ou cannot believe the level of excitement and energy that the Darfurians felt and this is reflective of the failure of the judicial system of Sudan to address the issue of Darfur from the beginning…through the 6 years they continue to deny that there aren’t any problems in Darfur because they refer to it as a minor tribal issue, but then the question that should be asked is where has the government been? I think that al-Bashir’s first and foremost duty is to protect the civilians as a priority regardless where they are in a country, they are people who are formed under his jurisdiction and need to be protected but instead of doing that, he actually empowered a group against the other….”
“Sudan is known historically as a very peaceful country with very diverse groups who are very unique in their way of life. Today, we stand against each other even in such a distant nation. But I think for people of Darfur, those in the Diaspora, in the camps, and in the IDP camps, it is as if they are reborn and will see the justice coming and my call now is for the Sudanese people to see that I think the most noble thing we could do as Sudanese and Darfurians…is our calls for peace and justice to be taken very seriously with the ICC. Bashir stands as an accused person; he has the privilege of going to the ICC to defend himself in the most carefully designed way of justice to prove his innocence or to be proven guilty….”
“If you look at Sudan, it borders 9 countries; none of them are democratic with the exception of Kenya, which has a newly born very fragile democratic system which failed the test when those eruptions happened as a result of the recent elections. We can go on and on, on this issue. And I think it’s that time, for the people collectively and for the people of Darfur to take the lead in helping themselves to be helped, to make sure that there is peace and justice, that the process is now more likely to take it’s right course rather than the predictions we used to abide ourselves by and for them to know the wait is over so let that independent judicial system continue to help us to identify the criminals and put them away so that we can rebuild our lives. But, it is a lot to be done.”
