Don't shame us on Gen. Bashir
On Wednesday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak paid a rare visit to Uganda. Amidst the talk of bi-lateral co-operation, his real agenda was to discuss the support of Uganda in an African Union-led rescue of Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir from an impending indictment on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Since the International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the ICC judges to issue warrants of arrest for Mr Bashir a few weeks ago, the news and debate have been dominated largely by governments and their publicists.
The Arab League foreign ministers said the ICC should back off, and so has the African Union. Conspicuously silent, especially in Uganda, is the voice of civil society which was quite loud in debating whether the ICC indictment of rebel leader Joseph Kony and his henchmen was good or bad for peace.
One would have expected that the crimes Bashir and Kony have been accused of, whose victims are often helpless villagers in northern Uganda and Darfur, would attract a strong response from civil society groups. What with the drawn out suffering of civilians in Darfur whose plight is directly influenced by the Khartoum authorities– which have also provided Kony with his weapons of destruction. But this was not so. Regardless of their view about the merits of the Bashir indictment, the least the civil society could do is give voice to the voiceless on such an important issue.
As governments scramble to come to Bashir's aid, civil society, including church groups and affected communities like those in the north are in fact losing an important opportunity. If Bashir is not held accountable in a meaningful way today, who else will go free for crimes committed in full view of men and women of conscience? Should governments gang up, like they have, to shield a suspected war criminal? What kind of precedent does it set in our region where several regimes have blood on their hands?
If anything the panic with which regimes, many of them not locally accountable, have reacted should have sent a message to civil society groups that the indictments had touched a nerve. Regardless of what President Bashir does, he has been tagged. And a former Bosnian Serb leader debuts in an international court to answer for his crimes today.
The message is out that the days of killings with impunity, of crime squads thinly disguised in the legality of the state, of irresponsible governments and their corrupt henchmen will not go unpunished. Most importantly that the world will not be silent on their crimes. Civil society in Uganda should not shame us with their silence.
Since the International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the ICC judges to issue warrants of arrest for Mr Bashir a few weeks ago, the news and debate have been dominated largely by governments and their publicists.
The Arab League foreign ministers said the ICC should back off, and so has the African Union. Conspicuously silent, especially in Uganda, is the voice of civil society which was quite loud in debating whether the ICC indictment of rebel leader Joseph Kony and his henchmen was good or bad for peace.
One would have expected that the crimes Bashir and Kony have been accused of, whose victims are often helpless villagers in northern Uganda and Darfur, would attract a strong response from civil society groups. What with the drawn out suffering of civilians in Darfur whose plight is directly influenced by the Khartoum authorities– which have also provided Kony with his weapons of destruction. But this was not so. Regardless of their view about the merits of the Bashir indictment, the least the civil society could do is give voice to the voiceless on such an important issue.
As governments scramble to come to Bashir's aid, civil society, including church groups and affected communities like those in the north are in fact losing an important opportunity. If Bashir is not held accountable in a meaningful way today, who else will go free for crimes committed in full view of men and women of conscience? Should governments gang up, like they have, to shield a suspected war criminal? What kind of precedent does it set in our region where several regimes have blood on their hands?
If anything the panic with which regimes, many of them not locally accountable, have reacted should have sent a message to civil society groups that the indictments had touched a nerve. Regardless of what President Bashir does, he has been tagged. And a former Bosnian Serb leader debuts in an international court to answer for his crimes today.
The message is out that the days of killings with impunity, of crime squads thinly disguised in the legality of the state, of irresponsible governments and their corrupt henchmen will not go unpunished. Most importantly that the world will not be silent on their crimes. Civil society in Uganda should not shame us with their silence.
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Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm: +250-08470205
Home: +250-55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali-Rwanda
East Africa
Blog: http://www.cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID : Kayisa66
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