Sunday, April 5, 2009

Importance of Bashir's Visit to Doha

The President of the Republic, Field Marshal Omar Hasan Ahmad Al-Bashir, arrived Doha, the capital of Qatar, on March 29th, 2009. The trip comes as a response to an annual routine and to the Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs' reassurance that his country would ignore the International Criminal Court (ICC) decision to indict him.

It's worth noting here that the ICC had – on March 4th, 2009 – issued a statement in which it indicted the President of the Republic, Omar Al-Bashir. The statement said that the ICC will be seeking for the cooperation of the Sudanese government and other governments signatory to the Rome Statute to effect the arrest of the president.

The indictment statement had obviously raised the tensions of those Sudanese who felt that their sovereignty and integrity were tempered with. This included those other Sudanese who hoped that they would salvage something out of the chaos they envisioned would ensue after President Al-Bashir's indictment by the ICC. These two groups would be referred to hereinafter as 'two schools' of thought.

The school of thought that hoped to salvage from its imagined chaos was wishing for the president to travel to Doha so that he could be arrested quickly; even thought that it was not convinced that the president would travel. While the other school of thought – that which serves this country from the basis of nationalism and a commitment to its territorial integrity – was shocked to hear that the president's plane did land at Al-Doha International Airport. This thus made the shock to both schools of thought very mutual indeed.

It should be made clear here that the school of thought that opposed the president's travel to Doha is seriously affected by the president's decision to travel. Someone may ask why? This school of thought did not believe but was precautious that if allowed to travel to Doha, the president may be arrested. This school of thought is working round the clock to ensure the president's safety. Based on its serious work, this school had – through some of its affiliated bodies – warned the president from traveling to Doha. The fact that the president traveled, its shock is legitimate.

The other school is shocked because it had already suffered a previous shock: the absence of the chaos they expected would ensue after the ICC indictment of the president. The president's Doha visit is a relapse to the previous shock which was sustained by this school of thought from the failure to arrest the president in the imagined chaos. This article would be analyzing the importance of President Al-Bashir's visit to Doha and future visits, if any, to other countries around the world.

The Doha visit plus the other two visits President Al-Bashir made earlier are a message to the ICC Prosecutor-General, Louis Moreno-Occampo, that President Al-Bashir is the President of the Republic of the Sudan. It's not a challenge as was reported by some media outlets but rather a right for a sovereign representative of a nation to pursue his duties within or without the Sudan without fear. The importance of these visits is represented in the following:

The visits made by President Al-Bashir to Asmara, Egypt and Doha, were very important so that Occampo and those using him know that President Al-Bashir cannot and will not relinquish his sovereign responsibilities within and without the Sudan.

It will mean working for the interest of the ICC and its allies if the president is somehow grounded because of Occampo's decision in The Hague.

Adhering to the ICC decision would also mean that this country's sovereignty and integrity have both not only been compromised by its own sons and daughters but relinquished to Ocampo and those fueling ICC decisions from bellow.

There no other Seating President other than President Al-Bashir who is in a position to encourage the rest of the third world that must have been cowed down by the ICC decision to stand up and fight against any injustice.

It is President Al-Bashir who should send a clear message to the third world that there is neo-colonialism in the offing which seems to be used to target what are assumed to be powerless states within the third world.

If there is any final nail that should be put on the head of the ICC, it was in the hands of Occampo himself. That is Occampo's lack of respect to sovereignty, territorial integrity of the Sudan and President Al-Bashir who is the icon of the country.

It is the hope of every peace-loving Sudanese nationalist that the President of the Republic intensifies his visits around the world to countries that believe in the ICC decision to indict him as unjust and unacceptable. The government's intelligent forces are there and always do their best to ensure that there is enough information at hand to ensure the safety of the President wherever he goes.

When it comes to fear that President Al-Bashir may be assassinated or killed by these neo-colonial powers, it should be noted that death is in the hands of God Almighty. As believers in one God, faithful human beings know that no human person could end the life of another. But those who think they can harm President Al-Bashir or end his life would only be displaying themselves to the entire world as terrorists, lawless and ungodly people.




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