In 1965, in a commencement address at Oberlin College, Ohio, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke about the ultimate victory of good over evil, justice over injustice, right over might, truth over lies and human rights over government wrongs. “We shall overcome,” he said “because the arc of a moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice… No lie can live forever…. Truth crushed to earth will rise again…. ‘Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the demon known, stands a God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.’”
No Lie Can Live Forever
These past few months have been unkind to global criminals who believed they can commit crimes against humanity with impunity. Recently, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was found guilty of mass murder and kidnapping by a Peruvian court. Judge Cesar San Martin declared that Fujimori was guilty “beyond all reasonable doubt” for authorizing a secret police death squad (“Colina Group”) he created commit massacres in the Barrios Altos area of Lima in 1991 and at La Cantuta University in 1992 that left 25 dead, and for the kidnap-murders of a journalist and a businessman in 1992. Fujimori’s defense: “I knew nothing about the killings!” He blamed his intelligence service chief for the crimes. After years of evading justice, the truth rose again from the slums of Barrios Altos and the campus of La Cantuta University and crushed Fujimori at age 70! He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He may yet face trial for corruption and misappropriation of public funds.
George W. Bush’s legal bushwhackers in the “war on terror” are under investigation for crimes against humanity. All indications are Spanish prosecutors will soon make a formal announcement to seek criminal charges against six top former officials — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Assistant Attorney General (and now federal appeals court judge) Jay Bybee, Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, Defense Department general counsel William J. Haynes II, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington, and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith — in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo. With the stroke of the pen, President Obama illuminated Bush’s tapestry of lies and legal sophistry to conduct torture secretly and illegally spy on American citizens.
Sudanese president Omar al-Basir is a fugitive from justice. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for “masterminding with absolute control” a criminal plan “to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.” He is accused of causing the deaths of 35,000 people “outright” in the Darfur region since 2003. International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampos stands ready to bring al-Bashir to the bar of justice to face the truth.
Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao, top leaders in the Revolutionary United Front, were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone’s civil war. The monstrous brutality of this evil trio included forcibly recruiting child soldiers, amputating hands and arms and carving the initials “RUF” into the bodies of their victims. They will be serving long prison terms. Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, is in the second year of his trial in the Hague for crimes against humanity. Pol Pot’s chief torturer Kaing Guek Eav (Duch) is one of 5 suspects currently on trial in Cambodia for genocide and crimes against humanity. And the list goes on…
The widely-respected human rights organization Genocide Watch recently requested the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to “investigate the brutal massacre of 424 Anuak carried out in Gambella, Ethiopia in December of 2003” and the “extra-judicial killings, rape, disappearances, destruction of livelihood and the displacement of thousands of Anuak [which] continued into late 2005.” Genocide Watch accuses the dictatorial regime and its leader in Ethiopia of “perpetrating crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide” in the name of “counter-insurgency.” The request for investigation concluded: “Despite the violation of international law, not only has no one been held accountable for these crimes which occurred over five years ago, but worse than that, such crimes continue in other places in the country.”
Angels, the Demon Known and Lies
In June and November, 2005, 196 innocent people were massacred by the security forces of the ruling dictatorship in Ethiopia, and 763 wounded. The Angels gunned down in broad daylight include[1]: Tensae Zegeye, age 14. Debela Guta, age 15. Habtamu Tola, age 16. Binyam Degefa, age 18. Behailu Tesfaye, age 20. Kasim Ali Rashid, age 21. ShiBire Desalegn, age 21. Teodros Giday Hailu, age 23. Adissu Belachew, age 25; Milion Kebede Robi, age 32; Desta Umma Birru, age 37; Tiruwork G. Tsadik, age 41. Admasu Abebe, age 45. Elfnesh Tekle, age 45. Abebeth Huletu, age 50. Etenesh Yimam, age 50; Regassa Feyessa, age 55. Teshome Addis Kidane, age 65; Victim No. 21762, age 75, female. Victim No. 21760, male, age unknown, and so on. In December, 2003, 425 Anuaks were massacred in Gambella and thousands more displaced. Tens of thousands were massacred, raped and displaced in the Ogaden region and the rest of the country. Tens of thousands of innocent Ethiopians currently languish in the regime’s dungeons as political prisoners. And on and on…
A spokesman for the “Ethiopian Embassy” in Washington, Woindimu Asamnew, offered the usual dismissive blanket denials: “We don’t take seriously their allegations and fabrications. They are totally unfounded, fabricated lies… We don’t take this kind of idea [outside investigation of genocide] seriously. We have a parliament; they do take care of these kinds of issues. There is no any need of inviting international body for this purpose because of unfounded allegations. An outside investigation is unnecessary and unacceptable. We have investigated the matter and taken corrective measures, otherwise this kind of exaggerated and unfounded lies are not taken seriously by our government. What I’m saying is that any individual can say whatever he wants, but alleging something and the realities on the ground are totally different matter.”
Truth Crushed to Earth Will Rise Again
Those familiar with the criminal law know that the first line of defense among the hardened criminal classes is: “Deny the truth. Deny it Again. Deny it a thousand times. When the evidence (the truth) is overwhelmingly against you, ridicule the charges, call them ‘totally unfounded, fabricated lies’ and blame someone else, or the trees, the moon, the sun and the stars.” But sophisticated criminals do not simply deny the truth, they make it an art form: They weave a dazzling tapestry of lies to evade responsibility for their actions. They dehumanize their victims and profess moral sanctification by condemning their critics. By claiming to “investigate the matter and having taken corrective measures,” they audaciously seek to exonerate themselves from the monstrous crimes they have committed. By trivializing the devastating consequences of their crimes, they continue to dehumanize and brutalize their victims virtually implying that the victims are responsible for causing the criminals to inflict suffering and sorrow upon them. By condemning their critics as falsifiers and spiteful, they hope to draw attention away from themselves and fixate it on the motives, intentions and purposes of their critics. But truth crushed to earth will rise again!
The truth will rise again thunderously from the silent graveyards of the thousands of massacre victims; it will be heard in the agonizing wails of the torture victims; the truth will be told in the plain words of political prisoners; it will be recounted in the graphic testimony of eyewitnesses; the truth will ooze out of the sewer mouths of the murderers and torturers who will tell their dirty secret tales to save their skins; the teardrops of women who were raped and violated will paint the truth on the canvas of justice; reporters and journalists who were muzzled and jailed will write the truth in endless volumes; the truth will come alive in high resolution satellite photographs and amateur videos; it will be depicted in the photographs of the mutilated bodies of victims and it will be scientifically reconstructed in the forensic laboratories. The criminals’ own signatures will rise up from the official documents and orders like the ghosts of Rwanda and scream: “J’accuse!”. It is very true that the “the realties on the ground” are very different for the criminals and their victims. The victims demand justice; the criminals seek to evade it.
Wrong NOT Forever on the Throne!
Human rights will be the crown jewels of human liberty. As Gandhi taught, “There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.” In other words, wrong will not remain on the throne forever. That is why we must learn the right lessons from those who have done humanity so much wrong. The rule of law is on the rise ever so slowly in the world, and dictatorship on a precipitous decline. Neither Fujimori, al-Bashir, Gonzalez or the other criminals ever thought that they would be held accountable for their crimes in a court of law, or even in the court of world opinion. All of them believed they were above the law, and sneered at the rule of law. They perverted justice and subverted the democratic process; they eliminated the normal checks of an independent judiciary and evaded the supervision of a legislature freely elected by the people. They stonewalled the independent media from investigating and reporting their crimes, corruption and abuses. The fact of the matter is that people, even the poorest ones, know their basic human rights. Oppressed people the world over are crying out for justice, and for wrongs committed against them to be righted. In sum, they want and demand the rule of law!
Keeping Watch
Ethiopians shall overcome because “truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again” in our beautiful homeland. With the faith in the truth, to paraphrase Dr. King, “we will be able to hew out of the craggy boulders of crimes against humanity, a shining marble temple of democracy, freedom and human rights. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood, sisterhood and human rights and speed up the day in Ethiopia when, in the words of the prophet Amos, ‘Justice will roll down like waters; and righteousness like a mighty stream.’” No truth, no justice; no democracy, no peace!
—
[1] http://www.ethiopiangasha.org/tmp/ALM_November172008.html
The writer, Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. For comments, he can be reached at [email protected]
President Obama made a historic speech to Turkish lawmakers last week, but his message was global in scope and contained nuggets of his foreign policy yet to unfold. The first chords of Pax Obama (Obama’s offer of peace to the world) restore not only much needed sanity to U.S. foreign policy, but also erect new pillars that will support America’s future engagement with the rest of the world: Respect for American democratic values, respect for Muslims and the Islamic faith, respect for human rights and the rule of law, mutually shared respect among friends, and even respectful agreement to disagree with foes.
The speech was vintage Obama– sincere, uplifting, full of symbolism, hope and promise. It was particularly inspiring to defenders of freedom, democracy and human rights. The President charted the general course of U.S. foreign policy and framed the contemporary global challenges and humankind’s options in stark terms: “The choices that we make in the coming years will determine whether the future will be shaped by fear or by freedom; by poverty or by prosperity; by strife or by a just, secure and lasting peace.” The Turks, he said, have made the right choices because they have “pursued difficult political reforms” which have resulted in the “abolition of state-security courts and expanded the right to counsel, reformed the penal code, and strengthened laws that govern the freedom of the press and assembly.” He urged them to maintain their momentum: “For democracies cannot be static – they must move forward. Freedom of religion and expression lead to a strong and vibrant civil society…. An enduring commitment to the rule of law is the only way to achieve the security that comes from justice for all people.”
The President Against “All Genocides” and For Human Rights
Obama could not have made his stand on human rights more clear. He said there is no justification for human rights violations. He declared it is un-American to engage in torture, denial of fundamental due process to those accused of crimes, or to engage in arbitrary actions that defy international law and human rights conventions. “Every challenge that we face is more easily met if we tend to our own democratic foundation. This work is never over. That is why, in the United States, we recently ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed, and prohibited – without exception or equivocation – any use of torture.” He openly acknowledged America’s own burdensome legacy of slavery and injustice: “The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods… And our country still struggles with the legacy of our past treatment of Native Americans [and slavery]”. Earlier in his campaign, he had promised to be a steadfast voice against genocide: “The Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that president.”
Obama’s vision — his dream — of the future is based on giving a higher priority to human need than slavishly promoting corporate greed: “We want to help more children get the education that they need to succeed. We want to promote health care in places where people are vulnerable. We want to expand the trade and investment that can bring prosperity for all people.” He said, “In the months ahead, I will present specific programs to advance these goals. Our focus will be on what we can do, in partnership with people across the Muslim world, to advance our common hopes, and our common dreams. And when people look back on this time, let it be said of America that we extended the hand of friendship.”
Clenched Fist of Dictatorship and the Open Hand of Friendship
Last Summer, we announced the imminent arrival of a new “sheriff” in town[1]. We offered the following admonition:
Petty Dictators: America Stands for the Ideals of Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights! When Barack talks about ‘where and what America stands for’, he is talking about the American ideals of democracy, freedom and human rights guiding American foreign policy in a world menaced by a motley crew of nasty tin-pot dictators, petty tyrants and bloodthirsty thugs.
It seems we read the tea leaves just right.
The days of “If you’re not with us, you’re our enemy; if you’re with us, even if you have blood on your hands, you’re our friend” are gone. Obama’s message is: “We will offer you a hand of friendship; but if you clench your fist to hide the blood that soaks your hands, you are not America’s friend.” Obama aims to put America front and center in leading a global human rights revolution. It promises to be a new day — a new era– for freedom, democracy and human rights throughout the world.
What is Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander!
Will a president who emphatically opposes torture, arbitrary denial of due process and reaches back in history to criticize the injustices inflicted on the slaves and Native Americans lend a hand of friendship to support torture, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Ethiopia?
Will a president who zealously condemned genocide committed nearly a century ago in Armenia condone the genocide committed in Gambella, the Ogaden and Amhara regions in Ethiopia just a few years ago?
Will a president who shutdown Guantanamo and a network of CIA “security” prisons supply hard-earned American tax dollars to keep open the stinking dungeons (which the U.S. State Department in 2008 described as “harsh, life-threatening and overcrowded”) that warehouse hundreds of thousands of political prisoners in Ethiopia?
Will a president who benchmarks democratic progress in terms of the “abolition of state-security courts and expanded the right to counsel, reformation of the penal code, and strengthening laws that govern the freedom of the press and assembly” coddle outlaws who have managed to criminalize civic society institutions and NGO’s, and jail, persecute and exile journalists?
Will a president – a former civil rights lawyer and constitutional scholar – who declares his “enduring commitment to the rule of law” embrace a malignant dictatorship that uses “courts” and the “law” as weapons of persecution and oppression? We say, “HELL, NO!”
It all boils down to a simple proposition: What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If the rule of law and protection of human rights are good for America, Turkey and the rest of the world, we say they are good for Ethiopia too. If genocide, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, secret security courts and prisons are bad for America, Turkey and the rest of the world, we say they are bad for Ethiopia too. We ask for nothing more or less than what all civilized societies are entitled to have: A government that is freely elected by the people (and elections are not stolen) and governs by respecting the human rights and liberties of its citizens; a government that is accountable to the people for all of its official actions and omissions; a government free of corruption and jealously guards the public treasury from fraud, abuse and waste; a government that respects the sovereignty of its neighbors and refrains from naked aggression, displacement of the civilian population and commission of war crimes; a society that is founded on the rule of law where no man or woman has the right or opportunity to seize the law for political and/or private economic advantage; a society where courts serve the interests of justice and not the interests of crooked and corrupt official profiteers; a justice system that relentlessly pursues known and suspected human rights violators, war criminals and others who have committed crimes against humanity, and leaves no stones unturned to free innocent individuals, opposition leaders and dissidents who have been locked up for years because they oppose dictatorship.
Putting Out Fires With Flames
President Obama hearkened to an old Turkish proverb in his speech: “You cannot put out fire with flames.” Of course, the President knows only too well that you can put out the fire when you let “justice rush down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”. But when your house is on fire, you don’t need flames to put it out. You need firefighters. In Ethiopia we need strong firemen and firewomen to put out the wildfires of ethnic divisions, and now stoked-up and smoldering religious antagonisms. President Obama is right. These fires can not be put out with flames of anger, hatred, and revenge. But they can be put out by flames of justice that sear the consciences of good men and women; they can be doused by the righteous indignation of patriotic men and women who commit to the defense of their motherland against mercenary soldiers of fortune. To paraphrase the lyrics of Billy Joel: “We didn’t start the fire/ No we didn’t light it/ But we got to fight it.” That is exactly what we said two years ago[2]:
There are fire brigades rising up all over the Diaspora. Everyday we see courageous firefighters coming to the frontlines. They no longer want to be frightened spectators jabbering about what somebody else should do, could do or needs to do. They have decided to act, and you see them flying around carrying their droplets of water to put out the fire. These Diaspora firefighters do not fight fire with fire; no, they fight fire with water. Like water on fire, these firefighters spray hope and optimism over the despair and misery inflicted upon our brothers and sisters; they sweep the wreckage of repression and tyranny with the broom of democracy and human rights; they plant the seeds of freedom and liberty on a land charred and ravaged by political violence, corruption, savagery and lawlessness.
The dictators in Ethiopia know the GAME IS OVER! They are out of lies, out of cash, out of gas, out of ideas, out of hope, out of order, out of control, out of the shadows, out of luck and out of time! They are out of their freaking minds because they are OUT OF BUSINESS! A verse of advice:
Saddle up tin-pot dictators,
‘Tis time to ride out before the big roundup.
The new sheriff and posse are in town,
You better scram before sundown!
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants the G-20 (or Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the world’s largest economies) to help cash-strapped African countries manage their balance of payments (money going from one country to all others) as their incomes from foreign investments and aid, remittances and commodities prices vanish with the collapsing global economy. In mid-March, Brown invited a number of African leaders to meet with him in anticipation of the scheduled G-20 meeting in London on April 2. The hype preceding the G-20 meeting was full of hectoring moralism by the designated panhandler-for-Africa, the dictator in Ethiopia:
“Africa was beginning to stand up and now it is being knocked down again by this crisis, which is not of Africa’s making. That is one of the biggest tragedies. They [G-20] should care about Africa because it is in their interests. Some African countries could go under and that would mean total chaos and violence. In the end the cost of violence is going to be much higher than the cost of supporting Africa… We are talking about the range of money that is being spent on the mid-sized banks [in the U.S.]. Consider Africa as one of those banks… Any stimulus money spent in developed countries is going to have less global impact than if the same amount of money were to be spent in Africa… One of the problems at the moment is that the situation is so volatile… It keeps changing every week. It destabilises everything, including one’s thinking. If we knew where the bottom was we could start thinking as to how to get out of it….”
Not long ago the same dictator triumphantly proclaimed a 12.8 per cent annual growth rate in Ethiopia, and casually dismissed the effect of the global economic turmoil: “The crisis will more or less have little effect on the [Ethiopian] economy since our financial sector is not attached to the global system. Had it been the case, we would have suffered much.”
Others were parroting the same theme of impending African gloom and doom. Egyptian finance minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali mournfully warned, “In the case of Africa, people are going to die. We are talking about lives, not just somebody who will have to drive a smaller car.” Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete was quick to shift the blame: “This is a very unprecedented problem. Africa is a victim. We are not responsible for its genesis but all of us are suffering.” Even the sober Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga joined the verbal joust by invoking the specter of marching African hordes: “When there are problems in Africa, Africans will vote with their feet by coming to Europe.” It was like a chorus of African Chicken Littles clucking: “The sky is falling! The sky is falling! We must go and tell the king!”
Will Accept Cash, Check, Credit Card or Gold to Bailout Africa!
The G-20 claims to be “an informal forum that promotes open and constructive discussion between industrial and emerging-market countries on key issues related to global economic stability.” The G-20 money men and the chiefs of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank will be discussing ways of helping the poorest counties in the world, while coordinating strategies to alleviate their own deepening economic crises. Pleading the African case for more money will be the dictator in Ethiopia. His message is a simple one: Africa needs more money. That money is readily available in the form of gold bars stashed at the IMF. Sell the gold stash and hand over the cash to African governments to cushion the effects of the global economic downturn. As of this past January, the IMF held 3,217 metric tons of gold (valued in excess of $43 billion), according to the World Gold Council. “Gold prices are doing well now so a slight correction to mobilise resources for Africa would not be that difficult,” suggested the dictator in Ethiopia. If the G-20 takes the bait, Africa’s “leaders” will be standing ready with pick and shovel in hand to dig into the IMF pot of gold and dig themselves out of economic trouble.
But in Ethiopia’s case there is something creepy — a weird feeling of de ja vu — about all of the gold talk and bailout metaphor of “considering Africa as one of the mid-sized banks”. Exactly a year ago we were shocked by the revelation that gold bars worth over 16 million dollars had simply walked out of the bank vaults in Ethiopia in broad daylight.[1] The official story was that unsuspecting Ethiopian bank “officials” were bamboozled by a gang of crooked international gold dealers who literally sold them spray-painted lumps of iron as 24-carat gold bars. The bank “officials” got ripped off because they made the common mistake of believing “all that glitters is gold.” According to the “Anti-Corruption Commission” of the ruling regime, some 26 suspects are in custody. No one has been prosecuted for this spectacular crime (and the matter has been quietly swept under the rug for the past year). Now they are talking about “mid-sized banks”, selling billions of dollars worth of IMF gold and sharing the loot among African dictators. It feels like a set up for another bank job.
In the Hole and on the Dole
African governments have been in the hole and on the dole for years. Since the 1970s, they have been sucking up massive amounts of economic aid and loans from the West and the international lending institutions. Much of that money has been lost to corruption. According to a 2008 World Bank study, it is estimated that “25 percent of GDP of African states is lost to corruption every year [in excess of one-half trillion dollars], with corrupt actions encompassing petty bribe taking done by low level government officials to inflated public procurement contracts, kickbacks, and raiding the public treasury as part of public asset theft by political leaders. Some $20 billion to $40 billion in assets acquired by corrupt leaders of poor countries, mostly in Africa, are kept overseas.” [2] Massive corruption has given rise to a parasitical ruling class in Africa – a “pluto-kleptocracy” (government of rich thieves). The World Bank and the IMF complain in their so-called confidential reports that specific African countries have used loans made available to them as “mechanisms for regime maintenance,” allowing the ruling parties to set up “slush funds” to pay for patronage and a military buildup. By 2005, Africa had a debt of $295 billion after repayments of $550 billion for loans it had received over the preceding three decades. Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, thirty-three African countries were eligible for debt relief of about $80 billion by 2006.
But the corruption situation in Ethiopia is more acute. In 2007, when Ethiopia’s auditor general, Lema Aregaw, reported $600 million in public funds missing form regional coffers, the dictator fired Aregaw and publicly defended the regional administrations’ “right to burn money.” When Gebru Asrat, a former top official and party member of the ruling regime made the accusation that “the people are sick of the corruption, about the lack of government services, and they only support Meles out of fear,” he was swiftly excommunicated from the regime’s officialdom. When the IMF, the World Bank and other donors demanded privatization, the regime leaders sold off some of the most profitable state enterprises to their friends, relatives, henchmen and cronies.
Bailing Out the People of Africa v. Bailing Out Toxic African Dictators
The basic argument African dictators are making for a G-20 bailout package is a moral one: Unless G-20 taxpayers assume the responsibility for Africa’s economic problems by selling IMF gold and increasing aid, Africans will die by the millions and violence will consume African societies. This is a manifestly false and self-serving moral dilemma manufactured by African dictators to save their own skins. They know that economic problems often trigger social upheavals which result in the sweeping away of corrupt dictatorships.
The G-20 have a superior moral counter-argument to make: It is immoral for G-20 taxpayers to finance African dictators who persecute their people, trample on their human rights and mismanage their economies while keeping themselves and their cronies filthy rich from stolen loan and aid money. If African governments want aid and loans from the G-20, they must agree to be held accountable for their acts and omissions in upholding the rule of law, protecting the human rights of their people, institutionalizing democratic practices and processes, releasing all political prisoners, allowing the free functioning of civic institutions and the independent media and ensuring judicial independence. Giving more money to morally, economically and politically bankrupt African dictators without the strings of democratization, human rights and accountability attached is like giving blood transfusions to a corpse whose blood has been sucked dry by vampiric brutes. African economies will remain on life support so long as the G-20 member countries blindly support African dictators and remain willful accomplices to their crimes and corruption.
Can’t Do Structural Adjustment When You are Shackled to Debt and Poverty
Multilateral lending institutions and Western donor governments providing aid need to re-think the way they do business in Africa. The IMF and World Bank must be transparent themselves in their loan programs. They must provide honest accounting of the success and failure of the programs they support in Africa. It is reprehensible for them to praise African dictatorships in public for their economic policies, and in their confidential reports rip these same governments for massive corruption, mismanagement, fraud, waste and abuse of “development funds”. The fact of the matter is that for many African dictatorships piling up billions in debt is like walking to the neighborhood kiosk and getting cigarettes on credit from the store keeper. They will pay it back in nickels and dimes if they get the money; if not, the store keeper will be stiffed. Their mentality is that IMF and World Bank loans are “free money”. Get as much free money as possible, and let someone else in the future worry about paying it back.
The G-20 and the multilateral lending institutions need to reform and fix what is a manifestly callous lending system. They need to re-examine the devastating consequences of their misguided policies that elevate organized greed over individual need. For decades, they have been preaching the gospel of “structural adjustment” (requiring loan recipients to privatize, deregulate, reduce trade barriers and adopt one-size-fits-all free market policies) which places a much higher premium on constructing shiny glass buildings, fancy urban highways and export-oriented industries than meeting the survival needs of ordinary people (food, medicine, clean drinking water, etc.). Millions of Africans die from starvation, preventable diseases, environmental contamination and abysmally poor governance as the international money lenders tether African economies to their structural adjustment policies.
Fleecing the Golden Twenty?
The whole IMF gold sale thing may be a touchy affair for Gordon “Golden” Brown, who as Chancellor of the Exchequer a decade ago sold well over 60 per cent of U.K.’s gold reserves at fire sale prices and earned his nickname. At the time, his actions were roundly criticized as a “disastrous foray into international asset management”. The simple message for Golden Brown and the G-20 financiers should be: “Give Africans a strong hand in establishing democracy and getting rid of dictatorships, and you will never have to worry about giving them handouts!”
The proposed quick sale of IMF gold as a magic elixir to fix Africa’s current economic troubles is snake oil gimmickry. Any such sale requires approval of 85 percent of the 185 IMF member countries. The U.S. alone has 17 percent of these voting rights (enough to veto any decision), and there is no realistic chance that President Obama or Congress will approve a daylight fleecing of the IMF to support dictatorships in Africa. As the U.S. faces a budget deficit forecast of $1.8 trillion in 2009 and $1.4 trillion in 2010, it is unlikely that the U.S. will provide significant direct bailout money (not even in the “range of money that is being spent on the mid-sized U.S. banks”) to African dictators. There are proposals currently floating around the G-20 to infuse the IMF with bailout money for developing economies in the range of one-half trillion dollars, but that may be a pipedream as the world’s largest economies struggle to manage their own problems. Against this background, the plea for deliverance on the G-20 stage, to paraphrase Shakespeare in King Lear, is a farcical demonstration of the excellent foppery of dictators who after plundering the riches of their nations, make guilty of their disasters the sun, the moon, and stars.
Amina was crying her eyes out. You could see the tear tracks on her tormented face. She is a victim of unimaginable tragedy. Her entire family has nearly been wiped out. She is heartbroken. Sobbing uncontrollably, she covers her downcast eyes with her calloused fingers. She tells Al Jazeera TV’s People & Power program[1] her story:
I gave birth to nine children. Six of them died. Makida. Hadiri. Tahiri. Sultan. Kasim. Kalil. Three survived. My husband also died. I have lost seven members of my family. They were all vomiting and having diarrhea with blood in it. We visited a health center but we were told the problem is associated with water. I feel sad about my dead children and I awake at night thinking of them, and I now worry if my remaining children will survive. I don’t even know if I will survive. Except for God we have no hope.
How did Amina’s children and husband die? They drank the water from Lake Koka, once a pristine lake located some 50 miles south of Addis Ababa. A bearded middle-aged man explains in disgust and frustration:
It is better to die thirsty than to drink this water. We are drinking a disease. We told the local authorities our cattle and goats died due to this water, but nobody helped. We are tired of complaining.”
Another local resident scoops a palmful of the algae-matted green lake water and describes with total resignation the devastation wreaked upon the communities surrounding the Lake Koka:
The main problem here is the water. People are getting sick. Everyone around here uses this water. There is no other water. Almost 17,000 people this water. They come from 10 kilometers away and use this water. The water smells even if you boil it; it does not change the color. It is hard to drink it. The people here have great potential and we are losing them, especially the children. I am upset but I don’t have the ability to do anything. I would if I could, but I can’t do anything.
A district health worker offers clinical diagnosis and morbidity analysis of the polluted water of Lake Koka:
The people in Ammudde [Lake Koka area] are more sick than the other people who are not using that water. It will be about two-thirds more… Most of them have stomach disease and diarreah is common. They are drinking the water that is contaminated from the [leather] factory, so they get sick from that chemical. So my colleagues [and] everybody from this area believe this. We know this is real…
The CEO of the Ethiopia Tannery Share Company, Reg Hankey, denies the tannery is discharging toxic waste into the lake. “It is clearly not from our operation”, says Hankey. He suggests that there may be multiple sources of pollution. One must “look at where the river comes into the lake. We are aware of just as many reports [of pollution] about the river before it gets anywhere near the lake.” An anonymous employee of the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Agency explains, “There are some government institutions that focus on the investment part… on the economic part than the environment part. As a professional, you have to be angry. It makes me angry now.” A young and passionate Ethiopian environmentalist forcefully declares “investment at the cost of environment is nothing.” A world renowned scientist from the University of Durham, U.K., after analyzing water sample from Lake Koka, determined the sample had high concentrations of the microcystis bacteria, which he said forms “one of the most notorious algae” and are among “some of the most toxic molecules known to man.” After viewing the Al Jazeera video, the scientist comments Lake Koka was “one of the worst he had seen anywhere in the world.” It’s all in the two-part Al Jazeera report.
Plague of the Green Death
There are some 21 tanneries in Ethiopia. The Ethiopia Tannery Share Company located in Koka is said to be the largest factory in Ethiopia with 800 employees. According to published statistics, Ethiopia produces 2.7 million hides, 8.1 million sheepskins and 7.5 million goatskins. In 2008, leather exports (second major export constituting 15 per cent of total foreign earnings) generated revenues of US $39.9 million. In December, 2006, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) held a meeting to boost the export of hides, skins and leather in Ethiopia by 74% over the next three years.
The head of the Ethiopia Tannery Share Company denies responsibility because he believes the rivers feeding Lake Koka are polluted by multiple sources of pollution upriver. According to the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Agency, “A number of pollution related studies have confirmed that about 90% of industries in Addis Ababa are simply discharging their effluent into nearby water bodies, streams and open land without any form of treatment. In the 1992 to 1994 wastewater facility Master Plan project the country study reported that out of 70 factories 56 (or 80%) were dumping their untreated effluents into nearby watercourses and urban streams.”[2] But the evidence of pollution in Lake Koka is entirely consistent with tannery-generated pollution in rivers and lakes in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, the Phillipines and Mexico. Chemical analysis of Lake Koka water sample showed the same high concentrations of dissolved and suspended solids, chloride, ammonia and other heavy metals routinely used in tanning leather in the countries mentioned. Chromium, a well known cancer agent, was found abundantly in the Koka water sample. The morbidity patterns are also similar to the countries mentioned above: A very high percentage of tannery workers and individuals in communities drawing water from Lake Koka suffer from gastrointestinal, liver and other dermatological diseases specifically associated with tannery chemicals.
Human Rights and Environmental Safety
The right to a safe environment is protected by “constitutional” and international human rights laws. Article 44 (1) of the constitution of the ruling regime in Ethiopia provides: “Everyone has the right to a clean and healthy environment.” Article 92 provides “1. The State shall have the responsibility to strive to ensure a clean and healthy environment for all Ethiopians. 2. Any economic development activity shall not in any way be disruptive to the ecological balance. 3. The people concerned shall be made to give their opinions in the preparation and implementation of policies and programs concerning environmental protection. 4. The State and citizens shall have the duty to protect the environment.” Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Banjul Charter) requires state parties “to take the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick.” Article 24 further declares that “All peoples shall have the right to a general satisfactory environment favorable to their development.” Article 18 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa provides that “women shall have the right to live in a healthy and sustainable environment”, and requires states to “regulate the management, processing, storage and disposal of domestic waste” to advance this purpose. In 1995, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Communications 25/89, 47/90, 56/91 and 100/93, Joined) determined that the failure of the Government of Zaire to provide basic services such as safe drinking water constituted a violation of Article 16 of the African Charter.
Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that state parties to take special care of children “through the provision of adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking water, taking into consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution.” The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment declares that “man’s environment, the natural and the man-made, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights–even the right to life itself.” Principle 1 of the Stockholm Declaration which establishes the linkage between human rights and environmental protection declares that “man has a fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being.” In 1990, the U.N. in Resolution 45/94 recalled the language of the Stockholm Declaration in asserting that all individuals are “entitled to live in an environment adequate for their health and well-being.”
Amina and her six dead children and husband — Makida, Hadiri, Tahiri, Sultan, Kasim, Kalil — had rights specifically protected by international and “constitutional” law. So do the sick, suffering and dying people of Ammudde in the vicinity of Lake Koka. But for those in power it is a simple case of mind over matter. They don’t mind, and Amina, her family and the people of Ammudde don’t matter!
Who Killed Lake Koka? Who Killed Amina’s Children and Husband?
Who is responsible for the death of Lake Koka? And Amina’s husband and children? Did Chromium, Cadmium, Arsenic, Microsystsis Aeruginosa kill them? No. Official neglect and indifference killed them. Those who claimed to have the public trust, but turned a deaf ear, blind eye and muted tongue, are responsible. Those who slammed the official door in the face of the Ammudde resident who complained about “drinking a disease” are responsible.
There is an Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority with 24 separate “powers and duties” to protect and preserve the environment. There is even an Environment Council chaired by the “Prime Minister”. The ruling regime is expert at sounding out hollow words and phrases: “polluter pays”, “criminal liability for polluters,” “intergenerational equity not to compromise the needs of future generations”, and so on.[3] Perhaps most revealing of the regime’s depraved indifference to environmental issues is its legal defense of the first public interest environmental case ever litigated in Ethiopia. In 2006, Action Professionals’ Association for the People, a civic society organization which uses litigation, education and advocacy to promote a wide range of social causes, filed action alleging violation of the Environmental Pollution Control Proclamation (No.300/2002) and other international conventions and sought to hold the “government” accountable for failing to mitigate the discharge of untreated solid and liquid wastes into the Akaki and Mojo rivers. In its defense, the “federal government” wimped out and dodged all responsibility arguing that jurisdiction for such environmental matters lay with the regional environmental bureaus. They claimed the “federal government” did not have authority to interfere with regional autonomy! But in February, 2008 the “House of People’s Representatives” imposed export taxes up to 150% on raw and semi-processed hides and skins.
Clean Affordable Technologies Are Available for Safe Tanning
There are affordable clean technologies that can be used to permanently and significantly reduce the health and environmental risks associated with waste discharge of hazardous substances used in the tanning process. They are in effect in many places where tannery-generated toxic substance abatement and neutralization has been required. For instance, in 1996, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the closure of more than 500 tanneries for environmental non-compliance. They were able to reopen many of them using affordable clean technologies such as low-salt systems and indefinite recycling of the chemical “liquors” used in pickling leather. Last August, the All India Skin & Hides Tanners and Merchants Association led a delegation to establish a strategic partnership with the leather industry in Ethiopia. Clean technology transfer from India could be made within the framework of such a relationship. Other clean technology efforts have shown success in León city in north central Mexico, and in Bangladesh and Pakistan. The available technologies are cost-effective with significant mitigation effects and include, among others, installation of sedimentation tanks, end-of-pipe abatement devices, pretreatment of wastewater to met set standards, high exhaustion methods to ensure more of the chrome in the tanning bath actually affixes to the hide, substitution of biodegradable enzymes for lime and sodium sulfide, vegetable tanning instead of chrome, recycling of dehairing bath and chrome with a significant reduction in discharges in lakes and rivers.
Ethiopia is Facing Ecological Disaster!
The Lake Koka environmental disaster is only the tip of the iceberg. Ethiopia is facing an ecological catastrophe: deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, overgrazing and population explosion. Hundreds of square miles of forest land and farmland are lost every year. The Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute says Ethiopia loses up to 200,000 hectares of forest every year. Between 1990 and 2005, Ethiopia lost 14.0% of its forest cover (2,114,000 hectares) and 3.6% of its forest and woodland habitat. If the trend continues, it is expected that Ethiopia could lose all of its forest resources in 11 years, by the year 2020. [4] The wild animal population is declining due to deforestation, and hundreds of plant and animal species are facing extinction. [5]
Cry Me a River, Cry Me a Lake, Cry My Beloved Country!
Ethiopia is becoming dystopia – a society in which the conditions of life are characterized by misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease, famine and pollution with a brutal regime at the top. Amina and her children are the symbolic faces of an impending environmental disaster in Ethiopia. The outlook is grim. Dr Gedion Getahun, Research Scientist at the Environmental Radioanalytical Chemistry in Mainz, Germany writes, “In Ethiopia, the biodiversity is treated in very awful manner. The destruction of natural habitat as well as a threat to the flora and fauna and other biological resources diminish the economy of the country. This affects the country’s wealth and with it, the existence and the well being of the nation.” [6]
Our duty to protect the environment is not only to Amina, her three surviving children and the people of Ammudde. Our duty extends to Amina’s grandchildren and the generations yet to be born in Ammudde and elsewhere in Ethiopia. As the young environmentalist told Al Jazeera, development and “investment at the cost of the environment is nothing”.
It is a sad irony of our times that we are able to transform the barren deserts into fields of plenty in the name of development and investment yet turn our life-giving lakes and rivers into troughs of poison. It is a mistake, a colossal folly, to measure our progress in the fistful of dollars gained from leather and flower exports. The true measure of progress is our ability to institute the rule of law and guarantee each Ethiopian the right to life (a land free of lakes and rivers that are poisoned), liberty (a land where the government fears the people) and the pursuit of happiness (a land where each Ethiopian has the opportunity to reach for the stars). For Amina and her children — Makida, Hadiri, Tahiri, Sultan, Kasim, Kalil — I will cry me a river. For the people of Ammudde, I will cry me a lake. For our beloved Ethiopia, I will cry me an ocean!
Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!
____________
In the Winter of our discontent, we complained about the wasted years of antagonism, discord and strife among pro-democracy elements of the Ethiopian Diaspora. We deplored the years of infighting and useless bickering which had given much delight and merriment to the ruthless dictators. We expressed collective regret over our shortsightedness and inability to see the big picture, and to work collaboratively for the great cause of freedom, democracy and human rights in the motherland. We chafed about lost opportunities to become effective instruments for the protection of human rights in Ethiopia. We found ourselves gripped by a pervasive sense of powerlessness and political paralysis. Then we had our “Aha!” moment, that moment ringing with the “fierce urgency of now”. We we declared, “We must learn from past mistakes, overcome our differences and march forward together to the exhilarating drumbeat of freedom, democracy and human rights in Ethiopia.”
We are now in our Spring of hope and renewal. Our hope comes from a new sense of unbridled optimism guided by the principle that Ethiopians united can never be defeated. Our renewal comes in the form of a new consciousness: 1) that we can do things much better than before and differently, and by harnessing our resources worldwide, we can effectively promote the cause of freedom, human rights and democracy in Ethiopia; 2) by remaining divided and fragmented, we would be effectively aiding and abetting in the continuing criminal enterprise of the ruthless dictators. This Spring, for many pro-democracy Ethiopians throughout the world, is a time for a new commitment to the cause of freedom, democracy and human rights in Ethiopia. The seeds of goodwill planted in dialogue and consultation in the Winter are now sprouting as seedlings of collaborative action, cooperation and worldwide consolidation in the struggle for the protection of human rights in Ethiopia. This Spring, pro-democracy Ethiopians can be heard all over the world saying, “Enough talk. Shake hands. Let’s get busy!”
Fired Up and Ready to Rumble!
We are fired up and ready to rumble! Everywhere we turn, we find an overwhelming consensus among pro-democracy Ethiopians that building respect for human rights and the rule of law will help ensure the dignity to which every Ethiopian is entitled, and stem the arbitrary powers of dictators, reduce intolerance and political violence. Validation of this truth comes from all sectors. The refugees who fled the persecution of the ruling dictators in Ethiopia testify to it. Former political prisoners, dissidents, exiled journalists, human rights advocates and all who believe in democracy, freedom and the rule of law say in a single voice that it is time to act. The victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity call upon us in exile to champion their cause and alleviate their suffering.
Spring Into Action
Ethiopians in exile are excited about the prospect of working together to help alleviate human rights violations in Ethiopia. There is unquestionably massive consensus among pro-democracy Ethiopian exiles to forge a common human rights agenda. But there are issues that bear directly upon the practical formulation and implementation of such an agenda. We are wrestling with two such issues now: 1) determining the most effective method to bring together divergent elements in the worldwide Ethiopian exile community to work and act together in common cause, and 2) identifying a set of actions and outcomes that can be taken to produce tangible and quantifiable results in improving the human rights situation in Ethiopia. These two questions require careful and thoughtful consideration.
Bringing together groups and individuals that have often been at odds with each other, or have not worked together much in the past is not an easy task. Harmonizing different organizational styles and practices requires careful balancing. But we believe we have made significant strides in seating diverse Ethiopian pro-democracy elements at the grand table of human rights dialogue and consultations. We are making good progress in our coalition-building efforts and in beginning to develop a comprehensive strategy to achieve the multiple purposes of advocacy, education, mobilization and action in support of Ethiopian human rights issues. We are going through a natural period of “acclimatization” learning about each other and our unique organizational styles and methods. But we do our best to practice what we preach. Our dialogues are open, civil and intellectually engaging. Our communications are transparent, and all input from participants are integrated in our deliberations. We build upon each other’s strengths.
Identifying a set of advocacy issues and developing an action plan for implementation of a human rights agenda presents its own challenges. We have a sense of our unique assets and resources which can be used to achieve our purposes. We are acutely aware that our issues can be paired with some extraordinary opportunities that were not available to us in the past. For instance, in the U.S. context, the change in administration offers fresh opportunities to revisit the issue of human rights in Ethiopia. We believe the blank check given to the dictators during the Bush era is likely to be a thing of the past. We also believe the continuing, sustained and flagrant human rights violations will figure prominently on the Congressional radar screen. We hope to harness our energies and resources and employ different strategies to advance the cause of human rights in Ethiopia.
There is no question pro-democracy Ethiopians in exile are fired up and ready to act on improving human rights in Ethiopia. The action items are self evident: 1) Human Rights Monitoring: We must work to ensure the regime conforms its conduct to the standards of international human rights conventions which are part of the constitutional law of the regime. Such efforts span a wide variety of activities ranging from factual investigation to documentation and reporting. 2) Advocacy: We must develop a multi-pronged approach to advocacy. There is consensus that advocacy at the highest levels of international policymaking should be a priority. We are also aware of the importance of utilizing resources at the local levels in seeking policy changes at the national level. 3) Release of All Ethiopian Political Prisoners: Recent official reports indicate that a large number of political prisoners continue to languish in the ruling regime’s prisons. Impressive public demonstrations have been held recently to call international attention to the plight of political prisoners in Ethiopia. Additional steps can certainly be taken to champion the cause of Ethiopian political prisoners. 4) Accountability: There is substantial evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ethiopia. In the past year alone, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have published reports documenting such violations of international law. There is also evidence in the form of a certified list of criminal suspects in the post-election massacres in 2005.
There are other related issues which are integral to the success of the foregoing tasks. There is a critical need for human rights education and awareness in the Ethiopian exile community worldwide. One of the reasons why international human rights advocates speak on our behalf has to do with our lack of knowledge and expertise to speak for ourselves on important human rights issues. There is also a need to engage “silently concerned” exiled Ethiopians in the global human rights effort. This requires developing a clear and convincing message and creating practical ways of participation and engagement by such individuals. Increased awareness and access to accurate information on human rights is one of the best methods of mobilizing those who remain marginalized.
We Can Move Mountains!
From our efforts in supporting H.R. 2003 and predecessor bills, we have learned that a well coordinated advocacy campaign can produce significant results in terms of generating wide support for human rights in Ethiopia. The power of advocacy, we believe, lies in the simplicity and purity of the advocacy mission, the passion and commitment of the advocates and supporters and the clarity of vision about the task ahead. We believe in empowering every Ethiopian to become a human rights advocate, and to feel emboldened to take action even when confronted with seemingly impossible obstacles.
We expect bumps in the road. Despite good intentions, grassroots advocacy campaigns will hit snags from time to time. Sometimes efforts may be disjointed and progress may not be visible in linear fashion. But such is the nature of grassroots advocacy. The alternative is to hire the fat cat lobbyists of “K” Street in Washington, D.C. and feed them a princely sum of $50,000 per month. As we have seen, even fat cat lobbyists can be defeated and routed from the legislative battlefield by a disciplined and tenacious army of fleas. We are fired up and ready to rumble! We can move mountains!
“Justice is like a train that is nearly always late”, but it did arrive just in the nick of time for Omar Hassan al-Bashir, President of the Sudan. Al-Bashir is now a fugitive from justice, a wanted man by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In his application for an arrest warrant last year, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo alleged that over the preceding five years, al-Bashir had “masterminded with absolute control” and “appointed key personnel to implement” a criminal a plan “to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups as such. Forces and agents controlled by Al-Bashir attacked civilians in towns and villages inhabited by the target groups, committing killings, rapes, torture and destroying means of livelihood.” Al-Bashir was further accused of causing the deaths of 35,000 people “outright”. U.N. officials estimate as many as 300,000 people have been killed in the Darfur region since 2003, and 2.7 million displaced.
Last July, in one of my weekly commentaries I wrote, “For as long as there are determined and unrelenting prosecutors like Moreno-Ocampo, the likes of al-Bashir, Zenawi and Mengistu can be sure that one day the long arm of international law will catch them and bring them to kneel down before the altar of justice. Our question: ‘Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do, what you gonna do when the ICC (International Criminal Court) catches you!’” [1] Today, with a deep sigh of relief and a loud shriek of ecstasy, we can all say, “One down…!”
“Eat it! You Are Under My Shoe!”
Al-Bashir has long belittled the ICC and ridiculed the criminal allegations against him as a “Western conspiracy”, a “neo-colonial plot” and a trick to “steal Sudan’s oil.” A day before the arrest warrant was issued, a defiant al-Bashir taunted the ICC: “They will issue their decision tomorrow … this coming decision, they can prepare right now: they can eat it [the warrant].” In his special message, he said: “Tell them all, the ICC prosecutor, the members of the court and every one who supports this court that they are under my shoe.” His spokesman, Mahjoub Fadul, added: “It is a flawed decision. We do not recognize it, nor the court that issued it and we do not care about it at all.” Mutrif Siddiq, Sudan’s under-secretary of foreign affairs, dismissively told reporters that not only will al-Bashir disregard the arrest warrant, he will be attending “all Arab summits and all African summits” scheduled for the year. Three days after the arrest warrant was issued, al-Bashir kicked out all of the major international aid groups providing displaced Darfurians and others victims food and medicine, including Oxfam, CARE, Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee and several others. The reason: They gave evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity to the ICC prosecutor. (Others simply pass heavy-handed “laws” to bottle NGOs for fear they may turn out to be ICC “snitches”.) In doing so, Al-Bashir continued his criminal enterprise by committing new war crimes (“deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population” is a violation of Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.) The U.N. estimates that in the Darfur region 1.1 million people will be without food, 1.5 million without health care, and more than 1 million without drinking water. In the end, it may be Al-Bashir who will be “eating” a life sentence.
Execution of Arrest Warrant
To issue an arrest warrant is one thing. To apprehend and deliver the criminal suspect for trial at the ICC is another matter. The ICC does not have its own police force, and must necessarily rely on the cooperation of governments wherein the fugitive from justice is located. There is no expectation of cooperation from the Sudanese government. Al-Bashir has already rejected extradition requests by the ICC to hand over Ali Kushayb, (“janjaweed butcher of Darfur”) and Ahmed Aroun (former Interior Minister and later Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and chief architect of the janjaweed campaign of violence against civilians), accused of torture, mass rape and the forced displacement of entire villages in Darfur in 2003 and 2004. At the time, al-Bashir intoned: “I swear to God, I swear to God, I swear to God we will not hand over any Sudanese to the International Court.” The U.N. peacekeepers stationed in the Sudan do not have authority to arrest or detain war crimes suspects. But it is highly likely that the ICC has registered its arrest warrant with Interpol and al-Bashir’s name is now listed on Interpol’s Red Notice. Unless he is caught in transit in one of the 108 countries that have accepted ICC jurisdiction, chances of his arrest in the short-term are fairly low. The fact of the matter is that al-Bashir will be looking over his shoulder until he is collared and brought to justice.
The Prosecution’s Case in the Inevitable Trial of Omar Hassan al-Bashir
Despite the worldwide publicity surrounding the arrest warrant, it is important to emphasize that al-Bashir is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. That is why Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo carries the entire burden of proof in showing al-Bashir committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and other offenses beyond a reasonable doubt. Al-Bashir is also entitled to a fair trial complete with procedural protections guaranteed under the Rome Statute and other international conventions. Having said that, it is as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow that al-Bashir will be held to account for the crimes he is accused of committing whether it takes 1 year, 10 years or more; and he will be convicted. There is no question about that!
But there may be a question as to what legal theory Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo will likely use to prove his case. He has many options, including a theory of personal culpability as to crimes specifically enumerated in Articles 6 (Genocide), 7 (Crimes Against Humanity) and 8 (War Crimes) of the Rome Statute. More likely, Moreno-Ocampo will prosecute al-Bashir using the legal doctrine of command responsibility (that is, a superior in the chain of command is responsible for crimes committed by his subordinates or other combatants under his direct or indirect control, and for failing to prevent or punish the violators after discovering the criminal acts under Article 28 of the Rome Statute.
Under Article 28, “A military commander or person effectively acting as a military commander shall be criminally responsible… if [s/he] either knew or, owing to the circumstances at the time, should have known that the forces were committing or about to commit such crimes; and … failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.” Similar prosecutorial authority is found in the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions, Protocol I (Article 86 (2) – Failure to Act “breach of the Conventions or of this Protocol …by a subordinate does not absolve his superiors from penal or disciplinary responsibility… if they knew, or should have known [of the crime]”), and Article 87 (Duty of Commanders- “military commanders [have a duty] to suppress and to report to competent authorities breaches of the Conventions and of this Protocol [and] to initiate such steps as are necessary to prevent such violations.. [and take] disciplinary or penal action against violators…”
What Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo Must Prove to Obtain a Conviction
If Prosecutor Moreno–Ocampo uses the legal doctrine of command responsibility to prove his case, he must show beyond a reasonable doubt al-Bashir acted or failed to act with respect to the alleged crimes at least under one or more of the following circumstances. Al-Bashir, at the time of the alleged offenses, had 1) as a “civilian” president legal authority to command and control Sudanese soldiers and their commanders; 2) actual legal authority (de jure) over the Sudanese military and/or the janjaweed militia such that he can issue orders to them not to commit illegal acts, and punish them if they violate his orders; 3) operational power of command over military troops stationed in Darfur combined with the actual ability to control the conduct of these troops and their commanders; 4) de facto powers of command and control or other informal or indirect command and control over the janjaweed militia and their leaders; 5) de jure authority, command and control of such nonmilitary organizations as the Ministry of the Interior and other police and security agencies involved in actions against civilians in the Darfur region; 6) actual or constructive knowledge of crimes committed or about to be committed in Darfur, or acted or failed to act in willful disregard of available information indicating that crimes were committed or about to be committed in Darfur; 7) been negligent in gathering and processing information on crimes committed or about to be committed in Darfur and 8) known or should have known of crimes committed in the Darfur by the Sudanese military or the janjaweed and failed to punish the perpetrators or failed to take preventive action.
For purposes of Article 28 (a) (command responsibility) of the Rome Statute, and relying upon the Yamashita standard (WW II trial of Japanese war criminals on the basis of command responsibility) al-Bashir will have a very difficult time defending against the ICC charges. The facts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur were so notoriously known, so extensive and widespread both as to time (2003-present), area and victim populations, that the only reasonable conclusion by a fact-finder is that al-Bashir, as president of the Sudan and commander-in-chief of the Sudanese armed forces, must either have willfully permitted the commission of the crimes by members of the armed forces or the janjaweed who coordinated with the regular army units, or secretly ordered the commission of the alleged crimes.
Those who have some familiarity with the evidence against al-Bashir will likely agree that Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo will be able to prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt by showing that al-Bashir:
Was president of the Sudan when the crimes began taking place in Darfur in 2003 and continue to the present day.
As Sudan’s president was (and is) responsible for national security; and that as a commander-in-chief of the Sudanese military directed and maintained close contacts with field commanders in the Darfur region who reported to him directly, and that he had full authority to supervise and administer Sudan’s military.
Himself a former army general, was (and is) the chief architect of military policies and actions in the Darfur region with ultimate authority over military and civilian government organizations and operations involved in that region.
Has been informed of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur through direct and indirect means. In September, 2004 President George W. Bush took the extraordinary step to inform him of crimes committed in Darfur when he declared, “The world is witnessing terrible suffering and horrible crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan, crimes my government has concluded are genocide.” International human rights organizations have put al-Bashir on alert for years concerning violations of international human rights law, and has taken vindictive actions against them after an arrest warrant was issued against him because they performed their duty of reporting war crimes and crimes against humanity as required by international law.
Had direct communication with janjaweed militia leaders, or indirectly through his ministers, and was well informed of their criminal activities in Darfur.
Has and continues to have de facto command and control and authority over the janjaweed militias and their leaders directly or through Sudanese military officers, the interior ministry and other government agencies; that he has provided the militias arms, training, tactical and logistical support in their criminal activities against civilians in Darfur.
Has directed or caused Sudanese military commanders to order and/or instruct the janjaweed to “mop up” and eliminate “insurgents” in the camps, and determined the details of such operations.
Was made aware of certain information concerning war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, (including an extraordinary statement by the President of the United States in 2004 and other international human rights organizations), and presented with such alerting information was under a legal duty to investigate further, and to take all necessary measures to prevent the crimes from taking place.
Had the power to impose disciplinary or criminal sanctions against soldiers and commanders and janjaweed forces involved in crimes against civilians in Darfur. No commanders or janjaweed criminal perpetrators have ever been punished for war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo has dozens of eyewitnesses to testify about the atrocities that took place in Darfur. He has substantial forensic, physical, documentary, photographic, videographic and a variety of circumstantial evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Based on the totality of the evidence, the ICC could reasonably and effortlessly conclude or infer that 1) al-Bashir knew or should have known of large scale atrocities committed against civilians for years in Darfur, 2) that he possessed sufficient knowledge of the Darfur atrocities to enable him to anticipate the eventual course of events that occurred between 2003 and the present, including the repeated commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other offenses; 3) that in those cases where he did not have actual knowledge of the crime, he remained willfully ignorant and failed to stay adequately informed of the circumstances in Darfur with gross criminal negligence, 4) that as president and commander in chief, he willfully refused to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity and punish those who committed atrocities implicitly acquiescing to the crimes (or effectively ratifying the criminal conduct after the fact thereby encouraging the commission of additional atrocities in the future); and 5) that he was one of the few individuals who actually could have prevented atrocities in Darfur by providing for proper precautionary measures. Therefore, the ICC will likely determine that al-Bashir bears heavy attribution of personal and command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur beginning in 2003.
For whom the Bell Tolls
To al-Bashir’s soulmates who have “been saddened” by the arrest warrant issued against him, we offer them a verse from John Donne:
Send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
