Arrest George Bush and Tony Blair Before You Go for Al Bashir

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If the world is to be a place where true justice for all prevails for the people that live in the international community, then the question of war crimes and the measures available to enforce sanctions and penalties alike must be binding to both the small and the so called big powers.

I live in Northern Uganda where a proxy war and subsequent atrocities inspired by Al Bashir caused the death of my father and many of the young men in my village. Al Bashir has the ingenious tactics of dealing with his enemies indirectly and tries to come clean as the innocent one. In the case of Northern Uganda, he used Joseph Kony’ LRA as a buffer force between Uganda and the animist Southern Sudanese to a very powerful effect. Many Ugandans of the Acholi and the Langi ethnic groups lost their lives in the 20-year-old war than in any other time in history because of the complications Umar Al Bashir brought into the Northern Uganda rebellion. Therefore, am one man who would have a big sense of fulfillment if this man Umar al Bashir were prosecuted.

But going for Umar Al Bashir’s neck in the prevailing atmosphere of double standards in the current world order makes me feel terribly at odds with the spirit of the indictment against the Sudanese President. The activities of the International Court of Justice dispenses selective and twisted brands of justice where the small nations like Sudan, Serbia, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Liberia have their nationals expeditiously criminalized and arraigned before the ICJ for trial while similar heinous crimes against humanity go unnoticed elsewhere simply because the perpetrators are untouchable.

I find it completely insulting for America and Britain to be supportive of the arrest of Al Bashir when in Guantanamo Bay, many illegal detentions are going on and the dignity of prisoners on mere suspicion of a crime are already suffering actual conviction in the most inhuman conditions anyone could possibly imagine. It does not surprise me that many prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are committing suicide as a choice against continuing to live under such terrible torture.  A lot more could be said about the unsavory behavior of American Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan-we all saw those prisoners being tortured and killed in Iraq. We have heard of the killing of innocent children and women along the Pakistan-Afghan border and we know, George Bush was the commander in chief when all these things were happening. The most sucking bit to this fact is the truth that America has not signed up to the ICJ body and it therefore does not recognize the court as a binding world Institution. What this means is that Americans can do whatever they like on other human beings and they would not be brought to book by the ICJ! This is the kind of double standards of morality that make terrorists of this world justify their terrorist actions and heighten their conviction to harm world peace.

When you give careful thought to the indictment of Al Bashir, you probably will agree with him and many African leaders who think that the indictment was handed down on Al Bashir in bad faith. You sort of try to push the crimes against the Darfurians by the Sudan backed Janjawids under the carpet.  Before the ICJ gets animated about arresting the small fish on this planet, let them show us they have teeth, by arresting Russians for their human right crimes in the Chechnya, the Americans for their crimes in Afghanistan and Baghdad and the Chinese for their crimes against humanity in Tibet.  Short of this, we shall treat the indictment of small men like Al-Bashir with a lot of contempt.