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Nigeria: Govt - Sudanese President's Indictment By ICC Ill-Timed
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This Day (Lagos)
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Damilola Oyedele
Abuja
The Federal Government has described the indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as ill-timed and an action that could aggravate the already bad situation in the country.
Speaking in Abuja yesterday at a one-day seminar organised by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution on "Nigeria and Darfur Crises: The Way Forward", the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ojo Maduekwe advised the Sudanese government to strive to bring peace to Dafur for the sake of its citizens.
Maduekwe said the peace could be achieved by bringing to book the perpetrators of criminal acts through its judicial system.
According to him, the Africa Union (AU) had also agreed that the timing of the indictment was bad especially as it concerns a sitting president.
He said: "We would not abandon Sudan at this stage; we would defend its rights as a sovereign state and also the office of the sitting president, which we would be the first to defend. But sovereignty is not an instrument of repression. Sitting presidents whether in Africa or anywhere else should stand up for the rights of their people and stop sitting on them."
The minister said the Africa Peace and Security Council, which met in Addis Ababa early this week did not tear up the ICC indictment but simply deferred it.
"International law has moved away from a blind concept of sovereignty that means whatever happens within your territory, even if it is in gross violation of human rights, would be defended and that is the significance of the ICC indictment which we agreed is wrong timing or political, or targeted at Africa. All these does not in any way extricate African governments from their responsibility to make sure that there is peace, democracy, rule of law and good governance in their domains," he said.
He however appealed to the Sudanese government to desist from creating an impression of a helpless government and put in more efforts to restore peace in Darfur.
"What we get from Sudan is a feeling that things are out of their hands and we have made it clear that they should regain control as a government. We are tired of Sudan coming to AU meetings to say they are doing their best to quell the situation, their best is not enough," he added.
He said Nigeria had a responsibility to ensure peace in Africa because of the entrepreneurial nature of its people.
"This does not make us police of Africa, but it would be foolhardy for us to assume that the fire burning next door would not burn us."
Commenting on the Niger Delta crises, he appealed to the people to give the President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua government a chance to right the wrongs that had been done to the people and develop the region.
According to him, "If people who would bring this development would be kidnapped or killed, they would not bother to come at all."
A prosecutor for the ICC in The Hague, which is located in Brussels, had announced July 14 that he was presenting the case for genocide against Sudanese President Al-Bashir.
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ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, had accused al-Bashir of committing crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Darfur region.
It is not correct in any form to condemn only the timing of the indictment but the SPIRIT OF THE INDICTMENT for it is very clear to those who have been following the Sudan civil wars that the ICC is been DEFINITELY used to, one way or another, get rid of President Omar al-Bashir to clear the way for the US to make the final moves to force Sudan government to give up its rule in south Sudan. The goal is for US to colonize south Sudan and loot the natural resources as is the case with neibouring Congo... [Read Full Text]
I think Gishola must have been ingnorance of what it's going on in Sudan for so many decade, When Arab has been dominating Sudan and using the resources from the Black Africa Sudanese to developing there areas and neglect the Black Africa Sudanese areas,even forcing the Black Africa Sudanese to abandoning their cultures. And look at how Arab sponsored group called Janjanweed killing and rendering millions of Black Africa Darfurians Sudanese homeless,It's this level of actrocity not heartbroken? yes, It is. I am strongly believe the UN WAR CRIME indictment of Omar Al bishir [Sudanese president] happening at the right... [Read Full Text]
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