Press Release from Sudanese group in Philadelpia (Arabic)

بيان هام

التجمع الوطنى للسودانيين بفيلادلفيا

وقف جنون طغاة الانقاذ وفك اسر الشعب السودانى واجب الساعة الوقوف ضد قرار المحكمة الدولية جريمة اخرى تضاف الى جرائم

الانقاذ فى دارفور نرحب بقرار المحكمة الدوليةكما هو متوقع بعد صدور مذكرة المدعى العام للمحكمة الجنائية بتوجيه تهم محددة للمتهم عمر حسن احمد البشير بإرتكاب جرائم الابادة الجماعية, والجرائم ضد الإنسانية، وجرائم الحرب فى دارفور، لجأ نظام الانقاذ الدكتاتورى الى محاولة فاشلة لتضليل الرأى العام السودانى والعالمى بالادعاء الممجوج بأن هناك ابعاداً سياسية للقضية التى اثارها المدعى العام . فمحاولة النظام هذه تهدف الي صرف الانظار عن الاستحقاقات القانونية المترتبة علي الاتهامات البينة التي وردت في صحيفة الادعاء ، و هي تتعلق في صميمها بارتكاب المتهم عمر البشير لجرائم خطيرة تحاول كل اجهزة النظام العلنية منها و السرية و كل مؤسساته ان تجد مخرجاً له لاجل الافلات منها. و هي محاولات بائسة تستخدم فيها نفس ادوات التجييش و المراوغة التي وظفت من قبل في تنفيذ نفس الجرائم و التستر عليها. . أشار المدعى العام أن البشير قد دبر ونّفذ خطة لتدمير جزء كبير من المجموعات القاطنة بدارفور، لأسباب إثنية ولفترة زمنية تجاوزت الخمس سنوات، حيث شرد الملايين من المدنيين من أراضيهم التي شغلوها لقرون خلت، ودمر جميع وسائل عيشهم، و مكّن لمستوطنين جدد ان يغتصبوا ارضهم و يسكنوها. واوضح المدعي العام انه و من بين الأدّلة اليوم أن البشير، بد ًلا من مساعدة أهل دارفور، قد عبأ جهاز الدولة بأكمله، بما في ذلك القوات المسّلحة، وجهاز الاستخبارات، والدوائر الديبلوماسية والإعلامية، والجهاز القضائي من أجل إجبار2.450.000 من الأشخاص لترك مساكنهم و اراضيهم ليعيشوا في مخيمات للمشردين، و تحت ظروف مدروسة لتدميرهم مادياً و معنوياً بل و استهدافهم لدرجة ترقى الي محوهم من علي وجه الارض. ما قال به المدعي العام قد ظلت تردده كل منظمات حقوق الانسان و تنظيمات المجتمع المدني السودانية لعقدين من الزمن قبل المنظمات العالمية. ولم يفاجأ النشطاء السودانيين بهذا القرار و انما عملوا لاجل ان يصبح حقيقة لاجل رد المظالم و تقديم مجرمي نظام الانقاذ الي العدالة. ونحن نؤكد ان هذه الجرائم هى الحلقة الاكثر دموية وبشاعة فى سلسلة جرائم الانقاذ ضد الشعب السودانى بكل مكوناته والتى بدات منذ اليوم الاول للانقلاب المشؤوم الذى دبرته ونفذته الجبهة القومية الاسلامية عام 1989 م بقيادة المتهم عمر حسن احمد البشير الذى بالإضافة الى اشرافه المباشر على تنفيذ هذه الجرائم قد جعل ارتكاب المزيد منها ممكنًا برفضه المجهودات الوطنية للوصول الى الحقيقة وبتصفيته للقضاء السودانى والحاقه بمؤسسات نظامه ليصبح القضاء بذلك مؤسسةً تتستر على الجرائم بدل من ان تكشفها و تعاقب مرتكبيها. ان البشير متهم فى جرائم جنائية جوهراً ويجب ان يخضع للمساءلة القانونية امام محكمة الجنايات الدولية وان معاناة الشعب السودانى وذاكرته وارادته الغلابة ضمن توجهات المجتمع الدولى لن تتراجع امام جنون الطغاة , لذلك نحن فى التجمع الوطنى للسودانيين بفيلادلفيا نـعـلـن ..

1 ـ مساندتنا ودعمنا لقرار المدعى العام لمحكمة الجنايات الدولية بتقديم البشير ومعاونيه الى المحاكمة.

2 ـ ان نظام الانقاذ فاقد الشرعية أساساومغتصب للسلطة السياسية ويجب ازالة سيطرته على حكم البلاد بعد صدور مذكرة المدعى العام فى حق راس النظام.

3 ـ مطالبتنا للحركة الشعبية وعلى راسها النائب الاول السيد سلفاكير بالتنحى عن رئاسة لجنة ادارة الازمة التى كونها المتهم البشير حتى لايكون مطية لنظام الانقاذ للالتفاف على قرارات المجتمع الدولى.

4 دعوتنا للتنظيمات السياسية ان تلعب دورها القيادى وتلهم الشعب إتخاذ الموقف الصحيح وتجنيب الوطن المزيد من الجراح ,وان تكف عن الانقياد و الاندفاع وراء الادعاءات المسمومة التي تبثها الماكينة الاعلامية لنظام الانقاذ.

والنصر لشعبناالتجمع الوطنى للسودانيين بفيلادلفيا16 يوليو 2008م

WMDC to help ICC to indict President al-Bashir

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
contact person: Mohamed I. Elgadi
Tel. 215-870-7809

Amherst MA--The Western Mass. Darfur Coalition-WMDC-vigorously welcomes the announcement of the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor of charges to indict President Omar al-Bashir for his war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The Sudanese victims and survivors of President al-Bashir’s regime who live in the Pioneer Valley expressed comfort at the Monday, July 14th announcement. “At least the international community is showing some strong signs to serve the delayed justice for my people,” said Abu Asal, member of WMDC and one of the torture survivors from Darfur. The fate of his sister, a teacher, is unknown since she was ‘disappeared’ last year while walking to her school in the suburbs of Nyala, S. Darfur.

The crimes of President al-Bashir's regime in Darfur did not start in 2003. (The ICC indictment was limited to this date.) For more than 19 years, his regime continued to wage war against its own people with little or no action from the international community. For the first time in the recent history of states, the regime adopted torture as an official policy to punish peaceful opposition. Torture Centers, known as Ghost Houses, spread all over the country. The mass killing and targeting of specific ethnic groups began in the early 1990s when al-Bashir assigned the region of Darfur to one of his close military aides, Tayeb Sikha. However, over the past five years the destruction of the Darfur people reached its high point as correctly noted by the ICC prosecutor in his report.

In November 2006 WMDC actively participated in having President al-Bashir put on trial by the world peoples. The International Citizens’ Tribunal for Sudan (ICTS), chaired by Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, found al-Bashir guilty of 15 different charges. Ten of these counts were included in the indictment case of the ICC prosecutor. In addition, WMDC was behind the large educational Darfur campaign that led to the adoption of Darfur Resolutions in many cities and towns in MA.

“We will continue to cooperate with the office of the ICC Prosecutor until justice is served in this new indictment”, said Mohamed Elgadi, member of WMDC, who was also one of the witnesses at the ICTS court. “We will be providing an important potential court witness in the ICC, and we are not revealing the name for her/his own safety. ”

WMDC calls on our local legislators and the human rights community to welcome and support the announcement of the General Prosecutor of the ICC

The Western Massachusetts Darfur Coalition is an advocacy human rights-focused membership group of activists in the Pioneer Valley (MA). It works to educate the public about the crisis in the Darfur region (Sudan) and mobilize our community to take action to stop the genocide. For more information on this PR and the work of WMDC, please contact Mohamed Elgadi @ 215-870-7809 or by email: mohamedelgadi@yahoo.com or visit our weblog: www.DarfurWM.blogspot.com

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President al-Bashir indicted at the ICC..

Big victory for the victims of Darfur and all other regions of Suda...!

http://washtimes.com/news/2008/jul/14/sudan-president-al-bashir-charged-with-g-32311640/




NEW YORK -- The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Monday morning asked for an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Lt. Gen. Omar al-Bashir, declaring the atrocities against civilians in Darfur to be genocide.
ICC prosecutor Luis Ocampo-Moreno on Monday released a detailed charge sheet accusing Mr. al-Bashir of 10 counts of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
The indictment was unsealed just three weeks before the Summer Olympics are to open in Beijing, an embarrassment to Khartoum's most loyal protector and biggest trade partner.
Humanitarian officials immediately expressed concern about retaliation by the government, which is accused of murdering or causing to die by famine, disease and rape hundreds of thousands of civilians, and driving millions from their homes.
Mr. al-Bashir has for five years "masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups," of Darfur on account of their ethnicity, according to the complaint against him. Their lands were later resettled by other people, a violation of international law.
On Mr. al-Bashir's orders, the prosecutor said, the combined forces of the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed militia have attacked and destroyed villages, pursuing survivors into the desert. The government has obstructed international relief assistance and menaced camps, often gang-raping women in front of their own families.
"I don't have the luxury to look away," said Mr. Moreno-Ocampo yesterday in The Hague. "I have evidence.
The indictment is the most ambitious yet from the 6-year-old tribunal, which has also announced prosecutions against warlords in Uganda, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, Mr. al-Bashir and others who have previously been incited by the ICC are unlikely to show up in the dock anytime soon: The court has no police officers, and peacekeepers are unlikely to storm the presidential palace.
Sudan has not recognized the statute of the ICC, and its government has repeatedly rejected its legitimacy. Mr. al-Bashir is now effectively grounded within his own country, as travelling through or to a country that supports the ICC could lead to a forcible transfer to The Hague.
This is the third time in a short history of war crimes prosecutions that a sitting world leader has been accused of committing or permitting war crimes: former Liberian President Charles Taylor is said to be meddling in political and financial affairs from his luxurious compound in western Nigeria; former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosovich died in detention in 2006.
Few in the diplomatic or humanitarian communities rushed to Mr. al-Barshir's defense in the days before the indictment was officially announced; however, many expressed concern that Khartoum would shut down humanitarian NGOs still operating in Darfur, or retaliate against either of two U.N. peacekeeping missions inside Sudan.



UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon telephoned Mr. al-Bashir on Sunday afternoon and "stressed that the U.N. Secretary-General does not have any influence on the ICC Prosecutor," according to an update on the U.N. Web site. Mr. Ban also expressed concern about the security of the two U.N.-authorized peacekeeping missions in Sudan -- one along the border with the breakaway South, the other a slowly deploying and still vulnerable effort in Darfur.