Tents of Hope: PR in Arabic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mohamed Elgadi MohamedElgadi@yahoo.com 215-870-7809
Tragi Mustafa TragiMustafa@yahoo.com 905-317-4149
Tents of Hope Announces Vigil for Darfur at Sudanese Embassy:
"Deliver a People’s Arrest Warrant for Omar Al-Bashir"

منظمة "خيام الأمل" تعلن عن الإعتصام من أجل

دارفور أمام السفارة السودانية

" رسالتنا أمر قبض شعبى على عمر البشير"

واشنطون دى سى - ينظم السودانيون ومنظمة "خيام الأمل" إعتصامآ أمام مبنى السفارة السودانية فى واشنطون من الساعة 2 الى الساعة 7 بعد الظهر وذلك يوم الجمعة الموافق 7 نوفمبر 2008 . يجمع هذا الاعتصام السودانيين والامريكان على هدف واضح: تحقيق العدالة والسلام فى دارفور وذلك باصدار أمر قبض شعبى ضد الرئيس عمر البشير قبل أن يقتل من جديد. هذا الاعتصام جزء من " لقاء الخيام" التاريخى والذى ينعقد من أجل دارفور فى أيام 7 - 9 نوفمبر 2008 www.TentsofHope.org

سيلتقى السودانيون والامريكان فى هذا الاعتصام كى يقولوا بالصوت العالى ( كفاية) هجمات على مواطنى دارفور فى قراهم ومدنهم ومعسكراتهم ، وسيطلب اللقاء انهاء جهود السلام الدولية البائسة و التى لم تفعل شيئآ يذكر لوقف هذه الهجمات. " أنا مذهولة من سلبية المسلمين فى أمريكا وعلى نطاق العالم تجاه الابادة الجارية فى دارفور حيث يقوم مسلمون بضرب وتعذيب واغتصاب وقتل واذلال مسلمين آخرين" ، صرحت بذلك شابانا ستيشنوالا ، مديرة مشروع Nur التابع للمؤتمر الاسلامى الأمريكى.

لقد آن الأوان لتأييد القبض على البشير بواسطة المحكمة الجنائية الدولية لمحاكمته على جرائم نظامه فى دارفور التى تسببت فى مقتل اكثر من 300 ألف شخص، كما تشهد المجازر الأخيرة فى معسكرات كالما وزمزم وبيرى للنازحين، إضافة الى حوالى 3 مليون مواطن فقدوا بيوتهم ولا يزالون يعيشون فى معسكرات منذ عام 2003. يجب ألا يمنح البشير أى مهلة يزعم دبلوماسيوه فى الأمم المتحدة أنه يحتاج إليها لتحقيق السلام فى دارفور. يجب أن يحاسب البشير على جرائمه كافة، مثلما قالت مواطنة دارفورية لأحد عمال الإغاثة فى معسكر لاجئين فى تشاد: " تأجيل محاكمة البشير لن يكون فرصة لإحلال السلام، ولكنه سيكون فرصة للبشير لمزيد من القتل ". وكانت مذبحة معسكر كالما للنازحين فى جنوب دارفور دليلآ مأساويآ على نبوءتها. " لقد حان الوقت كى يعاقب الرئيس البشير على كافة جرائمه"، يقول محمد القاضى ، أحد الناجين من التعذيب فى بيوت الاشباح فى الخرطوم. " لن أنسى ، ما حييت، تصريح البشير فى التلفزيون للعالم أجمع - أن الحديث عن التعذيب فى السودان كذب - وكنت أنا فى تلك اللحظة ضمن 171 معتقلآ يتعرضون للتعذيب فى واحد من بيوت اشباحه العديدة فى الخرطوم."

لقد جمعت منظمة ( اوقفوا الابادة الجماعية الآن) تعليقات وأقوال عديد من اللاجئين الدارفوريين التى تسجل مأساتهم وتعبر عن صوتهم الشجاع فى الوقت نفسه. وقد ظهر هذا الصوت واضحآ وقويآ فى هذه الرسالة الخطية القصيرة من أحد اللاجئين: " على المجتمع الدولى أن يدعم العدالة والمحكمة الجنائية الدولية فى موضوع البشير." وعندما سئل لاجئ آخر عما إذا كانت حياته ستتعرض للخطر إن صدر أمر بالقاء القبض على الرئيس البشير، أجاب قائلآ: " العدالة فوق الجميع. لن يتحقق السلام دون عدالة." كما تساءل صبى دارفورى لاجئ بفصاحة: " لماذا يمنح البشير 12 شهرآ لاحلال السلام، فى حين أننا لم ننعم بالسلام منذ 5 سنوات؟"." ليس لدينا وقت لتضييعه. لدينا كل الادلة والبراهين المطلوبة لمحاكمة البشير على الفظائع التى لا يزال يرتكبها. " قال داوود صالح رئيس منظمة ( تحالف دبنقا). وأضاف قائلآ " يتعرض عمال الإغاثة السودانيون للسجن والتعذيب والقتل بسبب تقديمهم العون للمواطنين الذين أجبروا على النزوح من جنوب السودان وجبال النوبة والنيل الأزرق ودارفور. تعرضت حياتى أنا شخصيآ للتهديد، وأجبرت على الهروب عام 1990. نظام البشير يقتل الابرياء العزّل. إننا نتطلع لليوم الذى يلقى فيه القبض على هذا المجرم وأعوانه."

Tents of Hope gather in DC

Our Darfur Coalition is part of the Planning Committee for the end of this great national educational project, which will be a gathering of more than 100 tents from over 100 different cities across the United States.
The tents will be gathered @ the mall in Washington, DC on 7-9 Nov 2008.


for more info, see the website http://www.tentsofhope.org/

No Peace in Darfur without Accountability

By: Salih Mahmoud*


Excerpts from an article published on the website of Coalition of the ICC, and titled:
Do not deprive Darfurians of their right of justice


"Recently, while still president, Mbeki travelled to Sudan and issued a statement arguing that the proposed arrest warrant would undermine lasting peace in Sudan. If only we can tempt Bashir to co-operate with the UN for the first time, the argument runs, who cares about responsibility for the hundreds of thousands who already lost their lives in this conflict, and millions more driven from their homes?



The answer is that Darfurians will care. And so should anybody who cares about Darfur. Darfurians do not have peace (there is no peace process in Darfur) and they do not have security, they cannot now be asked to give away justice as well. Contrary to Mbeki’s statement, most of the displaced see justice as a precondition for return and for lasting peace. Indeed, there will be no peace and no security in Darfur without accountability.



Theoretically, the deal which governments now seem so eager to agree on would be valid for a mere 12 months. But the chances that the immunity would then be renewed are dangerously high.That would be an insult to the people of Darfur, and to victims of human rights abuses worldwide.


If there is no accountability for Darfur, that will set a dangerous precedent at the council, which tyrants of the future far beyond Darfur and Sudan will be eager to repeat. The preventive and the punitive power of the court will be immeasurably damaged. Darfurians wish to live in peace.





After what we have lived through, how could we not? But to do so we need the support of the international community, much as South Africans did to overcome apartheid. Unfortunately, the international community has failed to give necessary material and political support to peacekeeping troops on the ground or to peace negotiators."





Read the full article here: http://www.iccnow.org/?mod=newsdetail&news=3086
* Salih Mahmoud came to Amherst in 2006 as part of the Speaking Tour organized by darfur Alert Coalition of Philadelphia

أوكامبو: كنت حريصاً على عدم اتهام البشير قبل الحصول على أدلة وقرائن تدينه

from the website of United Revolutionary Forces Front-URFF جبهة القوى الثوريه المتحده

استبعد رئيس الادعاء العام في المحكمة الجنائية الدولية لويس مورينو أوكامبو صدور قرار من المحكمة بشأن توقيف الرئيس السوداني عمر حسن البشيرخلال الشهر الجاري، متوقعا حصول ذلك خلال الشهور الثلاثة المقبلة، نظراً إلى أن هذه القضية هي الأكبر أمام المحكمة، إذ يحتوي ملفها على 120 صفحة من الادعاءات. وأعرب عن قناعته بأن لديه الأدلة الكافية لربح القضية ضد المتهمين السودانيين. وقال أوكامبو (ارجنتيني يبلغ من العمر55 عاماً) في مقابلة مع «الحياة» أنه قطع شوطا كبيرا في اعداد ملف الادعاء على جماعات من المتمردين، مؤكدا أنه يقف إلى جانب تحقيق العدالة ولا يميز بين فئة وأخرى ترتكب الجرائم. وأشار الى أنه مفوض من مجلس الأمن للتحقيق في جرائم دافور، وأن مهمته التحقيق والعمل القضائي، ولن يثنيه عن ذلك أي ظرف ديبلوماسي أو سياسي ومهما تعرض للانتقادات، مضيفاً أنه يريد أن يرسم خطاً واضحاً، وهو أن كل سياسي يرتكب جرائم ضد الإنسانية سيحاكم أمام القضاء. وأبدى اعجابه بالثقافة العربية واحترامه للشعب السوداني وحكومته، معتبراً أن تعاون الجامعة العربية والاتحاد الافريقي عنصر مهمة في وقف المجازر في دارفور. في مكتبه في مبنى المحكمة الجنائية الدولية، حاورت «الحياة»

أوكامبو، وهنا نص الحوار

http://www.sudaneseurff.com/news_view_400.html

Aritcle: Justice v. politics

from the International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/16/opinion/edarbour.php

By Louise Arbour
Published: September 16, 2008

When I announced the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic on May 27, 1999, at the height of the armed conflict between Serbia and NATO troops in Kosovo, many were dismayed.
The conventional wisdom at the time was that the indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, where I was chief prosecutor, would make the situation in Kosovo worse. Some said it would likely prove fatal to the prospect of any compromise by Milosevic - that I had killed the chance for peace.
Predictably, Milosevic was contemptuous of the indictment and vowed that he would never face trial in The Hague. The Russian envoy to the Balkans said I had "pulled the rug out from under the negotiating process."
Yet only a week later, Milosevic accepted the terms of a peace agreement and the war ended that month. Eighteen months later, a popular uprising swept Milosevic from office and he arrived in The Hague soon thereafter to face justice.
If the United Nations Security Council had had the authority to stop my indictment, things might have ended differently. And that's precisely the issue now at the center of a storm of controversy at the Security Council. How it is resolved will have serious implications for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and for the cause of international justice

Not long after the ICC prosecutor announced he was seeking an arrest warrant against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for orchestrating a genocidal campaign in Darfur, diplomats and political observers predicted the worst. President Bashir denounced the prosecutor's request and rejected the authority of the ICC altogether.
Within days the African Union and Organization of Islamic Conference called on the Security Council to defer the case against Bashir, claiming it thwarted prospects for peace.
They also feared retaliation against peacekeepers and humanitarian workers in Sudan. Nearly half of the Security Council has expressed support for a deferral.

The ICC statute does empower the Security Council to defer the ICC process. But such power was intended to be used extremely rarely, and then only to promote justice, not to prevent it from running its course.
The ICC was founded on the principle that accountability for the world's most serious crimes is a prerequisite for long-term peace and security. It is presumably with that in mind that the Security Council referred to Darfur case to the ICC in the first place in 2005.
The assumption should be, as the Milosevic precedent has illustrated, that judicial and political processes can be allowed to advance simultaneously and independently of each other. The goal should be to preserve the integrity of both the judicial and the political track, and, most important, to avoid the politicization of the court. Justice is a partner to peace, not an impediment to it.
To use a deferral for mere political convenience - or worse, to appease the threats of tyrants - would undermine the fledgling court. There is little hope for the promotion of the rule of law internationally if the most powerful international body makes it subservient to the rule of political expediency.
The past decade has seen tremendous advances in showing abusive leaders that their crimes will have consequences. Since the mid-1990s, for the first time in history, former heads of state have actually been brought to trial for human rights crimes.

To put ICC proceedings on hold in Darfur would send a dangerous signal to would-be war criminals that justice is negotiable and the Security Council can be held hostage to their threats.

The ICC has the ability to bring charges in real time, while conflicts are ongoing. This is not the first time, nor is it the last time, that we will face the question of whether justice interferes with peace. Indeed, these issues will arise more and more frequently. And it will often be very tempting to suspend justice in exchange for promises to end a conflict.
But if the Security Council decides in the coming weeks to interfere with court proceedings, it will vindicate those who believe politics can trump justice. That will undermine the progress the world has made so far in bringing the most powerful human rights abusers to justice for their crimes.

Louise Arbour is the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Interview with Candidates on Darfur

from the website of Ask the Candidate

http://www.askthecandidates.org/candidate/barack-obama

Stop the Genocide in Darfur: Barack Obama has been a leading voice urging the Bush Administration to take stronger steps to end the genocide in Sudan. He worked with Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. Obama has traveled to the United Nations to meet with Sudanese officials and visited refugee camps on the Chad-Sudan border to raise international awareness of the ongoing humanitarian disaster there. He also worked with Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) to secure $20 million for the African Union peacekeeping mission. Obama believes the United States needs to lead the world in ending this genocide, including by imposing much tougher sanctions that target Sudan's oil revenue, implementing and helping to enforce a no-fly zone, and engaging in more intense, effective diplomacy to develop a political roadmap to peace. The international community must, over the Sudanese regime?s protests, deploy a large, capable UN-led and UN-funded force with a robust enforcement mandate to stop the killings.

John McCain
Summary of the candidate's response:
McCain talked about how American and peace loving people are tired of saying Never Again. Unfortunately, action is being blocked by China, so we need to sit down with other peace loving countries to end the genocide. Specifically, his answer focused on providing logistical support and funding for the peacekeeping force in Darfur.
The moderator then asked a followup question - "Would a McCain presidency over the last 7 years have done more about Darfur than the Bush presidency has." McCain responded 'yes'. He says that he would have made it a bigger priority for his presidency. He would have shamed China for its failure to help, and he would have made louder appeals to other countries to act.

"Impunity is a threat to peace"

From the website of Human Rights Watch


Standing Firm against Impunity
By Sara Darehshori
Published in El Mundo
August 1, 2008

Many people in Bosnia and beyond thought they would never see Radovan Karadzic standing before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It seemed almost beyond the dreams of the rape victims that I interviewed in Bosnia in 1993, or those held in concentration camps But even then, in the midst of the conflict and in very difficult circumstances, local civilians had painstakingly gathered detailed testimonies from survivors in the hope that one day, there would be justice for these crimes. Even after the Yugoslav tribunal was established and had issued indictments against Karadzic for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, it seemed unlikely that he would ever be arrested. And yet this week he faced a panel of judges for his role in the massacre of men and boys after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, as well ascrimes in various cities across Bosnia, including the shelling of Sarajevo during the city’s siege.
....
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In the case of Sudan, the Security Council already determined that the impunity for ongoing crimes in Darfur was itself a threat to peace and security when it referred the situation to the ICC. Nothing has happened to change that assessment: ttacks by government forces and aligned janjaweed continue. Moreover, the Darfur peace talks have been stalled for nine months for reasons unrelated to the ICC or to the possibility of a warrant against Bashir. No one has been held to account in Sudan’s national courts in relation to the attacks in Darfur. Thus, it is unclear what can be gained by deferring international judicial processes now.
read the full article: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/01/bosher19537.htm