Khartoum rankles at international pressure to bring human rights violators to justice, writes Gamal Nkrumah This week, Sudanese Vice-President Ali Othman Mohamed Taha, presidential adviser Mustafa Othman Ismail, Foreign Minister Lam Akol and Chairman of the Sudan Bar Association Fathi Khalil met to consider the decision by Hague- based International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to prosecute a former Sudanese cabinet minister, Ahmed Haroun, and Janjaweed leader Ali Khushayeb, for instigating violence and perpetrating serious human rights abuses against the people of Darfur. Sudanese authorities are indignant about what they see as foreign meddling in Sudan's internal affairs. "Sudan is a sovereign nation and we cannot contemplate outsiders interference in our domestic affairs," Sudanese Ambassador to Egypt Abdel-Moneim Mohamed Mabrouk told Al-Ahram Weekly. Authorities are especially resentful of the manner in which certain countries are singled out for international retribution posing as justice -- in this case Sudan. High-ranking Sudanese officials have complained bitterly about the fact that human rights abuses in other African countries are ignored while Western governments and the media target countries with resource lucrative endowments, like Sudan. Conspicuously absent from the Sudanese government meeting held to discuss the issue was Sudanese First Vice- President Salva Kiir. Last month Kiir voiced concern over the refusal of the Sudanese government to accept foreign peace-keeping troops in Darfur. He said he suspected that the main reason that Sudanese authorities are refusing to cooperate with the United Nations and the ICC is that they fear that their gross human rights violations in Darfur would be uncovered. Kiir came under fire for his stance from a number of Sudanese cabinet ministers. He was slandered by his detractors as "politically naïve" while others claimed he was Machiavellian, scheming and plotting to undermine the government. When Kiir first took office, many observers doubted his leadership abilities. Kiir's courageous statements silenced and confounded his critics. In a widely publicised television interview with Al-Jazeera, Kiir stated categorically that Sudan must accept international peace-keeping forces. This view sharply contrasts with that of Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. Never before has the Sudanese president been so publicly challenged and contradicted by his first deputy. The reaction of members of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of Al-Bashir was swift and caustic. "Kiir wants to foment trouble. He is undermining the government's credibility," a Sudanese diplomat told the Weekly on condition of anonymity. Yet Kiir's analysis of the war in Darfur turned out to be prescient. Compounding the issue, the Sudanese government shied from apprehending perpetrators of human rights abuses in Darfur. Reports of mass murder and rape in Darfur by government forces shocked the international community. The government announced that it already had punished human rights violators in Darfur. Critics contend that the government simply set up kangaroo courts where their opponents were falsely charged and summarily executed or put in jail. "The accused, being Sudanese nationals, must be tried in Sudan under Sudanese law," the Sudanese justice minister stressed. The international community retorts that Sudan must show that it means business in preventing and punishing human rights abuses. Failure to do so could only spell disaster. Meanwhile, President Al-Bashir is known for his heavy-handed approach. Yet he has come to embody the confrontational approach of the government in ruling the country. The Sudanese government is supposed to be a coalition of the NCP and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army. The coalition appears now to be nothing more than a thinly veiled charade. Sadly, this comic drama comes at a time when the Sudanese economy is booming. Local developers hope that new high-rise apartment blocks, skyscrapers and plush tourist resorts will bring calm and stability to the Sudanese capital. Still, Sudan needs to create robust capital markets to sustain its economic development and strengthen its precarious financial system, which is now divided between an Islamic system in the north and a secular financial system in the south.
