came to power after a coup, the Sudanese president is accused of the violence in Darfur
Al-Bashir (AP)
KHARTOUM - Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir is the current president of Sudan. According to the indictment, is liable to have orchestrated a campaign of violence in the Darfur region in western areas of the country, starting since 2003. After the arrest warrant decided against it, has become the highest-profile figure sought by the ICTY since its establishment in 2002.
THE CONFLICT - Bashir came to power after the coup of 1989 that overthrew Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. In 2003 conflict broke out in Darfur. "A semi-desert region, but rich in groundwater resources - according to a UNICEF report - put on fire by Janjaweed militias backed by the Khartoum government, whose raids have forced half of the rural population to flee." Six years of war that have killed at least 300,000 deaths and 2.7 million displaced persons and refugees. The definition of "genocide" for the violence, however, is doubtful: according to a UN report of 2005 in Darfur, there were mass killings but they do not fall into the category of "genocide."
cult of personality '- In recent weeks, awaiting the decision of the Hague Tribunal, Omar al Bashir has succumbed to the cult of personality in the streets of the capital appeared gigantic posters with the President in the foreground, to remind the Sudanese "virtue" of their rais and the "treachery" of the International Criminal Court. "Al Bashir, the symbol of our pride and our dignity," "Conspiracy Ocampo (Chief Prosecutor of the Court, ed): a desperate attempt that aims to hit the Sudanese people," read the posters. In recent days, about the likely arrest warrant, Bashir had said: "What should be prepared as well ... may well eat it. " The President waited until the decision of the Court inaugurated the largest hydroelectric dam on the Nile at Aswan after that - built in ten years from 1960 to 1970 - at Meroe, a town 400 km north of Khartoum. Created by a consortium of Chinese companies under the supervision of a German group, the dam has cost - according to figures released in Khartoum - more than two billion dollars, financed by Chinese and Sudanese capital.
Here, in summary, the main stages of the crisis in Darfur:
- 1956: Sudan gains independence from Britain. He was born an Arab government
- 1955: the first civil war broke out in Sudan that pits government forces and Muslim rebels in the largely Muslim south of the country. The conflict ended in 1972
- 1958: it requires the country's military dictatorship of Bashir
- 1983: This is the beginning of the second Sudanese civil war which lasted until 2002. They open the negotiations but do not meet the southern rebels who accuse the government of oppressing non-Arab population
- 2003: The rebel Justice and Equality Movement and Sudan Liberation Army attacked government forces. Khartoum Janjaweed militia is needed to suppress, but always denies any link with the paramilitaries
-8 April 2004: signed the cease-fire between the Sudanese government and rebels. But the attacks of the Janjaweed continue. 100 000 people fleeing
to Chad - July 2004: UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, visiting the region and urged the government to stop the violence. The African Union and the European Union decided to monitor the situation
- July 23: The U.S. Congress defines what genocide is happening in Sudan
- July 30: UN launches an ultimatum to the Sudanese government: it has 30 days to disarm the militias
- August 30: At the expiration of the Annan says in a report that the militias remain armed and continue to attack civilians, and that the government has not kept its commitments.
-9 September 2004: Former U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said that in Darfur is an ongoing genocide
- October 2004: Kofi Annan is a commission charged with investigating crimes in Sudan. It consists of 5 members, chaired by Antonio Cassese, former President of the Court delll'Onu for war crimes in former Yugoslavia.
- January 31, 2005: The committee presents its report on Darfur. Confirmation that are taking place in Sudan appalling crimes of war, but does not speak of genocide. Managers, he argues, must be tried by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The United States rejects this conclusion, in part because opponents of the Court and always aim to create an ad hoc tribunal, established in Tanzania under the aegis of the African Union
- 5 aprile 2005: il procuratore della Tribunale Penale Internazionale, Luis Moreno Ocampo, riceve da Annan una lista con i nomi delle persone accusate dalla commissione di inchiesta dell'Onu di aver commesso crimini contro l'umanità .
- 14 luglio 2008: Moreno-Ocampo chiede l'arresto di Bashir.
Fonte Corriere della sera
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