Project Covers Reaction to Request for al-Bashir Indictment

In July, IWPR Hague-based staff worked with trainees in Khartoum to give local reaction to the ICC prosecution request to issue an arrest warrant against Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked judges at the court to issue a warrant against al-Bashir for allegedly committing genocide and for crimes against humanity. This followed months of speculation, which began after he told the United Nations Security Council that Sudan’s entire state apparatus was being used to destroy Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit communities.

IWPR trainees in Khartoum revealed that authorities there sought to engineer protests against likely ICC indictment of the Sudanese president.

The trainees on the ground revealed that the government was organising rallies in response to the likely arrest warrant, with members of al-Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party coming out to join the demonstrations.

They added that the practice of censoring independent newspapers had also been tightened since the prosecutor’s announcement.

IWPR journalists also called contacts living in camps for displaced persons near Al-Fashir and Nyala for their reaction. Although they welcomed the prosecutor’s announcement, they told IWPR the situation on the ground could get worse if the UN peacekeeping force in war-torn Darfur remained powerless to fully protect internally displaced civilians.

They pointed out that while indictments are being considered at the ICC in The Hague, violence continues each day in the region.

The team also spoke to UNAMID representatives in the region to confirm accounts that non-essential UN staff were being withdrawn for fear of retributive attacks against peacekeepers.