Al-Bashir’s Ramadan speech - is it contemplation for repentance or the

Al-Bashir’s Ramadan speech - is it contemplation for repentance or the usual prevarication rhetoric?
2013-08-20 00:13:00
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Mahmoud A. Suleiman

IS the Ramadan Sermon of al-Bashir over his genocidal victims in Darfur contemplation for repentance or the usual prevarication rhetoric?
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
This article comes on the backdrop of the speech delivered by the National Party (NCP) President, Field Marshal Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, during a Ramadan Iftar on the Sunday evening, of 21 July 2013 before an audience that included influential group of his aides and some of the Darfuri officials in his regime. The Iftar feast was organised by the chairperson of the so-called Darfur Transitional Regional Authority (DTRA) Dr. Tigani Seise. The President’s speech on that occasion was a kind of Sermon loaded with exhortation and guidance on the face of it. His began his speech by flattering Tigani Seisei as his previous teacher; and that he and other notables attending the feast - all strive for freeing from the Hellfire in the month of Ramadan, and that they will ask God to respond to their prayers. He claimed that his research found out that all the crimes get their penalty during lifetime, except for the killing of an innocent Muslim, where the punishment would be in the hereafter. It is a moment of serenity of spirit when one conversing with oneself. Al-Bashir called on the people of Darfur to take an oath to renounce war! Omar al-Bashir admitted of injustice happening in Sudan, a reference to drought and delayed rainfall (Ironically, soon after al-Bashir’s statements, the country has been inundated and devastated by floods and torrential rainfall leading to misery everywhere). He said wondering: «How to ask mercy and our hands are stained with blood? ». He called upon the people of the Darfur region to come together, raise their hands, and take Oath and the damn of the Book of God, Qur’an, to come upon you for retribution for the crimes committed. And said “O the people of Darfur the curse and the damn of the Book of Allah upon you unless you stop bloodshed” and Swear and say, we are with peace and against war) ! Al-Bashir stressed that the cause for which that blood spilled in Darfur (does not deserve the slaughter of sheep, not to mention killing a human being). Moreover, al-Bashir added that the bloodshed in Darfur wasted for trivial frivolous reasons. Al-Bashir went on calling on the people of Darfur to come together honestly and to work for peace and stability. Moreover, al-Bashir accused what he called 'third hand' involvement in the tribal fighting in Darfur; he added saying: «We neglected Samaha (kindness/ forgiveness) of the people of Darfur and Samaha (compassionate feelings of forgiveness) and customs. He added asking as to how God responds to our prayers /supplications when we shed the Muslim blood and the blood of each other, and we know that the demise of the Kaaba in Mecca is a lesser sin for Allah – SHWT- than killing a believer/Muslim “human being”? ». In his concluding remarks, al-Bashir promised that the “Peaceful Coexistence Conference” to be held soon in Darfur would offer solutions, stressing that (it will be a real conference and we swear that we work as a team.)! Omer Al Bashir has called on Darfuri people to adhere to unity and to return Darfur to its known values and traditions of tolerance and sympathy that have characterised the people of Darfur throughout history.
Abraham Lincoln, former United States of America (USA) President quoted as saying: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”! Moreover, Tennessee Williams or Thomas Lanier Williams stated (The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that is also a hypocrite). Old habits die-hard or snakes never rid their venom! The extent of hypocrisy, racism and arrogance of the political Islamism in Sudan, is 'beyond belief'. The international justice and the curses of the victims would chase Omar al-Bashir and his criminal clique. That the date for raising the banners of democracy, peace and prosperity in Sudan free from the racism of the National Islamic Front (NIF) regime became just around the corner. The bull#### uttered by Omar al-Bashir is just a form of delirium of one who oversaw the demise of his pariah regime which is in imminent extinction.
Omer Hassan, there are the lies, damn lies, or so the old adage goes. You say ‘We’ shed the blood of the people of Darfur for trivial reasons’. Nevertheless, you did not acknowledge the consequences of the blood shedding which would rest squarely with you and your regime.
Omar al-Bashir, spoke about the generosity of the people of Darfur and their adherence to the norms of tolerance. He needs to answer the question as to whether it was that same Darfuri tolerance he talked about made the people of Darfur region in 2003 to offer him the advice that it would be more prudent to solve the crisis before it escalated. Nevertheless, his pride and arrogance took over sin and instead he made the acclaimed statement that continued echoing: “I don’t want a captive (prisoners) or an injured (wounded)?” implying that he ordered and unleashed his military, regular armed forces and allied militias, who later transformed into border guards, to annihilate the entire population of the Darfur region. Furthermore, al-Bashir said he would only negotiate with those who carry arms because he came to power by force; and whoever wanted a dialogue or a negotiation must hold the reasons of power and force. Political observers say the whole that Omar al-Bashir said is nothing but a damn rhetoric he wanted to tickle the feelings of the audience by deceptive sighs. Those foregoing phrases are still working forcibly; and the wholesale murder is still in force in Darfur since 2003. The reason why this continues; it is simply due primarily to the non-application of the principles of transitional justice and the application of retribution on the perpetrators like the fugitive from international justice Génocidaire Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir and the bunch of his evil criminal gang. It is a known fact that if a person got impunity he would misbehave and show lack of modesty because he knows he is quite certain that he is safe from prosecution, as Dr. al-Gadi said. Moreover, if the Transitional Justice punished Omer al-Bashir, other perpetrators would be deterred from committing more crimes as they realise that no one is above the law. Vice versa to that, when everyone sees impunity as a phenomenon in the Sudanese state and in the African and Arab regions and globally, it necessarily encourages further violence in the Darfur region.
The out of touch, racial demon, Omar al-Bashir has never exhibited any concern or due care towards the slain victims and the survivors of the brutal regime he presided over. His recent inept statements about awakening of conscience would hardly enable him fool the disenfranchised ethnically cleansed and those deprived of basic rights through injustice and tyranny in Darfur.
Confession is the Master of Evidence in the Criminal Law, as attributed to and indicated by the Law Scholars. Repentance must follow restoration of rights to their owners or to the blood relatives of the victims and retribution, Field Marshal Omer al-Bashir. You seem to be acknowledging the occurrence of injustice and bloodshed to the people of Darfur, nevertheless you are not confessing. Worst, you try to blame somebody else (BSE phenomenon) to take the blame! Your position reflects the typical attitude of a ruthless psychopath.
Apology is the first of initiatives to settle grievances and a type of recognition and acknowledgment of involvement in crime. The head of the National Congress Party (NCP) Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir did not offer an apology to the blood relatives of those victims or to those Darfuris who survived the heinous crimes they have suffered.
It is too late for you, Omer Hassan. Your situation is just like that of the Egyptian Pharaoh who believed in God at the moment of drowning!
Omer al-Bashir said Sudan is the crucible of Africa for tolerance. Nevertheless, he destroyed the Darfuri social fabric through proxy intertribal wars of divide and rule doctrine, making mending the social fabric an unattainable goal. As a result, the people of Sudan in Darfur have languished at the margins of society, suffering a persistent discrimination that flouts the egalitarian maxims of the Khartoum state.
With the crimes committed by the NCP regime, we cannot simply say we need to rise above the personal wounds and bitterness felt by individuals or groups. Moreover, there will be no room for the usual Sudanese people’s blanket phrase of forgiveness statement of “God pardoned and forgiven and let the bygones are gone”. People who lost loved ones and subjected to torture cannot finally decide and put all that bad feelings behind them and let bygones be bygones. That is as if saying what is past is history, what is done is finished, and bygones are bygones. To forget the atrocities that plagued the people of the Darfur region for a decade long is absurd at best and a travesty of justice at worst.
The Supplications of the oppressed will not be let down by the mercy of Almighty God. It is inevitable that victory for the oppressed is coming even if after a while. In the era of the Islamist government led by the Génocidaire al-Bashir there is no sanctity for the dead or the dignity for the living, no mercy for the weak or sick, and no passion on a small child and obviously no respect for the elderly.
The way to solve the crises in Sudan begins by dismantling the remnants of the so-called National Salvation Revolution (NRF) and the totalitarian regime. The (NCP) will not change the compass from totalitarianism to pluralism willingly. This state of affairs would mobilise the opposition forces by pairing between military action and peaceful civilian protests with the view to overthrow the NCP entity and replace it by the Sudanese people who would decide the kind of ‘democratic alternative’ incorporated in the Charter of the New Down (CND). The (CND) called for a comprehensive solution to all the crises of Sudan. The era of partial and piecemeal solutions for the complex Sudanese crises has been irrevocably gone and forever.
Omer al-Bashir, you need to realise that the Sudanese people became more aware and would not believe you shedding your crocodile tears through which you want to get the kindness of the tolerant people of Darfur. Confession is the master of legal evidence jurists say.
If you are honest, honourable and brave enough handover yourself voluntarily to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague to stand a fair trial for the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for which The Hague-based Court indicted you since in 2009 and 2010. In 2008, the UN stated that the armed conflict in Darfur had claimed the lives of around 300,000 people; you challenged the number300000 as ‘Only’ 10000. The atrocities on the conflict-affected survivors of the genocide included more than2.7 million displaced people, distributed over 56 camps for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the (five) states of Darfur region and in 13 refugee camps in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR); 44% of Darfur’s villages burned down according to Amnesty International. As of September 2012 More than 2.6 million IDPs are in Darfur and over 250,000 Darfuris are living in refugee camps in Chad.
The answer for the question in the title of this article is that Omer al-Bashir would never repent; he only wanted to deceive the people of Sudan in Darfur to generate sympathy through the usual prevarication rhetoric.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]

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