Genocide Crimes in Darfur Remembered in Conjunction with the Holocaust Memorial Day 2019 By Mahmoud

10:07 PM January, 29 2019

Sudanese Online
Mahmoud A. Suleiman-
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Past Genocides and Mass Atrocities http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/
This article comes against the backdrop of the history of the genocide crimes as an entrance to the terrible crimes committed against the Sudanese citizens in the Darfur region as well as to the crimes of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazism against the peoples in Europe and especially the Jews. Holocaust Memorial Day is held on January 27 every year, which for the year 2019 occurred on Sunday January 2019 which marks the 74th Anniversary.
This date, in 1945, marks the liberation of German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, by the Soviets, nearly eight months before the war officially ended. By the time the Soviets arrived, most of the camp's prisoners had already been sent out on a death march. Around 7,000 prisoners were still alive when the concentration camp was liberated. Bearing in mind that the Victims of the Holocaust were estimated at six million Jews were brutally slaughtered during World War II as well as millions of other ethnic minorities including gypsies and the disabled. In 2005, the United Nations (UN) voted to officially commemorate the Holocaust. Since 2005, Holocaust Memorial Day has been supported by the HMD Trust - a government funded charity. Every year, more than a million tourists and local people make the trip to Auschwitz to remember those who died.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8281407/when-holocaust-memorial-day-2019-what-theme/https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8281407/when-holocaust-memoria...day-2019-what-theme/

Fourteen years ago, in March 2005 as of the upcoming March 2019, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) proclaimed that the situation in the Darfur region in western Sudan “constitute[d] a threat to international peace and security” and referred the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ten years ago, in March 2009, the (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omer Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir, citing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Genocide was added to the charges the following year, 2010. The Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir has been travelling freely around the world despite an ten-year-old international warrant for his arrest on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of genocide. The former (ICC) Chief Prosecutor, Argentine lawyer and the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Gabriel Moreno Ocampo had successfully filed the atrocious crimes perpetrated by the Oppressive three decades racist President the Dictator Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir who still remains at large evading the international justice by the collusion of certain countries which prioritize intersecting interests over international humanitarian law. The crimes files included:
Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir Suspected of five counts of crimes against humanity, two counts of war, and three counts of genocide allegedly committed in Darfur, Sudan. Not yet in ICC custody. Bashir is the President of the Republic of Sudan since 16 October 1993.
First Warrant of arrest: 4 March 2009 Second Warrant of arrest: 12 July 2010 Status of proceedings: The execution of the arrest warrant is pending Charges The warrants of arrest for Omar Al Bashir list ten counts on the basis of his individual criminal responsibility under article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute as an indirect (co)perpetrator including: • Five counts of crimes against humanity: murder (article 7(1)(a)); extermination (article 7(1)(b)); forcible transfer (article 7(1)(d)); torture (article 7(1)(f)); and rape (article 7(1)(g)); • Two counts of war crimes: intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking part in hostilities (article 8(2)(e)(i)); and pillaging (article 8(2)(e)(v)); and • Three counts of genocide: genocide by killing (article 6-a), genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm (article 6-b) and genocide by deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction (article 6-c). Alleged crimes (non-exhaustive list) Pre-Trial Chamber I considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that: • From March, 2003 to at least 14 July 2008, a protracted armed conflict not of an international character existed in Darfur between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and several organised armed groups, in particular the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). • Soon after the April, 2003 attack on the El Fasher airport, Omar Al Bashir and other high-ranking Sudanese political and military leaders of the (GoS) agreed upon a common plan to carry out a counter-insurgency campaign against the SLM/A, the JEM and other armed groups opposing the Government of Sudan in Darfur. • A core component of that campaign was the unlawful attack on part of the civilian population of Darfur – belonging largely to the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups – who were perceived to be close to the organised armed groups opposing the Government of Sudan in Darfur. The campaign was conducted through (GoS) forces, including the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their allied Janjaweed militia, the Sudanese Police Forces, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC). It lasted at least until the date of the filing of the Prosecution Application on 14 July 2008. • During the campaign, (GoS) forces allegedly committed crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of genocide, and in particular: a. carried out numerous unlawful attacks, followed by systematic acts of pillage, on towns and villages, mainly inhabited by civilians belonging to the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups; Case Information Sheet The Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir b. subjected thousands of civilians – belonging primarily to the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups – to acts of murder, as well as to acts of extermination; c. subjected thousands of civilian women – belonging primarily to the said groups – to acts of rape; d. subjected hundreds of thousands of civilians – belonging primarily to the said groups – to acts of forcible transfer; e. subjected civilians – belonging primarily to the said groups – to acts of torture; and f. contamined the wells and water pumps of the towns and villages primarily inhabited by members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups that they attacked; and encouraged members of other tribes, which were allied with the (GoS), to resettle in the villages and lands previously mainly inhabited by members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups. Pre-Trial Chamber I also found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that: • Omar Al Bashir, as the de jure and de facto President of the State of Sudan and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) at all times relevant to the Prosecution Application, played an essential role in coordinating the design and implementation of the common plan; • and, in the alternative, that Omar Al Bashir also: a. played a role that went beyond coordinating the implementation of the said (GoS) counter-insurgency campaign; b. was in full control of all branches of the "apparatus" of the State of Sudan, including the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their allied Janjaweed militia, the Sudanese Police Forces, the (NISS) and the (HAC); and c. used such control to secure the implementation of the said (GoS) counter-insurgency campaign. Pre-Trial Chamber I found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Omar Al Bashir acted with specific intent to destroy in part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. Key judicial a development REFERRAL AND OPENING OF THE INVESTIGATION The International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur (ICID) was established by the former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan pursuant the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1564. The Commission reported to the UN in January 2005 that there was reason to believe that crimes against humanity and war crimes had been committed in Darfur and recommended that the situation be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Using its authority under the Rome Statute, the UN Security Council (UNSC) referred the situation in Darfur since 1 July 2002 to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in Resolution 1593 on 31 March 2005. Following the referral from the UN Security Council, the Prosecutor received the conclusion of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur. In addition, the Office of the Prosecutor requested information from a variety of sources, leading to the collection of thousands of documents. The Prosecutor concluded that the statutory requirements for initiating an investigation were satisfied and decided to open the investigation on 6 June 2005. WARRANTS OF ARREST on 14 July 2008, the Prosecutor submitted an application for the issuance of a warrant of arrest for the Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir. On 15 October 2008, Pre-Trial Chamber I requested additional supporting material in relation with the Prosecution Application. On 17 November 2008, the Prosecutor submitted further material in compliance with the above-mentioned decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber. On 4 March 2009, Pre-Trial Chamber I issued a warrant of arrest for Omar Al Bashir for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. On 6 July 2009, the Prosecutor appealed the decision to the extent that Pre-Trial Chamber I decided not to issue a warrant of arrest in respect of the charge of genocide. On 3 February 2010, the Appeals Chamber directed the Pre-Trial Chamber to decide anew whether or not the arrest warrant should be extended to cover the charge of genocide. Case Information Sheet The Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir Applying the standard of proof as identified by the Appeals Chamber, Pre-Trial Chamber I concluded, on 12 July 2010, that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Omar Al Bashir acted with specific intent to destroy in part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. The Chamber delivered a second warrant of arrest against the President of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, considering that there are reasonable grounds to believe him responsible for three counts of genocide committed against the ethnic groups of Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. On 15 March 2012, the ICC Presidency assigned to Pre-Trial Chamber II to this case. NON-COOPERATION The suspect remains at large in spite of the arrest warrants issued against him. ICC judges have made a number of decisions regarding the non- compliance of certain States with the requests to arrest and surrender Mr. Al Bashir and have referred the matter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the Assembly of the States Parties (ASP) to take the necessary measures they deem appropriate. See: https://asp.icc-cpi.int/EN_Menus/asp/non-cooperation/pages/default.aspxhttps://asp.icc-cpi.int/EN_Menus/asp/non-cooperation/pages/default.aspx PARTICIPATION OF VICTIMS Pre-Trial Chamber I granted 12 persons the status of victim authorised to participate in this case. Composition of Pre-Trial Chamber II Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua, Presiding Judge Tomoko Akane Judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala Representation of the Office of the Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor James Stewart, Deputy Prosecutor Defence Counsel for Omar Al Bashir - Legal Representatives of the Victims Wanda M Akin Raymond M Brown.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/CaseInformationSheets/AlBashirEng.pdfhttps://www.icc-cpi.int/CaseInformationSheets/AlBashirEng.pdf

Dr. Fatou Bensouda is the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), having taken office in 2012 as the first woman to have assumed the role. In 2011, she was elected by consensus by the Assembly of States Parties to serve in this capacity. Bensouda was nominated and supported as the sole African candidate for election to the post by the African Union (AU). Between 1987 and 2000, Bensouda was successively Senior State Counsel, Principal State Counsel, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Solicitor General and Legal Secretary of the Republic, and Attorney General and Minister of Justice, in which capacity she served as Chief Legal Adviser to the President and Cabinet of The Gambia. https://www.ibanet.org/Conferences/296395103.aspx

The current ICC Chief Prosecutor is Fatou Bensouda, who was elected by the 10th session of the Assembly of States Parties and took office on 15 June 2012 has replaced the first Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Gabriel Moreno Ocampo.


Yet despite Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda entreaties to the Security Council, the ICC’s arrest warrants for Bashir and other high-ranking Sudanese officials have not been executed threat to international peace and security ”needing responsibility to protect. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P or RtoP) is a global political commitment which was endorsed by all member states of the United Nations at the 2005 World Summit in order to address its four key concerns to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. https://www.google.com/search؟q=responsibility+to+protectandoq...ceid=chromeandie=UTF-8

The international community has failed to effectively respond to the genocide in Darfur, which so far has claimed the lives of some 400,000 people, displaced around 3 million (the exact number is debated), and forced an additional 400,000 to flee across the border into Chad. In the meantime, Bashir has been emboldened to dismantle the internally displaced person camps, which have become symbols of the Darfur genocide.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/21/o...crime-arrest-warrant.

The Crimes of Genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan occurred in the year 2004, Ten Years after the1994 Genocide in Rwanda. Whereas the earlier Genocidal Crimes in the World occurred as follows:
Past Genocides and Mass Atrocities in the World included the Following:
1933 The Holocaust
1915 Genocide in Armenian
1975 Genocide in Cambodia
1990 Genocide in Rwanda
1995 Genocide in Bosnia
2004 Genocide in Darfur

http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/

In the past 150 years, tens of millions of men, women and children have lost their lives in genocide or mass atrocities. Millions have been tortured, raped or forced from their homes.
The past genocides and mass atrocities described below represent just some of the historic examples that serve to remind us what’s at stake if we let genocide happen again. We must learn, remember and take action to end genocide once and for all.
Despite the gravity of the crimes of genocide, Sudanese president Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir has been at large, fugitive from the international justice and travelling freely around the world despite a Ten-year-old international warrant for his arrest on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide which the human rights lawyers have found. A project to document the travels of Bashir has called in question a key component in international law after repeated failures to arrest him.

In 2009 and 2010 Bashir was indicted by The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) on multiple counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Warrants for his arrest were issued on the basis of his “individual criminal responsibility” for those alleged crimes during the conflict that began in Darfur in 2003. However, despite these warrants, in the last decade he has made around 150 trips to countries including China which has the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) "Power of Veto", South Africa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Kenya, with many of these party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court(ICC), the treaty that established the International Criminal Court. It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome on 17 July 1998 and it entered into force on 1 July 2002.
https://www.google.com/search؟ei=qmBPXM61FLqM1fAP5868mAUandq=I...0i131i67.4X1FTS0UmTg


1933
The Holocaust

After coming to power in 1933, Germany's Nazi Party implemented a highly organized strategy of persecution, murder and genocide aimed at ethnically "purifying" Germany, a plan Hitler called the “Final Solution”.
Six million Jews and five million Slavs, Roma, disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and political and religious dissidents were killed during the Holocaust. Learn more »



1915
Armenia

Beginning in 1915, ethnic Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were rounded up, deported and executed on orders of the government. The combination of massacres, forced deportation marches and deaths due to disease in concentration camps is estimated to have killed more than 1 million ethnic Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks between 1915 and 1923. Learn more »
1975
Cambodia

When the Khmer Rouge took control of the Cambodian government in 1975 they began a "re-education" campaign targeting political dissidents. These citizens, including doctors, teachers and students suspected of receiving education were singled out for torture at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison. In the four years after they took power, between 1.7 and 2 million Cambodians died in the Khmer Rouge’s "Killing Fields." 
Learn more »
1990
Rwanda

Civil war broke out in Rwanda in 1990, exacerbating tensions between the Tutsi minority and Hutu majority. In 1994, returning from a round of talks, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down outside of the country’s capital, Kigali. Habyarimana’s death provided the spark for an organized campaign of violence against Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians across the country. Learn more »
1995
Bosnia

Beginning in 1991, Yugoslavia began to break up along ethnic lines. When the republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) declared independence in 1992 the region quickly became the central theater of fighting.  The Serbs targeted Bosniak and Croatian civilians in areas under their control in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The war in Bosnia claimed the lives of an estimated 100,000 people. 
Learn more »
2003
Darfur

Over a decade ago the Government of Sudan carried out genocide against Darfuri civilians, murdering 300,000 and displacing over 2 million people. In addition to the ongoing crisis in Darfur, forces under the command of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir have carried out attacks against civilians in the disputed Abyei territory, and the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Learn more »

Despite his escape from the international justice, Omar al-Bashir, and his criminal entourage will be arrested as long as he is alive and one of the reasons that will be accelerating his apprehension and arrest and handing him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands is by the success of the Sudanese People's Revolution which broke out on Wednesday the 19th December 2018 and seeks to topple the ruling regime of the National Congress Party (NCP) Crimes of the Freemasonry Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) in the Sudan regime Headed by the Génocidaire Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir. The motto of the Sudanese people’s uprising remains: “Tasgut Bass as the buzzword a slogan of the Sudanese uprising that aims for bringing down the regime to its ultimate demise. The uprising at its 40th day has headed towards Bashir's last moments prior to the demise of his oppressive regime.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela the South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 and the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election, has been quoted as saying: “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred, I’d still be in prison.” https://www.google.com/search؟q=quotes+about+demise+of+dicta...imgrc=h1jKMxPnaZQ2GM:
Michael Grant Ignatieff PC CM the Canadian author, academic, former politician, the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011 has been quoted as saying: “Genocide is not just a murderous madness; it is, more deeply, a politics that promises a utopia beyond politics - one people, one land, one truth, the end of difference. Since genocide is a form of political utopia, it remains an enduring temptation in any multiethnic and multicultural society in crisis.” 
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/genocidehttps://www.brainyquote.com/topics/genocide
https://www.google.com/search؟q=michael+ignatieffandoq=Michael...ceid=chromeandie=UTF-8
On the 30th December 2018 the Génocidaire Omer Hassan Ahmed al - Bashir has vowed to crush the "bread protests" he insists that they are being orchestrated by opposition "infiltrators."! In fact, Anger over dictatorship, not bread, fueling Sudan uprising” The protest wave sweeping across Sudan was never about bread; it is a nation fed up with a decades-old military dictatorship, say human rights activists and experts. https://mg.co.za/article/2018-12-30-anger-over-dictatorship-...lling-sudan-uprising
People of Sudan took to the streets in the town of Atbara in the northeast on December 19 2018 to voice their grievances, spawning similar protests in the streets of other towns and the capital, Khartoum. The protesters are calling for freedom, peace, justice and a change in leadership in the northeast African country. The government of President Omar Al Bashir is responding with live ammunition, tear gas and stun grenades. Protesters who survive the deadly clashes regroup and return to the streets.
https://mg.co.za/article/2018-12-30-anger-over-dictatorship-...lling-sudan-uprising
The Sudanese people throughout the country kept chanting “Tasgut Bass” which means “Just Leave / Just to Fall” has remained the eternal buzzword and a slogan for the Sudanese uprising that began on Monday December 19th 2018 and continuing unabatedly in spite of the use of live bullets/ammunition by the Genocidal regime led by the military Dictator Omer al-Bashir to kill unarmed peaceful demonstrators. Thus, Genocide continued against the people of Sudan since it began in the Darfur region in 2003 to become known as the first genocide of the 21st century. Unrest and violence persist today.
https://www.google.com/search؟q=Genocide+in+the+Darfur+regio...ceid=chromeandie=UTF-8
During the Uprising and the popular demonstrations of the people of Sudan, which raged across all regions of the country to overthrow the criminal of Génocidaire, Omer al-Bashir traveled to Qatar and Egypt and other countries as usual begging to fill his bankrupt treasury of his failed military coup regime characterised by division to apply discrimination of the Sudanese citizenship along ethnic lines and waging civil war of attrition and harvesting the international accusations of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide and becoming fugitive from the International Justice and a pariah of the Western World people. In his capacity as a mercenary, the inept Omer al-Bashir took part in the disastrous human suffering war against the Yemeni people under the leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, codenamed Operation Decisive Storm.
Maureen O'Hara the Irish-American actress and singer and a famous redhead who was known for playing fiercely passionate but sensible heroines, often in westerns and adventure films and on numerous occasions, she worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne, has been quoted as saying: “I spent a great deal of time with Che Guevara while I was in Havana. I believe he was far less a mercenary than he was a freedom fighter”.
https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/mercenary.htmlhttps://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/mercenary.html
Never Again, is the phrase that keeps on evolving that has long been linked to Holocaust commemoration is needed to continue supported and chanted by all the inhabitants of the World. Furthermore, the phrase “Never Again” needs to be used in its universal sense of preventing all genocides and as a reminder of the genocide of people who previously suffered the heinous crime everywhere without discrimination regardless of their race, colour, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability where NEVER AGAIN': FROM A HOLOCAUST PHRASE TO A UNIVERSAL PHRASE.
Never again applies to all.
https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Never-Again-From-a-Holocaust-phrase-to-a-universal-phrase-544666https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Never-Again-From-a-Holocaust-...versal-phrase-544666
It worth mentioning that one of the Slogans of the Sudanese Popular Uprising of the 19th December 2018 which is still continuing against the genocidal criminal Omer Hassan Ahmed Bashir is: ‘O racist cocky all of us Darfur” !


Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/http://thussudan.wordpress.com/

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