Sudanese: Leave us alone

THE street demonstrators here are rather press-savvy when it comes to getting their message across. Perhaps they have been conditioned by the foreign press to pose for the cameras.
  At the Al-Jamia Street, where nearly a million Sudanese had gathered to listen to President Omar al-Bashir's speech on Thursday noon, all one needed to do was point the lens at the crowd.
  They would pose however you wanted them to - chanting slogans, throwing fists in the air, ripping flags, waving placards in foreign languages and even unsheathing daggers in stabbing motion just to get the shutters clicking and the cameras rolling.
  Otherwise, the protesters would walk on with a smile, carrying banners or pictures of their president.
  In between quips that he was not Michael Jackson, Michael Osa of South Sudan disagreed with the International Criminal Court for issuing the warrant of arrest to the president.
  "Leave us alone. We will have peace."
  Hisham Amin spat out at ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo: "You talk about justice? Where's justice in Gaza and Iraq? Bring those people who killed the babies there to justice, then only will we believe in yourcause."
  Zahrah Sambur of Sudanese Women's Association said: "Take this message to the world: We Muslims and Christians are of one nation and one president. Sudan is a free nation. We are not afraid of you."
  She was referring to the court and Western countries, which most Sudanese believe had fuelled the conflicts in the country.
  The move by the ICC not only stoked anger among Sudanese but the trepidation and fear are also felt in neighbouring countries, especially Kenya and Uganda.
  Sudan's economic and political stability would directly impact Uganda in terms of exports, job opportunities and education, said Issa Chyrarira, an executive director with non-governmental organisation Media for Peace and Religious Tolerance.
  "The more Sudan has, the more we will benefit. But if South Sudan is in chaos, chances are our people will be involved in the factions. Historically, Sudanese and Ugandan rebels are known to be supportive of one another. It is vital to keep the peace in Sudan."
  Issa believed that no leader in his right mind would kill his own people, so the allegations against Bashir were politically motivated.
  "Would they arrest (former US president George W.) Bush for Iraq, even when the United States is not a signatory to the court?"
  Richard Karema, a foreign editor with Nairobi Standard, a Kenyan national daily, feared the ICC move would set a precedent.
  He said if ICC, a legal institution of which Sudan is not a signatory, could issue a warrant of arrest against a sitting president, then other African nations were also vulnerable to this legal process. "They could simply bulldoze any country they want."
  Karema said the ICC, in a way, had asked signatory countries to hand over the president if he was in their country.
  "The court wanted us to turn in our own neighbour. What next? More upheaval in Africa?
  "It was a fight over control of resources. They wanted the oil and
minerals in Sudan using all the means they can, including the ICC and manipulation of the media."
  With the global economic meltdown and the changing weather affecting agricultural output, the last thing any country in Africa would want is war.
  "It could tear the continent to shreds," added Karema.

New Straits Times, March 7, 2009