THE INTERNATIONAL CITIZENS’ TRIBUNAL FOR SUDAN
IN THE TRIAL CHAMBER
Concurring Opinion of Judge Gloria White-Hammond
Today, The International Citizens’ Tribunal for Sudan has considered the question of culpability with regard to genocide.
The Defense would reduce this to a conflict of Fur vs. Zagawa vs. Dinka vs. Nuer; or Christian against Muslim against traditionalist; Arab against African; pastoralist against farmer. Yes, Sudan is about race, religion, ethnicity and culture. That is the truth, but it is not the whole truth. More than anything, this genocide is about power and greed. Today we have identified the true enemy of all Sudan, and indeed, all humanity. This indictment calls him by name—Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir.
For 17 years, he has reigned as a despotic ruler strategically pitting one group against another in a bloody campaign to divide and conquer. For 17 years, this serial genocidaire has regarded his fellow countrymen as easily dispensable and readily disposable. From the savannas of southern Sudan, to the Nuba Mountains of Kordofan, to the sands of Darfur, Omar al-Bashir has systematically exterminated all “othered” with a vengeance.
In the conclusion of his last book, Martin Luther King penned these words:
“In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity….We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘too late.’”
It is too late for the friends and families of our eye witnesses from Sudan. It is too late to spare Dr. El-Gadi from the agony of torture. It is too late for the hundreds of thousands who have died in Darfur, and the millions who were displaced by the genocides in the South and the Nuba Mountains. It is too late for the countless number of women and girls and men and boys who have been raped, and for all those who have been enslaved.
Today, seated before this sacred backdrop representing the strength of nations united, we come representing citizens of the world to intervene on behalf of those who yet remain alive. We are a panel of five judges. We are women and men, Muslims and Christians. Four of us are of African descent. Our interests in this matter are additive. However, having heard these testimonies, our moral outrage and indignation are exponential.
Therefore, we come as judges to blend our voices to concur with those of a great cloud of witnesses. From the merciless ovens of Auschwitz, they declare “schuldig.”; from the hill country of Bosnia, “krivje”; from the bloody riverbeds of Rwanda, “coupable”; and from the arid deserts of Darfur “musnib”.
Guilty, Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir! Guilty as charged!
Guilty of engineering murder!
Guilty of abetting rape!
Guilty of facilitating slavery!
Guilty of implementing torture!
Guilty, Mr. al-Bashir, as charged!
Unfortunately much of the world’s leadership has confronted this madness with pitiful hand-wringing and pathetic head-scratching. This tribunal refuses to be party to such scandalous inaction—it is tantamount to complicity. We will not tip-toe around the issue of genocide, strategically avoiding our responsibility to humanity, only to arrive safely at our own graves.
And we will not rest until judgment runs down as waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Guilty! Guilty! Guilty as charged. |
