Politiktoons No. 195: Sudan

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

ICC Second Arrest Warrant for Genocide against Sudanese President Al Bashir

Note from Theary Seng: The permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over Cambodia as we have ratified the Rome Statute establishing this ICC and Cambodia is an ICC Member State. After the genocidal spree and mayhem ended, some of the Rwandan genocidiares were surprised that international law could pierced their nation's sovereignty and held them accountable before their own people and the international community. I believe that perpetrators of massive human rights abuse (here in Cambodia and elsewhere) -- many thinking themselves "good people" -- are so lost in their immediate frenzy to fully grasp the long piercing reach of international law. The ICC and other international legal instruments should make these abusers think twice... especially as certain international crimes do not have statute of limitations... hence, even 40 years from now, international law can still hunt them down. ABOVE NATIONS, HUMANITY is an excerpt from my law paper in advocating for this ICC. - www.thearyseng.com

http://www.thearyseng.com/images/VoiceOfJustice/vojabovenationshumanityoct07.jpg
http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/01/above-nations-humanity-universal.html

..........

Excerpt from the Coalition for ICC Press Release

Press Release: 12.07.2010

Pre-Trial Chamber I issues a second warrant of arrest against Omar Al Bashir for counts of genocide

ICC-CPI-20100712-PR557

Case: The Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir
Situation: Darfur, Sudan

Today the ICC announced that ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I issued a second arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir for three counts of genocide committed against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. It is the first arrest warrant issued by the ICC for counts of genocide. This second arrest warrant is added to the previous one issued in March 2009 against Al Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Since the issuance of the arrest warrant, the Sudanese government has openly and consistently refused to cooperate with the Court.

Click the following link for the entire press release issued by the ICC:
http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/exeres/E9BD8B9F-4076-4F7C-9CAC-E489F1C127D9.htm

Cambodian deminers train, awaiting Sudan's dry season

RCAF Company 405 soldiers receive training in Sudan at the beginning of their mission. Photo Supplied

Tuesday, 01 September 2009
Sam Rith
The Phnom Penh Post

Life is good for Returned deminers
As the soldiers of Company 405 were packing their bags for Sudan, troops from RCAF Company 315 were preparing to come home after serving as UN deminers in Sudan for one year. Mey Sophea, the commander of Company 315, said that thanks to their generous pay, most of the men in his company came home to better lives than they had before they left. After enjoying a month of vacation time following their return, the soldiers returned to their military duties in Cambodia in mid-July. Khun Sophal, one of 139 members of Company 315, said that going to Sudan had made a significant difference in his life at home.“I used the money I earned during my mission to Sudan to repair my house and buy a new motorbike,” he said. “My family has been living much better since I returned.”

For the past three years, Cambodian soldiers have worked as deminers on the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan. Sam Rith looks at one company of deminers three months into their tour of duty.

It has been almost three months since the troops of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) company 405 left for a one-year United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan, but company members say that homesickness and rough conditions are not enough to deter them from their humanitarian effort.

Speaking by phone from southern Sudan, near the Nile River, Company 405 Commander Taing Bunkry told the Post last week that his troops were doing well and had been making progress on their mission.

"We are all safe and healthy here, and have succeeded in some of our work," he said.

Since 2006, the Kingdom has sent 468 peacekeepers to Sudan. With so many unexploded mines still lurking in Cambodia, RCAF troops have over the years developed internationally sought-after demining expertise.

After arriving in Sudan, the troops received six weeks of demining training from the UN before taking an exam to secure their demining licences. So far, Taing Bunkry said, the company has focused on unexploded ordnance, clearing about 10 to date, as well as on educating the local population about the demining process. They will begin demining in earnest in October, after the east African rainy season ends.

The main area that the deminers will focus on during the dry season lies about 200 kilometres from their barracks, so they have yet to visit it.
"We have been studying the mined area only by flying over it in helicopters - we can't travel there by land because there are no roads and the area is covered in foliage during the rainy season," Taing Bunkry said.

During the rainy season, evening temperatures in Sudan average around 18 degrees centigrade, with daytime temperatures between 42 and 45 degrees; during the dry season, midday temperatures can hit 50 degrees.

Despite the inhospitable climate, the RCAF soldiers say they are happy to fulfill their mission.

"When I first came, I got a cold due to the weather, but now I'm fine," said 28-year-old Im Srim, a member of the 52-soldier contingent. "I'm very proud because [we] are representing the whole Cambodian nation as we fulfill our peacekeeping mission."

Although conditions were challenging at first, Im Srim said, he was thrilled to have the opportunity to work in Sudan.

"I really value my work, and this is the first time I've ever participated in an overseas mission," he said, adding that he was very pleased with his monthly salary of US$1,020.

Seang Kunthea, 31, another deminer from company 405, said that when he first arrived in Sudan, he and his fellow soldiers felt homesick for Cambodia, but that they now feel more comfortable because they have been contacting their families frequently by phone.

"We've gotten used to being far away from our families, and we will see them again when we complete our work," he said, adding that he has a wife and a 5-year-old son at home in Cambodia.

Seang Kunthea's wife, 26-year-old San Socheata of Phnom Penh, said that she and her son were patiently awaiting her husband's return.

"I wish my husband was at home, but it is his obligation to support the family and serve his country," she said.

Cambodia denounces ICC over issuing arrest warrant for Sudanese president [-Dictator Hun Sen defending another dictator?]

PHNOM PENH, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Sudanese President Omaral-Bashir has been destroying the international efforts to deal with the matters of the Darfur region, said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen here on Thursday.

"The arrest warrant for the governing Sudanese president from the court in Hague of Holland will lead to nothing, as you all can wait and see," he told the annual work-review conference of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries, which was held at the Royal University of Agriculture.

On March 4, ICC issued the arrest warrant against the Sudanese president over charges of war crimes and crimes of anti-humanity. So far, Omar al-Bashir is still working in his country in the capacity of president.

"The Sudanese people and troops with weapons in their hands will not allow the court to arrest their leader," said Hun Sen.

The ruling Sudanese president has his privilege in leading the country, he said, adding that "I do not know why ICC did like that."

In addition, the premier stressed that ICC can not follow suit in Cambodia to arrest the surviving leaders of the former Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime (1975-1979).

"Those DK leaders now stay in a place here and we ourselves can arrest them for tribunal," he added.

Currently, five senior DK leaders are under custody of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which was co-installed by UN and the Cambodian government two years ago to put these people on trial on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

When justice is delayed

Friday, March 13, 2009
By Elizabeth Becker
The Phnom Penh Post

KI-Media question: If "Pol Pot and his comrades were among the worst monsters of the 20th century" and Hun Sen/Chea Sim/Heng Samrin, the former Khmer Rouge, were Pol Pot comrades, would this makes the latter trio the worst monsters of the 20th century (and into the 21st century) as well?

The United Nations seems paralyzed over what to do about the indictment of Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of war crimes by the International Criminal Court. There are warnings of humanitarian crises and dire consequences for Darfur. History suggests, however, that postponing justice could be even worse.

A case in point is Cambodia, where Khmer Rouge leaders are finally being tried 30 years after they were overthrown. (That is the equivalent of waiting until 1975 to try the Nazis.) Cambodia is the classic example of what happens when the international community puts off the hard work of justice in the name of realpolitik.

Trials for Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge leaders were delayed for all the reasons that are being used today for Sudan. A trial would be impractical while war was still raging; a trial would disrupt the peace process; a trial would upset a hard-won equilibrium and reopen old wounds.

Pol Pot and his comrades were among the worst monsters of the 20th century. But they knew how to work the system, especially in defeat.

First, there was no trial in 1979 because a Soviet ally, Vietnam, overthrew the Khmer Rouge. So instead of imprisoning Pol Pot, the United States, China, Western Europe and Southeast Asia got together and underwrote a guerilla coalition, including the Khmer Rouge, to fight Vietnam. That allowed the Khmer Rouge even to retain Cambodia’s seat at United Nations.

In 1992, a UN peacekeeping operation, UNTAC, arrived to separate the warring parties and hold elections.

The UN also decided that a trial would hinder the establishment of peace. The elections were free and fair. Cambodians voted despite threats from the Khmer Rouge an they voted solidly against keeping Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who had become Cambodia’s prime minister under the Vietnamese.

But Hun Sen refused to give up power. Understanding the UN’s preoccupation with stability, his allies threatened a coup and a war against UNTAC. So UN officials allowed Hun Sen to become co-prime minister, a position he made up for himself.

Hun Sen made good on his coup threat anyway and pushed out Prince Norodom Rannaridh, the man who had actually won the election. Hun Sen has been the leader ever since, overseeing a corrupt government with little respect for human rights or the rule of law. And he has had no interest in a serious trial of the Khmer Rouge.

The UN negotiated for nearly 10 frustrating years to arrive at the hybrid tribunal for crimes against humanity — The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodian — slowly getting underway in Cambodia. In the meantime, Pol Pot and some of the seniormost leaders of the Khmer Rouge have died, some murdered.

A new generation of Cambodians has grown up largely ignorant of their country’s history, which is concealed under official propaganda. Many younger Cambodians believe that the Vietnamese or the Chinese are to blame for the killings. They can not imagine Cambodians willfully killing off nearly one-fourth of the population, undermining their country’s society, culture and future in the name of a radical revolution.

The trial was supposed to help remedy that national ignorance. But the UN has had to make critical compromises just to get the Hun Sen government to agree to a tribunal in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capitol, with a mixed set of Cambodian and international jurists, prosecutors and lawyers and staff.

Questions of corruption have already slowed the proceedings, as have restrictions on investigations and procedures that other courts would have never accepted. It is dubious that the tribunal can really set the historical record straight.

Only one conviction is certain. The first defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, known by his alias as Duch, was the junior official who ran the regime’s central torture chamber. He admitted guilt years ago after converting to Christianity.

The next proceeding is supposed to cover four of the most senior living Khmer Rouge officials. They deny their guilt, and their crimes may never be fully investigated.

I have interviewed all the men who led Cambodia through its catastrophic modern history — King Norodom Sihanouk, Lon Nol, Pol Pot and Hun Sen — as well as several senior Khmer Rouge officials. They played different roles at different times with different allies. Not one of them admitted any responsibility for the terrible suffering inflicted on their people.

At the rate things are going, the few Khmer Rouges leaders facing trial, aged and in declining health, will die protesting their innocence. There will be no apology or restitution to Cambodians, today among the poorest and most poorly treated people in the world.

This is what awaits Sudan if charges against President Bashir do not go forward and trials against him and others are postponed.

Elizabeth Becker, a former correspondent for the Washington Post, National Public Radio and The New York Times, is the author of "When the war was over, a history of the Khmer Rouge and Modern Cambodia."

Cambodia sends off third batch of UN peacekeeping deminers to Sudan

PHNOM PENH, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia sent off its third batch of deminers here Sunday at the Pochentong Air Base to take part in the UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan.

"Today's send-off is evidence of the willingness of the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Cambodian people to provide essential security and support to those in conflict," said Douglas Broderick, UN resident coordinator in the kingdom.

The third batch consists of 139 staff members, 15 of whom had left on June 2 for camping work, said a military press release.

Ke Kim Yan, Commander in Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), told the send-off ceremony that Cambodia has participated in "the UN peacekeeping operation on humanitarian mine clearance in Sudan for the third consecutive year."

So far, Cambodian deminers have cleared 57,542,488 square meters of areas in Sudan, he added.

RCAF Lt. Gen. Sem Sovanny said that the third batch of deminers will replace the second one, who will return from Sudan to Cambodia Tuesday.

Along with consistent economic growth, Cambodia has also been seeking to enlarge its international military presence. It has joined two multinational military exercises respectively in Mongolia and Bangladesh, since peace was established in the kingdom in 1997.

Cambodia to send 139 mine sweeping soldiers to Sudan under UN mission

PHNOM PENH, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia will send 139 soldiers to clean mines in Sudan under the UN mission, Cambodian National Defense Minister Tea Banh announced here on Friday.

"We will send 15 of them firstly on June 2 and the rest on June10 according to the schedule," Tea Banh told the national conference of the government's rectangular policy.

"Our K-315 group will return from Sudan on June 8," he said, adding that the new group of soldiers will replace them.

Cambodia has already sent two groups of mine sweeping soldiers to Sudan under UN humanitarian mission and each group had over 130soldiers, he said.

Deminers in Sudan Seek Japanese Aid

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
11 March 2008

Cambodia is seeking Japanese support for its deminers in Sudan, who are joining UN peace keeping operations, Defense Minister Tea Banh said Monday.

Tea Banh completed a three-day visit to Japan March 7, where he met military counterparts and other government officials.

"There has been a discussion about Japanese assistance for training, human resources and safety," he said. "We would expand our scope [in Sudan] if there is assistance."

Cambodia has had a mission of 300 deminers in Sudan since April 2006, Tea Banh said, adding that recently the Cambodians had to stop their work on one mission for 10 days, due to fighting about 6 kilometers away.

Cambodia seeks Japan's help in Sudan peace mission [-Cambodian troops in Sudan under tense situation]

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen walks past a demining unit, during a ceremony before the departure of the Cambodian humanitarian demining unit for the UN peace keeping operation in Sudan, in Phnom Penh April 12, 2006. (Reuters)

03/08/2008
BY KAZUTO TSUKAMOTO,
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan)

Cambodia wants Japan's support for the Southeast Asian nation's first U.N. peacekeeping mission, which is becoming increasingly tense due to fighting in Sudan, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Tea Banh said Friday.

Tea, who is also the Cambodian national defense minister, told The Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo that Cambodian troops sent to southern Sudan "have not yet been directly attacked, but the situation is tense."

About 300 Cambodian Army corps engineers have been sent to Malakal in southern Sudan, mainly for demining, since April 2006, according to Tea.

The Cambodian troops, which have been cooperating with troops from India and Bangladesh, have removed a total of 1,613 mines so far, he said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura has proposed that the Self-Defense Forces be sent to Sudan to participate in the U.N. peacekeeping mission. But the security situation will likely lead to further calls in Japan for a more cautious approach.

"Cambodia will continue to fulfill its duties in peacekeeping operations with the cooperation of Japan," Tea said.

He asked for continued support from Japan in terms of fostering human personnel for peacekeeping operations.

"Japan sent a peacekeeping mission to Cambodia and now Cambodia has sent such a mission to Sudan," Tea said. "If Japan and Cambodia can cooperate in Sudan, it would mean a new page in the history of peacekeeping cooperation between Japan and Cambodia."

Japan first sent SDF members on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in 1992 to Cambodia.

But in Sudan, the situation is so unstable that the legal conditions under which SDF members can be dispatched on peacekeeping missions may not be met.

For example, SDF members cannot be sent on peacekeeping mission to areas that are considered combat zones.

In addition to mortar attacks near where the Cambodian troops are housed, fighting has broken out about 6 kilometers from a site where mines were being removed, Tea said.

The fighting forced the Cambodian troops to suspend peacekeeping activities for 15 days.

The troops have been helping local residents who were victims of the mortar attack.

Cambodia bans Mia Farrow from holding Darfur ceremony [-Hun Sen's regime issued this ban most likely to please China]

January 16, 2008
From correspondents in Phnom Penh

ACTOR Mia Farrow has been barred from holding a ceremony at a notorious Khmer Rouge prison as part of a campaign to pressure China to end abuses in Darfur, a Cambodian official said.

The American actor has started an Olympic-style torch relay through countries that have suffered genocides to draw attention to China's close ties with Sudan, as Beijing prepares to host the Games in August.

The campaign aims to push Beijing to pressure Sudan into ending the violence in Darfur, where the United Nations estimates that at least 200,000 people have died in five years of war, famine and disease.

Her group, Dream for Darfur, had planned to hold a ceremony on Sunday outside the Khmer Rouge's former prison, Tuol Sleng, which is now a genocide museum.

But interior ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said the event would not be allowed.

"The Olympic Games are not a political issue. Therefore, we won't allow any rally to light a torch," he said.

"We will not support the activity. We will not allow them to politicise the Olympic Games," he said, warning the group could face prosecution if they try to go ahead.

Farrow's group said the ceremony aimed to call attention to the constructive role that China could play in the Darfur crisis.

"The symbolic Olympic torch relay is urging the Chinese Government, as both Olympic host and Sudan's strongest political and economic partner, to use its special influence with the Sudanese Government," the group said in a statement.

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, China - which is by far the largest foreign investor in Sudan and absorbs almost two-thirds of its oil output - has been under mounting pressure to use its clout on Khartoum.

Cambodia would be the sixth stop for the group's relay, which began in Chad near the Sudanese border and continued to Rwanda, Armenia, Germany and Bosnia.

Deminers Abroad Not Being Paid, Wives Say [- Tea Banh denies the claims]

Cheab Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
23 July 2007

Wives of Cambodian deminers working in Sudan said Monday their husbands are not receiving their salaries.

As many as 100 demining troops may not have received pay in at least two months, according to two women, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Typically, these salaries are received by wives or family in Cambodia, but this has not been happening, they said.

"It is normal when the husbands go on such a mission that we wait for the salaries," said one wife.

"When he is in Cambodia, he is a soldier, and you know that soldiers' salaries are minimal, only 100,000 riels; therefore I don't have enough food to feed my children. We the wives are waiting for the day we will get the salaries." "When I say it is difficult, it is difficult," said another deminer's wife. "I don't know when they will give us our salaries."

Defense Minister Tea Banh denied the claims, saying the soldiers were doing their jobs well and the ministry was doing a "proper job" paying them.

Cambodian Deminers Return from Sudan

Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28/05/2007

Cambodian deminers participating in a UN peacekeeping force in Sudan returned home Monday, saying the mission had been successful and no one was hurt.

Cambodia sent 135 deminers to the impoverished African country last year, in their first peacekeeping effort. The country sent 139 more on Saturday for another mission.

The returning deminers cleared nearly 1,000 anti-personnel and 100 anti-tank mines in Sudan, Leng Narin, deputy commander for operations of the returning force, said.

"The mission had no accidents, because we were thinking about our capabilities when we did something," he said.

Peacekeeper Bouth Leang Song said the mission encountered some difficulties at the outset, because it was a first, but end up successful. He wasn't sure he would volunteer for another one.

"It is difficult to say," he said. "Now I cannot say anything because I just returned. I miss my wife and children."

Second contingent of Cambodian peacekeepers sent for demining operation in Sudan

Cambodian peacekeeping forces before leaving to Sudan (Photo: Sok Serei, RFA)

Monday, May 28, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

139 Cambodian demining soldiers left Cambodia on Saturday to complete its demining mission in Sudan. This group of soldiers are sent to replace a previous contingent of 138 soldiers who just completed their one-year mission in East Sudan. Sem Sovandy, the deputy director of the Cambodian Main Action Authority, told The Cambodia Daily that ‘we are very proud that our soldiers were not injured in this mission.’ The demining mission is Cambodia’s first participation in a UN peacekeeping mission. Sem Sovandy added that ‘the UN Secretary-general gave us honor, we are very proud to participate in the peacekeeping mission.’ The contingent of 138 returning soldiers will arrive in Cambodia today.

Cambodia to send new demining team to Sudan soon

May 15, 2007

Cambodia will soon send a new team to replace its demining staff members in Sudan in order to continue its peace-keeping mission there, the Television Kampuchea reported on Monday.

The government has studied the details of the project and the new team is now being trained by foreign experts, it said.

In 2006, Cambodia sent more than 100 demining soldiers to Sudan for humanitarian mission under the arrangement of the United Nations.

Cambodia has about four to six million mines and unexploded ordnances underground. In the past years, the kingdom has established some organizations and teams with professional demining skills to deal with the situation.

Source: Xinhua