In response to a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, demonstrators gathered in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. The demonstration denounced the ICC’s ruling, and imperialist efforts aimed at destabilizing and recolonizing Sudan along with other parts of Eastern Africa.
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The ICC warrant was issued for war crimes and crimes against humanity for alleged atrocities committed in the Darfur region of Sudan. The ICC has never before issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state. Like the United States, Sudan is not a signatory to the treaty that established the ICC.
Like the United Nations, the ICC serves the interests of the imperialist nations that dominate it. Since its establishment, the ICC has opened only a handful of investigation into war crimes—all of them in Africa.
The warrant is aimed at strangling the Sudanese government into submission to Washington and other Western imperialists. It is part of a racist effort to paint President Bashir as an evil dictator—a typical imperialist campaign strategy.
The imperialist disinformation campaign was a central theme of the press conference which followed the demonstration. Speakers included Hodari Abdul-Ali, Executive Director of GPAC and Chair of the Social Justice Task Force for the Muslim Alliance in North America; Akbar Muhammad, Found of Youth 4 Africa Foundation; Dr. Kaukab Siddique, author and Amir of Jamaat Al-Muslimeen organization; and Bob Brown of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party. Brian Becker, the National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), also spoke in solidarity with the Sudanese people.
The speakers urged demonstrators and the public not to trust the disinformation campaign regarding the crisis in Darfur, which has been repeatedly characterized in the imperialist countries as “genocide” carried out by the Sudanese government. In reality, the campaign was constructed at the behest of U.S. and British imperialism and is being carried out by well-funded Zionist organizations.
There are several enduring internal conflicts in Sudan. In Darfur, a struggle exists between farmers and nomadic herders who are forced to compete for land. There is real hunger and suffering in Sudan—much of it the result of the plunder of African land by the former colonial power and continued imperialist aggression. However, the charge of a coordinated genocidal attack against the people of the Darfur region led by the Sudanese government is a fabrication.
Sudan is the largest country in Africa and an oil-producing nation, making it a particularly valuable prize for the bankers and corporate owners in the United States and Britain. Washington and other imperialist forces aim to take advantage of the suffering of the Sudanese people in order to carve up and recolonize Sudan and other parts of Eastern Africa.
A true solution to the crisis cannot come from the imperialist nations who seek only to exploit the Sudanese land and people. It must come from the people of the region who have the right to determine their future without the interference of the former colonizing powers. Hands off Sudan!
