Global Policy Forum

By Opheera McDoom

Tens of thousands of Sudanese marched through the capital Khartoum on Tuesday in response to a government campaign against a U.N. resolution referring war crime suspects to the International Criminal Court. Chanting slogans denouncing the United Nations and the United States, angry protesters, mostly young men, stopped at the U.N. building, then the British embassy and finally the U.S. embassy, where they shouted: "Down, down, USA."

At the U.N. building, they called Secretary-General Kofi Annan a coward and an American agent. Vans and buses blaring slogans over loudspeakers and waving banners saying "No to the unjust U.N. resolution 1593," weaved through the hot and dusty streets of the capital. The state-owned mobile phone company MobiTel had publicised the protest march through a text message sent out to many subscribers on Monday evening. Government-dominated radio and newspapers also advertised the march.

The U.N. Security Council voted 11-0 last Thursday to refer alleged war crimes committed during more than two years of rebellion in the remote Darfur region to the international court in The Hague -- the first such referral. But Sudan's government has rejected the resolution and said Sudanese citizens could only be tried in Sudanese courts.

One of the demonstrators, interior decorator Ibrahim Saleh, said: "We refuse to have any Sudanese citizen tried outside the country. This is neocolonialism." The U.N. says Sudan has done little to disarm the Arab militia accused of widespread rape, killing and burning of non-Arab villages in Darfur during a two-year rebel uprising.

More than two million people have fled their homes and tens of thousands have been killed in the Darfur fighting. "We totally reject this unjust resolution. Our courts are good enough to try anyone for crimes. We don't want any foreign intervention," added Mutassem Youssef, who comes from the town of Zalingei in West Darfur state.

Babikar Mohamed, a 60-year-old technician who took part in the four-hour protest, said: "The United States and the French just want our resources. They want our oil. We are Muslims and we want to be tried in our own courts." About 200 students took part in a similar protest at the U.N. building on Saturday and protests have taken place in the Nile valley north of Khartoum.

"Hypocrites"

Nafie Ali Nafie, minister of federal relations, said the French, who drafted the original resolution, were hypocrites to talk about human rights in Darfur when they banned religious symbols like Islamic headscarves in schools. "France talks about human rights and protecting human rights in Darfur, but what are human rights when you prevent someone from covering their heads?" he said in a speech on state radio.

One British reporter was jostled by the crowds when they found out his nationality and had to be rescued by military police. But overall the march was peaceful. The United States says genocide has taken place in Darfur. A commission appointed by the United nations stopped short of calling it genocide but said heinous crimes took place, which may be no less serious.

The commission gave Annan a sealed list of 51 suspects, including senior government and army officials, militia leaders and some rebel and foreign army commanders. The ICC took charge of boxloads of documents about alleged war crimes on Tuesday. The opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) also denounced resolution 1593 and DUP officials spoke at the rally. But Sudan's Umma Party, widely seen as the most popular northern party, said it agreed with a U.N.-appointed commission which recommended the list of suspects be referred to the ICC.

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