Abu Garda vs. Omar Al Bashir

Below I’ve (belatedly) written up some of the notes I took while attending Abu Garda’s first appearance before the ICC last week:

May 18, 2009
There are two men. They are both Sudanese. They both have leadership positions. And they are both charged with serious crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). But that is where the similarities between Sudanese President, Omar al Bashir, and Darfuri rebel leader, Abu Garda end.

As watched Abu Garda make his first appearance here at the International Criminal Court in The Hague today I saw not only what was before me. I also saw the promise of what could have been if Bashir approached the issuance of an arrest warrant against him in the same way that Abu Garda has. As the three war crimes charges were read out to Abu Garda, he was calm and poised. The appearance went forward without a hitch and the date for the confirmation hearing was set for 12 October.

But the most interesting part of the day took place outside the courtroom.

I tagged along with a group of Darfuris who had been watching Abu Garda’s appearance from the public gallery. They said a press conference had been organized and suggested I follow them as they looked for what they had been told was the location.”There is supposed to be a tent somewhere in a carpark at the end of the street” So off we went. As we walked Mr. Musa Eleman, from the Darfur Union in The Netherlands told me: “Darfurian people are not as criminal as the government says. We are looking for justice. Our message to the government is that for justice, we need you to come here to the ICC, like Abu Garda.”

That was clearly the talking point of the day, because eventually Abu Garda and four other members of the URF turned up to sit before a pool of journalists in the tent, which had indeed been set up in a carpark. Abu Garda called on Omar Al Bashir to come to the ICC “to face the justice” just as he was doing.

Although a court order prevented him from speaking about his own case at the ICC (and his lawyer, Karim Khan was hovering on the sidelines ensuring this order was respected), Abu Garda presented the media with what, to my mind, seems to be the actual case that he came to The Hague for. The case is the URF vs. the Sudanese government in the court of public opinion.

Abu Garda, with his half-glasses perched on the end of his nose, looks professorial. And he has the verbal skills to match. In very good English, he explained that the Constitution of the URF respects justice and so it was for consistency with that, that he came to The Hague. He believes he is innocent, but that the proper way to defend himself is to appear before the Court. He spoke about the suffering of the Darfuri people, and the hopes for peace. Almost every statement contained the subtext – I am doing everything that Bashir is not. From the looks of most of the journalists sitting around me, he won his case.