Ghana Must Not Support The AU's Position On Bashir's ICC Indictment

Like the murderous President Saddam Hussein before him, the dictator of Sudan, President Omar Bashir, can also muster a large crowd of placard-bearing sycophants to publicly demonstrate their support for him, at any time he deems it convenient to show the world that he has the backing of the citizens of the police-state he presides over. In the end, Omar Bashir, like Saddam Hussein, will also pay for his crimes against humanity – as sure as day follows night.

Those who take part in those public demonstrations organized by the Sudanese government, have no choice when they are ordered to hit the streets in Omar Bashir’s support – for they live under a ruthless and brutal tyranny. However, since Ghana is not a vassal of Sudan, the members of the government of Ghana, particularly its foreign minister, do not have to live in fear of President Bashir.

One does not know the reason for the recent statement attributed to Ghana‘s foreign minister, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, that Ghana supports the position of the African Union (AU), on the issue of the indictment of President Bashir, by the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, it is important that on all such occasions he follows the dictum: “Silence is golden.” Ghana is a civilized nation that must never give succour to regimes that abuse the human rights of their citizens – no matter where in the globe they are to be found.

Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni would have been far wiser refraining from answering any question requiring a direct answer on the subject – and should have rather taken advantage of the opportunity offered by the interview, to stress the importance that Ghana attaches to the international community finding an outcome to the Darfur tragedy, which sees an immediate halt to the suffering of the people of Darfur. That must be Ghana’s position.

There are no overriding strategic reasons why Ghana ought to feel that it has an obligation to remain on friendly terms with the Sudanese regime. Sudan, after all, is an AU member that deliberately destabilizes its neighbour Uganda, so as to discourage it from supporting the people of Southern Sudan – to whom Bashir and Co. have made promises they have no intention of keeping (a ruse that has enabled them end the civil war in Southern Sudan more or less on their terms: and ensured that the oil in that region of Sudan is exploited largely for Khartoum’s benefit).

Why, does Ghana’s foreign minister not know that the war in Southern Sudan will eventually be restarted – as soon as the Southern Sudanese vote to secede from Khartoum in the scheduled independence referendum? Will he and the regime he represents support Omar Bashir and Co. then, too? It is important that in all situations where there are widespread abuses of the human rights of our fellow Africans by their governments, the government of Nkrumah’s Ghana, strongly condemns all such human rights abuses.

We must gain that reputation in Africa – just as Botswana has gained a reputation as nation that has a moral foreign policy that makes them speak out boldly against injustice by oppressive regimes in their part of Africa. What is going on in Western Sudan cannot be justified under any circumstances. It is an affront to all black Africans – as the regime of Omar Bashir is carrying out a policy of ethnic-cleansing in Darfur solely for racist reasons.

The irony, is that although Omar Bashir and Co. are regarded as black African Muslims in the Arab world, they themselves consider themselves as ”Arabs” and regard the blacks in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan, as inferior beings, on account of their darker hues. That is intolerable, and the nation Nkrumah founded must never tolerate racial prejudice on African soil – particularly prejudice that leads to the carrying out of a pogrom anywhere in the continent: to wipe out its black African inhabitants.

What benefit is there in Ghana ruining its international reputation so needlessly, by supporting the untenable position of the AU – and giving comfort to a mass-murderer who is busy killing our fellow black Africans? Do we not pride ourselves as a democratic nation with solid pan-Africanist credentials, whose citizens live in a free society, in which the rule of law prevails – and in which sovereignty resides in the people? Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, and the regime he is such a prominent member of, must understand clearly, that Ghanaians did not vote them into office to give succour to African dictators, who brutalize and kill scores of their own people.

Yes, it may very well be true that Ghana’s politicians can always rely on the support of the “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types, who wear blinkers permanently and are too blind to see what is wrong in our country – and too thick to think independently. Sadly, it is their blind support that eventually ruins political parties when they finally attain power. Our political class must always remember that it is the small minority of discerning Ghanaians, those independent and fair-minded Ghanaians (often referred to by the media as “floating voters”), whose opinions result in regime-change in Ghanaian elections, today.

President Mills and the regime he leads must know that a majority of those independent-minded Ghanaians are outraged to hear Ghana’s foreign minister reiterating the AU’s disgraceful position on the indictment by the ICC of Sudan’s President Omar Bashir. It is shameful that a nation such as Ghana supports an African regime that looks down on our fellow Africans and is also busy carrying out ethnic-cleansing to rid Darfur of its black African inhabitants (so that their land is usurped by their so-called ”Arab” neighbours).

Speaking as an independent-minded Ghanaian, in my view, making common cause with Omar Bashir, will definitely make me refrain from voting for President Mills’ regime in 2012 – even if it succeeds in turning Ghana into paradise by then. For, in supporting the AU’s disgraceful position, they would have helped an African ruler, who is guilty of the mass-murder of fellow Africans. On the issue of the indictment of President Omar Bashir by the ICC, the Mills administration had better revise its notes very quickly – for it is a non-negotiable issue over which a majority of Ghana’s “floating-voters” will never compromise. A word to the wise…