Appeal to the African heads of state: "Do not put the trust in the AU at risk!”

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has appealed to the African heads of state not to vote for the Sudanese head of state, Omar Hassan al Bashir next Thursday (31.01.2008). "The AU will be faced with a great loss of prestige if it votes for the dictator Bashir as President”, warned the GfbV in a letter to the heads of state of the 53 member states of the Union. For on the day exactly six months after the decision of the Security Council to station UNAMID troops in the west of the Sudan to protect the civilian population the situation in Darfur is worse than at the outset. "Bashir’s rule of terror is not only responsible for the destruction of 2,066 villages and the expulsion of 2.8 million people in Darfur, but also for the systematic prevention of any punishment of those carrying out these crimes”, said the GfbV Africa expert, Ulrich Delius.

With his candidature Bashir is making nonsense of Africa’s attempts to achieve constitutional rule and respect for human rights. His appointment as presidential adviser in January 2008 of the Janjaweed leader, Musa Hilal, for whom a warrant has been issued by the International Court of Justice at The Hague, is only the most recent provocation of the international community. There was loud international protest in September 2007 when he appointed the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmed Haroun, as deputy chairperson on a committee which had the task of investigating the complaints of victims of violations of human rights. In spite of the international warrant for his arrest he remains the government’s contact person for the peace force of the UN and AU in Darfur (UNAMID). Ali Kosheib, who is also wanted by the Court of Justice at The Hague, was in October 2007 released from prison, where he had served a sentence for other offences, instead of being transferred to The Hague.

It is the third time that President Bashir has applied for the chair of the AU, which rotates annually. In 2006 and 2007 his candidature failed. In the light of the international protests the AU refused to pass over the chair of the organisation of African states to Sudan, whose turn it was. Instead Ghana’s President Kufuor was given the office. The chair is elected every year at the end of January at the meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa.