Press Releases
The Memorandum of the Sudanese Communities in Europe
By [unknown placeholder $article.art_field1$]
Apr 11, 2009 - 11:38:55 PM

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

The Memorandum of the Sudanese Communities in Europe

To His Excellency Mr V ά clav Klaus, Current President of the European Union.

We, the Europeans who belong to Sudanese origins and the Sudanese living in the European Union, in Belgium, Holland, Germany and France, introduce this important and urgent memorandum to you, regarding the warrant of the International Criminal Court to arrest the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, in a dangerous precedent that would affect the sovereignty, freedom and independence of Sudan.

Accordingly, we believe that this warrant of arrest breached the sovereignty of a free country that is an active member in the international community. Moreover, it reflects a blatant intervention in its internal affairs, totally ignoring the principles of international law and the bases of international relations in a dangerous precedent that is the first of its kind throughout history.

Such imperial like interventions remind us of the days of dominance, hegemony and injustice, which our grandparents have struggled to get rid of and remove out of our country, even though, they have continued to work in order to forget those reigns of loss and injustice which have divided the citizens of the same country and left wounds that continued to bleed till these current days.

Today, we are surprisingly encountered with the same claims that previously marketed for imperialism, i.e. achieving urban developments and progress for those invaded nations. Imperialism is coming now under a different veil, with claims of spreading justice, peace and human rights, and has given deaf ear to all the injustices witnessed in today’s world, and has come to choose Sudan to spread its false claims and deceits under names that appear to be noble but they are indeed filled with evil.

The warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, has damaged the reputation of the Court and changed it from an emerging and credible international body aiming at achieving comprehensive justice, into a double standard selective tool controlled by influential countries that make use of the Court for their own political purposes and expansion interests in the face of the poor and small African countries, this will inevitably lead to killing this newborn Court in the bud and will increase enmity and hatred towards the western countries. It has become so clear that this Court, which sees only with one eye, and looks away with the other, has nothing to do with justice, it disregards the crimes committed in Afghanistan, Iraq and occupied Palestine, and shamefully confirms in its pursuit the double standards, which we strongly refuse, regret and condemn. The Sudanese communities in Europe believe that the international justice is only applicable to poor countries and nations, especially the African countries which has doubly suffered as a result of injustice, intervention and violating their sovereignty under different names, those crowds which took to the streets in this march rejecting that unjust warrant, confirm that it has given negative indications to rebellion movements and pushed them to refrain from sitting to the negotiating table to find a just solution for the Darfur issue, in order to end the suffering of the citizens and stabilize peace. Those crowds confirm that doing any harm to their president is equal to doing harm to the dignity and honour of Sudanese all over the world, and that the issuance of this warrant is doing harm to the first icon of the country’s sovereignty. They consider this action an insult to the whole Sudanese people, and an undervaluation of its continued efforts to end the war in Darfur, which included several negotiating tours and agreements for which the European Union and other countries were witnesses, in Abuja and other places. We believe that such unjustified interventions could lead to very regrettable outcomes, especially after this targeted leadership has managed to stop the longest war in the continent and has managed to spread peace in the South of Sudan.

We believe that his warrant is illegitimate and is out of the competence of the court, as Sudan did not ratify its charter and is not a member therein.

Moreover, this warrant is a project for an internal and regional chaos that will destroy everything, in a territory that that needs not further sufferings, as this will make it an incubating and attractive place for terrorism. For all of that, and for other reasons, we, along with the Sudanese people and the wise men of the international community, believe that this warrant is totally rejected, and we are looking forward for you to play a more positive role in solving this issue in more prudent and wise methods, and we hereby introduce to you the summary of what we want:

1. The Sudanese communities in Europe totally rejects this warrant and calls upon all the European countries, represented in the European Union and the European Parliament, to reject it and work towards reversing it.
2. We refuse the intervention in the internal affairs of Sudan.
3. We confirm that the issue of Darfur is an internal affair that will be resolved through the citizens of the same nation sitting to the negotiating table.
4. We declare our full solidarity with the demands of the harmed Darfur residents, especially those simple persons who reside in the refugee camps, and we reject exploiting their sufferings by a few that does not represent the whole residents of Darfur and refuses to sit down to negotiate a peaceful solution.
5. We warn the international community from the outcomes of such warrants, the bad implications of which are clear in what is happening now in Afghanistan and Iraq.
6. We warn that such warrants may ruin the unity and stability of Sudan, even more, they may affect the whole region and will arouse trouble among the citizens of the same country, and it represents a big threat to peace which has been achieved in the South of Sudan.
7. We confirm that the Sudanese communities stand behind their leadership which has accepted negotiation as a way of solving the problems of Sudan.
8. We indicate that the international justice is part and parcel, and should reach all of those who have committed crimes in any place on earth, especially those massacres that were committed in Gaza late in 2008, and Sudan is able to solve its problems without any foreign interventions that aims at arousing more trouble and disagreements.
9. We feel so sorry that such interventions came at a time when Sudan is witnessing remarkable growth, development and stability in all walks of life, the matter which hinders those achievements and the big projects that relieve the suffering of its people.

The Sudanese Communities in the European Union

Brussels

April 2009