As of Saturday morning, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was 100 percent committed to traveling to Turkey. Bashir, an indicted war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, was scheduled to arrive in Turkey on Sunday for a Monday summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Turkey, for some reason, did not initially feel compelled to prevent a war criminal from planting his feel on their soil. However, that didn’t prevent the Save Darfur Coalition and hundreds of committed activists from mobilizing.
As reported in the Christian Science-Monitor, the Save Darfur Coalition was planning an large action at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC. The action – a gathering of students, activists and Sudanese expats – was organized to pressure Turkey into not letting Bashir travel to their country. We planed on delivering handcuffs to the Turkish government and demanding that if Bashir made it into their country that they immediately place him under arrest and ship him to The Hague.
Well, Omar al-Bashir didn’t go to Turkey, he didn’t even get wheels up out of Sudan. Omar al-Bashir remains an outlaw, stymied by the ICC and on the run from justice. Hopefully, his days as the leader of Sudan are drawing to a close, and a new day for the people of Sudan is on the horizon.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Tags: activists, ICC, Omar al-Bashir, Save Darfur Coalition, Turkey
