Holocaust scholars– including Yad Vashem Professor Yehuda Bauer and the president of Genocide Watch, Gregory H. Stanton – signed a petition praising Uganda’s move to ‘block’ Sudanese President Omar al Bashir from attending a conference in Kampala over the ICC indictments.
The media was awash of stories as Bashir kept quiet on whether he would attend the conference, a move that would have put Uganda between a rock and a hard place.
I know and I have gained from Gregory H. Stanto’s vast knowledge of the Genocide at the young leader’s forum in Montreal in 2007. I learnt alot about the stages of genocide and that genocide can be prevented.
While Santon and other scholars said “Uganda’s action helps isolate Sudan’s president and shames the Arab and African countries that have given him red-carpet treatment,” I believe their move is not worth the praise. This is because it wasn’t done in total belief in justice. Uganda simply did what was politically convinien by asking Bashir not to attent in person to avoid a diplomatic row. If Uganda really believed in the whole Rome statute the government wouldn’t be moving to enact a law that grants a seating president immunity from prosecution for war crimes.
See pictures from Darfur by Stuart Price a photojournalist who spent more than a year in the region.
Rosebell Kagumire 