Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court on genocide charges, said on Saturday he has offered to help Libya integrate its dozens of militias into the country’s armed forces.
“We have experience in integrating rebels in a national army,” said Bashir, whose visit to Libya drew criticism from human rights groups.
“We have offered to help our brothers in Libya in building a national army that includes the components of the Libyan revolution. Our experts are available and our officers are available,” he said.
Bashir also said he had offered the new Libyan government help from Sudanese troops in protecting Libya’s southern borders during the war that ended former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s rule, but that his offer was declined.
Libya’s new rulers are struggling to include thousands of former rebels who helped oust Qaddafi in a military and police force or in civilian jobs.
National Transitional Council (NTC) chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil warned last week that Libya risked sliding into civil war unless it cracks down on rival militias that filled the vacuum left by Qaddafi’s downfall.
The militias are vying with each other for influence and believe that to ensure they receive their due share of political power they need to keep an armed presence in the capital.
Abdul Jalil, who visited Khartoum in November, has said Sudanese weapons and ammunition helped Libya’s former rebels oust Qaddafi last year and take control of the North African country.
Relations between Khartoum and Tripoli were strained during Qaddafi’s rule because of his support for rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region and in South Sudan, which gained independence in July under a 2005 peace deal.
Bashir said that the ousting of Qaddafi was “the best piece of news in Sudan’s modern history.”
“We came here to thank the Libyan people for the gift they offered to the Sudanese people by removing Qaddafi,” he said.
Bashir’s visit was criticized by rights groups.
“Welcoming Bashir ... raises questions about the NTC’s stated commitment to human rights and the rule of law,” Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“Following the end of decades of brutal rule in Libya, it is disturbing if Tripoli hosts a head of state on the run from international arrest warrants for grave human rights violations,” Dicker said.
Mohammed al-Keelani, who heads a group of 50 Libyan civil society organizations, said Bashir was not welcome in Libya.
“For us, Omar al-Bashir is the Qaddafi of Sudan,” he said. “We have reservations against this visit because he’s a tyrant who oppresses his people and his policy contradicts our principles.”
Bashir is under increasing pressure at home after his country lost much of its oil production to the south.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
RSS