Arab League summits are easy to overlook. But as the situation in Sudan careened towards a new disaster last month, leaders from across North Africa and the Middle East appeared set for a memorable gathering this time – albeit for unsettling reasons.
 

The trouble started when President Omar al-Bashir’s government ordered 6,500 aid workers at 13 organizations to leave Sudan, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against al-Bashir on Mar. 4. According to the United Nations, those vacating aid groups will leave more than a million people in Sudan without food, water or medicine.

“The situation has already gone from bad to terrible,” says Brian Steidle, a former military observer with the African Union mission in Sudan’s Darfur region. “Hundreds of thousands are expected to die in the next couple of months.”

Richard Goldstone, former chief pro-secutor with the Yugoslavia and Rwanda war crimes courts, believes the reaction by al-Bashir’s government constitutes a serious breach of international law. “His conduct since the arrest warrant indicates criminality at a huge level,” Goldstone says, adding that Khartoum appears to be taking, “a sort of revenge.”

Since 2003, the UN estimates at least 300,000 people have died in Darfur, mainly as Arab militias and government forces have attacked non-Arab, Muslim Africans. About 2.7 million survivors have fled their homes, many taking shelter in huge camps within Sudan that rely on humanitarian aid for basic supplies.

The Arab League has responded to the ICC indicting al-Bashir, but not to Sudan banning humanitarian groups. In a statement, the League simply expressed “deep dismay” at the ICC’s warrant, denouncing it as an affront to Sudan’s sovereignty and requesting that the UN Security Council postpone it for a year.

Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, also reaffirmed al-Bashir’s invitation to the organization’s annual summit on Mar. 29-30. Qatar, the event’s host, said it would ignore the ICC’s re-quest to turn over al-Bashir – in spite of mounting evidence that Khartoum has orchestrated the mass killing of civilians.

“I personally have seen government troops in the process of looting, in the process of burning. I’ve seen them attack villages,” says Steidle, who presented photos and other proof of government atrocities he collected in Darfur to the ICC’s chief prosecutor.

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