Cross-posted from GretaWire.
Sudan's very evil President Omar al-Bashir has done the unthinkable: He's killed tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands. He is under indictment in the ICC for genocide but continues to get help from the likes of President Zuma of South Africa and the government of Uganda. It is stunning how cruel he is and how the world has looked the other way.
You have seen the pictures I took of some of his vicious handiwork (I have posted some below). And as I read the article below, I wondered, is the US really going to let this mass killer step foot on our soil? Will the Obama Administration give him a VISA? Yes, I know ... we house the United Nations with certain rules and responsibilities, but isn't there a point where we must take a moral stand? Isn't this just the place? Giving a forum to a mass killer to speak to the world? Really?
I know the UN rules but let the UN get all mad at us for drawing the line and not allowing him a VISA. The UN is not going to get that mad as US taxpayers give the most money to the UN of any nation. The UN would not exist without our generosity.
KHARTOUM: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, has applied for a US visa to attend the next United Nations General Assembly, an official said Thursday.
It would be Bashir's first visit to the United States since his 2009 indictment by the Hague-based ICC for alleged war crimes in Sudan's western region of Darfur.
"Yes, President Bashir and his delegation have applied for US visas for attending the UN General Assembly meeting," Bashir's press secretary Obei Ezzedine told AFP.
In 2014, Bashir applied for a visa to attend the General Assembly, which is held in September each year at the UN's headquarters in New York, but it was rejected.
The US embassy in Khartoum could not be reached for comment.
Sudan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Kamal Ismail said it was Khartoum's right to send a delegation to the UN meeting.
"If a country hosting UN institutions refuses to give visas to any other country's delegation for attending UN activities, then the host country is violating its legal committment," Ismail told a news conference.
Washington has regularly condemned Bashir's international travels, and last week lashed out at Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni for hosting the Sudanese leader at his swearing in ceremony in Kampala.
Diplomats from the United States, the European Union and Canada walked out of the ceremony in protest at Bashir's presence.
In theory, states like Uganda who are signatories to the ICC have an obligation to arrest ICC suspects on their territories.
But African leaders have increasingly been resentful...
Note from me:
In case you may have forgotten, here are some pictures I took in Sudan (or someone I was with took)…when I saw what Bashir has done and continues to do:
Below: this family’s home and fields were destroyed and they were hiding / living in a cave. I saw Bashir’s bombers flying over looking for more families to kill.
Bashir destroys Christian churches — see below.
The “lucky” ones escape rape and immediate death and the rest? Starve…yes, to starve to death since Bashir has destroyed their homes and their fields/farms. See below…look at that child’s ribs.
Look closely in the pic below — I am in the bomb crater. Over my shoulder is the target Bashir wanted — a school full of children but he missed the school.
With Reverend Franklin Graham below. Note our vehicle is covered with mud. Why? So that we were camouflaged from Bashir’s bombers overhead looking to bomb…to kill…anyone daring to help these people.
I asked some of them ‘what do you eat?’ The answer was “leaves and bugs.” One man then showed me the bugs he had collected to try to prevent his family from starving to death. Here is the pic I took: