Al-Jazeera has run an interview with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir from Khartoum on its popular “Without Limits” program. I thought it was enlightening, and the main impression I took a way from it was that of a man in a very weak position. The issue wasn’t addressed directly (although the feed cut off a couple of times, so I missed part of the interview), but from answers to various questions it was pretty clear that this was not a man who felt himself in control of his country. Some main points:

• The first big issue brought up was Darfur, and the government’s agreement to allow UN peacekeepers from the African Union to monitor part of Western Sudan. The interviewer asked Bashir if this put the Sudan under American rule, even if indirectly, because the U.S. had been pushing for this. Bashir responded, no, this is the UN, and it is with our consent. The interviewer repeated the question in different forms, like, “Don’t they now rule over at least this part of the Sudan?” and Bashir would just say it was a small, limited role, and with the government’s consent. But of course the outside presence was not really desired by Khartoum.
• Asked why Khartoum didn’t stop the killing in Darfur if it really wasn’t supporting the Janjaweed militias, Bashir simply said that the region was ruled by the local governor, and that he could do nothing. Although this may be a ruse, there was probably some truth to it; Khartoum can’t defeat rebels in either the south or the west, so a revolt by its governor would probably succeed. But international monitors have reported seeing Sudanese troops working directly with the Janjaweed.
• Bashir was asked about why no one fome the militias had been handed over to the International Criminal Court for crimes committed in Darfur. Bashir just said no way, even if the suspect was in Khartoum, we will not hand him over.

  The real problem here is the failure to prosecute directly; the Sudan is a sovereign state, and it could just arrest someone and prosecute him itself, if it cared. But that is why the whole exercise here is pointless; Khartoum supports the militias, or at least maintains good terms with them, because the Janjaweed support themselves by pillaging villages, so Khartoum gets security control in the west for free. Khartoum could prosecute its members if it wanted, but does not want to, and of course it will not hand them over to an international court.

• The interviewer noted that when Bashir began an official speech with the Muslim invocation bismillah al-rahman al-rahim, southerners objected, saying we have our own identity, we are not Arabs or Muslims. Bashir simply responded by invoking the Chinese formula for Hong Kong; we are one country, two systems. This statement surprised me more than anything else.
• The interviewer emphasized that not only would the south have representation in Khartoum, John Garang, the leader of the southern rebels, the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army), would have a share in the oil revenues, and his own security force. Bashir simply said that is the way it is. Now I’m thinking this is a man with no leverage.
• Bashir was asked whether or not upcoming elections would be free and fair, and he responded by saying the last ones were, so of course these would be. The interviewer asked, but what if John Garang gets a majority? “If Garang gets a majority, then he will govern the Sudan.”
• The interviewer also asked about Hassan al-Turabi, the Islamist intellectual who used to be Bashir’s chief ideologist (and a friend of Osama bin Laden), who was arrested for plotting against Bashir. He asked when Turabi might be released, and under what conditions. Bashir basically waffled, saying he had no idea and no control over the situation, which was certainly wrong, but that he thought Turabi would be free to have his own party upon release. Maybe in 30 years, I thought.

One fact to keep in the backdrop is that peace negotiations between Khartoum and the SPLA accelerated after the United States threatened to begin providing military aid to the rebels. This was just after the deposing of Saddam Hussein, so the threat was not taken lightly. Also, I’m sure that Bashir was caught between a rock – the U.S. threat to arm the rebels – and a hard place – Turabi’s opposition to peace with the rebels. Turabi had been the main propagator of Sudan’s Islamic legal code, and I can’t believe that he would have ever gone along with “one nation, two systems.”

Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell of Window on the Arab World, and More!”