What President al-Bashir must do now

President Bashir of Sudan gets little help from his supporters. There is little enthusiasm to defend a regime that is alleged to have murdered 35,000 of its citizens and displaced 2.5 million. Saudi and Lebanese commentators have condemned the terrible campaign against the Darfur rebels. The Sudan Parliament today says al-Bashir's indictment for genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur would "complicate the situation" and "abort the peace negotiations."

This ignores the obvious. There are no peace negotiations going on. The Darfur peace process is stalled. The relief operations can not supply food to the starving refugees because of militia attacks. Another AU peace keeper was killed by militia today.

President Bashir is accused of war crimes including targeted attacks on civilians and the use of systematic rape as a weapon of terror. More evidence is coming into public view.

In her book Tears of the Desert, Halima Bashir describes how she was working as a doctor in a Darfur village. She says "One day the Janjawid attacked. They surrounded the girls' school, and, while government troops stood guard, they gang-raped the girls. I had to treat the victims, the youngest of whom was 8 years old. I was sickened and horrified beyond words.

"Aid workers arrived and asked me to tell them what had happened: despite my fears, I did so. Days later the military and security men came for me again. This time I was beaten, tortured and taunted by gibes of “black dog” and “slave”. I was gang-raped repeatedly."

It is unfortunate for President Bashir that his defenders say that the head of state is somehow immune from charges for war crimes. Further, that the warrant for his arrest should not be carried out because it would lead to retaliation against the aid agencies. This only makes him look morally incompetent to lead a nation. It makes the countries supporting him seem unprincipled. It seems to respond to allegations of crimes against humanity with an implied threat of crimes against humanitarian organisations . There is no way out with honour for him and his supporters if they choose this path. History will revile them. Sudan will suffer.

But there is a possible way forward for President Bashir if he has the courage to take it. He should hand over the suspect war criminals Ali Kushayb and Ahmad Harun and cooperate with the UN Security Council. He should ensure the perpetrators of violent crimes in Sudan are identified and brought to justice. He should support the humanitarian agencies and their efforts to aid the displaced peoples. He should take the lead in restarting the Darfur peace process to bring all parties to the negotiating table.

He should invest in peace. Instead of spending 8% of income on arms and less than 1% on education he should spend more on education, less on arms. He might find that if he should use the oil money to develop services in Darfur.... then maybe he wouldn't need to spend so much money on arms.

His future lies in his hands.