Bush, Bashir, China and the moral high ground

  David M. Crane

One finds it ironic that the president of the United States, George W. Bush, while in Thailand, recently called upon the Chinese government to be more mindful of fundamental freedoms for Chinese citizens. In another time, such comments by a president would not be that noteworthy; they would be expected, backed with a moral force that is lacking in President Bush's statement to the Chinese government. Today they ring hollow.

With the specter of the past hanging over him, President Bush traveled to the Olympic Games under a cloud. The ghosts of Bahgram airfield, Abu Ghraib prison, secret camps, extraordinary rendition and of course the legal black hole that is Guantanamo Bay follow this president wherever he goes. His administration's policies have caused the United States to lose the moral high ground as one of the long time champions of human rights. It will take decades for that high ground to be regained to the extent that the international community will listen once again to the United States when it speaks of fundamental human rights.

Nations have no more precious resource than their moral standing in the world. Political, economic and military power are important to the security of a nation, but it is that moral force that gives a nation its true standing and ultimate strength. The United States is a perfect example of this point.

The cornerstone to a nation's moral standing is the rule of law. It is through the adherence to law that fundamental freedoms are protected and nurtured. Closely allied to this is a nation's care for its own citizens. A nation's responsibility to protect those living within its own borders is a solemn and sovereign duty. Nations that ignore that duty become pariahs within the family of nations; they too lose the moral high ground.

Nowhere is this more so than in the Sudan. Though not alone in its ability to feed ravenously on its own citizenry, the Sudan has taken this duty to protect and thrown it aside in a widespread and systematic policy to eliminate its own citizens in Darfur. Because of this policy the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, has now been charged with a ten count indictment for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Because of this, Sudan has no moral standing; this undercuts its ability to exist politically within the United Nations paradigm.

Another example of a nation that has no moral standing is China. China cynically provides political cover to Bashir as it continues to hold on to its oil interests in Sudan, looking the other way as thousands die there. China hopes that there will be harmony throughout the Olympic Games that they are currently hosting. Imagine if they had the moral high ground from which to actually achieve that harmony. The Potemkin village constructed to mask human rights violations of the past and present makes a mockery of the long and honored history of the Chinese people and their culture. The "harmony" they have spent billions to create as host to the games is built on sand. It will all crumble away after the games are over.

Other nations have in recent years also lost the moral high ground, many of them in the Middle East. Accordingly, their ability to actively engage in credible efforts for peace is hamstrung. They have no moral standing to negotiate a true peace while civilians are harmed. Because the major players within the region have such little moral standing an atmosphere of mistrust prevails, like a dust cloud in the air, the clarity of a peace unclear and gritty indeed.

It is interesting how little respect is paid to the moral high ground in the twenty-first century. The last century was mankind's bloodiest and it was hoped with the fall of the iron curtain and the end of the cold war that this new century would turn out better than it has thus far. With the advent of modern international criminal law, just 15 years old, it was hoped that events in the Sudan and elsewhere would not happen again.

The International Criminal Court is the cornerstone for facing down the beast of impunity and it has acted against Bashir and his henchmen as the United Nations asked it to do. Yet regional organizations like the Arab League and the African Union mock such action. This mockery cheapens their moral standing in the world as well.

The moral high ground is like personal honor: when lost, it takes many years of hard work to regain. Without question, Sudan has lost the moral high ground. It can only regain it by taking positive and concrete steps such as stopping the killing in Darfur, protecting and nurturing those harmed in the various conflict zones and seeking justice for the tens of thousand of victims there. This would include the eventual handover of Bashir to the International Criminal Court for a fair and open trial.

As we celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of various key human rights instruments such as the Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in the spirit of the Olympic Games, we should pause to reflect upon how important the moral high ground is to a nation and its true standing in the world. The Bush administration will depart this January along with its skewed and dangerous policies; Bashir will continue to be politically isolated; and a solution by the regional and international players will be fashioned to turn him over for trial within the coming years. They did so with President Charles Taylor of Liberia in 2006, they will do the same with Bashir.

China will stumble forward fueled by an economic boom, but stumble it will over its poor human rights record. China has lost face and, though feared, it has no respect in the world because of its low moral standing. What makes a nation great is moral standing under the rule of law.- Published 14/8/2008 © bitterlemons-international.org

David M. Crane is professor at Syracuse University College of Law and former founding chief prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal in West Africa called the Special Court for Sierra Leone, 2002-2005.