Syrian opposition criticizes Arab League observer
CAIRO (AP) — Syria's opposition called Thursday for the removal of the Sudanese general heading the Arab League mission sent to monitor the crackdown by the Damascus government because he held key security positions in the regime of President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted on international charges of committing genocide in Darfur. ...
... "The choice of al-Dabi does not send an encouraging signal to Syria's democrats," said Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. "Sudan has many democrats who would have been credible and effective monitors for respect for rights in Syria. General al-Dabi is not one of them."
De Waal, who interviewed al-Dabi for a book on Darfur he co-authored in 2008, said the Sudanese served in 1999 as al-Bashir's representative for western Darfur, where serious fighting had broken out related to intertribal tensions and Darfur's frustration with the Khartoum government.
"Al-Dabi brought the situation under control with a show of force, including stationing military helicopters in the state capital and using them to intimidate the rebels. Many were arrested during his tenure, and thousands of refugees fled to Chad."
The Darfur rebels, according to de Waal, said al-Dabi's time in the area was "the beginning of the organization of the Janjaweed," the name given to pro-government militiamen blamed for many of the atrocities committed against Darfurians.
Al-Dabi argued at the time that it was necessary to show a firm hand in the face of dissent, de Waal said. ...
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