FortySouth

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. How crazy is that? As much as this result was more-or-less expected, it’s still sort of unprecedented to apprehend a sitting president in this manner.

What is not laughable are the charges levelled against him:

The three judges, acting on evidence gathered by the chief prosecutor’s office, found that the Sudanese president has been personally and criminally responsible for organising attacks against the civilian population of Darfur, “murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians and pillaging their property.”

So what happens next? How will he be “arrested”?

The ICC has no police force of its own, so it has to rely on the co-operation of the 108 countries that are signatories to the Rome treaty, the founding charter of the ICC. Those countries have an obligation to arrest Mr Bashir if he strays into their jurisdiction;

Also, it so happens that the “fugitive president” will not be mirandized should he opt to travel to the United States since the is not a signatory to the Rome treaty. If he stays in Sudan, then it may take years for any action to come of this warrant.

What about an intervention from other African leaders?

Mr Bashir also knows that he can count on the support of most African and Arab leaders in the region in resisting the ICC. They have always been opposed to the court’s proceedings against the Sudanese president; partly because they fear that they could be next, but also for the more laudable reason that the indictment might further destabilise an already shaky and blood-soaked country.

The rapid deterioration and immense suffering in Dafur are well documented. The US believes that there’s a genocide going on in the region; the UN doesn’t, and neither does the ICC which is why he wasn’t charged with the offense. But that doesn’t change the fact that lives are lost every day through audacious killings.

CNN has a gut-wrenching story on how a young Sudanese soldier, conscripted to the Army under coercion, was told to “rape and kill children” as part of his MO:

The end of his story, but we weren’t really done. One more question.

Had he been forced to rape children?

“Yes I did, they were government orders,” came his reply.

Something clearly needs to be done in Sudan. For the sake of the future generation.

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See Also:

• Sudan: Aid Agencies Expelled from Darfur
• Sudan: UN in Quandary over Action on al-Bashir
• Africa’s Most Dangerous Leaders