President’s Corner: ICC Case Against Bashir is Risky but Right

As the head of a humanitarian organization, I worry that Monday’s decision to seek charges of genocide against the president of Sudan will complicate efforts to achieve peace in Darfur and interrupt flows of lifesaving aid to millions of people. Despite these risks, I believe the effort to bring Sudan’s leader to justice is correct and necessary.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court presented evidence that Omar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir, the president of Sudan, is guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the five-year civil war in the Darfur region of Western Sudan. President al Bashir has repeatedly denied the charges, which must now be reviewed by another ICC body called the Pre-Trial Chamber I. If this review concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe the alleged crimes were committed, it can issue an arrest warrant or take other action to bring the accused to trial.

The United Nations has been struggling to deal with the human toll of a vicious civil war in Darfur since it began in February 2003. The war has been characterized by massive death and displacement; some 2.7 million people have been displaced and as many as 400,000 have died from war-related causes, according to some estimates.

In a summary of the case, the prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, said: “The evidence establishes reasonable grounds to believe that al Bashir intends to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups as such. Forces and agents controlled by al Bashir attacked civilians in towns and villages inhabited by the target groups, committing killings, rapes, torture and destroying means of livelihood.”

Throughout the conflict, which has been characterized as an attempt by an Arab dominated government to displace or destroy largely African tribes in Darfur, the government of Sudan has tried to interfere with aid organizations and UN food deliveries and the deployment of international peacekeepers. The risk of the announcement of the ICC’s case is that such harassment will increase to the point where the delivery of aid to millions of people will be impossible. This would be a tragedy.

Nevertheless, the announcement of evidence against President al Bashir is correct, because those responsible for the death and displacement in Darfur should be held accountable.

Every case of extreme violence or crimes against humanity is different. But in two previous cases where sitting presidents—Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and Charles Taylor of Liberia—were charged by internationally mandated criminal courts, the indictments helped open the way to peace and reconciliation after years of brutal killing.

It is too early to tell if the ICC’s action will have a similar impact in Sudan. But the ICC action will have an immediate impact on President al Bashir. If evidence is sustained and the court issues a warrant for his arrest, he won’t be able to leave the country, for fear of being arrested and taken to the Hague for trial. The ICC action could complicate the outcome of elections schedule for next year—if the elections occur.

But most of all, the case announced by the ICC shows that when it comes to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, nobody is above the law.

--Ken Bacon