This week the International Criminal Court, or ICC, took important steps toward promoting peace and accountability in Sudan by urging an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Sadly, but somewhat unsurprisingly, the step has set off a chorus of hand-wringing among certain diplomats, academics, and pundits who are now arguing that holding perpetrators of crimes against humanity accountable for their actions is unhelpful. In the Financial Times a columnist positively quelled at the notion of bad people being held responsible for their actions, bemoaning that “the threat of international justice may in fact be working against peace.” A veteran academic expressed his worry that almost all African senior officials could be made vulnerable to similar charges by this precedent.
At an informal meeting with Security Council members, activists and non-governmental organizations charged the 15-member body is not doing enough to help the people of Darfur, more than five years into a conflict that the world has called a genocide.
They said the council must force the government of Sudan to comply with the nine resolutions it has adopted on Darfur and if Khartoum remains obstinate, sanctions must be applied.
With its latest invasion-by-proxy in Chad, the Sudanese government is taking its defiance of the United Nations Security Council to a new level. As we speak, Khartoum is sponsoring and supporting an open and transparent effort to overthrow a neighboring government.
UNITED NATIONS: The U.S. presidential envoy to Darfur joined activists Tuesday in blaming the world for failing to protect Sudan from genocide.
"All of us should be impatient. We have failed in our responsibility to the people of Sudan," Rich Williamson, U.S. President George W. Bush's special envoy for Darfur since January, told a meeting with U.N. Security Council members.
While world attention remains riveted on the ongoing slaughter in Darfur, another African bloodbath continues unabated. Unlike Darfur, Uganda hasn't attracted the attention of any celebrities, but there are plenty of abducted children, terrified refugees and limb-severing killers to go around. On June 5, elements of the Ugandan rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) attacked into southern Sudan, killing twenty-one men, women, and children. Peace talks are on the brink of collapse.
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Contact: Paula Newbaker, (202) 481-8215
(NEW YORK) – The US special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson voiced disappointment at the UN secretariat for failing to move quickly on the deployment of peacekeepers to Darfur.
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — A US human rights activist on Tuesday warned China that it risked rebel attacks against its oil interests in Sudan unless it put pressure on its ally Khartoum to end the violence in Darfur and south Sudan.
John Prendergast told reporters that Beijing, a veto-wielding council member which has close energy ties with Khartoum, has a "disproportionate responsibility" in helping find a settlement to the conflicts in Darfur and south Sudan.
With its latest invasion-by-proxy in Chad, the Sudanese government is taking its defiance of the United Nations Security Council to a new level. Khartoum has sponsored and supported an open and transparent effort to overthrow a neighboring government. A month ago, the regime burned the strategic town of Abyei to the ground, leaving the North-South peace deal (CPA) at extreme risk. This comes against the backdrop of a government offensive in Darfur and ongoing support to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), whose actions threaten the children of four countries.
>> Listen to John Norris and Colin Thomas-Jensen on this recording of the conference call with the Genocide Intervention Network concerning the recent call by the ICC prosecutor for an arrest warrant to be issued against Sudan president Omar al-Bashir.
Photo Credit: ENOUGH/ Center for American Progress
ENOUGH’s John Prendergast and Omer Ismail joined Betty Bigombe and actor Ryan Gosling in front of 1000 college students for the closing plenary of the 2008 Campus Progress National Conference.
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to the Don Cheadle & John Prendergast interview on Darfur and their book, Not on Our Watch.
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