9 July 2009
editorial
Kampala — To arrest or not to arrest Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur appears to be the current dilemma facing over 30 African states.
These countries, Uganda inclusive have endorsed the Rome Statute which established the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Under the treaty, they are under obligation to arrest Bashir and hand him over to the ICC should he enter into their territory.
To compound matters further, the prosecutor at the ICC Luis Moreno-Ocampo early this week claimed to have enough evidence to slap yet another charge of genocide against Bashir. The arrest warrant issued against Bashir on March 4 implicates him in the deaths of 35,000 people.
The prosecutor's new claims come in the wake of last week's African Union Summit held in Sirte, Libya that urged the United Nations to delay the case, saying it would not effect the ICC warrant.
Getting the UN Security Council on board over the AU stand may actually not be a big hurdle since Uganda holds the chair and should be in position to exercise leverage in that regard.
This is not to downplay what is said to have happened in Darfur. In fact, it is in recognition of the complexity of the Darfur crisis because Sudan is in a precarious state with serious political problems spanning from the south to the west. Therefore, what is required is a political solution to the problems of this vast region, not a court verdict.
It is in best interest of Uganda and other African states in the region to have a stable Sudan. Arresting Bashir will only create a political void in Sudan, which is a recipe for disaster if you take into account the fact that the country has several fighting factions.
We do not need to be reminded of the chaos in Somalia in order to be cautious over Sudan. This calls for diplomacy on the part of the prosecutor and the international community.
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In his piece entitled “ White Collar War Crimes, Black African Fall Guys,”
investigative journalist Keith Snow writes:
First note that the ICC can now be viewed as a tool of hegemonic U.S. foreign policy,
where the weapons deployed by the U.S. and its allies include the accusations of, and
indictments for, human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
To understand this, we can ask WHY NO WHITE MAN HAS YET BEEN CHARGED
with these or other offenses at the ICC (International Criminal Court) which now holds
five black African warlords and seeks… [Read Full Text]