ICC+and+Sudan

3-24-09 (Open Democracy) (China View) (BBC News) (Economist) (AP)
 * ICC and Sudan**
 * "The ICC judges ruled that there is sufficient evidence on the merits of the prosecutor's case and reasonable grounds to believe that the two individuals are responsible for murder, rape, torture, the forced displacement of entire villages, and other war crimes against humanity," Marie Okabe, deputy spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, told reporters.
 * It is by any standards a landmark decision. On 4 March 2009, three judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) chose to [|uphold] the indictment of the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Sudanese government forces in the country's Darfur region.
 * In principle it is an important step that the world's first permanent international criminal court has charged a [|sitting] head of state ( [|Slobodan Milosevic] of Serbia and [|Charles Taylor] of Liberia were charged by //ad hoc// international [|tribunals], [|Augusto Pinochet] of Chile by national courts, and [|Hissène Habré] of Chad has been or is being subject to both). However the critics are right to point out the risks for the displaced in Darfur. Since al-Bashir's forces control access and mostly prevail on the ground, Sudanese government reprisals could have disastrous effects; these are even more likely in a situation where United Nations [|protests] have not been backed up with meaningful counter-sanctions.
 * The African Union (AU) reiterated its stance of supporting Sudan in rejecting the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
 * South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki has called on the International Criminal Court not to prosecute Sudan's leader for war crimes in case it upsets Darfur's peace talks. Thabo Mbeki told South African TV that Omar al-Bashir's continued presence as head of state was also needed to assist the country's post-civil war security.
 * Seven UNAMID peacekeepers were killed Tuesday when heavily armed fighters attacked them while they were on a patrol in northern Darfur. More than a dozen other peacekeepers were injured in the ambush – the deadliest against the joint UN-AU force since it deployed in the remote western Sudanese region earlier this year.
 * Sudan’s expulsion of aid agencies following the indictment shows that the danger is real. Where justice has to be weighed against the urgent need to end violence, peace must sometimes come first.
 * The NGOs that were expelled from Sudan provided much of the food, water and medicine to the 2.75m refugees who live in temporary camps in Darfur. So this move is, above all, a huge blow to the fragile humanitarian lifeline that has been keeping the wretched victims of the Darfur conflict alive. By some estimates, the NGOs that have been kicked out contributed 80% of the workers who distributed the World Food Programme’s aid in Darfur—the people, that is, who actually gave the food to the refugees in the camps. They also maintained boreholes and water pumps in the camps. Without clean water, diseases are likely to spread quickly. Meningitis has already struck one camp.