ICC and Complicity

At long last, it has happened that charges of genocide and crimes against humanity have been brought against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court. Undoubtedly and quite unfortunately, these charges will wreak further havoc in the short run for the people of Darfur in the form of reprisal attacks orchestrated by Bashir’s government Ironically, a statement released by Bashir;s National Congress Party through Sudanese state television promising “more violence and bloodshed” in Darfur in the wake of these charges only offer further proof of his leadership role in the genocide. The deadly impact that these reprisals may well have cannot and must not be undermined: if anything, they are a potent reminder of why it is so important to push for peace in the region. Still, the ICC’s charges must be applauded because in the long run, they should mark the end of the international community’s feeble excuse-making for its impotence regarding Darfur and the whole of Sudan. The charges must ultimately be used to provide both the stick and the carrot to draw Bashir to peace talks which will finally halt the genocide.

Charging Omar al-Bashir with genocide represents the most hopeful scrap of news that Darfuris have had for a long time. Ironically enough, however, the United States - the first and only nation to publicly recognize the atrocities in Darfur as genocide - may well serve as a great impediment towards allowing the ICC charges to achieve their full potential as leverage with which to pressure for immediate and lasting peace in Darfur. The US’s generally cold attitude towards the ICC must not be allowed to impede potential progress towards peace. The United States has itself condemned Khartoum for the same crimes that the Court has brought to bear against Bashir: for the U.S. to fail to utilize the great opportunity that these charges represent would amount to a shamelessly continued complicity in the genocide. For if Mr. Bashir is guilty of these crimes - and we are aware of these gross violations of humanity - then how can we, who fail to do all in our power to stop it, help but think of ourselves as bearing the weight of complicity with genocide?