The decision by the International Criminal Court of Justice to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Bashir of Sudan on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur reeks of hypocrisy. What about the war crimes committed by George W. Bush and Tony Blair in Iraq and the war crimes committed by Ehud Olmert and the rest of the Israeli government in Gaza? What about the war crimes of Ariel Sharon in Lebanon? Where are the arrest warrants for them?
This is naked political power at work. There will be no arrest warrants for Bush, Blair, Olmert or Sharon because the ICC investigates only conflicts referred to it by the UN Security Council. It is no accident that the only cases on the ICC’s books are African ones: conflicts in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Darfur. The system is fundamentally biased. The five veto members can make absolutely sure that it does not deal with cases involving themselves or their friends. It will never be allowed to investigate the war and occupation in Iraq, the war in Gaza or wars in Lebanon, Chechnya and other places where veto members have an interest. The ICC was intended as a court of justice; it has become a court of injustice. The system has made it so. The mighty look after themselves; the powerless are in the dock.
Nonetheless, no one can be sanguine about a conflict that has left hundreds of thousands dead and 2.5 million refugees. Many Arabs still cannot understand why the Arab League has not resolved it. Muslims too wonder why, with the conflict involving the wholly unacceptable situation of Muslim fighting Muslim, the OIC has not devoted all its energies to ending it. There has to be regret too at President Bashir’s response. The only people who are going to suffer as a result of him kicking out the main international aid agencies are the people of Darfur. The agencies, in fact, opposed the warrant being issued. It is an own goal; the accusation of inhumanity against him is likely to be strengthened by this decision, not weakened. The wiser course would have been to ignore the warrant while asking the agencies to increase their activity in Darfur. Hopefully he will reconsider. For the sake of his people, he must.
So where next? These are uncharted waters. Never before has any country’s president been indicted. Sudan is already subject to sanctions but these could become crippling if it does not hand over the president — and it has no intention of doing so. It is a problem for more than Sudan. Every member of the UN is now obliged to arrest Bashir should he travel to their territory although it is unclear what penalties await those that refuse. There may yet, though, be a compromise. Under the ICC’s mandate, the Security Council can suspend prosecution. Four of the veto members have indicated they would do so if Sudan ends all military action in Darfur and allows refugees to return. The US alone is opposed. The new US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, says that justice must be done on all ICC warrants.
This is the same US that refused, and still refuses, to sign up to the ICC. More hypocrisy.
