July 15, 2008
Editorial
Charged With Genocide
The truth can be difficult. That doesn’t make it any less true. And so we support the decision by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court to bring charges of genocide against Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for his role in masterminding Darfur’s horrors.
There is legitimate concern that Sudan’s government may vent its ire — even more than it has — on aid workers, United Nations peacekeepers and the people of Darfur. But the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is fulfilling his internationally mandated responsibilities.
That is more than we can say for the United Nations Security Council, which has been unconscionably passive over the burning of villages, the bombing of schools and the systematic rape of women in Darfur. We hope it will finally be shamed into action.
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has asked the court’s three-judge panel to issue an arrest warrant for Mr. Bashir. He claimed to have very strong evidence that Mr. Bashir “controlled everything — the generals, the intelligence, the ministers, the media” — and gave direct orders to the murderous janjaweed militia.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bashir is unlikely to be arrested any time soon. But he must keep in mind the fate of two other defiantly murderous leaders: Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic and Liberia’s Charles Taylor eventually were jailed at the Hague.
The Security Council has barely given Sudan a slap on the wrist. China — which has major oil interests in Sudan and has shamelessly increased arms sales to the regime — has used its veto power to block stronger penalties, enabling even more brutality.
While the court’s judges now weigh whether to issue an arrest warrant, the Security Council must use that time and that threat to pressure Mr. Bashir. He must call off his militias, stop obstructing the deployment of a peacekeeping force in Darfur and begin serious peace talks in Darfur. If Mr. Bashir decides to cooperate, the Security Council can still suspend the I.C.C. prosecution.
The Bush administration has long accused Mr. Bashir and his government of genocide and imposed its own strict sanctions. It could still be doing a lot more to rally Security Council action and to directly pressure Sudan. Washington could start today by jamming Sudan’s official communications network. If the Security Council will not impose a no-flight zone — to ground the planes and helicopters Khartoum uses to bomb civilians and supply militias — Washington should turn to NATO.
Mr. Bashir, and any others who may be tempted to follow, need to know that there is a huge price for committing genocide — and eventually no place to hide.
