International Criminal Court To Seek Genocide Charges Against Sudanese Leader

The situation in Darfur was a genocide, and the world refused to act. Now, years after the genocide, the International Criminal Court looks to bring the Sudanese leader to justice.

Too little. Too late.

Hundreds of thousands were killed as a result of the Sudanese regime's policy in Darfur.

The chief prosecutor of the Internationals Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant Monday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity in the orchestration of a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the nation's Darfur region during the past five years, according to U.N. officials and diplomats.

The action by the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, will mark the first time that the tribunal in The Hague charges a sitting head of state with such crimes, and represents a major step by the court to implicate the highest levels of the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur.

Some U.N. officials raised concerns Thursday that the decision would complicate the peace process in Darfur, possibly triggering a military response by Sudanese forces or proxies against the nearly 10,000 U.N. and African Union peacekeepers located there. At least seven peacekeepers were killed and 22 were injured Tuesday during an ambush by a well-organized and unidentified armed group.

The UN did nothing at the height of the carnage. The African Union did little to stop the violence until the region was decimated and ethnic cleansing resulted in a barren wasteland.

The survivors are in camps, which are still threatened by militias and the UN is ill equipped to protect itself, let alone the refugees from ongoing violence.

This goes back to the whole notion of peacekeeping versus peacemaking. Peacekeeping involves maintaining the status quo, while peacemaking requires imposing a new situation. Here, the status quo means the Sudanese regime gets to continue its ethnic cleansing and destructive policies, while the UN can do little under its rules of engagement except perhaps protect itself from attack. Peacemaking means that not only can the peacemakers defend themselves, but can actively go after those militias and put a stop to the violence by eliminating the source of the violence.