allAfrica.com: Sudan: Milosevic, Taylor Cases Prove Bashir Arrest Will Help Country (Page 1 of 1)

Last week's request for a warrant of arrest for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo, continues to draw mixed reactions.

However, a report by the think tank ENOUGH Project argues that the call to arrest al-Bashir is not only based on sound evidence, but that it can be a step forward in the path to secure peace in Darfur.

The report cites the cases of Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor, as past indictments of war criminals that brought the desired results.

"The status quo in Sudan is one of the deadliest in the world. Until there is a consequence for the commission of genocide, it will continue. This action introduces a cost, finally, into the equation," says John Mr Prendergast, the co-chair of Enough.

In the report, The Merits of Justice, the authors of the report argue that, "If the hand-wringing all feels a bit familiar, it is because we have been through this more than once before. In 1999, during the Kosovo conflict, Milosevic was indicted in the middle of not only a Nato bombing campaign to reverse the ethnic cleaning in Kosovo, but of high-level peace talks between the United States, Russia, and Finland to end the war."

In the case of Taylor, in June 2003, Liberia was on the brink. Rebel forces had advanced within 10 miles of the capital in the first of a series of offensives that Liberians would dub "World Wars" for their ferocity. The ICC warrant was nevertheless executed, and sanity was restored in Liberia.

In the latest move, the ICC wants al-Bashir indicted on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Darfur. The report says however, "Sadly, but somewhat unsurprisingly, the step has set off a chorus of hand-wringing among certain diplomats, academics and pundits who are now arguing that holding perpetrators of crimes against humanity accountable for their actions is unhelpful.

A veteran academic expressed his worry that almost all African senior officials could be made vulnerable to similar charges by this precedent," the report states.

But the report argues, "Let's be clear. Holding people accountable for war crimes is not only the right thing to do from a moral perspective - it directly promotes peace and makes future such abuses less likely.

Part of the reason Darfur has remained locked in crisis for years is that the international community has been slow to acknowledge what has always been painfully obvious: The janjaweed militias that have terrorised and decimated Darfur have been directed by the Sudanese government.

The militias were financed by the government, and received direct battlefield support from the Sudanese military. The ICC is doing no more than acknowledging the plain, painful truth of Sudan's tragedy. The prosecutor should be congratulated for recognising that turning a blind eye to war crimes is not helpful."

According to the report, very few commentators took exception with the notion that Milosevic had been intimately involved in directing ethnic cleansing, genocide, and sundry other war crimes in Bosnia and Kosovo.

But Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin said the indictment "pulled out the rug from under the negotiating process," as both Russia and China decried what they called a "political" indictment that was designed to scuttle peace talks. Others suggested the indictment would push Milosevic to stay in power permanently or lead his forces to adopt an even more brutal approach on the ground in Kosovo.

Yet, in retrospect, the work of the Yugoslav tribunal and the indictment of Milosevic led to none of the doomsday scenarios envisioned by the skeptics.

While the Russians postponed a single diplomatic trip to Belgrade for one week to express their dissatisfaction with the indictment, the peace talks resumed quickly and Milosevic accepted the demands that were placed upon him: Kosovar refugees were allowed to return home; Serb forces withdrew from the province and a Nato-led force entered to provide security.

Milosevic's hold on power did not last long after the 1999 war and his indictment.

The reports says that the lesson learnt from Milosevic's case is that indictments don't necessarily derail peace talks and, indeed, they seem to be most helpful in clarifying the minds of dictators that their very existence is at stake.

In the Taylor case, he was indicted shortly after he promised to step down by the end of 2003 at a peace meeting in Accra, Ghana, when the special court for Sierra Leone unveiled an indictment against Taylor for war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated during that country's brutal war.

Some diplomats engaged in the negotiations denounced the indictment as an impediment to peace, and the presidents of South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana complained that they had been "sandbagged" by the timing of the indictments as they tried to persuade Taylor to resign.

Pessimists were quick to critique the court's prosecutor for interjecting the concept of justice into the rarefied realpolitik of peace negotiations.

Yet, Taylor's indictment, combined with unprecedented levels of international pressure (including a US warship on the horizon) helped to build the leverage necessary to convince him to move into a negotiated exile in Nigeria. The terms of this deal were clear: As long as he stayed out of Liberian politics, Nigeria would keep him out of the hands of the court, despite an Interpol warrant for his arrest.

Nevertheless, he was arrested following a dramatic and nearly successful escape attempt to cross from Nigeria into Cameroon. He was turned over to the special court and is currently facing trial on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"Today, self-professed realists argue that Taylor's handover to justice sent the wrong message to dictators such as al-Bashir and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, maintaining that it undermines the credibility of amnesty offers to dictators who are all the more likely to hold on to power at any cost. This facile misreading of history misses the real lessons from the Taylor case," the report says.

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