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Sudan: Bashir Arrest Does Not Have to Wait
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New Vision (Kampala)
EDITORIAL
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 24 July 2008
Kampala
South Sudanese president Salva Kiir wants the International Criminal Court (ICC) to delay the indictment of Sudan president Omar el Bashir until the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the South has been implemented and a peaceful settlement in Darfur has been reached.
Kiir has a point. Others have even cited ICC's alleged double standards and the West's perceived plan to split up Sudan as justification to delay the indictment. But there is another side.
True, Sudan must remain a strong state and peace must return to the South and East. But hinging these to one man's stay in power is simplistic.
Firstly, the human rights violations in the two regions are partly rooted in the regime's philosophy. It is defeatist to say those responsible for the problem are the ones with a solution.
Secondly, Bashir is mortal; it is wrong to imagine that Sudan cannot stand without him at the helm. The Government of South Sudan has outlived the signatory to the CPA. The state of Sudan, the CPA and peace initiatives in Darfur can as well outlive Bashir.
If Bashir's indictment was to wait for peace to return to the two regions, are there guarantees that he would not delay the return of peace so as to delay his own indictment?
Many have complained that international bodies are too slow; that they do too little too late to prevent genocide.
The 1990-94 massacres in Rwanda and those in Bosnia (1992-95) are cited as examples where the UN should have moved against the leaders to prevent more deaths rather than waiting to do post-mortem.
About 17,000 lives could have been saved in Bosnian had Radovan Karadzic (arrested this week) been indicted earlier. How many more people should be killed, starved or raped in Darfur before the ICC can come in?
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Nobody would derive pleasure from seeing Bashir behind bars at the ICC. But for ending impunity, preventing more human suffering and sending a warning to other sitting presidents, the ICC should be allowed to do its work.
I would agree with your well written article on one condition, and that is the ICC should extend their newly established plan of indicting sitting presidents impartially starting with big fishes in the west for well known crimes against humanity globally.
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