International Criminal Court Will Rule on Darfur -- Will Obama Appoint an Envoy?

On March 4th the International Criminal Court will announce its findings in their case against Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir. It is probable that an arrest warrant will be issued against Al-Bashir for war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide. ICC Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo conducted his investigation under challenging circumstances; he was not permitted to enter Darfur, the region where the crimes took place. Instead he gathered his evidence from many of the 250,000 refugees who fled into Chad after the attacks began in 2003.

I have just returned from a four week journey along the Chad/Darfur border. On both sides of the border, civilians, refugees, aid workers, peacekeepers and military are prepared for a variety of retaliation scenarios from Al-Bashir, a man with much blood on his hands, who will have little to lose. Reliable information from Khartoum reports Government military have been instructed to target families of supporters of the ICC. Director of National Intelligence, Salah Gosh announced the fate of anyone supporting an ICC indictment, "We will cut off his hand and his head and carve up his joints. This is an issue of no compromise"; and "those who misbehave can only blame themselves"!

It is crucial and indeed past time that the Obama administration appoint a top level envoy to be prepared to focus on the consequences of this weeks ICC announcement. Washington must make it clear to Khartoum that it will not tolerate violence against humanitarians, international peacekeepers, or Darfuri civilians in the aftermath of the decision.

Comments

[Snuffleupagus]

Nice try Mia.

Your tireless efforts on this issue have not been in vain, as you have kept so many of us informed....and even inspired some to get active on helping to solve this problem.
But this Obama administration is not going to show any respect to the ICC for the same reasons they will not do anything about Bush era torture. They work for the same interests, for the same goals.
Human rights are not on the radar.

However once the ICC rules, many countries in the world that still have representative governments, might rally on the Darfur crimes and justice may prevail. I hope so.
Thanks again for keeping this issue from slipping under the radar.

[Yermammy]

I have an even better idea, Ms. Farrow. Have President Obama rejoin the I.C.C. as Signatory and have Congress ratify it into full membership. I know the neocon's don't want this, but as I understand it, they are no longer in power. Unless I'm mistaken, that is.

[JoeBlough]

What about the one on Iraq?