ICC Issues Arrest Warrant for Bashir, Charged with War Crimes
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Related subjects: Africa, Darfur crisis, Diplomacy & Politics, Europe, Global, Humanitarian Crisis, International Criminal Court, J.E. Robertson Comments Off
The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Bashir is charged with waging a deliberate, sustained campaign of violence and terror against civilians.
Omar al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be formally charged by the ICC, making this warrant a major precedent in the establishing of a global justice system. Diplomats had asked the Court to delay issuing the warrant, in hopes more time might lead to a more viable peace agreement.
There had been arrest warrants issued for Slobodan Milosevic (of Serbia) and Charles Taylor (of Liberia) while they were sitting heads of state, but those warrants were not issued by the ICC, a permanent, established court for prosecuting war crimes.
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According to The New York Times:
The judges charged Mr. Bashir with five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape. The two counts of war crimes were for attacks against a civilian population and for pillaging.
In their statement, they said the court did not recognize immunity for a head of state and called on all countries, including those who were members of the court and of the United Nations to cooperate with the court.
In recent weeks, progress had been made in negotiating a truce between the government in Khartoum and the various rebel forces operating in Darfur, but the government had continued its “counterinsurgency” efforts against the people of Darfur, blaming rebels for the violence. The rebel groups had essentially emerged from the relentless assault on Darfuris by government-linked militia.
Some now fear a violent backlash could ensue, with rebels seeking to move toward the capital and the government lashing out from a position of weakness. All governments are requested, by the ICC, to cooperate in the arrest of Pres. Bashir, a legal complication which could either isolate the Khartoum government or force strong allies like China to come to its defense.
Thousands reportedly rallied to Bashir’s defense in central Khartoum, while the government said it would ignore the “neo-colonialist” court ruling. It accused western countries of using the ICC as a means of revoking the independence of states like Sudan.
The judges had found, by a margin of two to one, that genocide had not been proven by the prosecutors. Under international law, as interpreted by the International Criminal Court, proving genocide requires evidence of a “specific intent” to “destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such”.
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