ICC and al-Bashir: Ocampo's Justice:
Politicising Of The Crisis And The
Selectiveness
July 31, 2008
The crimes committed against innocent
people in Darfur represent a shameful episode in the
history of Sudan and its neighbours, including Chad,
which has played a dubious role in sustaining the
seething conflict. Equally disgraceful is the
politicising of the bloody conflict in ways that will
ensure its continuation.
The decision of the International Criminal Court's
(ICC) prosecutor-general, Luis Moreno- Ocampo, to file
an arrest warrant for Sudan's current President Omar
Hassan Al-Bashir, and the international responses to his
decision, demonstrate both the politicising of the
crisis and the selectiveness of international law.
Consider this bizarre twist. The US Congress passed a
resolution, on 22 June 2004, declaring that the violence
in Darfur was state-sponsored genocide. The resolution
-- named the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act -- was
signed into law by President Bush in October 2006.
Between the vote and Bush's signature the United
Nations conducted a sweeping investigation -- unlike
Congress's rash decision which was based almost entirely
on lobby and interest group pressure -- declaring, in
early 2005, that both the government and militias were
systematically abusing civilians in Sudan's western
province. It insisted, however, that no genocide had
taken place.
The US is not a signatory of the ICC --
understandably so, given that many legal experts deem
the war crimes of invading and occupying Iraq as the
worst since World War II. Although the ICC is, in
theory, an independent body, it often investigates or
provides legal opinions on cases passed on by the United
Nations Security Council which is dominated by the
United States, its vetoes and foreign policy interests.
It is anomalous that Moreno-Ocampo's request adhered
to Congress's political labelling of the conflict in
western Sudan and not that of the United Nations' own
comprehensive and less politicised report.
Equally interesting is the response of the US and
other governments, as well as regional and international
bodies to the decision.
The US, which like Sudan doesn't recognise the
jurisdiction of the ICC, was pleased by the court
prosecutor-general's move. "In our view, recognition of
the humanitarian disaster and the atrocities that have
gone on there is a positive thing," said US State
Department Spokesman Sean McCormack.
China and Russia -- both of which have immense and
growing economic interests in Africa -- found the
decision unhelpful and called for restraint. It's not
only the Sudanese government that they wish to woo but
other African states, alarmed by the court's move which
is likely to worsen the tribal war and jeopardise the
safety of the people of Darfur and the numerous
humanitarian missions and workers in the region. (The UN
has already declared its intent to pull back staff from
a joint UN-African Union mission, one welcomed by the
Al-Bashir government and which is credited for
contributing to the slight improvement in the situation
there).
The African Union, often discounted, if not entirely
undermined, by Western political institutions, has
called on the ICC to suspend its decision until the
crisis in Darfur is resolved. In fact, intense efforts
have succeeded in bringing warring parties to the
negotiation table and extracting important concessions
that, with international support, could bring the crisis
to an end. But the call made by AU chairman, Tanzanian
Foreign Minister Bernard Membe, is unlikely to be heeded
as economic and political interests in Darfur are too
significant for Western countries to allow Africa's own
leaders to meddle.
While some human rights organisations and many media
pundits, largely based in Western capitals, welcomed
Moreno-Ocampo's request -- conveniently ignoring the
hypocrisy of the decision and the mayhem and instability
it will create in the already fractious region -- others
in Africa and the Middle East are not impressed. African
and Middle Eastern media decried the selectiveness and
rigidity of international law when the conflict concerns
poor countries, and its blindness and flexibility when
the perpetrators of crimes are countries that wield
military and economic might, and often the power of
veto.
The ICC was established in 2002, immediately before
the US aggression against Iraq. Interestingly, the ICC's
jurisdiction -- for obvious reasons -- doesn't include
the crime of aggression. Equally telling is that the
court has so far investigated just four conflicts -- in
Northern Uganda, Congo, Darfur and the Central African
Republic. One cannot help but wonder if only Africans
are capable of committing war crimes, crimes against
humanity and genocide.
It's this selectiveness that makes Moreno-Ocampo's
request a textbook example of the inner-workings of
international law. It exposes governments like the US
and Britain which condemn war crimes and authoritarian
regimes in Sudan, Zimbabwe and elsewhere while
perpetrating war crimes of their own, aiding and
abetting authoritarian regimes in the Middle East,
Africa and elsewhere, as hopelessly addicted to double
standards.
For Moreno-Ocampo's decision -- and the entire
international legal apparatus in the West -- to be taken
seriously, impartiality and fairness are essential. They
are qualities, however, that remain conspicuously
absent, vetoed, or otherwise shunted, into the sidings
of history.
Regardless of whether the ICC judges will honour
Moreno- Ocampo's request to issue an arrest warrant for
the Sudanese president the Darfur conflict cannot be
settled by selective justice, self- serving politics or
contract-seeking oil corporations. Justice in Sudan, or
anywhere else for that matter, cannot be obtained
through such practices which are at best "unhelpful" and
at worse could be used by the international order's
self-appointed policemen to further legitimatise their
destructive policies of "intervention" -- economic
sanctions, war, and the rest.
-Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author
and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been
published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His
latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A
Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).
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