Not surprisingly, a day after the ICC handed down summons for two suspected genociders in the ongoing Darfur crisis Sudan has said that it will not cooperate with the ruling. The ICC judges will now have to decide if they should issue international arrest warrants against Haroun and Ali Kushayb.
ICC issues Darfur summons
This morning, the International Criminal Court issued the first summons for suspected perpetrators of war crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges to issue summonses for Ahmed Haroun, state interior minister during the height of the Darfur conflict, and militia commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb.
Haroun is currently Sudan’s state humanitarian affairs minister, a post below the full ministerial level. Ali Kushayb was a commander of the Janjaweed militia, who prosecutors said led attacks on towns and villages, where dozens were killed.
Sudan has yet to comment on the finding. Naturally, as with other cases, the responsibility to arrest or deliver the summons will lie with the government of Sudan.
Janjaweed massing in Darfur
The Janjaweed have been massing in large numbers in Western Darfur near the town of el-Geneina. The Sudan Tribune reported this morning:
The AU source, who asked not to be named, said: “They are massing (north of el-Geneina). … They have vehicles with machineguns on top and they’re Janjaweed. We can’t say what their intentions are.”
The source declined to give numbers, but described the forces gathered as a “huge amount of personnel”, with pick-up trucks, camels and horses, while a U.N. mission spokeswoman said the militia numbered in the hundreds.
The AU source said an African Union helicopter was keeping the force under surveillance and the government was being notified. The Sudanese military could not be reached for comment.
A former rebel movement said a separate Janjaweed force has been attacking villages far to the east of the Darfur region for the past two days, killing six civilians.
That Janjaweed activity was north of ed-Da’ein, a town about 450 km (300 miles) southeast of el-Geneina.
With regular reports of Janjaweed incursions into the refugee camps in Chad, one has to wonder if this is a build-up for a larger push across the border.
The African Union continues to maintain a presence in the region, with approximately 7,000 soldiers. Meanwhile, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir continues to resist pressure from the United Nations to allow forces to reinforce the current AU numbers.
The Darfur Wall
If you’re thinking of giving money to a charity that would aid the victims of Darfur, you might want to consider the darfur wall. This web based memorial channels money to four different organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, Save Darfur, and the Sudan Aid Fund. In addition, it’s a unique and inspiring way to draw attention to the on-going violence.
Hat tip to Folderol for catching this one.
Darfur divestment
As Elizabeth pointed out in the comments below, the State of Virginia is pushing the idea of divesting from companies that do business with the genocidal Sudanese government. The Times-Dispatch carried the following (unsigned) opinion piece on Jan 29.
The measure is limited in scope, and no one could question the worthiness of the goal. But it raises the obvious question: Why stop there? Why not apply the same principle to other atrocious regimes in Africa — and the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America?
While divestment might prod governments to do the right thing in some cases, in others it might merely exacerbate human-rights abuses. Isolation has done little to relieve the suffering of the people of North Korea, for example.
While I understand what the author of this piece is driving at, I feel compelled to point out that they’re thinking is utterly backwards (if not completely isolationist).
First, you could easily start with any of the regions mentioned, but the reason you start with Sudan is because it’s the obvious choice. The threat of violence is current, immediate, and on-going.
Second, your assertion that divestment might merely exacerbate human-rights abuses is erroneous at best. While it could cause a backlash, as the Sudan Divestment Task Force points out the Sudanese government has shown an historic responsiveness to economic pressure, while political pressure and diplomacy alone have largely failed to stop genocide in Darfur.
Finally, if you fall back to a position of “why do this and not that,” you’re essentially conceding that you shouldn’t do anything for anyone. This is the same reasoning that spawns this kind of global hot spot, and has left those of us in the US exhausted from our government’s lack of action towards a genocide they’ve already publicly acknowledged.