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Thousands of villagers in Darfur, have been shot, bombed, burnt,
raped and reduced to starvation by the attacks of the
Chinese-supplied army and militia forces of the Sudanese government.
These are acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. Two million
people or more have been driven from their lands and homes, and
reduced to extreme poverty. Hundreds of thousands have died.
In the past, we could only protest these
terrible injustices and crimes, wring our hands in helpless
frustration and pray for change. Now we have the International
Criminal Court (ICC) to bring criminal indictments against sitting
head of states responsible for the massacres and violence against
innocent people.
Ever since the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo
announced that he had indicted the Sudanese President Omer Hassan
Al-Bashir and had an arrest warrant issued for him, his supporters
have been lobbying at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to
defer the court proceedings. This indictment of Al-Bashir, the first
of a sitting head of state, is truly historical. Others arrested on
international warrants and brought to trial before the ICC include
the now deceased president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, the
Congo’s Thomas Lubanga (on trial for crimes against humanity in
particular for child abduction, the mutilation and abuse of children
and using them as child soldiers) and Bosnia-Serbia’s Radovan
Karadzic. Arrested in July 2008, war crimes suspect Karadzic, who
hid behind a disguise for 16 years, will now answer for the torture
and deaths of thousands of civilians including children. There is no
statute of limitations for crimes like these.
The success in bringing these suspects to trial
is a dire warning to all other torturers and even to sitting heads
of states, that they can be investigated and brought to trial in The
Hague. However, Al-Bashir has powerful backers who ignore his crimes
in exchange for money and oil. Some Arab and African states are
demanding that the UNSC defer the court proceedings against Al-Bashir.
To do so would be a grave mistake and a serious
setback for world justice. The independence of the court must be
protected from acts of political expediency, lobbying and pressure.
Peace is brought about by more justice not less of it. Such a
deferment could be seen as a weakening of the determination of the
Security Council to see justice is done. After all it was the
Security Council that instructed the ICC to investigate Al-Bashir in
the first place some years ago. He is facing 10 charges: three
counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of
murder.
Article 16 of the UN charter setting up the ICC allows a deferment
in rare and unusual circumstances, but only when deferment would
advance Justice not delay it. To defer a trial for political
expediency would be an interference in the court, a denial of
justice and a negative and bad signal to the killer, tyrants, people
butchers and dictators that commit genocide and crimes against
humanity. This International Court is the greatest hope for the poor
and the oppressed since the universal declaration of human rights.
Now comes a report in the Guardian newspaper
that says France and the United Kingdom are supporting moves to
defer the trial. Jean-Maurice Ripert, the French ambassador to the
UN, listed conditions for such a deferment, among them, an end to
attacks and killings and an end to violence and atrocities. All that
the tyrants have to do is make promises to supporting nations to
overlook their horrific crimes to get off the hook.
The evidence against Al-Bashir and his
accomplices is damning: mass rape as an instrument of genocide,
aerial bombing of helpless villages, hunger and starvation as a
weapon of ethnic cleansing. It is grossly immoral for any nation to
support a deferment of justice for empty and insincere promises to
make peace. Such would be a first step to dropping the charges
altogether later and let him and his gang go free. Complicity in any
effort to delay justice is to deny it to the victims. It looks like
these nations are going to trade human lives for a pay off. Shame on
them all.
opinion@manilatimes.net/preda@info.com.ph
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