Sun Blogs: For a Few Dollars More
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September 28, 2009 - 11:00pmOn Sunday General Martin Agwai, the UN military commander in Sudan, declared the war in Darfur officially “over”. The accuracy of this statement can only be verified over the next few months, but if he is right that the six-year conflict that left over 300,000 dead has been reduced to just some low-level disputes, then a big question looms in the near future: how can we best serve justice to the perpetrators of the genocide?
The conflict had begun in 2003 when rebel groups based in the Darfur region attacked government targets in Sudan, accusing the pro-Arab government of oppressing blacks. In return, government military started attacking rebel targets in Darfur, and a pro-government militia called the Janjaweed began raping and slaughtering every black African civilian they could find in the region. This mass extermination of an ethnic group in Sudan has been referred to correctly by many as genocide, and there is really no doubt that the government, led by Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, has been directly supporting the Janjaweed in their mission of ethnic cleansing.
The situation is eerily similar to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the biggest failure of the international community to help its poorer brethren since the advent of the United Nations. Not wanting to make the same mistakes again, and seeking to do anything in its power to prosecute those responsible for the first genocide of the new millennium, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of President Bashir on March 4th, 2009 on the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The next morning, on March 5th, Bashir hosted a 10,000-person rally in downtown Khartoum filled with dancing and expressions of gratitude to the ICC for bringing the Sudanese people together. That same day he expelled ten western-based aid agencies from the country, including Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders. By mid-April, the fugitive president had already traveled to Eritrea, Egypt (an ICC signatory), Libya, Saudi Arabia, and to a conference in Qatar. In early July, the African Union voted to allow him to travel freely throughout the continent without fear of arrest, and called the ICC a “western tool to oppress others". The League of Arab States and the governments of Russia and China (two permanent members of the Security Council) have all publicly stated that they oppose the warrant.
Needless to say, Bashir remains at large and largely unaffected.
At best, the warrant has been entirely ineffective. More likely, it has resulted in decreased aid for Sudanese refugees and victims, has pushed Bashir even farther to the extreme and away from any type of reconciliation, and has strengthened domestic and African support behind this horrific Sudanese leader. That is to say, the warrant has hurt the very people in whose defense it was issued.
In the history of the developing world, there has been case after case of negligence and ignorance by developed countries to the absurd moral and legal transgressions taking place in the world’s poorer nations. The international community has the responsibility, ethically if not legally, to help those being persecuted who are unable to help themselves. The people of Sudan clearly need help, and on one level, it is heartening to see that the ICC had the good intentions to try to do everything in its power to assist them.
Unfortunately, what was in the ICC’s power didn’t help at all. With no real authority, the ICC must rely on domestic actors to enforce their warrants which, in the case of Sudan, is simply not going to happen. While there is no doubt that Bashir must be help accountable for his crimes, arresting a sitting head of state is a delicate process that the ICC has attempted too rashly, bringing back unwelcome memories of colonialism and western dominance in the region.
Hopefully, General Agwai is correct, and the conflict is finally over. Hopefully this can begin a period of reconciliation, and the three million displaced refugees can begin to return to their homes in their broken country. And hopefully, amidst all of the fray, a way can be found to bring Bashir to justice.
But that last step is likely harder now than it was on March 3rd, and the lives of many Sudanese have worsened because of it. It is great that the international community is beginning to show the fortitude to help when help is needed, but sometimes, misplaced help is worse than no help at all.