Bashir war crimes indictment?

[Ironduke]

Do you think President Bashir of Sudan should be charged with war crimes for his actions in Darfur?

Bashir war crimes charges delayed

Judges at the International Criminal Court are asking for more evidence before deciding whether to issue an arrest warrant against Sudan's leader.

Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has asked the court to issue the warrant for President Omar al-Bashir over war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur.

Mr Ocampo has been given a month to provide the additional evidence.

President Bashir has denied the charges and Sudan has been lobbying to get the investigation delayed.

The African Union and Arab League agree with Sudan that any arrest warrant could jeopardise the peace process in Darfur.

The UN estimates that 2.7 million people have been forced from their homes and an estimated 300,000 have died during the five-year conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Sudan's government has always denied charges that it armed the Janjaweed militias accused of widespread atrocities against civilians in Darfur.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7675381.stm

[kuku]

If the the authority to try him, and if the prosecutions evidence is valid enough, its not a question, they must.

Can the International criminal court try him? Do they have the authority?

What if the defence questions the ICCs role? Afteral this is not the only place where a lot of people are dead/dying due to a civil war/insurgency etc.

Who will enforce his appearance in the court if they decide to have a trial?

Is there a agency collecting evidence in the region?

[Merlin]

This is the latest news of Bashir of Sudan going to other countries.

I don't know enough about this case to form an opinion on it.

Sudan's Bashir goes to Libya, defying ICC

TRIPOLI, March 26 (Reuters) - Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir defied an international arrest warrant by travelling to Libya on Thursday to hold talks with leader Muammar Gaddafi, a Libyan official said. ...

The visit is a show of defiance to the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Darfur in western Sudan.

Gaddafi said last month that "foreign forces" including Israel were stoking the Darfur conflict and urged the International Criminal Court to stop proceedings against Bashir. ...

Sudanese presidential palace source and a foreign ministry official had earlier said Bashir, who risks arrest any time he travels abroad, was on his way to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The trip is Bashir's third abroad since the ICC issued the arrest warrant on March 4. He also visited neighbours Egypt and Eritrea this week following invitations from those countries for talks on the ICC move. ...

[Dreadnought]

Any member country of the ICC should have grabbed his ass the second he left that country and dragged him to the ICC. The ICC has no teeth unless it is supported by those nations that recognize it irregardless of what politics or threats may come.

[Merlin]

Any member country of the ICC should have grabbed his ass the second he left that country and dragged him to the ICC. The ICC has no teeth unless it is supported by those nations that recognize it irregardless of what politics or threats may come.

Yes, but the countries that he is visiting, Egypt, Eritrea and Lybia, are in agreement or sympathy with him, not with the ICC verdict.

[chankya]

Any member country of the ICC should have grabbed his ass the second he left that country and dragged him to the ICC. The ICC has no teeth unless it is supported by those nations that recognize it irregardless of what politics or threats may come.

Except for Europe it has little support elsewhere. A lot of countries have not signed the rome statute and a lot more including the US have signed but not ratified it. (I understand the US "unsigned" it. I have no idea how that works. In any case void the ratification it is meaningless in the US.) The US incidentally is apparently a particularly vociferous opponent of the court.

If you look at it, the court wishes to exercise jurisidiction over crimes committed in member states. I can see why so many people have problems with that.

Speaking for myself, I know a few people in the UN peacekeeping mission there and the peace keepers there have very little teeth. If the ICC tries and forces the situation things will go south very very fast. And more people will die. Not a good move.

[Dreadnought]

Yes, but the countries that he is visiting, Egypt, Eritrea and Lybia, are in agreement or sympathy with him, not with the ICC verdict.

Until there are rights protecting all this is what the world can look forward too for a long time. You would think that every country wants to avoid attrocities like this and would do what is necessary to uphold those rights.:(

[Merlin]

... You would think that every country wants to avoid attrocities like this and would do what is necessary to uphold those rights.:(

This is an ideal. There must be real reasons for these governments to be supportive of, or in sympathy with Bashir. Unless we do special searches, we would not get information and analysis of these from the western media or news agents.

[Merlin]

Bashir is taking his difiance even further by showing up at an Arab Summit in Doha, Qatar.

Defiant Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir attends Arab summit

30 Mar 2009 president, Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes in Darfur, defied the international community last night by showing up at an Arab summit already bitterly divided over Iran and other Middle East issues.

His arrival in the Qatari capital, Doha, seemed set to embarrass the Arab League at its annual conference, though the league is also expected publicly to urge the international criminal court to drop the unprecedented charges.

It had been thought until almost the last minute that Bashir would stay away. His presence will be a extraordinary snub to the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who is scheduled to attend today's opening session.

Last week Bashir paid brief visits to neighbouring Egypt, Libya and non-Arab Eritrea, but his presence in Doha aligns the 22-member league with his pariah status over alleged atrocities in Darfur.

Libya's Muammar Gaddafi condemned the ICC arrest warrant as "first-world terrorism" and an example of double standards. "If we allow such a thing ... we should also try those who killed hundreds and millions of children in Iraq and in Gaza." ....

[Merlin]

Bashir is getting support from Arab leaders at the Summit. Further down the CS Monitor analyses why.

Sudan leader thanks Arab summit for Support

(CNN) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir asked Arab leaders meeting in Qatar on Monday to strongly reject an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Al-Bashir landed in Qatar on Sunday and met with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. On Monday, he expressed his gratitude to the Arab League Summit. ...

Why Arab leaders embrace Sudan's indicted president

Mar 30, 2009 [CS Monitor] Cairo - On Sunday Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir strode off his airplane and onto a red carpet at the airport in Doha, greeted with a kiss by the tiny kingdom's emir as he arrived for a two-day Arab League summit dedicated to strengthening Arab unity. ...

Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC, but nonetheless has enjoyed an outpouring of support from Arab and African leaders. Their hostile reaction to the indictment of one of their own, say diplomats and analysts, is driven by a combination of concern for the indictment's consequences for Sudan's stability, resentment of the selective precedent it sets, and worries about national sovereignty.

"The fact that other countries, including Israel, have not been subjected to this kind of decision is a natural source of opposition for most – but not all – Arab countries," says Khalid Medani, a political scientist at McGill University in Montreal. For the Arab League and the African Union, the issue is first and foremost about protecting their sovereignty.

"The issue of national sovereignty is a key principle of post-colonial states in general," he says. ...

[Dreadnought]

This is an ideal. There must be real reasons for these governments to be supportive of, or in sympathy with Bashir. Unless we do special searches, we would not get information and analysis of these from the western media or news agents.

Nope the media is the last to trust. Perhaps Human Rights Groups and the UN would be better suited.


In other words the other nations are more worried about Sudan's stability and their soverignty then the people actually in Sudan and whats going on. Pretty sad if you ask me. Why not just help this SOB kill the people too while your at it since you are helping him do it in an indirect way. Take the blinders off idiots.

[Optimus]

Perhaps the reason why the African countries aren’t co-operating in arresting Bashir.. is because the USA and its servants who caused this whole mess to start with are getting away scott free.
I remember reading countless newspaper and magazine articles on how the USA has been interested in the Sudan since was discovered by Chevron in the late 70’s., and began backing the rebels in support of John Garang, the recipient of training at Fort Benning and was enjoying wholesale military aid through Eritrea Ethiopia and Uganda..
It was the American backed Deby of Chad who was persuaded to join Washington’s Pan Sahel Initiative,and run by the Pentagons Us European command who started an attack in 2004 which has lead to this present round of slaughter and misery.

[Merlin]

The African Union does not want to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in the arrest and transfer of Sudan's President al-Bashir to ICC.

I think the main issue is that Bashir is the President of a country. It is a different matter after he steps down.

African leaders denounce international court

3 hrs ago SIRTE, Libya (AP) — After bitter wrangling, Africa's leaders agreed Friday to denounce the International Criminal Court and refuse to extradite Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted for crimes against humanity in Darfur.

The decision at the African Union summit says AU members "shall not cooperate" with the court in The Hague "in the arrest and transfer of President Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan to the ICC."

Sudan welcomed the move, and other Africans said it was a signal to the West that it shouldn't impose its ways on Africa. A human rights group said the decision was a gift to a dictator.

The 13th AU summit of heads of state, which concluded Friday in Sirte, Libya, also "expresses its preoccupation about the behavior of the ICC prosecutor" Luis Moreno Ocampo, whom African officials describe as too hard on Africans. The ICC has launched investigations into four cases since it was created seven years ago — all of them in Africa. ...

Heads of state at AU summits reach their decisions behind closed doors and by consensus, not vote, and it was not clear how the new measure was approved. ....

The other major decision reached at the summit was a proposal to transform the African Union's executive body, the commission, into an "authority" with greatly extended powers. ....