Sunday, July 13

Sudan's looking ICCy

The growing consensus seems to be that tomorrow, the International Criminal Court's Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will announce an indictment against Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for his role in war crimes in Darfur.

Some human rights activists applaud, but many UN officials, aid workers, and analysts are pretty worried about the consequences. It's the first time the ICC will have sought charges against a sitting leader, though other international tribunals have gone after Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia and Charles Taylor in Liberia. I did a short VOA story on the subject. To go further into the debate, there's plenty of material on Alex De Waal's blog at the Social Science Research Council. Among those weighing in:

Jens Meierhenrich
, of Harvard; Alan Kuperman, of the University of Texas; Celia McKeon, of Conciliation Resources; journalist Julie Flint; Fabrice Weissman, of MSF; Stephen Ellis, a researcher at the University of Leiden; Andrew Natsios, a former U.S. envoy to Sudan; and a few other writers, lawyers, aid workers, etc.

No comments: