FINALLY. Wanted, by the International Criminal Court: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, on charges yet to be named (but we all know what they are).

This was a long time coming, but was postponed because peace talks were going on with al-Bashir over the Darfur conflict. But now, for the first time since it opened in 2002, the ICC has issued a warrant for the arrest of a political powerhouse, and a genocidal one at that, the New York Times reports.

Problems could arise form this though. The introduction of the warrant will further complicate peace talks between diplomats and Sudan, and won’t do anything to help end the Darfur conflict.

And since the ICC has no real army or police force that can go in and extract al-Bashir, someone else has to. And no one will.

Why? Well, no one has a vested interest in Sudan. No other country is watching it’s own people die in Darfur. And without an immediate, physical threat to its own people, no country will risk entering the war-torn region. Not the U.S., that’s for damn sure. We have enough wars going on as it is.

But the court is trying to go about it another way. It wants to make the president come forward himself, by freezing all his assets.

But in that effort, a problem arose; al-Bashir’s assets are hidden under the names of others. Pinpointing each name and account will take more time than anyone would like.

The African Union and the Arab League are calling for further postponement of the warrant. They say al-bashir may still bring peace to Darfur.

Yea…right.

About The Author

Sachin Seth is the Blast Magazine world news reporter. He writes the Terra blog. You can visit his website at http://sachinseth.com or follow him on twitter @sachinseth

2 Responses

  1. I. Lapowsky

    Where did you hear this? I have Omar al-Bashir on a google alert and this is the first I’ve heard that the warrant has been issued. Is it on the ICC site?

    Reply

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