So the International Criminal Court has come down with an indictment of Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for human rights violations. He is the first sitting head of state ever to be so charged. Now what? Will the indictment help Darfur’s suffering masses or those overlooked victims of Khartoum stretching across the vastness of Sudan?
Ironically, in the short term the effect might be to worsen the crisis for Darfuris and others while al-Bashir is almost certain to retain power, at least for now. Al-Bashir has responded defiantly to the indictment and concomitant arrest warrant. And more than the expected verbiage, which is standard for African leaders who find themselves on the receiving end of condemnation from the west, al-Bashir has also taken the concrete step of expelling foreign aid organizations over the protestation of the United Nations and others. The people of Darfur and elsewhere will almost surely feel the deleterious effects of this spiteful action.
Hopefully despite the ongoing economic calamity in the United States President Obama will make Sudan a priority. One solution that has been raised is the establishment and enforcement (they are decidedly not the same thing) of a no-fly zone. In the words of Gen. Merrill A. “Tony” McPeak, who served as Air Force chief of staff from 1990 to 1994 and co-chaired Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and Kurt Bassuener, a senior associate of the Democratization Policy Council, in their op-ed piece in today’s Washington Post:
By taking away the Sudanese government’s freedom to use air power to terrorize its population, the West would finally get enough leverage with Khartoum to negotiate the entry of a stronger U.N. ground force. Effective military action in the form of a no-fly zone would not preclude a political resolution, as some suggest, but in fact would make diplomacy more effective by reducing Bashir’s options.
Western-imposed military solutions alone will not work, however necessary they may prove to be. Thus South Africa’s Desmond Tutu argues that African leaders, who have too often protected the thugs in Khartoum, must finally step up and not only condemn al-Bashir, but also help bring him to justice by supporting the indictment.
