Genocide: Sudan’s obvious crimes

Editorial, The SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

April 5, 2005 — Doing the obvious ought to be easier than this. After prolonged discussions, the United Nations finally approved an international investigation into genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The Security Council voted 11-0 Thursday to refer allegations of crimes against humanity in Darfur to the International Criminal Court. That’s a critical step toward holding government-supported militias and officials responsible for killing thousands and driving up to 2 million people from their homes.

ICC prosecutors immediately began gathering evidence on crimes committed in the ethnic cleansing campaign waged by the Sudanese government and mainly Arab militias against black African populations in Darfur. The investigation will be greatly assisted if Sudan cooperates, something that may not happen quickly.

Moral, political and economic pressure will have to be brought to bear on Sudan to work with the ICC. Although the Bush administration has shown admirable resolve about confronting the problems in Sudan, other countries are in a stronger position to argue for Sudanese cooperation. The U.S. problem is its general opposition to the ICC and insistence on exempting Americans from any jurisdiction. Stopping genocide has proved much harder than might have been imagined in the years after the Nazi Holocaust came to global attention. But the world seems to be drawing a clearer line in the Sudanese sand than in Rwanda, Bosnia and elsewhere.