President Faces Genocide Charges

'Arabeyes: Any Legal Foundations for Al Bashir's
Indictment?'
by Jillian York

Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo,
has accused Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir of bearing criminal
responsibility for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed
in the Darfur region since 2003.

Rebekah Heacock reported on the case.  The potential case has proved
controversial in the blogosphere, with reactions from Sudan, Bahrain, elsewhere cropping up on
Global Voices Online's radar.  Today, we take a look at reactions from the
Middle East and North Africa.

Jordanian blogger The Black Iris, responding to comments that the ICC's move
undermined Sudan's
sovereignty, said:

Maybe leaders all over the world should be frightened. I mean, after all, the
ICC is an objective and legitimate court and their pursuit for justice is
universal. Hence, it’s only a matter of time before they issue warrants for
other known war criminals and I’d imagine that at the top of that list,
President Bush, Tony Blair, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney would all be
invited to see the inside of the The Hague.

I wonder what the criteria is.

Is it the body count?


From Bahrain,
Mahmood's Den is also interested in the criteria:

Albasheer’s head is sought by the ICC but the effervescent and wholly useful
Arab League and the similarly described African Union won’t have that - and we
know why don’t we? Any one of their members could be earmarked next!

Lebanese Les Politiques introduces a link to an interview [fr] with Roland
Marchal, saying:

For Roland Marchal, researcher in political science in France, the recent ICC case against sudanese
president Omar Al-Bashir has no legal foundations and is going to delay peace
efforts in Sudan,
exacerbate the current tensions, and embolden the rebellion.

Ali Alarabi, writing for Mideast Youth, is also concerned with the legality of
such an indictment:

Indeed there are legal questions with the regards to the legality of the
indictment and a possible international arrest warrant against President Bashir
and whether president Bashir is entitled to an immunity or not. In light of the
fact that Sudan is not a signatory to the Roma Statute that established the
Criminal Court makes this case a very complicated legal case that opens the
question whether this statute can only bind states that are party to it and not
others who are not such as the United Sates, and whether the security council
resolution 1593 that refers the case to the Court did or can imply the removal
of immunity of a sitting head of state or not.

Aside form the humanitarian crises that arose out of this conflict, we must not
forget that Sudan, the state, is entitled to preserve its geographical
integrity and prevent any party domestic or international from break the
country up through armed struggle.

The blogger then concludes that, regardless of the indictment, Sudan's president has certain responsibilities:

That said however, President Bashir should do more to help his country to come
out of this ugly war and bring Darfur and its tribes back to the fold of Sudan on equal
footing with peaceful resolution to this tragic conflict. But with this
indictment, the international community is exasperating the problem and
complicates matters even worse especially for all of the innocent victims in Sudan.