Arresting Omar al-Bashir? How Lack of Swift Action Curtails the Effectiveness of the UN

photo by Brian Steidle
To read Brian's Book about Darfur, "The Devil Came on Horseback"
click here http://www.briansteidle.com/Publications.html

Louis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor for the UN's International Criminal Court announced today that he will be seeking a warrant for the arrest of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes related to the genocide in Darfur. Here's a link to the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-War-Crimes-Sudan.html?scp=2&sq=sudan+president&st=nyt
This is troubling for a number of reasons. One, what the hell took Moreno-Ocampo so long? After watching the movie Darfur Now I was unconvinced by Moreno-Ocampo's assertion that building a case against al-Bashir is something that will take a significant amount of time. The UN already released a 176 page document that provided evidence of mass murder, rapes, and other human rights atrocities committed in the Darfur region at the hands of the Sudanese military and janjaweed militia, what more evidence does Moreno-Ocampo need? I found myself extremely frustrated by Moreno-Ocampo's lack of swift action, lack of sense of urgency, and lack of a comprehension of the importance of acting quickly and decisively at building the case and than going after al-Bashir to end the atrocities. What the UN is failing to understand is that they are going after the Sudanese President as if he is a person of a civilized nature. We're talking about someone who is systematically overseeing a military that tortures, rapes, and murders its own people in the name of ethic cleansing. You don't take your time and build your case and then announce to the world that you will, one day soon, be seeking the arrest of this person as if this was a trial against a well-respected, upstanding member of moral and dignified character who will respect and abide by the edicts of law under the UN Criminal Court. Do you think al-Bashir gives a shit about Moreno-Ocampo's little announcement? Al-Bashir's been able to kill hundreds of thousands more while Ocampo-Moreno has been taking his sweet time building the "tough" case against al-Bashir. Give me a break. This poor comprehension of the manner in which genocide prosecution needs to happen, as in decisively and steadfastly and with force, is just one of the many reasons the UN has failed to be effective in the world.

The New York Times article talks about how the Sudanese government has yet to react to any of the arrest warrants already handed down to them by the UN and refuse to turn anyone over, especially their president. The NYT article states, "Sudan does not recognize the court's authority and has for months refused to arrest and send for trial a government minister and rebel leader charged with atrocities by Moreno-Ocampo last year." What's more the Sudanese government stated that they'll retaliate to these arrest warrants with violence. Does anyone else see the need to act against these monsters with force in order to secure al-Bashir and than once he's in custody we can proceed with due process? Why does the UN think that dictators capable of murdering their own people are going to obey and respond to their arrest warrant?

The whole situation is so incredibly frustrating and I think calls attention to the dire need for the UN to take another look at how it goes about it's criminal proceedings in regards to genocide. Every time a genocide occurs we have feelings of outrage and contempt but yet we have the same broken system that is completely ineffective at stopping genocide. How about a method of genocide prevention and genocide abatement? It's no longer a question of how can humans perpetrate such heinous crimes against one another but a question of how can we be so ineffective at stopping these mass murders and human rights atrocities from occurring?

Tim Russert, American Voters, and What This Election Says About Our Society...

Back from a long break...


I thought I would talk about some things that have been weighing on my mind...first and foremost, the death of Tim Russert was so heartbreaking. Working for Senator Moynihan was one of the best times in my life and Tim Russert was considered a god in our office. As former campaign manager/chief of staff everyone revered Tim and a group of fellow interns and lowlies from the office would gather at my house on Constitution Ave Sunday mornings where we'd work off hangovers or create new ones with mimosas and waffles while we watched and debated whatever was going on on Meet the Press. It was a tradition I held dear to my heart. There's just those people you come across in life that, you may not know them personally, but you can tell that they're fundamentally good people, people that you can learn from, that understand life, and can impart their wisdom on you. Tim Russert was most definitely one of those people. I will miss his presence on Meet the Press very much and I will take with me the example he set by the amazing person that he was. His death was just such an unexpected and sad loss...

This election has turned into a very interesting sociological/anthropological study of our society. I see both good signs and worrisome trends emerging from this election. Right now I'm reading "Just How Stupid Are We: Facing the Truth About The American Voter" by Rick Shenkman because I'm hoping to glean some insight into what this election says about who we have become as a society because I think there's some important barometers to gauge out there right now. It's fundamentally important to examine how our elections are being run and what it says about our society. In the context of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, coupled with the downturn of our economy, cuts in social programs, proliferation of social problems such as drug addiction, divorce, disease, it's interesting to see how an election in such a multifarious social brew will be played out. I'll have more to say about this later. But for now I need to go out and attempt to have a more fun and adventurous summer...