Charged With Genocide

By - New York Times, Editorial
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - Web Link
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July 15, 2008

The truth can be difficult. That doesn’t make it any less true. And so we support the decision by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court to bring charges of genocide against Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for his role in masterminding Darfur’s horrors.

There is legitimate concern that Sudan’s government may vent its ire — even more than it has — on aid workers, United Nations peacekeepers and the people of Darfur. But the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is fulfilling his internationally mandated responsibilities.

That is more than we can say for the United Nations Security Council, which has been unconscionably passive over the burning of villages, the bombing of schools and the systematic rape of women in Darfur. We hope it will finally be shamed into action.

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has asked the court’s three-judge panel to issue an arrest warrant for Mr. Bashir. He claimed to have very strong evidence that Mr. Bashir “controlled everything — the generals, the intelligence, the ministers, the media” — and gave direct orders to the murderous janjaweed militia.