Justice Deferred Is Justice Denied

Thousands of villagers in Darfur, have been shot, bombed, burnt, raped and reduced to starvation by the attacks of the Chinese supplied army and militia forces of the Sudanese government. These are acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. Two million people or more have been driven from their lands and homes, and reduced to extreme poverty. Hundreds of thousands have died.

In the past, we could only protest these terrible injustices and crimes, wring our hands in helpless frustration and pray for change. Now we have the International Criminal Court (ICC) to bring criminal indictments against sitting head of states responsible for the massacres and violence against innocent people.

Ever since the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno - Ocampo announced that he had indicted the Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir and had an arrest warrant issued for him his supporters have been lobbying at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) defer the court proceedings. This indictment of Al-Bashir, the first ever of a sitting head of state, is truly historical.

Others arrested on international warrants and brought to trial before the ICC included the now deceased president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, Thomas Lubanga, from the Congo, (on trial for crimes against humanity in particular for child abduction, the mutilation and abuse of children and using them as child soldiers). Arrested last July 2008, war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, who hid behind a disguise for 16 years will now answer for the torture and deaths of thousands of civilians including children. There is no statue of limitations for crimes like these.

The success in bringing these suspects to trial is a dire warning to all other torturers and even to sitting heads of states, that they can be investigated and brought to trial in The Hague. However Al-Bashir has powerful backers who ignore his crimes in exchange for money and oil. Some Arab and African states are demanding that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) defer the court proceedings against Al-Bashir.

To do so would be a grave mistake and a serious set back for world justice. The independence of the court must be protected from acts of political expediency, lobbying and pressure. Peace is brought about by more justice not less of it. Such a deferment could be seen as a weakening of the determination of the Security Council to see justice is done. After all it was the Security Council that instructed the ICC to investigate Al-Bashir in the first place some years ago. He is facing 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder.

Article 16 of the UN charter setting up the ICC allows a deferment in rare and unusual circumstances, but only when deferment would advance Justice not delay it. To defer a trial for political expediency would be an interference in the court, a denial of justice and a negative and bad signal to the killers, tyrants, people butchers and dictators that commit genocide and crimes against humanity. This International Court is the greatest hope for the poor and the oppressed since the universal declaration of human rights.

Now comes a report in the Guardian newspaper that says that France and the United Kingdom are supporting moves to defer the trial. Jean-Maurice Ripert the French ambassador to the UN listed conditions for such a deferment, among them, an end to attacks and killings and an end to violence and atrocities. All that the tyrants have to do is make promises to supporting nations to overlook their horrific crimes to get off the hook.

The evidence against Al-Bashir and his accomplices is damning; mass rape as an instrument of genocide, aerial bombing of helpless villages, hunger and starvation as a weapon of ethnic cleansing. It is grossly immoral for any nation to support a deferment of justice for empty and insincere promises to make peace. Such would be a first step to dropping the charges all together later and let him and his gang go free. Complicity in any effort to delay justice is to deny it to the victims. It looks like these nations are going to trade human lives for a pay off. Shame on them all.