Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan since he took over in a 1989 military coup is set to visit Russia this week in an outward sign that the rest of the world is finally willing to accept Sudan back into the fold after sanctions by various countries (including the United States) have done nothing to weaken his power. The reason he had been sanctioned in the first place was that Mr. al-Bashir in addition to being the leader of a country of over 30 million people, is also wanted by the International Criminal Court for his role in organizing genocidal activities in the Darfur region of Sudan. To date, that conflict has killed over 300,000 people and led to millions of refugees and internally displaced persons. Another thing al-Bashir oversaw was the goring of other parts of his country in the Second Sudanese Civil War from 1983 (before he was in power) to 2005 which eventually led to the creation of South Sudan due to the cultural differences that some scholars and human rights advocates suspect, led to atrocities by al-Bashir’s government.
The arrest warrants by the ICC are not new either, the first was issued in 2009, followed by the second warrant in 2010. According to the ICC prosecution, these warrants allege that under his rule in unified Sudan, citizens mainly in Darfur were subjected to pillage, murder, rape, forcible transfer, torture, and contamination of water wells. Even with any evidence the ICC has accumulated, al-Bashir cannot be tried by court rules until he is in custody which could be facilitated if other countries he has visited or is visiting detain him. Failure to do so by South Africa in 2015 drew criticism and Russia has made no indication that they will abide by those arrest warrants either which can only lead to one conclusion. The world, even those countries al-Bashir has stayed away from does not truly care about the plight of Darfur or other abused regions in the world. If it did, they would have done something other than economic sanctions and sending paper tigers of ICC arrest warrants. They may be acting legally but they are not acting appropriately and the longer Mr. al-Bashir is not in custody the longer his victims are slapped in the face.
