Prometheus 6

Sudan's oil revenues enable it to resist sanctions and stymie most diplomatic pressure. The United Nations helps prop up the regime with its reluctance to join the Bush administration in labeling Sudan's actions as genocide. The UN timidity has enabled such eager Sudanese trading partners as Russia, France and China to block embargoes, sanctions or other humanitarian actions that might have real teeth.

Khartoum capers
May 26, 2007

What do you do with an arrest warrant when the police refuse to make the arrest?

That's the predicament faced by the International Criminal Court. Earlier this year the nine-year-old body, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, indicted two Sudanese leaders for alleged war crimes in that country's Darfur region.That one of the men, Ahmad Muhammad Harun, happens to be Sudan's minister of "humanitarian affairs" speaks volumes about the low regard that Khartoum has shown for humans in the Darfur region. The other suspect, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, is a leader of the notorious Janjaweed militia, which has waged murderous raids against civilians in Darfur since a rebel uprising began in 2003.

Unless Sudan turns the men over on its own, the best the court can do is wait for them to step outside of Sudan where they might be spotted and arrested by Interpol. That is, if they ever step outside of their home country.

The trouble is, it's very hard to prosecute alleged war criminals whose government has not yet lost the war. That is particularly true for a country like Sudan, where the regime often behaves like an outlaw.