SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: BBC - Omar al-Bashir: Will genocide charge against Sudan's ex-president stick?
Alex de Waal, the executive director of the World Peace Foundation, argues that the process of extraditing Omar al-Bashir to the Hague to face genocide charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be a “process will be fraught with difficulties,” and “a matter of delicate political judgement.”
De Waal argues that handing over al-Bashir to the ICC may generate support for Sudanese human rights and democracy. However, De Waal notes that army commanders within Sudan’s transitional government “could be antagonised” by the ICC charges, citing the “many” soldiers who served in military campaigns that witnessed “egregious” violations of human rights, including Himedti.
De Waal also questions former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s allegations that al-Bashir “carefully nurtured a genocidal plan against Darfur’s black African tribes,” instead attributing atrocities in Darfur to “a panicked overreaction to an insurgent threat, carried to a brutal extreme.”