The International Criminal Court (ICC) will again consider charging Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur, after an appeals panel ruled that judges made an “error in law” when they refused to indict him on that charge last year.
“He should get a lawyer,” court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said after ruling on Wednesday.
He accused al-Bashir of keeping 2.5 million refugees from specific ethnic groups in Darfur in camps “under genocide conditions, like a gigantic Auschwitz.”
The appeals decision — which said the burden of proof should be lower when prosecutors seek an indictment than when they try to secure a conviction at trial — fueled hopes among human rights activists that prosecutors will indict other leaders around the world for atrocities.
The court is currently considering allegations of atrocities in countries from Colombia to Kenya, Gaza to Afghanistan, but has so far launched formal prosecutions in just four countries, all of them in Africa.
“This gives a new wind to the sails of international justice,” Kenyan human rights activist Njonjo Mue said.
Moreno Ocampo welcomed the decision to reopen the Darfur genocide case and vowed to give judges even more evidence when they again consider charging al-Bashir with genocide.
A five-judge appeals chamber said the ICC wrongly concluded in March that there was insufficient evidence to charge al-Bashir with three counts of genocide for allegedly attempting to wipe out entire ethnic groups in the war-ravaged province of Darfur.
Instead, the court charged him with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly orchestrating a campaign of murder, torture, rape and forced expulsions in Darfur.
The Sudanese president refuses to recognize the court’s jurisdiction and has vowed never to surrender to it. Since the charges were issued, he has traveled to friendly countries but called off trips to nations where he fears he could be arrested and sent to The Hague.
Al-Bashir’s hard-line regime also threw out 13 international aid agencies working in Darfur last March when the court first indicted him. The move further compounded the humanitarian crisis in a region where 300,000 people have died since fighting broke out in 2003 between the government and rebels. The UN says 2.7 million people have been driven from their homes by the conflict.
“For me, the fact that President Bashir expelled the humanitarian organizations is confirming that his intention is the physical destruction of these people,” Moreno Ocampo said in his office at the court.
Wednesday’s ruling set an important precedent because it marked the first time the world’s first permanent war crimes court has dealt with a genocide case, said David Crane, a law professor at Syracuse University and former chief prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
The appeals bench effectively said “lower the bar, take a look at the evidence again and see what you come up with,” Crane said in a telephone interview.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was