Darfur News

In other, more sobering news, the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashi, was accused by the International Criminal Court of the crime of directing genocide in his nation. This seems to me the first, concrete and legitimate step towards halting the destructive behavior in this region by an international organization with some accolades. Although the International Criminal Court is considered somewhat of a fluff organization given that it has no legimitacy in the international system (mostly thanks to the US's lack of willingess to hand over jurisdiction to the ICC), I still think that this is a huge, positive step in the right direction in the fight to right the situation in Darfur. It is also a step towards international organizations having more legitimacy in the national conversation. I think that the ICC's step to publicly reprimand the president of Darfur will place shame on the shoulders of the UN because the UN has taken no significant measures to end the genocide and yet it is looked to as the closest institution we have to a world government. As easy as it is look with disregard at the UN for not doing what the ICC has now tried to do, it is a mistake to criticize the UN for not taking action. The UN was not built to single-handedly take action. It is a foundation/structure through which the great powers could efficiently pool resources to run international affairs in their favor. Therefore, when the UN fails to impede the horrific act of genocide occurring in Sudan, it is really us that are to blame. Our government and those of other great powers such as China (who still does business with a lot of Sudanese companies) should be held responsible for the not taking action because the great powers have failed to put pressure on the Sudanese government to make the atrocity stop. Nonetheless, this post is not a rant, it is a somber celebration -- here's to the ICC for making a strong (though I would assume mostly symbolic) move towards ending the genocide and here's to hoping it draws enough attention to the issue to pressure the Great Powers to follow suit.