http://blogs.ssrc.org/sudan/2008/07/23/the-politics-of-an-arrest-warrant/ Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:06:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 http://blogs.ssrc.org/sudan/2008/07/23/the-politics-of-an-arrest-warrant/comment-page-1/#comment-2073 Alex de Waal Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:32:19 +0000 http://blogs.ssrc.org/sudan/?p=582#comment-2073 Suliman raises an important set of points. The support that President Bashir has succeeded in rallying at home and abroad is both embarrassed and conditional. Take the case of the African Union. In August 2004, ahead of the U.S. governments genocide determination, the AU Chairperson sent a delegate to Khartoum to propose that the AU set up a panel of eminent persons to investigate the Darfur crisis and propose solutions. The model that Chairperson Konare had in mind was the International Panel of Eminent Personalities that investigated the Rwanda genocide and its aftermath and made a series of far-reaching recommendations. The AU representative warned that if Khartoum didn't agree to this proposal, the UN Security Council was sure to do something more dramatic and irreversible--which it duly did when it set up Antonio Cassese's inquiry and then referred the Darfur case to the ICC. Bashir rejected the proposal saying that Sudan would handle the matter internally. Today the AU is making an almost identical proposal. One hopes that the Sudan Government will have learned its lesson. But its proclivity for tactical management of crises, which has repeatedly led it into worse crises rather than solutions, is undimmed. Suliman raises an important set of points. The support that President Bashir has succeeded in rallying at home and abroad is both embarrassed and conditional. Take the case of the African Union. In August 2004, ahead of the U.S. governments genocide determination, the AU Chairperson sent a delegate to Khartoum to propose that the AU set up a panel of eminent persons to investigate the Darfur crisis and propose solutions. The model that Chairperson Konare had in mind was the International Panel of Eminent Personalities that investigated the Rwanda genocide and its aftermath and made a series of far-reaching recommendations. The AU representative warned that if Khartoum didn’t agree to this proposal, the UN Security Council was sure to do something more dramatic and irreversible–which it duly did when it set up Antonio Cassese’s inquiry and then referred the Darfur case to the ICC. Bashir rejected the proposal saying that Sudan would handle the matter internally. Today the AU is making an almost identical proposal. One hopes that the Sudan Government will have learned its lesson. But its proclivity for tactical management of crises, which has repeatedly led it into worse crises rather than solutions, is undimmed.

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