Sudan's President Finally Being Held Accountable

Finally, someone spoke up.

I consider myself at least somewhat well read on the situation in Darfur, and it's depressing that people are too concerned with whether or not Obama's Muslim to see what's going on over there. The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed, a government-sponsored militia, have killed over 200,000 (and that's a conservative estimate) and displaced over 2.5 million Sudanese citizens. They're destroying their own people.

I don't particularly care to get into the causes of the situation, mostly because it would take hours of typing and pages of writing to just touch on a few causes. However, one of the major causes deals with northern and southern Sudan reaping all the wealth of oil, while western Sudan suffers from gross neglect. In 2003, they rose up in arms against the government for this. Since 2003, the government has tried to stop the uprising by raping the women, and killing everyone in the villages. As one journalist called it, catch the fish by draining the sea, so to speak.

Anyway, yesterday, the International Criminal Court charged Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir with ten counts ranging from genocide to systematic rape. It is the first time the ICC has charged a sitting head of state with crimes. Sudan is fighting the charges, stating that they are not part of the ICC, so the court doesn't have jurisdiction over them.

I'm happy to at least see some world leaders actually trying to do something. Although, I'm sure this won't accomplish much in the long run. We'll see what happens I guess.

I wonder if the ICC is considering charges against Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe...