Mick Hartley

They can’t agree on what to do about Darfur – no. 237 in a continuing series:

The United Nations missed another opportunity to deal with the continuing slaughter in the Darfur region of western Sudan yesterday when it again delayed a vote on whether to prosecute those accused of being responsible in the International Criminal Court.

For the second time in a week the UN Security Council postponed a vote on a French proposal to try suspected war criminals who are accused of orchestrating the Darfur genocide in The Hague.

The vote, which was originally scheduled to take place last week, was postponed in part to alleviate any potential embarrassment the United States might face if it vetoed the resolution. Washington is opposed to the International Criminal Court (ICC), fearing that it could be used to target US soldiers and their commanders for political reasons.

Accordingly, the US is against the use of the ICC to try those held responsible for the Darfur genocide, as it would increase the court’s global stature and legitimacy.

Instead, the US has proposed establishing a Sudanese war crimes court in Tanzania, similar to the Rwandan war crimes tribunal held in Tanzania after the genocide in that country. However, the US proposal has garnered little support on a Security Council containing 11 countries which have ratified the ICC.

Opposing the French resolution would be embarrassing for the US, since Washington led the way in declaring that the slaughter of African tribes by government-backed Arab militia in Darfur was genocide.

Diplomats in New York suggested that yesterday’s proposed vote had been postponed because the Security Council would not have been able to pass the resolution unanimously and the French wanted more time to forge a compromise proposal that could have a chance of succeeding. A third attempt to hold the vote is expected to be made today.

Although the passage of the French resolution would not, in itself, halt the violence in Darfur, it would provide a signal that the rest of the world was at least determined to hold to account those responsible for the killing.