Sudan's Bashir defies international court on Darfur slaughter

WASHINGTON, March 5 (UPI) -- The international legal and human rights community has finally ponderously moved to condemn Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for the continued slaughter of three predominantly Christian tribes in Darfur. But the only result looks likely to make the suffering of hundreds of thousands of refugees even worse.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on grounds of human rights violations. At least 300,000 people, almost all from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes, have been slaughtered so far, and another 2.5 million forced to flee, destitute, for their lives. Many of the surviving victims have been subjected to repeated rape and torture.

However, Bashir appears undeterred. In a highly emotional speech in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, Thursday he accused the Western nations of a plot to recolonize Sudan, which was conquered by Britain in 1898 and occupied by it until 1955. "Sudan is raising its voice. It rejects the hegemony, the colonialists," the Sudanese president said.

Ironically, the half-century of British rule was the only period in modern history when the vast nation, potentially one of the most fertile in Africa, was not torn apart by religious, racial and tribal strife.

Bashir has responded to the ICC judgment by hitting the tormented refugees where it will hurt them even more. He has expelled 13 international aid agencies from Sudan. The British-based Oxfam charity has had its license to operate in the country revoked. The Dutch section of Doctors Without Borders has been expelled outright. In all, the 13 agencies Bashir targeted are reportedly responsible for at least 60 percent of the humanitarian aid getting in to Darfur.

The ICC's judgment is an international legal milestone -- of sorts. It is the first time the court, founded in 2002, has ever directly issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state.

But the act appears to be of symbolic value only. The ICC has no police or troops and cannot compel any government to enforce its judgments. The United Nations has a peacekeeping force operating in Darfur, within Sudan, but it operates only at the tolerance of the Sudanese government and it has no legal authority to arrest Bashir by itself or to enforce the ICC ruling.

In geopolitical terms, Bashir knows he is supported by powerful governments and bodies that at least in theory command the allegiance of billions of people. The African Union and the Arab League are both openly on his side.

Also, China, with 1.3 billion people and already arguably the most influential great power across most of the African continent, openly supports him. China's special envoy for Darfur has weighed in, saying the arrest warrant will disturb the political process and threaten stability.

The escalating crisis presents the new Obama administration in Washington with a dilemma. The previous Bush administration proved unable to exercise any significant pressure to end the suffering of the people of Darfur. It proved equally powerless to halt or reduce the continuing chaotic violence in Congo that has killed at least 10 million people over the past decade. Nor was it able to remove tyrannical Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from power. Mugabe has continued to defy the democratic victory of his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai in last year's parliamentary elections.

There is no sign so far that the Obama administration will be able to do any better on any of these issues. With more than 150,000 U.S. troops still bogged down in Iraq and U.S. troop commitments in Afghanistan escalating to 55,000, the United States lacks both the military and economic as well as the political clout to do anything effective in Africa.

In an opinion piece published Thursday in The Washington Post, retired U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak, writing with Kurt Bassuener, proposed establishing a no-fly zone for the Darfur region that would be enforced by the United States and its allies.

But the U.S. Air Force is already feeling the harsh strains of imperial overstretch with its continuing operational roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. And America's North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have been notable for the extremely limited resources they have been able to provide even in Afghanistan, a military commitment they approve of.

The continued slaughter of innocents in Darfur brings home again the harsh lesson taught by the fascist aggressions of the 1930s. All the emotional outrage, moral high ground, dedicated work by charities and international relief agencies are meaningless without the existence of sufficient military power to end the slaughter and get the aid in. And when the United States is no longer able to do the job, no one else today has the power or the conviction to do the job.