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| International Criminal Court Seeks U.N. Action on Sudan | International Criminal Court Seeks U.N. Action on Sudan |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Flustered over Sudan’s longstanding refusal to extradite its leader for trial on charges of genocide and other crimes in the Darfur conflict, the International Criminal Court on Monday asked the United Nations Security Council to take “necessary measures” to enforce compliance. | Flustered over Sudan’s longstanding refusal to extradite its leader for trial on charges of genocide and other crimes in the Darfur conflict, the International Criminal Court on Monday asked the United Nations Security Council to take “necessary measures” to enforce compliance. |
| The request came three months after the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said she was suspending her criminal investigations of Darfur atrocities because they could not make progress without cooperation from Sudan and coercive pressure from the Security Council. | The request came three months after the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said she was suspending her criminal investigations of Darfur atrocities because they could not make progress without cooperation from Sudan and coercive pressure from the Security Council. |
| In a statement from its headquarters at The Hague, the court said the charges against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, some of them dating to March 2009, had been repeatedly ignored by the Sudanese authorities. | In a statement from its headquarters at The Hague, the court said the charges against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, some of them dating to March 2009, had been repeatedly ignored by the Sudanese authorities. |
| The statement said the court had “decided to inform the United Nations Security Council to take the necessary measures it deems appropriate.” | The statement said the court had “decided to inform the United Nations Security Council to take the necessary measures it deems appropriate.” |
| Without such action, the statement said, the Council’s decision a decade ago to refer Sudan to the court would “never achieve its ultimate goal, namely, to put an end to impunity.” | Without such action, the statement said, the Council’s decision a decade ago to refer Sudan to the court would “never achieve its ultimate goal, namely, to put an end to impunity.” |
| Mr. Bashir is the only sitting head of state with genocide charges hanging over him from the court, which was created in part to hold those responsible for atrocities like those committed in Darfur accountable. | Mr. Bashir is the only sitting head of state with genocide charges hanging over him from the court, which was created in part to hold those responsible for atrocities like those committed in Darfur accountable. |
| Yet the court has no police force of its own to ensure compliance with warrants and must rely on cooperation from other governments. | Yet the court has no police force of its own to ensure compliance with warrants and must rely on cooperation from other governments. |
| International jurists have viewed the charges against Mr. Bashir, and the court’s ability to carry out a prosecution, as an important measure of its credibility. | |
| Some said the court’s statement on Monday reflected its deepening frustration with prosecutions that have foundered over noncooperation from countries where sitting leaders and other high-ranking officials have been charged. | |
| In December, Ms. Bensouda announced that she would “hibernate” the genocide case against Mr. Bashir and others in Sudan because she had been unable to secure arrests. | |
| The same month, Ms. Bensouda announced she was dropping charges against Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, for his role in the violence that upended Kenya following the 2007 elections, citing what she called his government’s noncooperation. | |
| “My reading of what happened in December, and this announcement, is that the prosecutor’s office is trying to fix blame squarely on the Security Council for its failure to back the court up,” said Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch. | |
| It remains unclear what, if anything, the Council will do to raise pressure on Sudan’s government, which has close relations with two of the Council’s permanent members, Russia and China. | It remains unclear what, if anything, the Council will do to raise pressure on Sudan’s government, which has close relations with two of the Council’s permanent members, Russia and China. |
| Ms. Bensouda, who reports to the council every six months, has written the council at least eight times before asking for help in securing the arrest of suspects charged with Darfur crimes. | |
| “If there was full political will of all the members on the Security Council, then something would have happened,” she said in an interview with The New York Times in December, when she last appeared before the council. | |
| In 2005, the Security Council asked the court to open a criminal investigation of Sudan’s campaign against civilians and rebel groups in Darfur, which has left hundreds of thousands of people dead and displaced.The court later indicted President Bashir, his defense minister and two other associates on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. | |
| But the defendants have largely behaved with impunity, in some instances even traveling to other countries despite the risk of arrest. |