Statement regarding the detention of Ali Kushayb (unpublished)

The document below was issued in slightly modified form as a press release on October 15th, 2008 but was never published.

Dear Editor:

The reported detention by the Sudanese government of Ali Kushayb, a leading Janjaweed commander during the height of the crimes in Darfur in 2003-4, is at best a modest step towards justice and the aims of the International Criminal Court, which had issued an arrest warrant for him over a year ago. This concession by Khartoum is merely designed to stave off the issuance of an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, which the ICC’s chief prosecutor has been seeking since July. There is, of course, little reason to think that this move will ultimately lead to any sort of justice for Darfur, nor that Khartoum will pursue a credible prosecution against Kushayb.

More generally, the ICC’s mission has been greatly complicated by the outside interference of major powers. Accordingly, the Court’s reputation has suffered greatly in the eyes of much of the world as it has thus far only pursued cases in Africa, and avoided taking on powerful nations, even indirectly. Washington has been particularly egregious in its posture towards the ICC, having waged a ‘jihad’ (according to Human Rights Watch) against it through its strong opposition to the Court’s existence, and its moves to ensure that the Court simply cannot pursue cases against the U.S., thus undermining the very concept of international law as being universal. Washington has since expressed support for the ICC’s Darfur-related prosecutions, though it still opposes the Court more generally, and is unwilling to submit itself to its jurisdiction.

In fact, for Washington, the ICC is a tool which it can occasionally support as a means of flogging an official enemy state such as Sudan, while the public displays of deep concern for Darfur serve to mask the private relationships that the U.S. has nurtured with some of the worst criminals in the Sudanese regime as part of the supposed “War on Terror.” Instead of pushing for international prosecution of war criminals such as the Sudanese intelligence chief Salah Gosh, who bears significant responsibility for the violence in Darfur, the U.S. has protected him from UN sanctions.

Not until the ICC can shed the shadow cast over it by big powers will the Court have the legal and moral authority to pursue the just cause of international law. In the meantime, Darfur awaits justice in vain.

Sincerely,

Kevin Funk and Steven Fake, co-authors of the newly released book, Scramble For Africa: Darfur – Intervention and the USA (Black Rose Books)