Holocaust scholars urge prosecution of Sudan's al-Bashir

Sep 15, 3:40 PM (ET)


By ARTHUR MAX
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP)


Holocaust scholars appealed Monday to the International Criminal Court prosecutor to pursue his indictment of Sudan's president on charges of genocide in Darfur.

The 130 scholars signed a letter to chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo urging him to resist pressure to drop the case against Omar al-Bashir. They warned against putting politics ahead of justice, and said al-Bashir's prosecution would "deter future atrocities."

Phone calls to officials in the Sudanese capital Khartoum went unanswered Monday evening, probably because of the traditional iftar evening meal to break the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Al-Bashir, who is the first sitting head of state to face genocide charges, has in the past dismissed the ICC prosecutor's allegations against him as politically motivated and aimed at destabilizing his government.

The appeal from the scholars came as Moreno-Ocampo published an expanded version of his charges against al-Bashir, accusing him of employing all the tools of state in an attempt to eliminate three rebellious tribes in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Up to 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million chased from their homes since the conflict in Darfur began in early 2003.

The judges at the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, based in The Hague, have not yet responded to Moreno-Ocampo's request in July to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir.

The Arab League and the African Union have sought a United Nations resolution to suspend the indictment against the veteran Sudanese leader. Russia and China, two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, have indicated they would support such a move.

But it was the Security Council that first asked Moreno-Ocampo to launch an investigation into Darfur war crimes.

Even some humanitarian organizations have voiced concern that an arrest warrant could provoke a backlash that would worsen the plight of the people of Darfur.

"During the years of the Nazi genocide, too, there were those who put politics ahead of justice," said the statement, organized by the Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

After World War II, when 6 million Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis, the U.S. and British governments sought to prosecute only a few war criminals so as not to jeopardize postwar relations with Germany, the scholars said.

"They were wrong then, and those who are seeking to protect Omar al-Bashir are wrong now," said the letter.

"The governments that are trying to protect al-Bashir should be ashamed of themselves," Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman Institute, said in a statement.

The signatories included Holocaust experts in the United States, Germany, Israel, England, Russia, Australia and Canada. Medoff said many of the signers rarely participate in public protests.

Sudan's government has rejected the genocide charges. It has said the Darfur troubles result from a tribal conflict over the sparse resources in the desert region, and denied any government involvement.

Last month al-Bashir threatened in an interview with pan-Arab Al-Arabiya TV to expel Darfur peacekeepers if the international court formally seeks his arrest.

U.S. actress and Darfur campaigner Mia Farrow also called for persistence in the case against al-Bashir, referring to "a new frenzy of savage attacks upon civilians." She said a suspension of the indictment "seems criminally inappropriate. For every day that al-Bashir is in power, more people are sure to perish."

The court has issued arrest warrants for another senior Sudanese official and a commander of the government-allied janjaweed militia. Sudan has refused to arrest them and said it would not cooperate with the court.