Justice is finally coming to Darfur—the long-awaited punishment of the war criminals is now guaranteed.
“After the reconciliation we will investigate those who are criminals and those who committed crimes and those who were killed and those who were killers. This is all guaranteed. Compensation will be paid. Everyone will get their right. This is justice.”
Of course, since the guarantee is coming from the worst of all of the perpetrators, it must either be taken with a grain of salt or, worse yet, with growing apprehension about his definition of “justice.” Not to mention the fact that Khartoum insists that only 10,000 people have perished since the crisis began, completely ignoring the UN estimate of upwards of 300,000.
“We know about justice between us and we know how to solve our problems.”
Omar al-Bashir vowed yesterday that Sudanese officials would track down and punish those who were responsible for atrocities in Darfur—strangely ironic that the Sudanese officials who helped mastermind the atrocities are now, ostensibly, tasked with investigating them. It could be a great time-saver though; all of the officials in Khartoum could simply arrest each other and surrender themselves to the ICC.
Nobody actually believes that Bashir is interested in anything that civilized people would term as “justice.” The best-case scenario from this latest stunt is that it is just a stunt—Bashir is simply spouting empty promises of reconciliation and justice in order to try and appease those elements within Sudan that want someone to be held accountable for the crimes committed in Darfur.
The worst-case scenario would be that Bashir has decided to use this pursuit of “justice” as an excuse to conduct a witch hunt of anyone who opposes his rule or his decision to expel humanitarian agencies. It would not be out of character for Bashir to go after political enemies under the guise of pursuing “justice” for Darfur—a man who is willing to paint military aircraft with UN colors in order to simplify the task of bombing civilians would not be troubled by using the word justice to commit even more injustice.
Hopefully, Bashir is right—with the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, the only hope for safety and security may be justice. But not the perverse justice that Bashir hides behind—true justice demands peace and security in Darfur and that Bashir be called to account for his crimes.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
