The Absurdity of International Law

Yesterday's indictment in the International Criminal Court shows how ridiculous international law really is:

The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant yesterday for Sudan's president on charges of waging a campaign of genocide and rape in Darfur, a high-risk strategy that could backfire against the people in the war-torn desert region.

The indictment marked the first time that prosecutors at the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal have issued charges against a sitting head of state, though President Omar al-Bashir was unlikely to face trial anytime soon.

Sudan denounced the indictment as a political stunt, saying it would ignore any arrest order and was considering all options, including an unspecified military response. One Sudanese lawmaker said his government could no longer guarantee the safety of U.N. staff in the troubled region.

Fantastic. The inidctment (which really isn't an indictment) is probably going to wind up costing even more loss of life in this savage conflct. And it gets worse.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges against al-Bashir related to a campaign of extermination of three Darfur tribes that the United Nations says claimed 300,000 lives and drove 2.5 million people from their homes. A three-judge panel was expected to take two to three months to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.

Do is really take months to figure out that al-Bashir should be indicted? Really? It takes that long?

Unfortunately, the only thing that is going to solve the Darfur Genocide is military action. Something that the U.N. is incapable of doing given the Chinese veto power on the Security Council. But both the dilemma in Darfur with both the UN and the ICC just proves how unreliable international organizations are in dealing with legitimate security and human rights concerns, and how useless it is for the United States to pursue solutions through the ICC and the UN.

Continued Disintegration

It's not often that I agree with something Cynthia Thomas writes, but on this one she is spot on with her noting that America's silence on the Communist regime of Robert Mugabe.

The situation in Zimbabwe has been a concern of mine for many years. Mugabe has been a thug, a dictator, and a despot on par or even worse with anything done in Iraq, Iran, or Liberia. Compulsory land redistribution led to the starvation of the people. Violence against the populace. A shameful explosion in the number of cases of AIDS and HIV, particularly in newborns.

The rising of the opposition of Morgan Tsvangirai led to extreme cases of violence against opposition leaders, particularly the murder of the wives and children of these leaders, and the execution of these leaders by the Government. The news this morning that Tsvangirai pulled out of Friday's runoff against Mugabe means even darker clouds on the horizon, and the continuance of Mugabe's Communist thuggery.

The Mugabe Government is one of the most violent, despotic governments in recent memory. The situation in Zimbabwe has raised little ire here in the U.S. Even worse, the United Nations has paid no particular mind to the situation.

I think it is important that the Bush Administration really start to get tough with Zimbabwe, and tough action should be followed by the new administration beginning next year. It is hard American foreign policy to be credible in talking about getting tough on human rights violations if we pay little mind to the one of the worst human rights situations in the world. The time for action has passed.

Gee, who woulda thunk it?

Why would anybody accuse such an upstanding citizen of such a heinous offense?:

The discovery millions of extra ballot forms proves that President Robert Mugabe intends to rig the March 29 elections in his favor, Zimbabwe's main opposition party said Sunday.

Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change, told CNN that leaked correspondence from the election commission showed it had asked the company that is printing paper ballots to make nine million.

However, the African country has an electorate of 5.7 million registered voters, he said.

Also, 600,000 postal paper ballots were requested for soldiers and police officers, Biti said.

Postal ballots are usually requested for civil servants serving abroad, and the total number for soldiers and police in Zimbabwe add up to no more than 50,000, he said.

How come we cannot get any support here in the U.S. for dealing with this thug?