Darfur Deadlock – Whose Fault? (The NYT weighs in)

Following up my Darfur post , I note that Nicholas Kristof of the NYT weighs in and, predictably, lays all the blame here on the U.S. opposition to the ICC. He quotes Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch: “The I.C.C. could start tomorrow saving lives . . . [w]ith the [ad hoc] tribunal route, you’re talking about another year of killing.”

This is ridiculous. Kristof of all people should realize that (1) the U.S. has been the primary reason why the world is paying any attention to Darfur in the first place when it declared the atrocities “genocide” back in Sept. 2004; (2) the atrocities in Darfur may have begun prior to 1 July 2002 thereby excluded from the ICC’s jurisdiction, and most importantly (3) neither the ICC nor an ad hoc tribunal will stop the atrocities, as Peggy argued here.

International criminal courts are good at punishing war criminals and providing retribution for victims, but they cannot save lives in an ongoing conflict. Just ask the Bosnians, Kosovars, and Tutsis whether they would have preferred ICC indictments or the U.S. Air Force.