Thursday, July 17, 2008
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir faces criminal charges
This is a short version of an important news bulletin illustrated by both CNN and MNSBC News. According to CNN, Louis Moreno-Ocampo (Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court) has submitted a criminal proposal to the international court against President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, and the judges have already accepted the charges. MNSBC, however, reported that Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to deliver an arrest warrant for President al-Bashir. Both CNN and MNSBC News have presented a different version of the same story.
The head prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has filed genocide condemnations against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for a five-year operation of hostility in Darfur, CNN reported on Monday. The charges comprise convincing efforts to eliminate African tribes in the war-torn province with a combination of murder, rape and deportation.
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo submited his facts against al-Bashir to the judges at the Hague in the Netherlands on Monday, and the judges have accepted eleven of Moreno-Ocampo’s earlier proposals to the court. The judges are now obligated to determine whether to deliver the warrant, according to CNN. The warrant would make Mr. al-Bashir the first president to be summoned by the ICC for genocide, if delivered. Moreno-Ocampo says there are sufficient proofs to believe that al-Bashir stands criminal liability for five counts of genocide, two counts of felony against humanity, and two counts of war crimes.
MNSBC News, on the other hand, reported the same news story a little differently. MNSBC reported that prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed genocide charges Monday against Sudan’s president, condemning him of engineering efforts to exterminate African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation. That part of reporting is similar to that of CNN. However, MNSBC reported that the Sudanese government has denounced the charges because the ICC does not acknowledge the jurisdiction of the ICC, which CNN News did not clarify.
MNSBC also reported that Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to deliver an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir to stop the slow deaths of 2.5 million Sudanese who are presently under attack from government-backed janjaweed militia.
Both CNN and MNSBC have just given their own version of an important news-story. The media and communication have changed, and the way we get our news has also changed dramatically—thanks to modern technology. Everybody has a story to tell, and technology makes it possible for everyone to tell their own version of a story. The above is my own version of re-writing the story.
News sources http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25671505/#storyContinued
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/07/14/darfur.charges/?iref=mpstoryview
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This brings up an interesting question(s): At what point does an international governmental organization (IGO) like the UN or the World Court, have the right and/or jurisdiction to intervene? Moreover, does the threat of adjudication help or hurt the situation for the people in Darfur?
I look at the situation in Zimbabwe with Robert Mugabe and ask a similar question. At what point does the predatory nature of a despot warrant international intervention?
The genocide in Darfur is both complex and deplorable by our Western, moral standards, but definitions of sovereignty and legitimacy and where those concepts intersect must also be examined. I have found that with both Darfur and more recently Zimbabwe, these questions are seldom asked by mainstream media outlets. Reporting is done absent of the whole picture--partially because too often the whole picture is so vast, the every day MSNBC/CNN reader could likely care less. Just another way to look at the story being told.
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