UNITED NATIONS — The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed genocide charges Monday against Sudan's president, igniting a debate over whether the move would help end the long-standing violence in the country's Darfur region or undermine prospects for peace.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo submitted evidence intended to show that Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir intentionally tried to wipe out a "substantial part" of three tribes in Sudan's western Darfur region based on their ethnicity. Members of the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa groups rebelled against the government in 2003. When Bashir's army failed to defeat the armed movements, he sent lawless militias known as janjaweed after the people, declared Moreno-Ocampo, who also filed charges of crimes against humanity against the Sudanese president.
Bashir's "motives were largely political," the prosecutor said. "His alibi was a counterinsurgency. His intent was genocide."
Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, predicted that the prosecutor's action would eviscerate the peace process.
"This would lead to disastrous consequences for the entire region," he said. "Without a head of state, with whom are you going to talk?"
Although Bashir has few supporters in the international community, the prosecutor's move has divided human rights groups and U.N. agencies who disagree on whether it will be long-needed leverage against the government or will spark chaos.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concerns about possible retaliation against peacekeepers and aid workers in Darfur, and called on the government of Sudan to protect their security.
But John Prendergast, a former State Department official who has helped bring Darfur to the world's attention, said that holding leaders accountable for war crimes ultimately promotes peace, and that it wouldn't disrupt talks in Sudan because there currently are none.
"The peace process is dead," he said. "There is no process, and even more importantly, there is no leverage. Suddenly, a new variable has entered the equation in the form of the request for an arrest warrant."
Prendergast added that the Security Council can suspend a court investigation for a year, and that prospect is so far the best inducement for the government to change its behavior.
As the head of the state, the army and the ruling party, Bashir holds ultimate responsibility for the systematic attacks against civilians and rape of women, Moreno-Ocampo argued.
