Crimes Against Humanity

The idea of the President of Sudan being issued a warrant for arrest did not at first strike me with particular intrigue. I mistakenly assumed that it was just another corrupt politician. However, in reading further into the articles, that the news sites have posted, I realized that the situation was definitely a great deal more complex. The International Criminal Court is charging President Omar Al Bashir on 5 counts of crimes against humanity. This, in itself, is amazing to me in that the idea of a President being charged with anything that involves the safety of people seems extremely hypocritical. That a president would issue orders of "murder...extermination...forcible transfer...torture...and rape" (ICC), does not make immediate sense to me. I found in the interview in the pod casts from the "Voices of Genocide Prevention", that Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald stated quite clearly that "its important toward international criminal...that no one will be excused". In this way, I believe President Bashir will be used as an example as to what can happen to corrupt individuals. She says that even heads of states can be indicted. In this case, I have found the video testimony on the New York Times website to be efficient and important. In reading the text, Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News in Britain writes in her blog that, "He had no presence, no charisma, no charm, no magnetism". I believe, in this way, that the video testimony becomes an important part of the trials. In a case such as this one, you are basically judging this man based on his character. In showing his demeanor, I was really able to get a better idea of what type of man this was, which I think will be important in conducting the trials.