The International Criminal Court plans to indict Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for genocide. It's damn good news, especially coming after a week in which his government was likely complicit in an attack that killed seven peacekeepers. Although the ICC's decision to call al-Bashir out could negatively affect diplomatic negotiations, the peacekeeping mission has never been strong enough to stop violence in Darfur and doesn't look likely to improve.
Moving to officially identify al-Bashir as someone with no interest in real solutions will hopefully force the international community to realize that stopping the violence and protecting the millions of refugees is entirely in their hands. It's sad that it's taken this long to call the situation in darfur what it is -- genocide. Now, how about some helicopters?
--Tim Fernholz
