A very busy week for us here so I’m linking to things which are already out there.

A very good point has been made in The Enough Project conference call today when a caller asked about all the media articles she has read about how this indictment will upset the “peace process” because it will upset those who are responsible for the peace process’s success (the very people responsible for the rape, pillage and murder ), while chooses to ignoring the victims.

Today, from the Guardian.
Victims of Darfur atrocities find a voice: Halima Bashir, a Sudanese doctor who escaped to London from Darfur, tells of the ongoing tragedy in her country

Bashir had to care for more than 40 girls who were sexually assaulted at their school while government soldiers cordoned off the premises. Parents were kept standing outside the school as their daughters’ screaming pierced the air.

A rape victim who was a teacher told Bashir: “They were shouting and screaming at us. You know what they were saying? ‘We have come here to kill you! To finish you all! You are black slaves! You are worse than dogs. The worst was that they were laughing and yelping with joy as they did those terrible things.”

She could only explain the actions of the aggressors as an extremely virulent form of racism.

“It is because of the colour of our skin, it is because we are black,” she said. “Even at school they give us nicknames and make jokes about us. It is something that has gone on a long time.”

Brashir for one is happy the ICC has made these moves.

Her story is in the book Tears of the Desert featured in this post.

There are more where this comes from.

When you see media reporting on the problems this indictment will have on diplomacy, write your media be it local or national and ask them about the victims, ask them to report on what the victims say.

“The African Union requests the UN security council … to defer the process initiated by the ICC, taking into account the need to ensure that the ongoing peace efforts are not jeopardised, as well as the fact that in the current circumstances a prosecution may not be in the interests of victims and justice,” the AU council said.
(source)

What a conundrum when justice – the prosecution of a crimes against humanity – is not conducive to peace, even for those who the crimes have been perpetrated against. Spending years diplomatizing our way out of a situations such as this does nothing to prevent them from occurring again , and again.

The question which rises at this point in time is, does peace preclude justice and if so is there really ever justice?