The decision by the United Nations Security Council to send war-crimes suspects from the Darfur region of Sudan to the new International Criminal Court (ICC) is an important victory for human rights. Even the United States, which has been implacable in its opposition to the ICC, agreed to the final resolution. Now it is incumbent on the government of Sudan to cooperate with the tribunal, which means the U.N. must demand compliance with its resolution.
For over two years, it has been reported that ethnic cleansing has been going on in the Darfur region of Sudan. The victims are black Africans; the victimizers are Arab militias called the janjaweed. The Arab-dominated government of Sudan admits it has armed the militias and given them air support, but only so that they could fight a secessionist movement launched in February 2003. The government denies that the janjaweed are engaged in ethnic cleansing, or that they are guilty of killing, raping and looting.
Most international observers, including the U.N., think otherwise. As many as 300,000 people are believed to have lost their lives in the conflict, either because of violence or because of hunger or disease. The U.N. estimates that as many as 2.4 million more have been left homeless. Some observers have gone so far as to call the actions "genocide."