It is not often in the “business” of fighting genocide and atrocity that we have a day in which we can claim and celebrate an epic victory. However, today is truly a Red Letter Day for Jewish World Watch, for all organizations involved in anti-genocide advocacy and for the people of Darfur, Sudan.
Today, the evil Omar Al-Bashir, Sudan’s deposed ex-president is one giant step closer to finally being held to account for the Darfur genocide. In 2009, Bashir was the first person charged with the crime of genocide by the International Criminal Court (ICC), but only today has it become clear that he finally will stand trial.
The late Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis and I founded Jewish World Watch (JWW) more than 15 years ago as a call to conscience in response to the Darfur genocide. At the time, and before most of the world had ever heard of the region in Western Sudan known as Darfur, more than 200,000 Darfuris had already been murdered in a vicious and ruthless campaign engineered by Bashir, the diabolical then-president of Sudan.
JWW addressed our first advocacy campaign to the brand new International Criminal Court (ICC), demanding Bashir be charged with crimes against humanity (the crime of genocide) and that he be forced to stand trial in The Hague. JWW, in partnership with other anti-genocide organizations, spoke out by the thousands with vehemence and persistence, and our activism ultimately led to the ICC charging Bashir in 2009 and 2010 for his war crimes and crimes against humanity dating back to 2003. But despite those charges, Bashir remained at large, and, even after Bashir was deposed after months of protests just last year, Sudan refused to extradite him.
Today everything changed. Sudan has now agreed to hand over not only Bashir, but all others accused by the ICC of aiding and abetting him in carrying out the Darfur genocide.
We do not know when these extraditions and the subsequent trial will occur, but we do know that today offers hope that justice can prevail and healing can begin. Today’s news also reinforces the critical need for Jewish World Watch to continue aggressively and tirelessly to pursue our mission to hold accountable all evil perpetrators of genocide and mass atrocities.
Together we have fulfilled the ancient mandate to Not Stand Idly By. We celebrate this major victory and we celebrate you, our loyal donors and activists, who have earned this moment of joy!