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March 12, 2009
Local activists and politicians welcomed the Hague-based International Criminal Court’s decision to charge Sudan’s leader with war crimes in Darfur.
The persecution and genocide in the Darfur region has been a major issue for many Jewish human rights groups, which joined Darfur coalitions with non-Jewish groups and politicians.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant March 4 for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with masterminding atrocities in Darfur.
The Sudanese leader rejected the decision and defiantly expelled local and foreign aid groups in response.
Nevertheless, local activists reacted with satisfaction.
“Our hard work and steadfast commitment — along with so many partners in coalition — to ending the genocide in Darfur is beginning to show results,” said Melanie Roth Gorelick.
Gorelick is an associate of the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ and secretary of NJ Coalition Responds to the Crisis in Darfur.
Merle Kalishman of Livingston, chair of the MetroWest CRC, also welcomed the indictment.
“The arrest warrant for al-Bashir is a very positive development for the cause of justice in the region,” she said.
But, Kalishman noted “with dismay and deep concern that the Sudanese government has expelled 13 international humanitarian aid agencies from Darfur — highlighting the gross injustices which will continue as long as al-Bashir is in power in that nation.”
Herb Horowitz, president of the Central New Jersey Area of American Jewish Committee, also regards the indictment of al-Bashir as a positive development.
“If the term ‘Never again’ has any meaning,” Horowitz said, “it has to apply to what’s going on in Darfur.”
Allyson Gall, executive director of the AJC’s Metro New Jersey Area, praised ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo as “a mensch, a very inspiring man.”
“If prosecutors were all like him, the notion of an arrest warrant for a sitting political leader would be comforting,” she said.
In the broader community, two members of New Jersey’s delegation to the House of Representatives — one a Democrat, the other a Republican — have been in the forefront of national efforts to halt the genocide in Darfur.
Rep. Donald Payne (D-Dist 10), the key congressional advocate for the embattled Darfurians, said he holds al-Bashir responsible for the nearly 400,000 people who have been killed, the more than 200,000 forced to flee the country, and the more than 2 million who have had to leave their homes seeking safety in other parts of the region.
“For far too long we have allowed Khartoum to get away with state-sanctioned genocide,” Payne said in a statement. “This move by the ICC gives hope that the world will no longer look away.”
Other NJ politicians active in the cause are Rep. Chris Smith (R-Dist. 4), who has been a key sponsor of targeted sanctions against the Sudanese government; Sen. Robert Menendez (D), who sponsored legislation calling for a peacekeeping force; and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), who was also a prime sponsor of the Divestment Authorization Act, which permits state and local governments to divest their assets in Sudan.
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