Background

The second phase of Judgment on Genocide is focused on raising public awareness and conducting educational and advocacy programs around the International Criminal Court’s case on Darfur. The International Campaign for Justice in Sudan (ICJS) has a simple message: “Don’t let them get away with genocide.

This campaign addresses the international community’s failure to end the genocide in Darfur that began in early 2003. President Bashir, who came to power in a military coup in 1989, has been identified by the Tribunal and numerous other sources as guilty of committing genocide against his own people. He, along with others in power in Sudan, must be held accountable for their crimes by the International Criminal Court. Through the campaign, individuals can play an important role in supporting the ICC case on Darfur and bringing perpetrators of genocide to justice.”

Dear President Bush,

 We commend your pledge to cooperate with the case on Darfur at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

 The regime of Sudanese President Omar Hasan al-Bashir -- which has been accused of genocide, systematic rape, war crimes and crimes against humanity -- must be brought to justice.

 The United States can make an historic contribution to human rights by sharing information with the International Criminal Court to accelerate indictments of Khartoum officials for crimes against humanity. We urge you to offer your full cooperation to ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. 

 We cannot allow the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to claim impunity from international law without betraying those who have suffered and died in the genocide in Darfur.

Sincerely,

(your name here)

2. Write to the President of the United States for Action

Background

The International Citizens' Tribunal on Sudan Moral Legitimacy and the Responsibility to Protect

"The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the best hope for justice in Sudan"

The primary purpose of governments is to protect the rights and security of their citizens. When governments trample upon those rights and commit mass murder, they lose their legitimacy and the government leaders should be overthrown and prosecuted for their crimes. The citizens of Sudan are powerless to prosecute Omar al-Bashir and his government because the regime continues to tyrannize its people and control the very courts where they could be tried. For that reason, the United Nations Security Council has voted to refer the crimes against humanity in Darfur, Sudan to the International Criminal Court (ICC.) Yet the al-Bashir regime will not allow ICC investigators to enter Sudan and has threatened to kill any U.N. peacekeepers sent there. On Monday, August 28, the Sudanese tyranny is presenting its denials before the U.N. Security Council. Genocide's ghostly spectre again hovers over the Security Council, as it did when the Rwandan ambassador sat and voted in the meetings that ordered U.N. peacekeepers withdrawn during the Rwandan genocide.

The International Criminal Court will take years to complete its investigations and will only bring Omar al-Bashir and his co-conspirators to

justice after they fall from power. Meanwhile, the citizens of the world have a moral responsibility to hold the Sudanese regime accountable for its crimes. The International Citizens' Tribunal on Sudan will remind the world that the genocide is still underway. Two million displaced Africans are still slowly being starved to death. Mass rape is still the rule in Darfur. The Sudanese army and airforce and their allied militias are now conducting another genocidal offensive.

The International Citizens' Tribunal on Sudan does not claim to be a substitute for the legal authority of the International Criminal Court. Its legitimacy instead is moral. It is based on the universal moral values that all peoples share: for justice, against forced deportation and pillage, against mass rape, against genocide. Even the Sudanese state is a party to the Genocide Convention and to many human rights covenants. The International Citizens' Tribunal on Sudan will hold a trial to determine how

Omar al-Bashir and his government have violated those fundamental human rights. It will show how the Sudanese leaders have failed to protect the rights and security of Sudanese people, placing the responsibility to protect them squarely in the hands of the United Nations. It will show why forceful U.N. intervention is essential to end genocide in Darfur and allow investigators to gather the evidence for the International Criminal Court to finally bring Omar al-Bashir and his criminal regime to justice.

For more information on the ICC, the Darfur investigations and the US position on the Court, visit AMICC, the American NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court, at www.amicc.org.

We also ask you to send an online letter to Pres. George W. Bush in support of the immediate non-consensual deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to Darfur.

Dear President Bush:

After four years of genocide, bold action is required to protect civilians in Darfur. A United Nations peacekeeping force must be immediately deployed to Darfur despite opposition by Sudan's genocidal regime.

At the same time, the International Criminal Court's (ICC) investigation of genocide in Darfur must proceed unhindered by the Sudanese government.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has directed systematic violence that has resulted in 400,000 deaths, displacement of millions of civilians and the use of rape as a weapon of war. Now he is threatening ICC investigators and witnesses with imprisonment, torture and murder.

In 2005 a United Nations commission of inquiry collected evidence of the Sudanese government's war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity. Based upon this evidence, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis

Moreno-Ocampo opened an investigation on the Darfur crisis. We admire the decision of the United States to support the ICC investigation, and we hope that President George W. Bush will demand full cooperation from the Sudanese

government with the ICC investigation.

We also are grateful to the Bush administration in pressing for a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. Given the Sudanese government's foot-dragging on peace while it launches a new military offensive in northern Darfur, the time has come for a non-consensual deployment of UN peacekeepers. This force

requires a strong mandate to protect both civilians and humanitarian aid organizations providing assistance to civilians from attacks by government forces, government-sponsored militias and rebel groups.

Justice is a requirement of an enduring peace. Therefore, we call upon President George W. Bush to support the indictment, arrest and trial of individual perpetrators of genocide in Darfur as part of an overall international effort to bring forth peace in Sudan.

Sincerely,

(your name here)