Article in Washington Post written by ANGELINA
Justice for Darfur
By Angelina Jolie
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; A19
BAHAI, Chad -- Here, at this refugee camp on the border of Sudan,
nothing
separates us from Darfur but a small stretch of desert and a line on a
map. All the same, it's a line I can't cross. As a representative of
the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, I have traveled into
Darfur
before, and I had hoped to return. But the UNHCR has told me that this
camp, Oure Cassoni, is as close as I can get.
Sticking to this side of the Sudanese border is supposed to keep me
safe.
By every measure -- killings, rapes, the burning and looting of
villages
-- the violence in Darfur has increased since my last visit, in 2004.
The
death toll has passed 200,000; in four years of fighting, Janjaweed
militia members have driven 2.5 million people from their homes,
including
the 26,000 refugees crowded into Oure Cassoni.
Attacks on aid workers are rising, another reason I was told to stay
out
of Darfur. By drawing attention to their heroic work -- their efforts
to
keep refugees alive, to keep camps like this one from being consumed by
chaos and fear -- I would put them at greater risk.
I've seen how aid workers and nongovernmental organizations make a
difference to people struggling for survival. I can see on workers'
faces
the toll their efforts have taken. Sitting among them, I'm amazed by
their
bravery and resilience. But humanitarian relief alone will never be
enough.
Until the killers and their sponsors are prosecuted and punished,
violence
will continue on a massive scale. Ending it may well require military
action. But accountability can also come from international tribunals,
measuring the perpetrators against international standards of
justice.
Accountability is a powerful force. It has the potential to change
behavior -- to check aggression by those who are used to acting with
impunity. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court (ICC), has said that genocide is not a crime of passion;
it
is a calculated offense. He's right. When crimes against humanity are
punished consistently and severely, the killers' calculus will change.
On Monday I asked a group of refugees about their needs. Better tents,
said one; better access to medical facilities, said another. Then a
teenage boy raised his hand and said, with powerful simplicity, "Nous
voulons une épreuve." We want a trial. He is why I am encouraged by
the
ICC's announcement yesterday that it will prosecute a former Sudanese
minister of state and a Janjaweed leader on charges of crimes against
humanity.
Some critics of the ICC have said indictments could make the situation
worse. The threat of prosecution gives the accused a reason to keep
fighting, they argue. Sudanese officials have echoed this argument,
saying
that the ICC's involvement, and the implication of their own eventual
prosecution, is why they have refused to allow U.N. peacekeepers into
Darfur.
It is not clear, though, why we should take Khartoum at its word. And
the
notion that the threat of ICC indictments has somehow exacerbated the
problem doesn't make sense, given the history of the conflict.
Khartoum's
claims aside, would we in America ever accept the logic that we
shouldn't
prosecute murderers because the threat of prosecution might provoke
them
to continue killing?
When I was in Chad in June 2004, refugees told me about systematic
attacks
on their villages. It was estimated then that more than 1,000 people
were
dying each week.
In October 2004 I visited West Darfur, where I heard horrific stories,
including accounts of gang-rapes of mothers and their children. By that
time, the UNHCR estimated, 1.6 million people had been displaced in the
three provinces of Darfur and 200,000 others had fled to Chad.
It wasn't until June 2005 that the ICC began to investigate. By then
the
campaign of violence was well underway.
As the prosecutions unfold, I hope the international community will
intervene, right away, to protect the people of Darfur and prevent
further
violence. The refugees don't need more resolutions or statements of
concern. They need follow-through on past promises of action.
There has been a groundswell of public support for action. People may
disagree on how to intervene -- airstrikes, sending troops, sanctions,
divestment -- but we all should agree that the slaughter must be
stopped
and the perpetrators brought to justice.
In my five years with UNHCR, I have visited more than 20 refugee camps
in
Sierra Leone, Congo, Kosovo and elsewhere. I have met families uprooted
by
conflict and lobbied governments to
