Jorge Castaneda explains why the UN security council should let the proceedings of the International Criminal Court in the case of Omar al-Bashir take their course:
Whether the progress in [the] battle against impunity continues or slides backwards is now in the hands of the United Nations security council. On July 14, the ICC prosecutor, Argentine lawyer Luis Moreno-Ocampo, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for orchestrating the atrocities in Darfur. Immediately after the announcement, Sudan's government and its allies began a diplomatic campaign aimed at securing a security council deferral of the investigations for 12 months. They are attracting wider support than they should - in part because of fear of retaliation against UN peacekeepers and humanitarian workers.
But the security council must be extremely cautious in considering any suspension of ICC proceedings. Such a decision would be a serious setback to the movement to end impunity for the most serious crimes. It would show that indicted warlords and dictators can avoid justice by holding the security council hostage to threats of more violence.
The rest is here.