The Sudanese President Charged with Genocide
White Collar Crimes – Assignment #3
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed charges against Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, accusing Al-Bashir of masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation. Luis Moreno-Ocampo has asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir to prevent the slow deaths of some 2.5 million people forced from their homes in Darfur and still under attack from government-backed Janjaweed militia. The charges have been denounced by Sudan. A government spokesman said the government did not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
The above example shows several forms of “White Collar Crimes” taking place at the hands of the government of Sudan. Crimes committed by the government, or its agents, are among the most hideous. The people look to the government to make laws, and to enforce them, so when it is the government that violates those laws, people are left often with nowhere to turn. The first and most obvious crime from the excerpt is the “criminal state” taking shape in the form of, “genocide.” The word first put into common usage in the days after World War 2, “Genocide” is often largely defined as the deliberate state policy or killing one (or more) specific groups on a massive scale. The 2.5 million forced from their homes without basic necessities to face a slow cruel death would certainly qualify. As would the accounts of rape and other abuses being carried out. The term is often substituted for the phrase, “ethnic cleansing” in which the state not commits murder on a large scale but also uses deportation as means to rid a country or specific region of, “undesirable elements.” We also see examples of the, “repressive state” at work here. The deprivation of what Thomas Jefferson called; “the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is clearly a goal of the
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed charges against Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, accusing Al-Bashir of masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation. Luis Moreno-Ocampo has asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir to prevent the slow deaths of some 2.5 million people forced from their homes in Darfur and still under attack from government-backed Janjaweed militia. The charges have been denounced by Sudan. A government spokesman said the government did not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
The above example shows several forms of “White Collar Crimes” taking place at the hands of the government of Sudan. Crimes committed by the government, or its agents, are among the most hideous. The people look to the government to make laws, and to enforce them, so when it is the government that violates those laws, people are left often with nowhere to turn. The first and most obvious crime from the excerpt is the “criminal state” taking shape in the form of, “genocide.” The word first put into common usage in the days after World War 2, “Genocide” is often largely defined as the deliberate state policy or killing one (or more) specific groups on a massive scale. The 2.5 million forced from their homes without basic necessities to face a slow cruel death would certainly qualify. As would the accounts of rape and other abuses being carried out. The term is often substituted for the phrase, “ethnic cleansing” in which the state not commits murder on a large scale but also uses deportation as means to rid a country or specific region of, “undesirable elements.” We also see examples of the, “repressive state” at work here. The deprivation of what Thomas Jefferson called; “the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is clearly a goal of the