For the past six years the world has been crying out for justice for Darfur. Now the International Criminal Court has responded, indicting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity and issuing a warrant for his arrest.
Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be charged by the ICC, and bringing him to justice will not be easy. He will have to pay a visit to a foreign country which takes international justice seriously enough to arrest him and extradite him to face trial The Hague. Or Sudan will have to replace its government with one which respects international law and human rights - a dificult task in a country which does not have free elections. But the charges are not going to go away, and so there is some hope that Bashir will be brought to justice - even if we have to wait twenty years to do it.
