Suggested Talking Points on Expected Arrest Warrant for Omar al-Bashir

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What the Warrant Means

• The International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision adds legal weight to a long obvious truth—primary responsibility for the atrocities in Darfur rests with the regime that Bashir heads.
• Now that Bashir is a wanted war criminal, individual nations and the international community must no longer conduct business as usual with Bashir and his regime.
• The international community must press Sudanese authorities to comply with their obligations to cooperate with the ICC.  This includes executing all outstanding warrants.

Challenges to Meet

• The United States and other members of the U.N. Security Council must make clear that the Sudanese government will be held responsible for any retaliatory action against civilians, the humanitarian aid community or the UNAMID peacekeeping force.
• The Security Council, its member states and regional world leaders must identify severe consequences for Sudanese government retaliation and employ them if necessary.
• The Security Council, its member states and regional world leaders must categorically reject any attempt by the Sudanese government to abandon or suspend the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended a decades long war between the north and south.
• The Security Council, its member states and regional world leaders must also make clear to rebel movements and militias that any attempt they make to use the ICC decision as an excuse for a military offensive will result in more civilian suffering and will incur punitive measures. All rebel movements must come to the negotiating table. 

A Window of Opportunity for Peace

• After so many years of conflict in Darfur, the ICC's decision—combined with the potential for diplomatic leadership by the Obama administration—has opened a dramatic window of opportunity to end the conflict.
• Sudan's ruling National Congress Party must use this opportunity to abandon its disastrous policies in Darfur and elsewhere and focus on rebuilding relationships with the international community.  For that to happen, it must:
  • End attacks against civilians and support for the janjaweed militias
  • Cooperate fully with the UNAMID peacekeeping force
  • End impunity in Darfur
  • Allow displaced persons to return home
  • Negotiate a sustainable peace with rebel movements and Darfuri civil society
  • Fully implement the CPA
• World leaders, led by the United States, should use this opportunity to pursue a comprehensive, negotiated peace that builds on the framework of the CPA.
• President Obama should immediately appoint a high-level official with the stature, mandate and authority to be the U.S. point person on Sudan-and bring an end to the genocide.