This week’s arrest warrant request from Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), for Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s war-crimes in Darfur, has triggered quite the political and diplomatic kerfuffle. Many, especially human rights organizations, have hailed the move as significant as it will deter impunity.

But the Sudanese government, obviously, has expressed its indignation at the ICC and Mr. Ocampo. Soon after Ocampo announced the charges on Monday, al-Bashir’s supporters exploded in war shrieks and political diatribes against the ICC – and many countries seemed to support it.

In a rally held in Khartoum on Sunday, soon after word leaked that the announcement of the arrest warrant was imminent, al-Bashir’s supporters marched in the streets shouting: “Death to America! Death to Israel!” (Note that the U.S. and Israel aren’t signatories of the ICC and, therefore, don’t recognize it).

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The world, I bet, has not forgotten gory scenes of death and destruction that Kenya witnessed early this year over a disputed presidential election. And the world should not forget that dark chapter of Kenyan history because the perpetrators of that mayhem have not been brought to book.

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