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MARK MACKINNON
THE HAGUE — THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Published Friday, Feb. 06 2015, 9:10 PM EST
Fatou Bensouda, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, is surprised by Canada’s hard line against increasing funding to the institution. (HIROKO MASUIKE/NYT)
For more than six years, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been a wanted man here in the sterile Dutch city that hosts the International Criminal Court. But Mr. al-Bashir has not only continued to rule his country with impunity. He travelled widely across Africa and the Middle East – even visiting China in 2011 – thumbing his nose at the ICC as he went, while his hosts ignored demands that he be seized and sent to The Hague.
In December, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, effectively gave up, announcing her office had suspended its pursuit of Mr. al-Bashir, who was charged with 10 counts of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity committed in the Darfur region. She said she needed to “shift resources to other urgent cases.”