IN an expected escalation of pressure on the Khartoum regime to accept the holding of a referendum to allow South Sudan to decide whether to become a new state, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a second arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The Hague-based court has justified this warrant on the grounds that it has reason to believe that the Sudanese President is responsible for the genocide in Darfur. Apparently, the ICC is using the West to pressurise al-Bashir to hold the referendum in January, as agreed on years ago. There are growing warnings that any delay in the referendum or accepting the result would lead to another tragic civil war in Sudan. Because of this, many experts and even politicians have accepted the international pressure to agree to the division of the biggest Arab country. Some parties have started pressurising al-Bashir to accept this expected division and co-operate with the new state by ensuring the continuous flow of southern oil to the refineries of the North and opening Port Sudan to exports from the South, while improving the roads between the two parts of the country. It is uncertain whether any kind of unity or co-operation can be maintained between the two countries. Meanwhile, the separation would give the West and Africa better access to South Sudan's oil and mineral wealth. What the Arab League should do is swiftly invite South Sudan to become a member. The rich Arab countries as well as Egypt should also contribute more to the economic, agricultural and educational projects in South Sudan, so that the expected tribal conflicts do not destabilise the two parts of the country. The international community is dealing with the Sudanese crisis in a hypocritical manner, the way it also deals with other world crises. The ICC accuses the Khartoum regime of war crimes. Why doesn't it accuse Israel of war crimes too? After all its war crimes in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009 are well documented in the Goldstone report. Then there is its latest atrocity, the murderous attack in international waters on the Turkish Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
