The United Nations reckons that some 300,000 people have been killed and 2 million displaced since 2003 when conflict began over the Darfur region in Sudan. That battle pits the Sudanese Army and militias aligned with them against non-Arab rebels who claimed that they have been discriminated against by the Khartoum government. As the numbers of casualties makes plain, it has been a bloody battle.

The International Criminal Court, a tribunal established in 2002 to investigate genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, opened an investigation against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir; in 2009 and again in 2010 it indicted him for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. He and his government reject all the accusations, deny any official involvement in the bloodshed and counter that the death toll is "only" 10,000.

All signatories to the ICC are obligated to arrest and hand over suspects charged with indictments. In theory, then, al-Bashir should have been detained when he arrived in South Africa earlier this month for a summit of the African Union (AU). Instead, he was afforded all the honors of a visiting head of state, and was then spirited out of the country just ahead of a South African court ruling that demanded his arrest. Since he left from a military base, it can be assumed that the South African government gave its blessing to his departure, putting support for a fellow African leader ahead of its international obligations to the ICC.