The International Criminal Court now in existence at The Hague has specified that certain persons may be indicted for the crime of genocide. The Convention On The Prevention And Punishment Of The Crime of Genocide was ratified by the United States in 1988. Before the United States agreed some 139 governments signed the treaty creating the International Criminal Court, and some 97 governments have ratified it. Fifteen Security Council members, and five other European nations have ratified it. Russia, Algeria, the Philippines and Japan have signed the founding treaty also. Only China and the United States have done neither.

The Bush Administration‘s dispute with the United Nations over the court is a continuing one. In 2002 and 2003 the United States succeeded gaining immunity for its troops from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. But last June it was forced to withdraw a resolution to extend the resolution another year after it ran into widespread opposition, mainly due to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.

On January 30, 2005 Iraq held its election in which a slate of electors won an estimated 55 percent of the vote. As of January 30, 2005 it appears only about 6-10% of Iraq's Sunni's, who are represent less than 20% of the Iraqi population, voted in the election. With a large number of the Sunni's sitting out these elections, it will be up to the country's Shi'ite majority to follow the instructions of their leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and elect 275 parliament members out of 7,500 candidates on over 100 slates. Sunnis served as the favored administrators of the Ottomans starting in 1638 and continued to rule Iraq and Shi'ite majority until the country's occupation by American forces in April 2003.

Dilip Hiro wrote an article in the January 2004 issue of The Nation which laid out many of the problems facing

Iraq a year ago. He writes, "Saddam Hussein's capture on December 13, 2003 ended the role of the minority Sunni Arabs as Iraq's ruling group since 1638, when the Sunni Ottoman Turks captured Mesopotamia (then comprising Baghdad and Basra provinces) and incorporated it into their empire. But, as a majority among Baghdad's 6 million inhabitants, and some 20 percent of the total population, Sunni Arabs remain a crucial factor in the complex Iraqi equation."