A British engineer has just been reported as saying that he was working at the pharmaceutical factory two years ago and there were no signs that he saw of military production. This would be at the time when Bin Laden was also in the Sudan.
The Sudanese are not touching the rubble, to allow a full investigation.
We are no longer in the immediate post colonial era. Every country has highly educated intelligent members of the intelligentsia and bourgeoisie, who expect to be able to play their part on a world scale.
The Sudanese claim is for compensation not only for the (bourgeois) owners of the property but for the people who lost their jobs, as well presumably as compensation for the damage to the infrastructure and loss of life.
This claim does not depend on a justification of terrorism. It is about a reasonable international code of justice and is presented by a community and not by an atomised individual. It is therefore an important test case of what is meant by peace and justice on a world scale, and whether it is acceptable for one country to act as "enforcer" outside conventions of accountability and due process.
In this context it is interesting that last month the USA tried hard to water down proposals for an international court on war crimes, for fear it might get sued for just this sort of raid.
The Arab League meeting will not get much publicity, but I suggest progressive people should look out for the news and do what we can to emphasise its relevance to a reasonable solution to this escalating threat to peace.
Chris Burford
London.