(Gary Farber regularly posts at Amygdala.)
Sudan, again, in the Washington Post.
"I was seeing with my own eyes what I had been hearing about for several months: Children are dying almost every day in refugee camps in eastern Chad, despite a vigorous international effort to get food, water and other essentials to the more than 100,000 who have fled in fear from the Darfur region of neighboring Sudan.They are among the 1 million Darfurians who have been displaced from their homes, most of whom are still in Sudan , according to aid groups....
...Person after person in the camps told me that they had fled after attacks on their villages by Arab Janjaweed militias, who have burned hundreds of villages and killed thousands of civilians belonging to black African ethnic groups. To make matters worse, the Janjaweed are backed by the Sudanese government, which wants to put down rebels drawn from those tribes.
There's more.
[...]President Bush and Secretary Powell should be putting all possible pressure on both Kofi Anan, and the members of the Security Council, for a Resolution, and directly on the Government of Sudan to put a stop to this horror (trying the criminals involved can be left for later; the first step is to stop the crime).Many also said they were attacked from the air by the Sudanese government's Antonov bombers, either in their villages or as they fled toward the border.
I went to Chad last month on behalf of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience, which has issued a genocide warning for Sudan.
[...]
Indeed, in marking the 10th anniversary of the start of the Rwanda genocide on April 7, Annan said that reports from Darfur filled him "with a sense of deep foreboding."
[...]
Annan must say, simply, "This must stop" and use all his skill, energy and influence to forge an international consensus to back up that statement. To do otherwise, to welcome empty gestures from perpetrators of the gravest abuses, merely encourages them to continue to murder and pillage. During both the Holocaust and the Rwanda genocide, warnings were received and ignored. Today we say "never again." The question now is whether we will ignore the warnings while the Africans of Darfur perish and then -- once again -- say "never again." Or will we act while lives can still be saved?
We should also put some OGA (CIA) people onto the ground to directly communicate to the leaders of the Janjaweed that, in essense, their ass will be grass if they don't cease and desist.
A mysterious bombing or two in front of a Janjaweed camp could conceivably have a salutory effect, but clearly that should be left to the judgement of those with boots on the ground. And it would be lovely if such personnel could actually speak the local language and knew the local culture and politics, but what are the odds of the CIA having someone with that knowledge, as well as field experience?
(A topic for another day: lack of language training in the US is one of our greatest National Security weaknesses.)
Read The Rest Scale: 4 out of 5.
Um, can Kofi Anan really get out in front of the Security Council?
Come now, Gary. You know how this game is played.
As the article noted, there was "A statement issued by the Security Council on May 25, expressing "grave concern" about Darfur...." And I've posted before on Amygdala giving credit to the Bush Administration for its diplomatic efforts in Sudan. So there's ground for Annan to speak about the issue, particularly given that it's not as if Sudan has some patron on the Security Council.
But I called for our administration to make further, firmer, efforts; naturally other nations on the Security Council should, as well, but I have less hope of making any noise in their countries.
Well, the US simply isn't going to go into Sudan militarily without a comprehensive approach. Remember, we were trying to decide whether to attack Sudan or Iraq at one point ... and we chose Iraq. As such, Annan can't very well call for action, because there isn't going to be any action. He doesn't want to be seen shooting blanks. Now, what would be great is if someone like, say, Pakistan, were to step up to the plate and offer a sizable force.
This guy, on the other hand, does seem to care.
"This guy" (Kerry) seems to care? Too bad he's not a Senator or something, 'cause then he'd have the opportunity to actually do something other than "care" about the situation.
". . .President Bush and Secretary Powell should be putting all possible pressure on both Kofi Anan, and the members of the Security Council, for a Resolution, and directly on the Government of Sudan to put a stop to this horror (trying the criminals involved can be left for later; the first step is to stop the crime). . . ."
NOPE! The world body, the U.N., should be putting all kinds of pressure on the Arab-Muslims who are perpetrating these crimes.
Arabs should also be made to pay for their crimes. Let Muslims use some of the billions they use for jihad to help their "brother" Muslims!
Perhaps you could explain, Lili, the primary relevance of ethnicity and religion in preventing violence and punishing criminals.