In Sudan's Darfur: action, not just aid

By Joseph Siegle


WASHINGTON – The Sudanese government's genocidal campaign to expunge African tribes from its western provinces ripples with impunity. More than 1 million people have been uprooted from their homes, 30,000 have been killed, women have been systematically raped, children kidnapped to be used as slaves, farms burned, villages looted, and water sources contaminated with decomposing corpses. The brutality punctuates the unmistakable message: Don't come back.

The situation is going to get worse. The approaching rainy season threatens to strand large numbers of the displaced without access to food, medical supplies, and other basic necessities in a barren land soon to be an impassable slop. Aid agencies estimate that 350,000 to 1 million people could die from starvation and disease, conveniently advancing the government's aims while masking culpability - a technique Khartoum has perfected from its decades-long conflict in the south. Besides, time is on the unelected government's side: A prolonged displacement of black Africansprovides the opening for Darfur to be Arabized, as nomadic Arab tribes move into the area.

Obviously, there is cause for international action. But let's be clear about the goal: This crisis is entirely politically generated - and demands a political solution.

In Sudan's Darfur: action, not just aid....

there are rarely any replies to the Darfur posts

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5554797

I agree this isn't getting the attention it deserves. A no-fly zone would be one thing that could be done quickly (station US, European, Russian, whoever's jets in a neighbouring country - Chad ideally - and stop any support the government ariplanes give to the militia).

We also have to get troops in, as armed peacekeepers, quickly - Africans or Indians, as the CSM article suggests, have the advantage of not appearing to be the return of colonising Europeans. But the West should be supporting such a force as much as possible - and if they were not a majority, I think Western troops could be part of the force too. Unfortunately Chimp's Imperial Adventure in Iraq has drained all available US and UK troops. Yet another think to blame on him and Blair.