In light of more "pressing," sexier events, we often ignore the systemic harms of the status quo - the plight of innocent victims of genocide. What we need to realize is that this crime against humanity indirectly affects us all.
Every week, 8000 innocents are killed in the Darfur region of Sudan. An estimated one million will die before the conflict is over, solely because they had the misfortune of being born into the “wrong group.” Such injustice is enough to make anyone’s stomach turn.
Yet although a quick search on Lexis-Nexis reveals that Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has been harping on the issue of genocide in Darfur for mor than two years now, no one seems to be listening. We seem to have forgotten that immediately after a similar situation in Rwanda almost 13 years ago, the international community vowed “never again” to stand by passively and allow similar atrocities to occur. Maybe we should change our motto from “Never again!” to “Who cares?”
President Bush certainly doesn’t. When the U.N. established a peacekeeping operation in Sudan (UNMIS) last March, the United States had its priorities in all the wrong places. Instead of focusing on pressuring countries like China and Russia to vote for resolutions to place sanctions on Sudan if the situation did not improve, the U.S. argued with France about whether the Darfur crimes will be tried in the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.).
Today, the mission is failing disastrously. Currently, only 6,700 African Union (A.U.) troops are deployed in Sudan. Their powers are severely limited, since their mission is only to monitor the region and report violations of the cease-fire. Not only is the A.U. severely over-stretched, but the existing troops do not have powers beyond self-defense. Even if they came upon a massacre, they would be virtually powerless to stop it. Lacking effective intelligence, communication and humanitarian aid infrastructures, the A.U. appears unable to stop mass-scale genocide without international support. While we shouldn’t dominate or take over the region, since African nations have said that Darfur is an “African problem” that requires an “African solution,” we should at least extend our help rather than stand by passively again. The United States should take lead in sending financial and logistical support to the A.U. to work toward a peaceful solution in Sudan.
Perhaps the media and the American people are to be blamed too. Perhaps we need to set our priorities straight as well. I’ll bet you that if everybody who watches Desperate Housewives took half an hour to write a letter to Mr. Bush urging him to take much-needed action on Sudan, he’d promote a bill faster than he can shift the blame onto someone else.
Twelve years ago, the international community stood by as a million innocents were murdered in cold blood in Rwanda. Let us not make the same mistake again. Let us never be forced to regretfully say “Never again” ever again.
i mean, there's nothing hotter than genocide.
except for maybe the sun,
and boiling vats of hatred, racism, and religious politics.
when bush was elected one of his first questions from the media was askinf directly about the situation in darfor. He was asked would you let a genecide like in rwanda happen to sudan and he said "Not on my watch"
Look for savedarfor.org. or something like that
Anyone who feels the way that myself and OptimisticCynic do you can pledge your support. There are tons of other whoe signs there names to these letters that go to bush saying "I'd urgre you to stick to what you said ealier.
becuase hey its happening on your watch.....while you're invading iraq