Darfur Update: How Much Genocide Is Too Much?
The New York Times has kept Nicholas Kristof’s latest columns behind their new “Times Select” columns for cash firewall. That’s a real shame, because Kristof is again in Darfur, Sudan, and is writing blistering columns that really should be available to a wider audience. Kristof is one of the few major media voices over the past two years who has covered the genocide in Darfur regularly and forcefully.
The Coalition for Darfur gives us a look at Kristof’s most recent column. A few excerpts:
Who would have thought that a genocide could become worse? But after two years of heartbreaking slaughter, rape and mayhem, the situation in Darfur is now spiraling downward.
More villages are again being attacked and burned—over the last week thatch-roof huts have been burning near the town of Gereida and far to the northwest near Jebel Mun.
Aid workers have been stripped, beaten and robbed. A few more attacks on aid workers, and agencies may pull out—leaving the hapless people of Darfur with no buffer between themselves and the butchers.
The international community has delegated security to the African Union, but its 7,000 troops can’t even defend themselves, let alone protect civilians. One group of 18 peacekeepers was kidnapped last month, and then 20 soldiers sent to rescue them were kidnapped as well; four other soldiers and two contractors were killed in a separate incident.
What will happen if the situation continues to deteriorate sharply and aid groups pull out? The U.N. has estimated that the death toll could then rise to 100,000 a month.
The turmoil has also infected neighboring Chad, which is inhabited by some of the same tribes as Sudan. Diplomats and U.N. officials are increasingly worried that Chad could tumble back into its own horrific civil war as well.
This downward spiral has happened because for more than two years, the international community has treated this as a tolerable genocide.
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Our leaders still haven’t found their voices, though. Congress has even facilitated the genocide by lately cutting all funds for the African Union peacekeepers in Darfur; we urgently need to persuade Congress to restore that money.
So what will it take? Will President Bush and other leaders discover some backbone if the killing spreads to Chad and the death toll reaches 500,000? One million? God forbid, two million?
How much genocide is too much?
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Also worthy of note is Samantha Power’s latest in The New Yorker. Power is another exemplary journalist who has been writing about Darfur regularly. Her most recent commentary paints a bleak picture of an overwhelmed African Union mission in Darfur. In the following excerpt, pay particular attention to what Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick says (emphasis mine):
The peace talks between Khartoum and an ever increasing number of rebel groups, which began last year and are now entering their seventh round, have become a farce. The prospects for stability are so dim that diplomats have begun trotting out alibis from past ethnic conflicts. “It’s a tribal war,” Zoellick said in Khartoum, on November 9th. “And, frankly, I don’t think foreign forces ought to get themselves in the middle of a tribal war.” But, if a humanitarian calamity is going to be averted, “foreign forces” will be required. Darfur’s displaced have gathered in some three hundred sites, and someone needs to protect them from the janjaweed who prowl nearby. Roads must be made safe for humanitarian relief convoys. In the longer term, a political deal must be struck between the region’s warring factions, and the majority of Darfur’s displaced must feel safe enough to return home.
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Finally, it’s worth noting that the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act has finally passed in the Senate. It goes to the House when the session returns on Dec. 6.
If you are a constituent of Sen. Brownback (R-KS) or Sen. Corzine (D-NJ), the bill’s co-sponsors, give them a little love. Ditto for Foreign Relations Committee Chair Lugar (R-IN) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN).
And start contacting your Rep’s offices soon, particularly if they are on the International Relations Committee. The corresponding bill in the House is H.R. 3127
3 Ripples from “Darfur Update: How Much Genocide Is Too Much?”
Muser says:
November 28, 2005 at 5:11 pm
Hey, have you heard about the book Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala? It’s short and really excellent. This post reminded me of it. Well, this post and the fact that I just finished reading it. Thanks for these links.
zalm says:
November 28, 2005 at 9:11 pm
I was looking for something light to read, now that I’m finished with Silence.
This sounds nothing like what I was looking for, but your recommendation is still good enough with me that I’m now number five in the queue at the ol’ library. (Every copy of the book is listed as being in “Tech Service.” Whatever that means.)
Toniyah Tonijah says:
December 30, 2005 at 7:12 am
From my past haunting nightmares as a refugee child during one of the bloodiest civil wars in Africa, I have started blogging on the on-going holocaust in Darfur.
I hold the UN and the US responsible for the holocaust in Darfur. Because, they can stop it anytime they want to. The African Union is ill-equipped to handle the terrorists on rampage in Sudan. The Janjaweed mercenaries being used by the Sudanese government have commanders who receive more arms, Thuraya phones and other logistics from the ruthless Sudanese government on a regular basis.
For every drop of innocent bloodshed in Darfur the UN and the US cannot avert their eyes. For they saw the slaughter and are witnesses of the atrocities of war crimes in Sudan. Whilst President George W.Bush and his family were enjoying their Thanksgiving turkey and Kofi Annan and his family were smacking their oily lips from the Christmas dinner, thousands of helpless and powerless children and women were murdered, maimed and displaced in Darfur.
The UN and the US are guilty of the holocaust in Darfur.
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