SUDAN: DEATH BY PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE
Murder, Mass Rape as the International Community Ponders
August 10, 2004
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2004 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
The most eloquent testimony to the real goals of fundamentalist
Islam and the lack of resolve by the "international
community" may be written in the desolate, blood-soaked
sands of southern Sudan, in the Darfur region (see map
below). Tens of thousands of deaths and countless instances
of mass rape form an irrefutable indictment of the "international
community's" inability to act when faced with documented
atrocity.
The United Nations itself refers to the disaster in
Darfur as the "world's worst humanitarian crisis," but
the "world community" fails to act. Sudan's central
government in Khartoum is controlled by fundamentalist
Muslims, and is known to have supported al-Qaeda. Khartoum
is also a close friend of Communist China.
Sudan is unofficially assisting the Janjaweed (a "militia"
of Arab tribesmen) in a war of ethnic cleansing against
Christian and pagan black African villagers in Dafur,
an area thought to be rich in oil resources.
The Janjaweed have killed over 50,000 villagers in
the Darfur region. Although Khartoum has called the Janjaweed
"thieves and gangsters," Sudanese helicopter gunships
are known to fly air support for the Janjaweed, according
to a recent BBC report. The helicopters pour gunfire
into villages, followed by a ground assault by the Arab
horsemen. Men and boys are killed, women are raped, often for days at a time by several men,
villages are left desolate. Sometimes the attackers burn
entire families alive.
The attacks are part of the Muslim government's response
to a rebellion in the region which began in 2003. Dafur
rebels claim systematic oppression by Khartoum as the
cause for the revolt. Sudanese countermeasures against
Darfur have left the region devastated - except in those
areas resettled by Muslim Arabs.
The Darfur fighting has produced one million refugees.
Press and humanitarian organizations report that Sudan's
government is hindering aid to those living in refugee
camps, resulting in what BBC correspondent Hilary Andersson
called "cruel and slow starvation." Death stalks the
camps, and searches especially for children.
The United Nations Security Council has debated what
should be done in Darfur…and debated…and debated. The
Security Council, comprised of the U.S., Britain, France,
China, Russia and fifteen rotating members, could order
immediate action, if agreement is unanimous, but no
action is in sight.
The United States recently proposed UN sanctions against
Sudan, if Khartoum does not disarm the Janjaweed in
30 days. Pressure from the Arab League forced the term
"sanctions" to be dropped in favor of undefined economic
and diplomatic "measures." Even the watered-down resolution
faced strong opposition, with China refusing to vote
on the proposal.
Sudan refuses to accept any peacekeepers, and the Arab
League opposes "any threats of coercive military intervention
…or imposing any sanction on Sudan," according to a
recent AP report.
The inaction of the "international community" in the
face of the "world's worst humanitarian crisis" should
be a special embarrassment to the internationalists
who call for UN supremacy in global affairs, and who
bitterly condemn "unilateral" or "go-it-alone" initiatives.
While the disaster in Sudan has received a degree of
media attention, no one has demanded to know why the
"international community" remains hamstrung.
In a special irony, Moscow, which is one of the world's
most aggressive advocates of the "internationalist"
position, this month holds the rotating presidency of
the UN Security Council - but still there is no intervention
to stop Sudan's ethnic cleansing.
British troops are ready to go into Sudan, but await
approval from the "international community."
Internationalists - from U.S. Democrat politicians
to Russia's political elite - must answer the question
posed by BBC correspondent Andersson, "Why are the massacres
of civilians allowed?"
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