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In Darfur, the genocide continues Date published: 8/29/2006
Darfur
Despite cease-fire, violence continues If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear then they will--all of them, an entire generation of people. And we will have only history left to judge us. --George Clooney A RAPED WOMAN or a dead man. That's the price of firewood While the Sudanese government postures and the United Nations runs around in seemingly endless bureaucratic circles, Arab Janjaweed militia continue their tragic campaign of Muslim-on-Muslim ethnic cleansing against black Darfurians. Left with little protection from an overwhelmed African Union peacekeeping force, the Darfurians must fend for themselves. When a refugee family needs firewood, the women from the camp venture into the bush, knowing they will "only" be raped should the Janjaweed come. Their men would be killed. Since 2003 as many as 200,000 civilians have been murdered in Darfur, according to the United Nations--and despite a May cease-fire agreement, violence has escalated this summer. The International Rescue Committee reports that in the past five weeks, over 200 women have been sexually assaulted around the Kalma refugee camp alone; countrywide, 50,000 more people have been displaced, nine humanitarian workers killed, and 20 vehicles hijacked. The mandate of the inadequate African Union peacekeeping force currently on the ground runs out at the end of September. While U.N. officials are convinced that their "blue hats"--maybe 18,000 of them--need to go in, they're thinking maybe first of the year, or so. No rush. In the meantime the women (and children) are being raped. Men are being killed. Families are being driven from their homes. People are living and dying in minimalist refugee camps. Has the world learned nothing from Rwanda? On Friday, President Bush dispatched U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer to Sudan. "We cannot let violence and atrocities continue," she told a gathering of foreign press representatives before she left. "We cannot allow future Rwandas to happen. We must act now" to get an effective U.N. force in Sudan. The feisty Ms. Frazer is taking on Khartoum, where President Omar al-Bashir has threatened to fight any U.N. troops that try to enter his country. Meanwhile, Ms. Frazer's colleagues back in New York are trying to get a resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council mandating the intervention. The sovereignty of nations should be respected, but neither can the most extreme circumstances be ignored. The Darfur situation, called "genocide" by the Bush administration and "the greatest humanitarian crisis today" by the United Nations, calls for action. Protecting against mass extermination is everyone's mandate. If the United Nations doesn't get that, what is it there for?
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