Where America Leads ...
Editorial
The New York Times
April 29, 2006
Tomorrow thousands of Americans are expected to show up on the Washington Mall to call for action to stop the carnage that has killed hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in the Darfur region of Sudan. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in Abuja, Nigeria, the long-running peace talks between the government of Sudan and the Darfur rebels are scheduled to expire.
We dearly hope that the rally will send a strong message to the African Union, the sponsor of the talks, as well as to the government of Sudan and countries that have been giving cover to Sudan — like China, Russia and some Arab nations — that the world won't tolerate what is clearly genocide.
Arab militias that call themselves the janjaweed and are backed by Sudan's government continue to raid villages in Darfur, and now villages across the border in Chad as well. Not satisfied with the number of murders and rapes of men, women and children — a vast majority of them Muslim — in their ethnic cleansing campaign, the janjaweed are attempting to eliminate entire African tribes from the countryside.
The best possible solution would be for the Sudanese government and the rebels to agree to the peace treaty draft that mediators at the Abuja talks handed to them on Tuesday. Osama bin Laden's recent tape accusing the United States of plotting to dispatch "Crusader" troops to Darfur to steal its oil wealth under the pretext of peacekeeping underscores the risks that would come with sending in a United Nations or NATO peacekeeping force against the wishes of the government of Sudan.
But the African Union force that is currently on the ground is pitifully inadequate, as the ongoing carnage shows. So it is incumbent on China and the Arab world to join the Bush administration in pressuring the Sudanese government to sign onto the peace deal and allow the U.N. troops. The deadline for talks can be extended. Obviously, the troops shouldn't be American; that would just play into nationalistic concerns in Sudan. But troops from Muslim countries, particularly Pakistan and Morocco, could be used as part of a peacekeeping force.
If the world applies enough pressure, Sudan will back down. Tomorrow could be an important moment. We just wish there were rallies in Beijing, Cairo and Riyadh.
The New York Times
April 29, 2006
Tomorrow thousands of Americans are expected to show up on the Washington Mall to call for action to stop the carnage that has killed hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in the Darfur region of Sudan. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in Abuja, Nigeria, the long-running peace talks between the government of Sudan and the Darfur rebels are scheduled to expire.
We dearly hope that the rally will send a strong message to the African Union, the sponsor of the talks, as well as to the government of Sudan and countries that have been giving cover to Sudan — like China, Russia and some Arab nations — that the world won't tolerate what is clearly genocide.
Arab militias that call themselves the janjaweed and are backed by Sudan's government continue to raid villages in Darfur, and now villages across the border in Chad as well. Not satisfied with the number of murders and rapes of men, women and children — a vast majority of them Muslim — in their ethnic cleansing campaign, the janjaweed are attempting to eliminate entire African tribes from the countryside.
The best possible solution would be for the Sudanese government and the rebels to agree to the peace treaty draft that mediators at the Abuja talks handed to them on Tuesday. Osama bin Laden's recent tape accusing the United States of plotting to dispatch "Crusader" troops to Darfur to steal its oil wealth under the pretext of peacekeeping underscores the risks that would come with sending in a United Nations or NATO peacekeeping force against the wishes of the government of Sudan.
But the African Union force that is currently on the ground is pitifully inadequate, as the ongoing carnage shows. So it is incumbent on China and the Arab world to join the Bush administration in pressuring the Sudanese government to sign onto the peace deal and allow the U.N. troops. The deadline for talks can be extended. Obviously, the troops shouldn't be American; that would just play into nationalistic concerns in Sudan. But troops from Muslim countries, particularly Pakistan and Morocco, could be used as part of a peacekeeping force.
If the world applies enough pressure, Sudan will back down. Tomorrow could be an important moment. We just wish there were rallies in Beijing, Cairo and Riyadh.
posted by Hanan Elbadry at 10:56 AM
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