Mark's Notebook


	If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of him. - Thomas Carlyle

Diplomacy and Darfur

Washington Post Editorial

Wednesday 17 November 2004, 11:31 am
Keywords: News Articles

Cease-fires, undertakings and protocols have been negotiated and signed; still the genocide continues. Two U.N. Security Council resolutions have condemned the government's behavior; still the genocide continues.

Sudan's rulers believe they can exterminate tens of thousands of people in Darfur and get away with it. Its strategy remains unchanged: to cement control over Darfur by decimating the tribes that back various local rebels. The government has participated in unprovoked assaults on villages, murdering men, raping women and tossing children into flames that consume their huts.

There is little prospect of security for Darfur's people -- and therefore little prospect of a return to destroyed villages, a resumption of agricultural production and an escape from starvation -- without a serious peacekeeping force. More than a year and a half into Darfur's genocide, the United States and its allies have proved unwilling to consider that kind of commitment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55673-2004Nov16.html