Sudan

---------------------------------
'This crisis seems set to worsen'

While Khartoum hesitates, the people of Darfur need the world's assistance

Thursday June 17, 2004
The Guardian

Chicago Tribune
Editorial, June 15

"For more than a year, hordes of thugs - armed and supplied by the Sudanese government - have raped, tortured and murdered tens of thousands of people in the Darfur region, while burning down entire villages and sending as many as 200,000 people into refugee camps in neighbouring Chad...
"The day may come when Africa is equipped with an effective regional force to address its own conflicts. The African Union peace and security council was created in May, but it needs muscle to back its pronouncements. Leaders at the G8 summitannounced plans to help train 75,000 peacekeeping troops to help Africa police its own conflicts. That's a promising start, though it comes too late for the people of Darfur. The world needs to respond now to Sudan. That means greater humanitarian assistance ... along with military detachments to ensure it reaches the needy."
Financial Times
Editorial, June 12

"Making sense of the events in Darfur is hard. There is no simple explanation of how a local armed insurgency brought down such wrath against rural communities. It is unclear whether the campaign corresponds to any set agenda or, if it does, whose.
"The word genocide is too freely used. Deliberate attacks on civilians ... can certainly be categorised as war crimes or crimes against humanity. Despite official denials, there is overwhelming testimony that attacks by Arab militia riders have been undertaken in joint operations with government forces. But this is not genocide in the sense of a deliberate plan to kill a whole population group, as happened in Rwanda. A more plausible version is that, by exploiting traditional tensions in the region, the authorities unleashed forces beyond their control and had difficulty coming to terms with the consequences."
Irish Times
Editorial, June 12

"Unscrupulous leaders anywhere, from Ireland to Yugoslavia, can turn people against each other. The Khartoum government armed and funded the Arab tribes who live in Darfur. They compete with the ethnically African subsistence farmers for scarce water and grazing resources ...
"Despite a shaky ceasefire between the rebel movement and the government, the attacks on civilians have been continuing. Whether or not we choose to call it ethnic cleansing, the reality is that a million people have been forced out of their homes in a systematic way on the basis of their ethnicity ...
"There is something obscene about having to trade in the numbers of expected deaths in order to get attention, like some kind of perverse futures commodity. It's a game which aid agencies are, quite correctly, reluctant to play. Washington's official agency, USAid, is now stating publicly that even if the requested aid gets through, 300,000 people will die ... Even that scenario may be optimistic."
Christophe Ayad
Libération, France, June 15

"The war in Darfur, already spilling into Chad with the flow of refugees, could destabilise an entire area of the Sahel, which has been an ideal haven for al-Qaida. In Sudan, the rebellion could open a Pandora's box of regional conflict, where other ethnic groups feel wronged: the Bejas in the east, the Nubians in the north. Fed up by an entrenched, unchanging, political class monopolising all the power and wealth, all those at the margins of Sudan's social system are preparing to strike back.



"It is for this reason that Khartoum has squashed the rebellion in Darfur with such disproportionate violence."
Scotsman
Editorial, June 16

"There is no doubt that Britain's contribution to the relief work in Darfur is bigger than most. However, the proper benchmark of aid is what it will take to resolve the crisis. That means sending more food, emergency shelter and medicine. And it means getting aid not just to the Chad border, where the big refugee camps are located, but into Sudan itself. However, Khartoum is reluctant to allow access, and lies about its support for ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
"This means Tony Blair must do more. He must round up diplomatic support ... to impose a no-fly zone over Darfur in order to stop Khartoum bombing local villages and providing aid to the Arab militias. Given Khartoum's ramshackle air force, that will not require a lot of intervention to achieve. Control of the airspace over Darfur will also allow aid to be supplied to the local population and discourage the militia from crossing the Chad border."
Daily Telegraph
Editorial, June 15

"The alarm signals about this disaster are curiously muted. There is awareness that only the government in Khartoum can rein in the Arab militias who are doing the damage but there is international reluctance to say so. The G8 at its recent gathering in the US voiced concern and looked to the UN to lead international effort to avert a disaster. At the UN, however, a certain passivity over Darfur prevails. There is resistance among some council members to be seen as 'Arab-bashing' so soon after the Iraq war.
"So, notwithstanding much breast-beating about human rights, this human crisis seems set to worsen."


Special report
Sudan

Archived articles
More on Sudan

News guide
20.12.2001: Sudan media sources

Useful sites
sudan.net
Sudan News Agency
Sudan Tribune
Norwegian Council for Africa: Sudan





---------------------------------
Printable version | Send it to a friend | Save story







---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~