Hey, guess what? The humanitarian

Hey, guess what? The humanitarian crisis in Darfur is still going
on...and it seems the Sudanese government took advantage of the
attention hogging US Election. Refugees were moved out by the Sudanese Army in the middle of the night.
Taking advantage of the fact they'd ejected relief workers from the
region, they mobilized the people and have taken them to another camp.

WASHINGTON - The State Department urged the Sudanese
government Wednesday to arrange for the return of thousands of people
in Darfur who were forcibly removed from a camp where they had taken
refuge. Spokesman Richard Boucher said the post-midnight removal of the
Sudanese violated United Nations principles governing displaced persons
and U.N. Security Council resolutions on Sudan. Boucher also issued an
appeal for the withdrawal of Sudanese forces surrounding some camps for
the displaced in Darfur, and for the Sudanese government to let
humanitarian workers return to the region. "We stand with the
international community in holding the government of Sudan responsible
for the violations, and we request immediate return of all displaced
persons back to the camp at El Geer where they were moved from,"
Boucher said.

Of course, the UN has its knickers in a twist because the Sudanese
officials told the refugees that they were just following the UN's
orders. Because we all know that the UN would never allow for such a
thing, but also because its making them look bad with the refugees.
Furthermore, the Boucher claims they have evidence of the mobilization
of Janjaweed militias. Great. Seems now that the international pressure
has decreased---and the rainy season is over with---they're getting
ready to rape and pillage some more!
Then in another story, we have our ever-faithful UN Secretary General talking about there being enough evidence to prosecute for war crimes.

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday there are strong indications of war crimes "on a large and systematic scale" in Sudan's Darfur region, where the violence has now affected 2 million people. In a report to the U.N. Security Council, he said the Sudanese government has failed to bring the perpetrators of widespread killings, rapes, looting and village burnings to justice. Jan Pronk, the top U.N. envoy to Sudan who wrote the report, will present it to the council on Thursday. He will recommend that members take "prompt action" to get the government and rebels to comply with U.N. resolutions demanding an end to the violence, disarmament of combatants, and punishment of those responsible. Until the government starts taking more than "pinprick" action against the perpetrators, the report warned, no displaced person will dare return home and no group will agree to disarm. "Without an end to impunity ... banditry goes from strength to strength, menacing the population and obstructing the delivery of aid to desperate people in isolated areas," it said.

Groovy.

Notice the word choices. Banditry. Menacing the population. Obstructing the delivery of aid. The friggin' AP was more honest in its descriptors when it used killings, rapings and looting. Menacing
the population? Christ. It sounds like they're masked high school
students egging and tp'ing houses, rather than burning them down after
raping, terrorizing and then murdering the occupants.
Also, notice that there's one word Kofi simply refuses to use whilst threatening war crimes trials. Do you know what that word is, boys and girls? Why, it's Genocide.
Can you say it with me? I believe I mentioned earlier in the year that
Bashir might throw a bone or two to the UN and the aid agencies, and it
looks like all the bones have been thrown and he's getting back to the
business of ethnically cleansing Darfur. His experience keeping the
international community out of the civil war in the south, it seems,
has served him well.
The Queen has a better chance at being named the next James Bond than
the UN has in putting Bashir and his cronies, let alone any of the
Janjaweed, in the dock.

Posted by Kathy at November 1, 2004 10:55 PM | TrackBack