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Stop the Genocide

This title is stolen from the article of the same name in todays Washington Post by Jon S. Corzine and Sam Brownback. I will quote from it liberally.

While we are rightly focused on one of the worst natural disasters ever, the tsunami tragedy, we cannot afford to divert our attention from one of the worst man-made tragedies of our lifetimes: the genocide in Darfur. It has been five months since Congress declared that genocide was occurring in that region of western Sudan. Since then, however, the situation has deteriorated. The fighting between the government in Khartoum and the rebels in Darfur has escalated. Peace talks have collapsed, and even relief organizations such as Save the Children have pulled out of the region. There is now a real risk of its falling into chaos. Hundreds of thousands of displaced persons are cut off from humanitarian assistance. There has been no progress in controlling the militias carrying out raids on civilian populations; violence against these people, including the rape of women and girls, continues with impunity.

As the tragedy of Darfur unfolds, history is watching, and we will be judged by only one test: Did we stop the genocide? Unless the answer is yes, then no summit, no U.N. Security Council resolution, no act of Congress or the administration has any meaning. With that in mind, it is time for the United States and the world to take action:

From there the authors recommend the following:
1) Deploy a real peacekeeping force
2) Put effective pressure on the government of Sudan
3) Let the world know that genocide will not be tolerated

...Twenty months after the conflict in Darfur began, not one punitive measure has been imposed on the government of Sudan.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on January 11, 2005 2:48 PM.

The previous post in this blog was I feel your pain.

The next post in this blog is Stop the Genocide Part II.

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