Sudan Blogging

There's a new addition to Loaded Mouth: "Genocide Watch." In a sweeping bipartisan effort, Congress declared that genocide is happening in Sudan last Friday, July 23. Genocide Watch will count the days that Bush has ignored Congress' well-founded resolution.

The higher that number climbs, the higher the Darfur bodycount will climb. It's at 4 right now...

As for what's happening right now in Sudan, I'm going to plagiarize from the good people at The Passion of the Present and use the time honored "I don't have any time" excuse for my laziness in not doing my own research. In fact, I'm going to be copying from a WaPo editorial whose link was provided by PotP.

So, to all you red-blooded Americans who think I bash Bush too much, ready for some French bashing?

The failure is most glaring in the case of France, which acknowledges "the world's most serious humanitarian crisis" and calls for "the mobilization of the international community," as the French ambassador wrote recently to The Post. Despite maintaining a military base in neighboring Chad and another in Djibouti, France refuses to supply the United Nations relief operation with needed helicopters or to enforce a no-fly zone that could end the Sudanese military's aerial attacks on villagers.

France should be ashamed. And with all of Bush's rhetoric against France during the run up to his war in Iraq, why is he so silent about the country now?

The editorial goes on, calling out Bush and Powell.

But no powerful nation is free of blame. The Bush administration, which has been generous with relief and which has led the charge for tough action at the United Nations, is guilty of equivocation too.

The equivocation hinges on the question of who must restore peace in Darfur. On Thursday Secretary of State Colin L. Powell offered his answer: "The burden for this, for providing security, rests fully on the shoulders of Sudan's government." This view conveniently absolves outsiders of responsibility for getting a civilian protection force into Darfur and reassures Security Council members such as China and Russia that Sudan's sovereignty will be respected. But it is naive.

This is an interesting point. Why do we continue to claim that the Sudanese government needs to stop this genocide? After all, they are the ones committing it.

Sudan's government has attacked civilians with helicopter gunships. It has armed a militia that burns villages, slaughtering the men and raping the women. It has spent months obstructing humanitarian access to the resulting refugee camps, denying aid workers visas and impounding their equipment in customs, condemning tens of thousands of people to die for lack of food and medicine. Even the recent ramping up of diplomatic pressure, which has allowed relief to flow more freely, has not distracted Sudan's government from its purpose. Its commandants have been closing down refugee camps and sending inhabitants off into the torched countryside, where there is no food, no protection and no foreign witnesses.

Do we suddenly trust a government that commits atrocities like this to turn around and say, "Oh, sorry, our bad." Fuck no!

More and more, it's appears that diplomacy just won't work in Sudan. As a pacifist, it pains me to say such because I don't want to see troops sent anywhere. But as the US and world community continues to sit back and let the Sudanese government do as it pleases, the window of diplomatic opportunity grows smaller.

Everyday that passes, everytime the Genocide Watch number grows, is another day full of missed opportunities and needless murders. When will somebody do something?