An "unsurpassable urgency" in Darfur

Eric Reeves reports: “A series of extraordinarily dire warnings have recently been issued by various UN officials, a last desperate attempt to force the international community to take urgent cognizance of Darfur’s deepening crisis. Full-scale catastrophe and a massive increase in genocidal destruction are imminent, and there is as yet no evidence that the world is listening seriously.

"The US in particular seems intent on taking an expediently blinkered view of the crisis . . . But European countries and other international actors with the power to speak the truth are little better; the absence of an effective voice emerging from the Blair government is especially dismaying in light of British willingness to intervene in Iraq.

“Even so, there is no possible escape from the most basic truth in Darfur: Khartoum’s National Islamic Front, ever more dominant in the new `Government of National Unity,’ is deliberately escalating the level of violence and insecurity as a form of `counter-insurgency’ warfare, with the clear goal of accelerating human destruction among the African tribal populations of the region.

“In failing to respond to this conspicuous and now fully articulated truth, the world is yet again knowingly acquiescing in genocide. But as the shadows of Auschwitz and Treblinka, Bosnia, Cambodia, and Rwanda fall more heavily over Darfur, we cannot evade this most shameful truth: we know---as events steadily, remorselessly unfold---more about the realities of ethnically-targeted human destruction in Darfur than on any other previous such occasion in history. So much the greater is our moral disgrace.”

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, the Darfur ceasfire is “falling apart,” and and the African Union peace force is “hopelessly under-manned, under-equipped, and the world appeared to have lost interest” (Reuters, October 21, 2005).

Hundreds of thousands dead, millions of refugees, and things are getting worse. Donating to aid groups isn’t going to be enough.

The International Crisis Group reports that the European Union partnership with the African Union in Darfur is failing: “If Darfur is to have stability anytime soon, and the two organisations are to fulfil their ambitions to be major players in crisis prevention and crisis resolution, AMIS [the African Mission in Sudan] must get more troops and a more proactive, civilian-protection mandate . . .”

There's more at the Genocide Intervention Network and at Sudan Watch .