Government Commits ?Ethnic Cleansing? in Darfur

[SLCPUNK]

Should we go to Sudan next after Iraq?

Why or why not?

************


Human Rights Watch called on the Security Council to strongly condemn the actions of the Sudanese government and demand that it disarm, disband and withdraw the Arab militias that engage in ethnic cleansing, frequently in conjunction with government forces. Two U.N. missions that have recently returned from Darfur will address the Security Council today on the human rights causes as well as humanitarian consequences of the conflict. 
 
The 77-page report, ?Darfur Destroyed: Ethnic Cleansing by Government and Militia Forces in Western Sudan,? documents how Sudanese government forces have overseen and directly participated in massacres, summary executions of civilians, burnings of towns and villages, and the forcible depopulation of wide swathes of land long-inhabited by the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. 
 
?There can be no doubt about the Sudanese government?s culpability in crimes against humanity in Darfur,? said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. ?The U.N. Security Council must not ignore the brutal facts.? 
 
The Human Rights Watch report also documents how ?Janjaweed? Arab militias?whose members are Muslim?have destroyed mosques, killed Muslim religious leaders and desecrated Korans belonging to their enemies. 
 
Human Rights Watch spent 25 days in West Darfur and the vicinity, documenting abuses in rural areas that were previously populated by Masalit and Fur communities. Since August, wide swathes of their homelands, among the most fertile in the region, have been burned and depopulated. With rare exceptions, the countryside has now been emptied of its original Masalit and Fur inhabitants. 
 
Villages have been torched not randomly, but systematically ? often not once, but twice. Livestock, food stores, wells and pumps, blankets and clothing have all been looted or destroyed. 
 
The occupation of burned and abandoned villages by uncontrolled Janjaweed has driven civilians into camps and settlements outside the larger towns. But the Human Rights Watch report documents how even in these camps, the Janjaweed kill, rape and pillage with impunity. They sometimes steal what few emergency relief items have reached the displaced populations. 
 
For months, the Sudanese government has restricted international media access to Darfur and has limited reports about the conflict in the national press. Recently, the government has allowed minimal access to the region for international humanitarian agencies but has still failed to provide the necessary protection and assistance to displaced civilians. 
 
?The humanitarian emergency in Darfur is immense,? said Takirambudde. ?But a human rights crisis lies behind it. The Security Council must demand that the Sudanese government take immediate steps to reverse ethnic cleansing in Darfur.? 

[journey]

Should we go to Sudan next after Iraq?

Why or why not?

************

Iraq will take an indefinite time to resolve. Humanitarian, and if needed, military actions need to be taken immediately by all nations in order to protect the people.

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

my brother is an investigator at the international court of justice in La Haye (hague?) and he works on the darfur too ...
i've read some fucked up shit ... :/

the world will go, the un. the usa can stay home and take care of their own poor people

[Surfrider]

The UN is a little late if you ask me.  Ethnic cleansing has been going on there for quite some time.  I believe the US was actually one of the first ones to make an issue out of Sudan.  I agree, however, that the US will not go in alone.  I for one do not think the US should not act alone unless directly threatened.  However, the slow response to this crisis shows how worthless the UN is.

[Rain]

The UN is a little late if you ask me.? Ethnic cleansing has been going on there for quite some time.? I believe the US was actually one of the first ones to make an issue out of Sudan.? I agree, however, that the US will not go in alone.? I for one do not think the US should not act alone unless directly threatened.? However, the slow response to this crisis shows how worthless the UN is.

It's become even more worthless since the USA decided to go to iraq no matter what ! 

[Surfrider]

The UN is a little late if you ask me.? Ethnic cleansing has been going on there for quite some time.? I believe the US was actually one of the first ones to make an issue out of Sudan.? I agree, however, that the US will not go in alone.? I for one do not think the US should not act alone unless directly threatened.? However, the slow response to this crisis shows how worthless the UN is.

It's become even more worthless since the USA decided to go to iraq no matter what !?

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

[SLCPUNK]

The UN is a little late if you ask me.  Ethnic cleansing has been going on there for quite some time.  I believe the US was actually one of the first ones to make an issue out of Sudan.  I agree, however, that the US will not go in alone.  I for one do not think the US should not act alone unless directly threatened.  However, the slow response to this crisis shows how worthless the UN is.

This is my point.

The USA has done nothing and will do nothing.

They aren't going over there, and it gets little, if any attention here.

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

The UN is a little late if you ask me.  Ethnic cleansing has been going on there for quite some time.  I believe the US was actually one of the first ones to make an issue out of Sudan.  I agree, however, that the US will not go in alone.  I for one do not think the US should not act alone unless directly threatened.  However, the slow response to this crisis shows how worthless the UN is.

well this is because the International Court of Justice is taking care of these things now ... but they were very synchronized with the UN ... it is just starting.
because these courts were done when the International Court for Milosevic got set up ... so they're just starting.

i think the US has shown what "acting alone" leads too.
If they do one more thing like that, that'd be last straw.

[Prometheus]

how about his one, westren countries are not wanted in the region, and the AU nations do not want westren countries taking part in any UN opperations, nor does the UN want west countries in the region save for lowlevel assistance for the AU forces. Canada had pledged some 300 troops and of those troops many would ahve been from our mech brigades, as well as some 100 Grizzley LAVs that were to go to teh AU countries involved to help increase their mobility and fire power. Canadian trops were denied access to this region save for 50 going to Chad to up train the AU forces into how to use the LAVs. All the region wants is money, and with the problems that seem to occur with any type of program of money aid, I am very hesitant to fork over several hundred million dollars, not knowing exactly what teh money trail is.

Not wanting to have Westren forces in region is understandable however. This and other Ops like it are designed to be ran by the AU (African Union) to help them in gaiing experience and ability to be able to provide security in these areas, essnetily creating a self contained UN branch for OPs tat do not require western nations to contribute any more then advisor personnel. With the recent problems and alligations of some sever actions by theses AU-UN troops, such as rape, selling food for sex, extreme burtality, I would rather see a command level consisting of teh AU and westren advisors, and the action forces be designed in such a way that Westren troops would be assigned to the AU forces as a stop gap agnist such problems.