You have commented 358 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Africa: Horn
UN Human Rights Committee member Accused of Human Rights Abuse
2004-04-08
EFL
Human rights activists are calling the world’s attention to bloodshed in western Sudan, where the government is accused of resorting to murder and rape of thousands of civilians in a campaign to put down a rebellion. Sudan’s government has limited aid groups’ and journalists’ access to Darfur, where local tribes have been in revolt since early 2003. Much of the information on the violence comes from Sudanese refugees in neighboring Chad. "The government strategy of closing this off and trying to make it invisible, so far, is working," said Leslie Lefkow, who recently traveled to Chad to study the situation in Sudan for Human Rights Watch. "You don’t have the photographs of the dead children and women who have been gang raped. That I think would spur more attention."
he said, as the world yawned.
Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, has said Arab militia groups, reportedly with government backing, are engaged in "ethnic cleansing, but not genocide" against Africans in Darfur. Egeland called the situation "one of the most forgotten and neglected humanitarian crises."
My guess is that the corpses think of it as genocide, but then maybe there aren't enough of them...
Sudanese government officials, Lefkow said in an interview, seem to think they can act with impunity in Darfur because the world’s attention is focused elsewhere, including an unrelated and longer-standing rebellion in southern Sudan. "I hope that we can prove them wrong," she said.
Betcha don't, though.
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Tuesday the United States has dispatched personnel to western Sudan to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries and promote settlement discussions between the government and Sudanese rebels.
"if we keep the discussions going long enough, we can wipe em ALL out"
A pro-government human rights activist dismissed a Human Rights Watch report last month that laid much of the blame on the government as "mere falsifications and lies compiled by intelligence hirelings."
and they should know better than most. after all, Sudan is on the UN’s Human Rights Committee! REALLY!
The Human Rights Watch report said indiscriminate bombing, raids by the independent ethnic Arab militia and the army against mainly African villages and denial of humanitarian aid amount to "a strategy of ethnic-based murder, rape and forcible displacement of civilians in Darfur." Lefkow, who helped prepare the report, says thousands have died. U.N. figures say 750,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan and tens of thousands have fled into Chad.
So here’s a story about ruthlessness and evil being perpetrated on muslims BY muslims. The victims suffer 10 times worse than palestinians. Further, atrocities like these ABSOLUTELY permeate the muslim world. Yet it is Israel who is vilified for its, by comparison, tame treatment of palestinians in its attempts to protect its citizens from terror.

furthermore, I suspect this will get VERY little media attention.
Posted by:PlanetDan

#6  "ethnic cleansing, but not genocide"

Good call, Zenster. I surprised they didn't call it "genocide lite".
Posted by: tu3031   2004-04-08 11:23:31 PM  

#5  Steve W. I saw this in the BBC that I was going to post at midnight as "France Enjoys Horrible Relations with a country that isn't the US." It looks like your article encompasses more melodrama.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-04-08 10:09:35 PM  

#4  Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, has said Arab militia groups, reportedly with government backing, are engaged in "ethnic cleansing, but not genocide" against Africans in Darfur.

As the UN ups its legendary global credibility quotient another notch.

Posted by: Zenster   2004-04-08 9:05:56 PM  

#3  I seem to recall a statement yesterday by the President of Rwanda: Marking the 10-year anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, he pledged that "if another genocide should happen, Rwanda would be the first to send troops to stop it."

Okay, we got a target for him. And I think in all fairness, given our lack of response in 1994, that we ought to help transport the Rwandan troops to Darfur. Maybe provide some air cover and heavy weapons as well. Perhaps some advisors? Some special ops guys to train the Rwandans?
Posted by: Steve White   2004-04-08 2:24:14 PM  

#2  RC, I'm sure we'll find that HRW has been on the case as you have been. Before 9-11 I remember hearing that there was still slavery in Africa and that there was an Aspirin factory of interest in the Sudan, but I had written off all-things African after we turned tail in Somalia. OBL got my attention focused on the back alleys of the world and my focus has continued. Others have returned to Reality YV, but the remains a higher percentage of engaged citizens in the US that American media has begun to target. World News is still not front-and-center, but happenings abroad are no longer totally buried. Lets call it progress.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-04-08 1:31:16 PM  

#1  Human rights activists are calling the world’s attention to bloodshed in western Sudan

Hmmm... us "evil conservatives" have been screaming about this for years. Why the sudden attention from the "human rights" industry?
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-04-08 1:03:18 PM  

00:00