The government of Sudan is responsible for ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Darfur, crimes that warrant immediate military intervention on behalf of the suffering people. The Arab "Janjaweed" supported and armed directly by the Sudanese government are responsible for the burning of countless villages, the executions of women, children, and the elderly, and the rape of countless thousands of women.
The Janjaweed have driven more than one million civilians into concentration camps in Darfur, the western part of Sudan south of Egypt. There they live completely subject to the cruel caprice of the government. More than 110,000 others have fled to neighboring Chad but the vast majority of war victims remain trapped in Darfur. Estimates vary hugely on the number of fatalities, largely due to the government's uncooperative attitude, and range from 180,000 to up to 400,000.
Although the situation yet has not been classified as genocide the U.N.
English: Emblem of Sudan Sudan
English: Map of Darfur within Sudan, July 2011.
Original caption states, "Armed Janjaweed walk fre...recognizes it as a crime against humanity. Yet despite all this apparent suffering almost nothing has been done. The U.N. have imposed only two related sanctions, one to stop shipments of arms to the area and the second to allow for the prosecution of the committers of war crimes.
The White House says in an October 21st memo "Though there has been some progress in reducing the suffering and loss of life, the crisis in Darfur continues. The world community must work together to bring an end to the crisis while simultaneously supporting persons already displaced." To say that little ground has been made but still wait for the world community to end the crisis is not right. If the world community does not want to take action we must do so unilaterally, this option should not seem foreign to the Bush Whitehouse.
The torpid attitude...