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Friday, November 03, 2006

Militias kill 63 in Darfur

By Opheera McDoom at Reuters

"TINE, Sudan (Reuters) - Attacks in West Darfur have killed at least 63 people, half of them children, as rebels on Friday accused Khartoum of remobilising Arab militia after suffering two military defeats on the Sudan-Chad border.

"The government have begun mobilizing the Janjaweed widely, especially in West Darfur, because they want to clear the area and move north along the border and defeat us," said Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, a leader of the National Redemption Front (NRF).

Rebels from the NRF alliance said of the 63 dead, 33 were children. The United Nations said 27 of those were under 12 and urged the government to protect civilians.(...)"

5 comments:

Stran said...

Still killing and nobody does nothing! Probably if they had petroleum then the U.S. or the U.N. would already be there...

Courtney Hamilton said...

Come now stran, that's a rather cynical stance to take on these matters.

It's as if the title of your piece should have been '63 reasons why the West should militarily intervene in western Sudan".

Some people would argue it's highly cynical of people in the west to argue, that a given death toll in a civil war in an African country, demands outside military interference. Why Darfur?

Why not Somalia, or better still, the Democratic Republic of Congo - where there are far more people being killed as a consequence of violent internal conflict?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456977/html/nn3page1.stm

It's not entirely self-evident as to what you would want the U.S. to do exactly in Darfur - take over the country? Anihalate the Janjaweed and their backers in Khartoum ? After all, it is supposed to be a soveriegn nation.

What would you really like to see happen in Darfur? Would you prefer to see U.S commando's in the desert of western Sudan rather than in Fallujah, Iraq?

Stran said...

Well many answers to give. I start with the last one:

"Would you prefer to see U.S commando's in the desert of western Sudan rather than in Fallujah, Iraq?"
This question is for me easy. Now I wouldn't recommend the U.S. troops to leave immediatelly from Iraq, but they shouldn't be there in the first place, they and every country that acompanied them. And Yes I would prefered to see them in Darfur conflit rather than Iraq, but since Darfur has not the same strategical importance to the world they prefered Iraq (also it was an easier conflit to have short-term success).

"What would you really like to see happen in Darfur?"
First of all a UN intervetion and with the first mission being the protection of the civilians, then with the mission of disarming the Janjaweed Militias and finnally trying to build order in the country (this one i believe the most difficult and probably the one that would take the longest time).

"Why not Somalia, or better still, the Democratic Republic of Congo - where there are far more people being killed as a consequence of violent internal conflict?"
All this countries should have UN intervetions - and i say UN not a single country like it happen on Iraq - I don't want to choose but in the end if a choice would had to be made then the most devastating and urgent should be choosen.

"Some people would argue it's highly cynical of people in the west to argue, that a given death toll in a civil war in an African country, demands outside military interference. Why Darfur?"
First of all, more cynical then the Iraq war, is dificult to get. Where were the protection for the 600.000 iraqui civilians already killed, where were the weapons of mass destruction, the terrorist, and all the lies told just to get a piece of iraqui oil?
I don't think that is cynical to defend a human life, or defend the end of a genocide just because it is in Africa. Actually, for me, this should be a major role of the U.N. in the world - to stop genocides and protect the civilians no matter the continent or nationality. I don't know how that can be cynical. I rather stop a civil war and a genocide in a soveriegn nation than to create a civil war in a soveriegn nation.
I leave you a question: is a human life more important in Fallujah then in Darfur?

Anonymous said...

Here is something you can do: darfurwall.org.

Anonymous said...

Here is something you can do: http://darfurwall.org.