Let us not forget the ongoing tragedy of Darfur. Countless UN Security Council resolutions, an American administration that rightfully called it by its proper name: genocide…and yet nothing is stopping the humanitarian disaster from unfolding under the world's spotlight.
Five years of failure. Early warning signs in the summer of 2003 could have been heeded. U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Khartoum, Mukesh Kapila, says Khartoum is arming the Janjaweed to do its dirty work, its final solution.
One year later in April of 2004, the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan delivers a powerful speech at the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. Among his many statements on Rwanda – ‘When we recall such events and ask "why did no one intervene?" we should address the question not only to the United Nations, or even to its Member States. No one can claim ignorance. All who were playing any part in world affairs at that time should ask, "what more could I have done? How would I react next time ,- and what am I doing now to make it less likely there will be a next time?’
It has obviously fallen on deaf years. The proclamations following Rwanda was shortly followed by a massacre in Srebrenica. We did nothing. And today, it's Darfur. The harrowing testimonies, the images, the publicity. Are we suffering from compassion fatigue? Or has the realpolitik in the narrow corridors of the UN trumped human dignities?
Aid groups working the region say thousands of people are fleeing the villages after heavy fighting between rebels and government forces this past week in Northern Darfur.
The timing is particularly bad. Food rations are at the lowest this time of year; just prior to the harvest. The instability has also jeopardized aid workers. IRIN reports more than 100 World Food Program vehicles have been hijacked in the past year.
