The New York Times
April 13, 2006
Editorial
It is enormously
distressing to watch the sausage-making that passes for the world's attempt to
do something about the carnage in Darfur. The
United Nations is still dawdling over plans to replace the African Union force
currently there with a well-armed U.N. peacekeeping force. An attempt last week
by the United Nations' top official on humanitarian issues, Jan Egeland, to visit Darfur
was rebuffed by the Sudanese government. With all of the raping, murdering and
butchering going on in Darfur, why would Sudan want an eyewitness account
from a high-ranking international diplomat?
While this goes on, Arab militias calling themselves the janjaweed and backed by the Sudanese government continue to
raid villages in Darfur and now across the border in Chad. Not satisfied with the
hundreds of thousands of men, women and children they've systematically raped
and murdered as part of their ethnic cleansing campaign, the janjaweed are continuing their campaign to eliminate entire
African tribes from the Sudanese countryside.
Where are the Muslims who took to the streets to protest
Danish cartoons? Where are the African leaders who demanded boycotts of South Africa?
The Bush administration, to its credit, has finally stopped
dragging its feet and is now trying to push the United Nations in the right
direction. But the diplomats are moving too slow. For weeks, the Security
Council's sanctions committee has been working on a list of Sudanese
responsible for the bloodshed in Darfur. The
State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said yesterday that America is
pressing to get out the list, which he called a "down payment toward justice."
We're waiting. But time is one thing that what is left of
the Darfur population doesn't really have.
We're glad to see that a rally is planned in Washington on April 30. We're glad to hear
that Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick
invited Darfur refugees to the State
Department. Now President Bush needs to do the same thing. A photo op at the
White House with Darfur refugees would go a long way toward embarrassing the
government of Sudan.
That should also embarrass the rest of the Security Council
members, like China, Qatar, Ghana
and Tanzania, that continue to give diplomatic cover to Sudan. Rwanda should
have taught us all something; it's tragic that it apparently has not.