Dalliare: Sudan Could Ignite Like Rwanda

[NATO AIR]

the most credible witness on genocide (and in my mind, the most honorable canadian living) and its mechanisms speaks out on darfur and demands canada take action.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid

Massacre looming in Darfur: Dallaire
Sudan may ignite like Rwanda, says ex-peacekeeper
U.N. sends Arbour on fact-finding mission to region


GRAHAM FRASER
NATIONAL AFFAIRS WRITER

MONTREAL - Canada should demand a military force be sent to Darfur before the situation escalates into a Rwanda-like massacre, Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire said yesterday.

"What should be done is an outright intervention," he said. "When I compare it to Rwanda, there are so many similarities it makes you sick."

Khartoum, he said, is "getting away with slaughter and genocide," while the world reacts, much as it did then, with embargos and restrictions.

A United Nations resolution Saturday threatened oil sanctions against Sudan if it does not stop the atrocities. Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, arrived in Khartoum yesterday to begin a fact-finding mission. The former justice of the Canadian Supreme Court told CBC television her primary goal is "to increase our capacity to offer protection, particularly (to the) displaced people in these camps."

Meanwhile, clashes between Sudanese army and rebel forces in Darfur are preventing aid agencies from assessing the needs of some of the more than 1 million displaced people there, the United Nations said today.

Tomorrow, Prime Minister Paul Martin, in his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly, is expected to urge developed nations to support an African peacekeeping force for the area.

Despite deep concerns over the violence, Canada has agreed to Sudan's request to post an ambassador — the first in more than 10 years — to Ottawa. Dr. Faiza Taha's posting becomes official sometime next month.

In 1994, Dallaire was in command of a skeletal United Nations peacekeeping force of fewer than 300 men in Rwanda when 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists. He has since estimated just 5,000 peacekeepers would have prevented the slaughter, but U.N. officials and world leaders resisted his frantic appeals for more troops.

Yesterday, he listed the current parallels to that situation.

"The fundamental one is that Khartoum is calling the Western world's bluff."


At the same time, the world's response to the killing and rape of thousands in the western Sudan region is remarkably similar to the massacre in Rwanda.

"We are doing exactly the same," he said. "Talking embargo, trying to save the north-south treaty, we are restricting travelling, and all the rest of it. What is required is outright intervention under the premise of the Responsibility to Protect."

He was referring to a 2001 U.N. report that states three criteria for intervention in a nation-state's internal affairs: war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.

The conflict in Darfur has killed at least 50,000 so far. More than 1.2 million people have fled their villages, many for makeshift settlements where they face continued attacks.

Dallaire believes the U.N. should organize a force, led by African Union and Arab League forces with logistical support from middle-power countries like Canada and the Netherlands, to apprehend those responsible, and protect aid workers and displaced persons. "It's not (to be done) by the big powers, because the Islamic dimension is not negligible," he said.

Additional articles by Graham Fraser

 

[onedomino]

I agree with the call for military action to separate the Darfur people from the Islamic fanatics supported by the "government" in Khartoum.

More on Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire; the second link contains a small excerpt from his book about the Rwanda massacre entitled, Shake Hands With the Devil. Inaction on the situation as it unfolded in Rwanda was a huge failure (one of many) of US foreign policy during the Clinton Administration.

http://www.nsb.com/speakerbio.asp?i_speakerid=232

http://www.randomhouse.ca/readmag/volume4issue2/excerpts/aboutshakehandswiththedevil.htm