Darfur: Our global shame

Summary: The time for action in Darfur was yesterday. Diplomacy has failed and yet, the world does not act. This is our global shame.

Update: Farrow calling out Spielberg on the Olympics has encouraged him to act. Well done, sir.

I've put off writing this piece for a few weeks now, thinking optimistically that the intervention force agreed to by the Sudanese government would be quickly mobilized and the atrocities would begin to end. My optimism was foolish and now I am confident that any diplomatic methods employed by any government or the U.N. are mere posturings to maintain operations and economic interests outside of Darfur including the 2008 Olympics in Shanghai.

What's spurred me to lose all optimism is not a single event, though while enjoying my crumpets and tea a few days before I am to explore Africa, I read an interview in the July 30th issue of Newsweek where Mia Farrow pleads for action. Acting as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, Farrow recently visited Darfur to bear witness to what is happening and returns with a rightfully scathing opinion of the world's response.

As referenced in my overview post about Sudan & Darfur, I again refer to Dr. Eric Reeves, an expert on the conflict:

"There is no effective leadership of the international effort to provide a meaningful peace process in the wake of the disastrous agreement that emerged from Abuja, Nigeria last May. To be sure, there has been a welter of “conferences” and “initiatives”---in Paris, in Addis Ababa, in Accra, in Cairo, and several in Tripoli (the most recent this past April, the next scheduled for mid-July). But there is no plan, no “roadmap,” although a flimsy two-page document does exist with the absurdly overstated title of “Joint AU-UN Framework for a Road-map for the Darfur Political Process, DRAFT 10 May 2007: Work in Progress.” But this document is nothing more than a hasty assemblage of generalized exhortations and vague goals. It is holds no party accountable in any meaningful way, either in observing a cease-fire or seriously committing to peace negotiations."

None of the senior U.N. negotiators even reside in Sudan.

Two days ago, a draft U.N. resolution was circulated related to the joint AU/U.N. force that was already agreed to by the government of Sudan. The draft is a "watered down" version of one previous; it "drops the threat of sanctions if Sudan fails to comply with the resolution" and puts the insertion of the force back until the end of December. FIVE FULL MONTHS FROM NOW. Still, Sudan's UN ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem protested the new draft claiming that it still included "hostile language".

This comes from a man who represents a government that has, to this day, continued to use air raids to intentionally bomb civilian populations in Darfur - many times disguising their planes to look like U.N. aircraft.

I'm done listening to efforts of diplomacy. Mass killing continues in Darfur, and those in power tip-toe around Sudanese officials for no other reason than fear. Such is not the way in which my great nation was intended to act in the face of a just cause. Like Carl Wilkens, the only American to stay in Rwanda during the genocide of 1994, I am so angry at America; "America the beautiful, America the brave". Like Wilkens, "I [am not] angry with America, America's people, like that. I [am] angry with our government. I [am] angry with people who [can] do something, even the simplest things, and they [don't]."

Our leaders cower in the face of an atrocious regime that has time and again shown they have no intention of attaining a peace. Farrow notes:

"Intervention should have happened in 2004 and it didn't. So should NATO come in? Anyone should come in! The United Nations and all member states should [act] in a matter of days when we see a government slaughter its own people. That should be an automatic trigger; it shouldn't be deliberated for years."

I, Dominic Cronshaw, as a citizen of the world am calling upon you to act. Be you Michael Jungman or Geremy Kornreich; be you busy director or inquisitive student; be you wealthy or be you poor; be you political or be you conveniently apathetic; be you international or be you homebody - I'm calling on you to be a catalyst for the action needed to end the murder, rape and torture in Darfur.

Take the time to read Dr. Reeve's recent article. Get on the phone and call your representatives. If asked to, leave a message and then call back until you've gotten him/her on the phone. Exclaim: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore!". Grill your representatives, hard, on why they have not achieved their stated goals in relation to Darfur. Tell them you are ashamed of them and they have failed you; abused your confidence and neglected your objectives.

Sometimes, as sadly found by Paul Rusesabagina at the Milles Collines in Kigali, shaming them into action is the only way to make anything happen.

Sources / Pic credits: BBC News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Time Magazine