Tragedies barely mentioned at U.N.

Sudan's beleaguered Darfur region has faced famine, dislocation and the systematic targeting of its population by the central government. Over the past years attacks on black nomadic farmers by the Khartoum regime have led to a minimum of 300,000 killed and over two million refugees and displaced persons. Long running humanitarian efforts and a barely-effective U.N. peacekeeping mission may have stopped the worst of what many observers called genocide, but have not solved the problem.

Darfur, long the rallying point for much of the human rights community, a cause celebre for the political left, and an enduring if embarrassing U.N. crisis, has been swept under the rug. President Barack Obama despite a wide-ranging speech covering a plethora of issues, only politely intoned that in the wider support for U.N. peacekeeping, the USA “will pursue a lasting peace in Sudan through support for the people of Darfur.” There was no mention of the humanitarian carnage, pledges of assistance, or a reference to Sudan's Islamic leader who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Interestingly Sudan's delegate stated, “We welcome the declaration by the American President Barack Obama before the U.N. General Assembly on his country's readiness to find a solution to the question of Darfur. Noting the positive tone in the statements voiced by the American President vis-a-vis the developing countries in general, we hope that his words will be translated into actions in order to correct the misguided policies of the previous American administration which compromised bilateral relations and aggravated the region's problems.”

What's conveniently forgotten was that during the worst of the crisis, that “previous American Administration,” provided massive humanitarian assistance to Darfur.

To his credit Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown poignantly stated: “We must unite against every source of terror and injustice in our world. It shames us all; that the people of Somalia and Sudan are still subject to the most terrible violence.” Equally Ireland's Foreign Minister Peter Power stated unequivocally, “The continuing humanitarian tragedy of Darfur horrifies world opinion and cannot be ignored.”

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