[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Op-ed in today's IHT by Salih Booker

[Alfred Kagan]

>Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 09:13:19 -0500
>From: Africa Action <africaaction at igc.org>
>Organization: Africa Action
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>To: ejlist at africaaction.org
>Subject: Op-ed in today's IHT by Salih Booker
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>
>Dear Friends,
>
>Today's International Herald Tribune prominently carries the 
>following op-ed from Africa Action's Executive Director Salih Booker:
>
>"The Crisis in Darfur: This Wolf is Real & Nobody's Listening"
>
>International Herald Tribune - September 21, 2004
>
>by Salih Booker
>
>Once upon a time the U.S. secretary of state went to the UN Security 
>Council and cried, "Wolf!" He said that the evil Saddam Hussein had 
>been building weapons of mass destruction and posed an immediate 
>threat to the United States and the world. Over 1,000 American 
>deaths later, there are no WMDs to be found.
>
>There was also a president who made a State of the Union address in 
>2003 and cried, "Wolf!" He said that the evil Saddam Hussein was 
>getting uranium from Africa to build weapons of mass destruction. He 
>called on the American people to be prepared to fight a war against 
>terrorism by invading Iraq.
>
>The claims about yellow cake in Niger destined for Baghdad were 
>exposed as phony early on. But still the United States invaded Iraq. 
>More than 12,000 Iraqis have been killed.
>
>The United States cried wolf, and the world shuddered and watched as 
>the most powerful country threw its weight around and took over Iraq 
>and all of its resources, including its future.
>
>There were no weapons of mass destruction, but there was oil and the 
>possibility of redrawing the map of the Middle East to suit the 
>narrow interests of the few. The few who cried wolf in the name of 
>the American republic. The world wondered if it could ever believe 
>the United States again.
>
>Enter Darfur, western Sudan, site of the world's worst humanitarian 
>crisis, born of a government-sponsored campaign of genocide.
>
>The secretary of state dithered for more than a year. The violence 
>in Darfur went on for 16 months as Sudanese and international human 
>rights groups and African advocacy groups shouted about this crime 
>against humanity.
>
>But they needed states to act. Any of the 135 states that are 
>signatories to the 1948 Convention on Genocide could demand 
>international intervention. But the Security Council procrastinated, 
>preoccupied as it was with Iraq. And the secretary of state stayed 
>silent, even visiting the scene of the crime without saying the word 
>"genocide."
>
>Then the U.S. Congress, in a rare and historic bipartisan and 
>unanimous action, declared that genocide is taking place in Sudan. 
>Finally, the State Department, under pressure from activists across 
>the country and across a broad spectrum of communities, undertook a 
>tabulation of the deaths, rapes and other atrocities by interviewing 
>over 1,000 of Darfurians fleeing the government's scorched earth 
>campaign.
>
>Now, the secretary of state had no choice but to acknowledge the 
>genocide publicly and head back to the UN with a new resolution 
>calling for sanctions if Khartoum refuses to disarm militias in 
>Darfur and allow a few more African Union soldiers in to monitor.
>
>But before the passage even of that modest measure on Saturday, 
>there was opposition in the Security Council, in part because of the 
>economic and political interests of its 15 member states, especially 
>the five permanent members.
>
>China is the single largest investor in Sudan's oil industry; Russia 
>has significant arms deals with Khartoum, and both countries want to 
>avoid scrutiny of their own internal wars against various ethnic 
>communities. Pakistan and Algeria have either ideological or 
>political interests in helping the government in Sudan. All four 
>abstained.
>
>Once upon a time, Washington could have exercised its clout as the 
>most powerful nation in the world and handily won over the support 
>of these recalcitrant members. But now, the country that cried wolf 
>has lost the moral authority it needs to rally its global neighbors 
>to real action against genocide in Darfur.
>
>Sudanese ministers are quick to argue that Secretary of State Colin 
>Powell was the one to present a false dossier on WMDs in Iraq to the 
>UN Security Council, and now he is presenting a dossier against 
>Sudan, another Arab state with oil. Instead of WMD, the United 
>States is now declaring "genocide." Sadly, such cynical skepticism 
>resonates in large parts of the world.
>
>It will be the cruelest irony and the greatest tragedy if the people 
>of Darfur cannot count on the international community to save them 
>from genocide because the country most outspoken against Khartoum is 
>a country that lost its credibility because it cried wolf.
>
>Thus the war in Iraq has now claimed another 50,000 victims - this 
>time in Sudan. And the toll is projected to rise exponentially in 
>the weeks ahead.
>
>In the tale of the boy who cried wolf, it was the boy himself who 
>suffered the consequences of his actions. This time, it's two 
>million people in Darfur.
>
>Salih Booker is executive director of Africa Action, the oldest 
>Africa advocacy organization in the United States.
>
>[http://www.iht.com/articles/539682.html]
>
>--
>
>Africa Action 1634 Eye Street NW, #810
>Washington, DC 20006
>Tel: 202-546 7961 * http://www.africaaction.org


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu