Annan speaks on Darfur
From CNN.com:
Outgoing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will ask Friday how the international community can allow the “horror” in Sudan’s Darfur region to continue and say there is more than enough blame to shared all around.
In a speech to be given in New York, Annan says blame can be shared by those valuing abstract notions of sovereignty over human lives; those whose response of solidarity puts them on the sides of governments and not people; and those who fear commercial interests could be jeopardized.
“The truth is, none of these arguments amount even to excuses, let alone justifications, for the shameful passivity of most governments,” Annan says in the speech to be given to mark International Human Rights Day.
“We have still not summoned up the collective sense of urgency that this issue requires,” said Annan, who pledged earlier this week to make the killings in Darfur his priority until he leaves office on December 31.
Some 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur since the rebels took up arms against the central government in 2003, while another 2 million have been driven out of their homes. more
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Remember when the Bush Administration said they were going to take a active role in the region. Secretary Rice made several statements and held meetings. So, what happened?
I think it’s that civil war rule.
Well, seems to me that what’s happened since then has been squat. Well, squat, and diddly squat.
Oh yeah, and a strong effort to equal that 200,000 dead number in Iraq as well. According to the numbers at Iraq Body Count, the number of civilians killed there so far is up to between 50,000 and 55,000.
I don’t say that to try to distract from the horrors that are going on in Darfur. I say that to make the point that this Administration doesn’t exactly have a strong track record in the area of saving lives ANYWHERE.
We need to break a few rules and do something.