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[Spike Spiegel]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=5&u=/ap/20050131/ap_on_re_af/sudan_darfur_2

Sudan: U.N. Clears Gov't of Genocide

(AP) - Sudan's foreign minister said Monday a U.N. report concluded that no genocide was committed in his country's Darfur region, where tens of thousands of civilians have died in a nearly two-year crisis. At U.N. headquarters in New York, diplomats confirmed that the report did not find that Sudan had committed genocide, but they said it was very critical of Sudanese government actions. The report was expected to be circulated in New York on Tuesday. The United States has accused Sudan's government of directing militia who attack civilians in what Washington has called a genocidal campaign in the western region.

More...

...What?!? :lol

 

[Phoenix]

Just a lot of 'sudden deaths' due to some temporal bullet experiment that takes place in the region in 100 years or so.

 

[michael000]

It's the UN what did you expect? There's not a more incompetent agency in the world heh.

 

[WedgeX]

So, Rwanda all over again? Grrreeeaat.

 

[Shinobi]

Nothing changes...

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Dead men tell no tales...or women...or children...

 

[rastex]

See, because if it IS genocide then people will demand that action will be taken. And I mean, this is Africa and the people are black, so we really don't want that now do we?

 

[Socreges]

Just to add some perspective

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4202599.stm

The US has said that genocide is being committed and has again started to lobby for a UN resolution threatening sanctions against Sudan, it says. Previous attempts to threaten sanctions have been blocked by China, which has oil interests in Sudan, and Russia, which has sold arms to the government, according to lobby group Human Rights Watch.

Russia has said that it will participate in the planned peacekeeping operation in southern Sudan.

The UN hopes to send some 10,000 troops but the mainly Christian and animist former rebels are wary of having too many Muslim soldiers

So, the UN plans on sending in troops (as with the Ivory Coast), but does not want to impose sanctions because of economic ties.

This is the world that we live in. Each country is driven by national interest (I respect the US trying to do something, but they naturally waited until there was public outcry) and unfortunately those that weild the most power will determine how international bodies will act. I don't know what the solution is. The UN absolutely needs to exist, but there needs to be a fairer distribution of power. Yet.. those that have the capacity to make these changes (US, Russia, China, etc) don't want to.

http://www.crimesofwar.org/sudan-mag/sudan-in-discuss.html

Robert O. Collins, co-author of the landmark Requiem for Sudan: War, Drought and Disaster Relief on the Nile, has spent decades documenting the country’s violent history. Yet he resists a finding of genocide: "Unlike the Nazi Holocaust of European Jewry, the Sudanese government does not have a rational, methodical, massive scheme to liquidate a particular group or people…On the contrary: the NIF doesn’t want to eliminate the southerners…it wants to dominate, exploit, and enslave them."

According to Helen Fein, Director of the Institute for the Study of Genocide at John Jay College and the author of two groundbreaking books and numerous articles, the situation in Sudan is one of "genocide by attrition". She defines this as concentration or forced displacement, followed by the "systematic deprivation of food, water, and sanitary or medical facilities, leading to death through disease or starvation." This violates not only the UNCG, but also the 1977 Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly prohibits using hunger as a weapon against civilians and forbids the removal or destruction "of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population". Fein holds that the Dinka, the Nuer and the Nuba have been subjected by the North to genocide by attrition.

Reflecting current scholarly debates, some of our experts argue for a definition of genocide that expands upon that found in the UN Convention. "In order to analyze genocide in this sort of conflict situation, we need to approach it differently," declares Francis Deng, Distinguished Professor at CUNY and since 1992 the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Internal Displacement. "We must consider not only the vast numbers of individuals that have been killed…but also the communities whose existence as identifiable cultural entities has been destroyed: The Nuer and the Dinka, who are among the best-studied peoples in the world… If you eliminate a cultural community as such, that to me is genocide."

I don't think it's necessarily genocide. But whatever. It's a terrible thing and there needs to be intervention.

 

[maharg]

It's the UN what did you expect? There's not a more incompetent agency in the world heh.

And the US shares a significant portion of the blame for making it so incompetent. I guess in the case of the UN, the major powers reap what they sow.

 

[scorcho]

the five permament members of the Security Council prove to be the UN's weakest link when it comes to preventing/ceasing crimes against humanity as one of them are bound to have self-interests that work against what is essentially the rest of the world. the formation of the ICC has been a step in the right direction (regardless of US resistance to the institution), but until the overriding veto in the SC is curbed nothing is going to change much.

there's been talk of blocking veto usage when it comes to crimes against humanity, which i hope is an idea that gains some steam.

 

[RiZ III]

Besides existing, does the UN actually do anything?

 

[Azih]

Not The Security Council. Other parts of the U.N are amazing, great and have done a lot of good.

 

[Phoenix]

Surely there are some terrorists there that need killing, come on Bush - create a new theater of operations.

 

[belgurdo]

Surely there are some terrorists there that need killing, come on Bush - create a new theater of operations.

Is there gold or oil in Sudan?

 

[DonasaurusRex]

why do you think europeans are in africa in the first place???

 

[michael000]

And the US shares a significant portion of the blame for making it so incompetent. I guess in the case of the UN, the major powers reap what they sow.

The US does have more influence (note i said influence not power) than about anyone in the UN true but the way the UN is setup is the source of it's incompetence. It's all discussions, arguments, debating, and very very little action.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Is there gold or oil in Sudan?

Actually, I believe there is a lot of oil in Sudan, although US companies haven't had access to it for several years do to sanctions.

 

[Socreges]

blah

 

[scorcho]

why do you think europeans are in africa in the first place???

slavery.

 

[maharg]

The US does have more influence (note i said influence not power) than about anyone in the UN true but the way the UN is setup is the source of it's incompetence. It's all discussions, arguments, debating, and very very little action.

Actually, as others have said, it's the veto powers of the permanent security council members that make the UN impotent. Every time the UN moves to do something good, one of the major powers (including the US) veto it because it goes against their interests.

The debate and arguments are a fact of legislative decision making and will never and can never go away. The only alternative is vesting power in one person or maybe 3 people, and that is clearly unacceptable in an organization that is meant to represent diverse interests.

 

[FightyF]

It's all discussions, arguments, debating, and very very little action.

It's not the debating that stops action, it's the personal interests of the veto nations that stop action.

If the