Darfur. Chad. While we dicker on Leaders, women are raped. Men are brutalized.

[flying_monkeys]

Can we get a serious (series!!!!) discussion going on Darfur here at DU? Because maybe if *we* float ideas, they will trickle into the mainstream media/bloggers? At least get a mention?


This is very big issue that won't resolve itself - - and it is spreading into neighboring areas. This is genocide we are witnessing, and every day we spend NOT discussing it is another day of rapes, tortures, mutilations and murders for our kin on the other side of the Pond....


Make no mistake, this fight over resources will play out again and again between groups - - so maybe we can try (collectively) to find an answer?


Darfur needs help - - Are we up to discussing this?

[still_one]

1. Look how many have been killed, and how many more will die

but the dirty little secret is that Russia is supporting the Kartoum government which doesn't want UN peace keeping forces

You are right, it is about resources, but I would be very surprised if you get more than twenty posts to this thread

Where is the humanity?

[flying_monkeys]

4. I know....

But I can keep posting new threads nightly until it gets picked up :)


At least by posting about it daily, I can feel I have done *something*, kwim?



(20 posts? I'll be lucky to get 8)

[still_one]

5. It isn't just here, it is the world who is turning their back

[flying_monkeys]

9. If the world turns its back, WE should lead :)

I am not so much interested in the world as I am in my what *my* country is doing, kwim?


I think Darfur needs to be brought front-center - - and I want *my* country to force the world to acknowledge the actions there.


Just think, as I type this, another woman has been raped or another man has been brutalized....


Staggering.

[still_one]

21. No question about it.

[provis99]

2. terrifying place, but what to do?

the outside world did nothing about Rwanda; in their the minds of the outside world's leaders, Darfur is black and lacking resources like oil, so they don't matter. The UN won't interfere because it's an "internal" matter. I would also like to hear a discussion on Congo, for while the Darfur atrocities have killed around a million (correct me if I'm wrong), the war in Congo still going on has killed 3.5 million so far, and it gets even LESS publicity than Darfur.

[still_one]

3. If the UN won't do anything then use NATO

get the food in there, make sure it gets to the people who need it, and PROTECT THEM from those that want to kill them

[flying_monkeys]

7. Silly me, I forgot

Black plus no oil equals no interest in country....


I suspect what you say is very true, and it saddens me :(



Tonight, my dryer is drying my comforter, my fridge is full, the mud that flooded my lower level is cleaned up and I am about to sign a contract for retail space - - all is good with me.


But my human kin in Darfur and Chad, all is not good with them. While I sleep on soft pillows waiting for an alarm clock to wake me for more Happy Life, they fear the dark, the light and the crews showing up to turn their lives into nightmares.


I am so fortunate on this side of the Pond.


I hear their cries in my sleep.

[MethuenProgressive]

6. They're black people with no oil.

And so they're screwed.
Think, for a minute, what wonderful things the hundreds of billions of dollars and the 150,000 U.S. troops could've done if they had been deployed to help stop the genocide and human suffering in Afica - instead of being sent into Iraq.

[FrenchieCat]

8. One wouldn't even need that .....

Maybe 5,000-10,000 troups from all over, and a billion or 2.

That's priority for ya!

[flying_monkeys]

10. Frankly, it makes me sick to think of that comparison.

All those dollars wasted on war instead of peace.....


"When will we ever learn?"

[Kool Kitty]

11. I don't get this, myself.

I have written, called and pled with my reps. I have called and written the White House. They all say they are concerned. They seem to do nothing. What the fuck more must happen before these people get any attention or help? This is the richest country in the world. We should be leading this. If the moron in the Oval Office really had a heart or a brain, he would do more than flap his lips about this. Not only is helping the RIGHT thing to do, does he realize how much this would do to help repair the image of this country?

[flying_monkeys]

12. No payback there, I guess.

In reality, we don't CARE what nonwhites do to each other if they don't have oil.....


(Just like we wouldn't have ousted Saddam if his country wasn't sitting on oil fields. We would have let him gone on doing what he wanted because, really, if other people die who the heck cares if we can't profit?)

[Kool Kitty]

16. Ain't that the unfortunate and unfair truth.

[fujiyama]

13. Darfur threads sink like a stone

and get a fraction of the coverage Israel-related news gets in the media.

I guess it's because Darfur is about black people, doesn't involve middle eastern oil, and doesn't involve Jews. I can just imagine how much people would be flipping out if this were about Jews killing and raping hundreds of thousands of people, rather than Arab militias...And at the same time, how come the countries in the middle east that are supposedly so concerned about human rights don't care about Africans? Some of those killed in Darfur have been Muslim, though a majority aren't.

[Wiley50]

25. Chad? Yeah, They Busted Him. Is Darfur a Freeper Too? n/t

[REP]

14. You Really Want The US in the Middle Of *Another* Muslim Country?

The US government does not currenly have a good record of dealing with Muslim countries or disputes between various Muslim factions (Sunnis, Shiites, Taliban, etc). I understand the reflex - to do something to keep these people from slaughtering eachother in even greater numbers - is our government really the right one to get involved, with its propensity for fucking things up even worse?

[951-Riverside]

15. ...Let them fight it out

They have to be responible for their own society and reject violence. We keep throwing money into africa but we're only getting more deaths in return.

"Increase the peace, stop the violence"

[RevolutionStartsNow]

17. Ok, I'll see your post, and raise you one:

I don't know what we can do in Darfur. I was just reading about how the conflict is bleeding (literally, tragically) across the borders. And oil does indeed play a role here, as the US and China both have oil interests in Chad.

But as other posters have suggested, the world tends to turn its back on Africa.

I have been thinking a lot recently how to raise my children to care about human rights abuses -- our schools may teach history, but we rarely teach children about the ongoing plight of people in the world today.

Wish I had answers, but I'm glad to kick this for further discussion.

[ismnotwasm]

18. Kick

Darfur is a tough subject to keep kicked up. I read an article (NYT?) reporting that just 600 miles away, people are buying BMW's and eating ice cream. In the meantime, the horrible beyond belief genocide continues.
Of course oil money is involved. I'll try to find the article

[RevolutionStartsNow]

19. Some good info at these links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6058920.stm
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6UR3QM?OpenDocument

Darfur itself has no oil, but because it borders so many other countries, it is strategically important to the oil in the region. I'd like to see the world do something, but I am skeptical that any action taken will be related to US/China fighting for oil rights in Chad.

[ismnotwasm]

26. Thanks for the links

It's a horrid thing that's happening, and what makes it worse is when it makes the history books-- no one will think too much about it. Or care.

[clyrc]

20. I don't have any answers, either,

but every time I see a report on Darfur I just feel hopeless and upset for the rest of the day. I've signed the petitions, but I really do wish I could do more.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

22. morning kick

nt

[flying_monkeys]

23. Progress? UN force will be (sorta) allowed to help.... News Today

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/91-11172006-743059.html


Agreement Reached on Darfur Peacekeepers

By LES NEUHAUS
The Associated Press


ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Sudan agreed in principle to a plan that will permit an international force to bolster African troops in Darfur, but almost immediately signaled it will be difficult to progress from an accord to real change in one of the world's bloodiest conflict zones.

Shortly after diplomats reached the agreement in Ethiopia, the Sudanese foreign minister in Khartoum raised objections, insisting the accord entailed the provision of only U.N. technical assistance - not peacekeepers. Sudan has long opposed allowing U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur, saying that would violate its sovereignty.

The force could be as large as 27,000, including the existing 7,000-member AU peacekeeping force in Darfur. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the additional personnel could include as many as 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police officers.

(read more at link)

[blm]

24. Keep the pressure on Bush - just like certain Dems in congress are -

I would bet that the Dems will send up a resolution to push for US involvement as soon as they have the voting majority.

The GOPs don't want the blame for going in to another country.