Darfur Massacre

Sudan, more specifically the Darfur region, has been home to a genocide that has been eclipsed on news programs by such events as the Iraqi war, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, and the recent elections. Darfur, a small region on the edge of Sudan, is made up of settled peasants, who think of themselves as African, and wandering Nomads, who consider themselves Arab. Most of the people in both groups worship the Islamic faith. Government neglect has left people throughout Sudan poor and voiceless and has caused conflict throughout the country. In February 2003, frustrated by poverty and neglect, two Darfurian rebel groups launched an uprising against the Khartoum government.

The government responded with a scorched-earth campaign, enlisting the help of a militia of Arab nomadic tribes in the region against the innocent civilians of Darfur. Over 400,000 million people have been killed and 2.5 displaced while the United States does nothing. (genocideintervention.net)

A United Nations resolution in August 2006 authorized the deployment of a force of over 17,000 UN troops to Darfur. However, the UN has insisted on securing the "agreement" of the Sudanese government for such a force. The government of Sudan recently launched another attack in Darfur, in violation of the May peace agreement, and continues to adamantly refuse the deployment of an effective force. Considering the fact that the government in Sudan backs these actions, it does not take a neural surgeon to figure out that they would never allow such a force into the country.

The world has laid the responsibility of security of Africa at the feet of the African Union without giving them any means to enforce that power. Thousands of innocent civilians continue to die from murder, disease, and starvation every month. Today, millions of displaced civilians living in refugee camps are in dire need of international support as the violence continues.(genocideintervention.net)

The right wing Bush administration has persistently listed Sudan as one of the world's "axis of evil" countries. This has also been true since the era of Bush the senior. The Democrat administrations have shared the Republican viewpoint regarding Sudan as one of the states sponsoring terrorism. The United Nations has been relegated to simply one of the United States foreign policy tools; sometimes used for legitimizing US intervention actions, sometimes excluded so as not to interfere with Washington's absolute will. The US had recalled UN to Sudan, and when arrangements with the Sudanese regime were inconsistent with US interests, it pressed the Security Council to draft a resolution Ð'- more appropriate to be called an American ultimatum Ð'- to implement a solution for the decades-long problem within a month. (zmag.org)

According to the Sunday Independent, the British 12th vehicle infantry divisions, consisting of 5000