Stopping Genocide in Sudan

Whatever officials in the United States and elsewhere choose to call the atrocities in the Darfur region in the Sudan, it is clear that international help is needed to put them to an end. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week labeled the killings in the region “genocide,” angering the Sudanese government. Secretary Powell is probably right in his terminology, and the Bush administration should continue to press for international solutions to stop the killings.

A day earlier the United States had circulated a draft resolution it intends to present to the United Nations Security Council threatening economic sanctions against the Sudanese government. The U.N. threatened sanctions against Sudan in the spring to little effect.

In addition to sanctions, greater peacekeeping and aid assistance is needed from the international community. Writing in The Washington Post, Richard Holbrooke, a former ambassador to the United Nations, and Jon Corzine, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, call for support for the African Union, which has convened talks and deployed monitoring and protection forces in the western region of Darfur.

Those talks are ever near collapse and would be strengthened by the inclusion of a U.S. special envoy for Darfur, modeled on the role former senator and current U.N. ambassador John Danforth played in trying to end the civil war in southern Sudan, the pair wrote. They also suggest that the United States and NATO help airlift supplies and offer logistical support to the African Union to aid its monitoring efforts. Ultimately, a U.N. peacekeeping mission should be launched, they wrote.

These are good suggestions. Empowering an African group to work to end the crisis would help alleviate concerns that direct U.S. involvement would enflame Arab countries. The conflict is waged by the Arab-dominated Sudan government against the Muslim population in Darfur. The attacks are carried out by the primarily Arab Janjaweed militia with the backing of elements in the government. The government has supported the Janjaweed to create as many refugees as possible to destroy the village structure in Darfur, where two rebel groups are based. The groups, which oppose the government, want a larger piece of the country’s budget and more self-government.

The result is more than 1.5 million people forced from their homes by brutal killings, rapes and destruction of villages. “Call it a civil war. Call it ethnic cleansing. Call it genocide,” Secretary Powell told senators. “The reality is the same. There are people in Darfur who desperately need the help of the international community.”

He is right. The labeling of the atrocities matters less than the actions taken to combat them.