Monday, September 18, 2006

The Save Darfur Rally in Central Park

Gothamist and Brendan Loy have photos and roundups of the rally in Central Park, New York calling on the UN to take action on the Darfur genocide. Sudan has thus far refused to allow the UN to send in peacekeepers to the region to take over for the African Union, which is leaving at the end of the month.

There were quite a few prominent speakers at the rally, including former Sec. State Madeline Albright, who called on President Bush to pressure the Sudan to admit the UN peacekeepers.

President Bush will likely mention Darfur in his speech before the General Assembly, but don't expect to hear much about Darfur from any of the other member states, let alone Kofi Annan, who can't even bring himself to calling Darfur a genocide, despite the mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and more than 2 million people displaced. Kofi will not take any action on the matter, despite saying that more might be killed if there is no action, and he's already shown himself incapable of dealing with human rights abuses - as the UN's hideous inaction on Rwanda's genocide shows.

Sudan, meanwhile, says that Darfur needs development, not peacekeepers. Well, considering that you've run off all the former residents, I can see why the Islamists in Khartoum think that they only need development. Their janjaweed militias had no problems killing and scaring off all the former residents, leaving a devastated wasteland in their wake.

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