Darfur proves UN obsolet
Let us only think what the reasons of the conflict are. Ethnicity? It is one point of view. It seems to be false. The real root is presumably economic interests. The soft power of Darfur region is oil. The government does all the possible to clear out Darfur of certain population groups. It is obvious that the genocide is provoked by the Sudan president and government. It is hard to imagine such situations in today's world. We see that this is a local conflict. It is admitted that Darfur is mobilizing "self-defense militias" following rebel attacks but the government denies any links to the Janjaweed, accused of trying to "cleanse" big parts of the population from large swathes of territory.
So, we should remember that there are international peacekeeping organisations – first of all the UN. I may be mistaken, but this organisation was created for keeping peace in the world. Darfur conflict is luckily not a world war. Couldn't the UN solve this local conflict? It is quite odd, but the UN seems to do nothing in this matter. Is the UN become a useless organisation? What has the Security Council done? We know just Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, had an appointment with the Security Council, he promised that the conflict will be solved. Does the UN mean nothing for him? Does the UN have a lack of power? The Security Council is suggested to have its own interests, each country of it. China consumes Sudanese oil, so they don't want to resist and show disapproval of this conflict. Another member, France has also contracts with the Sudanese oil industry. Russia has been selling weapons to them for many years. So, the situation is quite percolated. The media blare out about conflicts sometimes, but it means nothing. The conflict is clogged and stuck.
Living in Russia I have never seen any articles about this challenge. Only one broadsheet newspaper always published the big picture of Darfur's victims. And only one sentence: "While you are reading these lines the people in Darfur are dying". It is quite difficult to perceive. Is the UN only able to rant proposals? When will people in Darfur stop eating humble pie? We hope that the elaborate proposals will eventually be done. This summer the UN decided to send peacekeeping troops to Darfur. But this decision must be approved by many UN councils before it will be carried out.
Posted in 2007-10: agendasetting| 23.10.07
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