Not much interest in this thread..
If you think about it, there is not much interest in the media about this either so alot of people are not aware of what is going on. Probably alot of people that are aware now did not know until George Clooney has gotten involved. His celebrity status has brought it to the general publics attention.
The ongoing Darfur Genocide is no accident, no local tribal conflict. The genocide is the brutal plan of three men in the Sudanese national Government -- President Bashir, Vice-President Taha, Security Chief Gosh. Now they are spreading their system of terror to other African countries, including Chad and the Central African Republic . Yet our governments continue to cut deals with them - deals they repeatedly break. It is time for the US and European governments to stop appeasing genocide. We call on our governments to fully support the International Criminal Court to indict the perpetrators of genocide, and to help ensure their arrest. It is time for justice, because only justice can bring peace.
For Bashir, Taha and Gosh, it is time for handcuffs, not handshakes.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/04/11/afx3602949.html US delays sanctions against Sudan over Darfur at UN request
04.11.07, 2:08 PM ET
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LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The United States held off on a decision to impose unilateral sanctions against Sudan last month to give UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon a last chance to convince Khartoum to allow UN peacekeepers into its war-torn Darfur region, a senior US official said.
Andrew Natsios, President George W. Bush's special envoy to Sudan, said Washington was on the verge of imposing financial and other sanctions against the Sudanese at the end of last month but held off because a US congressional delegation was in Khartoum at the time.
Ban then asked on April 2 for an additional two to four weeks to pressure Sudan's government to lift its opposition to deployment of the UN force of some 20,000 troops to Darfur before turning to sanctions.
'I think we need to give him a chance -- that means if he asks for a two- to four-week delay we need to give him that,' Natsios told a Senate hearing.
The US sanctions package now on Bush's desk includes financial actions against 29 Sudanese companies and a toughening of implementation of existing sanctions on 130 other firms, all linked to the Khartoum government, he said.
They would also slap travel bans and assets freezes on a Darfur rebel leader who has been 'obstructing' peace efforts and on 'war criminals' among the Sudanese government leaders, he said.
Counting deaths
This mother had just arrived with her sick baby at Abu Shouk IDP camp in North Darfur.
Accurate numbers of dead have been difficult to estimate, partly because the Sudanese government places formidable obstacles in front of journalists attempting to cover the conflict. [79] In September 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated there had been 50,000 deaths in Darfur since the beginning of the conflict, an 18-month period, mostly due to starvation. An updated estimate the following month put the number of deaths for the 6-month period from March to October 2004 due to starvation and disease at 70,000; These figures were criticized, because they only considered short periods and did not include violent deaths. [80] A more recent British Parliamentary Report has estimated that over 300,000 people have died, [81] and others have estimated even more.
In March 2005, the UN's Emergency Relief CoordinatorJan Egeland estimated that 10,000 were dying each month excluding deaths due to ethnic violence. [82] An estimated 2 million people had at that time been displaced from their homes, mostly seeking refuge in camps in Darfur's major towns. Two hundred thousand had fled to neighboring Chad.
In an April 2005 report, the most comprehensive statistical analysis to date, the Coalition for International Justice estimated that 400,000 people in Darfur had died since the conflict began, a figure most humanitarian and human rights groups now use. [83]
On 28 April 2006, Dr. Eric Reeves argued that "extant data, in aggregate, strongly suggest that total excess mortality in Darfur, over the course of more than three years of deadly conflict, now significantly exceeds 450,000," but this has not been independently verified. [84]
A 21 September 2006 article by the official UN News Service stated that "UN officials estimate over 400,000 people have lost their lives and some 2 million more have been driven from their homes." [85] This now appears to be the official UN figure.
