Sudan update

After meeting with Kofi Annan and Colin Powell, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail promised that more security forces will be sent to the Darfur region to combat the Janjaweed militia who are murdering, raping, and displacing millions of indigenous Africans in the region. He also promised to lift restrictions on humanitarian groups who are trying to provide aid to the Darfur refugees. This is not the first time the Khartoum government has paid lip service to curtailing the ethnic cleansing going on in Darfur.

I have to give a little kudos to the US government for attempting a diplomatic solution to the problem in the Sudan. Secretary Powell's statements about inevitability ("There will be many more deaths") and unwillingness to send in UN forces (because they would have little effect in a vast region roughly the size of France) are troubling, however. Also, the UN sanctions proposed by the Security Council are completely toothless. (An arms embargo on an ARMED milita?) I hope we don't accept the Sudanese government's claims to stop the violence at face value. There's a line from Paul Theroux's Dark Star Safari where he's discussing the Sudan with an African diplomat. "The Sudanese," says the diplomat, "Great people, terrible rulers. It's the African story."

Meanwhile, The Washington Post has more on the disturbing trend of mass rape in Darfur as a form of reproductive ethnic cleansing. Go read.