Posted on 12/19/2007 8:34:20 AM PST by .cnI redruM
The UN continues to fail a very important global test. This test involves stopping the religious genocide against Christians currently occurring in Sudan; with the aid and abidance of the Sudanese government. They are attempting to mine their member nations for a peacekeeping force to position in Darfur, Sudan. The results have not been satisfactory.
The United Nations cannot find enough bodies or gear to get the force on the ground and the Sudanese government hasn’t exactly rolled out a welcome mat. Jane Holl Lute, U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, drew the unfortunate task of attempting to defend the UN in their botched endeavor. In the absence of any viable polish or spin, she went with refreshing honesty to describe the situation.
"If there is not clear support for this mission from the Sudanese government, it will not succeed," Mrs. Lute said.
"We have struggled to get this mission up and running on the ground," she said. - Wash. Times (19/12/2007)
The UN has underwritten the creation of this force because the Sudanese government doesn’t want to maintain peace within its borders, and would rather the ongoing genocide continue and rid them of their largest faction of malcontents. This suggests that clear support from the Sudanese dictatorship for this mission won’t be any more likely than a voluntary acquiescence by Erick Honaker to German reunification; absent the failure of Communism in Eastern Europe. The UN has to MAKE the Sudanese crap in their boots and eat it on this one, or no rescue mission is going to happen.
The Sudanese have issued promises before to maintain peace within their country and lay off the genocide. The obstacles to peace and goodwill in the region of the Earth known as Sudan are fourfold and nearly intractable to reasoned negotiation. A 2004 article in Christianity Today lays out these difficulties.
• Can agreement on the details of a permanent ceasefire, including provisions for international peacekeepers, be reached during final talks, which resume June 22? • Will the armed militias—as many as 30—that were excluded from the agreement step up fighting in order to have their own grievances addressed? A civil war lasting over 17 years between Ugandan troops and the Lord's Resistance Army based in lawless areas of southern Sudan is another source of instability. • Will the Islamic government in the north really allow the oil-rich south to vote on independence after a six-year transition? • Will the conflict in the western Darfur region of Sudan, which the United Nations has classified as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, be addressed? The Darfur fighting has resulted in 30,000 deaths and displacement of 1 million people as rebels from the region, mainly black Africans, clash with government-backed Arab militiamen. The May 26 agreement did not speak to this separate civil war. -Christianity Today (05/01/2004)
As of Christmas 2007, the UN still seems unable to bear any gifts of hope. Their efforts to get 20,000 peace keepers and 10,000 provisional police officers into the area remain a tragic farce. Mrs. Holl Lute described their efforts in the Losing Coachspeak we hear from worried NFL coaches, on a glum Monday Morning.
"We have made a lot of progress on logistics and personnel in preparing for the mission since July," she said, "but, yes, we are disappointed that things have not moved faster."
"We at the United Nations do have a lot riding on the success of this mission," she said. "We received some very bitter lessons from those experiences. Darfur is a real opportunity to demonstrate that we have learned those lessons."
Yeah, we’ll get those genocidaires next week. Great Britain just demanded that Sudan hand over it’s minister of humanitarian affairs to the International Criminal Court for trial.
I’m sure the Sudanese response will be along the lines of “Oh, Yeah! You and what army?” The suffering Sudanese had better hope that Gordon Brown doesn’t count on having Jane Holl Lute on speed dial as an answer to that sort of thing.
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