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Violence and Suffering in Sudan's Darfur Region The Crisis in Darfur A preventable humanitarian crisis, affecting more than two million people, is raging in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Not since the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement. Government-backed militias, known collectively as the Janjaweed, are systematically eliminating entire communities of African tribal farmers. Villages are being razed, women and girls raped and branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies targeted and destroyed. Victims report that government air strikes frequently precede militia raids.

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (AFP) - US President George W. Bush will bestow the highest US civilian honor on boxing legend Muhammad Ali, "Hotel Rwanda" hero Paul Rusesabagina and 11 others, the White House said. Singer Aretha Franklin, US Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, and golfer Jack Nicklaus will also receive presidential medals of freedom in a November 9 ceremony at the White House, said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan. Last year, Bush raised eyebrows by giving the medal to former CIA director George Tenet, retired general Tommy Franks and the former civilian overseer for Iraq, Paul Bremer, sidestepping their ties...

Tagline of the movie: When a country descended into madness And the world closed its eyes He opened his arms And created a place Where hope could survive

Blood flowed in the streets. Machine guns and machetes replaced courtesies and conversations among neighbors and colleagues from different ethnic groups. As Rwanda fell into the grip of genocide 10 years ago, what distinguished Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in Kigali, the capital, from many of his countrymen was an unspoken passion to serve others and a knack for decorum. "I was not brave, but maybe I was someone who refused to follow the mob," Rusesabagina said in an interview in Washington before the screening last week of "Hotel Rwanda," a film based on heroic exploits by which Rusesabagina ultimately...

ARUSHA, Tanzania (AFP) - A UN-backed tribunal convicted a former senior Rwandan army officer of playing a major role in the country's 1994 genocide and sentenced him to 25 years in prison, the court said. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) found ex-colonel Aloys Simba guilty of genocide and extermination during the 100-day massacres in which some 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis, were slaughtered by Hutu extremists, it said. The former officer and member of parliament had initially faced four counts but was acquitted on charges and conspiracy to commit genocide and murder, the ICTR said in a statement....

ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) - A U.N. tribunal sentenced a former local government official in western Rwanda to prison for the rest of his life for shooting to death and raping mostly Tutsi victims during the 1994 genocide. Judge Khalida Rashid Khan said the tribunal found beyond any reasonable doubt that Mika Muhimana, who was a councilor in the province of Kibuye, shot mostly Tutsi victims, raped several Tutsi women and encouraged other men to rape in the town of Gishyita. The sentence of imprisonment for the rest of one's life is the highest penalty under the rules of the International...

PARIS, April 22 (AFP) - French soldiers trained Rwandan civilian militias in the two years leading up to the 1994 genocide, an officer in the French gendarmerie said Friday, contradicting persistent denials from the Paris government. "I saw French soldiers giving fire-arms training to civilian Rwandan militiamen in 1992. There were about 30 militiamen being trained. I am absolutely categoric about this. I saw them and that is all there is to it," said Thierry Prungnaud. "They must have been militiamen because the soldiers used to go around in fatigues and these were civilians," said Prungnaud, who was in...

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) - A nine-judge community court handed down its first conviction Thursday of a Rwandan accused of killings in the 1994 genocide, as authorities set in motion a system of trials designed to speed the task of deciding the guilt or innocence of the 63,000 people accused of taking part in the government-orchestrated slaughter. Genocide survivors have complained about the slow pace of implementing the community court system, known as gacaca trials, and what they say are lenient sentences given to those who confess their role. But Rwandan officials said they turned to the system to speed the...

United Nations observers have sighted about 100 Rwandan troops inside the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thousands of civilians have reportedly begun to flee the area. The Congolese say more than 6,000 Rwandans have crossed the border and are attacking and burning villages. From the eastern town of Beni, Congolese regional cooperation minister Mbusa Nyamwisi said villages were being targeted nearby. "We are being attacked by the Rwandan troops," he said. The apparent incursion comes after threats last week by Rwanda's president Paul Kagame to send troops across the border to engage Hutu rebels inside Congolese territory. President Kagame said any...

As Rwandans begin the formal remembrance of the victims of the genocide that began 10 years ago today, President Paul Kagame has denounced the world's "deliberate failure" to stop the slaughter of ethnic Tutsis. "When genocide takes place, the international community should not shy away from its responsibilities ... How could the lives of one million Rwandese be considered so insignificant?" he asked, speaking for many of his countrymen who lived through the 100 days of terror.   "Do the powerful nations have a hidden agenda? I would hate to believe that this agenda is dictated by racist considerations or...

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused French people of "direct involvement" in the 1994 genocide. He told the French state-owned RFI radio that they provided weapons and training, and gave orders to those who killed some 800,000 people. He said the "French elements" were acting on government orders. The president was speaking a week after a French daily reported a police report that blamed him for a rocket attack that precipitated the massacre. "Sooner or later they will have to account for their actions, either before a French court or the international court," Mr Kagame said. Report The report -...

U.N. Finds a Black Box Sent From Rwanda After 1994 Plane Crash That Unleashed Genocide Mar 11, 2004 By Edith M. Lederer/ Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (AP) - In what Secretary-General Kofi Annan called a "first-class foul-up," the United Nations said Thursday it has discovered a black box sent from Rwanda after a 1994 plane crash that unleashed a genocide in the east African nation. The device was found Wednesday in a locked filing cabinet in the U.N. Peacekeeping Department's Air Safety Unit. Aviation experts put it there apparently in the belief its "pristine condition" ruled out the possibility...

In just 12 weeks the world will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. That somber thought was on my mind as my friend, the distinguished African-American journalist Peter Noel, took me the other night for a tour of Harlem. We passed by Bill Clinton's office, and Peter told me how significant crowds, nearly all African-Americans, await the arrival most mornings of the man dubbed "America's first black president." That description – coined in 1998 by African-American Nobel laureate Toni Morrison – as well as the African-American rapture for Bill Clinton, is nothing short of astonishing. Calling Clinton...

Fascinating and thought-provoking article that highlights an overlooked problem around the world. Conservatives understand that democracy has prerequisites, and Amy Chua's work draws our attention to some situations where promoting free-market deregulation and democracy at the same time can literally be a recipe for ethnic persecution and even genocide. As Chua notes, similar dynamics exist in some parts of the USA - she uses the American-Koreans in black neighbourhoods of L.A. as an example of this dynamic where a "market dominant" minority becomes a target for racial demagogues, leading to violence (and in the end, more poverty as investment leaves)....

— NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it was starting an "aggressive and targeted" campaign to hunt down those behind the Rwandan genocide, offering rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to their arrest. The campaign, which includes "wanted" posters and a specialized task force, will begin in Kenya but is expected to move to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, where several suspects are believed to be hiding and funding the conflict. The suspects will be targeted one by one. Anyone arrested will be transferred to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for...