Waiting for the Multilateralists

Contrast the methodical wickedness:

On the morning of July 12, hell descended on the village of Donki Dereisa. Shortly before sunrise, Fatima Ibrahim, 28, awoke to the deafening sound of exploding ordnance falling from the sky. As she emerged from her mud hut with her 10-year-old daughter, she saw fires blazing all around and scores of heavily armed men on horseback attacking from every direction. With bullets whistling past, Ibrahim and her daughter ran for their lives, ducking into a nearby ravine, where they hid without food or water for the next two days.

From the ditch, Ibrahim witnessed a horrific avalanche of violence that will haunt her for life. With Sudanese foot soldiers at their side, the mounted attackers shot the panicked and unarmed villagers in cold blood. Approximately 150 people, including 10 women, were killed. But the worst was to come.

Ibrahim told Refugees International about a week after the attack that among those captured during the assault were four of her brothers and six young children, including three of her cousins. As Ibrahim watched in horror, several of the attackers began grabbing the screaming children and throwing them one by one into a raging fire. One of the male villagers ran from his hiding place to plead for their lives. It was a fatal error. The raiders subdued the man and later beheaded him and dismembered his body. All six of the children were burned. Ibrahim's four brothers have not been heard from since.

With the bureaucratic compromises necessary to get everyone onboard. Multilaterally:

The United States watered down proposals for a UN resolution yesterday after Muslim states refused to threaten sanctions against Sudan for failing to curb Arab militias accused of ethnic cleansing.

The US, backed by Britain, dropped the word "sanctions" from a draft resolution in order to secure broad agreement on a text that could be adopted by the UN Security Council today. The move will give Sudan more time to comply with demands from the UN, which described the situation in the western region of Darfur as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Behold! Yet another toothless UN resolution that isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Anyone who believes that UN can make countries work together to solve international crises need to take a long hard look at Darfur.

Thanks to Josh Harvey




- posted by total @ 8/02/2004 05:12:00 AM .