The United Nations is preparing to dispatch 10,000 peacekeepers to Sudan to monitor an accord to end the civil war there, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations said Friday. "We are gearing up to deploy 10,000 troops in Sudan to support the North-South process," Jean-Marie Guehenno told reporters as he prepared for talks at the Pentagon and State Department. Guehenno said, "A breakthrough has been achieved, but it is a fragile process," and he added that "there is potential for spoilers in the south." The United Nations has said it plans to deploy troops within six months, during which time the government and rebels have committed under a Jan. 9 peace deal to set up a national power-sharing administration with an autonomous south. At the end of a six-year transition period, the 10 southern states will hold a referendum on whether to become independent. Sudan's southern civil war has pitted the government, led by Arab Muslims who dominate the north, against rebels fighting for greater autonomy and a greater share of the country's wealth in the mainly black Christian and animist south. The conflict is blamed for more than 2 million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease. Africa's longest-running conflict was sparked in February 2003 when two non-Arab African rebel groups took up arms for more power and resources. The government responded with a counterinsurgency campaign in which a mostly Arab militia known as the Janjaweed has committed wide-scale abuses against tribes it says are allied with the rebels. Disease and malnutrition are believed to have killed more than 70,000 of the nearly 2 million displaced in Darfur since March. [more]

• Pictured above: Photos in a secret archive of thousands of photos and reports that document the genocide under way in Darfur. Four of the pictures appeared in the NY Times on February 23, 2005. According to the NYT, "the materials were gathered by African Union monitors, who are just about the only people able to travel widely in that part of Sudan." The writer also states "this African Union archive is classified, but it was shared with me by someone who believes that Americans will be stirred if they can see the consequences of their complacency. The photo [above] was taken in the village of Hamada on Jan. 15, right after a Sudanese government-backed militia, the janjaweed, attacked it and killed 107 people. One of them was this little boy. I'm not showing the photo of his older brother, about 5 years old, who lay beside him because the brother had been beaten so badly that nothing was left of his face. And alongside the two boys was the corpse of their mother." [more] IS this for real yall?  The NY Times  has had a real propaganda feel to it lately. - BW