Sudan: Africans slaughtered as rest of world stands by

This was the year that another holocaust struck Africa and the world's solemn incantations -- "Never again, never again" -- melted into air. A decade after the Rwandan genocide, when 800,000 people died in six weeks, another African holocaust began in Darfur, western Sudan. At least 75,000 have died as a result of the pogroms perpetrated by the Janjaweed militias, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes while their villages were burned and cattle slaughtered. Many of the women were raped. And the world's response? The United Nations offered empty words of condemnation and leaders such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who declared three years ago that "if Rwanda happened again, we would have a moral duty to act" -- did nothing. A small number of African Union troops have been dispatched. Their mission is so limited that they have, on several occasions, stood by while refugee camps were "raided" by the Janjaweed. Many of Europe's top corporations have continued to trade with the Janjaweed-loving tyranny in Khartoum, even though Human Rights Watch has told them that their money is blatantly being used to continue the genocide. Some citizens of democratic countries have launched a campaign to disinvest from Sudan (www.disinvestsudan.org). The rest of the world has, yet again, stood by while an African minority is being exterminated. [more]