Genocide again: Who will step in?

Did you know some human rights groups are warning that ethnic cleansing maybe happen yet again in Africa?

Here are some excerpts from the Yahoo! News item I just linked above:

Bertrand Ramcharan and James Morris, chief of the U.N. World Food Program, spoke to reporters Friday after they briefed the Security Council on U.N. missions they recently led to the region.

"First, there is a reign of terror in this area; second, there is a scorched-earth policy; third there is repeated war crimes and crimes against humanity; and fourth, this is taking place before our very eyes," said Ramcharan, the acting U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

"The government clearly has supported the militias, organized the militias, and this is taking place with the knowledge and support, and active complicity of the government," he added.

But when asked if he held the government of Sudan responsible for the atrocities, Ramcharan said: "I condemn the government of Sudan and I do not think it was responsible."

What was that last statement? "I condemn the government of Sudan and I do not think it was responsible." Didn't he just say: "The government clearly has supported the militias, organized the militias, and this is taking place with the knowledge and support, and active complicity of the government,"

What?

More excerpts:

In a report released Friday, the rights group Human Rights Watch said Sudanese soldiers and nomadic Arab militiamen, known as janjaweed, have killed thousands of black Africans and driven more than 1 million from their homes.

It accused the Arab-dominated government of providing weapons and air support to the janjaweed, who often sweep into villages riding camels and horses, and called on the Security Council to step in to help stop the bloodshed and look for evidence of crimes against humanity.

In his report, Ramcharan said it "is clear that there is a reign of terror in Darfur" and characterized the violence as "largely ethnically based."

He pointed to "a pattern of attacks on civilians including killing, rape, pillage, including of livestock, and destruction of property, including water sources."

The janjaweed "have operated with total impunity and in close coordination with the forces of the government of Sudan," according to the report, drawn in part from interviews with some of the estimated 110,000 Sudanese who have fled across the border into Chad.
..........
In its report, Human Rights Watch likened the Darfur situation to the beginning of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when 500,000 people were slaughtered by a government-backed, extremist militia.

The international community has been widely criticized for not intervening to stop that bloodshed.

"Ten years after the Rwandan genocide and despite years of soul-searching, the response of the international community to the events in Sudan has been nothing short of shameful," the human rights watchdog said.

On PBS Now, Samatha Powers, author of Genocide: a problem from Hell, also described what is happening at the moment in Sudan.

She said the world is largely ignoring it. She remarked that the US is one of the few countries that has raised the issue in the UN but the pleas for intervention in Sudan are falling on deaf ears. She noted that the US military is spread so thin that the US probably won't send troops there and hasn't pushed as hard in the UN as she would like. Unfortunately, she said no one else appears willing to take on the task.

The world often sometimes asks the US to be the "world's policeman" and in the same breath hates America for doing so and condemns American when it won't act in that role. The US just can't "win" in world opinion.

A terrible situation is brewing in Sudan. US forces are committed in Iraq and Afghanistan and a few other places. Will anyone else step up to the plate and put their troops on the line to save these people in Sudan?

The world expresses outrage at the prisoner abuses in Iraq. Where is the outrage over what is happening Sudan?