If Bush Really Wanted to Save Darfur...

. . . It could all happen quite quickly, really. What would it mean for the United States to act as a Global Good Neighbor toward Darfur?

By all accounts, the security situation is getting worse in Darfur. If it is getting worse for humanitarian workers, what must life be like for the millions stuck in camps, often under the control of the same militia members responsible for the genocide?

Writing from Khartoum at the end of an 11-day assessment mission, Ken Bacon, president of Refugees International, suggests that the number of people that the World Food Program can not reach in Darfur because of security problems has more than doubled to 350,000. He further suggests that rebel forces under the control of the one rebel leader who signed the recent peace agreement with the Sudanese government is now coordinating with government forces in their attacks on the rebel groups that refused to sign.

Ironically, this news comes to light as President Bush prepares for a July 25 meeting with that same rebel leader, Minni Minawi. Bacon has put his recent findings into a letter to the President urging that the Bush administration use the upcoming meeting as the occasion to launch a renewed (and belated) push for implementation of the peace agreement. After the obligatory acknowledgement of all of the good that Bush has done in Darfur, Bacon lists specific additional steps that Bush could take if he really wanted to support peace in Darfur.

To date, the Sudanese government has shown little interest in peace. Why should it? Sudan's status as a key source of intelligence on al-Qaeda -- and, therefore, a U.S. ally in the war on terror--has so far kept the United States from taking decisive action to make the genocide stop. Yes, if Bush really wanted to save Darfur, it could all happen quite quickly, really.

UUSC is pleased to join organizations like Africa Action, that are stepping up their pressure on the U.S. government at this crucial time. We, too, will be stepping up our activity around Darfur in preparation for an International Day of Action on Darfur, September 17 in New York at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.