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June 16, 2004
Dare We Call It Genocide?
Recently, some people in the national media have begun to pay attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has been following the story pretty closely lately. He notes that the Bush administration is still trying to determine whether or not to call the mass murder and rape committed by the Sudanese government "genocide." According to the US Agency for International Development at least 320,000 people have died will die this year alone if no action is taken. Ted Koppel also covered this story last night on an episode of Nightline, which aired after the basketball game (when probably six people were watching). I certainly applaud Kristof and Koppel for finally bringing some attention to this story, but the international community's lack of response to this crisis is really inexcusable.
Update: Entry edited 6/19/04 due to my misreading of Kristof's editorial.
Posted by chuck at June 16, 2004 12:02 PM
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Comments
320,000 people. What was it, an accident?
But what more could we expect from the Bushies?
Posted by: cindy at June 17, 2004 11:58 AM
Sadly enough, you're right about BushCo. I hope that Kristof continues his important work covering the events there...
Posted by: chuck at June 17, 2004 2:00 PM
I just came across John Kerry's statement on the violence in Sudan. He stops short of calling the current situation genocide (it turns out I misread the statistic and 320,000 deaths is a predeiction, not the total numebr of deaths), but calls for immediate action to "to apply effective pressure on the Government of Sudan to rein in its militia proxies and to immediately provide unrestricted access for humanitarian aid and aid workers."
Posted by: chuck at June 20, 2004 1:04 AM