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Banning dignity
by Thanos Kalamidas
2007-09-06 10:35:07 |
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I know, I know, I’m going to be my usual cynical self but it was about time for the General Secretary of the United Nations to remember why he’s actually there and move from the fancy New York receptions to Darfur. Really, has anybody noticed that the UN has a new secretary? And what has he done to excuse his position in the last few months?
Darfur is the end of human dignity and I have said the very same thing before, Darfur is the place where hope ends, Darfur is the place that kids die every day, Darfur is the place a civil war has cost 200,000 lives and millions of homeless! Darfur is the place where the General Secretary should be every day fighting for what is left of humanity and not just… paying a visit with priority to get the 26,000-strong UN and African Union force into position - the troops will arrive sometime next year! That’s the UN's dignity, a dignity the General Secretary has the obligation to save! Next year? How dare they say that?
Oh yes, Mr. Ban Ki-moon has a series of excuses, the best one? The African countries are ready and have offered troops but the western nations have been slow to come up with the logistical support and the helicopters needed for this kind of operation. And which are these western countries Mr. Ban Ki-moon? Why don’t you give the names? How often do we see adverts that remind us about Darfur paid by NGOs, organizations and the UN on MTV and other international channels? And the only answer is we get is… next year?
Mr. Ban, emphasizing his dual role and his visit, said that he’s trying to encourage talks between the Sudanese government and the rebel groups, yet this sounds like a bad joke. Rebel groups? Every single community, every single gang has created its own group with its own warlord, most likely there are just as many presidents and prime ministers around the world as there are different warlords in Sudan this moment.
It would be much easier to gather these western powers and persuade them to send what is needed to Sudan than gather those warlords in one place and start talks with the Sudanese government. That’s the second part of the joke. How much responsibility is this Sudanese government going to shoulder for what’s happening there? Does anybody think that the Sudanese government is innocent for what’s going on?
When Mr. Ban took over he said that Darfur is his top priority, well since January it took him what… eight months to seriously activate himself and what is he doing? He comes with declarations like he’s glad that the Sudanese government finally accepted peacekeepers, condemning the killing and starting talks with the rebels. First of all, after all this hate, how can the government that has been part of the problem, responsible for massacres, going to be part of the solution?
What started over thirty years ago with the child soldiers in Uganda, Tanzania and then Rhodesia has found full practice in Sudan and the government might like to blame everything on the rebels but then they employed child-children to deal with the rebels’ child-children; at least that was the excuse when they had killed two generations, so they had to enlist from even lower ages. What’s the average age of the Sudanese soldiers? Sixteen!!! So are these the people with whom to start peace talks?
The only thing we can hope is that Mr. Ban’s visit to Sudan will not ban dignity because I don’t know how much will be left a year after to enjoy the peace talks!
Ovi_magazine Thanos_Kalamidas UN Genocide |
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