Thursday, September 21, 2006



Darfur: the AU stays

The African Union has agreed to extend the mandate of its peacekeeping force in Darfur until the end of the year. The AU force will also be strengthened, and receive logistical support from the UN. This is good news, and it means that there will at least be someone on the ground to act as an independent witness and try and protect the civilian population. At the same time, we should remember that the AU aren't really up to this job, and we need a full UN peacekeeping force as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, despite enormous international pressure, the Sudanese government seem to be as far from accepting that as ever...

Posted by Idiot/Savant at 9/21/2006 12:23:00 PM

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10 comments:

I haven't looked at this closely enough to develop an opinion, but for an alternate perspective on the desirability of UN troops in Darfur, see this article from the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1875702,00.html

 Posted by Anonymous : 9/21/2006 05:55:00 PM

This is good news. We don't need western troops with ulterior motives going into yet another Muslim country.

 Posted by Anonymous : 9/21/2006 07:03:00 PM

Yes - saving women and children from slaughter are inadmissible motives: let's just pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves that in doing nothing we're showing our respect for islam...

As for that column, Huskynut, written by a man who urged the global community in 1994 to "leave Rwanda alone"; happily it has been challenged in a rebuttal:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1877064,00.html

 Posted by Anonymous : 9/22/2006 01:31:00 AM

The problem is the west cannot be trusted. It's a toss of the coin whether they'll help or just make matters worse. Usually landing on the latter.

 Posted by Anonymous : 9/22/2006 09:22:00 AM

Spoken like a lazy hypocrite living in comfort and security. Large portions of the left made precisely the same points with regard to Rawanda, and before the NATO intervention in Kosovo.

 Posted by Anonymous : 9/22/2006 10:49:00 AM

Spoken like a true armchair imperialist, who thinks the west is here to save the world from itself, while in truth it simply attempts to shape events to its own advantage. As long as the African Union has a mandate then we should support the African Union and stay the fuck out.

If the west wasn't so full of right (and "left") wingers partial to imperialism then I might have a different view on the matter.

 Posted by Anonymous : 9/22/2006 07:20:00 PM

Anthony,
You think the AU can be trusted?????

 Posted by Genius : 9/22/2006 07:54:00 PM

Maybe if you and others like you were more critical of the way your culture acts on the international stage we wouldn't need to have this discussion.

If I had it my way we wouldn't have the institutions of global capitalism that foster greed and domination. And while I don't trust any organisation built upon top of this despicable arrangement I trust the African Union a whole lot more to deal with problems in its own region (with proper international support) than I do with the self-aggrandizing armchair liberals and chickenhawk neocons of the west.

 Posted by Anonymous : 9/23/2006 08:18:00 AM

Im concerned by the AU because I see it a bit like a street gang that has just been given a uniform and control of the city.
You can probably trust them not to take over the country because they aren't competent enough... But extortion and raping women and children - that's a distinct possibility.
The good news for the west is that we wont hear too much about it. A little like just not sending anyone there at all allows hundreds of thousands to die..
Aparently we have low expectations of some.

 Posted by Genius : 9/23/2006 10:30:00 AM

You are leaping to conclusions.

You can get that from western intervention too, but unlikely to be of the same magnitude.

 Posted by Genius : 9/24/2006 08:20:00 AM

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