200,000. That's 5-times the number of civilians killed in Iraq since 2005.
2,500,000 displaced. That's more than three-times the Jews that emigrated to Israel after the holocaust.
If the numbers don't chill you, the anecdotes will. Press reports as well as the United Nations are aghast - at citizens being forced out of their homes and into camps, at refugees in camps being attacked and murdered, at mass tortures and mass rapes, at the recruitment of child soldiers, at girls as young as 5 being sexually abused, with their parents being forced to watch,... at innumerable other crimes against humanity.
However, the governments are, as I mentioned, still only wondering how to react. And even this effort of thought they have been forced into - by the International Criminal Court (ICC) which held Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir responsible for genocide earlier this week.
This is not the first time that the United Nations has issued a wake-up call, and by the looks of it, it won't be the last either.
After all, the last time the ICC held someone in Sudan to account for murder, it led to little more than some press releases by government spokespersons. As a result, even ten months later after indictment, Ahmad Harun is not only walking free but also strutting as a Government minister for providing relief to the victims of violence and displacement in Darfur! He continues his abusive reign as the humanitarian affairs minister.
Similarly, Ali Kushayb, the other criminal charged at the same time as Harun, also runs free as the "colonel of colonels" of the janjaweed militia.
It must have been infuriation against nothing changing that forced the ICC to bring up an unprecedented charge - the indictment is the first against a ruling president. Nevertheless, the bravado is unlikely to bring chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's (involved with both the earlier indictment and the latest) frustration to an end.
US and UK armies are overextended. Europe has an economy to worry about. African countries mind only their own business (see Zimbabwe's election for instance). Asia (except China) has no muscle to show. And China has too much at stake in Sudan's oil to wrangle with the ruling powers that be. (Moreover, China has too many skeletons of its own that it doesn't like others talking about - so it won't be setting a 'bad precedent' by criticizing Sudan.)
Naturally,
"China expresses grave concern and misgivings over ICC's charge against the Sudanese leader. The relevant actions of the ICC should be conducive to the stability in Sudan ....not the opposite.
"...We will work with the international community and continue our contribution to achieve at an early date the peace, stability and development in Darfur."
Wow. This must be some strange usage of the word stability that I was previously unaware of.*
*(With apologies to Douglas Adams)
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