A Task for the G-8
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The summiteers gathering today at Sea Island, Ga., have invited the leaders of six African nations to join them. So along with President Bush and the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia, the leaders of Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda are expected to be on hand. This is raising hopes that the G-8 will take up the ethnic cleansing that’s been going on in the Western part of Sudan.
As our Dina Temple-Raston reported from inside Sudan and from along the Chad-Sudan border, black Africans report that airplanes from the Sudanese government and Arabic horsemen have attacked their villages. Vacant villages in Sudan are horrifying evidence in support of that claim. Refugees are swelling on the Chad side of the border, and mass starvation is a real possibility.
Senator Kerry drew attention to the issue yesterday.”The Sudan’s western Darfur region demands the world’s immediate attention and action. Rampages against defenseless civilians by government-sponsored militia have caused the deaths of an estimated 30,000 people, and more than 1 million have been made homeless,” he said.
The International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental organization, wrote to world leaders this week, urging them to “adopt a strong statement in their closing declaration reflecting their determination to ensure that sufficient resources are available for relief of the victims of ethnic cleansing, that the relief will reach the victims, that the ethnic cleansing will not stand and that the Government of Sudan will be held accountable.”
Mr. Bush’s nominee to be the new ambassador at the United Nations, John Danforth, had some success in his earlier role as Mr. Bush’s envoy in fashioning a truce between the Sudanese government and Christians in Southern Sudan. If Mr. Bush devotes similar attention to the crisis in Western Sudan, it may yield a similar payoff. Meanwhile, the Senate Foreign Relations committee is also expected to hold a hearing on the Darfur crisis. As the G-8 considers what to do, one option worth their considering is arming and training the black Africans so they can fight off the forces of the Arab government from Sudan.
