The Forgotten Genocide

While American politicians obsess about Russia and promote billions in relief for the country of Georgia, the genocide in Darfur goes on. While billions watch the Olympic Games in China, that nation remains the chief enabler of the Sudanese-sponsored rapes and murders.

The politics of the situation are complex, but limited attention span is mostly evidence, if we needed any more, that African peoples living in a drought-stricken land aren't as important as Europeans with oil. The International Criminal Court has accused the president of Sudan of crimes against humanity, and the UN peacekeeping force has been renewed for another year, although their numbers needed to be increased for them to be effective. Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders had to withdraw staff from several areas because of persistent attacks on them, affecting the medical care of at least 65,000 refugees.

One small hope is the tactic that helped to end apartheid in South Africa: economic boycott. Today the California State Senate will consider a bill to ban any company that does business linked to supporting genocide from receiving state contracts. As the Save Darfur Coalition put it, "It will force companies to make a choice: they can either work with the genocidal government of Sudan or they can work with the state of California."

Readers in California should contact their State Senators and urge them to vote for this bill (the Darfur Contracting Act). Readers in other states should urge their legislators to consider and pass similar legislation. And candidates for Congress in this year's election should answer this question: what are you prepared to do to stop the genocide in Darfur?

Update: Although Barack Obama mentions stopping genocide in Darfur as he campaigns, it was Joe Biden--now his Vice Presidential candidate--who brought it up most passionately in the debates. That's encouraging.