Darfur: Why the UN Security Council will do nothing serious

The simple explanation, in another context:

China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted resolution Friday that would have demanded Myanmar's military regime end political repression and human rights violations, insisting that the Southeast Asian nation's internal matters don't threaten international peace and security...

Strange to say, an article in the leftist New Statesman gets things right:

...China and other states have protected the Khartoum government while the US has been powerless to act. The reality is that Washington could do nothing to stop any state acting unilaterally to stop this killing, and would actually welcome anyone doing so.

Mesmerised by US history and by post-invasion Iraq, the international human-rights industry has also been slow to state what is now obvious. This is not an American problem. This is not a British problem. This is not even an EU problem. None of them could take the lead in solving it. This is an African, Arab and Asian problem. The solution is not invasion, or occupation, or regime change. The solution is in the hands of China and the African, Arab and other Asian states that surround, trade with and finance Sudan...

Western imperialism can be blamed for many things, but there is no imperialist explanation for why African, Asian and Arab states do not act over Darfur. They face no logistical obstacle to establishing a no-fly zone. The problem is one of will, not agency or capability...

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Mark C.

Posted by markc at January 13, 2007 05:54 PM