Sudan: When the dust settles

One of the greatest fallouts from the Iraq war has been Darfur. Now it seems the world’s attention has finally turned into action on this dusty corner of Sudan.

Seems is the operative word here. The new security resolution to back a 26,000 strong hybrid peace-force (if ever there was such an obvious oxymoron), for many, is toothless. Similar to a previous resolution which failed to get off the ground last year, it doesn’t threaten sanctions for non-cooperation or allow disarming of fighters.

By relying on cooperation from Khartoum - dab hands at stalling the international community – the jury is still out on peace and we will have to wait and see. All the time remembering that we are actually talking about real and desperate lives here.

Pathetically it seems that the only reason China got on board was due to threats of an Olympic boycott, has it really come to this? Thousands of lives hanging upon a sporting event.

Meanwhile the Security Council’s connections with the Khartoum government continue to come to light.

China with its obvious oil interests (it’s accused, here, of swapping arms for oil). Russia also likes to make money from selling the country weapons. British companies, including Barclays and even the Church of England continue to invest in oil operations (source) and the US are using Kharhtoum for its activities in Somalia and Iraq (source). With friends like these…

Oh and has anyone mentioned the Janjaweed? Surely we don’t expect them to simply ride off into the sunset and take up office jobs.

END

Detailed critique of resolution, here
Slightly over-the-top comment in Guardian
how about a German point of view?