What a shock.
Rebels from the Darfur region of western Sudan said on Tuesday a U.N. report was
mistaken in failing to accuse the Sudan government and allied Arab militias of
genocide in the Darfur conflict.
"If this report says there is no genocide in Darfur then we reject this report," Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim told Reuters by telephone from his headquarters in the Eritrean capital Asmara.
"There are hundreds of mass graves that the commission did not go to," he said, adding the decision to stop short of a genocide finding was political.
...
The U.N. report, released on Monday, recommended that unnmaed government
officials and militia leaders be referred to the International Criminal
Court for widespread and systematic abuses, which may constitute crimes
againsthumanity but did not amount to genocide. The United States said last
year genocide had occurred in Darfur.
...
Officials in Khartoum declined to comment immediately on the report, saying
they needed more time to study the findings.
But Sudan's ambassador to Britain Hassan Abdin told the BBC in London: "We are
grateful to the international commission for exonerating the Sudanese government
of committing genocide... There was no genocide in Sudan."He denied the government was responsible for war crimes but said: "I think there
are individuals who have been responsible and should be held accountable for the
violation of human rights."
After years of tribal conflict over scarce resources in arid Darfur, rebels took
up arms in early 2003 accusing the government of neglect and of giving
preferential treatment to Arab tribes. They accuse Khartoum of arming Arab
militias, known locally as Janjaweed, to loot and burn non-Arab villages.
Khartoum says it armed some militias to fight the rebels but denies any links to
the Janjaweed, saying they are outlaws.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the rebellion began and
more than 1.8 million people have fled their homes because of the
violence.
...
He said the report was probably right in stopping short of calling it
genocide as there did not seem to be a desire on behalf of the government to
"destroy an entire people", even though ethnic cleansing had certainly taken
place in Darfur.
So, the question begs asking, just how many people of a certain ethnicity do you have to kill to qualify as genocide? Is this a question best forward to the ghostly Stalin & Hitler...or perhaps there is some other qualifier. Perhaps you must be pre-judged by the world court of public opinion as equivalent to Hitler. Like, if Dubya were the President of Sudan, then it would be genocide because Bush=Hitler. Maybe?
Am I the only person on Earth who sees the UN as increasingly devoid of conscience? They fail to make even the most obvious of conclusions, and we are expected to believe they are still some august body of right? Wrong. Call a spade a pack of dirty, lying, corrupt, theives. I don't care what their motivations, if one group of people is systematically killing another group of people and committing the sorts of atrocities we've already seen reports of...for no other reason than they are non-muslim, they are christian, they are black, white, polka dot, or worship the Prophet Bob, it is genocide.
Is the UN saying these people were not deliberately killed? I have a feeling witnesses will tell you otherwise (if THEY haven't all been killed.) Apparently in the great book held by the crook Kofi Annan of What is Right and What is Wrong, "ethnic cleansing" does not genocide make. Sure it doesn't Kofi. Of course, this is the same guy under whose careful watch the Oil-for-Palaces scam took place, none of which (according to Kofi) was an abuse of the Iraqi People's Trust.
If ever there was a human being I wanted to Bitch-slap, it would have to be Kofi. Of course, I really think he should be subjected to some of that non-genocidal ethnic cleansing. It is so much easier to judge, after all, when your boots are on the ground. (Relax, I'm not advocating a hit on Kofi -- I want him to face the music on the Oil-for-Palaces thing, I'm just saying he could use a little perspective.)
But he has earned a place on my list. And it isn't a good list either!
Let's face it. "Ethnic Cleansing" is a euphemism for genocide. Kofi apparently believes that ethnic cleansing is achieved with a wire brush and judicious application of soap. Once again, the UN proves itself to be morally bankrupt.
