Human rights on trial

We choose to ignore atrocities committed in the Third World when it is politically expedient. As in Sudan.

by Nick Cohen

Human rights on trial....

It brings tears to your eyes that things like this go on in Africa.

As Cohen argues, the UN has been useless--or worse. And what's really infuriating is that we still desperately need the UN, and we have to make do with the existing power structures.

Annan finally last week found a moment to criticize Bashir directly and called upon him to disarm the militias.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10726&Cr=sudan&Cr1=

Hopefully the AU can prevent this from spiraling totally out of control. The EU had pledged to help, then balked at sending peacekeepers. Last I checked, the Germans were still expressing concerns and a willingness to lead, but I don't know where that's going.

The need is still desperate:

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10732&Cr=sudan&Cr1=

And it's infuriating to know that this "humanitarian" crisis is the result of a war crime, the kind of atrocity the UN was designed to prevent, that it could have prevented, arguably, had there been a strong political inclination to do so. It's an outrage.