Obama must act to stop slaughter in Darfur

By ROBERT MESSA
Although there are pressing domestic issues dominating the headlines these days, there is an old headline that needs to be revisited.


The declared genocide occurring in the Darfur province of Sudan has seen the systematic slaughter of innocent men, women and children. More than 400,000 people have died according to figures that are only estimated because the brutal regime that is perpetrating this genocide will not let a proper count be taken.

United Nations' estimates put the displaced at 2 million. The Sudanese leadership, in conjunction with paid militias, have raped women who have wandered from their refugee camps, killed men in horrifying ways in front of their own children and most recently, started rounding up the intelligent people who oppose this regime and making them "disappear."

They have killed humanitarian aid workers so that only a few organizations will now take the chance to help the people displaced within the Sudan or those who have fled to neighboring Chad. There is rampant starvation of children and disease from unclean drinking water.
Our present administration in Washington has promised to hold these criminals (the U.N.'s International Criminal Court in the Hague has declared some Sudanese leaders to be war criminals and has issued subpoenas for their arrest in conjunction with crimes against humanity) accountable for their actions. Yet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Obama-appointed special envoy Scott Gration have decided to give these brutal murderers "carrots" to try to change their behavior, which has not changed in a decade. The leaders of Sudan view the administration's actions or inaction as weakness and have continued their brutal genocide with impunity since there are no consequences to them. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>