Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Stopping Sudanese genocides

By IRWIN COTLER


Earlier this month, the US special envoy on Sudan, Princeton Lyman, called upon South Africa – current chair of the UN Security Council – to ensure that “crisis is averted” in Sudan, saying, “The prospect of hundreds of thousands of people dying with no access to food or medicine is something we can’t accept.”

South Africa has long been a mediator in Sudan and its leadership is needed now more than ever. Sudanese officials are engaged in an escalating and violent triangular assault on two states that border South Sudan – South Kordofan and Blue Nile – as well as on the oil-rich region of Abyei coveted by Khartoum.

Sudanese expert Eric Reeves recently described and documented this now ominously parallel triangular assault as follows:

Accelerating violence by Khartoum’s regular and militia forces threatens many hundreds of thousands of civilians in Blue Nile and South Kordofan; the regime’s military seizure of Abyei is now a fait accompli; the international community seems unable even to speak about the urgent need for cross-border humanitarian corridors to reach highly distressed populations. War has begun again in Sudan, and it is a war whose historical trajectory is tragically clear. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

No comments: