WHEN YOU think about it, the human capacity for inaction in the face of violations of the principles we say we cherish most is quite astounding. We dismiss problems in this world that are an affront to everything we say we stand for simply by saying they are not our problems. So it goes in Sudan, whose western region of Darfur has been and continues to be the site of wholly preventable genocide. The argument that the rest of world has no interest in internal conflicts of this nature simply does not apply when such a heinous violation of the rights of our fellow human beings is occurring. According to the United Nations, at least 180,000 African blacks have died as a result of starvation and disease, and most reports put the total dead at 300,000. Additionally, militias backed by the Arab-dominated government have displaced another 2 million. To give a sense of perspective, the estimated number of civilians killed in the Iraq war to date is at most about 19,770, according to the independent database of media-reported civilian deaths iraqbodycount.net.
The U.S. government has taken some steps to provide relief for the region, but the crisis has not been a major policy priority of the Bush administration. As such, its efforts to pressure allies into action or at least lend their support have been lackluster. The United States recently threatened to withhold its $1.7 billion in aid for reconstruction of the war-torn southern section of Sudan unless the situation improves, but with countries like China willing to pay whatever it takes to keep the oil flowing from Sudanese fields, such gestures are clearly of limited use, especially when European allies have been reluctant to make similar demands. On the whole, the Bush administration has been unwilling to invest the necessary political capital in the crisis to get any meaningful responses from its lethargic allies.
At the United Nations, progress has been slow. The U.N. Security Council this week referred the prosecution of crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court two months after such a move was recommended by a U.N.-appointed commission studying the situation. Here, the problem had been America's hostility to the use of the ICC, which it fears will be used by other countries to bring up politically motivated charges against Americans in Iraq. But the United States has by no means been the only source of the problem. Though most European countries have at one point or another called Darfur a top priority, their support for international action has been inconsistent at best. Allowing the ICC to begin its investigation is a step in the right direction, but the progress cannot end there.
There is no logical way that the situation in Darfur is going to improve without a larger peacekeeping force and more foreign support. Currently, an African Union force of 2,000 is all that is monitoring an area the size of France. "Monitoring" sadly does not mean protecting innocent civilians or the aid workers trying to help them. The AU's intention in providing this force was to prove to the rest of the world that Africa can solve its own problems. Clearly, the AU has not proved its point and people are suffering as a result. Pressure must be brought to bear on the AU to expand and refocus its operations, and other countries must be willing to provide the requisite support. In an op-ed piece in The New York Times on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote, "Our collective failure to provide a much larger force is as pitiful and inexcusable as the consequences are grave for the tens of thousands of families who are left unprotected."
If outside help is required, as it undoubtedly is, the initiative will have to come from the United States. Only by making explicitly clear to its allies that the situation in Darfur is an unacceptable moral stain on the international community will there be any chance of pulling those countries into line. They will have to be convinced that a larger peacekeeping force is required to protect both the civilians under attack and the humanitarian aid workers attempting to assist them. If the United States does not make clear that it is willing to do more than talk tough about our duty to our fellow man, then no one is going to provide the leadership necessary to begin rectifying the situation.
When good men do nothing, evil triumphs. In Darfur, that triumph -- and our shame -- is preventable genocide. We like to say that as a nation we appeal to a set of higher principles than raw self-interest. Let's prove it.
A.J. Kornblith's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at akornblith@cavalierdaily.com.
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