FW: CRISIS IN SUDAN: Arab Opportunity Amid a tragedy

Jon Kofas writes: "The recent humanitarian crisis in the Sudan has been boiling over for many years, but the world community has not responded in a concerted manner. No natural resources in the Sudan, no leverage with the international community. One of the poorest country's in the world, Sudan is divided by religion of the Muslim north versus non-Arab non-Muslim south, a division used as a veneer for long-standing tribal, social, economic, and political rivalries. Today the Sudan is in critical need of medicine and food aid, but more importantly, it needs the immediate deployment of an international (UN) force to stop the conflict and get the food and medicine to hundreds of thousands of people. Reports from the ground indicate that tens of thousand may die if aid does not arrive promptly. Secretary General Kofi Annan visitng the country on July 1st, urged the government to contain the Janjawid militia in Darfur. On July 2nd the government promised to send troops to contain the violence, after international pressure and media focus. Since 1982 the civil conflict has caused two major famines in the 1980s, and another in1998 when 2 million people died of starvation and war in a population of 26 million then, versus 40 million today. Amnesty International reported that 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and 1.2 million displaced. Human Rights Watch and the UN faulted then and now the authoritarian Islamist government of general al-Bashir for human rights abuses inflicted mostly on non-Arab Christians. With the world focused on Iraq, Sudan has not received much attention until these past two-three weeks in the U.S. and Europe. Though there are Christian and Jewish organizations trying to send aid to the Christians in the Sudan, the problem has always been political and so is the long-term solution. A country with poor people and few resources, the Sudan has no leverage and no prayer of securing the attention it deserves from the wealthy G-7, or from the rest of the world, except for the Scandinavians who always seem to do more than their share in providing humanitarian aid. The Arab governemnts have an even bigger responsibility than any other entity in the world, and a unique opportunity to prove to the entire world in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion in Iraq at this critical juncture that they are capable of preventing a humanitarian disaster and of helping to solve Sudan's political conflict for the duration on their own. This is a golden opportunity to silence western advocates of unilateral foreign policy and interventionism, but only if they act together constructively and fairly to solve the problem. Will they do it?" RH:The Sudan is the largest country in Africa. Perhaps it should be divided up- It was created in 1820-21 by Egypt, which lumped together a number of small states; they might provide a basis for a new division.It has modest reserves of some metals and of oil. A fanatical Muslim, the Mahdi (Messiah) captured Khartoum in 1885 after a long siege. He died the next year, but much of the population still seems to have a Wahabite mentality. That may be the main obstacle.