Darfur

A "weak and divided" international response on sending UN peacekeepers to Darfur is playing into the hands of the Sudanese government, a report says as reported by the BBC.

The International Crisis Group says diplomacy has "failed" and targeted sanctions are now needed to prevent the humanitarian situation from worsening.

It calls for economic measures to be applied to key business interests, in particular Sudan's petroleum sector.

An estimated 200,000 people have been killed during three years of fighting. This very report has wasted precious paper and said nothing new. The bottom line is that Khartoum will continue to exploit divisions, believing it can act with virtual impunity as long other nations are distracted by the threats of North Korea and Iran. Countries like Britain and the US argue that sending UN peacekeepers to Darfur is the only acceptable option, whilst other key players such as the UN special representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk, has suggested shifting the focus to bolstering the overstretched African Union (AU) force.

Though, the 7,000-strong AU peacekeeping force has been recently granted an extension of its mandate until the end of the year, allowing actual numbers on the ground to grow to 11,000 it NOT enough; especially since the Sudanese government has repeatedly rejected plans to transform the African force into the 20,600-strong UN mission agreed to by the Security Council in August, claiming their presence would constitute a breach of sovereignty.

Those who have read prior posts know my feelings on this subject. Thus, I will keep my opinion to one sentence saving you and my heart from more exertion than necessary. When the sovereignty of individuality is compromised there is no longer sovereignty of the whole.