Western leaders are again saying the slaughter is unacceptable. Will they again do nothing?
EUROPEAN UNION leaders spoke out strongly on Darfur at a summit in Berlin on Sunday. “The situation,” said British Prime Minister Tony Blair, “is intolerable. . . . The actions of the Sudanese government are completely unacceptable.” “The suffering is unbearable,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “I want to state frankly that we have to consider stronger sanctions.”
It took less than 24 hours for the backing down to start. “You have to make sure that you do not raise expectations that cannot be met,” an E.U. spokesman in Brussels told the Associated Press. Officials cited the usual obstacles: the resistance of U.N. Security Council member China to sanctions; the unwillingness of Arab and other Islamic governments to support steps against the regime of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir; the difficulty of military operations in an area the size of France.
Those are the excuses that Western governments — including the Bush administration, which labeled the killing in Darfur “genocide” in 2004 — have used for several years to explain the lack of effective action. Meanwhile, the slaughter goes on: According to the United Nations the death toll in Darfur exceeds 200,000, while more than 2 million have been driven from their homes — including 86,000 this year.
China’s inexcusable defense of the regime continues, as does that of Arab governments that portray themselves as partners of the West. On Saturday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak flatly rejected a request by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon that he do more to pressure Mr. Bashir. “The issue is not pressure,” said Mr. Mubarak’s foreign minister.
In fact, more pressure is exactly what is needed. In addition to overseeing a renewed rampage by government-backed militias in Darfur, Mr. Bashir has reneged on an agreement to allow U.N. peacekeepers to join a tiny African Union force in the province. That position won’t change unless either the regime’s supply of arms or its oil-fueled economic boom is threatened.
Britain is said to be preparing a new Security Council resolution. But if the European Union leaders mean what they say, they don’t need to wait for the Security Council. E.U. sanctions against Sudan are relatively light; they could be extended to cover trade and investment. Mr. Blair spoke of imposing a no-fly zone to impede air attacks in Darfur. That’s an operation that would necessarily be carried out by Western powers, which could undertake it without U.N. sanction, as they did in Kosovo. If the situation in Darfur is “intolerable” and “unbearable” — and it is — Western governments should stop delaying the remedies that lie in their hands.