Bad news for Paul Martin and the people of Darfur.
The Sudanese government has apparently refused the offer of 100 Canadian soldiers to help the African Union in Darfur. Faiza Hassan Taha, the Sudanese ambassador, said Ottawa didn’t consult her country about the offer. She said Khartoum doesn’t want any non-African troops in the country.
This is a both for the people of Darfur and Paul Martins chances to use this as a political football.
One has to wonder why the Sudanese government doesn’t want non-African troops. Is it because of the less-than-stellar record of past UN missions in Africa? Is it because of its’ colonial past and other reasons with racial overtones? Or is it because they know that Western troops might find evidence of wrongdoing by the Sudanese government and the AU might be less…. effective?
Whatever the reason it is clear that the UN and Canada are failing to adequately address the ongoing crisis in Darfur. The UNSC is permanently locked in a struggle between it’s veto-weilding members… the consequences? More and more suffering is being allowed to happen.
According to IRIN in March, if relief doesn’t start flowing to help Darfur, 3 million people will be internally displaced by the end of 2005.
Maybe we need to start looking ourselves in the eye and ask ourselves….
Is the reason we fled Rwanda, abondoned Somalia, and ignored Darfur because… they’re black?
They’d much prefer some from France, I’m sure.