28 November, 2005

Genocidal Regimes Need Lobbyists Too

The genocide in Darfur continues as does the near-total indifference of the United States – it's government, its media, and its people. The estimated death toll moved into the six-figure range last month:

More than 100,000 people are now believed to have died in the Darfur region of Sudan since the United Nations Security Council set a 30-day deadline last year for the Khartoum regime to begin to resolve the crisis in the area.

Humanitarian agencies and the African Union are warning that the situation in Darfur is again deteriorating, with five AU peacekeepers killed in the past week and parts of the region inaccessible after an aid convoy was ambushed and the staff stripped and beaten.


And what about those African Union troops?

The AU yesterday [22 October 2005] missed a new deadline to increase troop numbers in the region to more than 7,000, mainly because it remains dollars 173 million short of the money it needs to finance the operation. It is also short of fuel and is being hindered by the Sudanese government, which has refused to allow a consignment of Canadian-supplied armoured personnel carriers to enter the country.

So what is my government doing? According to Nat Hentoff:

But Reuters, reporting from Washington on Nov. 2, disclosed that "U.S. lawmakers stripped out $59 million in funding for African Union troops struggling to keep the peace in Darfur. The money was taken out of a foreign funding appropriations bill."

I have heard no protest about this cut from George W. Bush, who, following former Secretary of State Colin Powell, unequivocally declared that genocide is taking place in Darfur. And where is the Congressional Republican leadership?

Even the right-wing think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute, via a task force co-chaired by Newt Gingrich concludes:

Our task force addressed Darfur directly, recommending a series of immediate initiatives for the United States, the UN and others, including establishment of a no-flight zone. Although the outcome document did not address this issue, it is clear that international action is still urgently needed. African Union troops in Darfur are unable to protect themselves, let alone those they were sent to protect.

The AU cannot quell the conflict alone and we can't even give them a paltry $59 million – chump change for our nation. What's worse, as Hentoff notes, is that, despite being a genocidal regime, the leaders of Sudan deserve what all power-hungry folks do: a lobbyist.

"There are indications that the U.S. State Department is shifting its policy toward Sudan. Instead of putting more pressure on this Khartoum government, (Condoleezza Rice) granted them a waiver to hire a U.S. lobbyist (Robert Cabelly). For $530,000 a year, this lobbyist will represent a regime we have accused of genocide." (This letter was co-signed by 105 members of Congress.)


Mr. Cabelly – have you no shame? Ms. Rice – have you no shame? Our government won't even give the Pentagon's table scraps to the AU to stop genocide! What needs to be done? Do forged documents alleging the Sudanese government is seeking WMDs and has ties to Al-Qaeda need to surface?

We really don't care, do we? We didn't care much about Yugoslavia nor about Rwanda. You'd think that a film like Hotel Rwanda could stir up some conversation about something other than how great Don Cheadle's performance in it was. I've never seen Hotel Rwanda but I have seen a lecture given by Roméo Dallaire, the head of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Rwanda. He and his soldiers had the misfortune of being able to do virtually nothing to stop the slaughter of 800,000 people over the course of 100 days. (For my fellow Wisconsonians - that's half the population of the Milwaukee metro area in less than a football season.) His tales were just grotesque. Such as pregnant women having their bellies cut open with machetes and having their fetuses butchered. Yet we collectively stood by and did nothing. Where were we? What sports star was on trial? What actress' nipple slipped?

Congress is willing to put down martinis and drop golf clubs to rush back to Washington in a bid to "save" the corpse of a woman animated only by feeding tubes and respirators but can't be bothered with genocide. Families are being riven apart at gunpoint, women are being raped, and people are being murdered yet all our government is willing to do is to hire a lobbyist to state its position on the situation in Darfur. For over half a million dollars a year, Robert Cabelly will sit at the table and say "What you're doing is wrong".

According to this article from the Washington Post, Cabelly's hiring infuriated at least one member of Congress:

This did not sit well with Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), who has been spearheading the drive in Congress to stop the slaughter in the Darfur region. Wolf took to the House floor last week to condemn the agreement -- "Where will the lobbying wheel of fortune stop next?" he asked -- and to blast the State Department for waiving sanctions on doing business with Sudan so Cabelly could get the contract.

At least someone is outraged.

Read this story by Dallaire:

The sergeant is there with a couple of hundred people congregating. He calls back to the headquarters to get transport to pull them out of there into safe sites -- not safe zones, as my military colleagues prevented me from implementing. They wanted me to implement a safe zone during the genocide -- take southern Rwanda, put a wall across, and the Tutsis can be safe inside there. The Tutsis couldn’t make it there because there was a roadblock every 100 meters.

Suddenly, from one side of the village comes a group of young boys, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and they’re shooting at him and the people he is defending. And from the other side there is a group of girls coming, and behind them are boys shooting at the sergeant, at his troops, but, most importantly, at the people they’re supposed to be protecting.

What does the sergeant do? Do you kill children? This is one example of the moral and ethical dilemmas in which we find ourselves in many of these conflicts. They’re not high-tech, but they require a depth of intellectual rigueur, they require values and people who know to go beyond themselves and potentially sacrifice themselves -- not because the order or mandate is there, but because morally and ethically that’s the right thing to do.


It will be December soon so remember: the Christmas spirit is not what you drink. Regardless of which holiday you celebrate next month, think and act upon the right thing to do. If you cannot donate money, at least contact your representatives in government. Don't know who they are? Go here and find out. For my fellow Madisonians, here's the relevant contact info:

Senator Russ Feingold
Washington Office:
SH-506
Washington, D.C. 20510-4904
Phone: (202) 224-5323
Fax: (202) 224-2725

Main District Office:
1600 Aspen Commons, Rm. 100
Middleton, WI 53562
Phone: (608) 828-1200
Fax: (608) 828-1203
Webpage

Senator Herb Kohl
Washington Office:
SH-330
Washington, D.C. 20510-4903
Phone: (202) 224-5653
Fax: (202) 224-9787

Main District Office:
310 West Wisconsin Ave., #950
Milwaukee, WI 53203
Phone: (414) 297-4451
Fax: (414) 297-4455
Webpage

Representative Tammy Baldwin
Washington Office:
1022 LHOB
Washington, D.C. 20515-4902
Phone: (202) 225-2906
Fax: (202) 225-6942

Main District Office:
10 East Doty St., Ste. 405
Madison, WI 53703
Phone: (608) 258-9800
Fax: (608) 258-9808
Webpage

And don't forget that the conflict in Rwanda spilled into Congo.

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