At the top of our list of wishes for the New Year is that the world community finally takes decisive action to halt the appalling genocide in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
The time is long past for talking about what to do in Darfur, where Arab janjaweed militia have conducted wholesale slaughter of black Africans that has left more than 200,000 dead and a million homeless.
Outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his farewell press conference, called for the world to keep the Darfur crisis a top priority. Well and good, but the U.N. should vote to send in a truly effective international force (including units of the caliber of the U.S. 101st Airborne or the French Legion Etanger) to neutralize the janjaweed, restore order, and return the victims of this shameful genocide to their homes. Sudan President Omar al-Bashir recently said he’s willing to accept a U.N. force, a hopeful sign.
In another positive development in Africa, Somali forces, with Ethiopian military help, have put renegade Islamist militias on the run, raising prospects for ending the extremists’ reign of terror.
Concerted international pressure via the U.N. also is needed to convince rogue nations like North Korea and Iran that the world won’t tolerate more nuclear powers. The U.S. can’t go it alone, and European countries can and should convince Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that his country has much to gain by eschewing nuclear weapons and forsaking eradication of Israel as a national goal. Although Chinese-sponsored six-party talks to dismantle Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program ended in failure late last month, we hope that Beijing and other Pacific Rim powers such as Japan pressure North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to drop this madness and feed his starving people.
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s illness – combined with indications that his brother, Raul, who is acting leader, may favor some modest economic reforms – raise our hopes that relations with the island republic may thaw. The message that strong-man governments are passé in the Western Hemisphere may be lost, however, on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who’s making noises about closing down opposition Radio Caracas Television. We hope Chavez realizes one-party rule is out of style.
We also wish the U.S.-led international effort succeeds in putting down the Taliban extremists in Afghanistan once and for all. And it wouldn’t hurt if silver linings start to appear behind the clouds in Iraq, either.
