When will the Sudan genocide end?

When will the killing, the genocide in Sudan stop? Yes, this week finally we have declared the crisis in Darfur to be a – genocide. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Secretary of State Colin Powell. What’s in a word – “genocide”? A great deal when it comes to quickly martialing the world’s resources and energies in order to put a stop to a preventable catastrophy being committed by barbarians in the Sudan including the Arab Janjaweed marauders and what finally appears to more clearly be the Sudanese military themselves. In recent analyses and surveys of refugees who were displaced from Darfur, verifiable reports have identified that over three-fourths of the violence is being perpetrated in the hands of the Sudanese military themselves. Powell confirmed this in Senate testimony last week. Knowing this now, it is not surprising in retrospect that the Arab League has been dragging its collective feet at declaring a “genocide” and owning up to their humanitarian responsibility for the tragedy occurring at the hands of one of their colleague nations. We acted too late in Rwanda ten years ago and with more than one million displaced from their homes and upwards of 100,000 dead we are certainly far from early in Sudan. The EU has begun to come around regarding the insistance upon corrective action by the Sudanese government, but we can no longer stand idly by. Organizations like the Save Darfur coalition ( http://www.savedarfur.org ) signed on by more than 100 international organizations including our own American Islamic Forum for Democracy ( http://www.aifdemocracy.org ) have been working to wake up the world to the genocide occurring on the watch of all world leaders under the blinders and complicity of the Sudanese government. We finally have reliable testimony. In Senate testimony and soon in U.N. action we will formally hear the world decry the genocide. When will the world finally listen? Listen to all those giving testimony and organizations trying to promote human rights without access in Darfur. Listen to the suffering of the displaced million of Darfur and the suffering of the families of those killed in the genocide. Unfortunately, we can no longer hear the voices of the viciously murdered in the genocide of Darfur or the ones from prior crises in Sudan. We must act now and the world must finally begin to effectively listen to the world’s humanitarian organizations like SaveDarfur.org, Human Rights Watch and so many others who have been decrying the continued suffering of the Sudanese in Darfur. Perhaps sometime soon the world will act This column first appeared at this link at the Arizona Republic