NGO head: Prosecute Sudan gov't leaders must be
The Daily Pennsylvanian
December 5, 2006
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Aaron Dorfman, director of the American Jewish World Service, talks about the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan at the Kelly Writer's House last night. The U.S. government is reluctant to get involved.
Photo by Jeff Russ/The Daily Pennsylvanian
Since 2003, Arab militants, known as the Janjaweed, have murdered over 400,000 African Muslims in the Darfur region of western Sudan - and some say the Sudanese government has paved the way.
Aaron Dorfman, director of Jewish education at the American Jewish World Service, described these atrocities before a group of about 50 people at the Kelly Writers House last evening.
Dorfman said the Sudanese air force initiate attacks by dropping bombs on Darfur villages.
Afterwards, Janjaweed militiamen invade the bombed villages, where they rape, murder and stuff bodies down wells to contaminate the local water supply.
But there's a way to resolve the Darfur genocide, Dorfman said.
"The most important thing," he said, is a "need to increase political pressure on our [U.S.] leaders" to get tough on apathetic international leaders.
Dorfman added that it was crucial to prosecute Sudanese government officials who support the genocide because, too often, those responsible for such crimes are never held accountable.
Additionally, Dorfman said there is international reluctance to address the Darfur conflict because of the economic interest that countries such as China and Russia have in Sudanese natural resources.
The United States is also reluctant to get involved in the Darfur conflict, Dorfman said.
He noted a January 2005 report on Darfur that specifically omits the term "genocide," thereby absolving the U.S. of its responsibility to act under the UN's 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Dorfman said that there is nothing the UN can do to intervene in Darfur unless the Sudanese government allows them into the country.
As it currently stands, Dorfman said, the 7,000 African soldiers in Darfur are ineffective, both because they are few in number and because they lack a "robust mandate" - the authority to shoot to protect civilians.
For College senior Lindsey Rosin, the mere suggestion of a course of action in Darfur is a sign for hope - even if international response has been lackluster.
"Hearing [that] someone ? is doing something is encouraging, regardless of its effectiveness," Rosin said.