Posted on: Sunday, August 1, 2004

EDITORIAL
Sudan: U.N. draws a line in Darfur sand

The government of the Sudan "has done the unthinkable," John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a former special envoy to Sudan, said Friday. "It has fostered an armed attack on its own civilian population. It has created a humanitarian disaster."

Despite the Bush administration's doubts about the U.N. Security Council, that institution appears to have agreed to do the right thing.

It passed a resolution threatening the Khartoum government with punitive measures if it does not disarm and prosecute the marauding Arab militias that have forced black Africans off their land in the western Darfur region through a campaign of killing, rape and pillage.

The vote on the U.S.-crafted resolution was 13 to 0, with China and Pakistan abstaining.

To overcome weak-kneed members, the resolution omits the word "sanctions," but refers to a section of the U.N. charter that empowers sanctions as the result of failure to comply with a Security Council resolution.

As it did with resolutions meant to force the Saddam Hussein regime to disarm, the U.N. now faces a test of its resolve and of its viability.

The predations of the Janjaweed militias, clearly with the active support of the Khartoum government, are very close to being declared genocidal. The international community must put a stop to it now. The world simply can't abide another Rwanda.