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Three Weeks to Save Darfur

Published: September 11, 2006

Last month the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the creation of a peacekeeping force to intervene in Darfur. But it had a big catch. These troops can be deployed only with the consent of Sudan’s government, which in effect allows the regime responsible for this genocide to decide whether or not the killings will continue.

Clearly, that cannot be the end of the discussion. The next step is for leading governments, including Washington, to apply maximum political pressure on Sudan, all the countries that support it (including China) and all the nations that could help sway it from its current course. The Bush administration needs to couple its tough talk on Darfur with some focused, high-level diplomacy. This would be a good time for President Bush to name a special envoy for Darfur. To make clear that the full weight of the administration is behind the new envoy, Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should call officials in Sudan, China and Russia, as well as in powerful African countries like South Africa and Nigeria. Similar efforts should be made by leaders of the European Union.

At the end of this month, African Union forces, the only peacekeepers in Darfur, are scheduled to go home. That will leave the field open to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his army to resume the killing, which they have given every indication of doing. That gives the rest of the world only three weeks to avoid a worsening tragedy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/11/opinion/11mon3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin