August 05, 2005
And A Little Child Shall Lead Them...
CNN this morning has an interesting article about a group of childrens' art that is on display in New York. But these aren't just any children. These children come from Dafur. And these aren't just any childrens' drawings. They depict the violence and hatred that they see on a daily basis in Dafur.
Human rights activists, seeing this display, see something else. They see representations of crimes and human rights violations.
"For the first time we have graphic representation of the crimes," said Olivier Bercault, a Human Rights Watch researcher.
But why are you so excited about having pictures of the human rights violations? After all, as recently as February 2005, the UN said that while there were bad things happening there, they weren't actually bad enough to do anything about. And Kofi Annan himself, when visiting the region in 2004, got firsthand evidence of the atrocities that were happening. And what did he do then? He smiled, made the people a few vague promises, got his picture taken and left.
I don't think there's any question in anyone's mind nowdays what is going on in Darfur. The question at this point should be what is going to be done about it? I feel like the ball is in the UN's court, but I'm certainly not holding my breath for them to actually step up and do the right thing. How many more children have to live with this sort of horror before you decide that it's enough?
Posted by: Drew at
07:23 AM
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"For the first time we have graphic representation of the crimes," said Olivier Bercault, a Human Rights Watch researcher.
Does HRW not read the New York Times or
Nicholas Kristof? Kristof, in one of his finest moments ever, actually used his space on the page to post pictures from Dafur, showing the bodies piled up like cordwood (
I believe the images used in the editorial). And those pictures were more newsworthy than anything else the NYT has done on the subject of the Dafur genocide since the world first learned of it months ago.
We know that over 200,000 people have been slaughtered in the genocide, but HRW is only getting wind of the situation now? What the heck have they been doing? Sipping tea out on the verandah [Joe Wilson doll not included]?
Personally, I've been writing on Dafur for months now. Actually, my first posting specifically on the subject is
April 8, 2004, which is more than a year ago. We've known the genocide has been ongoing for nearly all that time. HRW has known. And now they say that they didn't have a graphic representation of the genocide? Pathetic.
Posted by: lawhawk at August 05, 2005 09:40 AM (AcoYr)
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I saw on CNN this morning that UNICEF was saying there is a huge famine going on in Niger, and it is only going to get worse.
U.N is set to deliver enough food to feed everyone, and use U.N soldiers to distribute the food -- Just kidding, they're still at the "talking" about the famine stage.
Perhaps they'll have a special council into the meaning of the word "famine"? much like the one on "genocide" in Dufur that has thus far stopped the U.N springing into action?
Posted by: dave at August 05, 2005 09:49 AM (DO6vD)
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