International diplomatic dynamics & Darfur...

A great article, written by activist Mia Farrow, appeared in The Wall Street Journal. It examines China's responsibility in the current ethnic-cleansing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, Africa.

"China is pouring billions of dollars into Sudan. Beijing purchases an overwhelming majority of Sudan's annual oil exports and state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. -- an official partner of the upcoming Olympic Games -- owns the largest shares in each of Sudan's two major oil consortia. The Sudanese government uses as much as 80% of proceeds from those sales to fund its brutal Janjaweed proxy militia and purchase their instruments of destruction: bombers, assault helicopters, armored vehicles and small arms, most of them of Chinese manufacture. Airstrips constructed and operated by the Chinese have been used to launch bombing campaigns on villages."

Check out her article here: http://www.miafarrow.org/editorials.html

It may also be a good idea to write to the sponsors of the 2008 Olympics expressing shame and suggesting they withhold cooperation with the Beijing Olympics until the people of Darfur can be safe. The official sponsors are: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Panasonic, Visa, Swatch, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung, Adidas, Volkswagen, Eastman Kodak Company, Eastman Kodak Company, Atos Origin, China Netcom, CNPC/PetroChina, Sinopec, China Mobile, Bank of China, Air China, and Manulife.

Think of how much money will go into the Beijing and greater Chinese economy from the Olympics... and then much of it will go to fund a genocide

This, coupled with the fact that, "After the 9/11 attacks, the Sudan regime--out of fear of reprisals for their earlier support of Osama bin Laden [bin Laden even lived in Sudan from 1991-96] and continuing contacts with other terrorist groups--intensified their counterterrorism cooperation with the U.S. government. President Bush wasn't kidding when he uttered the famous words 'You're either with us or against us.' In this case, Sudan is with us, and that bought the regime breathing room while it unleashed the genocide in Darfur." (Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond) Counterterrorism and combating crimes against humanity do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Tripled with the fact that, "Because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of our resources devoted to international military operations are being diverted to these conflicts. Consequently, there is little spare change left over for anything else--the Law of the Tool." (Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond)

Even though these complexities exist... it's not impossible to end this genocide. The famous saying comes to mind: The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If citizens of this world make enough noise... the governments will have to act--they don't want to lose our vote. There will be a cost if they don't listen to us.

Furthermore, a policy of pressure has a proven track record with the Sudanese government. For example, "in the 1990s, the UN Security Council punished the Sudanese government with a series of multilateral UN sanctions for its support of terrorism, and the regime quickly changed its behavior, evicting Osama bin Laden from the country, dismantling the al-Qaeda commercial infrastructure, and cutting its ties with other terrorist organizations." (Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond)

Again, over 400,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced from their homes, and hundreds of thousands of women raped by the Janjaweed militia... when will this stop?