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The contrast in western attitudes to Darfur and Congo shows how illiberal our concept of intervention really is

Roger Howard
Wednesday May 16, 2007
The Guardian

In a remote corner of Africa, millions of civilians have been slaughtered in a conflict fuelled by an almost genocidal ferocity that has no end in sight. Victims have been targeted because of their ethnicity and entire ethnic groups destroyed - but the outside world has turned its back, doing little to save people from the wrath of the various government and rebel militias. You could be forgiven for thinking that this is a depiction of the Sudanese province of Darfur, racked by four years of bitter fighting. But it describes the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has received a fraction of the media attention devoted to Darfur.

The UN estimates that 3 million to 4 million Congolese have been killed, compared with the estimated 200,000 civilian deaths in Darfur. A peace deal agreed in December 2002 has never been adhered to, and atrocities have been particularly well documented in the province of Kivu - carried out by paramilitary organisations with strong governmental links. In the last month alone, thousands of civilians have been killed in heavy fighting between rebel and government forces vying for control of an area north of Goma, and the UN reckons that another 50,000 have been made refugees.

How curious, then, that so much more attention has been focused on Darfur than Congo. There are no pressure groups of any note that draw attention to the Congolese situation. In the media there is barely a word. The politicians are silent. Yet if ever there were a case for the outside world to intervene on humanitarian grounds alone - "liberal interventionism" - then surely this is it.

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Ottawa warns Sudan to keep vow on Darfur force

Canada will consider imposing sanctions on Sudan if it refuses to allow a United Nations-backed military force to stop the bloodshed in Darfur, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay says.

MacKay, in Paris for an international conference on Darfur, said "there are appropriate actions that can be taken" if President Omar al-Bashir refuses to let a joint African Union-UN force deploy in the country to stop four years of killing by mostly Arab janjaweed militias. Those consequences include economic sanctions that have been approved by the UN Security Council, he said.

Canada's response to the meetings was in line with the U.S., which warned that Sudan has a history of backtracking on its promises.

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Canada has had the military in Sudan and the Congo for some time.

CF Operations in Sudan

and

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Originally posted by Webgear:
Canada has had the military in Sudan and the Congo for some time.

CF Operations in Sudan and CF Operations in the Congo

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Darfur to Kenya—Who or what is ripping apart this region of Africa?

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Originally posted by Webgear:
Did the KGB have any involvement in these conflicts?

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At the height of the cold war in 1960, Patrice Lumumba was a very popular leader among Congolese and surrounding regions. He wasn't committed to any ideology or ism one way or another, but he knew that colonial oppression had to stop. Some ten million Congolese had been slaughtered by Belgian colonialists all told. Like Fidel did after the revolution, Lumumba sought recognition as leader among the western democracies. And they turned their backs on Lumumba because he talked about a strong and united Africa. Patrice Lumumba was the first and last democratically-elected prime minister of the Congo, and the Belgians-CIA murdered him because his ideas for African independence didn't fit with neo-colonialism.

You did not answer my question.

Yes, Patrice Lumumba was a good man.

There is a former KGB heavily involved, Victor Bout, but it seems he is a proud employee of the Us regime these days.

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The Pentagon has been busy training African military officers in the US, much as it has for Latin American officers for decades. Its International Military Education and Training (IMET) program has provided training to military officers from Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, in effect every country on Sudan's border. Much of the arms that have fuelled the killing in Darfur and the south have been brought in via murky, protected private "merchants of death" such as the notorious former KGB operative, now with offices in the US, Victor Bout. Bout has been cited repeatedly in recent years for selling weapons across Africa. US Government officials strangely leave his operations in Texas and Florida untouched despite the fact he is on the Interpol wanted list for money laundering.

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Population Sudan: 40,000,000
War: Four years
Cause: Scarcity of water and agricultural lands blames on climate change.
Dead: 300,000
Refugees: 2.5 million
Genocide is cited.

Population Iraq: 25,000,000
War: Four years
Cause: Theft of oil,
Dead: 700,000
Refugees: 4 million.
It is a liberation.

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Originally posted by Webgear:
Fidel

You did not answer my question.

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Oh sure. The Soviets were a menace to peace and freedom everywhere. The Soviets were hell bent on nuclear superiority and fought guerilla warfare around the world, usually against the western armies minding their own business themselves at the time. The Soviets were in the process of encircling China, and the Caribbean was a bastion of Marxist-Leninism in the 1980s. We're talking evil, evil godless communist empire obsessed with world domination at the time. Thank god for Reagan, Maggie and Brian, or we might all be speaking Russkie right now.

Webgear, have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water ?.

[ 26 June 2007: Message edited by: Fidel ]