Welcome Words On Darfur

At her Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, President-Elect Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of State, Senator Hilary Clinton suggested that the incoming adminstration would regard ending the conflict in Darfur as a high priority, even suggesting support for enforcing no-fly zones in the region.

"There is a great need for us to sound the alarm again about Darfur," she said.

"It is a terrible humanitarian crisis compounded by a corrupt and very cruel regime in Khartoum."

The five-year-old conflict between rebels and Sudanses government-sponsired militias in the region is estimated to have killed over 200,000 people with over two-and-a-half million people displaced from their homes.

A joint United Nations and African Union peace-keeping force is still not in place and the death and destruction continues, seemingly without end.

Senator Clinton outlined some of the actions that were under consideration by the incoming Administration, telling her fellow Senators that, "We have spoken about other options, no-fly zones, other sanctions and sanctuaries, looking to deploy the UN/AU force to try to protect the refugees but also to repel the militias.

"There is a lot under consideration."

Meanwhile, African and Arab countries who have vigorously attacked Israel for its actions in Gaza and accused its government of committing war crimes, insist that international efforts to bring Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to the International Criminal Court in the Hague to answer for his government's crimes should be dropped since they would harm attempts to bring peace to the area.

"Issuing an international arrest warrant against President (Omar al-) Beshir will have a very negative impact on the peace process in Darfur," said African Union Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra in Doha, for meetings between ministers of 15 African and Arab states to discuss the devastated area.

"Our meeting aims to study what's happened in terms of contacts with the Sudanese government and armed groups and see what we can do to suspend international justice efforts to bring proceedings against President Beshir," he said.

We can only hope that the incoming Administration can bring an end to the conflict by whatever means necessary, but the apathy of the governments in the region will determine how successful they will be - unless they are willing to take a page out of President Bush's playbook and 'go it alone'.