Take the Lead on Darfur

09/19/2006

NY Times
Published: September 19, 2006

President Bush will face a tough, and in many cases hostile, crowd when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly today. The mayhem in Iraq, his flouting of the Geneva Conventions, the hectoring tone of his previous appearances will all make it much harder for him to elicit the respect or even the full attention that any American president should command.

Still, Mr. Bush could make a difference if he threw aside his usual script, devoted this speech to the horrors of Darfur, and committed himself personally to stopping the genocide.

The tally of human suffering should make even the most jaded listener take notice: at least 200,000 dead and two million more driven from their homes by three years of rape and mutilation led by Sudanese troops and their proxy Arab militias.

Mr. Bush must leave no doubt who is most responsible. Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, is blocking the Security Council from sending some 20,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, saying that would insult Sudan’s sovereignty. Mr. Bush should call on all countries — including those like China that have been shielding Mr. Bashir — to demand that Sudan drop its opposition. He should also say that he will press for broad international sanctions if Mr. Bashir does not quickly reverse his position.

But Mr. Bush cannot stop there. A credible presentation would include an assumption of responsibility. His administration was the first to label the Darfur killing genocide, and he can be proud of that. But that was two years ago, and U.S. officials have paid only intermittent attention since then.

Mr. Bush would begin to set that right if he announced that ending the killing in Darfur was now a first-tier foreign policy concern, one on which Washington would judge its relations with other states. Yesterday’s news that Mr. Bush would name a special envoy for Darfur was a good start. That message would be even stronger if Mr. Bush said the U.S. would take the lead in soliciting troops for the U.N. and recommended making NATO planners available to help draw up contingency plans for a possible forced entry. If nothing else does, that implicit threat should grab the attention of Khartoum — and Mr. Bush’s audience.

Last week, Mr. Bush said he was frustrated with the lack of action in Darfur, calling it an example of why “a lot of Americans” are frustrated with the United Nations. He has a chance to change that.