Sudan's scorn for the world
THERE is no end to the cynicism of the regime in Sudan. In its latest show of disdain for world opinion, the government perpetrating genocide in the Darfur region has named Musa Hilal, the leader of the dreaded Arab militias known as Janjaweed, to a high government position.
The appointment of Hilal as special advisor to Sudan's Ministry of Federal Affairs is an outrage that all the nations of the world should denounce. The elevation of this mass murderer should also spur United Nations Security Council members to stop tolerating the dilatory maneuverings of the Khartoum regime, which has been obstructing the full deployment of 26,000 UN and African Union peacekeepers to Darfur.
Recently, Sudanese army troops under the command of a senior general attacked a peacekeepers' convoy, firing on 20 UN-AU vehicles for 10 minutes without receiving return fire. This was Khartoum's way of warning that the peacekeepers are not welcome.
As chieftain of a clan belonging to a powerful tribe of nomadic Arabs in Darfur, Hilal bears responsibility for the razing of African villages, the killing of villagers, the raping of women and girls, and the displacement of 2.5 million people into sprawling refugee camps. For these crimes against humanity, the UN Security Council imposed travel and financial sanctions on Hilal and three other militia leaders in April 2006.
When Sudan officials claim the Janjaweed were acting on their own, or that Hilal has "contributed to stability and security" as President Omar al-Bashir declared Monday, they are contradicting what Hilal himself has acknowledged. In a 2004 interview with Human Rights Watch, he said he always acted under orders from the Sudan government.
The motive for formally making Hilal a member of the central government appears tactical. Some of the Arab tribes in Darfur have recently been aligning with African groups opposed to the regime. Bashir and his accomplices no doubt hope to assure the loyalty of the major Arab tribes by absorbing the preeminent warlord of their proxy militia, the Janjaweed, into a government ministry.
The rest of the world should have no patience for Sudan's obstruction of the peacekeepers. The conflict in Darfur, whatever its factional complexities, remains a humanitarian catastrophe. Four million human beings are at risk of murder, starvation, and fatal diseases if they cannot be protected by outside peacekeepers, supplied with food and medicine, and returned soon to their villages.
If saving those people means embarrassing Khartoum's protector in the UN Security Council, then so be it. Unconscionably, China is threatening to veto sanctions on Sudan. The Chinese government cares above all about this summer's Olympics in Beijing. Unless China relents on Sudan, civilized nations should rain on that coming-out party by branding it the"Genocide Games." 