To Save Lives in Darfur, Back African Peacekeepers and Demand War Crimes Accountability, Says ICG’s Prendergast

According to John Prendergast, special aid to the president of The International Crisis Group (ICG), the United States and other world actors such as the European Union, the Arab League, Japan, and China, need to back the deployment of an African Union-led force to protect civilians in Sudan’s Darfur region. Though he acknowledges that genocide is difficult to prove, Prendergast believes that Sudanese Janjaweed militias are engaging in genocidal harassment of Sudan’s Fur, Zaghawa and Massaleit ethnic groups and believes that, in accord with the Genocide Convention, the international community should not wait for hundreds of thousands to die before intervening. Prendergast warns “the proposition that something must be called genocide before meaningful action can be taken is erroneous and only dilutes the responsibility states have in responding to all manner of atrocities.” Besides intervention, he also advocates doubling humanitarian assistance efforts and holding specific leaders accountable. – YaleGlobal