U.N. must move quickly to punish Sudan's regime

With the blood of 800,000 Tutsis massacred 10 years ago in Rwanda already on its hands, the United Nations cannot now pretend that what is going on in another African country, Sudan, is nothing more than a misunderstanding between Arab militiamen and black farmers. It's much more than that.
At least 30,000 Sudanese have been killed since February 2003, and 1 million have been driven from their homes. They are starving and destitute and are easy prey for the militia -- known as the Janjaweed -- which the Arab Islamic government in Khartoum sent into Darfur to attack civilian populations perceived as sympathetic to an African rebel movement.
The government must understand that the world community will not permit a replay of Rwanda, the central African nation that was the scene of a bloodbath the United Nations chose to ignore.
Immediate punishment is warranted. Sudan's membership in the U.N. Commission on Human Rights must be revoked before the Security Council and the General Assembly take up the larger issues of sanctions and other penalties against the government in Khartoum.
The United States, which walked out of a May 4 meeting of the United Nations' Economic and Social Council to protest the nomination of Sudan to the human rights commission, must take the lead in pushing for membership revocation. But it is the bloc of African states that needs to make its voice heard. Despotic governments around the world are flourishing because the General Assembly continues to reject attempts by the United States and other democracies to hold such leaders accountable for their iron-fisted rule. Death and destruction are commonplace.
Killings and rapes
The humanitarian crisis in Sudan is evidence of the regime's disregard for the United Nations. Killings, rapes, the burning and looting of villages and massive displacement of people are the rule rather than the exception. The Security Council must take all of this into consideration as it decides whether to impose sanctions on the Sudanese government.
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail's appeal to the Security Council to make a "reasonable decision" would be laughable if it weren't so revealing. The government of Sudan continues to perpetuate the lie that things aren't so bad, that the Janjaweed Arab militiamen aren't laying waste to hundreds of acres of farms and villages, and that there isn't a conspiracy to deprive the 1 million displaced Sudanese life-sustaining food and water.
It is time for the regime to feel the iron fist of the United Nations. A multinational force must be deployed to protect the Africans in Sudan and to ensure that international aid organizations aren't prevented from doing their work.
With regard to sanctions, the challenge will be to persuade nations with an economic interest in Sudan to participate.
As the Toronto Globe and Mail reported recently, "A ban on trading in Sudanese oil is one possible tool. Oil pays for the shiny BMWs in which a few key government people tool around Khartoum. Daily crude production will hit half a million barrels by the end of this month. But an effective embargo would require the participation of China and Malaysia, big shareholders in Sudan's oil industry, and that will be hard to achieve."
What is a human life worth?