Sudan’s humanitarian crisis worsened by U.N. inaction

One good deed by Sudan’s dictator, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, in pardoning the British school teacher, who mistakenly failed to stop her students from naming a teddy bear Mohammed, does not deserve another from the international community with regard to his country’s four-year bloody civil war.

The death toll of more than 200,000 and the 2.5 million refugees demand that al-Bashir be held to account. His refusal to rein in the Arab militia known as janjaweed, which has committed unspeakable atrocities against the ethnic Africans, and his ordering the Sudanese military to attack Darfur province cannot be equated to the mistake by a well-intentioned school teacher.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation for violating Islamic law when her Muslim students chose the name of Islam’s revered prophet for the teddy bear.

Al-Bashir ordered Gibbons’ immediate release after meeting last Monday with two members of the British Parliament.

Whatever his motives, they do not rise to the level of forgiveness by the international community for his refusal to end what the United Nations says is the biggest humanitarian crisis in Africa.

While it is true that al-Bashir’s government is fragile today, there was a time when it had the strength to put down the Islamic insurgency. However, the president chose to go after the ethnic Africans with an iron fist after they rose up against the government, claiming widespread discrimination.

Shambles

Today, Sudan is in shambles, the bloodshed continues, and the future looks bleak — even with the impending deployment of the 26,000-member U.N.-African Union force for Darfur.

Indeed, it now appears that only half of the force will be ready for deployment. In addition, the U.N. is still having problems finding necessary equipment, such as helicopters. The world organization put out the call several months ago for the equipment, but as of late last week the response was anything but encouraging.

Given that killings are on the rise after a brief lull, and now shortages of food and medicine are making the humanitarian crisis even worse, the international community can no longer sit back and wait for the al-Bashir government to find its moral center.

Indeed, the true nature of the president can be seen in his refusal to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in its investigation of the role played by officials in Khartoum in the atrocities in Darfur.

The court’s chief prosecutor said last week he was opening an investigation into actions by Sudanese government officials over what he called systematic attacks on refugee camps in Darfur.

Sudan has refused to hand over its citizens to the tribunal, based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Too many years have passed, too many lives have been lost and too many innocent people have been rendered homeless because the world has not given the humanitarian crisis the attention it demands.

Time is running out.