U.S. will be put to the test in handling Darfur crisis

U.S. presidential envoy Andrew Natsios is on a 10-day visit to Sudan and one of his stops will be in the Darfur region, which has become synonymous with man's inhumanity to man.
Since 2003, when ethnic African rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated central government, more than 200,000 Sudanese have been killed and 2.5 million have fled their homes. The rebels accused the government of President Omar al-Bashir of neglect. In response, al-Bashir either overtly or covertly gave permission to Muslim militias known as the janjaweed to unleash a campaign of death and destruction against the Africans.
Since then, the world has reacted with horror as news and human rights organizations have reported in painful detail the extent of the crimes being committed against humanity.
But the horror has not triggered the kind of response the crisis has long demanded. The blood of the victims of Darfur region is on the hands of all nations who adhere to the rule of law.
Presidential envoy Natsios is now attempting to accomplish several things during his visit to Sudan: persuade President al-Bashir and the United Nations to speed up the deployment of the full joint African Union-U.N. force; push the Sudanese government to do everything possible to stop the violence; persuade other nations to pledge troops for the mission.
Foreign policy challenge
But Natsios is no doubt aware that he has taken on a foreign policy challenge that will test the superpower status of the United States. That's because not many Americans seem to care about some dirt-poor African nation. Even the Bush administration's contention that the al-Bashir government has ties to al-Qaida has not struck a chord.
Likewise, many nations, especially those in Europe, are only now recognizing that they cannot continue to turn a blind eye to what has been going on in Darfur region.
Natsios must also recognize that the moral imperative driving the Bush administration with regard to the Sudan is not easily embraced by African leaders such as al-Bashir.
Indeed, on the day Natsios arrived in Khartoum, the Sudanese president announced that his country would not hand over for trial any citizen sought by international courts for crimes against humanity.
The International Criminal Court at The Hague has accused a junior member of the cabinet and a member of the security forces of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The government has denied the accusations.
Al-Bashir isn't persuasive when he says that the nation's judiciary is honest and qualified to try any Sudanese. Why? Because here's his view of what has been taking place against the ethnic Africans.
" ... anyone who makes a mistake will be held responsible for it, but we are not going to take any dictates from abroad," the president said.
A mistake? The murders of more than 200,000 innocents and the displacement of 2.5 million must never be viewed as anything less than what they are: Crimes against humanity.
President Bush's envoy has the responsibility to make that clear to all the people of Sudan.