Editorial: Ending the tragedy

Thursday, May 31, 2007 | 7:23 a.m.

T he international community has shown an appalling lack of leadership over the past four years, failing to do much at all to stop the government-backed genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

President Bush's announcement this week of economic sanctions against Sudan is simply too little, too late. The Arab-dominated Sudanese government has supported the genocide of members of the ethnic African tribes of Darfur over the past four years, which is the horrific response to a rebellion staged by tribal members frustrated by decades of government neglect.

The government unleashed the vicious janjaweed militia. Aided by police and soldiers, the militia has been unfettered to wage its campaign of murder, rape, mutilation and plunder.

More than 200,000 people have been killed, and 2.5 million more were forced to flee. Aid shipments have been disrupted. Aid workers have been attacked and killed. Help, in the form of U.N. peacekeepers, has been denied.

Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan weakly tried to confront Sudan's government. His successor, Ban Ki Moon, has been more aggressive, notably pressing Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir about attacks on aid workers.

But Ban has been rebuffed by an arrogant government - politically protected by China, a trade partner that buys Sudanese oil, and Russia, which sells arms to Sudan. It is difficult to see how sanctions by the United States against three people and 30 companies owned or operated by Sudan will resonate with Bashir's government.

The Bush administration has fallen far short of providing the leadership needed in this situation. The administration should pull out all the diplomatic stops to form an international coalition to force Sudan to put an end to the bloodshed.