Blair Threatens Force Over Darfur

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 3-27-2007 | Julian Borger

[blam]

Blair threatens force over Darfur

Julian Borger
Tuesday March 27, 2007 Guardian Unlimited )UK)

African Union soldiers on patrol in the town of Muhujariya in south Darfur. Photograph: Khaled el Fiqi/EPA

Tony Blair is pushing the United Nations to declare a no-fly zone over Darfur, enforced if necessary by the bombing of Sudanese military airfields used for raids on the province, the Guardian has learned. The controversial initiative comes as a classified new report by a UN panel of experts alleges Sudan has violated UN resolutions by moving arms into Darfur, conducting overflights and disguising its military planes as UN humanitarian aircraft.

Mr Blair has been pushing for much tougher international action against Sudan since President Omar Hassan al-Bashir reneged earlier this month on last November's agreement to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur to protect civilians.

Over 200,000 have been killed in the course of a counter-insurgency by government forces and allied Janjaweed militia, and more than 10 times that number forced to flee their homes. Humanitarian supplies to the millions of refugees in the area are tenuous and threatened by continuing violence on the Sudan-Chad border. Talks are under way in the UN security council over a package of sanctions being pushed by Britain and the US, which includes a comprehensive arms embargo and the freezing assets of Sudanese leaders implicated in the Darfur ethnic cleansing.

Speaking in Berlin on Sunday, Mr Blair described the situation in Darfur as "intolerable" and said: "We need to consider a no-fly zone to prevent the use of Sudanese air power against refugees and displaced people."

[AU72]

Tony Blair is pushing the United Nations to declare a no-fly zone over Darfur Iran, enforced if necessary by the bombing of Sudanese Iranian military airfields.

If only!

[af_vet_rr]

Y'all should look at this video in another FR thread about Darfur and the UN.

[nyc1]

Bush needs to keep his focus on Iraq, Iran and North Korea. There's no good reason to use American military power in a humanitarian intervention right now, particularly since the lefties who are pushing Darfur as an issue will be screeching "war isn't the answer!" the minute the American military starts killing people.

Let the ever so sophisticated and moral EU, along with the more popular than the US China and Russia handle Darfur.