Earlier this week I heard a chilling story on NPR, short and with no resolution. The newscast said that in Sudan, the government had surrounded the Darfur refugee camps and was refusing to allow aid workers or reporters inside. No one knew what was happening. But given that the Muslim government there has colluded in the genocide of the black African refugees, this was an ominous development. I expected to hear that nothing was left but mass graves.
But intervention by international forces has apparently stopped what was the beginning of a forced transfer of the Darfur refugees. At least one camp was destroyed in the incident. The situation in the region remains extremely unstable, and more deaths are certain to come. Aid agencies are being forced out by rebel attacks.
In his latest column for the Village Voice, Nat Hentoff is scathing in his description of how the United Nations has failed the Darfur refugees. And of course, the U.S. is caught up in fighting elsewhere, and has little to offer in terms of help. I don’t see anything but heartbreak ahead for these people.