Oct 25, 2006

Nicholas Kristof Sees Hope for Darfur

by Laura Starita

Last night at a speaking event at Hunter College, New York Times columnist and Darfur activist Nicholas Kristof addressed an audience of students, scholars and interested New Yorkers about, among other things, the state of Darfur. “You would think a genocide is kind of rock bottom,” Kristof said, “but the genocide in Darfur is getting worse - it is getting worse inside of Darfur and it is spreading into Chad.”

Kristof went on to talk about the positive things that are happening in the region: the international community has managed to provide relief in the form of food, water, shelter and medical care, but that aid-focused response is inadequate, especially for the people in remote areas of Darfur unreachable by aid workers.

Kristof does not see Darfur as one of the world’s intractable problems, however. What Darfur wants and what the Sudanese government is willing to give are not that disparate. There is hope, and Kristof proposes world leaders make a greater effort at political settlement in Darfur by imposing a no-fly zone over Darfur and monitored from a base in Chad; bringing China, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Egypt into discussions to pressure Sudan into reaching an agreement with Darfuri rebels; sending United Nations peacekeepers into Chad and the Central African Republic to “prevent the cancer of Darfur from spreading geographically.”

Whether you agree with Kristof’s proposed methods or not, the foundation principle behind them is solid: Take action in a committed way that goes beyond aid provision and gets to the heart of the conflict. Failure to do so will simply result in ongoing slaughter within Sudan and beyond.

To read Nicholas Kristof’s Times columns, click here