Demagogue

Over the weekend, Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and rebel leader John Garang signed a peace accord officially ending the 21-year North/South civil war. Colin Powell was on hand and made it clear that he expects Sudan to start working on ending the genocide in Darfur

"These new 'partners for peace' must work together immediately to end the violence and the atrocities that continue to occur in Darfur," Powell said.

"Not next month or in the interim period but right away, starting today," said the secretary.

President Bush also released a statement praising the signing and noting

As we celebrate this positive movement toward peace in the longstanding North-South conflict, we remember the conflict in Darfur and the suffering it causes. This comprehensive peace agreement should serve as an inspiration and model for both sides in their work toward negotiating a peaceful resolution of the Darfur conflict. I call on the Government of Sudan and on all Darfur rebel groups to live up to their ceasefire commitments, to end atrocities, and to allow the free movement of humanitarian workers and supplies. The United States will continue to assist the people of Darfur in reaching a just and lasting peace.

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Powell also hinted that the UN commission sent to Darfur to determine whether genocide was taking place is set to issue its report this week.

Eric Reeves dedicates his latest analysis to something I've been mentioning lately

News obsession with the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami, and the easy headlining of an impending peace-signing ceremony in Nairobi between Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), have led to significantly diminished attention to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

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Indeed, we are obliged to bear in mind the terribly ominous figure for potential monthly mortality in Darfur that was recently suggested by Jan Egeland, UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs: if humanitarian organizations are forced to suspend operations because of insecurity---and because of Khartoum’s increasingly menacing hostility toward international humanitarian aid---as many as 100,000 will die every month in the near future. Moreover, given the extremely bleak predictions concerning food supplies and agricultural production coming from the International Committee of the Red Cross (see below) and the US Agency for International Development, this figure may actually be low. All the conditions for massive famine-related deaths are in place---and these conditions are worsening, not stabilizing.