Demagogue

The ICRC says "the needs are huge" in Darfur.

The Washington Post has a profile of John Garang, the leader of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, the rebel groups that recently signed a peace accord with Khartoum.

The New York Times has this article

Fatouma spends her days under the plastic tarp covering her tent, seated on a straw mat, staring at the squirming creature in her arms.

She examines over and over again the perfectly formed fingers and toes, 10 of each, and the tiny limbs, still curled in the form they took before leaving her belly five days before, and now encircled with amulets to ward off evil.

Everything about this baby, the 16-year-old mother declared, is perfect. Almost everything.

"She is a janjaweed," Fatouma said softly, referring to the fearsome Arab militiamen who have terrorized this region. "When people see her light skin and her soft hair, they will know she is a janjaweed."

Fatouma's child is among the scores of babies produced by one of the most horrific aspects of the conflict in Darfur, the vast, arid region of western Sudan: the use of rape against women and girls in a brutal battle over land and ethnicity that has killed tens of thousands and driven 2 million people from their homes.

This is from Don Cheadle's "Nightline" piece I linked to yesterday

For me, the experience of seeing the refugees has had a lasting effect. It's one thing to know the numbers and to just think about it as statistics, and it's another thing to actually touch these people and to sit with them and hear their stories and really share with them on a human level.

If anyone were to do that, I don't see how you could turn your back and be glib or aloof about what is happening to these people here ever again.

Romeo Dallaire and Paul Rusesabagina were on last night, discussing Rwanda and the similarities to Darfur.