Sudan: Human Rights Groups Call on the U.S. to Lead Troops Into Sudan's Darfur and End Genocide

A range of U.S.-based advocacy groups, such as Africa Action and Human Rights Watch, as well as the United Nations, are calling for international intervention to stop “ethnic cleansing” in western Sudan. U.S. groups are calling for the Bush administration to demonstrate leadership on the issue. “The failure of the U.S. and the international community to act in Rwanda a decade ago cost 800,000 lives,” said Africa Action Director Salih Booker. "Now, up to one million people face a similar fate in Darfur. Unless there is an immediate military intervention to stop the killing and facilitate a massive humanitarian operation, the loss of life in Darfur may even dwarf the horrific toll we saw in Rwanda.” Booker said Washington could easily mobilize a multinational force to secure the region and facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to needy people until UN peacekeepers can be assembled or the government-backed militias known as Janjaweed are disarmed. He noted that almost 2,000 U.S. troops are stationed in nearby Djibouti.