Darfur: Sudanese Government Rejects U.N. Peacekeeping Force Amid Growing Violence

From today's American Progress Report:

Darfur: Sudanese Government Rejects U.N. Peacekeeping Force Amid Growing Violence -- Yesterday, the U.N. Security Council voted 12-0 -- with Russian, China, and Qatar abstaining -- to approve "a long-sought resolution that would place an expanded peacekeeping force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region under U.N. authority, even as the government appeared to have begun a new offensive against rebel forces. The new U.N. mandate would take effect only with Sudan's consent, and its president, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, immediately rejected it." "The Sudanese people will not consent to any resolution that will violate its sovereignty," the Sudanese government responded. The push for peacekeeping forces comes after a signed peace agreement in May has turned out not to be "worth the paper it's printed on." "There have been more raids, more rapes, and more people displaced from their homes -- and violence has only gotten worse since the deal was signed a few months ago." In fact, the peace deal "appears to have rekindled" the fighting. "The Darfur Peace Agreement is allowing the government to resume the war," John Prendergast of the nonprofit International Crisis Group said. "This is a grotesque abuse of the intentions of those who crafted the peace deal back in May." (To learn what your member of Congress has done to end genocide in Darfur, go to DarfurScores.org.)