Washington Post

Stuck on Darfur

A planned peacekeeping force is stalled, two weeks before it is due
to deploy.
Sunday, December 16, 2007; Page B06


WHEN THE United Nations Security Council approved an expanded
peacekeeping force for the Darfur region of Sudan last summer, some
Western politicians may have concluded -- prematurely -- that one of
the world's worst humanitarian crises was at last going to be
relieved. If so, that's exactly what Omar Hassan al-Bashir was hoping for. Mr. Bashir, Sudan's Arab dictator, has made an art form out of confounding Western attempts to end his genocidal repression
of Darfur's African population. His pattern is to resist
international pressure until it reaches a peak. He then appears to
give in, waits until Western attention wanders and returns to
intransigence.