This is coolbert: This is very fortuitous. The recent blog entries I have made about the impossible situations of a refugee crisis being only addressed by a large scale military operation and the use of rape as a weapon of war are in the headlines just in the last few days. I am of course talking about the situation in the Dar Fur region of Sudan. The crisis in this region is of monumental proportions. And Secretary of State Powell and the U.N. General Secretary Kofi Anon have made fact finding visits. The descriptions of what is occurring in this refugee crisis are most revealing. Let me read between the lines for the uninitiated, keeping my two previous blog entries in mind.

In the first newspaper report, Secretary Powell is visiting one of the refugee camps. 1 million people have been driven from their homes. And about 30 thousand killed in the process by the Arab militias targeting three ethnic groups [it is Muslims attacking Muslims in this case]. This one particular camp has about 40,000 people living in it, and it is only one of about 130 scattered over and area larger than France!! And the U.N. is drafting a resolution imploring the Sudanese to halt the predations of the militias. Well, the situation is already here. Halting the militias will not stop the refugee crisis. It is upon us now.

This particular camp Powell is visiting is described as one of the best. It is also infiltrated by government spies who report on the activities of the refugees, and has had an outbreak of measles. Food supply at this camp is easily maintained as a nearby airport can accommodate Russian air transports that fly in supplies, although a dirt road connects the camp to the airport. And even with the closeness of the airport that brings supplies of food, there is still some malnutrition at the camp. And the danger still exists of attacks by the janjaweed militia, responsible in the first place for the refugee situation. Reports exist of attacks on refugee camps by the militias, even after the refugees have been forced out of their villages.

A second newspaper report describes the visit of Secretary General Kofi Anon of the U.N. to another camp. Not so strangely, all three thousand occupants of this camp were moved prior to Anon's arrival. Speaking to Anon, a tribal elder referred to the plight of the women in the camp. But the elder was cut off by a translator who said everything was OK. Yeah, sure.

Anyhow, how does this all apply to my previous blog?

Well, from the latter report, the danger and plight of the women in the camps is described. And what is the danger? Rape by the janjaweed militias. Rape and branding!Designed to destroy the fabric of the societies these women come from.

In the report describing the visit of Powell, the immensity of the problem is illustrated. In an area the size of France, 130 camps of refugees exist. Disease is present. Road facilities are nil. One airport services perhaps the best of all the camps. Militias continue to attack the refugees. Spies lurk among the refugees, intimidating them.

Only a military style operation of mind-boggling proportions can address this issue. You need combat troops to protect the refugees. You need medical teams to fight disease. You need aviation units to fly supplies to camps spread over an area the size of France. You need engineers to build camps with facilities and improve roads, or build roads where none exist at all to link the camps together. You need military police and counter-intelligence to maintain order and to prevent the refugees from being intimidated from within the camps. You need civil affairs to run the camps and psychological operations troops to mentally prepare the refugees for the entire process and inform them of what is happening. And you need diplomats to smooth the entire process and bring as many friendly forces into the fray. And that is what it is! A fray. A battle. And this all needs to be done now. Resolutions will not help these people, 300,000 will be dead within a year. But then, that is what the Sudanese government and the janjaweed want, isn't it!?!?

coolbert.