Madam, - Pieter Tesch misleadingly describes what is happening in Darfur as a "civil war", and goes on to mischaracterise those urging intervention to halt the violence as "a powerful Christian Right and Neocon coalition". Both of these errors deserve reply.
"Civil war" implies some kind of military parity between competing forces. In fact, no such parity exists, and never has. Khartoum enjoys the benefits of a lavish foreign-investment boom. The principal investors in Sudan - chiefly Chinese and Indian oil firms - have ensured a steady flow of revenue, totalling tens of millions, 70 per cent of which has been spent on arms. The government can afford to dispatch military aircraft in advance of ground attacks carried out by janjaweed militias. The rebel forces arrayed against Khartoum have nothing like this sort of firepower.
"Civil war" also implies a non-existent moral equivalence between sides. Yet it was consistent government and Janjaweed provocation that created the Dafur insurgency, which was then in turn savagely repressed by means of ethnic cleansing and genocide. As was reported recently in the New Internationalist, 97 per cent of all killings are attributable to Khartoum and its janjaweed allies. That's not civil war - that's a one-sided slaughter.
Furthermore, seeking to smear those agitating for intervention as either neo-conservatives or members of the Christian right is a familiar but egregious misrepresentation, and one which is disseminated by the Sudanese government itself. Among those most vocal about intervention have been the International Crisis Group, genocide scholar Samantha Power, American senator John Edwards and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner - hardly a roll-call of neocon zealots. - Yours, etc,
SEAN COLEMAN, Ireland Campaign Manager, Sudan Divestment Task Force, Lindisfarne Lawn, Dublin 22.
Madam, - Is the Irish Government aware that the United Nations/African Union hybrid force preparing to deploy in Darfur will be almost entirely made up of African troops?
As I suspected from the start, this is merely an expansion of the current African Union mission, which has proved completely ineffectual. What is needed is a truly international force with the means and ability to stop the violence. Instead we are getting a Khartoum-sanctioned force which the Sudanese government knows will not have any real effect on the stability of the region.
If the Irish Government is serious about wanting to help the people of Darfur it must put pressure on its international partners to send a force that can actually make a difference. - Yours, etc,
JOHN O'SHEA, Goal, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.