4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 15, 2006
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VIEWPOINT
America's role in Darfur
JEREMY DAVIDSON
Editor in Chief
IMRAN SYED
Editorial Page Editor
JEFFREY BLOOMER
Managing Editor
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FROM THE DAILY
Kryptonite or super ci
Detroit officials must clean up neighborhoods
BY REP. JOE SCHWARZ (R-MI)
Those with Armenian, Jewish and Cambo-
dian heritage, among others, understand all too
well what happens when good people remain
silent and allow atrocities to continue unabated.
On Apr. 30, 2006, they were among the thou-
sands who attended a rally in Washington D.C.
for those affected by the strife and unrest in
Darfur. Although many at the rally had diver-
gent political and economic views, tragic situ-
ations have a unique way of compelling many
people to speak with one voice.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003,
when rebels seeking greater political autonomy
launched attacks. In response, Sudan's Islamic
government dispatched troops and pro-govern-
ment militias known as the Janjaweed to quell the
uprising. The militias embarked on a campaign of
terror, killing and raping civilians.
On occasion, the conflict in Darfur has been
labeled as a fight between Arabs and black Afri-
cans. Yet the truth is more complicated because
African and Arab identities are often indistin-
guishable in Sudan. In fact, the true division in
Darfur is between ethnic groups, divided between
herders and farmers. The dialect of its members
and whether they tend to the soil or herd livestock
is the true determinant of whether an individual is
identified as "African" or "Arab."
Despite impossibility in any real distinctions
between bloodlines, this three-year-old conflict
is responsible for the deaths of at least 200,000
people and for causing more than 2.5 million to
flee their homes and seek shelter in refugee camps
inside Darfur or neighboring Chad. In the last
month alone, more than 60,000 people have been
forced to evacuate.
While the United States has been a leaderpro-
viding more than $1.3 billion a year in humani-
tarian assistance, we must continue to actively
express our disapproval and outrage at those who
condone the genocidal actions of the Janjaweed
and their associates. For this reason, I supported
HR 3127, "The Darfur Peace and Accountability
Act," approved 416-3 on Apr. 5, 2006 in the U.S.
House of Representatives. HR 3127 directs the
president to deny visas for entry into America
for any person responsible for acts of genocide
or crimes against humanity in Sudan. The bill
authorizes the president to reinforce the deploy-
ment and operations of the African Union's
peacekeeping mission in Darfur and directs the
president to instruct the U.S. Ambassador to
NATO to lobby for a NATO peacekeeping force
in Darfur.
In addition, the bill encourages the president
to consider pushing for an expansion of the man-
date of the U.N. peacekeeping mission already in
Sudan supporting the north-south peace agree-
ment. Given the authorization provided by HR
3127, I also voted in favor of the 2006 Defense
Supplemental bill that specifically includes $303
million for the peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
This money will be used to sustain and expand the
7,700-member A.U. mission, supported by U.S.
and NATO logistics, surveillance and airlift.
Finally, I signed a letter to the secretary of
state along with 119 other members of Congress,
urging her to appoint a special envoy to Sudan.
As the letter states, I am concerned that there
is not a single person whose sole responsibility
is to monitor the situation in Darfur and south-
ern Sudan and answer directly to the secretary
of state. I believe the appointment of a special
envoy with a clear mandate, who has the ear of
the secretary of state, will communicate to the
Sudanese government and the world community
the seriousness of our government's intent to see
the suffering in Darfur end.
While the pressure placed on the government
of Sudan and the three rebel factions may yet
yield a peaceful result in Darfur, it will not come
easily. Mediators from the A.U. have already had
to extend the deadline for agreement -on a peace
settlement in order to bridge the gap on the issues
of reintegration and disarmament, as well as on
wealth and power sharing.
Undoubtedly, there are going to be some
extraordinarily difficult challenges, but it is
not too late for appropriate and constant pres-
sure to convince the Sudanese government
to cease the mindless and brutal genocide in
Darfur and to bring some order and tranquil-
ity back to that part of Africa. To its credit,
the administration has dispatched Deputy
Secretary of State Robert Zoellick to Abuja,
Nigeria, where negotiations are being held to
encourage a successful end to the horrific situa-
tion in Darfur. Success in this effort is a must.
Schwarz represents the 7th Congressional District
of Michigan, which includes parts of Washtenaw
county. He is a University alum and current chair
of theAlumni Association. He previously served in
the U.S. Navy, the CIA and in local and state gov-
ernment. He currently sits on the House Agricul-
ture, Armed Services and Science committees.
The spotlight may be gone, but
our beloved Detroit is still here.
And after spending several
years building and cleaning up
for the Super Bowl, it seems Detroit city
officials remain committed to continue
working toward the city's resurgence,
even after the nation has turned its eye
elsewhere. But while they should be
commended for instituting policies to
maintain the city, unfortunately, their
focus is not where it should be.
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick recently
announced a plan to put Roger Pen-
ske - the man largely responsible for
Detroit's strong showing as host of
Super Bowl XL - in charge of continu-
ing the clean-up process for the down-
town area. But by choosing to continue
focusing only on downtown, city offi-
cials are making a mistake common
to urban renewal efforts - they are
focusing on the wants of potential out-
side visitors to the city rather than on
the needs of the residents that are its
true life and blood.
Make no mistake about it, a clean,
vibrant downtown is a vital component
of Detroit's climb into respectabil-
ity, but no less important is improving
residential areas. While cultural attrac-
tions like sports stadiums, casinos and
restaurants may attract suburbanites
to the city for a few hours, clean, safe
neighborhoods will attract permanent
residents, who provide much more in
the way of creating a livable city.
In repaving downtown avenues, open-
LIVE ON YOUR FEET
ing up new businesses and attractions
and further scrubbing the comparably
pristine central areas, the mayor and
city council have allowed the rest of
the city to continue its decline. Street
corners, even in otherwise respectable
neighborhoods, are piled tall with litter,
playgrounds are crumbling, street lights
are often broken and abandoned build-
ings are still all-too-easily spotted. Is it
any wonder then that the city continues
losing residents every month?
Not all the problems in neighbor-
hoods can be blamed on the city, but
what is troubling is the lack of focus on
improving life for the city's residents.
While building up the Ford Field area
for the Super Bowl, the city curbed
bulk-trash pickup services in neigh-
borhoods - likely one of the reasons
so many old tires and appliances lie
heaped on street corners. And now,
instead of moving into areas it has thus
far ignored, the city has decided to con-
tinue polishing precious blocks of the
downtown area.
It is impossible to build a city worth
living in while continuing to ignore
its residentialaareas. Events like the
Super Bowl have made outsiders curi-
ous about the city, but they will only
turn away with renewed negativity if
city officials allow neighborhoods to
remain derelict and unkempt. In all
fairness, the mayor did say that there
will be another initiative later on to
clean up neighborhoods. The question
is why is that not a priority now?
JON OQUIST
The thumbs have it
The UM Patriots - Live Pacman in the Fishbowl, Superman in
lecture halls and bizarre ninja-looking dudes in a classroom near
you. This is what the infamous UM Patriots have given us - we
owe them so much. And, having a top-five viral video on AOL, they
prove this University once more to be the "leaders and the best."
The big, bad Ivies - Continuing the trend of throwing around cash
to steal top faculty from the poor public universities, Yale is reportedly
looking into making an offer to LSA Prof. Juan Cole. Take the money
and run if you will, Prof. Cole, but remember, the Yankees don't win
nearly as often as you'd think they would.
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