Front PageVoisinage Kosovo and Darfur: Do Some People Matter More Than Others?
Kosovo and Darfur: Do Some People Matter More Than Others?
Written by Savo Heleta
Thursday, 29 May 2008
In 1999, Western governments and media claimed that about 10,000 Albanians were killed in the Serbian province of Kosovo by the Serbian security forces and that the world had to intervene immediately and stop the conflict.
They quickly decided to launch air strikes, using over 1,000 airplanes in a bombing campaign. After a short war, 2,100 people were confirmed to be killed in Kosovo by the Serbian forces before the air strikes, while another 2,000 were still missing.
Since 1999, the UN’s mission in Kosovo became the largest show of strength in the history of the United Nations. NATO deployed tens of thousands of troops to Kosovo. The international community has spent over $50 billion in Kosovo since 1999, which corresponds to $2,800 per capita annually. This is 160 times the average yearly per capita aid for all other developing countries combined.
The European Union is taking over the Kosovo mission this year and deploying 2,200 judges, prosecutors, police officers, and customs officials to run now an independent Kosovo. This is in addition to 16,000 NATO soldiers who are already in Kosovo. The costs of maintaining the EU’s mission alone are expected to be at least $2.4 billion annually between now and 2010.
The conflict in Darfur is in its sixth year. About 200,000 people are estimated to have died from fighting, disease, and starvation since 2003. The UN and aid agencies estimate that over 2 million people are living in camps after fleeing fighting in the region.
For a year now, the UN Secretary-General has been asking the world powers to provide the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur with 6 attack helicopters and 18 transport helicopters so they can start protecting civilians in Darfur.
Helicopters are essential for any success of the mission in the vast and remote region the size of France. Even though NATO members together possess over 18,000 military helicopters, to this day, no country has supplied even one helicopter for the Darfur mission.
It was easy to find 1,000 fighter jets to punish Serbia for killing a few thousand people in Kosovo, but it is impossible to find 24 helicopters to start protecting people in Darfur.
While billions keep pouring in Kosovo year after year, the World Food Program is having trouble finding money to continue delivering food to more than 2 million refugees in Darfur. Monthly costs of food delivery are (only) $6.2 million.
Western governments are eager and ready to send troops, equipment, aid, and money to stop conflicts in Europe, while conflicts in Africa are ignored. They have done this in the case of Bosnia in the early 1990s, while ignoring the Rwandan genocide in 1994. They are doing this again in Kosovo since 1999, while ignoring the Darfur conflict and suffering of millions since 2003.
Whether it is due to skin color, geographic location, natural resources, or effective lobbying, it seems that some people do matter more than others.
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29/05/08 - Regarding your article: "Kosovo and Darfur: Do Some People Matter More Than Others? "
Actually, in 1999, Western governments and media claimed the 100,000 Albanians were killed or missing. In your article you mention 10,000. Bill Clinton even addressed the nation using the over inflated 100,000 number. I appreciate someone finally bringing this issue to light. Would be nice to see main stream media cover this and expose the truth.
Thank you
Dejan
29/05/08 - Wrong approach on Darfur
Savo Heleta is right to ask for the international community to act and stop the human tragedy in Darfur.
However, he is wrong when he decides to do this by belittling the tragedy of another nation.
He begins his article by saying that only 2100 Albanians were killed by the Serbian forces in Kosovo, a low figure compared to the 10,000 claimed by the media.
The proof seems to be in the article whose link he offers. I went and read that article. It says among other things: "In total 4,266 bodies had been reported to be buried in those sites. To date 2,108 bodies havebeen exhumed."
So, there are 4,266 dead people. Those 2,108 that he mentions are only those exhumed so far. (I love when "humanitarian" people like Savo round up the numbers of the victims - who cares for eight lives after all).
In addition, 4,266 pertains only to mass graves and it was in that time (November 1999) a preliminary figure. It does not include people killed separately, and buried separately by their families.
Furthermore, the intervention in Kosovo was not made because a few thousand people had been killed, but to prevent the a repetition of the genocide that the Serbian regime inflicted in Bosnia a few yearsearlier.
The difference between Kosovo and Darfur has nothing to do with the color of the skin. The Serbs after allwere white too.
It has to do with two things: First, Kosovo is in Europe and the European Union has superior means and true solidarity something that the African Union lacks (poor countries with many of them led by dictators). Second, unlike in 1999, the United States, the only force who could accomplish a true and effective humanitarian intervention in the world is occupied inAfghanistan and Iraq.
I am surprised that Savo Heleta is so bitter with EU and US for the situation in Darfur when after all it is the UN's responsibility to deal with it. The EU and America have done enough for conflicts around the world. At least they are helping Kosovo. Why Heleta does not ask what other countries like Russia and China are doing to help in Darfur? China can start by limiting its sweet deal with that murderous regime ofSudan.
Heleta and other people who blame the EU and the US when they intervene somewhere and then blame them again when they don't intervene somewhere else, are not serious observers of the international affairs.
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