Pitt Faculty Expert says UN Resolution on Darfur Troops is Haphazard

PITTSBURGH-"The Sudanese government has become masters at offering Western governments the prospect of a peace agreement while prosecuting a genocide in Darfur and carrying out multiple wars elsewhere in the country," says Simon Reich (pron.: RIKE), a professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and director of Pitt's Ford Institute for Human Security.

"The latest prospective agreement with the UN has a familiar ring to it," Reich says. "The potential prospect of a force of peacekeepers but no firm agreement, a force cobbled together in such a haphazard fashion that it will not be able to operate as an effective unit, one whose mandate will preclude it operating as a real deterrent force, one led and largely manned by African troops who lack the training of some of their Western counterparts to cope effectively with the demands of such an operation, one too small to enforce any ceasefire in an area (Darfur) the size of Texas. Meanwhile, the slaughter will go on as the process of establishing the ground rules undergoes further deliberation and an ineffective force is eventually installed."

For a list of Pitt faculty experts, visit http://www.umc.pitt.edu/m/experts.html.

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7/31/07/tmw