DIFFREACTION PAPER

De Walls piece cites the case of Darfur and how the ruling Sudanese government failed to protect those at the receiving end from a series of brutal acts of genocide. The author illustrates how despite there being well-documented incidents of genocide, the government got away without doing anything. The UN Peacekeeping Forces and other reports consistently described the events in Darfur as to come within the meaning of the term genocide, yet they proved to be largely ineffective. 

Many issues arose out of the debate on protection and the scope of obligation of the government. With the government failing, complex issues such as what would be the mandate of the peacekeeping forces and how would be bearing their financial burden also arose. An unsatisfactory answer to these issues may have also led to the failure of protection measures.

Slim, in his piece, tries to look at the issue more pragmatically questioning the global media as well as other Islamic nations, especially the Middle East, but maintaining at the same time that the primary responsibility continues to vest with the Sudanese government.

Slim is praiseful of the UN fact finding missions, but is quick to point out at their overall ineffectiveness. That the UN agencies proved to be most vocal is probably both an encouraging as well as a disastrous sign. However, he is appalled at the efforts of diplomacy in the situation and laments about how different Darfur could have been if some concrete diplomatic talks had been engaged in.
Staub in his article, while talking about the various factors (both internal and external) which lead to a mass violence and genocide situation, argues the need to look at resolution of the same through internal issues rather than external. He argues in favor of diplomatic talks between the various hostile groups, while keeping in mind their history and past relationship with each other.

Nevertheless, it must be remembered that the internal role has always been and would perhaps continue to be the more important one. Rather than solely concentrating on the present day government talking out issues at the federal level, it may be useful to localize our efforts and also diversify our options. Hostile groups need to be interacted with directly and a hands-on approach is likely to be useful.
If the aforesaid measures are pursued in good faith, it is much more likely that a situation like Darfur can be possibly prevented in the future.

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