Nick Reville interview was interesting. Especially his thoughts on ‘getting caught up’ in the tech/startup culture.

Darfur crisis ignored by government:

28th Jul 2004

After the relase of the Foreign Policy Centre report, “Darfur and Genocide: Mechanisms for Rapid Response” on the 28th July, the Green Party has further criticised the government for failing to act sooner in Darfur because minds everywhere were focused on Iraq.

According to the report, diplomatic and military commitments in Iraq overshadowed Dafur even though there were indicators of genocide as early as September 2003. Indeed, according to the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Darfur was omitted from the May 2004 Security Council agenda because the focus of discussion was on Iraq.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 clearly established an obligation on states both to prevent genocide and to punish its perpetrators. However, in the face of evidence of genocide in Darfur, the international community has so far failed once again, as in Rwanda, to fulfill either the duty to prevent or the duty to punish.

In comparison to the war in Iraq’s estimated 13,000 civilian casualties, the ethnic conflict in Darfur has so far killed around 30,000 people and driven more than a million people from their homes with little to no international response.

John Norris

Green Party International spokesperson