NEXT TIME IT WON'T BE AN ASPIRIN FACTORY:

Frist Calls Darfur Killing 'Genocide': Senate Leader Tours a Camp in Chad, Cites Sudan's Deadline to Stop Militia (Emily Wax, August 7, 2004, Washington Post)

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Friday visited exhausted refugees who had fled into Chad from the Darfur region of western Sudan, where they have been under attack by an Arab militia. Frist called the crisis "one of the greatest humanitarian challenges of our time" and said the killing was "genocide."

The Tennessee Republican met with aid workers and toured the Touloum camp where 15,000 refugees live in dust-covered tents, fragile shelters vulnerable to rain and wind. The militia, known as the Janjaweed, has committed atrocities across Darfur that have displaced close to 1.5 million darker-skinned African villagers and left as many as 50,000 dead, according to human rights groups and aid workers.

Frist said that the violence was "specific to a group of people, with race playing a major role in intent. It is genocide." The House and Senate passed resolutions last month also declaring the situation a genocide and urged President Bush to seek a U.N. protection force. [...]

Frist said a 30-day deadline set by the U.N. Security Council on July 30 gave the Sudanese government enough time to rein in the Janjaweed and end the crisis. Sudan has protested the U.S.-drafted resolution, which threatens the imposition of sanctions against the government, and instead has sought a 90-day deadline.

"The direct line between the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed and the raping, pillaging and murder is so direct that, with an order from the top, I am absolutely convinced it could stop within a week," Frist said. "If the president of Sudan says stop, he can stop it." He added that he would take his observations from his tour directly to Bush.

The past few years have not been kind tevil men who don't take Tony Blair and George Bush at their word.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 7, 2004 3:52 PM