NICHOLAS KRISTOF devoted his column today to the genocide of the black, non-Arab population in Darfur, Sudan. In an attempt to break through the seeming indifference among the American public to the atrocities that are occurring in the Sudan, Kristof has published selected photographs from an archive containing thousands of photographs and papers documenting the genocide. The Bush administration did not even acknowledge that what is going on in Darfur IS genocide until September, 2004, when Colin Powell said, in an address to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that genocide was happening in the Sudan, that the Sudanese government and the Arab militia called Janjaweed was responsible, and that "genocide may still be occurring." Indeed, it is. To date, at least 70,000 and probably more like 300,000 people have been slaughtered; according to Kristof's sources, 10,000 Sudanese are being killed every month. Thousands of men and women have been castrated or raped; children and babies are not spared either.

One wonders what Condoleezza Rice and the rest of the Bush administration are thinking when they accuse Syria and Iran of brutalizing their people while they ignore this ethnic cleansing of an entire population in Africa.

If you would like to read more about the Darfur genocide and maybe do something to raise your voice against it, there is a website devoted entirely to the genocide, with plenty of specific suggestions for taking action.