Jimmy Carter in Sudan

According to this article (available on Drudge as this goes to e-press), ex-President Carter is in Sudan, discussing the long-running humanitarian crisis there.  He tried to visit some refugees; apparently, they were scared to leave their homes, and stayed in a village.  Carter wanted to go to the village and pay a visit to them, but the idea was nixed by members of the Sudanese military.

It is good that Carter is keeping Darfur alive as an important issue, but he had an interresting comment that I'm not quite sure I would agree with.  He explained that

"Rwanda was definitely a genocide; what Hitler did to the Jews was; but I don't think it's the case in Darfur... I think Darfur is a crime against humanity, but done on a micro scale. A dozen janjaweed attacking here and there..." noting many refugees have survived the violence.

"I think you can call it ethnic cleansing."


The point of a genocide is not that "many have survived."  Hutus and Jews survived.  Maybe the janjaweed will just be content with some Lebensraum, but that doesn't mean they don't have a Final Solution in mind.  In the same article, it is noted that 200,000 people have died.  It's true that not all these people are innocent women and children, but "ethnic cleansing" and  "genocide" is a distinction without a difference. There is of course legal terminology to consider, but the whole point of the Nobel Peace Prize wasn't "outstanding contributions to international legal theory," but recognition of one's moral authority and stature.  Parsing one's words in an effort to avoid embarrassing the "international community" for its lack of commitment is not the courageous action we should expect from a peace prize winner.