In a blockbuster end-of-decade issue reviewing the past 10 years in rock and roll, Rolling Stone magazine also devotes considerable time and space—12 pages, to be exact—to one of the most intransigent conflicts that spanned six years of this decade: the conflict in Darfur, Sudan.
Journalist Ben Wallace-Wells draws on interviews with some of the most active leaders—including Enough’s Co-founder John Prendergast—dedicated to resolving the conflict. Wallace-Wells’s analysis divides the conflict into phases, beginning with Aid, and progressing to Diplomacy, Peacekeeping, Justice, and currently, Stalemate.
As Prendergast recalls to Wallace-Wells, "There was an ever-increasing chorus to send in peacekeepers before there was any peace agreement, but the chorus was all wrong." He concludes that the Darfur/Sudan crisis has been governed by "the law of the tool – if you have certain tools, you throw them in."
He adds, "We’ve lost years not dealing with the political roots of the problem."
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Photo: Sudan Liberation Army rebels in South Darfur. (IRIN)