US Justice raises alarm about turmoil in Sudan’s Darfur

Mar 31, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy called Thursday for more attention to reports of genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, saying that Rwanda should serve as a lesson to the world.

Kennedy used a speech at a meeting of the American Society of International Law to call attention to Darfur. He said that his views were his own, not those of the U.S.

“It is the duty of the world to do more than watch,” he said.

Kennedy said that after the genocide in Rwanda “the world wept but little, and then went on its way.”

Kennedy was asked separately by an audience member about the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has sparked international criticism of the Bush administration.

“The lessons of history, the lessons of literature must teach us that it is all too easy to fall into the mistakes of the past,” Kennedy responded. “We must be diligent as we meet threats that we had never contemplated five years ago.”

An estimated 180,000 people have died and 2 million others have been displaced by the three-year rebellion in the Darfur region. Although the United Nations has described the Darfur conflict as the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis, the Sudanese government has opposed U.N. involvement and denied charges of genocide.

(ST/AP)