David...

Ask the Albanian Kosovars if the Kosovo intervention was a disaster. Thousands returned home to bombed out buildings and, according to you, the prospect of renewed ethnic cleansing. Many even left countries as prosperous and secure as Australia to return voluntarily. They have faith in the future.

There is an increased probability of future "Emperors" being benevolent if they have the real prospect of being hauled before the ICC and tried for their crimes, as was Milosevic. Karadzic (who is a fugitive) and Mladic (whose daughter suicided when she read the Hague Tribunal's indictment against him) hardly live worthwhile lives thanks to the prospect of justice for their crimes against humanity.

Such a real prospect would deter at least some would-be criminal leaders and gives pause to their henchmen who would also face charges that cannot be defended with the "I was only following orders" argument. This is why a strong international law regime is necessary.

Law is the universal key to civilised behaviour, not "might is right" or superior religion (an oxymoron) or culture. Imagine life in a society without the rule of law. The world will be better off when the rule of law extends to sovereign heads of states and their minions.

I do hope the author of this article about Darfur took note of the Kofi Annan “concern” meter. I noticed that the needle on his meter went from ‘concerned’ to ‘very concerned’ in a matter of days.

The call to march in the streets to protest the genocide sounds reasonable, but that assumes Australians have some kind of power that we can exercise. We don't.
Like the refugees in Dafur, we too are powerless, just under different masters.

A little pessimistic, roama. You live in in one of the world's most stable and developed democracies. You can protest and, if there are sufficient like-minded people, you'll make a difference in pressuring our government to do something about Darfur. That something may be limited because of the size and influence of Australia, but Australia does puch well above its weight in the world and can influence very powerful nations that can do something more concrete.

It was the collective outrage of the Australian public that led the Howard Government to risk war with Indonesia over East Timor. A decision that they'd unlikely have taken on the basis of a cost/benefit political/diplomatic calculation.

Don't be so cynical.

Northy
Law...yes. But international law ? c'mon mate.. winners are grinners you know that. I shudder at the thought of some far off remote tribunal or court which might put our prime minister on trial... perish the thought.

I think I could have argued well for Mr Milosovic, specially regarding the massacre at Srebreniza, where I would have shown that he simply carried out the same genocide perpetrated by Mohammed against the Jews. How many are brave enough to put Mohammed and Islam on trial today ? Its all about power and numbers mate.

While we recoil in stunned disbelief over such things, we should remember that Islam is actually BUILT on such things. Christianity is not. Many horrible things were done under the 'banner' of the Church but a careful student of history and the Scriptures will clearly see they had no correlation with Christs teaching.

I hold as notable exceptions, the battle of Tours in 732 and Vienna in 1643 where the 'Emporer' in terms of Romans 13:1-5 took the sword to deter the evildoer (the Moors and Ottomans)

I still come back to the fact that our present period of world history is little different from how its always been. We only SEE our UN/Human rights/UN convention stream of history as being significant when in reality it just does not come onto the radar of Islamic states (apart from temporary accomodation till they can take power)

Honestly, I have no real earthly solution. But I know one thing, I don't want 'International' law to rule Australia. It would be the product of lobbying and special interest forces alien to values I cherish.

Why don't we see any protesters on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne? Well, the reason is as simple as it is cynical: Even though some (like the Green Left Weekly) try very hard to shift the blame for this genocide to the US, it is very hard to blame the US and Israel. And for the world's left leaning protesters, the US and Israel are the only two countries that can be blamed for any abomination in the world. If it was not China but the US vetoing any actions against Sudan, you wouldn't hear the end of it. Sudan is Muslims killing Muslims, and as Muslims are by definition victims, it is too hard for the protesters to take sides in this conflict. Cynical, but true.