Darfur at the crossroads.

Byline: The Register-Guard

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, on the global agenda more urgent than rescuing the people of Darfur from genocide.

Yet world leaders continue to respond with half measures that seem almost crafted to ensure that Darfuris will not escape the fate that has befallen the Armenians, Jews, Cambodians and Rwandans in past de- cades.

A United Nations panel reported last week that Sudan's government is defying U.N. sanctions and is escalating its attacks on the remaining villages in the sprawling western region of Darfur. Despite an arms embargo, the Khartoum regime is continuing to provide weapons, vehicles and other military assistance to the Arab tribal militias known as the Janjaweed.

Darfur stands at a crossroads, and so far there is no indication the international community will intervene to halt what President Bush rightly called genocide in a speech last week to world leaders at the United Nations.

As many as 400,000 African Muslims have died in Darfur from violence or disease since 2003, and another 2 million are homeless. Millions more may die soon unless world leaders take decisive, forceful action to stop the slaughter.

Several developments last week, including Bush's appointment of a special envoy to Sudan, indicate the world hasn't entirely forgotten Darfur. But more drastic steps are needed, and without them the promise that the world will "never again" allow genocide to go unchecked, a promise imbedded in the United Nations Charter, will once again go unfulfilled.

Bush has named Andrew Natsios, the former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as special envoy to Sudan. While a higher-profile appointment, such as Colin Powell or James Baker III, would have helped highlight the importance of the crisis in Darfur, Natsios has the requisite experience and, hopefully, the necessary support from the White House to break through the stalemate that has frustrated efforts to get a U.N. peacekeeping force into Darfur.

The Security Council has authorized sending 20,000 peacekeepers to replace an undersized and poorly equipped African Union force. That group has struggled ineffectively to protect refugees and the dwindling number of international aid workers that remain in Darfur.

However, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has refused to allow the peacekeepers to enter Darfur and has even pledged to attack them if they try. Meanwhile, al-Bashir has ordered African Union troops to leave by Sept. 30, even though the union has agreed to extend its mandate through the end of the year.

The clock is ticking. The United States and its allies must do everything possible to persuade the Sudanese government to allow U.N. peacekeepers to enter Darfur. If African Union troops remain in the region, then al-Bashir must allow NATO to provide the additional support it has promised.

Meanwhile, the Security Council should enact tougher sanctions, including a travel ban on al-Bashir and other government leaders and a no-fly zone to prevent government aircraft from assisting the Janjaweed. U.S. diplomats must lean on China and Russia, which have resisted international intervention in Darfur, to use their considerable clout with Khartoum to persuade al-Bashir to admit the peacekeepers.

Sudan's Arab neighbors, including Libya and Egypt, must also break their shameful silence about the genocidal slaughter of Muslims and add their support for U.N. deployment.

It will take all these measures and more to stop the gears of genocide from grinding on in Darfur.