Move now on Darfur.

Byline: The Register-Guard

If there has been a recent decline in the number of deadly raids by the Janjaweed militias and government troops in western Sudan, it's only because most of the villages have already been burned.

While diplomats have dithered over whether the situation in the Darfur region represents a "humanitarian catastrophe" or "genocide," as many as 50,000 people have been killed and another million left homeless. Meanwhile, another 2.2 million Sudanese are in desperate need of food and other emergency assis- tance.

At the United Nations last week, Secretary General Kofi Annan reported that the Sudanese government has failed to stop the attacks on black Africans in Darfur. In late July, the Security Council gave Sudan 30 days to start disarming the Arab militias and to begin bringing to justice those responsible for human rights abuses. That deadline has passed, and the futility of calling upon the Khartoum regime to stop the very killing it instigated should now be evident to all.

The U.N. must now take three critical steps if it hopes to avert a genocide that potentially could surpass in scale what happened in Rwanda a decade ago.

The first is to authorize a major deployment of foreign peacekeepers in Darfur. The African Union, which already has an estimated 300 Rwandan troops deployed in the region as monitors, has offered to send 3,000 soldiers. But the union lacks the money, transport planes and communications needed to carry off such a deployment, and the U.N. should foot the bill.

Sudan has said it will accept monitors but not peacekeeping troops authorized to take military action. That's unacceptable. If the Khartoum regime does not change its position, the U.N. should impose arms and oil embargoes, as well as sanctions targeting Sudanese leaders and businesses.

The third step is for the U.N. to send an official commission of inquiry to begin gathering evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Perhaps the prospect of appearing before an international tribunal will deter Sudanese leaders from their murderous ways.

Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry called on President Bush to "stop equivocating" and to formally declare the situation in Sudan to be genocide. He also said the U.S. State Department should release findings of its investigation into the crisis.

The United States has done more to help Darfur's people in recent months than any other nation, providing the bulk of relief and keeping up pressure in the Security Council. But Kerry is right - stronger action is needed by the administration, particularly in pushing for foreign military intervention.

A formal genocide finding by the Bush administration, as well as by the U.N., would dramatically increase the pressure against Sudan, and it would make intervention mandatory under international trea- ties.

The United Nations must act swiftly and decisively. The lives of millions hang in the balance.