Source: https://mail.hudsonny.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/opinion/l17kristof.html \t _blank http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/opinion/l17kristof.html
 
May 17, 2006
U.N. Is Best Hope to End Darfur Killing 
To the Editor:
As an admirer of Nicholas D. Kristof's conscience-stirring columns, I am disappointed that he is so quick to write off the United Nations' performance on Darfur (Dithering Through Death, May 16). 
United Nations officials, from Secretary General Kofi Annan on down, were in fact the first to raise the alarm on the horrific events there more than two years ago.
The international community then adopted a three-pronged strategy to deal with the tragedy: humanitarian relief (both inside Darfur and across the border in Chad); boots on the ground (provided currently by an African Union force of 7,000); and peace talks toward a comprehensive settlement (which recently concluded in a peace agreement in Abuja, Nigeria). 
Though all this has made a difference, no one at the United Nations pretends that it has been enough, and horrors continue. But what realistic alternatives are there? 
Mr. Kristof blames a permanent member of the Security Council for stalling action, but it is not clear what other action would be feasible: there is not a country in the world that is prepared to go to war to impose peace on Darfur. 
The United Nations, by its nature, uses both the bully pulpit and quiet diplomacy. What is essential now is to persuade the parties, especially the government of Sudan, to agree to a robust United Nations peacekeeping force to take over from the brave but under-resourced African Union troops. 
The United Nations represents the best hope of ensuring that the killings, rapes and ethnic cleansing can finally be stopped. 
Shashi Tharoor
Under Secretary General
for Communications
and Public Information, U.N.
New York, May 16, 2006