In Kenya, theres more important things besides who's going to win their next primary. They already had their election on December 27, where they were told that with democracy came safe freedom of speech. But they thought wrong.
The Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer used the term "ethnic cleansing" to describe the situation. 250,000 people have been uprooted from their homes. On January 28 a reported 64 people were killed in 4 days of fighting. Overall, in a feud between the Kikuyus and the kanenjins in Rift Valley has resulted in over 850 deaths.
Could this be the start of another Darfur? The U.S. considers Kenya an important ally in fighting terrorism in Africa, and it give Kenya $700 million a year to combat AIDS and other diseases.
This is one of those situations where, if the U.S. does intervene, it will be seen as asserting too much influence in National Affairs, but if we don't, isn't that just morally wrong? To me, this looks like the start of a problem with no answer in sight. Therefore, I think that the U.N. should be intervening, and they are.
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2 comments:
In my opinion, the US should definitely try to interfere if we find evidence that this conflict has the potential to turn into a genocide. im sure that if we could turn back time, the US would have intervened in Rwanda in order to stop the massacres. the US would most likely not make the same mistake twice, and therefore should try to intervene to avoid more innocent deaths.
This is the same question that has plagued all the "humanitarian" issues is africa. From Aparteid to Rwanda to Darfur it is never a clear choice whether or not to enter in a conflict that we have nothing to do with. Because of the US's reputation as a "nosy" country it seems like a bad idea to intervene once again in a problem that is not ours. Yet, as one of the leaders of the world, it seems like we should take some responsibility for the injustice around us. but the "if you can do something, you should do something" attitude is a slippery slope on which to base our international policy.
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