There were some optimistic noises coming out of Abuja yesterday, where the African Union restarted peace talks among squabbling rebel groups and the Sudanese government over the continuing horrendous events in Darfur. But the hundreds of thousands of victims of ethnic cleansing, mass killings and rape -- Washington calls it genocide -- need much more than soothing, hopeful words. They need "a stronger international resolve to ensure security and basic human rights." Those are the words of Pope Benedict, who yesterday pledged before Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako, Archbishop of Khartoum, that the Holy See would do anything it could to "end the cycle of violence and misery." The Vatican's moral authority is welcome. But it is not going to stop what the United Nations says has been a recent increase in the number of rapes and killings of civilians, including children, while the belligerents continue fighting.

 

Khartoum is high on the list of the blameworthy. Juan Mendez, the special UN adviser on preventing genocide, said recently that the Sudanese government had done little to disarm its maraudingjanjaweed militias or to end their "culture of impunity." Earlier this year, the UN Security Council referred Darfur atrocity cases to the International Court in The Hague, but Khartoum thumbed its nose and said it would set up its own courts to try suspects. Mr. Mendez said this has done nothing to stop further atrocities.

 

It's clear to anyone following the horror in western Sudan that began nearly three years ago that Darfur needs dramatic and sustained international intervention. The African Union's 7,000-member security force is nowhere near adequate to deal with the lawlessness and banditry. Earlier this month, the International Committee of the Red Cross scaled back its operations after attacks on its field teams. The AU troops, responsible for bringing security to a region the size of France, have been targeted as well; five were recently killed in a battle with an armed rebel group. Meanwhile, until a few days ago, Khartoum deliberately held up the delivery of Canadian-donated armoured personnel carriers for African Union soldiers.

 

Journalists such as The Globe and Mail's Stephanie Nolen and The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof have been regularly documenting the abuses in Darfur and shining a spotlight on the world's inability to stop what some insist is genocide. Mr. Kristof is hectoring the U.S. Congress to restore $50-million for the AU peacekeepers. He thinks much more should be done, such as building a UN peacekeeping force around the African Union core that would have more resources and a "more robust mandate." This has much merit, especially since the AU's own leadership is in question. Only last month, the AU allowed Sudan to chair its peace and security council meeting, and there is speculation that Sudan will be elected to head the 53 African Union states next year.

 

This prospect prompted Kwame Akonor, director of the African Development Institute, to say: "The AU needs to get tough on any African government complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity such as the Sudanese regime. The AU's legitimacy and moral authority will be irreparably damaged if it assigns special privileges toSudan." The UN says that women and girls continue to be gang-raped by marauders in Darfur. They and other innocent victims cannot be expected to wait to see if the episodic peace talks in Nigeria's capital end their nightmare.