Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 21, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba A15 Winnipeg free press focus monday june 21, 2004. Dilemma in Darfur Sudan situation is problem from hell Khartoum condemned for role in deaths the . And the in Are starting to condemn the sudanese government openly u said predicts that 350,000 people will die of hunger disease and exposure in the refugee Camps of Western Sudan in the next few months. Back in april Kofi Annan the United nations Secretary general was already warning that the International Community should be prepared to take Steps in Dar fur that May include military but nothing has happened. Well not literally nothing. The african Union is sending a handful of observers to Monitor the ceasefire that was signed in Darfur in april though it has to actually stopped the killing. A in Appeal raised $288 million for Relief operations in Darfur last week although that is $80-100 million Short of what is needed and the Rainy season will restrict deliveries to the Camps starting about now. The Core of the problem is in Khartoum however and nobody wanted to touch that. Insists the sudanese president Omar Elbashir still insists that foreign governments Are blowing the events in Darfur out of proportion but Low level flights across Southern parts of the province report virtually every Village burned out. More than a million people Are living in refugee Camps including 158,000 who have fled across the Border into Chad and even in the Camps the refugees Are not Safe As raids by the janjaweed militia continue. But at least the United states and the United nations have finally criticized the government in Khartoum directly. I received numerous accounts of the extra judicial and summary executions carried out by government backed Mili Tias and by the Security forces them selves said United nations special rapporteur Asma Jahangir in Khartoum. There is no ambiguity that there is a link Between some of the militias and govern ment after months of dodging the Issue . Secretary of state Colin Powell echoed her words last week we believe that the government of Sudan did provide support to these he still avoided using the word genocide but he was clearly aware that president Bill Clinton had evaded the duty of responding to the genocide in Rwanda a decade ago by letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from readers. They must include the authors name address and Telephone number. Letters May be edited. Letters to the editor 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg r2x 3b6. Fax 697-7412. Email counselling takes doctors time in response to your recent Story about the Lack of availability of family physicians we psychologists often discover that family physicians spend much of their time doing psychological coun Selling and psychotherapy with their patients about stress management family problems psychological meth ods of handling anxiety. Depression Etc. Although it is important for patients to talk to their physicians about their health concerns and to receive coun Selling about them it seems that psychological counselling and psychotherapy takes an undue amount of their time. Professional psychologists who often hold doctoral degrees in clinical psychology Are better trained to pro vide such services than family physicians who have Little training in this area. However such services from psychologists Are not covered in any provincial health plans so Many patients receive this service from their family physician who is covered under health care. At least half of All visits to family physicians relate to symptoms caused or exacerbated by stress. This ties up the family physicians time and they then have less time and Opportunity to provide medical care contributing to the difficulty in finding available family physicians. Funding More psychological ser vices on provincial health plans or creating More positions for psychologists to provide this treatment would result in physicians having to do this less and would give them More time to provide proper medical care and there May be More family physicians who could take new patients. Or. Bruce Hutchison . Winnipeg where was the .? the United states was and is really Down on Canada for not joining them in their fight against Iraq. Some canadians feel the same Way. Yet where was the . When the second world War broke out they did to join Canada and England. They said it has nothing to do with them. They remained like that for two years until the japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. Then and Only then did they join up with the Good countries ? Canada and England. What really ticks me off is that no one in our govern ment spoke up and reminded the . About their absence in the first two years of the second world War. Bernadette Galiot red Lake on Martin was interrupted constantly prior to the English language debate on Csc june 15i was Uncertain to which party i was going to support. The debate last tuesday was shame Ful. Jack Layton Gilles Dueppe and Stephen Harper constantly interrupted prime minister Paul Martin while he was trying to get his Point across so much so that it was impossible to hear refusing to Call it by the right name All i know is that there Are at least a million people who Are desperately in need and Many of them will die if we can to. Get the sudanese to co operate with the inter National Community. And it wont make a whole lot of difference after the fact what you be called Why did the . And the in wait so Long before putting the blame where it belongs this is where it gets complicated because the main reason is that they were afraid of jeopardizing the Deal that is finally bringing peace to the Southern Sudan after 21 years of War and at least two million dead. Every government in Sudan since Independence has been dominated by the Ara based muslims of Northern Sudan who account for two thirds of the country a population ? and almost every one of those governments has spent much of its time at War with rebels in the african predominantly Christian South of the country. The current fighting flared in 1983 after an islamist faction got the upper hand in the struggle for Power among the Northern arabic speaking population and tried to impose islamic Law on the whole country. Eventually the growing importance of Sudan soil ? it could be exporting half As much As Kuwait in a few years ? and con Cerns that the country s islamist regime had links with Al Aida focused official american attention on Sudan. Sticks and carrots an adroit use of Sticks and carrots by Washington brought first a More Moder ate government in Khartoum and now a peace Deal Between North and South signed in Kenya Early this month that provides for a ceasefire sharing of Oil revenues Between North and South and a referendum on Southern Independence in six years time. But other neglected regions seeing what the Christian South has achieved by revolt were tempted to play the same game. Everybody in Darfur is Muslim but there is a deep hostility Between the african Farmers of the provinces South Ern River valleys and the Arab ised Pas toral people of Northern Darfur who traditionally raided the Farmers for cattle and women. What his views were on the issues. The debate illustrated the sickly state of the political environment these Days. If party leaders were to engage in a civilized debate perhaps More people would turn out to vote on election Day. Due to this poor behaviour by Lay ton Dueppe and Harper in the debate my vote will now be for Paul Martin and the liberals. Stephen Berg Winnipeg Reagan a great president in the Early 1960s, Ronald Reagan became a seminal figure in the rebirth of libertarian thought. From Supply Side economics to his synthesis of the states rights theory of the Constitution to his contribution to ending the cold War to his intimate doonesbury appreciation of the True intent of the founding fathers Reagan was surely the greatest president since Madison. Frances Trueman Winnipeg keep Canada out of Star wars Paul Martin talks unequivocally of the risks to Canada under a Stephen Harper government and i could to agree More. But his vision when he asserts the importance of projecting Canadian values abroad is not so Clear. Canada s co operation in Continental missile defence is a Case in Point. Many canadians have been expressing grave concerns about this High priority . Project which is Central to their stated goal of achieving full glob Al dominance including the control of space and will certainly Lead to the deployment of space based weapons. So the islamist faction in Khartoum now out of Power and looking for a Way to undermine its rivals urged the people of Southern Darfur to revolt which some of them did last year ? and the faction now in Power in Khartoum turned the Ara based pastoral people of Northern Darfur Loose on them. The janjaweed militias raids on the farming villages Are now backed by sudanese government helicopter gun ships and rather than just stealing cattle and women they murder everyone they can catch Burn the crops and smash the irrigation systems. It is genocide no doubt about it ? but the government that backs it is the same sudanese government that has pushed the islamist out of Power in Khartoum and is now making peace in the South. Now very late in the game the . And the in Are starting to condemn the sudanese government openly but its not Clear what they will actually do about it. Overthrow the present lot in Khartoum and you probably restart the much bigger War in the South. Its another problem from hell. I find the Prospect that Canada might collaborate in this project to be abhorrent. This is not an area where Canada should be acquiescing to mend fences. By keeping a Safe distance from . Policy and practices that Are not in our interest Canada s International stature and Domestic Security Are enhanced. Recently we heard that the Bush administration is concerned that a decision on Canada s role in missile defence May be compromised by a looming minority government. I say this Issue can be cleared up now once and for All. In fact i feel so strongly about it that although Jack Layton a vision for Canada s foreign policy and peace keeping role in the world echoes my sentiment almost perfectly i am prepared to make this citizens pledge to the prime minister make an executive decision now to keep Canada out of Star wars and i will change my vote to Liberal. Roger Barany Vancouver by Garry Trudeau ;