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Via All Africa, it seems that Ban is growing increasingly frustrated by member states' refusal to lease helicopters to the peacekeeping mission in Darfur. In a message to a meeting of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome, Ban said, "In the past weeks and months, I have contacted, personally, every possible contributor of helicopters -- in the Americas, in Europe, in Asia. And yet, not one helicopter has been made available yet."
The Los Angeles Times yesterday picked up on the helicopter crunch--something we've been writing about here for weeks. The Times, though, began its editorial by asking "Is there a world helicopter shortage that nobody told us about?" As a matter of fact, there is. Still, all that means is that member states must make Darfur a priority commensurate to the amount of lip-service that member states pay to the issue. And the The Times quite rightly shines light on the startling gap between member states' rhetoric and action on Darfur.
The sad thing is, this sort of dynamic has played itself out since member states started calling Darfur a genocide in 2004. The crunch for helicopters is simply the latest manifestation of member states' real disinterest in mustering the political will to offer Darfur some relief.
