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Fading US Sway Leads to Darfur, Burma Inaction

China is ignoring rights abuses for economic interests, Time says

By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 15, 2007 3:25 PM CDT

(Newser) – Diminished US influence is allowing human rights violators in Darfur and Burma to get away with murder, Harvard expert Samantha Power writes in Time. America is speaking up louder than ever, but Uncle Sam’s diplomatic nadir makes for “a void in global human rights leadership.” China has most influence over both pariahs, importing Sudanese oil and exporting weapons to Burma.

America has already used much of its available leverage—barring US business from Sudan and Burma—and has taken concrete financial and diplomatic steps. But “self-interested, economic” interests are more important for most countries with a say. The best bet for getting China to line up would be a “coalition of the concerned” leveraging the Olympics for a new human rights consensus.

In this photo released by the Democratic Voice of Burma, Myanmar, Buddhist monks in cinnamon robes take to the streets of Yangon, Myanmar on Wednesday Sept. 26, 2007. Security forces fired warning shots and tear gas canisters while hauling militant Buddhist monks away in trucks Wednesday as they tried to...
In this photo released by the Democratic Voice of Burma, Myanmar, Buddhist monks in cinnamon robes take to the streets of Yangon, Myanmar on Wednesday Sept. 26, 2007. Security forces fired warning shots...   (Associated Press)
Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State listens to translation with other members of the Quartet during a news conference after a Quartet Principals meeting at U.N. Headquarters in New York Sunday, Sept.  23,  2007  (AP Photo/David Karp)
Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State listens to translation with other members of the Quartet during a news conference after a Quartet Principals meeting at U.N. Headquarters in New York Sunday, Sept....   (Associated Press)
In this photo released by the Democratic Voice of Burma, Myanmar, Buddhist monks in cinnamon robes take to the streets of Yangon, Myanmar on Wednesday Sept. 26, 2007. Security forces fired warning shots and tear gas canisters while hauling militant Buddhist monks away in trucks Wednesday as they tried to...
In this photo released by the Democratic Voice of Burma, Myanmar, Buddhist monks in cinnamon robes take to the streets of Yangon, Myanmar on Wednesday Sept. 26, 2007. Security forces fired warning shots...   (Associated Press)
In this photo made from video released Friday Sept. 28, 2007, by the Democratic Voice of Burma, showing a Japanese journalist as he lays in the street after being shot during a protest in Rangoon, Myanmar, on Thursday Sept. 27, 2007.  The Japanese journalist identified as Kenji Nagai died from...
In this photo made from video released Friday Sept. 28, 2007, by the Democratic Voice of Burma, showing a Japanese journalist as he lays in the street after being shot during a protest in Rangoon, Myanmar,...   (Associated Press)
In this image taken from TV from footage issued on Saturday Oct. 13, 2007 by the Democratic Voice of Burma, based in Norway, shows Myanmar political activist Htay Kywe  seen in Yangon on Aug. 8, 2007.   Myanmar's junta arrested four prominent political activists Saturday Oct. 13, 2007, Amnesty International said,...
In this image taken from TV from footage issued on Saturday Oct. 13, 2007 by the Democratic Voice of Burma, based in Norway, shows Myanmar political activist Htay Kywe seen in Yangon on Aug. 8, 2007....   (Associated Press)
This picture made available by the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007, shows African Union peacekeepers and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) members standing in the burnt-out and destroyed marketplace in Muhajiriya town, south Darfur, Sudan, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007. The sole international aid group in...
This picture made available by the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007, shows African Union peacekeepers and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) members standing in the burnt-out...   (Associated Press)
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