Last week President Bush stood before a group of Holocaust survivors and made what sounded like a strong statement against the genocidal Sudanese regime: “The time for promises is over — [Sudan’s] President Bashir must act.”

Bashir had just agreed to allow 3,000 troops of the proposed 21,000 strong United Nations peacekeeping force into the Darfur region of his tyrannically controlled East African country. And, although U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he wanted more time to negotiate with the Sudanese government, Bush appeared to be digging in his boots, preparing to take a stand against Khartoum.

Bush’s announcement came after the release of a confidential U.N. report claiming the Sudanese government had shipped arms and military equipment to Darfur, transporting the cargo in Sudanese planes deceptively painted with U.N. insignias.

Darfur is a place most American college students have heard of. Those students who are not yet aware of the genocide will likely not forget its name after this week’s worldwide awareness campaign.

Global Days for Darfur is an international effort intended to raise awareness and force action from world leaders. The events are scheduled to continue until April 30, the unstated deadline for Sudan’s government to respond to Bush’s demands to disarm the Janjaweed militias and stop the genocide.

Despite the deadlines, the conflict rolls on. The Sudan Tribune reported that the Darfurian rebel group, Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM), claimed 26 civilians were killed when the Sudanese Air Force bombed and strafed the village of Amray in North Darfur. Four of the women killed were allegedly pregnant.

More surprising than the day-to-day slaughter taking place in Darfur is the saber-rattling of Sudan’s government. Sudan’s Minister of Defense, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, in an interview with the Gulf News Agency, boasted of Sudan’s unwillingness to accept foreign intervention.

“We will fight [the deployment of troops], be it the Americans or Europeans,” Hussein said. “We will fight it.”

Hussein also claimed Israel was behind a master conspiracy to divide Sudan and increase the amount of water that flows down the Nile into Egypt so Israel, which has a chronic water shortage, could buy it.

Far from promising foreign intervention, Bush has yet to make clear what type of punishment Sudan will face if it does not disarm the Janjaweed militias. But, it appears financial sanctions, barring Sudanese companies for doing business in the United States and receiving U.S. dollars, will be one of the first actions taken.

Global Days for Darfur was organized by the Save Darfur Coalition, a group of more than 180 faith-based and non-profit organizations aligned to advocate for the cessation of conflict in Darfur. Today, Global Days for Darfur will be protesting on Wall Street against investment in companies that do business with the Sudanese government.

Students at the UW, who recently divested from companies working with Sudanese government, will also be participating in the Global Days for Darfur campaign, which will include more than 350 events nationwide. The Save Darfur Coalition at UW will hold a “Die-In” from 12:10-12:40 p.m. in Red Square Thursday during which students will lie on the ground, symbolically representing the bodies of the 200,000 Darfurians who have been murdered by the Sudanese regime.

For once, after four years of genocide, Bush “must act,” too. The world has been complacent in genocides before — in fact no country has ever stopped any genocide simply for the sake of stopping it — and it’s time Bush shows Sudan and the world that Americans are moral people who signed the 1948 convention to prevent genocide for a reason.

Reach columnist Jake Sommer at news@thedaily.washington.edu.