John Prendergast and Don Cheadle write in this year’s Time 100:
“A top-100 list gives [Sudanese President] Omar al-Bashir too much company. In a number of ignominious post-World War II categories, Sudan’s dictator ranks in the top five: most deaths as a result of war strategies (2.5 million in Darfur and southern Sudan), most people rendered homeless by scorched-earth policies (7 million), most villages burned to the ground (at least 1,500 in Darfur alone). Bashir’s one goal is to maintain power. He has sown discord in Darfur with a classic divide-and-conquer strategy. As a result, interethnic conflict is tearing the region apart, and attacks on aid agencies by government and rebel militias have left a million people beyond the reach of humanitarian aid. Bashir, 63, has blocked the deployment of a larger U.N.-led peacekeeping operation that would protect Darfur’s civilians.”
