“I met Minnesotans, even Eden Prairie residents, at every stop I made,” Paulsen said.

Also at each stop: Counter-terrorism discussions. “Anarchy in [the region] can give way to actions like piracy,” Paulsen told the Star Tribune.

Accompanying Paulsen on the late-April tour were four Democrats, including trip leader Rep. Adam Smith of Washington.

Besides Yemen, the group’s itinerary included Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco.

Upon his return from Africa, Paulsen spoke on the House floor (video) in favor of removing trade barriers so U.S. consumer products could reach the shores of a foreign land — Columbia. He didn’t mention Doritos.

Former U.S. Senator Rudy Boschwitz laments that just 7,000 African Union troops are confronting the monumental task of averting genocide in a region of Sudan “about the size of Iraq… or Texas.” Meeting with the Minnesota Interfaith Darfur Coalition last week, the current UN Human Rights ambassador said, “We despair at what can be done.”

Politicians across the political spectrum–from Sen. Sam Brownback to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and even George W. Bush–have called the systematic killing, rapes, and destruction in Darfur “genocide,” a crime under international law that United Nations members have sworn to prevent.

So why, almost four years into the current conflict and 400,000 deaths later, are attacks backed by Sudan’s government continuing in Darfur? And what can be done to stop them?

A deeper understanding of Darfur’s precarious position shows a complicated confluence of interests and histories–and underscores how elusive hope for stability in the near future is. But as members of the interfaith committee meeting weekly at Minneapolis’ Temple Israel or activists at global organizations like the Genocide Intervention Network are finding, there are firm steps that can be taken in 2007. Whether they, if enacted, will make a difference is another matter.

Part 2 of a multipart series on Minnesota’s response to the Darfur crisis. Read Part I.

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Darfur, a region on the westernmost edge of the north African country of Sudan, is wedged between conflicting factions–racial, religious, economic. The government, based in the north central city of Khartoum, is controlled by Arabs, who comprise around 40 percent of the population. Southern Sudan, home to most of the country’s oil fields, is 60 percent African. Ever since Sudan gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1956, the south has sought greater autonomy and control of its resources and has mounted nearly continuous rebellions against the wealthy Khartoum government of the north.

A civil war, ended through pressure by the U.S. and U.N. in 2005, raged for 25 years over allocation of these oil resources, not to mention the tensions arising from nomadic north Sudanese whose camel-grazing needs bumped up against the established farms of the southern part of the country. Further, northern Sudanese are largely Muslim, while southern residents are predominantly Christians and animists.

To complicate matters further, says Dr. Ellen Kennedy, a sociologist and founder of the University of St. Thomas’ chapter of the Genocide Intervention Network, an anticipated secession by the south in 2011 puts the Khartoum government on edge. “The north is trying to get as much money out of those oil wells when the getting-out of those oil wells is good,

This week the UN’s departing humanitarian chief said Darfur is in “free fall” and outgoing UN head Kofi Annan decried the “shameful passivity” of world governments who have all but ignored this “new Rwanda.”

So: is American bipartisanship real in a legislative sense?

According to the Darfur Scorecard, run by the nonpartisan Genocide Intervention Network, the answer is a definitive “no.” It ranked every member of the House and Senate based on factors including votes on bills that could affect change in Darfur, from the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act to measures seeking to increase humanitarian aid. In both houses, those with the highest scores were overwhelmingly Democrats and those with the worst were Republicans.Eight of 10 members who received F scores were Republican, and congressional members receiving failing grades, D through F, included 164 Republicans and only 14 Democrats. On the other hand, politicians with scores of A and A+ were also mostly Democrats: 120 Democrats versus 19 Republicans (independents Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders are also in this group).

In Minnesota, however, Senators Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton both scored As. In the House, Republicans Gil Gutknecht and John Kline bottomed the rankings with Ds. Topping the list were Betty McCollum with an A+ and Oberstar with an A.

Partisanship, of course, isn’t the issue: change for the civilians suffering in Darfur is. It’s been more than two years since George W. Bush announced that “The world cannot ignore the suffering of more than one million people” in Darfur.

As more than 1000 faith communities across the country are now observing a prayer weekend for Darfur, plan to check back here for Darfur news and analysis on whether the 110th Congress and its majority Democrats can do what the Republican House and Senate didn’t–bring relief to civilians in Darfur.

[Image via the American Refugee Committee's Darfur Project.]