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Darfur’s dry tears and a 'terribly concerned' UN

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By John Metzler
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, April 21, 2006

UNITED NATIONS — The parched and arid hell of Sudan’s Darfur region has become a killing ground for the hapless civilian population. A deadly interplay of drought, tribal militias, bandits, and age old ethnic rivalries has led to a chaotic situation which begs for mercy. A recent report to the UN Security Council warned “all of the parties to the conflict have pursued a deliberate strategy or targeting civilians.” Since the violence started, some 200,000 people have been killed and another two million displaced as refugees. Now the conflict threatens to spill over into the neighboring country of Chad.

But before the reader says, “But wait, this has been going on now for a few years — what of the UN?” What indeed. While the UN relief agencies have provided yeoman humanitarian service to helping refugees and up to 3.6 million vulnerable people facing epidemics, malnutrition and dislocation, growing regional insecurity has now seriously hindered relief operations. An African Union regional 8,000 peacekeeping force, too small and too late, has not stopped the inter-ethnic violence plaguing the western parts of Sudan. The camel-borne Arab janjaweed militia have been ruthless players in ethnic cleansing.

The long-waited UN peacekeeping force of 10, 000 authorized over a year ago has yet to deploy and still needs a formal peace agreement and a credible ceasefire. Diplomats say that deploying the UN force will then take six months (they said that a year ago when the mission was first given the green light!!) And in the meantime the Security Council has feverishly worked within its mandate to go step by step while Darfur slowly dies.

The UN, as you can imagine, is “terribly concerned” about all of this but beyond the band-aid relief treating the symptoms it’s not solving the central problem, that of confronting a ruthless regime bent on using violence against its own people. Even if there is a peace agreement of sorts among factions, putting the shattered lives back together and bringing the already poor region a semblance of stability will take years. UN blue helmets will be needed with a clear and robust mandate to defend civilians.

“The international community has a critical role to play during this make or break period,” warns a UN Report. Yet within this context the force must first be OK’ed by the government of Sudan, the sovereign power after all controlling Darfur which they claim is really an “internal matter.” The conflict moreover is inter-Islamic, in other words, between Arab Muslim factions and Black African Muslim factions.

Sudan’s Islamic regime has its supporters in the Arab world and beyond. The Arab argument is that despite the humanitarian horror, and need for relief aid, there’s a real reluctance to see a formal UN peacekeeping force which they view as an intrusion by NATO and the U.S. The logic goes that the Khartoum government must invite the UN force and only then would the troops deploy.

Within the UN Security Council there’s genuine momentum towards addressing the issue which many see as ongoing genocide. But again, other countries don’t quite see protecting human rights as a universal norm.

The People’s Republic of China a close political ally and commercial partner of Sudan, (due to major oil exploration links) has been particularly sensitive to the Khartoum regime’s concerns. China can easily veto any moves seen as “impinging upon” Sudan’s sovereignty.

The U.S. and Britain remain frustrated by the foot dragging. The Bush Administration has wisely ruled out American troops, but the U.S. and NATO could play a supportive role in airlift and logistics. The presumed NATO role has served as a lightning rod for Arab and Russian opposition.

A British-sponsored resolution to slap a set of targeted travel restrictions on four Darfur militia and rebel warlords has illustrated near political paralysis. Sanctioning local thugs from doing what? Going to the French Rivera or Disneyland? Perhaps the Council can threaten Khartoum with being taken out of consideration for hosting a future Summer Olympics? Get real!

The Council is confronted with massive human rights violations and civilian population dislocations. Now comes the latest turn in the crisis that 200,000 of the Sudan refugees may be expelled from neighboring Chad given that Sudan has been actively trying to destabilize Chad’s government. It’s painfully clear what’s going on. The situation begs for serious pressure on Sudan’s regime to allow a UN peacekeeping intervention. Until that time Darfur’s people can only shed dry tears.

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.