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John Metzler Archive
Monday, April 28, 2008

If no blue helmets in Darfur, then whom would UN rescue?

UNITED NATIONS — In an unusually candid and starkly realistic situation report, the ranking UN humanitarian official painted a pessimistic picture of the current situation in Sudan’s beleaguered Darfur region. “I am saddened and angry that, after five years of suffering, and four years since this Council became actively engaged, we have still not been able to find a lasting solution to the suffering of the millions of men, women, and children,” chided John Holmes, Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian affairs in a Security Council briefing.

Addressing the effects of the ongoing ethnic conflict between Sudan’s Islamic Arab regime and Black African nomads in the parched Darfur region, Under-Secretary Holmes warned, “Hostilities between the parties, intra-rebel and tribal clashes and aerial bombardments, and the resurgence of the Janjaweed militias have resulted in death, displacement and widespread violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.” He added poignantly, “Darfur today is still characterized by insecurity lawlessness…The effects on civilians are not difficult to imagine…a particularly worrying feature is evidence of high levels of sexual violence and exploitation.”

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But where are the UN blue-helmet peacekeepers? Where’s the cavalry riding to the rescue? For the past three years there been anxious expectation that there would be serious military intervention to stop the killing. The African Union sent in an under-strength mission with marginal effect. Last July the UN Security Council finally and unanimously announced that it would dispatch a “hybrid force” into Darfur. The newly-minted UNAMID would be the UN’s biggest peacekeeping operation to date.

While this is already too little, too late, the UN now estimates that the number of Darfur civilians killed in this hideous ethnic cleansing may have reached 300,000 in this inter-Islamic violence! There are more than 2.5 million internally displaced persons and a further 260,000 refugees in neighboring countries according to the UN’s Holmes.

What of the UN peacekeepers? Rodolphe Adada of the African Union, told the Council, “It is disturbing that even though Darfur is at the top of the international agenda, this attention has not thus far been matched with action to provide UNAMID (the hybrid force) with the wherewithal to accomplish the tasks assigned to it.” He added, that despite Council resolution #1769 (2007) was to provide protection for civilians “I must report frankly that there is a long way to go before we can say that we have met these expectations and fulfilled our promise made by the Council.” An understatement?

The bleak bottom line? The force has less than 40 percent of its mandated level of 19,555. Mr. Adada conceded, “It would probably not achieve full-operating capability before 2009.” Units of Chinese engineers, Egyptian infantry and other troops from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ethiopia have not been fully deployed. Why am I not surprised?

Let’s add some context here. Darfur is an arid and parched region approximately the size of France but without serious roads and infrastructure. The UN hybrid force at its optimum deployment of 19,555 would be about half the size of the New York City Police Department! Deploy this grossly undersized force in a vast trackless Darfur, and at best you have mostly isolated and static military units that can’t realistically respond to the mobility of the Janjaweed militia or rebel factions.

Though the United States remains a major humanitarian donor, sending American troops or airlift transport to Darfur would be unwise given that such a deployment would inflame Islamic passions regionally and moreover not be in the resolution’s mandate to dispatch a force with a predominantly “African character.”

Add the awesome responsibility of the humanitarian community to protect and feed more that two million internally displaced persons, and the challenge becomes more daunting. “The humanitarian community is itself also subject to violence,” according to John Holmes. He citied sustained attacks on food convoys, hijackings and violence against humanitarian workers as part of the problem. There are presently 14,700 aid workers in Darfur subjected to escalating violence. The UN’s World Food Program will be forced to cut monthly rations because of banditry against its aid trucks.

Specifically John Holmes called on the Sudan’s rulers to “improve security for civilians and the international community; disband once and for all the Janjaweeed militias.” Importantly he cited, “As an increasingly prosperous country, Sudan should provide more assistance to its population rather than allowing the international community to shoulder virtually all the financial responsibility.” That’s a very valid point.

Indeed with its massive oil resources and a particularly lucrative commerce with People’s Republic of China, (also the Khartoum regime’s diplomatic patron), Sudan has the capacity to help soften the humanitarian nightmare its regime caused. Whether Sudan’s Arab rulers have the political desire to solve this domestic crisis remains another matter.

Until now, they have literally been getting away with murder.


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