March 19, 2005
By: Mary Vallis
UN fails to deter Sudan genocide
The photo opportunities have ended, the official statements have been read, the foreign politicians have flown off in their jets and the Arab militias in Darfur have been left to get on with the slaughter.
Months after a parade of celebrities and Western leaders visited Sudan to express distress over a crisis that is killing thousands a month, little has changed. The militias have not been reined in, the Sudanese government is being as unco-operative as ever, and the death toll is escalating.
This week the United Nations calculated 180,000 have died in the western region of Sudan.That is more than double the previous estimate. The Security Council, after lengthy debate, is locked in a stalemate, while China blocks sanctions to avoid hurting its oil interests.
Just four months ago, Paul Martin, the Prime Minister, flew to Sudan and warned President Omar al-Bashir that his Arab-dominated government must rein in the janjaweed militia, which has spread a campaign of terror through non-Arab villages in Darfur.
"The President indicated with us that he was not able to control the janjaweed. That ... they were operating on their own," the Prime Minister told reporters during his brief stopover. "The point we made to him is that we expect the janjaweed would be controlled. Period."
He was only one of a number of visiting Westerners.
"All of us have watched with concern and alarm at the death, disease and destruction that has come to Darfur," British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared during his visit last fall.Colin Powell, then U.S. secretary of state, walked the dusty paths of a refugee camp and voiced American resolve to ensure something was done. Even Angelina Jolie, the UN's goodwill ambassador, comforted children ripped from their homes.
But the situation has not improved. Indeed, it is worse."There are a lot of people in camps still effectively imprisoned because it's too dangerous to go out of the sites that they're sheltering in -- they are scared they'll get attacked or raped or beaten or killed," Jo Nickolls, an Oxfam worker, said over a crackling telephone line from Khartoum yesterday. "The situation has not improved. It's a massive-scale crisis. People are going to be increasingly dependent on external assistance."
Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, said this week the death toll has been about 10,000 a month since October, 2003. The number includes death from starvation and disease, but reportedly not those slain by militias. Close to two million people have been driven from their homes. Meanwhile, the UN was forced to pull its foreign staff out of parts of Darfur this week after the janjaweed threatened to target foreigners and humanitarian convoys.Mr. Egeland stressed his latest figures are only rough estimates. Other international observers say the death toll could be much higher.
Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., who independently produces some of the most comprehensive death-toll estimates for Sudan, said his latest analysis indicates more than 380,000 people have died in Darfur since the conflict began in 2003 -- far more than the UN figures suggest, and approaching half the number believed to have died in the Rwanda genocide a decade ago. He said the international community must immediately send troops."Under the circumstances, the only way to prevent ongoing genocidal destruction is to protect civilians acutely at risk. That can be accomplished only by military means at this point," Mr. Reeves said.
But the UN Security Council is bickering over which court should punish Darfur's war criminals, should they ever be arrested. The United States is opposed in principle to the International Criminal Court, established by the UN in 2002 to try such cases. It wants the killers to appear before the UN special tribunal in Tanzania, which was set up to deal with the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.
The United States accused the Sudanese government and the janjaweed of genocide last September, citing a report with 1,100 refugees that found 61% had witnessed the slaying of a family member.
However, Russia and China are also blocking sanctions against Sudan because of their own interests. Russia sells arms to Sudan, while China is a major consumer of the African nation's oil.
While the diplomats squabble, the task of policing Darfur, an area roughly the size of France, has been left to 2,200 poorly equipped African Union troops who do not have a mandate to protect civilians. The number is well below the 3,400 the African Union was scheduled to deploy and represents about a quarter the number the UN says is necessary.
"The bottom line is this: The UN is failing. The African Union is doing something, but it's underfunded, it's untrained," said Mark Weintraub, chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress's Darfur committee. "There are thousands and thousands of Canadians who care about this issue. They do not want, five years from now, to be watching the movie Hotel Darfur," Mr. Weintraub said, referring to the recent film Hotel Rwanda about the Rwandan genocide.
The crisis in Darfur began in February, 2003, after two non-Arab rebel groups began fighting the Arab-dominated government for greater power and resources. International observers allege the Sudanese government responded by arming the janjaweed.
The government in Khartoum admitted arming some militia, but denies any links to the janjaweed, insisting they are outlaws."For countries to simply be in a state of paralysis -- or worse, be leaving Darfur -- sends a terrible signal to the janjaweed militia that the world doesn't care," said Stockwell Day, the Conservative party's foreign affairs critic. "I don't even want to think what the ramifications of that will be."
On Thursday, Mr. Day sent a request to Mr. Martin and Pierre Pettigrew, the Foreign Affairs Minister, urging the Canadian government and the international community to "show a presence" in Darfur.
"'I'm glad the Prime Minister was over there last year. He was only in Khartoum for 10 hours," Mr. Day said from Montreal on Thursday. "Now back up that 10 hours with some hard work pulling together a multilateral group that will simply go in there and be a deterring presence.""The response to the tsunami has shown how much people can care about remote crises around the world," said Ms. Nickolls, the aid worker. "We need to make sure people are aware of the severity of what's happening in Darfur, because it isn't going to go away."
COUNTDOWN TO GENOCIDE
African farmers in Darfur, western Sudan, have a long history of clashes over land with Arab pastoralists:
1994 Khartoum gives Arab groups new positions of power.
1998-99 Hostilities break out in West Darfur when Arab nomads begin moving south with their flocks earlier than usual.
1999 First attacks from government-supported Arab militias, dubbed janjaweed.
FEBRUARY, 2003 Fighting breaks out between government forces and the rebel groups Sudan Liberation Army and Justice & Equality Movement after rebels demand a share in power.
APRIL The first refugees begin arriving in Chad as janjaweed start a reign of terror, raping, killing and pillaging; others flee within Darfur.
SEPTEMBER 65,000 refugees in Chad; UN estimates 500,000 people need humanitarian aid.
DECEMBER UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expresses alarm at human rights violations. About 100,000 refugees are now in Chad, but the number continues to grow daily.
FEBRUARY, 2004 Khartoum agrees to give aid workers better access to Darfur.
MARCH For the first time, the UN says that what is happening in Darfur is genocide and compares it with Rwanda in 1994.
APRIL Ceasefire signed between Khartoum and rebels.
MAY UN calls Darfur the world's worst humanitarian crisis, estimating one million people have been displaced; the number of refugees in Chad tops 120,000; the Security Council calls on Khartoum to disarm the janjaweed.
JUNE UN estimates two million people have been displaced and says the campaign of genocide is continuing.
JULY Sudan pledges to disarm janjaweed and bring those responsible for human rights abuse to justice. Nothing else changes, leading the Security Council to adopt a resolution paving the way for action against Sudan and giving Khartoum a deadline of Aug. 30.
SEPTEMBER UN envoy says Sudan has not met targets for disarming janjaweed and must accept outside help to protect civilians. Then-U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell calls Darfur killings genocide.
NOVEMBER Security Council meeting in Nairobi fails to pass a resolution imposing any sanctions on Darfur combatants.
JANUARY, 2005 Security Council commission reports serious violations of international law have occurred in Darfur and recommends referral to the International Criminal Court. Between 180,000 and 380,000 civilians are estimated to have died.
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