Another senior minister in the Sudanese government yesterday expressed his strenuous opposition to any attempt by the UN to follow through a Security Council Resolution replacing the African Union peacekeepers in strife-torn Darfur with a 17,300-strong UN force. This is further evidence of the remarkable blind spot the Sudanese authorities have for the continuing tragedy in their western Darfur region.
Unfortunately, the Sudanese government is the architect of its own problems in Darfur, which have seriously damaged its international reputation and disappointed both friends and allies in the Arab world and beyond. An administration which had the wisdom and statesmanship to end the bloody 21-year rebellion in the south of the country seems incapable of deploying the same political savvy to a far less intractable problem in another part of the country.
The facts are simple. Three years ago, two rebel groups began attacks on government targets, claiming that their region was neglected by Khartoum. At the heart of the problem were long-standing disputes between Muslim farmers and largely nomadic Arab communities over grazing and water rights. The government’s response was to condone and arm local Arab militias to enforce their rule. Tragically these militias, known as the Janjaweed, went far further, beginning a reign of terror. In 2003 and 2004 alone, fighting among government forces, Janjaweed henchmen and other rebel factions are responsible for at least 180,000 deaths. The death toll could easily be into the hundreds of thousands, or even breach a million, before peace settles on the region. This could put the eventual death toll of Darfur on par with the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where 800,000 to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred.
For the UN, the lesson from Rwanda was the need to respond faster and with greater force to break up the violence. Sadly, it appears that the Darfur crisis is being dealt with by all sides with the same lack of urgency that plunged Rwanda into a horrible bloodbath. The May Lagos peace deal brokered by the Nigerians was only signed by one of the rebel groups and there has since been fighting among the insurgents. The African Union force, woefully ill-equipped to deal with a range war covering a vast area, has been unable to enforce, let alone monitor a peace, either among the rebels themselves or against the Janjaweed.
The hard truth is that the UN Security Council would never have proposed its peacekeepers had the Sudanese government exerted proper control in this part of their country. Yet for almost two years the authorities have seemed unwilling or incapable of acting decisively to enforce the rule of law. The UN action has been prompted by humanitarian, not imperialist, ambitions. In threatening dire consequences for a peacekeeping intervention that could not happen without their approval, government ministers are merely underlining their failure. When you are in a hole, it is best to stop digging.
