Darfur will be the AU's trial by fire (and more on AU peacekeeping)

[gottaB]

By Richard Dowden

The last time there was a disaster in Africa on the scale of Darfur - in Rwanda and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the mid-1990s - it seemed that most of Africa was descending into mayhem and murder. Every country from Somalia on the north-east tip of the continent to Namibia in the south-west was caught up, directly or indirectly, in wars - mostly small, nasty and very lethal.

Few fighters die in Africa's wars; the biggest killers are hunger and disease, when millions of poor people are driven from their homes with nothing to support themselves. Meanwhile in West Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia and great swathes of Nigeria were embroiled in vicious local conflicts.

Today, Darfur in western Sudan is the only full-scale war in Africa. Indeed the "main" conflict in Sudan - the five-decade war between north and south - is close to resolution. A ceasefire has been maintained more or less for over a year and final agreement is close.

Darfur will be the AU's trial by fire....

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Darfur needs peace more than aid

By Alsir Sidahmed

July 28, 2004 -- To focus attention only on the disastrous human crisis engulfing Sudan's Darfur region is futile. Western countries must seek a more effective, political solution. As it stands, the Darfur rebels have no interest in negotiating with the Sudanese government; in the absence of a credible ceasefire, Khartoum has no interest in reining in the militia. The two parties mistrust one another too deeply to get to the roots of the problem -- the unbalanced relationship between Sudan's centre and its periphery, and the underdevelopment of a region whose population is growing despite the drought that has raged in this part of western Sudan for more than three decades.

Neither the United Nations nor the African Union has the necessary clout to get the two together (as demonstrated by last week's failure in Addis Ababa to bring the rebels to the negotiating table). The current paralysis not only adds to the suffering of the people of Darfur, it endangers the recent hard-won efforts to bring peace to southern Sudan, ravaged by two decades of civil strife.

The way to break the Darfur stalemate is to learn from the lesson of southern Sudan. Billions of dollars in humanitarian aid from Western countries had been flowing to the south over a 13-year period. For eight of those years, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD, a regional organization of central and eastern African countries) had supervised Sudan's north-south peace talks to end its civil war -- to no avail. Media stories, meanwhile, mounted about the murahilin militia's use of abduction and slavery to aid the government's war against the rebels.

But only last May, when the United States, Britain, Norway and Canada threw their weight behind the IGAD talks, was there a breakthrough. Peace talks in Naivasha, Kenya, dealing with power, wealth-sharing and security arrangements, opened the way for real change. The U.S., Britain and Canada appointed special envoys for Sudan and, after the cessation of hostilities between Khartoum and the southern rebels, monitoring and verification teams were set up. The de facto ceasefire has been holding ever since; in March, Charles Snyder, U.S. acting assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told the House international relations committee that, in the past year, there were few, if any, slave raids.

Darfur needs peace more than aid....

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IMO, both positions reflect realistic assessments of the situation. I suspect that the UN is failing, and that the AU mission could well become totally irrelevant, and in that sense I agree with Sidahmed. As to his larger point about peace, he is absolutely correct.

Dowden's concern about the animus that would be directed at British (and American) troops, should they be deployed to Darfur, is, unfortunately, wise. I think it is right for all of us to look towards the AU for solutions, though we must realize that the AU's Peace and Security Council lacks the resources necessary to handle the Darfur crisis at this time. To bring about peace in Sudan, we must ensure that they have all the financial and logistical support they need. If they fail to muster the troop strength they need, and request outside assistance, then the UK, Australia and other nations of conscience should be prepared to contribute.

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Why the Darfur Tragedy Will Likely Occur Again

by Chinua Akukwe

Why Darfur will occur Again

Darfur is likely to occur again because of the inability of African leaders and Western governments to develop and implement specific safeguards against ethnic cleansing and genocide. Ten years after the Rwanda genocide, the inability of African and Western leaders to develop and enforce safeguards against future ethnic cleansing and genocide have come full circle. What are these possible safeguards?

First, is to punish those that conceive, design, refine, implement and execute ethnic cleansing campaigns and genocide. If the leadership of the Sudanese government is found liable in the Darfur ethnic cleansing campaign, they must be brought to justice whether they pledge to turn over a new leaf, cooperate with the war on global terrorism, or voluntarily leave office. Sudanese academics, technocrats and religious leaders that provided support for ethnic cleansing must face justice. The leaders and backers of the Janjaweed militia (political, financial and technical) must also be brought to justice.

If rebels that support the black African population of Darfur committed acts of ethnic cleansing, they should be brought to justice as well. There should be zero tolerance for ethnic cleaning or genocide no matter the scale or attempted justification.

Second, African leaders and the African Union must demonstrate in very clear, unambiguous terms, the end of any form of political and economic sanctuary for any government that by acts of omission or commission allow ethnic cleansing to occur within its jurisdiction. African nations and the Africa Union should act decisively on reports of ethnic cleansing and genocide, including but not limited to using military force to save lives. The Darfur tragedy is a litmus test for African leaders and the African Union.

Why the Darfur Tragedy Will Likely Occur Again....