Attenuated Resolve
The situation in Darfur has not changed, it remains a blot on the conscience of the world. And the world body still is uncertain how it should proceed, regardless of its duty to protect.It finds itself in a certain disarray of purpose, of resolve, of certitude. It confronts an implacable administration in Khartoum bitterly resentful of interference in its internal affairs, defensive of its position of authority, contemptuous of an international community with no rights of position in Sudan.
The 26,000 peacekeepers whom the United Nations succeeded in encouraging an hostile Sudanese government to permit entry to join and complement the seven thousand ill-equipped and incapably ineffectual African Union troops whose purpose was to halt the conflict that has victimized hundreds of thousands of poor Sudanese farmers has not materialized.
A mere 6,500 UN peacekeepers are expected to be installed in Darfur; hardly sufficient to insert themselves as defenders of the afflicted Darfurians.
Organization is deficient, and no strategy for successful engagement for the peacekeepers has emerged, despite all the worries, the lectures, the meetings, the desperation. International support has been tepid, despite that the international community looks on with horror at the unfolding contretemps.
The fact that the Sudanese government has been overwhelmingly hostile to intervention and has done everything it can to forestall any, hasn't helped.
"Sudan is saying "yes" and then doing everything in its power to obstruct and undermine the hybrid force", according to Human Rights Watch's Steve Cranshaw. "The Security Council has responded to this defiance with hand-wringing but nothing more. If it continues, the UN's hands will be tied as much as the African Union's have been, spelling disaster for the Darfuri people", said Amnesty International's Africa director.
Sudan's President General Omar Hassan al-Bashir has refused entry to non-African troops to join combined forces, refusing outright offers from Thailand, Norway and Nepal. He is adamant in refusing to provide land or water for the installation of peacekeeping bases within Darfur. He demands notification in advance of all peacekeeping troop movements, insists the UN close all communications systems while Sudan conducts its military operations.
Moreover, Sudan deliberately impedes the delivery of relief supplies to Darfur, while it also tolerates attacks on aid workers. In the wake of the first shock wave of international abhorrence at the situation in Darfur, interest has waned, and the UN has faced difficulties in securing supplies and aircraft from member countries to equip peacekeepers adequately to the task at hand; their mobility handicapped by an unwillingness to become involved.
The news may be old, but the situation remains unresolved, with hundreds of thousands of people trapped in refugee camps and still targets for the rampaging Arab Janjaweed militias as well as Sudanese government military. Criminal activity is rampant and violence seems to be expressing itself everywhere. Threatening the stability of neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic.
The hopelessness of the situation as far as the UN is concerned is amply expressed through the words of the UN's head of peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno: "Do we move ahead with the deployment of a force that will not make a difference, that will not have the capability to defend itself and that carries the risk of humiliation of the Security Council and the United Nations and tragic failure for the people of Darfur?"
Well, yes. What other choice is there? The attempt to help rescue the situation must be made. Devil the reputation of the UN, forget the prospect of humiliation, what is that compared to 200,000 slaughtered, countless women raped, one and a half million refugees?
Labels: Political Realities, Troublespots, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, December 25, 2007
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