Sudan: The Passion of the Present

Marketing Darfur: Can a professor's struggle lessen the death toll?

Sebastian Mallaby's column from today's "Washington Post"...

I once wrote a column about the epic struggle between Eric Reeves and Madeleine Albright. Albright was the secretary of state at the time; Reeves was practically unheard of. He was a lover of Milton and Shakespeare who taught at Smith College in Massachusetts. He was also a private citizen so incensed about the long war in Sudan that he had taken a leave from his job to do something about it.

Reeves had the two weapons that modern agitators need: intellect and Internet. He mined the Web for Sudanese info, then e-mailed policymakers, church groups and members of the press, denouncing America's indifference to the conflict. Albright, who had made the mistake of saying that "the human rights situation in Sudan is not marketable to the American people," did not come off too well. Reeves hammered home the northern government's appalling tactics against the people of the south -- the condoning of slavery, the helicopter attacks on schools and hospitals, the ethnic cleansing of tribes that inconveniently inhabited oil fields. The Reeves e-mails were too authoritative to ignore. I first came across Reeves when a State Department official couldn't answer my questions and referred me to him.

It's worth recalling the Reeves-Albright battle because we seem likely to forget its lesson. President Bush's inflated rhetoric, together with Iraq's turmoil, may discredit the idea that foreign policy should be rooted in unabashedly moral claims: that the United States should spread freedom, right human wrongs, aspire to plant democracy. But the Eric Reeves story shows why U.S. foreign policy not only shouldn't lose its moral compass; in all likelihood it can't. For if America's leaders lapse into amoral word-mincing, ordinary citizens will rise up, and their protests will spread at broadband speed to every corner of the nation.

Reeves's campaign five years ago had a clear effect. His writings encouraged more and harsher press attention to Sudan; activists and church groups were energized; Western oil companies cut off their links with the country, and Albright's tone toughened. When the Bush administration took office the next year, evangelicals persuaded it to make Sudan a top Africa priority. Four years of high-level U.S. attention have driven Sudan's government to sign a peace deal with the south, signaling a victory for the moralist view of foreign policy. The United States has successfully exerted influence out of concern for human rights, and never mind that Sudan is supposedly not marketable.

But Reeves now fights another battle, and this is the second reason to recall his clash with Albright. The new battle is Darfur, the western province of Sudan where the government is recycling the barbarous techniques that it once used on southerners. As in the last battle, Reeves is calling upon U.S. policymakers to do more. And as in the last battle, his e-mails are too authoritative to ignore. "I read Eric Reeves religiously," Charles R. Snyder, the senior State Department official on Sudan, said at the end of a recent conference call. "Even if he gives me heartburn."

Again, Reeves has made some progress. Last February, before journalists had woken up to the slaughter in Darfur, Reeves wrote an op-ed in The Post titled "Unnoticed Genocide." At the time, talk of "genocide" was frowned upon as loose, but Reeves knew the language of the U.N. genocide convention as well as he knew what was happening on the ground, and by the summer Congress and then later the Bush administration and the European Union parliament had adopted his terminology.

Reeves has also been correct earlier than anyone about the extent of Darfur's death toll. The most commonly cited number, used by newspapers, U.N. officials and most everybody else, is a World Health Organization estimate of 70,000 deaths; but Reeves has repeatedly explained why this number is preposterous. It excludes deaths before last March. It excludes most violent deaths. It excludes deaths in camps to which relief workers lack access. It excludes deaths in Darfur's three main towns, in camps across the Chad border and in the remote countryside. In October, using data on family death rates reported by displaced people, Reeves put the total death toll at 300,000. A new analysis for a British publication, Parliamentary Brief, has roughly corroborated Reeves's analysis.

The question now is whether Reeves's prescriptions will be heard, too: that a far more determined effort must be made to get food and protection to Darfur's people, who have been driven from their fields by the army and its militia allies. For now, the signs aren't good. After a spike of energy last year, Darfur diplomacy has been sidetracked into a dispute about which sort of international court should be empowered to try its war criminals. But the moral power of Reeves's message cannot be counted out. Without tougher action, Darfur's death toll may be even worse this year than it was last year. Is the Bush administration going to claim that 300,000 more deaths are somehow not "marketable"?

U.S. Fiddles Over ICC While Darfur Burns

A new official statement from Human Rights Watch...

The Bush administration is creating a deadly delay for the people of Darfur by attempting to block the U.N. Security Council from referring Darfur atrocities to the International Criminal Court, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Last week, one day after the Sudanese military reportedly killed or wounded nearly 100 civilians in an air strike in southern Darfur, the United States put forth a time-consuming, costly alternative for justice to the already functioning International Criminal Court (ICC): that the Security Council set up a new ad hoc tribunal for Darfur and house it in Tanzania, using the facilities of the international court that is currently prosecuting perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

This week, the U.N. Security Council is expected to receive the findings of the commission of inquiry it established to investigate violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Darfur. It was also charged with determining if acts of genocide have occurred, and identifying perpetrators with a view to ensuring accountability. While identifying several options, the commission is likely to recommend that the Security Council refer the Darfur situation to the ICC.

"The delay involved in setting up a new tribunal would only lead to the loss of more innocent lives in Darfur," said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. "The Bush administration seems willing to sacrifice Darfur's victims to its ideological campaign against the court."

Since Sudan is not a party to the court, the ICC would require a referral from the Security Council. An ICC referral is the course of action that can best guarantee efficient and effective prosecution of those most responsible for these atrocities, Human Rights Watch said.

The U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper, on Thursday presented other Security Council members with the idea of setting up a new ad hoc court for Darfur. Explaining the U.S. rationale, he said, "We don't want to be party to legitimizing the ICC."

The U.S. fear of politically motivated prosecutions of Americans would not be an issue in Darfur. There are no U.S. citizens who would be at risk for prosecution for genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity in Darfur. As the ICC would assume authority over the situation through a Security Council-controlled referral, the Security Council would retain a check on authorization of any future referrals. Human Rights Watch also noted that existing anti-ICC U.S. legislation, the American Service-Members' Protection Act, leaves open the possibility for U.S. support for some ICC prosecutions.

Setting up a new tribunal would be a time consuming and complicated process. Establishing a new court requires creating a new statute and rules, recruiting staff, and electing judges. Even if the physical structures of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda were used, as the Bush administration has proposed, it could take more than a year to get the new tribunal off the ground.

By contrast, the ICC is already up and running as a permanent criminal tribunal. It could promptly open investigations of those most responsible for serious crimes in Darfur. This would maximize the deterrent value, thereby helping to save lives.

On Thursday, Condoleezza Rice begins her first visit to Europe as the new U.S. secretary of state. Britain, a Security Council member, is among the eight countries Rice will visit.

"Given the ongoing heinous crimes in Darfur, Washington should set aside its dogmatic objections to the ICC and embrace the best course for justice," said Dicker. "Tony Blair and other European allies need to send a clear message to Condoleezza Rice. Europe should insist that it won't forsake its commitment to justice in Darfur because of the Bush administration's aversion to the ICC."

Since early 2003, the Sudanese government and its Janjaweed militias have turned Darfur into the site of one of the world's most serious humanitarian disasters. Despite a ceasefire agreement in April between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups in Darfur, the past few months have seen a new surge in fighting. Continued attacks on civilians and aid workers have hampered relief operations to the more than 1.6 million people who have fled government and militia attacks on their villages since early 2003. Widespread impunity has contributed to continued insecurity for civilians.

To read Human Rights Watch's letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, please see: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/21/sudan10090.htm

To read Human Rights Watch's work on Darfur, please see: http://hrw.org/doc?t=africa&c=darfur

Canada joins with Australia, New Zealand in prodding Security Council to take action

From today's edition of Canada's "Globe and Mail"...

Canada, along with Australia and New Zealand, is urging the United Nations Security Council to take tough action to end the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan, including prosecuting individual Sudanese at the International Criminal Court for war crimes, a move opposed by the United States.

In a letter delivered to the Security Council late Friday, UN ambassadors from the three countries urge its members to take concrete action to press the Sudanese government to rein in the Arab militias that target black African civilians.

"All reports indicate that the situation in Darfur is deteriorating, and we are gravely concerned for the safety of those persons living there as the conflict continues," says the letter, signed by Canada's UN ambassador Allan Rock, Australia's John Dauth and New Zealand's Don MacKay.

"We believe that the Security Council is uniquely placed to assist in promoting and advancing the protection of civilians in the Darfur region."

Mr. Rock said yesterday [Sunday] he is hoping the letter will encourage the Security Council members to act.

"I felt frustrated that nothing more is happening," he said. "The situation is deteriorating and we don't want it to be forgotten. We hope this will prod the Security Council into taking action."

The Security Council is to receive a report this week that was ordered by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who received the final version late last week.

The report documents violations of international human-rights law and incidents of war crimes by militias and the rebels fighting them, and names individuals suspected of acting with "genocidal" intentions.

There was not sufficient evidence to indicate that Khartoum had a state policy intended to exterminate a particular racial or ethnic group, said diplomats familiar with the report, according to Reuters news agency.

Yesterday, Mr. Annan said the UN Security Council, which established a humanitarian mission and a 1,000-person African Union monitoring force last year, should take more aggressive action to end the violence.

"Serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross violations of human rights have taken place. This cannot be allowed to stand, and action will have to be taken," Mr. Annan told a news briefing during an AU summit in Nigeria.

"The Council had considered sanctions and had not been able to move forward because of some divisions in the council, but I believe that sanctions should still be on the table."

The letter from Canada, Australia and New Zealand recommends that the Security Council impose sanctions on Sudan, including travel bans and the freezing of international assets if the Sudanese government does not end the militia attacks on civilians.

The three countries are not Security Council members, but their ambassadors have appeared before the council during debates on Darfur.

The letter urges the Security Council to refer any violations of international human-rights law to the International Criminal Court.

The United States has opposed that move, proposing instead that an ad hoc tribunal investigate and prosecute allegations of war crimes.

President George W. Bush opposes the International Criminal Court, arguing that it could be used to prosecute U.S. military members abroad, despite exemptions Washington received.

Key members of the Security Council, including China and Russia, have blocked the imposition of sanctions, arguing that the Sudanese government was not responsible for the actions of militias, which are battling rebel groups in the region.

On Friday, a UN spokeswoman said the Sudanese air force launched a bombing raid on Wednesday in which about 100 people were killed and 9,000 displaced.

The government then prevented AU monitors from investigating, an AU source said.

The governor of North Darfur state said reports of the bombing of civilians in the Shangil Tobaya village are "unfounded," asserting they were fabricated by foreign news media and organizations, according to a statement published yesterday by official media.

From Reuters...

Canada, Australia and New Zealand urged U.N. Security Council members to impose targeted sanctions on perpetrators of atrocities in Darfur and permit the International Criminal Court to prosecute them, according to a letter released on Monday.

They wrote ahead of a U.N. report this week that will conclude war crimes and crimes of humanity took place in Darfur but will not call it genocide, as the United States has done.

The report by a five-member legal commission includes names of perpetrators of atrocities among government-backed militia, blamed for killings, pillaging and rape as well as rebels and possibly Sudanese officials. Some 70,000 people have died and 1.8 million are homeless.

But the report will not conclude there was genocide, Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said in Abuja, Nigeria.

Genocide is legally defined by an international convention as the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

But the post World War Two treaty has a high threshold on what constitutes genocide and the report will probably conclude that Khartoum did not intend to exterminate a group.

The three nations said the council should look at "targeted measures" that could include travel bans and an assets freeze. The United States is preparing a resolution to this effect, but Russia and China oppose penalties on Khartoum.

The letter also said that the council should refer cases to the the International Criminal Court (ICC) should report conclude serious crimes had occurred. The United States vigorously opposes the tribunal.

But the report is expected to include several recommendations, one of which is that the Sudan crisis be referred to the ICC.

The United States prefers using facilities of an ad hoc tribunal in Tanzania, set up to try suspects of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, for suspects in Darfur. Europeans and others strongly oppose this solution as duplication of an existing court.

The new Hague-based ICC is the first permanent global criminal court to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and massive human rights abuses. But it can only prosecute when national governments fail to do so.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday, U.S. Republican Senator John McCain startled listeners when said he favored the United States joining the ICC in principle if it did not lead to U.S. officials being subject to politically-motivated arrest and prosecution.

"I want us in the ICC, but I'm not satisfied that there are enough safeguards," McCain said in a debate organized by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the same debate that the United States would have been able to join if the European Union and others had accepted extra safeguards. But "that can change, should change, will change," Biden said.

One of the U.S. proposals rejected by the EU and others would have limited prosecutions to individuals whose national governments approved or signed the treaty. Were this the case, the Sudan crisis would have been excluded.

"Lost Boy" dies without seeing his mother again

This "Chicago Tribune" story from Sunday updates "'Lost Boy' clings to hope he'll see mother" (from late December)...

Gabriel Boul, a Sudanese refugee who was torn from his family at the age of 7, clung to life for more than a month, fueled by the hope that he would see his mother again. He died last week surrounded by friends, but the person he most wanted there never came.

The tragic story of 24-year-old Boul, one of the 26,000 "Lost Boys of Sudan" who walked 1,000 miles from their war-torn villages to safety in Kenya, could have ended with his death. Instead, his friends chose to make it a beginning. They recently established a non-profit organization, called Gabriel's Fund, to raise money to assist other Sudanese refugees with serious medical problems.

Since Boul was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer late last year, his friends had worked feverishly to grant his dying wish--that his mother could travel from embattled Sudan to be with him in Atlanta. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) worked to get her a temporary visa, $7,300 in donations poured in from well-wishers, and relatives in Sudan arranged to get Atong Abor from her remote village to Nairobi, Kenya.

But in the end, Boul's mother chose not to come. It was fear that kept her home.

Abor and Boul were the only family members who survived a bloody raid on their village 17 years ago. Bound and gagged on the floor of their home, she watched as militiamen killed her husband, a son and a daughter. They took Abor and another daughter into captivity and left Boul behind, believing that he could not survive alone. Later, a neighbor came and took him away.

Like Boul, Abor has tried to move on with her life. She remarried, but her second husband also was killed. She has two other children now, ages 9 and 15. But with the civil war still raging in Sudan, she was afraid that if she left them behind while she traveled to America, she could lose them too.

Afraid for remaining family

"She really wanted to come but she was just too frightened," said Janis Sundquist, an Atlanta volunteer who works with the 150 Sudanese boys who have resettled in Georgia. "Once she even went to the airport, but she just couldn't go through with it. Having seen your family blown away in front of your face, it is hard to leave your children behind."

The friends considered trying to bring the children to the U.S. as well, but as Boul's condition worsened, they realized there would not be enough time.

For years, Boul did not know what happened to his mother. A friend found her in Sudan, and in September she gave him a call. They talked for more than an hour, but she refused to say what had happened to his sister who was captured.

Boul, who entered a hospice in December, refused for a month to give up hope of seeing his mother. But near the end, he seemed to have come to terms with the fact that he would not, Sundquist said. A week before he died, he said to Sundquist, "Let's just close that chapter."

"I didn't say anything, but I didn't close the chapter. We just kept trying," she said.

Sudan has been embroiled in a civil war between the Arab-descendant Janjaweed militias, supported by the Sudanese government, and civilian Sudanese rebels in the Darfur region. The violence has escalated into what is being called a massive genocide, resulting in more than 2 million civilians, mostly dark-skinned Africans, being killed, raped or displaced.

When Boul was 11, he and thousands of other young boys walked more than 1,000 miles through the desert, eating leaves, drinking dirty water and struggling to stay alive for four months, as they made their way to a refugee camp in Kenya. Their name, the "Lost Boys of Sudan," comes from the orphans who followed Peter Pan.

Since 2000, more than 3,500 male refugees like Boul have been resettled in cities such as Atlanta, Chicago and Salt Lake City through a rescue program initiated by the United Nations and the State Department. The transition has been difficult. Many have medical problems and no health insurance.

"They came from one of the most remote parts of the world, and they were on their own for 10 to 15 years. So bringing this type of people to the most advanced part of the world is a challenge," said Justin Demayen, a case manager for Refugee Resettlement Immigration Services of Atlanta. "Socializing means everything from learning to use modern appliances to getting a job."

Insurance an obstacle

The refugees are provided Medicaid for eight months after their arrival in the U.S., but after that they are expected to get a job and support themselves, Demayen said. Most of them do, but with no education, they end up working at mostly minimum-wage jobs.

"These are refugees who come with no job experience, and it is hard for them to get a job that offers insurance or pays enough for them to buy it," said Demayen. "They come here with a lot of diseases that need to be taken care of. And that could take longer than eight months."

Boul in many ways was a success story. He was scheduled to graduate from Open Campus High School, an alternative public school, in June. He had a job making salads at a restaurant at the airport. He sent money to Africa each month to help other refugees. And his Medicaid was extended to cover his care.

The money collected by his teacher, Lettie Love, and other staff members at the school to bring Boul's mother to Atlanta will be used to pay for his funeral and burial on Sunday, they said.

"It's too late for Gabriel, so what we want to do now is try and screen all the boys and get a complete medical history on them. We are going to follow them until they are stable enough to do it themselves," said Sundquist.

Sudanese troops attack homes after shooting - witnesses

News via Reuters Jan 31 reveals Sudanese police and troops went on a rampage in ethnic Beja parts of Port Sudan on Saturday after shooting dead at least 18 people preparing to take part in a demonstration, witnesses said on Sunday.

At least seven people were seriously wounded in the rampage in the Red Sea city in eastern Sudan, in which soldiers threw hand grenades into houses several km (miles) from the scene of the demonstration, they said. The authorities were not immediately available to comment on the report

Sudanese Interior Minister said police had opened fire on demonstrators after cars were set on fire and shops looted. "Security forces had to protect the port and oil reservoirs," he told Reuters during a visit to Dubai on Sunday, adding that the situation was now stable.

"Yesterday there was a massacre here. We need international protection," Abdel Salem Mohamed shouted. "We are going to struggle. We are going to prepare for war."

Photo: A Sudanese Army soldier on guard close to his machine gun. Armed police were out in force across Port Sudan, following two days of riots by ethnic minority protestors in which at least 14 people were killed, witnesses said. (AFP/File/Marco Longari)
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Sudan's Garang vows to back Ugandan peace process

John Garang, who spent the past 42 years fighting in the bush and is set to take over from Taha as First Vice President of Sudan, recently said he has come to believe in negotiation, not violence, and would not be using any of his troops to help Darfur.

Yesterday, he said he wants to take action against the LRA.

"We will not be putting down our arms. We are going to defend our country and we don't want any foreign armed groups within our territory ... there should not be anyone with unlicensed guns," he said.

Full Story.

Photo: Soldiers of Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army train in Rumbek. (AFP/File/Simon Maina)
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UN denies genocide is taking place in Darfur

Extract from Independent UK Jan 31 re UN commission report on inquiry into genocide in Darfur:

"Lord Alton of Liverpool, who visited Darfur last October, said: The long-awaited UN commission on events in Darfur has, in effect, given the government of Sudan permission to continue killing its black African population with impunity.'"

Photo: Refugees International via ISN Switzerland

Note, a report in the Sunday Herald Jan 29 says China and Russia put pressure on key report team to reject US claim. It is interesting to see mainstream media at long last quoting the death toll as high as 370,000.

Also, on Jan 29 the Scotsman points out that in practice, bringing the perpetrators of atrocities in Sudan to court would not be possible without overthrowing the government, which would mean international military intervention.
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Darfur misery 'fault of Sudan'

Jan 31 Scotsman says the UN, AU and aid groups on the ground have warned of a resurgence of government air raids in Darfur in recent weeks in which hundreds of people have died and thousands have been displaced

Sudan is guilty of "gross violations" of human rights in Darfur, Kofi Annan said yesterday, amid growing evidence that Khartoum has restarted its devastating campaign against black Africans in the region. Speaking at an AU summit in Nigeria, Mr Annan said "This cannot be allowed to stand and action will have to be taken, I believe that sanctions should still be on the table."

Rebel groups at the summit called on the AU to send more peacekeepers to the region to disarm Janjaweed Arab militia.

Khartoum last night denied the bombing charges, saying they were fabricated by foreign media and organisations.

The governor of North Darfur state, said in a statement published by the official Sudan News Agency: "We personally went there [to Shangil Tobaya] ... and the people in the area were surprised as to the lies diffused by the organisations and the western media."

Photo: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned an attack near Shangel-Topayi in Sudan's western Darfur region that claimed around 100 lives. (AFP/File)
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Sudan asks US to lift political and economic sanctions

Meanwhile, Xinhua reports Jan 30 that Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Ismail (who is stepping down within next few months) expressed his country's appreciation to the US administration over its initiative that contributed to the signing of the peace agreement in Nairobi, Kenya on January 9. And he made an appeal in a congratulation message to new US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice:

"It is the time for the American Administration to fulfill its commitments to improve its relations with Sudan by normalizing all the ties as well as lifting the political and economic sanctions it imposed against Sudan," he said.

Ismail affirmed his country's commitment to solving the Darfur problem and urged the US government to put pressures on the Darfur rebel groups to take serious steps towards peace.

He concluded his message by renewing Sudan's commitment to maintaining contact and dialogue with the American administration over the second four-year term of President George W. Bush in order to achieve peace and security.

Photo: A Rwandan soldier belonging to the African Union Force patrols in El-Fasher, Sudan. The Sudanese government would support any reinforcement of the 1,700-strong African Union peacekeeping force deployed to Darfur, Sudan's ambassador to Nigeria told AFP. (AFP/File/Marco Longari)

Disaster in slow motion

A "Baltimore Sun" editorial from Tuesday, January 18th...

"YOU'VE WATCHED your house go up in flames. You watched them take the loot out of your house and put it in a helicopter and take it away. You've watched women being raped, or maybe you were a father and had one of your daughters raped. You don't know if all your family members are alive or are dead.

"You're really sick, you're weak. You've watched people die all around you. [You're] lying on a mat, sometimes on a tarp, sometimes just under bushes -- feces all over the place; garbage all over the place; very, very little clean water; very, very little food, and almost no medicine.

"Now picture this as your life for the last year, and the future doesn't look really any brighter."

That was Rep. Frank R. Wolf last week, desperately trying to evoke for the refugees of war-ravaged Darfur some measure of the compassion and concern the world has so generously shown in response to the tsunami disasters of South Asia.

The horror and brutality of the bombing and burning and raping visited upon the villagers of western Sudan in the past two years can't be captured as well as natural calamities by 24/7 news networks, which beam scenes worldwide and shock people into action.

But the slow-motion disaster of Darfur is no less deadly, and may be even more painful. Mr. Wolf, a Virginia Republican and human rights advocate who has long been sounding the alarm on Darfur, raised the issue again while the Indian Ocean disaster has attracted global attention.

There have been hopeful developments, most notably the peace agreement signed earlier this month between the Arab Islamist Sudanese regime in Khartoum and the Christian rebels in the south, ending more than two decades of brutal civil war. The new united government may be more inclined to come to terms with rebels in the west and to rein in the Janjaweed militia that has wreaked havoc on Darfur villagers.

But the United Nations continues to be hamstrung by China and Russia, which have threatened to veto any attempt to bring sanctions against the Khartoum regime for allowing what amounts to the extermination of the black African tribes in Darfur. The African Union has been able to muster only about one-third of the 3,000 peacekeepers it promised, leaving an area the size of Texas with minimal police protection. And vital relief organizations are being forced to pull out of the region because it's too dangerous.

The United States, Kenya, Britain and Norway played a crucial role in achieving the north-south peace agreement. But their work can't stop there. The pressure, the cajolery, the aid must continue until this man-made disaster is finally brought to an end.

Sanctions against Sudan

An editorial from Saturday's "Toledo Blade"...

THE Sudanese government has not done enough to stop the conflict in Darfur that started nearly two years ago and has left many thousands dead. In the name of humanity, the United Nations needs to impose sanctions against the Sudanese government, and Washington should lean hard on the United Nations to see that it does.

The ordeal in western Sudan began in February, 2003, when the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, both non-Arab African rebel groups, began fighting for more power and greater access to resources. But the Sudanese government, which has also been fighting a civil war for decades in that impoverished nation's south, did not act aggressively enough to stop the conflict. Instead, it put into place a counterinsurgency campaign that obviously has not worked.

The government funded a largely Arab militia, called the Janjaweed, which abuses people it believes are allied with the rebels. In addition to the 2 million who have been displaced by the conflict, many more have been killed in the violence, and tens of thousands have died from disease and malnutrition.

While a more accurate number of the dead in the conflict is not yet available, the desperate situation in Darfur demands sanctions. That idea comes from a delegation of U.S. congressmen who visited Darfur rebels and Sudanese refugee camps in Chad recently. U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R., Calif.), chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on Africa, also intends to press for a more significant African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, and for it to expand its duties from merely being a protection operation to enforcing existing cease-fire agreements.

The Sudanese government has done far too little to try to stop the conflict and resolve problems between the various factions. But money talks, and if anything can get the government's attention, sanctions will.

"For the Triumph of Evil"

An editorial from Saturday's "Washington Post"...

NEXT WEEK the U.N. Security Council will consider whether to refer the genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur to international prosecutors. Many U.N. members would like to bring in the International Criminal Court (ICC), a fledgling institution whose authority they are keen to bolster. The Bush administration would prefer to create a new, ad hoc court, believing that the ICC is an unaccountable posse of lawyers who may one day seek to indict American service members. Neither side should let the dispute over the choice of court get in the way of the objective that both profess to share: holding Sudan's war criminals accountable. But it's even more important that the prosecution of war crimes should not be mistaken for an adequate policy on Darfur.

The best way to resolve the court dispute is for the Bush administration to accept the European position. We share the administration's misgivings about the ICC's ability to bring indictments without first getting a green light from the U.N. Security Council or some other political authority. Unrestrained prosecutors may one day decide, as some human rights groups claimed after the Kosovo war in 1999, that a U.S. humanitarian intervention involves war crimes. But, in the case of Darfur, this worry is irrelevant. Because Sudan is not a signatory to the ICC and the crimes have taken place on Sudanese territory, a Security Council resolution is required before the ICC can get involved. The Bush administration can support such a resolution without thereby legitimizing the ICC prosecutions in cases in which there's no U.N. authorization.

U.S. support for an ICC referral might not achieve much. China might well veto a referral, perhaps with the support of Russia. But even if the ICC was given the authority to get involved in Darfur, the effect on Sudanese behavior would be uncertain. Indictments might even weaken the incentive for Sudanese leaders to improve their behavior, if they believe there's no hope of leniency in any case. The main benefit in terms of deterring genocide would be realized only in the distant future. If the world establishes a track record of holding war criminals accountable, potential criminals in future conflicts may hesitate.

If prosecution isn't going to stop Sudan's genocide, the United States and its allies must pull other levers. The small African Union monitoring force must be expanded and its mandate strengthened; the force must be allowed to confront, rather than just monitor, killers. Anybody who doubts that this is necessary need only consider the recent outbreak of violence. Government troops and their allies in the Janjaweed militia have recently destroyed as many as 25 ethnic African villages, and Sudan's government has reportedly prevented African Union monitors from compiling reports on what happened. But according to news reports, more than 100 civilians were killed in an attack on the village of Hamada in mid-January, and most of the victims were women and children. On Wednesday, a similar number of civilians were murdered in the village of Rahad Kabolong.

As well as bolstering the African Union force, outsiders need to step up diplomatic pressure on Sudan's government. U.N. sanctions, threatened last summer but then quietly forgotten, need to be revived as a tool, and aid may also be a lever. The Dutch government recently promised $150 million as a reward for Sudan's recent peace deal with southern rebels but rightly added that none of that money would be forthcoming until peace came to Darfur. The European Union has also promised aid but waffles on the question of whether it might be suspended if attacks in Darfur continue.

During this week's United Nations ceremonies to commemorate the Holocaust, orators from all over the world declared that such horror must not again be tolerated. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan quoted Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Well, sometimes doing only a little can be just as deadly. The United States and its allies have sounded gruff and impatient about Darfur for months, and they have provided generous relief supplies. But they haven't done what's needed to alter the basic calculation of Sudan's regime: that it can get away with genocide.

Sudan destroyed hopes of peace

News from Russia Jan. 28 sums up the latest situation, with some interesting links, in an article titled "Sudan destroyed hopes of peace".

UPDATE: Jan 29 Reuters Sudanese police killed and injured protesters when they opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. UN spokeswoman said as yet unconfirmed reports put the death toll to at least 17 people and maybe as high as 30. Note the report mentions members of eastern Sudan tribes.
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Sudan troops in Darfur offensive

The UN Sudan envoy Jan Pronk says government forces are running intensive military operations in west Darfur. Mr Pronk says more African Union troops are needed in Darfur. Please read BBC report Jan. 28 titled Sudan troops in Darfur offensive.
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Kofi Annan statement

The UN issues a statement Jan 28 saying the Secretary-General was 'deeply disturbed' by attack on Darfur village and calls on parties to comply fully with ceasefire agreement.

UN News report says meanwhile, Jan Pronk, Mr. Annan's Special Representative for Sudan, has wrapped up a brief visit to Darfur, where he met AU officials, local community representatives, aid workers and internally displaced persons."
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Javier Solana statement

Brussels, Jan 28 -- Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the CFSP, issues a statement expressing grave concern about the recent violence in Darfur.

Mountains of Darfur: "Everyone we met had lost someone"

Voices from the field January 2005: Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) nurse Rakel Ludviksen and her colleague Jean Pierre Amigo spent November in the Jebel Si mountains, an extremely remote region of North Darfur, Sudan. Together they organized an immunization campaign and vaccinated more than 8,000 children against measles. They also screened almost 4,000 children for malnutrition and provided 400 medical consultations, mainly for diarrhea, skin infections, respiratory infections and conjunctivitis. After a couple of days in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, they have again returned to the Jebel Si to set up a permanent health clinic there. Full Story.

Photo Jean-Pierre Amigo/MSF

Note, the MSF article says:

These people really want to stay in their mountains. I am from the Pyrenees Mountain region of France, so I understand this desire. But insecurity is still a devastating everyday problem for a big part of the civil population in Darfur. We met communities so much in trouble that they desperately requested MSF to bring trucks and transport them out to somewhere else. People told us repeatedly that they want MSF to come to the region regularly because it will make them more secure."

Here's an idea: If Khartoum won't accept peacekeepers for Darfur, what about imposing a no-fly zone over Darfur and providing 20,000 aid workers, assisted by 20,000 helpers who are trained to be minders to provide unimpeded access for aid? The world cannot stand by and just watch. More people are needed out in the field to help. Surely there are millions of people around the world that would jump at the chance of making a difference. The U.N. needs a mobile army of aid workers with its own security force for protection.

Nurse Rakel Ludviksen tests a child for maulnutrition. Photo Jean-Pierre Amigo/MSF
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Aiding Darfur: A nurse's story IX

Trauma nurse Roberta Gately, who works for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) aid agency, tells the BBC News website about trying to help some of the 1.6 million people who have fled their homes in Darfur. Please read Aiding Darfur: A nurse's story IX.

Roberta (pictured) has found laughter among the tears in Darfur