A failure of will

Forces from across the world are poised to help the people of Darfur, but no nation has the will to move forward.

We are in a tragic and signal moment, a catalytic moment, where the world sees the need, has the means, and yet continues to experience a failure of will. Giving the Sudanese government 30 more days--and then asking Kofi Annan for a report to the UN Security Council--assures 30 more days of death and destruction. Given the nature of the genocidal process being carried out in Sudan--engineered, intentional famine and epidemic disease--30 more days translates into months of additonal famine, and hundreds of thousands of additional lives lost.

Now it is the public's turn. It is our turn. The time is now for our action. We must ask our leaders to act now, not in 30 days.

All key elements are in place, except the will to launch the rescue of Darfur in earnest.

1. High level sources in Washington tell us that the US administration and congress have privately agreed that a military force is needed immediately to halt the genocide in Sudan. Key leaders have agreed to approve whatever is required to enable such a force. This commitment has been communicated to Kofi Annan. We believe that similar commitments have been made by other nations.

Military and logistical preparations have been made by the US, UK, France, Australia, and the Netherlands. The US and France have coordination teams on the ground in neighboring Sudan, and are now in position to provide technical assistance to the rescue mission.

2. Key African Union members are signalling that they have reached the same conclusion, led by the powerful president of Nigeria--Africa's largest nation--who is also the current head of the African Union.

An African Union force, supported by military and humanitarian resources from around the world, is what the African Union leaders are trying to put together.

It seems obvious that we ought to help them in their initiative.

The African Union faces its defining moment. The African Union was founded two years ago this month, in July 2002, out of the wreckage of the defunct Organization of African States. The leaders of the African Union have from the beginning worked to form a continental government that can solve important problems. African leaders recognize that Sudan is a crucial test of the organization's ability to lead.

3. The AU has momentum on its side.

The AU already has placed independent observers in the country who have in recent days reported on new attrocities and the further collapse of the conditions of life for Darfur black citizens.

The AU has permission from Sudan to send into the country a small military protective force, which will land in the next few days.

The AU summit, currently meeting in Ghana, yesterday agreed to add an unspecified number of additional troops to the protective force. Nigeria and Rwanda have committed troops to the current force, and are willing and able to provide more.

The AU protective force can be expanded immediately into a peacekeeping force, and begin to seriously help victims across Darfur.

4. We have the power. A top US congressional aid told me three days ago:

"What you people [all those who have brought attention and care to Darfur, not just this site] are doing on the web has been very very valuable. Thank you all. Your work enables us [in government] to say to our colleagues, 'see, the public cares and wants us to act. The public is with us.' Please keep it up."

We can focus public opinion and help leaders gather the personal strength to act. We can help heal the failure of will. But we need to assert our own will. We need to take two or three acts today and every day for the next week, and ask our friends to do the same:

If you know someone with "influence" in government, ask them to help. This is the time to tap people in our networks of friends and acquaintances.

Do what you can to extend the reach of our community of concern. Call 50 friends and invite them to check out this site and other resources, such as Human Rights Watch.

Ask other bloggers to share their thoughts and feelings about Sudan daily for the next week. Repetition helps.

Pass helpful op-eds around, such as today's in The Washington Post.

Call your local television station and ask them to cover the story, and/or to cover the story of your activism.

Call your elected officials and thank them for what they are already doing. The US Congress, after all, has been out ahead on this issue.

Write to your friends and relatives and tell them about what you are doing.

Send us your ideas and notes and resources we should link to, by way of comments for all to see, below, or by email. Even if your idea is only half-formed, share it with others in a spirit of creative brainstorming. Time is of the essence--let's use the public power of the web to move rapidly together.

---------------

UPDATE: FRENCH TROOPS have begun to act to enable the relief effort on the Chad border, though they are not entering Sudan itself.

From correspondents in Ndjamena, Chad
August 1, 2004

FRENCH soldiers stationed in Chad began airlifting aid to the border with Sudan's Darfur region today..

French President Jacques Chirac ordered the mobilisation of his forces yesterday to help the 1.2 million people driven from their homes by Sudanese troops and Arab militia known as Janjaweed.

Since then, troops in Chad had begun flying relief supplies to the border town of Abeche and were preparing to send 200 troops to secure Chad's eastern frontier with Darfur, said army colonel Philippe Charles.

However, the French action stopped short of entering Sudanese territory. Sudan's Government has warned it will send its army to repel any foreign military intervention.

Photo courtesy BBC from recent coverage of a refugee camp on the Chad Sudan border.

Comments

[B.K. DeLong]

Other powerful things - we have a Presidential election going on right now. If every supporter emailed their candidate, they would realize pretty fast that this is an issue that needs addressing. For Bush, it would be a chance to show he can do something that's more humanitarian-oriented than war-monging. For Kerry, it's a chance to show how to handle international crisis' like this without "sending in the military" either way - the Sudanese win.

Maybe NATO will make more of an effort than the UN.

[Jim Moore]

I really like the idea of contacting all candidates--not just incumbants. This gives us twice as many targets for letters, and sets up a kind of positive competition.

Since many of them have acted--all house and senate voted to call it a genocide--and some have been arrested at the embassy protest in Washington, including at least one candidate--we might start by thanking them.

Kerry has already called Sudan a "genocide" at the NAACP convention. What he needs to do now is bring attention to it. I wonder if there is a way for him or his staff to get actively involved and/or put some special resources into it?

[Bonnie]

Jim- in regards to getting Kerry involved, how about through his wife? She is actually from Africa and graduated from a university there. She may have a soft spot in her heart for the people of Sudan. I have tried to contact his campaign, but to no avail. I am going to his next campaign stop in Grand Rapids, MI. We'll see what I can do. Anyone out there have some connections to Teresa Heinz Kerry? Maybe "angling" her support would be more beneficial for the cause.

[Marty]

Jim...

How do we organize a collaborative blog research project? I think we should for companies in the EU and North America that have been doing business in Sudan and where the money has been going?

We can organize a boycott or something to get any companies involved there to leverage the max extent possible the governments of home country and Sudan to end this murder.

Which mining companies are active in Sudan? Who has been active there in the last 5 years? Which US companies were doing oil exploration? What did they pay for those rights?

Any other Ideas?

[Donald Larson]

To the War in Iraq oppenents: Why aren't you waiting for the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution for force to be justified in Sudan?

Don't you all want to be consistent?

Are any of you that want to see force used in the Sudan willing to put your life on the line to go fight the enemy there?

How is that cause different than America going to war in Iraq? Because the French may help? LOL!

I'm hoping President Bush uses the Sudan cause to show how flip-flop his opponents are, both the ones running against him for President or the day-to-day variety that change their minds of how America should act unilaterally with the wind...

Don

[Jim Moore]

Actually, I think for many people this has been a wake up call in regard to the UN--the process has been slow, weak, and not very helpful. I have lost significant respect for Kofi Annan. I have new respect for those who are willing to take action to save lives. The real hero here is likely Obasanjo, who seems tonight to have gotten permission from Sudan's president to bring in more troops, as long as they are African. And it seems that Obasanjo would have been willing to come in without permission, if that had been necessary. We will see how all this works out.

I actually am for preemption when necessary, both for preventing attacks--the Bush Doctrine--and for stopping human rights abuses--perhaps this can be the Obasanjo Doctrine. So I want to extend the United State's willingness to act, with or without the United Nations.

Upon reflection on my own thinking on Iraq, I supported waiting for the UN because in my gut I thought it the wrong time to go into Iraq-and this seemed a way to slow things down. In the future I will be clearer and take the position that if I think the timing or the preemptive target is wrong--I will try to articulate why, rather than deferring to a process answer such as "go through the security council."

Finally, have I changed my view by being involved in the Sudan issue? Yes, I have. Do I feel bad about this? No. I am a learner learning. I am "learning about learning" by being a part of study and activism regarding Sudan.

I think it can be helpful to discourse and learning to call folks on their inconsistencies and changes of view. I also think it is completely appropriate for a person to answer you by saying "yes, I have changed my view, based on learning the following. Here is my current best thinking."

As Dave Winer said earlier today, "I like flip-flops. I have a pair.."
Thanks for your comment, Jim

[Faith McDonnell]

President Bush has done more to intervene and help the people of Sudan than any previous president. Immediately after he took office, he appointed USAID director Andrew Natsios to be the special humanitarian coordinator for Sudan. And Natsios appointed Roger Winter, the former director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees, and a true hero of Sudan advocacy, to be his deputy. Then President Bush appointed former senator John Danforth to be the special envoy for Sudan. This happened in a Rose Garden ceremony (signifying that it is a big deal) just five days before 9-11. Danforth helped to broker a peace deal between the Government of Sudan and the forces who have been fighting for the freedom of the Southern Sudanese for the lasttwenty years. Genocide did not start with Darfur. Genocide in Sudan is Islamic jihad against all those who do not want to have Sharia (Islamic law) imposed upon them. The Government of Sudan did all the things that it is now doing in Darfur in Southern Sudan -- Arab militia killing, enslaving, raping; aerial bombardment of civilians, famine, scorched earth, and religious persecution. President Bush also passed the Sudan Peace Act in 2002, which has acted as a "stick" to force Khartoum to participate in the peace talks.

I'm glad Senator Kerry has finally taken an interest in Sudan. He was never any help in getting the Sudan Peace Act passed in Congress. And if his attitude on human rights in Vietnam while he has been in the Senate is any indication (he blocked the passage of the Vietnam Human Rights Act -- because of trade interests in Vietnam), he won't do squat for Sudan.

[Raleigh Myers]

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Aljazeera - August 4, 2004
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/99CECA52-C05A-442A-B81F-1994D1C296A1.htm

Darfur Deciphered:
The Neglected Issues that Fuel Sudan's Crisis

by Roshan Muhammed Salih
Aljazeera

Sudanese officials and an alleged militia leader have poured scorn on
international claims about the conflict in western Darfur.

They told Aljazeera that Darfurian rebels, who are widely perceived to be
the victims of the conflict, must share the blame for the crisis.

And they say the international media is wrongly portraying events in
Darfur as a racial war, when it is really a dispute over land.

The comments come as the Sudanese government is bearing the brunt of world
condemnation for the crisis in its western province.

Powerful western nations, as well as the United Nations, human rights
groups and Darfurian rebels, say Khartoum is directly responsible for the
killing of more than 50,000 people and the displacement of more than a
million others.

They accuse the government of training and arming a militia, known as the
Janjawid, to wipe out opposition to its rule in the province.

UN resolution

The situation is so acute that the UN Security Council has given Khartoum
a month to disarm the Janjawid or face punishment.

A UN resolution last Friday also required Khartoum to facilitate free
access for humanitarian groups and to allow about 1.2 million displaced
people and 150,000 refugees in neighbouring Chad to return home.

Western nations have further raised the possibility of military
intervention to protect the Darfurians.

But Sudan has reacted with indignation to the accusations.

Khartoum, which has called the Janjawid "bandits", says the Darfur rebels
are prolonging the conflict to force a foreign intervention.

It says Washington is using the crisis to try to topple its government,
and that any military intervention may lead to the disintegration of the
country.

Darfur marginalisation

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 when two rebel groups - the
Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality
Movement (JEM) - demanded an end to alleged economic marginalisation and
sought power-sharing within the Sudanese state.

The movements, which are drawn from members of the Fur, Masalit, and
Zaghawa tribes, also sought government action to end alleged abuses by
their rivals - pastoralists who were driven on to farmlands by drought and
desertification.

But an Arab tribal chief, who Washington accuses of being the most senior
Janjawid leader, told Aljazeera.net his tribe is only defending itself.

Musa Hilal, speaking from house arrest in Khartoum, said: "When the
rebellion began last year, the government approached us and armed us. My
sons were armed by the government and joined the Border Intelligence.

"Some tribesmen joined the Popular Defence Force. I called my tribe to
arms as well. We were caught up in an uprising the rebels began - what
should I have done?"

He added: "We had camels stolen and young men murdered - banditry
performed by the Zaghawa. When we retaliated, the Zaghawa joined with the
Fur. When the tribes retaliated, they called in the world community. Now
Zaghawa support the rebels - they are enemies."

'Janjawid' denials

Hilal, who denies his tribe has committed any atrocities, said his force
will disarm when the Darfurian rebels respect a ceasefire.

He added: "Rebels constantly talk to human rights groups and aid workers
as if the Janjawid were some kind of organised army. There is no political
or military common policy for the tribes that are fighting rebels for
their very existence. They started this war.

"Janjawid means nothing, but it is a word used to encompass all evil. A
convenient way for Americans to understand who are the good guys and who
are the bad - it is easier to sell policies that way."

A Sudanese official, who refused to be named, told Aljazeera the Darfur
crisis is being turned into a race issue by much of the media, which
portrays it as "Arab tribes" attacking "black Africans".

But the official said the tribes, which are all Muslim, are of mixed
ethnic stock and the conflict is a land issue between nomads and
subsistence farmers in the region.

Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, has also said the war is
more complex than is generally reported.

Ethnic cleansing?

In an interview with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, he said: "There are many armed groups and many
criminal gangs in Darfur...

"I believe that all sides are involved [in attacking civilians] -the
so-called Janjawid militias, organised militias, too many unemployed men
with too many guns, government forces and definitely also rebel forces."

He added: "It's complex because some have said it doesn't fit the legal
definition of ethnic cleansing. The same tribes are represented both among
those who are cleansed and those who are cleansing."

Nevertheless, human rights groups say the Sudanese government is
responsible for "ethnic cleansing" and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

In a report in May, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Khartoum
and the Janjawid militias "it arms and supports" have committed numerous
attacks on civilians among the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes.

HRW said government forces oversaw and directly participated in massacres,
summary executions of civilians, burnings of towns and villages, and the
forcible depopulation of wide swathes of land.

Rebel pleas

It said the government and "its Janjawid allies" killed thousands of Fur,
Masalit, and Zaghawa, raped women, and destroyed villages, food stocks and
other supplies essential to the civilian population.

The militias have also driven more than one million civilians, mostly
farmers, into camps and settlements in Darfur where they live on the very
edge of survival, the report said.

In response to the crisis, the Darfur rebel movements have called for
rapid international action.

They have demanded that Khartoum disarm the Janjawid, bring those who
allegedly committed crimes to justice, allow unimpeded humanitarian access
to the region, and free prisoners of war.

Mahjub Husain, external liaison officer for the Sudan Liberation Movement,
told Aljazeera that the rebels only sought to globalise the crisis because
of the "overwhelming crimes perpetrated against the Darfur people".

"We view all the measures taken by the Sudanese regime as superficial and
characterised with procrastination and deception," he said.

'Genuine grievances'

"The Janjawid are a government institution like the interior and foreign
ministries, mainly designated for [ethnic] cleansing, genocide, rape and
subduing under the direct auspices of the vice president's office."

He added: "We call for the liberation of Sudan from the current attitude
of ... marginalising [Darfur], from injustice, from servitude, from
slavery and from all the culture that has no respect for human rights."

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government, which has pledged to disarm the
Janjawid, acknowledges the rebels in Darfur have genuine grievances.

Hasan Abd Allah Bargo, a Sudan government representative and a negotiator
with the Darfur rebel movements, told Aljazeera: "Darfur is underdeveloped
like other regions of Sudan ... but we don't agree on using armed struggle
to resolve this matter."

He added: "The issue of economic development has been exploited by some
political parties."

Other Sudanese officials, such as Khartoum's envoy to the African Union
(AU), have accused Washington of using the Darfur crisis as a pretext to
topple the Sudanese government, which Washington has long opposed.

Foreign intervention

Usman al-Said, Sudan's ambassador to the AU, told reporters last week that
western military intervention in its remote western region would risk
splitting Africa's largest country and unsettling its neighbours.

"The Americans are targeting the government of Sudan because of its
political stance," he said, pointing to Sudan's policies on prominent Arab
issues such as Iraq and the Israel/Palestinian dispute.

Moreover, Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir has said the international
community is ignoring reports about ceasefire violations by Darfur rebels.

He has argued the rebels were the ones who walked out on peace talks and
should be held responsible for exploiting the situation to make political
gains.

Sudan's Hasan Abd Allah Bargo told Aljazeera: "The rebel groups are
presently disinterested in conforming with the current arrangements, thus
paving the way for foreign intervention. This will breed a new crisis for
the government."

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Usman Ismail has also questioned the
need for foreign troops in Darfur, saying his government was doing all it
could to disarm militias.

"Why should we have to rush and to talk about military intervention as
long as the situation is getting better?" he said last week. "My
government is doing what can be done in order to disarm the militia."

He added: "As for the US... Bush wants to see a quick end to this problem.
He wants to list Sudan as one of his achievements in this election year."

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