Deploying to Darfur

Editorial, by The Torono Star

May 10, 2005 — What possible difference can a handful of Canadian military advisers make in Darfur, Sudan, where a raging civil war has left 200,000 dead and 2 million homeless?

Enough to matter.

Simply by being posted in Khartoum or nearby Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Canadian troops will help the United Nations keep Darfur’s agony on the international radar screen at a time when attention is drifting away.

That alone validates Prime Minister Paul Martin’s decision to send between 100 and 150 advisers to the region to assist African Union peacekeepers. Martin also intends to increase Canada’s $200 million in aid to Sudan, and to provide more military equipment.

While Stephen Harper’s Conservatives complain that Martin is acting for “crass political gain,” few in Darfur are likely to care.

Martin does no doubt hope to prop up his wobbly minority government by regaining the support of David Kilgour during a critical non-confidence vote later this month. Kilgour is a Darfur advocate who recently bolted the Liberals to sit as an independent. But whatever the motive, this decision is a welcome one.

The African Union urgently needs help to blunt the killing in Darfur, where whole villages have been bombed and torched and where mass executions and rape are common. Millions have fallen victim to a scorched-earth struggle between Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s Arab-dominated regime and its Janjaweed militias, and Christian and animist groups who are demanding regional autonomy and control over resources.

The U.N. is investigating alleged war crimes by both sides.

While the fighting has cooled, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday appealed for an African force of 12,000 troops, up from the 7,500 expected by August and the 2,400 who are in the region now. Annan also wants non-African states to supply more troops.

Canadian peacekeepers have useful expertise in such deployments. Canadian officers can provide African commanders with planning advice, technical support and training, as well as vehicles and supplies as they ramp up their forces.

Canadian advisers can also help them organize better protection for 10,000 aid workers.

And Canada’s response to Annan’s appeal may nudge our allies to donate more cash, troops and supplies.

Martin’s timing is undeniably self-serving. But in politics, motives are rarely unmixed. Darfur urgently needs help. That is reason enough to send in the troops, and more aid.