Losing the Darfur cash battle

Editorial, The Scotsman

May 27, 2005 — BRINGING the tragedy of Darfur to the attention of the world is one thing. But securing effective action to prevent further slaughter is proving quite another. Last year, The Scotsman played a leading role in exposing the appalling situation in the Darfur region of Sudan. It was the first British newspaper to report directly from the front. And week after week, aided by human-rights campaigners and aid agencies, it kept up the pressure through substantial and detailed reportage. But yesterday, diplomats meeting to discuss an expanded African Union peacekeeping force to prevent further slaughter in the Darfur region pledged less than half of the money needed to fund the mission.

More than 300,000 are already believed to have died as a result of the conflict. Yesterday, the United Nations underlined the urgency of the situation. Its secretary general, Kofi Annan, told a conference in Ethiopia that they were “running a race against time” and urged rich nations to finance an expansion of the African Union forces that have been sent to Sudan “without delay”.

The 53-nation African Union has told donors it needs dollars 466 million in order to more than triple its existing force of 2,300 in Darfur. Experts say this is far too small a presence to police such a large area. The AU would like to increase its forces to more than 12,300 to have some chance of stopping the fighting between rebels and Arab militias, and to safeguard the villagers from further government-backed attacks. Other organisations, such as the genocide-prevention group, Aegis Trust, say that even this figure would not be sufficient and that an “absolute minimum” of 25,000 troops are needed in Darfur.

But despite the reports of continuing attacks and suffering in Darfur, the countries at the conference failed to come up with the cash required. So far, the donors have pledged only dollars 200 million – dollars 134 million of this coming from Canada alone. The United States pledged dollars 50 million on top of the dollars 95 million it had already offered, while Britain offered dollars 12 million and Germany dollars 1 million.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the EU is ready to support the political and military efforts to end the conflict, though no figures were forthcoming. Now there is talk that some of the shortfall could be made up by the involvement of NATO.

There is another area equally in need of urgency – the stalled peace talks between the Sudanese government and the rebels. Settling the conflict would be an immense step forward. Talks had been due to resume next Monday, but this has been delayed until 10 June. Britain, together with other involved countries, should maintain pressure on the UN to ensure that these talks are kept going and to secure, if at all possible, a ceasefire around the area. Waiting-list challenge remains ACCORDING to the latest official figures yesterday, the number of people waiting for hospital treatment in Scotland has been reduced. This is only to be welcomed. It is also the case that the new health minister, Andy Kerr, has only been in office since last October, so he is to be congratulated on a good start, even if there remains much to be done. In fact, compared to his more ideological predecessor, Malcolm Chisholm, Mr Kerr has been prepared to make more use of spare capacity outside the NHS to meet patient needs. These figures show that patients are benefiting.

However, the Executive is in danger of spinning these new figures into something more than they are. The reductions are from the base of last December, which had the worst-ever long-term waiting times. Second, while there has been a substantial cut in the figure for people who have to wait more than six months for inpatient care, the total number waiting for inpatient care is much the same.

In other words, the entire queue is much the same in length, even if those at the front are being dealt with slightly more quickly. Mr Kerr is aware of this, and promises to have no-one waiting more than six months for treatment by December. After a doubling of real public expenditure on the Scottish NHS between 1999 and 2007, the public would expect no less. When the banning has to stop SHOULD there be limits to our growing risk-averse culture? And, if so, where should they be drawn? An article in the British Medical Journal calls for long, pointed kitchen knives to be banned to reduce injuries and deaths caused by stabbings. Scottish Executive figures show that in 2003, some 55 of 108 homicide victims were stabbed by a sharp instrument – often a kitchen knife.

So, case proven? Go down the route of banning everything that could cause death and injury and you would end up in a world without staircases, baths, cars and even electricity. Most modern gadgets could not pass a safety test based on capacity to kill or maim by individuals determined to do so. It would surely make more sense to ban alcohol, which inflames so many into violent use of otherwise harmless objects.

Yesterday, Tony Blair called for a more realistic attitude towards risk. His particular targets were the EU and the so-called compensation culture which, he argued, put undue pressure on public bodies. The result, he said, is a plethora of rules and responses to scandals that ends up having utterly perverse consequences. He wants the compensation culture replaced by a “common sense” culture. Today, that looks a tall order.