Congress must restore funds to AU mission in Darfur

Editorial, The Houston Chronicle

Dec 12, 2005 — A little over a year ago, as Sudan’s government and Arab raiders butchered tens of thousands of non-Arabs, U.S. politicians hedged with semantics. Was it or wasn’t it genocide? Finally, the administration and congressional leaders decided it was. Yet the label turns out to mean little in this instance.

Last month, as the violence in Sudan raged, Congress and the Bush administration withheld $50 million in funds for the African Union – the only force now on the ground trying to stem the murder. This week, a conference committee on defense appropriations has the chance to restore that funding. It is essential that committee members not turn their back on the African Union, which was supposed to provide the international community’s response to the slaughter.

Fifty million dollars is the United States’ portion, about one-third, of an international effort to keep African Union troops deployed for six months. If the United States pays its part -which covers the cost of feeding and housing African Union soldiers in Sudan – the force can hold out until plans are made to supplement it. Advocates hope that by next summer, the union will be absorbed into a bigger and more effective U.N. peacekeeping team.

The African Union’s force has serious shortcomings. Its troops are only permitted to help nearby civilians. Most attacks it can only report to its Addis Ababa headquarters. Its 7,700 troops are inadequate to cover an area the size of Texas. Also, union operations lack transparency and accountability.

Nevertheless, the United States, Europe and the United Nations, all of which have reasons to avoid direct engagement in stopping this human rights crisis, have made the feeble African Union force the only ground unit responsible for confronting Sudan’s violence. As such, it must be kept viable until a better solution is found.

The $50 million that the United States removed from its funding this fall is essential to keep the African Union’s mission going until June. Human rights experts say the Bush administration has suggested it will find the funding somehow, if Congress won’t supply it. But Congress is the right source of this funding: It represents the American public and must show the world that America will not let another genocide happen on its watch. The White House should explicitly tell Congress that stopping Darfur’s genocide is an administration priority.

Sudan human rights expert Eric Reeves, who has testified on Capitol Hill for years, says he cannot recall a member of the Texas congressional delegation asking him a question during a Darfur-related hearing. What a disgrace. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison – a member of the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee – should lead the way for other Texans by calling for renewed funding for Darfur’s protectors.