Relief groups lament world’s lack of attention to Sudan crisis
By LISA SCHLEIN
GENEVA, Aug 14, 2004 (CP) — Between 30,000 and 50,000 people are believed to have been killed in Sudan’s western Darfur province since fighting broke out in February 2003 between two rebel groups and the Janjaweed militia backed by the Sudanese government.
More than a million people have fled their homes and are living in squalid, overcrowded camps, while another 200,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad.
The United Nations calls what’s happening in Darfur the world’s worst current humanitarian catastrophe.
The U.S. Congress has described attacks by the Arab Janjaweed militia against the non-Arab black African villagers as genocide.
Humanitarian agencies have generally stayed away from the genocide label but a number of them have accused the Janjaweed of ethnic cleansing -which could involve violent attacks or forced relocation of populations.
Despite daily atrocities, aid agencies say the suffering and appalling conditions under which victims of this conflict are forced to live are greatly under-reported, and this is impeding their humanitarian efforts.
“It is a very serious situation and we do think it doesn’t get as much attention as it should,” says Christiane Berthiaume, spokeswoman for the World Food Program.
“It should be on top of our radar system and it is not. The world attention is still focusing on Iraq.”
Berthiaume, a Canadian from Montreal, does not minimize the importance of Iraq. But she says the media’s fascination with events there is causing other emergencies in the world, such as Darfur, to be marginalized and under-financed.
She says governments, the main donors to relief efforts, respond to public pressure and “if a dramatic situation is in the news, if it’s in the headlines and on TV, it is easier for us to get money from the donors.”
WFP has received only a third of the $195 million US it needs to feed some two million people in Darfur.
The United Nations and international and non-governmental aid agencies have been providing food, shelter, water and sanitation, health care and a myriad of other needs with very little money.
Earlier in the year, the United Nations launched an appeal for $349 million to cover emergency needs in Darfur and Chad. Until last week, it had only received pledges of $145 million.
“We are $204 million short,” said UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, who recently visited camps in Darfur and Chad. He said he heard “horrific stories of the terrible violence and suffering” endured by the people he encountered.
“Many are living in subhuman conditions and they fear for their future. It is clear that serious crimes have been committed and there has been gross and systematic abuse of human rights,” Annan said.
“We, the international community, must intensify our efforts to protect the innocent in Darfur.”
Many of the major United Nations and international aid agencies, such as the World Food Program, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red Cross are headquartered in Geneva.
They take the situation in Darfur very seriously.
For example, Louise Arbour, who recently left her position as chief justice of Canada’s Supreme Court to become the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, attended the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, only three days after assuming her post.
She says she went to discuss her concerns with African countries and “to ensure there would be an appropriate presence of human rights monitors in Darfur at the earliest opportunity.”
The World Health Organization has mounted emergency immunization campaigns for cholera, measles and polio to try to head off the worst effects of these diseases in Darfur.
WHO says increased funds, people and supplies are critical now in Darfur to prevent a major health catastrophe. It warns that at least 10,000 people a month could die from diseases such as cholera, dysentery, malaria and illnesses related to malnutrition.
The UNHCR is assisting 200,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled to Chad, most of whom are living in camps which barely have the essentials needed for survival in the hot, rain-drenched desert.
UNICEF is setting up counselling programs for severely traumatized children and is providing therapeutic feeding to acutely malnourished children.
The Red Cross is mounting an aid operation for hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur. One of its principle activities is to protect civilians from being abused.
Paul Meyer, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations and international organizations in Geneva, considers the aid agencies adept at raising the alarm, but he acknowledges the difficulties they often encounter in getting their message across to the public.
“My sense is that the agencies are doing everything within their power to try to serve the people that are suffering, but that there are major obstacles in their way and we have to try to facilitate their efforts to overcome these obstacles,” he said.
Meyer says he believes the current level of international concern and pressure on the government in Khartoum to disarm the Janjaweed and end the atrocities in Darfur is quite high.
He says the United Nations is working on many fronts to prevent a Rwanda-like genocide, beginning with Annan’s “powerful speech” to the UN Human Rights Commission this spring in which he warned of the dangers and urged the international community to prevent another catastrophe.
Since then, the ambassador says, there have been a succession of prominent people who visited the region to draw attention to the plight of the Sudanese people. And the UN Security Council has passed a resolution threatening sanctions if the Sudanese government does not end the atrocities.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Canada was pleased about the adoption of the resolution. “We continue to call on the government of Sudan to prevent further war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, and to allow for full, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access for aid agencies,” Pettigrew said in a July 31 statement.
Meyer said “the government of Sudan recognizes that it really is in the court of international scrutiny right now and that it has an obligation to take steps within its power to meet the demands of the international community in order that this crisis is able to be resolved.”
He says he thinks the media probably could play a larger role in reporting on what is occurring in Darfur.
Canada is the fourth-biggest donor to the Darfur-Chadian crisis, after the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Since October, Canada has contributed almost $14.6 million Cdn.
“It’s probably the most compelling humanitarian crisis at the moment,” says Meyer.
“I hope people recognize the nature of the challenges faced by the UN system and other international and non-governmental organizations in trying to alleviate the suffering in Darfur.”
“They need to be supported.”