The solution for Darfur

By Romeo Dallaire, The Ottawa Citizen

June 24, 2005 — The debate surrounding the Canadian response to the situation in Darfur must not be cheapened by partisan bickering or personal disputes. The focus must remain on the people of Darfur and how Canada can best contribute to stopping the human-rights abuses and crimes against humanity there.

Based on my experience as commander of the United Nations Force in Rwanda in 1994, and everything I have learned since, I believe the best hope for Darfur right now is for the wealthy countries of the West, like Canada, to do all they can to support the African Union in its efforts to bring security and stability to Darfur.

As recently as three months ago, I called for an intervention force of up to 44,000 combat and support soldiers to be deployed to Darfur, a recommendation based on the many reports of mass killings, destruction of villages and concerted internal displacement as Darfuris fled for their lives en masse from the Janjaweed militias. Add to this the raping of women and young girls as they foraged for critical scraps of wood, the nightly raids on dispersed rural populations, the still unprotected camps and the despair and disease spreading due to lack of food and other vital supplies. The whole situation smacked of a repeat of the Rwandan genocide.

The militias, tribal extremists and common bandits essentially achieved with impunity the aims of the Janjaweed. They succeeded in creating the revolting scenes that we see throughout Darfur today: millions of innocent people packed into camps in Sudan and neighbouring Chad; a depleted rural population, villages burned and countryside ravaged, waiting for the onslaught of torrential rains.

All the while, what did the supposedly enlightened, just and human-rights-conscious developed world do about this situation as it unfolded over the last two years? What did we do when faced with these hard and verified facts, even as reminders of the Rwandan genocide a decade before flickered on the movie screens?

In fact, we did not do much.

Faced with cries for help from Darfuris, echoed by hundreds of humanitarian workers on the ground, we fiddled, prevaricated and watched from afar. We hoped, as was the case 11 years ago, that the problem would resolve itself, in as short a time as possible and with a minimum commitment on our part.

The situation in Darfur has changed dramatically over the past few months. Make no mistake, the situation continues be grave. The rapes and killings must stop and security must be improved to allow the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons to return to their homes, and for humanitarian aid to reach those desperately in need.

However, a changed situation calls for a changed response. We have to focus on this new state of affairs. The priority must be the protection of the nearly two million internally displaced persons and refugees who ultimately must return safely to their homes and start to rebuild their lives.

Having taken the decision not to intervene months ago while genocide was unfolding, we are now faced with different options. There is a conspicuously more defined and limited threat and consequent security requirement.

Instead of leading a Don Quixote cavalry charge into a desert that has absorbed legions of white colonial troops in previous decades, we may finally have realized that those who are the most immediately concerned, and who are the closest to this calamity, might be the best ones to intervene. We don’t need a crusade by the professional armies of the north. We need a more humble and determined effort and an extended kinship.

When the world abandoned Rwanda in 1994 at the height of the genocide, the big powers told me that the genocide was an African problem and so it was up to the Africans to sort it out. But the Africans did not have the means to do so.

Eleven years later, Africans are once again being told to sort out their problems and there is some evidence they have learned some lessons from Rwanda.

The African Union soldiers currently stationed in Darfur have the fundamental skills necessary to do the job. They don’t lack the experience or the motivation to accomplish their mission.

As United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan reported after his tour of the region a few weeks ago, in the areas where the African Union Mission (AMIS) is deployed the security situation is vastly improved — reducing fear among the local populations and permitting humanitarian aid to get through. The AU force is extremely effective in the areas in which it is present; but they must be supported and reinforced so they are able to increase their presence across the region.

What the AU forces lack are the “force multipliers,” tactical mobility, as well as the strategic airlift that would make them most effective. They require helicopters, and armored vehicles. And the commanders of this mission require the resources that would allow them to establish a proper headquarters with communications to improve their command and control function. The Darfur mission needs exactly what I needed in Rwanda — but did not get.

This is exactly the support and reinforcement Canada is providing. We are reinforcing the African Union Mission with a significant force multiplier capability for the rapid reaction reserve forces in the form of armoured personnel carriers and helicopters, which are of great strategic importance to the force commander’s ability to effectively achieve his mission. We are providing additional support in the form of equipment and material and are prepared to provide planning experts and other specialized staff to support AU operations.

In May I travelled, as a member of the prime minister’s special advisory team, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to take part in the AU Pledging Conference where Canada committed $170 million to AMIS, the largest single contribution made at the conference.

While in Addis I met with many people involved in the AU mission, including the deputy force commander from my mission in Rwanda, Maj.-Gen. Henry Anyidoho who is now the chief of staff of AMIS. These meetings strengthened my professional commitment and reinforced my belief that the support Canada is providing to AMIS is the full and right response to the situation in Darfur and for Africa in the long term.

Canada is prepared not only to offer its expertise and experience in dealing with these situations. We can also try to use our influence with others. We must facilitate and support the AU countries as they grapple with this situation and learn how to better serve their African brothers and sisters when the next catastrophe hits their region.

We must help Africans to sort out the evil in their midst that strangles development and drowns the fundamental rights of every human to be treated and respected equally.

– Senator Romeo Dallaire is a member of the Canadian prime minister’s special advisory team on Sudan and former commander of the United Nations Force in Rwanda.