Wake up Mr. Ban Ki-Moon. Your Darfur plan is falling apart! (2)
By Wasil Ali*
November 18, 2007 — In my last article I warned that the new strategy of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Darfur would only embolden Khartoum to put more blocks in front of the peacekeeping force. Last week we have seen more and more of the stalling by the Sudanese government. The Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir said that “The boots of those who blasphemed the prophet Muhammad would never trample on Sudanese land” referring to Swedish and Norwegian troops recommended by the UN. He even suggested that he is not prepared to accept Thai and Nepalese troops either; he will only allow Pakistani and Chinese troops.
To make the picture clear Al-Bashir’s true reason for rejecting the Nordic troops has nothing to do with the cartoons published in these countries which were considered offensive to Prophet Muhammad. If we go back to the days following Sudan’s uneasy acceptance of resolution 1769 authorizing the peacekeeping force, Al-Bashir stated that he will not accept any “Khawaja [Arabic old term for Westerners]” in Darfur. The Sudanese leader at the time was frustrated with the fact that he had to accept the force after he long rejected it with his fiery speeches in almost every occasion. At one point he bitterly blamed the Sudanese media for weakening his position in resisting the peacekeeping force.
However in the face of Chinese support to the resolution, despite being substantially weakened, Al-Bashir had no choice but to accept. But in the back of his mind the Sudanese leader was assembling new tactics of stalling to reduce the efficiency of the force, delay it or block it altogether. These tactics were largely driven by the fact that Sudan does not want a peacekeeping force in Darfur; plain, pure and simple. However the other fact was that Al-Bashir wants to save face in front of the public after his repeated vows not to allow a force in Darfur. So at the end of the day we are confronted with a government that makes plans for reneging on agreements right when they endorse it.
But Al-Bashir’s reasons for rejecting the Nordic forces were both insulting to people’s intelligence and contradictory. He mentioned to Al-Jazeera channel last week that the UN is attempting to allow intelligence units from CIA and MOSSAD (Israeli foreign intelligence Bureau) as part of the Swedish and Norwegian forces. Then in the same interview he said that because of the cartoons issues his government can’t offer sufficient protection to these forces from retaliation of Sudanese. But over the weekend he set the record straight; he will not allow them under any circumstances.
As the former UN Special representative to Sudan Jan Pronk mentioned, there has been no violent reaction in Sudan to the publication of the cartoons as the case is with other countries. Pronk said that the governor of Southern Darfur told him at the time that we cannot condemn a whole country for the actions of a few. So in reality Al-Bashir’s justifications are baseless. If Khartoum was genuinely keen on not allowing “those who blasphemed the prophet Muhammad” of stepping on Sudanese soil why did he not expel their diplomats from the country when the issue broke out or pull his own from their countries?
With all these facts in mind why has Ban Ki-Moon and his UN staff been so accommodating of Sudan in the process of making up the peacekeeping force? Indeed the resolution provided for a ‘predominantly African’ force but at the end of the day it is up to the UN department of peacekeeping operations to determine the technical aspects and the standards of the operation. Unfortunately we have seen one concession after another by the UN to Sudan and its ally, the African Union (AU). Both Sudan and the AU have been rejecting one country after the other with practically no resistance from the world body.
Last week Jean-Marie Guehenno, head of the UN department of peacekeeping operations, admitted that progress on the deployment of the hybrid force has been stalled because of Sudan’s objections to the composition of the force. He also mentioned that no country has come forward to offer air power which is crucial for air mobility. What Guehenno did not say was that it is the UN to blame for this situation. The UN has shown extreme weakness under Ban Ki-Moon’s leadership to confront Sudan with its obligations under resolution 1769. So in effect Khartoum has outsmarted the world body. Naturally the Western countries that are able to provide the air force are reluctant to do so because they lack any confidence in the command and control structure which failed its first test with the composition of the force during the negotiations with the AU and Sudan.
Despite the looming deadline for the deployment of the force, the “man of action” has not stood up yet to confront Sudan and remind it of its obligations under resolution 1769. Ban Ki-Moon has simply said that he is “concerned over the continuing delays in the deployment of UNAMID”. There was nothing in the report by the UN Chief saying that Sudan will be held accountable for blocking the force and that there would be no more room for endless negotiations on the composition.
Apparently I am not the only one to feel frustrated with the UN Secretary General on the Darfur force. According to an article in the Washington Post by the renowned columnist Jim Hoagland, US president George Bush called Ban Ki-Moon late October to specifically ask him about the progress on the deployment. According to Hoagland the US administration “now wonders if Ban has erred in investing much of his first year in office in coaxing the Sudanese rulers into pointless meetings and commitments that they gradually undo”.
The overwhelming positive response I received on the first part of this article proves that there is widespread disappointment with the UN. The Darfur activists have grown impatient with the empty diplomatic words coming out of the UN and the unlimited accommodation to the Sudanese regime. But the moment of truth is here and a there is a golden opportunity for Ban Ki-Moon to rectify his ailing strategy. He has to tell Sudan that they have no choice but to accept the Nordic troops along with Nepalese and Thai troops. The force’s main component is African per Sudan’s request and as such Khartoum must meet its end of the deal and accept the list of non-African troops. This position should not be negotiable and the UN should make itself clear in this regard because after all the money is paid by its member states. If necessary he should ask the Security Council to intervene. Anything short of that will mean that the UN under Ban’s leadership has failed to ensure the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions and allowed a UN member to get around them.
* The author is Sudan Tribune journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]