Another bloodbath in Darfur?
By Eric Reeves
February 3, 2009 — Are we hours away from yet another bloodbath in Darfur? Sudan’s army
appears set to launch an attack on Muhajeria, a rebel-held town in South
Darfur whose civilian population approaches 50,000, including displaced
persons in the area. Indeed, as of today, bombing attacks on the
outskirts of Muhajeria have already begun. And so the fate of tens of
thousands of Darfuri civilians rests with the United Nations-African
Union peacekeeping operation, which presently has about 200 personnel
deployed in Muhajeria. Wire reports indicate that some 5,000 civilians
have fled to the peacekeepers’ base in search of security. Sudan’s
government has forcefully asked the peacekeepers to leave. So far, the
U.N. is saying its troops will stay. But will they stand their ground
once the fighting starts? And even if they stay, will they prove willing
to use force to protect civilians–something U.N. peacekeepers have
historically been extremely reluctant to do?
Muhajeria was previously ravaged by Khartoum’s forces in October 2007.
Here’s how The New York Times (October 17, 2007) described what took
place then: “[W]itnesses said Sudanese government troops and their
allied militias had killed more than 30 civilians, slitting the throats
of several men praying at a mosque and shooting a 5-year-old boy in the
back as he tried to run away. … [T]wo columns of uniformed government
troops, along with dozens of militiamen not in uniform, surrounded the
town around noon on Oct. 8 and stormed the market.” Muhajeria
subsequently came under the erratic and often tyrannical control of the
forces of Minni Minawi, a one-time rebel leader who switched sides in
May 2006, signing the Darfur Peace Agreement and allying himself with
the Khartoum regime. Several weeks ago, the Justice and Equality
Movement–a rebel group that did not sign the agreement and continues to
fight Khartoum and its Arab militia allies–seized control of the town
from Minawi’s forces. The regime regards this as an unacceptable
military setback, and is apparently now laying the groundwork for an
assault on the town.
Of course, the JEM is not blameless in creating this situation. The
group’s leadership claims that the town accidentally fell into its
hands, but this is hard to believe. Moreover, one year ago, JEM attacks
in West Darfur provoked vicious reprisals by the regime that ended up
displacing tens of thousands–so you might think that the rebels would
have been careful to avoid creating a situation where the same thing
could happen again.
But none of this can excuse what Khartoum now appears ready to
execute–an assault on the town that will almost certainly claim large
numbers of civilian lives. And none of it changes the obligation of
U.N.-A.U. troops to stay in Muhajeria and protect its residents through
whatever means are available. The U.N.-A.U. force was deployed to Darfur
under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, meaning that it has the authority
to protect civilians using force and to call for reinforcements as
necessary. But so far, much like the U.N. peacekeeping operation that
“protected” Rwandans in 1994, it has done tragically little to defend
Darfuris from ongoing attacks. (See this October 2008 dispatch for an
overview of the force’s inability to stop violence against civilians:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2008/10/mil-081020-irin01.htm.)
And yet this peacekeeping operation is the only protection that the
world has provided the people of Darfur. Now, the residents of Muhajeria
are about to find out whether it can offer any real protection at all.
Eric Reeves is author of “A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in
the Darfur Genocide”. He can be reached at
[email protected]. Website : www.sudanreeves.org