Darfur needs action now

Editorial, Gulf News

August 11, 2004 — The situation in Darfur has moved beyond the capability of the Sudanese government to manage it: between 30,000 to 50,000 people have been killed, 1.2 million have had to flee their homes and live as refugees, cut off from their normal security and food supplies, and over 130,000 have had to escape into Chad in fear of their lives from irregular militias.

This situation has been allowed to spiral out of control, and the Sudanese government should have acted over a year ago to stop what was then a potential large problem becoming reality. It should have halted any anti-government militancy with regular Sudanese military forces as required. It should have forced the disbandenment of the militia, the Janjaweed, and it should never have allowed the Janjaweed to terrorise the non-Arab population.

It is a matter of legal semantics if the UN defines the crisis as genocide, or if the EU does not see it as genocide. That arguement is solely about whether international law has given outside forces the right to intervene with or without the government’s authority, since only in cases of genocide can the UN over-rule the national government’s sovereignty.

But the reality is that thousands have died, and many more are at risk of dying every day. That this situation has arisen at all is a disaster and a shame, but that it might continue is a tragedy which the Sudanese government and the international community should work together to overcome as soon as possible.

The militias should be brought under control and disbanded, and relief agancies should go in and help the 1.2 million people suffering, and the region should be allowed to return to normality. Any concerns that the Sudanese government might have over any anti-government activity in Darfur does not justify reducing the region to chaos and disaster.