First things first in Darfur
Editorial, The Newsday
April 15, 2005 — Any sign of positive movement should be welcomed in the deepening humanitarian crisis that has engulfed Darfur, the Western region of Sudan where internecine warfare has killed more than 180,000 and made 2 million homeless.
So it’s good that 60 nations meeting at a conference in Norway this week pledged a total of $4.5 billion for rebuilding. But almost all that money is aimed at repairing damage from the 21-year-old civil war that ended in January between the Arab government of Khartoum and black Christian and animist militias. Only the United States, which has pledged $1.7 billion, has made its aid contingent on Khartoum acting to halt the genocide in Darfur.
Two days after the aid conference, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick held talks in Khartoum, pressing Sudanese officials for a political solution in Darfur and warning them that Washington would hold up its aid and discourage other donors unless the massacres are halted.
It’s good to see the Bush administration take a hard line on Darfur, but the dispiriting reality is that international pressure on Sudan is actually decreasing. Having pledged billions for Sudan’s reconstruction, most nations now believe they have absolved themselves from doing anything more to halt the atrocities in Darfur, whose plight is recognized as the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.
If Washington is truly intent on resolving Darfur’s crisis, it must push hard for the creation of an effective international military force to intervene, halt the fighting and disarm the militias wreaking havoc. The Sudanese government says it’s trying to stop the bloodshed, but its efforts are either invisible or ineffective. In fact, the Arab militias who have ousted black villagers in Darfur from their homes and massacred or starved tens of thousands of them have been shown to be closely linked to Khartoum’s own armed forces.
It’s time that the United Nations and the African Union agree to form an all-African peace-making expeditionary force for Darfur. Some of the billions pledged by Washington and other governments should be diverted into funding such a mission. Otherwise, the crisis will continue and worsen while the world’s nations wring their collective hands in hypocritical impotence.