|
|
Violence, Food Crisis in Sudan Worsen as Militias Keep Hold
By Barbara Slavin, USA
Today
July 1, 2004
More than a million Sudanese people have been forced from their homes by the roots.
The Janjaweed are Arab militias who have driven non-Arab villagers, mostly black farmers, off the land in Darfur in an ethnic-cleansing campaign that many human rights groups say verges on genocide.
United Nations officials and human rights activists say Sudan's Arab government is letting its armed forces back the Janjaweed. Government officials in Khartoum say the Janjaweed are outlaws and will be disarmed.
What isn't in dispute is that people in Darfur are dying in alarming numbers. Between 15,000 and 30,000 people have perished in the past 16 months. U.S. officials say 500,000 more may die if they can't go home or if more aid doesn't arrive soon. Conditions at Abu Shouk, the site selected for Powell to see by the Sudanese government, are vastly superior to horrific scenes of famine and squalor in other camps to the north and west.
Visiting a 'Show Camp'
Some aid workers called Abu Shouk a "show camp" that was spruced up for Powell, who was accompanied by Sudanese officials at all times. While there were no visible signs of famine here, other camps are said to be heartbreaking.
"The camp I went to was one of the better camps," Powell told National Public Radio after his visit. "I'm sure there are camps out there that are awful and nowhere near what I saw today. And I know there are people out there that I didn't see today who are in far more desperate need."
Powell spent only about 20 minutes here, cutting his visit short to escape an approaching sandstorm. Afterwards he told reporters that Abu Shouk - near the town of Al-Fashir, about 400 miles west of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum - and more than 130 other camps in Darfur are not the solution to the crisis. "These people want to go home. They need to go home," Powell said. "And they can't go home if it's not safe."
Powell and other senior members of the administration have voiced concerns that Darfur could become another Rwanda. In that central African nation, nearly 1 million people were killed in ethnic violence in 1994 as the world largely stood by. The administration is considering whether to formally declare the Darfur crisis a genocide, as defined by a 1946 international convention.
U.S. officials and the United Nations have been unable to push the Sudanese government to shut down the Janjaweed. After Powell's visit, in which he was briefly joined by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan there were hopeful signs. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail pledged to send more government forces to provide security in Darfur, to ease restrictions on humanitarian groups and to speed up talks with rebel leaders. "We will combat any militias and Janjaweed so that we secure the protection of civilians," he said.
Annan predicted "real progress" in Darfur in the next "24 to 48 hours." Powell told NPR that Sudan had made specific commitments, with a timeline, and that he had warned the government that the international community would consider tougher action unless it sees "changes, and changes soon." He said in a press conference with Annan in Khartoum that he expects Sudan's promises to be met "within days or weeks."
Sudan has made similar promises in the past, however, with few results. After meeting with Powell on Tuesday night, Ismail admitted there was a "humanitarian problem" in Darfur. But he denied that his government was arming the Janjaweed or impeding delivery of food or other aid.
"Words alone are not enough," Powell said in the public radio interview. "We want to see them follow up on these commitments."
Opening a 'Pandora's Box'
Hostilities in Darfur may have been sparked by U.S.-led progress toward settling an unrelated, longer-standing conflict in Sudan - a two-decade-old war between northern Muslims and southern Christians and tribal religious groups.
In February 2003, two Darfur rebel groups made up of black Africans, resentful of concessions being considered for southerners in the North-South conflict, launched a military campaign against government forces. The groups argued that Khartoum had neglected Darfur's non-Arab populace and was failing to protect such people from the Janjaweed.
Aid and human-rights groups say the government shares the Janjaweed's goal of the "Arabization" of Darfur, an ideology Sudanese officials began touting in the 1990s.
Princeton Lyman, an Africa expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, says Khartoum's fear of Indonesia-style separatism is one reason for what he called "vicious" retaliation against the Darfur uprising. Having granted southern rebels the right to vote for independence in six years under a new peace agreement, Lyman says Sudanese leaders wonder: "Have we opened up a Pandora's box?"
The African Union, the continent's primary, multination political organization, recently sent two dozen military officers from several African countries to monitor a wobbly cease-fire reached in April between rebel groups in Darfur and the government.
Mohammed Adam Ismail, a member of the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army, says there have been numerous violations by the government. "We look for justice and equality," he says, contending that only an international presence - a U.N. peacekeeping force of 20,000 troops - will bring stability.
But there are no signs that such a force will be sent to Darfur. "This is a huge place, the size of France," Powell told reporters aboard his plane en route to Khartoum from Darfur. "The solution has to come from the government doing what is right."
U.S. officials began circulating a draft United Nations resolution Wednesday that would impose an arms embargo and travel ban on the Janjaweed. But while the measure vaguely threatens more widespread sanctions if the situation in Darfur does not improve, it does not take any action against the oil-rich Sudanese government, as some human rights groups and Africa analysts have urged. And there is resistance from security council members such as China, which has investments in Sudan's oil fields.
"A credible and serious threat of sanctions means multilateral economic and oil sanctions," says Susan Rice, assistant secretary of State for African Affairs during the Clinton administration. "The Sudanese understand force and pressure. Any weakness or ambivalence they will manipulate, as they have for months."
Marcus Prior, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, which is delivering aid to Darfur refugees, said Wednesday that it's "too early to say" whether the brief visit by Powell and Annan will mark a turning point. "We're extremely hopeful that the presence of two international figures of such standing will enhance our ability to deliver assistance," he said.
Time is of the essence. Relief workers worry that the death toll will rise with the looming rainy season, which lasts until August and turns camps like Abu Shouk into lakes of mud. Already, there have been outbreaks of measles, diarrhea, meningitis and malaria and even one case of polio in Darfur camps. Malnourished children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to such diseases. Half of the malnourished children who catch measles die, aid workers say.
The U.S. Agency for International Development had NASA take aerial photos of the entire Darfur region. In their analysis of 500 villages, 300 had been destroyed and 76 nearly destroyed, according to Andrew Natsios, head of USAID.
Lyman, a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria, suggests that Powell and Annan should press the Sudanese to allow the African Union to deploy a peacekeeping contingent of at least 1,000 men to protect refugees and humanitarian workers.
Ten years after Rwanda, Lyman says, Darfur represents a "major test" for the international community. So far, he acknowledges, "resolve has been slow to develop."
|
|
|
