OurPledge

Ordering peace

Much has been written about the limitations of deploying peacekeepers to Darfur. Here, some of this analysis fits into a larger argument (perhaps reasonable but ultimately misguided) that a Darfur peace accord must be hammered out before the deployment of any large force to Western Sudan.

Certainly, peacekeepers cannot substitute for a peace process. Relative calm cannot be achieved and reconstruction in Western Sudan cannot begin unless the U.S and its allies, Darfur’s different rebel groups, and the Government of Sudan accept and earnestly implement a robust political settlement to stop the bloodshed and dying.

That said, we have to look at the other side of the coin. Civilian security in Darfur is absolutely paramount not only from a political perspective, but more importantly from a basic moral perspective. The UN and AU officials and the think-tank types who rightfully stress the need for a real Darfur peace agreement need to respect the moral claims of the mothers and young girls who are still being raped (PDF link), and the one million Darfuris who live near oblivion exactly because the Government of Sudan has blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching them.

New Photos Indicate Arms Flow to Darfur

By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 24, 2007; A08

Recent photographs purportedly showing Sudanese soldiers in the Darfur region moving containers from a Russian-made Antonov cargo plane onto military trucks reinforce suspicions that Sudan continues to violate a U.N.-imposed arms embargo, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International said.

The photographs, taken in July and released today by the rights group, also purportedly show Russian-supplied Mi-7 and Mi-24 military helicopters in the town of Geneina in Darfur.

Eyewitnesses in Darfur and the International Peace Information Service, based in Antwerp, Belgium, sent the photographs to Amnesty. The images bolster evidence published in a May report by Amnesty that accused Russia and China of having broken the arms embargo, according to a news release from the human rights group.

The Russian-made Antonov, with registration ST-ASA, is listed as operated by Azza Transport, which is under investigation by a U.N. panel monitoring the Sudan arms embargo and arms transfers into Darfur.

Sudanese government fails to investigate new details on Darfur rapes: UN

The Associated Press
Published: August 21, 2007

GENEVA: The U.N.’s top human rights office on Tuesday released gruesome new details of rapes of Darfur women, reportedly by soldiers and government militia, and accused the Sudanese government of failing to investigate.

“The abuses may also constitute war crimes,” said the report by the office of Louise Arbour, U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

Darfur war crimes suspect has free rein

From the Los Angeles Times:
By Maggie Farley
August 5, 2007

EL FASHER, SUDAN—For a man accused of masterminding massacres, Ahmad Harun seems quite comfortable in the place he allegedly helped destroy.

He strolls around the grassy compound belonging to the local governor in Sudan’s deeply troubled Darfur region, embracing Arab tribal leaders, soldiers and officials who have come to hear the president.

Harun, a tall 42-year-old with high cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes, was in charge of the region’s security during the height of the violent attacks on farm villages that caused millions to flee their homes in 2003 and 2004. He allegedly recruited, funded and armed local militias to root out rebels who had attacked the Sudanese army, sweeping away their villages, families and the intricate fabric of Darfur’s identity along the way.

Truth-teller

The latest from Eric Reeves. An important analytic bookend to recent Darfur news:

On China’s vote for UN Security Council Resolution 1769
by Eric Reeves
From The New Republic (on-line), August 2, 2007

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w070730&s=reeves080207

News reports have been busy celebrating Monday’s passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1769, authorizing the deployment of a “hybrid” U.N./African Union force to the Darfur region of western Sudan. Particular note has been made of the Chapter 7 mandate for parts of the mission, an essential provision that gives this hybrid force the authority to intervene militarily, rather than just sit back and observe. On these points, the resolution appears to echo Resolution 1706, which the Security Council passed last August. That resolution similarly authorized a large and robust–if “unhybridized”–U.N. peacekeeping operation for Darfur under Chapter 7 authority.

So what has changed? Last year, China abstained from voting on the resolution, signaling to the Islamist regime in Khartoum that it could resist its implementation without fear of isolation. As a result, within weeks of the resolution’s passage, the U.N. Secretariat and its special representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, capitulated, arguing instead for more assistance to the hopelessly inadequate African Union force. This year, by contrast, the vote for Resolution 1769 was unanimous. In the end, even China came on board.

U.N. approves up to 26,000 troops, police for Darfur

Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:10PM EDT
By Evelyn Leopold

United Nations (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council authorized on Tuesday up to 26,000 troops and police for Darfur and approved the use of force to protect civilians in Sudan’s arid western region.

Expected to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the combined “hybrid” U.N.-African Union operation aims to quell violence in Darfur, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven into camps and an estimated 200,000 have died over the past four years.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who conducted months of talks with Khartoum, described the resolution as “historic and unprecedented” and said the mission would “make a clear and positive difference.”

The resolution, number 1769, invokes Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, under which the United Nations can authorize force. The measure allows the use of force for self-defense, to ensure the free movement of humanitarian workers and to protect civilians under attack, but acknowledges Sudan’s sovereignty.