Sudan May Become "Humanitarian Catastrophe," U.N. Official Warns
25 January 2006
United States using its utmost resolve in dealing with Darfur crisis
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- Calling Sudan "the most challenging humanitarian problem we face today in the world," the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the international community must press for a peace agreement to avoid a catastrophe.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said January 24 that the situation in Darfur, Sudan, is critical and instability in the province is having an impact on the border with Chad that is "very worrying" for the humanitarian agency, which is currently helping 200,000 refugees in the border area.
A military confrontation on the Sudan-Chad border "will be a humanitarian disaster for everybody," Guterres said.
Meeting with the U.N. Security Council, the high commissioner said that the situation in western Darfur has deteriorated severely in the last six months.
"Today, violence and impunity, never completely in check, are again everyday occurrences in Darfur," he said. "Humanitarian workers are regularly cut off from the displaced and those they are trying to help.
"This month we were forced to raise the threat level for staff in areas of West Darfur, even as staff observe the systematic destruction of crops and rising gender-based violence," the high commissioner said.
Averting a catastrophe in Darfur will require "bold measures and the full involvement" of both the African Union and the United Nations, Guterres said.
"I am aware of the discussions under way on the evolution of a more robust security force, and the delicate question of its nature and composition," he told the 15-nation Security Council. "But preventing a disastrous human toll in Darfur requires a peace agreement, not as a solution to the problem but as the start to a complex process of reconciliation.
"We need the full commitment of the council and all its members working together in support of peace and putting pressure on all the parties involved," the high commissioner said. "Who can defy you if you act together?"
Other parts of Sudan also are fragile and need help, Guterres said.
Massive international economic and political support is crucial to sustain the return of Sudanese refugees and displaced persons in the wake of the peace agreement in southern Sudan, he continued. Support is needed "now -- not when everything is in place and all the rules of conditionality are met. By then it could be too late."
In south Sudan there are only 14 kilometers of paved road, almost no schools, no hospitals and a civil administration that is "extremely thin on the ground," he added.
Guterres estimated that it will take UNHCR three years to four years to help all refugees return home to south Sudan from neighboring countries.
Less noticed, the high commissioner said, is a steadily deteriorating security situation in eastern Sudan, where more than 100,000 Eritrean refugees are cared for by UNHCR. Several thousand new Eritrean refugees already have fled into Sudan as tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia have risen.
The lack of a smooth transition from relief to development after a crisis when refugees return home "ranks as one of the international community's most consistent failures," Guterres also said, applauding the recent creation of the Peacebuilding Commission, which will coordinate development in countries emerging from conflict.
U.S. APPROACHING DARFUR SITUATION WITH “UTMOST RESOLVE”
In November 2005 testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said the United States approaches the situation in Darfur "with the utmost resolve."
"In FY [fiscal year] 2005, we provided over $650 million, mostly in humanitarian assistance and support to the African Union [AU] mission, and over $450 million in reconstruction and humanitarian assistance to other areas in Sudan," she told the lawmakers.
Frazer said her approach to building peace in Sudan is an active, practical one involving day-to-day contact between members of Sudan's new government of national unity and top U.S. officials like Vice President Cheney, as well as frequent travel to the region. (See related article.)
The idea, she told a House subcommittee, is "to maintain momentum on implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement [CPA] and resolve the crisis in Darfur" through a policy of "activist diplomacy" by senior members of the U.S. government.
She went on to remind the lawmakers that "President Bush was the first head of state to speak out publicly on the unfolding violence and atrocities in Darfur in 2004," and that the United States was "the first country to call for action in the United Nations Security Council." The United States later provided $160 million to help fund an AU peacekeeping mission to Darfur.
Frazer told the House panel: "The United States is on the right track and our strategy is moving forward. We believe we have the tools in place to maintain momentum and influence the parties" to make the CPA work and to negotiate an end to the conflict in Darfur.
The ruling regime in Khartoum -- the National Congress Party (NCP) -- and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed the CPA January 9, 2005, ending more than 20 years of civil war between the predominantly Muslim North and the non-Muslim South. The resulting government of national unity was inaugurated on July 9, 2005.
For additional information, see Darfur Humanitarian Emergency.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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