"Catastrophe" Looms in Darfur, U.S. Aid Official Tells Congress
22 September 2006
Michael Hess stresses U.N. "re-hatting" of African Union force is essential
Washington -- An already dire humanitarian situation could turn into a catastrophe if the United Nations is prevented from strengthening the existing African Union (AU) security forces in Darfur, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Michael Hess told Congress September 20.
Unless the United Nations is allowed to expand and convert (“re-hat”) some of the existing AU force of 7,000 troops in Darfur to the 20,000 peacekeepers called for in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1706, passed on August 31, "the people of Darfur will face catastrophe," Hess told the House Africa Subcommittee.
While emergency food supplies currently are reaching most camps in Darfur and eastern Chad, security in Darfur is deteriorating and "the picture is grim," Hess told lawmakers. "If the U.N. re-hats the AU peacekeepers now, we may avert disaster. But time is running out."
According to the United Nations, since a rebellion sparked violence in early 2003, more than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and some 2 million have been driven from their homes, mainly by marauding militias called the Jingaweit, supported by Sudan President Omar al-Bashir's government.
Most recently, Bashir used a Darfur peace agreement, signed in Abuja, Nigeria, May 5 with one major rebel faction, to justify a military offensive launched in the northern part of the region.
Bashir has stated repeatedly he would not allow a U.N. force to be deployed in Darfur, although officials in his administration recently indicated they would tolerate an extension of the AU force's mandate past its September 30 deadline.
Hess said the AU's mission in Sudan "currently provides the only refuge for Darfurian civilians fleeing the renewed violence." But if the peacekeeping force is reduced and made ineffective, "international [aid] workers will leave." As a backup, he said, "We are focusing on trying to help our partners to maintain the provision of critical assistance through their Sudanese staff, if international peacekeepers are forced out of Darfur."
The United States has provided more than $1 billion in humanitarian aid to Darfur and eastern Chad since 2003, Hess said. More than $400 million in aid went to Darfur from October 2005 to September 2006, accounting for more than 60 percent of all emergency food for the region from international donors.
African Subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith (Republican of New Jersey) stressed the urgency of the situation. "We are today at a crossroads and the international community must act and follow through on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1706 without delay," Smith said.
Referring to the indecisive international reactions to the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Smith said, "When it comes to Darfur no one can say we didn't know" what was happening. "Indifference, especially now, makes us complicit in genocide. Ineffectiveness, especially now, makes us unwitting enablers of genocide."
He added: "The National Congress Party government of Sudan and its Jingaweit militia allies have collaborated to cause the death of more than 200,000 people in Darfur and the displacement of nearly 2 million people. They have combined to make life hell on earth for the residents of all three Darfur provinces."
Representative Donald Payne (Democrat of New Jersey), said, "We must not wait for the permission of the killers in Khartoum in order to deploy a U.N. peacekeeping force.
"We are not without options to stop the suffering in Darfur. If we have the political will, we can end the suffering. NATO did not ask [deceased Serbian leader Slobodan] Milosevic his permission to go into the former Yugoslavia. President Bush did not ask [deceased Somalia President Mohamed] Aidid's permission in 1992 to go into Somalia. He did the right thing. We must do the same in Darfur," Payne said.
Roger Winter, former special representative on Sudan for the deputy secretary of state, told the House panel: "We are in really dangerous times regarding Sudan. It could happen that the [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] is stamped ‘Cancelled,’ along with an incredible additional number of Sudanese lives. And if that happened, it would blot out one of the finest U.S. initiatives of the last decade."
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), facilitated largely by the United States, was signed January 9, 2005, between the government of Khartoum and the main rebel movement in the South, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, ending almost 20 years of conflict that had resulted in more than 2 million deaths. The CPA provides for a government of national unity and, a framework for the peaceful resolution of conflicts that have beset Sudan for more than 40 years. (See related article.)
Winter recommended that the United Nations “deploy nonconsensually the now-stymied U.N. protection force. In fact, some of the U.N. force already in the South, in such places as Wau -- virtually next door to Darfur -- could be moved there quickly."
At the same time, he said the West should "declare and enforce a no-fly zone for Sudan military aircraft throughout Darfur. U.S. resources exist in Djibouti that could be used for enforcement purposes."
The day after the House hearing, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer briefed the press in New York City, where she was attending the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. She made it plain that "the humanitarian crisis in Darfur and the atrocities that are taking place are the result of President Bashir's policies."
The fact that the Bashir government has "deployed 10,000 troops and [is] bombing villages today, 2 million people in IDP [internally displaced persons] camps, hundreds of thousands who have died over the last three years, suggests to me that what President Bashir has created in Sudan is far worse than anything that we're seeing in Iraq today," Frazer concluded.
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)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
