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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Thursday, July 08, 2004.
Darfur: Has Africa learnt any lesson?
When will Africa be
conflict-free? Nobody knows. With the ethnic conflict in the Darfur
region in The Sudan fast degenerating into a Rwandan-type genocide,
analysts stress that the continent will need to draw the right lessons
from its sordid past if it is to reverse its history of decline. The
Darfur conflict, they assert, presents an acid test here.
Development Reporter, Ntai Bagshaw, reels through the
intrigues in war-torn Darfur, as it takes the centre-stage at the
on-going third ordinary session of the African Union (AU) meeting,
holding in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Remember Rwanda? It will be
unacceptable not to. Let us refreshen your memory: between April and June
1994, Hutu extremists unleashed a genocide on Tutsis in which about
800,000 people were murdered within 100 days. The disaster was one of the
greatest crimes against humanity in the second half of the 20th century - one that, in no small
measure, shocked the world.
What was most nauseating about Rwanda was that
blames were freely traded between the United States, United Nations (UN)
and the present African Union for accommodating the genocide. And as the
event gradually faded from their minds, some analysts “foolishly” opined
that Africa and the world would never allow another Rwanda. How wrong
they were.
As the world marked Rwanda’s 10th anniversary, another “monster” is
rearing its head in the continent seemingly unnoticed. At present, the
conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region is degenerating into something very
close to another genocide, again catching (well almost) everyone
unawares. Already, Darfur is now widely considered as the site of the
world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
It is not surprising therefore that the world is
at it again - belatedly displaying its fire-quenching skills in Sudan.
Penultimate week, in a show of international concern, both UN
Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan and US Secretary of State, Mr. Colin
Powell, visited the country to demand action from the Sudanese
government. While Powell threatened sanctions against the militias, Annan
threatened UN troops.
Indeed, the greatest threat to peace in the
region is the bands of Arab fighters recruited and armed by the Sudanese
government, as part of its fight against two rebel groups. About 10 weeks
ago, two UN human rights reports found that the Janjaweed, as they
are called, have committed numerous human rights abuses against Darfur’s
black African population. Interestingly, Annan has described the militia
attacks as “bordering on ethnic cleansing” and “a gross and systematic
violations of human rights”.
But the Sudanese government faults these claims,
promising nevertheless to contain their excesses. President Omar
el-Bashir blamed the fighting on “the enemies of Darfur and the enemies
of Sudan, who did not want to see any development.” And to prove his stand,
the president did agree to a series of measures to improve the dire
humanitarian situation, protect civilians and end fighting in the region.
He further pledged to allow the deployment of human rights monitors and
to establish a “fair system, respectful of local tradition, that will
allow abused women to bring charges against alleged perpetrators.” In a
joint communiqu� issued on July 3, the government and the UN warned that
“catastrophic levels” of suffering could ensue if the present conditions
persist and set up a joint high-level implementation mechanism to report
on progress.
By the agreement, the government said it would
suspend all restrictions for aid workers and permit freedom of movement
throughout Darfur, while ending limits on “the importation and use of all
humanitarian assistance materials, transport vehicles, aircraft and
communications equipment.” For its part, the UN said it would help
implement Sudan’s peace accords, aid the country’s Internally Displaced
Persons (IDP), as well as refugees in Chad, and assist in the deployment
of AU ceasefire monitors.
But analysts view Khartoum’s position as
existing on paper only. The World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson,
Christiane Berthiaume, for instance, lamented that WFP staff could not
reach 34 of the 137 camps for IDP in Darfur because of continuing
insecurity caused by the Janjaweed. And many of such stories
abound. Experts are therefore of the view that el-Beshir shouldn’t be
taken for his word.
Writing in the BBC, Peter Fabricius
particularly states that both Annan and Powell have a special motivation
(and responsibility) to avoid genocide in Sudan. “Annan headed UN
peacekeeping operations in Rwanda in 1994 when the UN failed to
re-enforce its flimsy mission in the country to protect the mainly Tutsi
victims from Hutu extermination,” Fabricius said. “Powell was then
America’s top soldier under President Bill Clinton, whose administration
played semantics to avoid defining what was happening in Rwanda as
genocide because that would have obliged it to intervene.”
Thousands of people are believed to have died
since early 2003 when rebels began fighting for autonomy and greater
state aid. And El-Beshir has demonstrated little zeal at nipping it in
the bud. At present, an estimated two million people have been displaced
and more than 170,000 refugees are wallowing in near-death conditions in
neighbouring Chad. And as the rainy season sets in, humanitarian agencies
and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say the international community
is failing to donate enough funds to allow them to do their work. The UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said only 31
per cent - or about $78 million - of the $250 million needed by UN
agencies to help people in Darfur has been received so far. Already, the
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that the continuing violence in
Darfur is breeding a new generation of traumatised child survivors.
Many displaced children, living in camps across
Darfur or as refugees in neighbouring Chad, have told humanitarian
workers that they have seen their parents, siblings or neighbours
murdered or raped, UNICEF said last week. Other children have drawn
disturbing pictures of what has happened. In one case, an 11-year-old
girl drew a picture of bleeding bodies on the ground next to an armed man
sitting on a camel. The girl then pointed to the bodies and recited the
names of her relatives. Dan Toole, UNICEF’s Director of Emergency
Operations, said, at least, 500,000 children have had to flee their
villages because of brutal attacks by government-allied Janjaweed
militias. “We’re dealing with massive effects on the lives of
children," he said. “This expulsion is creating a common memory for
those, who survive the mayhem, insecurity, terrible loss and the power of
violence.”
Where is Africa’s place in the ensuing scenario?
A day after Annan ended his “site seeing” visit to Sudan, African leaders
began their damage-control deliberations as the Third Ordinary Session of
the AU kicked-off in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. But some things
rarely change, notably Africa’s penchant for holding high-level talk
shops. Whether the Addis Ababa summit will make the difference remains to
be seen. With the world expecting Africa to sort out its own crises,
experts insist that the Sudanese conflict is a battle that must be won.
“The big question is whether the AU will, this
week, muster the political will and organisational nous to tackle this
problem decisively,” Fabricius argues. “Or whether it will revert to type
by ducking a political confrontation with Khartoum, pleading that the ASF
(African Standby Force) is not yet ready for action and bewailing the
indifference of the world.”
Whatever decisions the leaders churn out in
Addis Ababa, analysts affirm that the AU must be keen to apportion blame
to its member- governments for conflicts. Fabricius puts it this way:
“Its (AU’s) first challenge this week must be to tell Khartoum in plain
language to spray the Janjaweed with herbicide. Its second challenge
must be to prepare to muster a force to go in there to do the job if
Khartoum won't.”
As for the traditional “roadmap” to peace in
Sudan, the AU should consider the wordings of placards carried by
thousands of refugees in Chad’s Iridimi refugee camp. The posters read:
“Stop the ethnic cleansing and the genocide” and “Security first, then
voluntary return.”
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