What is the current situation in Darfur?
Violence continues across Sudan, Chad, and the Central African Republic and we’ve seen another increase in Janjawid attacks recently in Nyala, South Darfur state. There are now more than 4 million IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in Sudan, and a further 300,000 Darfuri refugees in camps along the Chad-Darfur border and in Eastern Chad. The situation of the camps grows increasingly tenuous due to physical and environmental insecurity; the external environmental shows the effects of deforestation up to 30k around the camps, and we’re seeing growing levels of violence and banditry around camps and on convoy routes, disrupting delivery. With the South Sudan referendum in just over a year, violence in South Sudan is also a concern.
What happened when the NGOs were expelled?
The refugee and IDP crisis was worsened by the government’s expulsion of 13 international NGOs following the issuance of the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against al-Bashir in March this year. Since the expulsion, basic humanitarian operations have been rebuilt but services for survivors of sexual violence are now non-existent, due to government obstruction.
At the same time, there is insufficient protection for women and girls within the camps, and attacks continue when women and girls have to leave the camps to collect firewood and water.
What is the role of the ICC?
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant in March 2009 for President Omar al-Bashir on two counts of war crimes and five of crimes against humanity. This follows two ICC arrest warrants in May 2007 for Sudan’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmed Haroun, and Janjawid ‘colonel of colonels’ Ali Kushayb.
The ICC has formally asked its signatories and the Government of Sudan to make the arrests, but without an ICC police force, we’re dependent on the international community. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki recently led a High-Level panel on Darfur as part of the AU Peace and Security Council, recommending hybrid courts to deal with war crimes in Darfur. These recommendations have been designed to keep the al-Bashir government in power, and has many serious flaws, including failure to address the root causes of the Darfur conflict and lack of accountability.
What is the Obama Policy Review?
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the Obama administration’s Sudan Policy Review on October 19th, a significant detour from the policy Obama campaigned on. The new policy of engagement has identified the humanitarian situation in Darfur as ‘US strategic objective #1′, but talks of ‘stabilizing’ the current untenable living conditions of IDPs/refugees, and fails to explicitly mention sexual violence. Whilst the new policy recommits to ending impunity, the government has chosen to engage with a head of state who is under indictment from the International Criminal Court, and has a record of reneging on his commitments to the international community.
What role can the international community play?
If the new Obama Sudan policy is going to work, the ‘stick’ of multilateral sanctions is essential – these sanctions need to be put in place now, to encourage that Government of Sudan to continue to engage with the Obama administration and wider international community. The US claims this is not possible because key European players like the UK and France won’t commit to these sanctions, however, without multilateralism the Obama policy will certainly fail.
Furthermore, Khartoum’s compliance must be monitored on the ground, and the international community must share the oversight role here, in addition to continuing current diplomatic efforts, spread between funding the humanitarian mission, the ICC case, and addressing the ongoing violence in Chad/Darfur.
What should students be doing?
The most direct, and most powerful, impact you can have is by supporting the Darfuris in the UK. Over 1,000 Darfuris live in the UK, many of whom live in fear of deportation to Khartoum where they face torture and possible murder. Please write to Jack Straw and the Home Office to stop this travesty of deportation. Contact the Darfur People’s Union of the UK, and find out what you should be doing and what you could achieve. For political impact, you need to write to Gordon Brown, David Miliband, and the new UK ambassador to the UN Mark Lyle Grant, to advocate for recommendations to improve the function of UN agencies, humanitarian services, and international NGOs. See darfuriwomen.org and Physicians for Human Rights’ report Nowhere to Turn: Failure to Protect, Support and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women for more information.
Jo Read is the Eric Reeves Fellow in Human Rights Studies at Harvard
