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Simon Roughneen, Irish Catholic, July 2006
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern TD visited Sudan and Darfur
between July 2-5. His visit must now result in Ireland taking a
proactive role in international efforts to resolve the political
and humanitarian crisis in the region, including diplomatic intervention
with Russia and China, writes Simon Roughneen, with GOAL in Darfur.
Harian Abdullah was on her way to the wadi about a half a mile
from Fata Borno camp for displaced people in Darfur.
"Like all the women here, I have to go to collect firewood
so we can cook and have light in the camp. I walk there most days
to get some fuel. Two days ago, I was on my way down to the trees",
she says, pointing towards a green oasis about half-way between
her shelter and the nearby clinic where GOAL provides healthcare
and nutrition services to the camp-dwellers.
“It was not yet dark. I saw five men moving out from near
the trees. I stopped for one moment as I did not recognise them.
They were about 500 meters away. I turned and ran back. They ran
as well, but stopped soon afterward once I got close to the camp.”
However, making the trek to the camp edge for firewood is a hazard
that Darfur’s women face daily, across the vast region. With
2 million people crammed into sprawling and uncomfortable camp settlements,
Harian’s dilemma is a recurring one for Darfur’s women.
In the camps, with minimal facilities, firewood is needed for
cooking – otherwise the often malnourished and illness-prone
people will go without food, exacerbating other health complications
resulting from conflict and displacement.
However as Harian’s narrow escape describes, these vital
chores carry a huge risk. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands
of women have been raped in Darfur since the outbreak of fighting
in 2003, and numerous accounts of wanton sexual violence fill reports
by the UN and rights organisations. But reports won't help Harian
next time she encounters the Janjaweed. She needs effective security.
As well as needing firewood to cook, there are other reasons why
Darfur’s women make the treacherous trek most days. As Rugaya
says, “if the men go, they will be killed by the Janjaweed.
There have been six rapes around this camp in the past couple of
weeks. We have no protection from the Janjaweed. Even if the women
go to the gardens near here, they can be attacked. The African Union
is here in the camp, but they don’t help.”
Since the May 5 Darfur Peace Agreement was signed, security condition
have deteriorated rapidly on the ground in Darfur, as Sudan Liberation
Movement/Army rebels who signed the deal now fight their erstwhile
colleagues who refused to sign the agreement.
Their mutual foe, the Janjaweed militas, have been left relatively
unhindered in their continued depredations on Darfur’s civilian
population, entering camps at will, looting, raping and intimidating.
The Janjaweed is allegedly armed and backed by the Sudanese government.
The militia is the vanguard of the counter-insurgency campaign against
Darfur’s now-squabbling rebels, but the Darfur civilians have
borne the brunt of the Janjaweed’s campaign. Now rebel groups
supporting the DPA are attacking former colleagues who oppose the
Agreement, and committing the same execution and rape atrocities.
The peace agreement stipulates that the Sudanese government must
disarm and demobilise the Janjaweed. However a recent deadline,
part of the peace agreement, for the government to present a plan/timetable
for disarmament, has slipped, like much else in a peace agreement
that looks increasingly flawed, in its origins and in its implementation
ever since May 5.
Harian’s cousin, Adam, says; “this is no peace. We
will have no peace or security until the Janjaweed is removed,”
Supposed to protect the like of Adam and Harian is the African
Union peacekeeping force, which maintains a barracks in the camp,
but according to camp-dwellers, is impotent to deter the Janjaweed.
“We need protection. If the UN comes here and protects us,
then they are welcome,” says Adam.
A neighbour from a nearby shelter joins the discussion: “We
need the United Nations here. The AU cannot help, the government
will not stop the Janjaweed. And the peace is false, there will
be no peace here now.”
However the Sudanese government has so far refused to allow a
UN peacekeeping mission enter Darfur. With 10,000 UN troops elsewhere
in Sudan as guarantors of the separate 2005 peace agreement between
Khartoum and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement
Army (SPLM/A), ending a 20 year war that cost 2 million lives, the
Sudanese government has cited ‘colonialism’ as part
of the UN agenda in entering Darfur.
This is despite the almost-certainty that most of any UN force
would be comprised of African troops, with perhaps Pakistani, Bangladeshi
and Nepalese troops added. Moreover, if Khartoum acquiesced to a
UN force tomorrow, it would be at least 6 months before the transition
from the AU could be completed, as UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie
Guehenno admitted two weeks ago.
Minister Ahern has witnessed at first hand the conditions in camps
for displaced people. In a briefing afterwards, GOAL emphasized
to Mr Ahern the inability of aid agencies to operate effectively
in an insecure environment. We cannot reach some of the 200,000
people we deliver health, nutrition, sanitation and water services
to across Darfur. Altogether, 2 million Darfurians have been displaced
into camps by the fighting and terrorism conducted by the Janjaweed.
The Irish Government can now take a proactive role in the international
efforts to end the violence in Darfur. On the humanitarian level,
Mr. Ahern can lobby for more funding for the World Food Programme
operation in Darfur, which had to cut rations by half in May, down
to 1200 calories per day per person, half the daily recommended
minimum.
However, Darfur’s humanitarian crisis is political in origins
and will only be solved by political means.
The Minister must tell the world that the Darfur Peace Agreement
will become a dead letter if it is not shored up, and if the refuseniks
are not brought on board. And despite the patchy record in peacekeeping
operations, a properly-mandated UN operation in Darfur would contribute
to disarming the Janjaweed and the SLA, and assuring the displaced
of the safety as they make their way home from the array of vast
camps across the region. Compensation for the millions of displaced
and dispossessed must also be addressed.
Mr Ahern must now go to Russia and China to persuade them not
to veto a UN mission when a vote comes around at the UN Security
Council. Commercial ties based on oil extraction mean that both
states have a vested interest in backing the Sudanese stance on
Darfur. This is the clear stumbling block to a UN force and a successful
resolution of the Darfur crisis. With 400,000 already dead, many
more may die if Darfur’s agony drags on. And women like Harian
will not be so lucky next time the Janjaweed prowl around the edge
of her camp.
Simon Roughneen is in Darfur, Sudan with GOAL
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