Established pattern has to be broken

February 11, 2008

Established pattern has to be broken


IT is a highly welcome development that the government of Sudan has accepted that UN-led peacekeepers will have full unrestricted movement in the troubled western Darfur region of the country.
Under the Status of Forces Agreement signed in Khartoum on Saturday by Foreign Minister Deng Alor and peacekeeping head Rodolphe Adada, Khartoum will permit night flights and full access across the western Sudanese province for United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) personnel, as well as easing restrictions in a number of areas including communications.
The signing of the agreement clears one of the key hurdles that were holding up the the Darfur peacekeeping force, which is meant to be 26,000-strong later this year — the UN's largest force.
One of the sticking points is Khartoum's refusal to accept non-African units, but that is a hurdle that could be partly set aside with Sudan ready to consider non-Africans on a case-by-case basis.
Indeed, the signing of the Status of Forces Agreement does not mean that everything is going ahead as planned in Darfur. There would be more hurdles popping up as the UN prepares for the full deployment of the peacekeeping unit.
On Friday the UN special envoy to Darfur, Jan Eliasson, warned that the region was edging towards full-scale war after Sudan launched a big operation attacking rebels in two towns in West Darfur. Eliason also noted that the Darfur rebels are not ready for serious talks with the government on settling the conflict. In reality, the rebel groups do not have a united platform, and that has one of the key problems for mediators trying to bring them all together for peace negotiations.
Another problem is that the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for a junior Sudanese government minister and an allied militia leader accused of conspiring in war crimes in Darfur. Khartoum refuses to hand them over.
In the meantime, the joint AU-UN force, which has still to deply some 19,000 soldiers, is facing shortage of equipment and helicopters. Without quick means for transportation in the vast Darfur region, the peacekeepers would have serious problems doing their job and to respond to emergencies.
World governments which have been highly vocal about the crisis in Darfur do not seem to have the same enthusiasm when it comes to practical action that is now offered by countries like Bangladesh and Ethiopia which are ready to provide the peacekeepers with some of the helicopters they need.
Apathy towards crisies where they do not have a direct stake has always been a feature of Western governments' behaviour, and what we are seeing in Sudan today is a continuation of the pattern. Meanwhile, valuable time is lost for the displaced people of Darfur who are hoping against hope that international action would help end their suffering and agony. Western countries which could easily plug the loopholes in the Darfur peacekeeping arrangements should act fast if they ever meant any word they said about the plight of the Darfurians.