Global Policy Forum

Violence Persists as Deadline Passes

By Cam Simpson

More than 1million people driven from their homes by government-backed militiamen marauding Sudan's Darfur region still face the constant risk of rape and other violence, a senior UN official said Monday as a Security Council deadline for Khartoum expired. The council is expected to take up the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, a region in western Sudan roughly the size of Montana, on Thursday. A resolution unanimously approved July 30 gave the Sudanese government 30 days to ease the crisis, demanding that it disarm Arab militiamen known as the Janjaweed and bring to justice those responsible for human-rights abuses.

Dennis McNamara, head of one UN division dealing with the situation, told reporters Monday in Nairobi, Kenya, that a chronic lack of security continues to threaten the estimated 1.2 million people driven from their villages, most of whom now live in scores of makeshift camps across Darfur. Women frequently are attacked and raped if they leave the camps to collect firewood, McNamara said, according to UN headquarters in New York. The risk is compounded by the Sudanese government's efforts to force them to return to their razed villages, McNamara said. McNamara's assessment and other fresh reports of persistent violence in Darfur increase the chance for a showdown on the issue at the Security Council, possibly this week.

The July 30 resolution called for unspecified action against Khartoum if the deadline was not met. Security Council members China, Pakistan and Algeria have resisted imposing or even formally mentioning sanctions, but they could face mounting pressure if the situation deteriorates further and if the final report of a special UN envoy Thursday is tough.

To varying degrees, some UN officials, American diplomats, human-rights groups and independent organizations have moved to increase the pressure in recent days. All agree that the government in Khartoum has not done nearly enough to improve security in the region, but it is unclear whether the government has done just enough to keep the U.S. from building a consensus on taking stronger measures.

"Security remains a major problem," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday. "And while there have been some indications--some, you might say, spotty progress here and there--there's still a lot of problems that do concern us." Still, Boucher and other U.S. diplomats have been careful to note that Sudan has eased access for relief workers after months of impeding them.

Last week the group Human Rights Watch said it had documented the Sudanese government's continuing tolerance of at least 16 Janjaweed camps in Darfur that were being used to launch attacks. The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, also said in a report last week that Khartoum might actually have made the situation worse since the passage of the Security Council resolution.

"Far from disarming and bringing them to justice," the crisis group said of government efforts against militiamen, "it is incorporating large segments of the militia directly into its security structures, leaving them free to operate as servants of the state by day and Janjaweed by night, to the double peril of civilians."

Diplomats wait for final report

U.S. diplomats involved in the Security Council proceedings and others allied with the Americans were careful Monday to say they would withhold judgment until hearing the special envoy's final report Thursday. But two diplomats independently suggested Monday that any new resolution could include a limited authorization for military intervention by the African Union, which already has monitors in Darfur. The UN has been pushing Sudan to accept an offer of about 3,000 troops from the African Union, although Khartoum so far has resisted. The diplomats also said the U.S. and the European Union would fund such a force.

One outside expert said he thought the Security Council's existing resolution authorized military action, but he said putting a mandate in a new resolution was the natural next step. "If we are serious about what we said, then we need to take that next step," said Anthony Clark Arend, a Georgetown University professor and director of the school's Institute for International Law & Politics. "Military intervention is what is going to be effective."

Open warfare, much of it directed at civilians, has ravaged Darfur since early last year, when two loosely affiliated rebel groups attacked government military positions. The government answered by increasing its support for the Janjaweed, who launched a scorched-earth campaign against villages thought sympathetic to the black rebel groups. Although Sudanese officials deny involvement in the campaign, the U.S. says the government arms and supports the Arab militias and that military forces have assisted in some attacks.

U.S. may move independently

The Security Council resolution followed months of pressure from the U.S. and others. Sudanese leaders promised to take action but failed to deliver, according to the U.S. One State Department official suggested Monday that the U.S. might move on its own to boost the pressure. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a special review of whether the abuses in Darfur amount to genocide will be "completed very, very soon."

A formal genocide finding likely would trigger a series of harsh actions against Sudan. And senior State Department officials previously have said they view the determination as perhaps the ultimate political tool in dealing with Khartoum.

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