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 Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update (Re: nahar osman nahar)
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Darfur and the Diplomatic Logic of Appeasement:
Concluding Peace Talks at Naivasha Must Not, and Cannot, Entail
Expediency
Eric ReevesJanuary 26, 2004
Despite clear, indeed overwhelming evidence that the human catastrophe
in Darfur Province (far western Sudan) continues to accelerate rapidly,
the international community---as represented by governments with real
power to halt the carnage---is largely silent. And to the extent that
countries like the US, the UK, and even normally stalwart Norway have
said anything about Darfur, there has been a remarkable quality of
understatement, and a lack of sufficient urgency. What explains this?
The transparent diplomatic thinking---indeed so transparent that
Khartoum's National Islamic Front regime has had no trouble whatsoever
in discerning it---reflects a disastrously expedient logic: "let's see
to conclusion the talks in Naivasha (Kenya) between Khartoum and the
SPLM/A, and then we can respond in more robust fashion to the hundreds
of thousands of people at acute risk in Darfur," goes this thinking;
"we're so close to nailing down an agreement that Darfur can wait a
little while longer for us to speak in the appropriate moral register."
Of course there can be no denying that it is essential the Naivasha
talks be governed by a sense of relentless urgency, given Khartoum's
clear willingness to let deadlines pass, and to move away from serious
engagement with the last outstanding issues. Transparent bad faith and
duplicity, of the sort represented by Vice President Ali Osman Taha's
sudden and unexplained announcement last week of a need to travel to
Mecca for the Islamic Haj, must be confronted and made untenable as a
strategy for Khartoum to prevent diplomatic resolution. Most
essentially, a clear deadline must be set for those issues which have
been exhaustively negotiated over the last year and a half. This is the
moment for judgment and decision-making, not further
"analysis"---certainly not three-week delays of the sort ominously
announced today by IGAD mediators in Naivasha, forced by the absence of
chief NIF negotiator Taha.
But the notion that restraint in speaking about the massive crisis in
Darfur helps diplomacy in Naivasha is remarkably foolish. For Khartoum,
sensing that this restraint presently governs the international response
to Darfur, sees only an incentive to prolong the "climactic moment" at
Naivasha as long as possible, thereby expanding the window of
opportunity in which it can attempt to crush militarily the Darfur
insurgency (see comments by NIF President Omer Beshir below).
To be sure, some in Western governments will indignantly declare that
much is going on behind the scenes, and that Darfur is of concern, and
that the absence of news coverage doesn't imply a lack of concern. So
the expedient language of self-exculpation goes. But very well-placed
sources in both Washington and London make clear that a policy of
treating Darfur in a low key prior to conclusion of the Naivasha talks
does indeed govern. Certainly missing is the urgency and clear resolve
to act that should govern any response to Khartoum's continuing, indeed
expanding military actions--actions that have generated what the UN
Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs declared over a month
ago is probably "the world's worst humanitarian crisis." Humanitarian
officials in Sudan and Chad are declaring privately that unless Khartoum
is confronted by the US and others with real consequences for its
actions, the crisis will only deepen.
For all the available evidence (and this expands daily) reveals
unambiguously the reality of vast human destruction, relentlessly
expanding displacement, as well as the widening military scope of
Khartoum's actions in Darfur. The crisis is clearly accelerating, even
as there is no evidence that Khartoum is any more willing to enter into
true peace talks, under meaningful international auspices, with the
major rebel groups (the Sudan Liberation Army [SLA] and the Justice and
Equality Movement [JEM]). Instead, the regime has contrived to make much
of absurdly irrelevant "peace talks" with one Ahmed Ibrahim Draij, a
politically and militarily inconsequential representative of a small
opposition party, the Federal Alliance (see press release of Khartoum
Embassy in Washington, DC, January 22, 2004). Such disingenuous
diplomatic evasion in dealing with the meaningful actors in Sudan's
conflicts has long been standard practice for the National Islamic
Front.
But whatever Khartoum's obfuscation, and whatever shameful diffidence
within the international community---the US, the UK, Norway, IGAD
countries, the African Union, the European Union---the basic facts
cannot be obscured: the crisis in Darfur is a catastrophe that is
clearly worsening on all counts.
Disgracefully, the only voices responding with appropriate urgency are
those of the UN and nongovernmental organizations, especially Doctors
Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres and Amnesty International.
Their accounts, along with those of a growing number of wire service
news reports from the ground, offer a picture of massive human carnage,
widespread destruction among hundreds of villages in the region,
continuing aerial assaults on civilian targets, and huge streams of
refugees fleeing Khartoum's regular and Arab militia forces (the
Janjaweed). The UN reports 30,000 refugees entering Chad from Darfur in
December alone, and 18,000 in the last ten days, bringing the estimated
total to "well over 110,000" human beings (UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks, January 23, 2004). The total number of displaced
exceeds 700,000, and more than 1 million are now affected by the war.
And yet at the same time, Khartoum's duplicity and bad faith in
Naivasha are again in high gear. And why not? So long as Khartoum can
convey the impression that an agreement is in the offing, and this in
turn so clearly restrains the international response to Darfur, why not
engineer as prolonged a climax to the talks as possible? Indeed, the
bad faith by the National Islamic Front regime has become so conspicuous
with Taha's unexplained and factitious "Haj," that the very possibility
of completing any deal in good faith is clearly in deep jeopardy. The
BBC reports today (January 26, 2004) that IGAD mediators have been
forced by Khartoum's actions to announce that talks will be suspended
until February 17, 2004, despite the fact that all the very final issues
are on the table and sustained negotiations could---if Khartoum really
wanted as much---be resolved in the near term.
The evident strategy of dealing first with Naivasha and then Darfur
stands revealed as yet another disastrous moment in the history of
diplomatic expediency, and the parallels to Munich in 1938---mutatis
mutandis---are irresistible.
What is the latest from Darfur? And what has happened in the week
since we first learned of Khartoum's scandalously brazen effort to force
suspension of the Naivasha talks until later February, with NIF Vice
President Ali Osman Taha's Haj as pretext?
There has been, it must be noted first, some embarrassed and expedient
scrambling in Naivasha. The deeply ominous suspension of the talks
today has been partially papered over with a highlighting of the
previously announced general agreement on two of the three disputed
areas (the Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile). But Abyei remains an
impasse---the means by which Khartoum can artificially forestall final
agreement for as long as it seems diplomatically tenable. And the
developments in and around Abyei, with very significant military
implications, leave open the possibility that Khartoum's "negotiating"
position on Abyei may become a final and fatal obstacle in the
talks---and a military fait accompli on the ground. Nothing can paper
over the fact that adjournment of negotiations now is a terribly
threatening development.
But it is in Darfur that news continues to accumulate in the most
urgent and intensely distressing fashion. The UN High Commission for
Refugees reports that "a further 18,000 Sudanese refugees flooded into
eastern Chad over the past week following further heavy fighting in
Sudan's western Darfur region" (UN Integrated Regional Information
Network, January 23, 2004).
The UN also gives some sense of what has caused this massive influx of
refugees:
"A UN [High Commission for Refugees] spokesman, Kris Janowski, said
today that the refugees told local agency staff that Sudanese forces
attacked 10 villages in Darfur early in the morning last Friday, burning
houses and dynamiting wells. Many people fled immediately and told the
UNHCR they fear for their lives if they return to Darfur." (UN
Integrated Regional Information Network, January 23, 2004)
The extraordinarily harsh conditions facing these refugees is also
highlighted by the UN:
"[UNHCR spokesman] Janowski said most of the new arrivals were now
camped in the open in the harsh semi-desert of eastern Chad, with little
in the way of food, water or shelter, exposed to the hot sun by day and
temperatures that dropped to near freezing at night." (UN Integrated
Regional Information Network, January 23, 2004)
Reuters reports yesterday from the Chad-Sudan border area that:
"Time is running out to help 100,000 Sudanese refugees trapped on the
plains of Chad before food stocks dwindle and hotter weather blasts the
already parched land, aid workers warned on Sunday.
"Thousands more refugees fleeing attacks by government forces in
western Sudan poured across the border in the past week, joining the
hunt for food and water in a region where survival is perilous at the
best of times. Many of the refugees are from the Zaghawa ethnic group
which overlaps Chad and Sudan and have found assistance from kinsmen
offering what little they have to spare, but the resources of their
hosts are wearing thin.
"Aid workers say they are battling to overcome logistical problems
posed by the harsh terrain to move refugees away from shelters of sticks
and cloth on the border to camps where they can provide food and water.
'The people helping the refugees to cope with the situation will not
be able to help them again,' said Yvan Sturm, senior emergency officer
with the U.N. refugee agency. 'The situation will deteriorate
definitely.'" (Reuters, Abeche [Chad], January 25, 2004)
And just today Reuters reports from the Chad-Sudan border that
Khartoum's bombing attacks are actually violating Chad's airspace:
"a Sudanese plane has bombed a border settlement in the latest in an
intensifying series of attacks on villages forcing thousands of refugees
to flood into neighbouring Chad, witnesses say.
"The attack, visible from the Chadian section of the town [Tine], was
about 500 metres (yards) from the frontier and about three km (two
miles) from a field hospital where doctors from international aid
organisations tend to the victims of previous attacks. Aid workers said
it was a Sudanese government plane and that local officials had told
them it had violated Chadian airspace.
"'The local officials said it was a Sudanese plane,' one of the aid
workers said in Tine, which hosts about 5,000 Sudanese refugees. 'They
were complaining because it flew over their airspace to turn around
before the bombing raid.'
"Rebels say Sudanese warplanes are bombing 15 to 25 villages a day in a
sharp escalation of the war in the past month." (Reuters, January 26,
2004)
Given the vast and largely inaccessible nature of the population swept
up in this brutal conflict, we must hear in single voices the suffering
of hundreds of thousands. Associated Press also reports today on
Khartoum's bombing attacks, again from the vantage of the Chad-Sudan
border:
"Sudanese [government] planes dropped bombs in western Sudan on Monday
[January 26, 2004], sending hundreds of civilians across the border into
Chad where aid workers scrambled to set up camps to provide them food
and shelter in the barren desert. Loud explosions echoed across the
desert frontier between Chad and Sudan, and terrified refugees described
how government planes bombed their homes and Arab militia raided their
villages.
"'It is terrible, they are slaughtering us,'' schoolteacher Ishmael
Haggar, 30, said in broken English. 'I need to tell somebody.'' (AP,
January 26, 2004)
In addition to orchestrating the massive military assaults that have
created the refugee flow out of Darfur, Khartoum is also deliberately
interfering with critical humanitarian efforts inside Darfur. Not only
is extremely limited humanitarian access deteriorating further in much
of the region, but there are extremely disturbing reports from the
humanitarian organizations that have tried to maintain a tenuous
presence in the few larger urban areas that have served as partial
refuge for fleeing civilians. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Doctors
Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres reported on January 15, 2004:
"Today the Sudanese [government] authorities closed camps in Nyala,
western Sudan, following the attempt yesterday to transfer displaced
persons without their consent to new camps located some 20 kilometers
from the city. The new camp is in an area considered unsafe and where
assistance is insufficient for this already vulnerable population. Some
10,000 people were living in the camps.
"This relocation started yesterday, January 14, when Sudanese
authorities arrived at the camps and began the forced transfer of people
by trucks to the new sites. This operation was suspended later in the
day when, to escape the intended relocation, a number of the displaced
fled in panic. Amongst those who fled were families with severely
malnourished children who had been under the care of Doctors Without
Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and did not arrive for their
treatment. MSF was treating nearly 30 children from these two camps for
malnutrition.
"This morning, when Sudanese police and other authorities arrived, the
camps were up to 90% empty, the population having already fled. MSF
teams were prevented from distributing drinking water to the people who
remained. For the second consecutive day, some malnourished children
have not been able to receive the vital care their condition demands."
(Doctors Without Borders. Medecins Sans Frontieres, Paris/New York,
January 15, 2004)
Grotesquely, Khartoum's response to all this is to blame the United
Nations, which has in fact taken the lead in highlighting the lack of
humanitarian access and responding to the crisis from within Chad. The
(Khartoum-controlled) Al-Anbaa newspaper (January 25, 2004) quotes the
governor of Northern Darfur State, Osman Kuber as "accus[ing] the United
Nations agencies of delaying delivery of humanitarian assistance to the
displaced and war-affected people in the State" (Reported in the UN
Daily Press Review for Sudan, January 26, 2004).
Just as grotesque are very recent comments by NIF President Omer
Beshir. Though they are obviously primarily for domestic consumption,
they are also too revealing of Khartoum's thinking about the Darfur
crisis (and the Naivasha negotiations) to be ignored:
"'The war in Darfur will stop in days and by then peace will be
restored and life will return to normal,' President Omar al-Beshir
predicted late Wednesday, the official Al-Anbaa daily reported." (Agence
France-Presse, January 22, 2004)
The lack of full-throated international condemnation of Khartoum's war
of massive human destruction and displacement, humanitarian aid denial
and intimidation, and aerial assault on civilian targets in Darfur is
utterly inexcusable; and as Beshir's outrageous mendacity demonstrates,
the lack of an appropriately forceful international response insures
that Khartoum feels no need to change its present course of action in
time to avert the deaths of thousands of innocent human beings.
Nor is there any evidence to suggest that international quiescence is
aiding the negotiations in Naivasha. On the contrary, as the Taha Haj
makes inescapably clear, expediency now only encourages a prolonging of
final "agreement."
This is both diplomatic and moral madness.
Eric Reeves
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
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الكاتب |
Date |
| الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-09-04, 10:46 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-09-04, 10:51 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | theNile | 01-10-04, 06:33 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | ملكة سبأ | 01-09-04, 11:41 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-09-04, 11:52 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-10-04, 11:51 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-10-04, 12:01 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-10-04, 12:05 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | hamid hajer | 01-10-04, 05:24 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | خالد عويس | 01-10-04, 06:17 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-16-04, 03:38 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | Kobista | 01-10-04, 06:38 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-11-04, 09:31 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-11-04, 10:50 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | شدو | 01-11-04, 12:49 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-12-04, 03:24 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-13-04, 06:45 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-15-04, 06:14 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-15-04, 06:21 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-15-04, 12:56 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | ابنوس | 01-15-04, 07:12 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-16-04, 03:40 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-16-04, 02:23 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-16-04, 04:04 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-17-04, 10:37 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-17-04, 10:46 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-17-04, 11:07 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-18-04, 01:36 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-18-04, 01:38 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-18-04, 02:20 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | إيمان أحمد | 01-18-04, 03:43 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-19-04, 11:17 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-19-04, 11:19 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-19-04, 05:38 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-20-04, 03:37 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-20-04, 03:42 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-21-04, 01:47 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-21-04, 02:24 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-21-04, 02:30 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-22-04, 11:08 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-22-04, 12:06 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-22-04, 12:16 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | Tumadir | 01-22-04, 12:23 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-22-04, 12:33 PM |
 Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | Mohamed Adam | 01-22-04, 12:53 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-22-04, 01:15 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-23-04, 06:38 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | ملكة سبأ | 01-23-04, 06:03 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-25-04, 03:02 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-25-04, 04:16 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | Mohamed Ibrahim | 01-25-04, 06:09 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-26-04, 05:01 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | إيمان أحمد | 01-27-04, 05:15 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | Muhib | 01-27-04, 05:18 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-27-04, 06:56 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-27-04, 07:39 AM |
 Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | degna | 01-27-04, 08:35 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-27-04, 06:42 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | أحمد أمين | 01-27-04, 07:43 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-28-04, 03:13 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | إيمان أحمد | 01-28-04, 05:00 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-28-04, 05:10 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-30-04, 08:41 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 01-30-04, 08:44 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | إيمان أحمد | 02-01-04, 04:20 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 02-03-04, 12:59 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 02-03-04, 01:30 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 02-04-04, 00:25 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 02-04-04, 06:13 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | Abureesh | 02-04-04, 06:36 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | إيمان أحمد | 03-02-04, 03:16 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | Mohamed Adam | 02-04-04, 07:13 AM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | nahar osman nahar | 02-09-04, 10:49 PM |
| Re: الوضع في دارفور..معلومات متجددة.The Situation in Darfur to be update | Raja | 03-02-04, 02:56 PM |
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