United Nations Continues to Fail in Darfur

September 17, 2008

     The Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy is deeply frustrated by the latest announcement of the United Nations peacekeeping chief, Alain Le Roy, on Wednesday, September 17, 2008.  Le Roy said that the United Nations would not be able to send the 26,000 peacekeepers who were supposed to have been deployed in Darfur according to UN Resolution 1769 that was passed by the Security Council in July, 2007.  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had given his assurance that at least 80%, if not the full 26,000 of these peacekeepers would be deployed by the end of 2007. 

Unfortunately, the UN has kept postponing the arrival in Darfur of the peacekeepers, month after month, for almost two years now.  Today, the announcement of Mr. Le Roy has overturned  all our expectations and proves the extreme failure of the UN—an organization that should respect and live up to its promises.  Instead, Mr. Le Roy who is of French origin, speaking at his first conference since taking office, said that he is expecting the addition of only 3,000 soldiers and police, most of whom would be coming from Ethiopia and Egypt to join the already nearly 10,000 personnel by the end of this year. 

This is exactly what the government of Sudan had been hoping would happen.  Because the government of Sudan always has the right to choose which countries are to provide peacekeepers for their territory, they choose the peacekeepers from countries that support the Sudanese government:  for example, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and South Africa.  Because these countries are supporters of Al Bashir, Sudan insists on accepting troops only from Arab and African countries, rejecting troops from Western countries.  Sudan is also trying to reach out to countries such as China, Malaysia, and Indonesia who are also their great allies. 

It is very disappointing when Al Bashir's government continuously violates human rights laws and the UN's weapons embargo.  He is still carrying out attacks on a daily basis in Darfur, even after his indictment.  Dozens of attacks have been made by the Sudanese government troops and the janjaweed Arab militias using attack helicopters and jet fighters resulting in hundreds of causalities.  Just this past Wednesday, September 17, 2008 a new attack was launched against the camps in Northern Darfur near the town of Tawila.  And still the UN stays silent and turns a deaf ear to what is happening. 

Damanga is very concerned about the development of increasingly, extremely grave situations inside Darfur.  The inaction of the United Nations and lack of support from the International Criminal Court (ICC) is shocking.  It is almost becoming routine for the UN to pass resolutions against the perpetrators of violence and human rights abuse in Darfur and then not implementing the resolutions.  The UN appears to be satisfied with just giving warnings and uttering words of condemnation most assuredly will never change anything. 

In Darfur, over 450,000 people have been killed and 3.5 million people have been displaced.  More than 6,000 villages have been looted and destroyed there. Thousands of women and young girls have been raped and tortured.  And now, when there are no more villages left to attack, the Sudanese government and the militias are attacking refugee camps.  We again ask the United Nations, its Security Council, and Human Rights Council, along with the International Community, to urgently fulfill their promises and send the whole 26,000 peacekeepers without any more delays and with full equipment, such as attack helicopters, transportation helicopters, and finance.