A Proposal Regarding Darfur

By Peter Hall

Background

A recent analysis finds that approximately 380,000 human beings have died as a result of the conflict that erupted in February 2003, and that the current conflict-related mortality rate in the larger humanitarian theater is approximately 15,000 deaths per month.

One estimate speculates that the final toll from genocide in Darfur will exceed the 800,000 who died in Rwanda's genocide of 1994.

The January 2005 Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur failed to identify genocide taking place in the conflict. But the report gives "the most complete and compelling picture of massive criminality in the Darfur conflict, and establishes beyond any reasonable doubt the vastly disproportional culpability of Khartoum's regular military forces and its
Janjaweed militia allies."

Some weeks ago I heard, on BBC 24 hour TV, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Juan Méndez, say he was not in a position to say whether what has already happened in Darfur is or is not genocide.

John Bolton has been nominated as US ambassador to the United Nations. A resolution that would refer the conflict in Sudan to the International Criminal Court has already been stalled for months by the resistance of the Bolton faction in the State Department.

There is general agreement that a Security Council referral to the ICC is the one sanction actually feared by the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias it has employed

Premises

i) Either genocide is taking place in Darfur or crimes against humanity on a massive scale

ii) The world community is not interested in sending in troops to such a huge and out of the
way part of the world to try to stop the conflict going on

iii) The Sudanese government does find referral to the ICC something they fear

Proposal

There is only one way to stop the conflict in Darfur - force the US to agree/abstain from voting for referral by the SC.

Suggested Method

Persuade human rights organisations to collaborate/cooperate over a campaign to change public opinion in the US so as to force the USG to agree/abstain from voting for referral by the SC.

The motivation to collaborate/cooperate is twofold - to stop the genocide in Darfur and to end the US driving a horse and cart over every international treaty.

Alternative

The human rights community can sit back and let the conflict continue

Arab Militias Mass In Darfur

The Arab militias that have so terrorized the residents of the Darfur region of Sudan are reported to be massing in large numbers. Source.

While their purpose is not clear, Reuters reports:

"They are massing ... they have vehicles with machineguns on top and they're janjaweed. We can't say what their intentions are," said the source, who asked not to be named. The source declined to give numbers, but described the forces gathered as a "huge amount of personnel," with pickup trucks, camels and horses.
He added that an African Union helicopter was keeping the forces under aerial surveillance and the government was being notified. The Sudanese military could not be reached for comment. Rights group and Western governments say the Sudanese government has used the janjaweed as auxiliaries against Darfur rebels and civilians suspected of rebel sympathies. The government denies this and says the janjaweed are outlaws.
On Monday, a report by the U.N. Mission in Sudan said that "armed militia have been mobilizing in large numbers over the last five days in the general area of Abou Souroug and Sliea (approximately 50 km north of el-Geneina). The reason behind the massive militia mobilization is so far not known."

Their intentions may not be "known" but, if history is any guide, those intentions are not good.