Civilians at Risk: Human security and humanitarian aid in Darfur
Monday 18 January 2010
Amidst the various comments and commentary arguing that war is over in Darfur, that there are only remnants of previous violence in the form of “ very low-intensity” conflict, several recent reports suggest that human security and humanitarian assistance are deeply imperiled. The gradual shift in international attention to the crises in Southern Sudan and Sudan’s national elections, while perhaps inevitable, has worked to obscure the immense dangers that continue to confront civilians throughout Darfur.
By Eric Reeves
January 17, 2010 — Darfur has in recent months received considerably less attention from news organizations, as well as human rights and policy groups. Sudan’s place in the news is now dominated by the upcoming April elections for national and regional offices; by growing violence and instability in various regions of Southern Sudan, as well as a vast and growing humanitarian crisis; and by the challenges of ensuring that the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) survives. There is belated recognition that unless the Southern self-determination referendum—the linchpin of the CPA—is guaranteed, war will almost certainly resume, unleashing catastrophic violence throughout Sudan and destabilizing the entire region. With less than a year until the scheduled referendum, there are already many signs that the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime in Khartoum has no intention of allowing the South to secede peacefully.
The regime’s duplicitous behavior in attempting to renege on the recent referendum legislation is only an especially brazen example of bad faith. But we may see another more telling example in the conduct of the April elections, which will certainly be rigged to ensure that current NIF/NCP President Omar al-Bashir is returned to office, perhaps with an electorally packed National Assembly, with a majority great enough to engineer changes to the Interim National Constitution, to abrogate the terms of the CPA, or to declare a “state of emergency.” Certainly the NIF/NCP controls the electoral apparatus, has the advantage of a vast patronage system, and has already abused the integrity of the elections with a deeply compromised census and many violations of laws governing voter registration. And yet to monitor elections that are now only three months off, the international community is presently represented in Sudan—a country of almost a million square miles—by only two dozen observers from the Carter Center (US).
Despite this very small presence, Carter Center officials recently spoke forcefully about the regime’s actions in the face of electoral challenges:
“Election observers in Sudan said on Friday they were gravely concerned about government crackdowns on opposition rallies that undermined ‘political rights and fundamental freedoms’ ahead of polls in April. ‘The [Carter] Centre is gravely concerned by the recent action of the security forces in Khartoum to restrict legitimate activity related to the exercise of freedom of assembly, association and speech,’ a report by the observers said.” (Reuters [dateline: Khartoum], December 18, 2009)
Read more.
