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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Jul 06 2011 - 09:13:35 EDT
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/07/201173141456895954.html
Tendai Marima Last Modified: 05 Jul 2011 10:02
Opinion
Sudan: Mission impossible or mission failure?
A draft resolution crafted by the US was approved by the UN requesting that
4,200 Ethiopian troops be deployed to Abyei.
A draft resolution crafted by the United States, and recently submitted to
the United Nations, requesting that 4,200 Ethiopian troops be deployed to
the troubled Abyei region of Sudan has been approved by unanimous vote.
According to the resolution, this group of blue helmets will be tasked with
overseeing the withdrawal of north and south Sudan's fighting armies from
Abyei and ensuring the safety of civilians and aid workers in the area.
Without a doubt, military reinforcement in Abyei is a welcome measure, but
with news of more than 160,000 internally displaced persons, thousands
killed and unknown numbers of women and children raped in the region and
neighbouring South Kordofan, critics and cynics might ask: "Is this really
the best the world and its global peacekeeper can do?"
To reports of frequent aerial bombardment and unburied corpses decaying on
the outskirts of Kadugli, the UN has responded with diplomatic condemnation
and concerned statements at the escalating violence which have all the might
and force of a giant feather duster on a northern army intent on "cleansing"
Sudan's border regions.
Mandated by weighty resolutions (with as many pages as the Bible) to protect
civilians and maintain peace, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) waited for two
member states, the US and Ethiopia, to propose a more concrete form of
action. Granted, the UN is a democratic institution where members can
advocate for action to be taken on particular issues, but the fact that the
initiative to increase personnel deployment for Sudan's escalating crisis
did not come from within UNMIS - and that the resolution makes no effort
towards resolving the tribal and geo-political causes of conflict in
desolate Abyei - speaks volumes about the UN's persistent failure to enact
its peacekeeping mandate around the world.
Other than issuing emotive pleas for an end to the violence, the UN did
little else to stop the massacres in Srebrenica and Rwanda. When almost 200
women and babies were raped in four days in eastern Congo in 2010, UN
peacekeepers - 20 miles away - did nothing, zilch, zero to stop the
violations.
In Sudan, May 2008, when fighting broke out between the region's tribal
militias and north and south Sudan armies in Abyei, Richard Williamson, the
then US Special Envoy for Sudan, scathingly said: "We pay a billion dollars
a year for UNMIS and they didn't leave their garrison, while 52,000 lives
were shattered and nearly a hundred people perished. The devastation was
complete … UN peacekeepers and UNMIS staff in their garrison were as close
as 25 feet away."
The UN's repeated tragedy of errors reveals the lack of adequately developed
early warning systems that might prevent atrocities from occurring and the
critical need for communication tools and training that would equip
peacekeepers with the foresight to stop perpetrators dead in their tracks.
Obviously, the UN's ineptitude is not solely to blame. That UNMIS in Sudan
lacks the operational and resource capabilities to effectively carry out
protection of civilians is an understandable problem, and even the UN's
harshest critics can appreciate that the job of peacekeeping can be
extremely difficult when armies and their proxy militia continuously fight
with no end in sight. But, when a complex mission is further compounded by
the unwillingness of personnel to fulfill their duties, UNMIS's failures
become indefensible.
In Abyei, Zambian peacekeepers preferred to hide out in their rooms for two
days rather than go on patrol and protect civilians caught up in the
conflict. Similarly in South Kordofan, Egyptian troops are reportedly
occasionally reluctant to carry out their duties. The head of SPLM in South
Kordofan, Abdul Aziz Adam Al-Hilu, has also accused the Egyptians of
complicity with the northern SAF's executions - and alleged that others
raped six women in Kadugli - although UNMIS spokesperson Kouider Zerrouk has
stated that an inquiry into the alleged incidences of sexual abuse shows
that they "absolutely did not happen". No word on the complicity charges,
however.
Locals in South Kordofan have complained that UNMIS's presence is only
visible in Kadugli, while the rest of South Kordofan suffers an unrelenting
northern onslaught of bombing, looting and rape in an effort to strip the
border state of its right to self-determination and submit to Khartoum's
control. According to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Abyei, South
Kordofan and Blue Nile regions will decide their fate as states belonging to
the south or the north through popular consultation. With Khartoum carrying
out an aggressive campaign to maintain its territorial authority, it's hard
to be hopeful that the people of South Kordofan, particularly the Nuba, will
be afforded the chance to choose.
*Reported obstruction*
While UNMIS has its fair share of logistical and personnel impediments, both
the governments of Sudan and South Sudan have consistently prevented the
mission from performing its humanitarian task. Towards the end of April, the
South's SPLA soldiers, many of whom are from the Dinka tribe, opened fire on
a rival ethnic group, the Nuer, in a remote village near the Nile River -
reportedly killing more than 200 unarmed villagers, including children.
When the UN went to investigate, officials were prohibited from going to
certain areas as the governor of Jonglei state claimed they were unsafe. On
other occasions, the UN has complained that the Juba government's
restriction of access to certain areas has "severely hampered the Mission's
ability to verify the military and humanitarian situation and to address the
plight of civilians".
In South Kordofan, the northern army appears to be the main aggressor
towards civilians and the UN. The airstrips of Kadugli and Kadua are
inaccessible to planes carrying aid as the former has been closed for weeks
and the latter airstrip has been bombed beyond recognition by the northern
Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). The north's determination to impede the UN and
other non-state aid agencies from performing their functions may result in a
humanitarian catastrophe as people will starve without adequate food and
water.
On June 9, South Sudan News Agency reported that a disabled man, later
identified as Juma Bahri, was found dead in his wheelchair outside the UN
base in Kadugli where he had sought protection from reprisal attacks by the
northern army. Accusing some of the 6,000 civilians seeking refuge at the UN
centre of being "SPLM sympathisers", the SAF is reported to have executed
tens of people allegedly loyal to the south's Sudan People's Liberation
Movement.
Attacking unarmed civilians under UN protection is a gross violation of
international law and a gruesome reminder that Khartoum's use of force knows
no bounds in the battle for Sudan's resource-endowed border states. Further
flouting the rules of engagement in conflict, SAF forces have arrested and
harassed UN personnel. On June 22, UNMIS reported that, in the previous
week, four peacekeepers were detained and allegedly subjected to "mock
executions" by north Sudanese forces and, this past week, six UN staffers
were arrested by the north Sudanese army as they were being relocated to an
area safer than Kadugli. Two have been released while the others remain in
custody as the UN pleas for their release continue to fall on deaf ears.
*How do you solve a problem like Sudan?*
In the face of looming crises in Abyei, South Kordofan and Darfur, enacting
the principle of Responsibility to Protect becomes increasingly important
and Sudan's crisis demands a more nuanced range of responsive actions from
the international community as a whole.
Sending extra troops to Abyei will not protect the civilians under siege in
neighbouring South Kordofan. Nor will well-meaning, but misguided calls for
unilateral US military intervention - such as those by John Prendergast of
Enough Project, who has requested that the US provide South Sudan with "air
defence capabilities". While Prendergast may be the yin to George Clooney's
yang where all things Sudan are concerned, trigger-happy humanitarianism
does not make for good military strategy. More weapons do not create peace,
but more war.
The SPLA does not have the expertise to operate air defence missiles and
even if they did, there is a risk of these arms falling into the wrong hands
should troops defect to the north or to tribal militias - as has been known
to happen. Chanelling the spirit of intervention, Roger Winter, a former US
Special Envoy to Sudan, has also called on the Obama administration to "take
a military action against a Khartoum military target now". With the US
involved in a costly joint Libyan intervention, it is improbable that the
American government would support such a move.
In the unlikely event that a member of the Security Council should propose
joint or singular humanitarian intervention in Sudan, there are two great
obstacles to contend with. China has welcomed Omar al-Bashir on a blood-red
carpet - and as part of a new scramble for Africa agenda, India is rubbing
its hands at the prospect of increased energy trade in Sudan. It is
therefore likely that any proposals tabled before the Security Council for
intervention in Sudan will be vetoed by the world's two most populous
nations.
Rather than witnessing Sudan's formal north-south separation in a
hand-wringing swan song about the hopes of creating lasting peace and
security, against the backdrop of slaughtering and displacement of
innocents, UNMIS may take on a more forceful role.
Apart from mediating the ceasefire negotiations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
UNMIS could also make an urgent request via the Security Council for
neighbouring African states to provide disciplined reinforcements for South
Kordofan. Another possibility is working with the Sudanese governments and
local stakeholders to develop a more responsive action plan that addresses
the complex causes of tension in the border states. This might include
working with community leaders to set a timeline to carry out the popular
consultations, otherwise more problems will arise once the CPA expires, when
South Sudan becomes independent next week.
This is no quick and easy fix, but in Sudan's volatile climate, UNMIS needs
to take a more pro-active role. Peace rhetoric and press releases of dismay
at continuing conflict will not provide cover for the many men, women and
children whose villages and towns have been burnt and bombed. A more
empowered UNMIS needs to spring into action. Fast.
*Tendai Marima is a Zimbabwean blogger and doctoral scholar at Goldsmiths,
University of London whose research interests include African literature and
global feminist theory.*
*Follow her on Twitter @KonWomyn <http://twitter.com/#%21/KonWomyn>*
*The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not
necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.*
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