02 March 2009

Ending Violence in Darfur Remains a Top Challenge for Obama

Diplomats focus on international peacekeepers, Darfur peace talks

Representatives of the Justice and Equality Movement party confer during the Darfur peace talks in Doha, Qatar, February 11.

By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Staff Writer

Washington — When rebels attacked Sudanese forces in Darfur in February 2003, they sparked a government-backed genocide that has led to the deaths of more than 400,000 civilians and an international crisis that remains a high-priority foreign policy challenge for the United States.

Now, with senior officials like President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice having spoken out on the crisis, acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Philip Carter told America.gov February 20, “There is no question that this [Obama] administration is dead set on solving Darfur and bringing peace to the region.

“We’re doing that in large part,” said Carter, who formerly served as U.S. ambassador to Guinea, “by bringing in UNAMID and by supporting the peace talks” in Doha, Qatar, between the government of Sudan and rebel movements.

UNAMID is the U.N.-African Union Mission in Darfur, the hybrid peacekeeping force created in July 2007 that includes troops from African Union (AU) member nations.

Total U.S. government support to Darfur is approximately $1 billion a year, including support for peacekeeping — 25 percent of the cost of UNAMID — as well as humanitarian assistance, Carter said.

President Obama recently voiced his support for Darfur during a meeting with the actor George Clooney, who has been a vocal advocate for the protection of Darfurians and a peaceful negotiation of the crisis in Sudan. A February 24 posting on the White House Web site following the meeting reported, “Bringing relief to the battered region of Darfur is a top priority of the Administration, the President and Vice President assured the actor and activist George Clooney last night.”

UNAMID PROVING EFFECTIVE

U.N.-African peacekeepers drive through the Kalma refugee camp, site of mass graves for victims of a Sudanese government attack.

UNAMID has proved its effectiveness by standing up to Sudanese forces that threatened to bomb a highly populated area.

Carter said that in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he attended the AU summit in early February, a senior Sudanese official “told us they were going to ask UNAMID to leave this area called Muhajiriya [in south Darfur] while they conducted a bombing campaign. Instead, UNAMID refused to leave. They held their ground and protected civilians even while the [Sudanese] government bombed the outskirts of the city — even near their compound.”

That was a “forthright and courageous act,” Carter said, considering that UNAMID is “still in the process of building its capacity and is up to only 64 percent of its mandate of 26,000 troops.”

Tim Shortley, head of the State Department’s Sudan Programs Group, agreed with Carter. “UNAMID has established itself in Darfur but still requires full strength,” he told America.gov. Noting that his office and the State Department were beginning a policy review on Sudan, he said the protection of vulnerable civilians in the region is and will remain a prime concern for the Obama administration.

Ambassador Rice touched on the recent Darfur bombing when she told a February 3 news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York, “The United States is gravely concerned by reports of intensive aerial bombardment” in south Darfur. “The [U.N.] secretariat reported 28 bombs dropped just this morning in Muhajiriya.

“So this is clearly a very worrisome situation, and the risk that the violence will escalate, that the government will continue its bombing and indeed a ground campaign, despite the fact that the JEM is not in Muhajiriya any more, is of grave concern,” she said.

Following Rice’s comments, the government of Sudan signed an agreement with a major rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), that included a process to aid refugees in Darfur as well as a commitment to continue peace negotiations for the region.

“We look to this agreement as a tangible first step forward toward an inclusive framework for the resolution of the Darfur conflict,” State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said.

He added, “The United States supports these talks and encourages all parties, including armed groups, civil society and political leaders, to come together to stop the violence in Darfur and join in the search for peace.”

Ambassador Carter said the February agreement and ongoing talks in Doha “will start to build confidence over the coming weeks that allows us to sit at the table with both sides willing now to talk about a broader peace agreement built on a foundation of national unity.”