Daily Darfur: Define "Responsibility," Please.

by Michelle

categories: Darfur & Sudan, Refugees and IDPs

Published March 23, 2009 @ 03:14AM PT

There's nothing I love more, first thing in the morning, than a hefty dose of Sudanese government propaganda. The platform today is the Chinese news agency, Xinhua:

"The Sudanese government will make efforts to accelerate the peace process in Darfur and improve the humanitarian and security situation there so as to achieve all-round development in the whole region, the Sudanese ambassador to China said on Sunday.

Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) has launched a campaign against President Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese government will honor its obligations with more responsibility and strive to achieve peace and stability in the region, Ambassador Mirghani Mohamed Salih said in an interview with Xinhua."

Say it as many times as you want, Mr. Ambassador, but it doesn't make it true. If the Sudanese government was so "responsible" and intent on honoring its "obligations," you wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

It's such a mess, in fact, that an organization of Muslim clerics in Sudan ordered Bashir to refrain from international travel, out of concern that he will be apprehended by those intent on carrying out the ICC's arrest warrant:

"The fatwa, issued by the Committee of Muslim Scholars, said that despite Khartoum's insistence that Beshir would go to the March 29-30 Doha summit, he should not attend because ‘the enemies of the nation are creeping around.'"

Bombing, slaughtering, raping, and starving civilians certainly has a way of earning one an impressive cadre of enemies.

Just in case you have doubts about Bashir's status as a war criminal...

The effects of the aid group expulsions are beginning to be felt by Darfur's internally displaced, as camp clinics close down and water pumps run out of fuel, but remains only a hint of the looming catastrophe:

"We may not have an immediate crisis on our hands," said one senior aid official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of operations in Darfur. "But in a few weeks, when the rains start and the hungry season begins, that is when the real impact of this decision will be felt."

According to the New York Times article cited about, at least one official sees the expulsions less as a reaction to the ICC arrest warrants, and more as Khartoum's long-awaited window of opportunity:

"This was in the works for a long time," one senior aid official involved in Darfur relief said. "They had been waiting for a chance to strike out at these organizations."

Given the government's increasing restriction and interference in humanitarian operations in Darfur before the ICC saga began, this seems like a reasonable take on the situation.

Mohamed Suleiman, a Darfuri living in the US, writes in the Huffington Post that Bashir is using his people as "bargaining chips," and asserts that "now is the time to get tough with Al-Bashir's regime":

"Over the last six years, I have seen and felt the systematic destruction of the once wonderful society I grew up in. Al-Bashir, after killing hundreds of thousands of my people and burning their homes, confined those who managed to stay alive in sub-human shelters called camps in Darfur and Eastern Chad. Their misery didn't end there. Deprived of security and peace, they found the humanitarian aid groups were the only means of survival.

The aid groups provided almost everything to those Darfuris trapped in those camps, but more importantly they provided hope and protection to them. Had it not been for the humanitarian aid workers, Janjaweed attacks would have been deadlier and more rampant. The mere presence of the humanitarian aid workers in the camps and around the Darfuri people was a deterrent from attacks by the Sudanese armed militias. The aid workers were the eyes and ears of the world in Darfur."

Other items of note...

Also in the Huffington Post, Jim Wallis writes that the promise of "never again" has turned into "once again" in Darfur.

UNAMID is working to mediate a land dispute between the Habaniya and Al-Falata groups in South Darfur, after 26 people died in clashes between the two.

Finally, to end as we began, here's another dose of propaganda to go with your coffee this morning.

[Photo from AP: Sudanese refugees gather at a closed entrance of the compound of the expelled American aid group CHF International at the Zamzam refugee camp, outside the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan Thursday, March 19, 2009.]