Norm Dixon
On August 30, United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan reported to the Security Council's 15 members that, despite a failure to meet "some of the core commitments it has made", the government of Sudan had made "some progress" in addressing the humanitarian crisis in the country's western Darfur provinces. Annan did not recommend the imposition of trade sanctions.
Annan's report flowed from the US-sponsored Security Council resolution 1556 passed on July 30, which threatened unspecified diplomatic and economic "measures" against Sudan's Islamist military rulers if they did not begin to stem, within 30 days, the vicious ethnic-cleansing campaign in Darfur being carried out against black villagers by state-sponsored Arabic-speaking janjaweed bandits.
Khartoum unleashed the Arab-chauvinist gangs — backed by air force bombers and helicopter gunships — when the region's majority non-Arabic speaking farming tribes rebelled in February 2003. Since that time, up to 80,000 Darfuris have died as a consequence of the janjaweed's rampages. At least 1.5 million people have been displaced and about 2 million people remain at risk of disease and hunger.
Throughout most of the period of janjaweed attacks, the US and other Western governments all but ignored the atrocities taking place in Darfur. These governments only expressed public concern about the Darfuris' plight when it threatened to delay a peace deal that would allow US corporations' access to the oil profits flowing out of southern Sudan and other lucrative yet-to-be exploited reserves. According to Sudan's energy ministry, the country may have oil reserves of up to 3 billion barrels.
Since coming to office in 2001, US President George Bush's administration has strived, using a carrot-and-stick strategy, to secure a peace agreement between the mainly non-Muslim Sudan People's Liberation Movement rebels, based in the oil-rich south, and the Islamist regime in Khartoum. Washington hoped that the resulting "stability" in Sudan would allow it to lift existing US sanctions.
Only in June and July, when Khartoum's brutal attempts to crush the Darfuris' revolt threatened to derail the north-south peace deal, did Washington and European Union governments begin to apply pressure on the Sudanese regime to rein in the janjaweed and defuse the crisis. This culminated in the July 30 UN resolution 1556.
Throughout the next 30 days, Khartoum, assisted by Jan Pronk, Annan's special representative in Sudan, deftly tested the limits of how little it could do and still win certification from the Security Council.
The measures that Annan cited as having "resulted in some progress" in Darfur included "the improvement of security in some specific areas of concentration [of internally displaced persons], the deployment of additional police and the beginning of disarmament, the lifting of access restrictions for humanitarian relief, the commitment to a no forced returns policy and the establishment of human rights monitoring and investigations".
Annan also said that direct attacks by Sudan's armed forces had declined substantially and he praised the resumption of talks between Khartoum and Darfur's main rebel organisations, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement.
However, Annan conceded that "attacks against civilians are continuing and the vast majority of armed militias has not been disarmed... no concrete steps have been taken to bring to justice or even identify any of the militia leaders or the perpetrators of these attacks, allowing the violations of human rights and the basic laws of war to continue in a climate of impunity."
Annan's main recommendation was that Sudan be pressured to accept a "larger international presence" based on an expanded version of the existing 305-member African Union military force, which is there to protect AU cease-fire monitors. The AU has previously informally proposed that the existing AU force be expanded to 2000 troops.
On September 2, Sudanese UN ambassador Elfatih Mohamed Erwa indicated that Khartoum would accept such a force. "The secretary-general is speaking about ... increasing the forces for the monitoring. That's fine with us. Whether it is 300 or 3000, if it helps, it is fine."
Washington's UN ambassador, John Danforth, endorsed the compromise formula of an AU force. He also indicated that Washington would not necessarily now push for sanctions, but wanted to retain the threat of sanctions to keep the pressure on Khartoum. "Whether sanctions would be imposed next week or the week after or next month, that prospect is out there", he was quoted as saying in a September 2 US State Department press release.
From Green Left Weekly, September 8, 2004.
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