Daily Darfur: 20,000 Pawns in Khartoum's War Games

Khartoum claims that its military seized Muhajiriya, South Darfur, after days of aerial bombardment and ground assaults against Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The JEM retreated more than 50 kilometers away from the town after negotiations with the UN.

In an interview with Voice of America, ENOUGH Project Executive Director John Norris says the attack is a test for the Obama Administration:

"It's clear that the Sudanese government right now is testing the fence, as it were. Obviously, President Bashir is increasingly concerned by what looks very likely like it will be an arrest warrant handed down by the International Criminal Court (ICC), probably as soon as this month. And I think that they are hoping to escalate pressure, not only on the United States, but on the international community, to strengthen their hand and make the at least theoretical case that perhaps, an arrest warrant should be deferred."

Clearly, the way to stop to wheels of justice is to go on a rampage and commit even more of the crimes of which one is accused. (Mr. Bashir, you should fire your chief strategist.)

But the crisis doesn't end with the retreat of the JEM. As Mark at UN Dispatch writes, the lives of 20,000 civilians and a mere 196 UN peacekeeping troops hang in the balance, as the world awaits the possible indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court:

"There is a ticking time bomb, though. In the coming days, the International Criminal Court is expected to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar al Bashir. When this happens, the town--peacekeepers, civilians and all--may come under attack. The Sudanese troops outside of Muhajiriya are essentially holding 20,000 people in the town hostage; if the ICC warrant comes, the hammer will drop."

The student anti-genocide organization STAND is urging activists to continue to call the White House and the State Department to demand action to address the escalating violence in Darfur.

Meanwhile, Omar Ismail writes in the ENOUGH blog of the imminent resumption of the Sudanese-Chadian proxy war, after Khartoum accused the Chadian government of supporting the JEM in the recent conflict over Muhajiriya.

Who has faith in good faith?

Also in Chad, leaders of the JEM met with the UN's chief mediator for Darfur to discuss "confidence building measures" necessary for the resumption of peace talks:

"'The meeting discussed the necessary confidence building measures that Khartoum should implement before to negotiate in good faith,'said Ahmed Hussein Adam, the official spokesperson of the rebel movement.

These confidence building measures include the release of JEM fighters detained or sentenced after a raid on Khartoum last May, the IDPs protection, the halt forced repatriation of the displaced, and cessation of air strikes on civilians."

Seems pretty basic...but who can remember the last time Khartoum did anything in good faith?

"Stasis of Misery"

An article in The Guardian (UK) describes the perilous conditions faced by the 2.7 million internally displaced people in Darfur:

"Nine-year-old Mastoura stands amid the flies and the stench of Abu Shouk camp, silent and unsmiling. She finally recalls she has lived in Abu Shouk for "four or five years" - she can't really remember how long - and, like her family and most other people in the camp, is too scared to go back to her home village.

Standing next to her in the busy fruit market, Adam, 14, explains: ‘Outside, it is not safe. Every day there are bullets, bullets, you cannot go out. They take the money, they take the mobiles, they even take your clothes.'

‘They,' he says, can mean pro-government Arab militias (sometimes called Janjaweed), rival rebel groups, or criminal gangs."

This quote is particularly relevant to the recent multi-blog "rumble" started (and not yet finished --- stay tuned) by Michael Kleinman and myself:

"Although the violence in Darfur has fallen significantly since its peak five years ago, both its victims and those who help them remain trapped in a cycle of fear, despair and powerlessness.

‘We have created an open-ended, ongoing $3bn peacekeeping and humanitarian process that chiefly serves to maintain the miserable status quo, this stasis of misery. There is no end in sight,' said a western diplomat in Khartoum. ‘Under the status quo now prevailing there is a certain level of violence that has become normal, large parts of the countryside remain depopulated, pro-government and rebel groups work as bandits, for and against each other, Unamid [the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur] is ineffective, carjacking and robbery has become a regional industry, and millions are stuck in the camps.

‘People say it can't go on indefinitely like this. But unless something radical changes, it will.'"

Other items of note...

Darfur is expected to be on the agenda of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner today.

Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi, the newly-elected leader of the African Union, said that the Darfur crisis is now his "personal responsibility." I love this quote from the AP article:

"Gadhafi, whose history in brokering peace between Sudan and neighboring Chad has been plagued with foibles and failures, warned the two countries not to use the vast western Sudan region as a battleground."

And lastly, remember that Ukrainian ship seized by Somali pirates in October --- the one loaded with weapons possibly maybe headed for South Sudan? Well the pirates finally vacated the vessel today --- and now the focus shifts to exactly where those tanks are heading.

[Photo from AFP: A rebel of the Movement for Justice and Equality patrols in the northern part of the Darfur region of Sudan in 2004. Sudanese troops took control of the Darfur town of Muhajaria on Wednesday, two weeks after it was seized by rebels sparking some of the region's worst fighting in years, an army spokesman said.]