Daily Darfur: Frustration Station

An editorial at Voice of America, under the heading "the Following is an Editorial Reflecting the Views of the US Government" (but not saying exactly who wrote it), condemns recent air attacks in Darfur by the government of Sudan:

"Air attacks in Darfur are forbidden under the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement signed by Khartoum and SLA/Minni Minawi, and several U.N. Security Council resolutions. But once again, the government of President Omar Hassan el-Bashir has chosen to flout these commitments and disregard the demands of the international community for Sudan to resolve the crisis. The new military actions, as well as the JEM aggression which precipitated them, only serve to perpetuate it, and both sets of hostilities must stop."

But as Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent Joel Brinkley writes, the failure to back up such condemnations with meaningful action only serves to further entrench and empower Bashir and his violent regime:

"The United Nations, the State Department and others deplored the violence, as always happens after one of these cases of brutal slaughter. But for the Sudanese government, none of that brought any real consequence, just has been true for the last six years. Isn't that the definition of impunity?

Asked about Darfur just after last week's attack, [US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice] said: ‘Our effort and attention will be" on "effective efforts to support the full and complete deployment of UNAMID so that there is the capacity on the ground to begin to affect that civilian protection.'

Well, that's just what the Bush administration used to say."

Brinkley argues that the imposition of a no-fly zone over Darfur --- which would enforce existing bans on offensive military flights over the region, which have thus far had absolutely no effect --- would not only prevent the bombing of civilians, but amount to a serious blow to Bashir's grip on power:

"...the new policy would formally tell Omar al-Bashir...that he no longer controls Darfur. He could no longer argue, delay and obfuscate every time the international community proposes some new step to end the killing. He could no longer smile agreement with visiting world leaders who ask him to end the bloodshed - and then order new carnage before the visitor has made it back the airport.

With the skies of Darfur under foreign control, Bashir would find it much more difficult to control events in his own country."

It's past time for the US to put its money where its mouth is, and stop issuing condemnations and baseless threats --- dictators might be crazy, but they aren't stupid, and it doesn't take much to recognize that they can continue with their plans despite foot-stamping by the international community. In situations of genocide and mass atrocity, perpetrated by violent authoritarian regimes empowered by impunity for their crimes, words are meaningless when they stand alone.

This S*** is Bananas (...B-A-N-A-N-A-S)

Insults flew yesterday after the Costa Rican envoy expressed his opposition to suspending the International Criminal Court investigation against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. In response, Sudan's ambassador to the UN said, "The issue here is bigger than the small minds ... of some ambassador who talked with you just some minutes ago," and called Costa Rica a "banana republic." Harsh.

The Costa Rican diplomat shot back, "I'll take my banana republic over your desert bomb field any day." (Just kidding...I totally made that up.)

Other items of note...

The UN reports that the fighting in Muhajiriya has resulted in 30,000 newly displaced civilians, further swelling the ranks of the 2.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur.

Save Darfur joined The Rumble yesterday. There's more to come, so stay tuned.

[Photo from the Genocide Intervention Network: Drumbeat for Darfur, April 29, 2007, was an event hosted by the Darfur Alert Coalition, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit run by Sudanese and Americans united to work for security, justice and healing with survivors of genocide in Darfur. It was part of the Global Days for Darfur sponsored by the Save Darfur Coalition.]