Daily Darfur: Not Playing Nice in the Sandbox

More details are surfacing about the battle between the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM and Sudanese government forces over the weekend, which forced 350 civilians to flee to a nearby UNAMID base:

Rebels attacked the military base in Umm Baru on Sunday, setting off an eight-hour battle that stretched into the following day, [said Kemal Saiki, a spokesman for the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission.] Residents reported government airstrikes on the town on Monday night, he said.

"The government is in control" of the town and base, Saiki said. "We are promised humanitarian assistance" for the displaced.

According to Rob Crilly, writing for the Christian Science Monitor, JEM is intent on establishing a "liberated zone" before the commencement of the rainy season next month, to provide a corridor for the delivery of humanitarian aid from neighboring Chad. (I wonder, though, if any organizations are ready to take JEM up on their offer, should it come through.)

As Crilly notes, nascent peace talks lead by Qatar have thus far been a case of one step forward, two (or three or four) steps back. A "goodwill agreement" signed by JEM and the Government of Sudan fell apart before the ink was dry:

"We signed the good intentions agreement to see if the government had good intentions or not. We asked them to release our captured brothers in Khartoum and not execute them," he says, sitting cross-legged on a woven carpet spread in the shade of a spindly thorn tree. "The government has refused to release these prisoners."

It would be enormously helpful if JEM would step up and abide by the agreement --- and, I think, would give the rebels a bit of a higher ground --- but if no one is pressuring the Sudanese to honor its commitments, it's difficult to expect the rebels to do the same. The repeated refusal of the Sudanese government to even pretend to show commitment to a peace process over the past six months --- violating a self-declared ceasefire, violating a pact with Chad, violating the agreement with the rebels --- not to mention the past 20 years, at least has the public appearance of failing to register with certain international stakeholders.

At what point do we stop trying to coax Khartoum into playing nice?

Quickies

More trouble brewing elsewhere in Sudan: An estimated 3,000 armed men attacked security forces in South Kordofan, a tense and disputed border province between North and South Sudan.

Yet another US congressional delegation is in Sudan: Senators Johnny Isakson and Bob Corker met with government officials in Khartoum yesterday, and traveled to North Darfur today. (Interestingly, their travel companions are aids to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.)

[File Photo from AFP: JEM fighters ride on the back of a vehicle in Sudan's western Darfur region.]