Sudan Envoy Tells UN to Bug Off

by Michelle . · 2009-11-24 04:43:00 UTC
Topics:

Says the government of Sudan to the UN: "Well if you don't like it here, you can just leave."

Or such was the gist, at least.

Sudan's ambassador to the UN quickly spat back at a hard-hitting UN report that accused his government of violating an agreement on the deployment of UNAMID peacekeepers in Darfur -- an agreement which already gave significant power and deference to Sudanese authorities. The report, which cited numerous incidents of Sudanese obstruction and intimidation of UNAMID, is really no surprise: The Sudanese government's creative hindering of humanitarian and peacekeeping access is not only a hallmark of the conflict in Darfur, but was also of the civil war South Sudan before. And it is a tactic that, in this blogger's opinion, should be seriously investigated by The Hague.

The ambassador, however, latched on to recent "the war is over" rhetoric and told UNAMID to start planning its exit strategy, conveniently ignoring the fact that even those who've recently supported the idea that the war is "over" (which it isn't) still admit that the security situation in Darfur is far from stable, and peace is hardly "in sight."

The daily threats encountered by Darfuri civilians, particularly women, have been well documented in several recent reports, including a detailed investigation by the UN. As national elections loom on the horizon, rebel skirmishes continue, and the Lord's Resistance Army sets its sights on Darfur, UNAMID is needed more than ever.

Open access for peacekeeping and humanitarian operations should be an immediate condition for diplomatic engagement with the government of Sudan, for the US negotiating team as well as others. That Khartoum's obstructionism is allowed to continue unabated is an egregious abandonment of the most basic principles of civilian protection.

[UN Photo/Stuart Price: UNAMID Chinese Engineers Unload Supply Kits, 17 July 2009.]

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Argentinian Grandmothers Win Orphan DNA, Potentially Grandkids
NEXT STORY:
A letter from Bettina Siegel, "Pink Slime" petition creator

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.