PEACEWATCH
Sudan: Tragedy in Darfur
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| Since March 2003, the Darfur region in Sudan—the largest country in Africa—had seen clashes between Sudanese Government forces and rebel militias from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and was also the site of vicious and deadly attacks against civilians by Arab militias linked with the Government. By September 2003, 65,000 Sudanese were fleeing to neighbouring Chad, according to the United Nations, while more than 500,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur needed urgent humanitarian aid. The United Nations appealed for an initial $23 million, even as peace overtures between the Government and rebel forces fell through due to suspicion and accusations. |
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| UNHCR photo/Kitty McKinsey |
Sudan has been under a civil war for more than two decades, when Darfur became the battleground for rebellion. Darfur—which in Arabic means home of the Fur people, one of the main ethnic groups in the region—has some 6 million people of African and Muslim Arab descent. The rebel groups accused the Arab-dominated Government of discrimination against the ethnic Africans, who are also Muslims. When fighting erupted, Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed (Arabic for a man with a horse and a gun), started attacking and killing the black African population, while the Sudanese Government began a policy of restricting humanitarian workers from accessing the affected population.
"Denials of access are the greatest impediments to humanitarian efforts in the area", said Tom Eric Vraalsen, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, when he visited the area in December 2003. Echoing him, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said: "The humanitarian situation in Darfur has quickly become one of the worst in the world. Access to people in need is blocked by the parties in conflict and as the need for aid grows, stocks of relief materials are dwindling."
It was not until early 2004 that Sudanese President Omer Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir promised to provide access to aid workers, but by then more than 750,000 Sudanese were thought to be internally displaced and at least 110,000 others had fled across the border to Chad.
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| UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Cartographic Section |
Mr. Egeland said the United Nations and non-governmental organization (NGO) staff had received almost daily credible reports about atrocities, including murders, rapes and looting, and the forced depopulation of entire areas. The reports from Darfur indicated that the Janjaweed militias were mainly responsible for the atrocities, whose victims were mostly members of Fur, Zaghawas and Massalit ethnic communities. On 8 April 2004, the Sudanese Government, the SLA and JEM signed a humanitarian ceasefire accord in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed hope for the accord, saying that he "trusts this agreement will result in an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to attacks against civilians, as well as full humanitarian access to all people in need of assistance and protection".
However, UN reports of violence and human rights abuses continued. The UN Security Council in a presidential statement in May called on the Sudanese Government to neutralize and disarm the Janjaweed. By then, as a result of the crisis, the number of IDPs had risen to some 2 million.
At a high-level donor meeting in Geneva in June 2004, United Nations agencies called for $236 million to assist the people in Darfur and the refugees in Chad. The World Food Programme assisted some 600,000 people in May; the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance and the Joint Logistics Center provided shelter materials and blankets to reach 90 per cent of the displaced population; about 350,000 needy people had been given access to clean water by UN agencies and partnering NGOs; the United Nations Children's Fund had begun its campaign in June to vaccinate
2 million children against measles and some 100,000 against polio; and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees relocated nearly 106,000 refugees to safer camps in Chad.
On his visit to Sudan and Chad in June, the Secretary-General said that none of the refugees or IDPs should be forced or encouraged to go back to their home villages until it was safe to return. "Security is paramount for all of them and of course that would have to be assured before they go back", he said. Also in June, Mr. Annan appointed Jan Pronk as his Special Representative for Sudan.
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| At the Zam Zam camp in Darfur. UN photo |
On 30 July, the Security Council adopted resolution 1556 (2004), demanding that the Sudanese Government fulfil its commitments to disarm the Janjaweed militias and apprehend and bring them and their associates, who had carried out international humanitarian law violations, to justice. It also requested the Secretary-General to report on progress in thirty days and monthly thereafter. In his 30 August report, Mr. Annan said that "there were no indications at the begin-ning of August that the Government had taken any measures to 'immediately start to disarm the Janjaweed and other armed outlaw groups'".
The crisis in the Darfur region, by September 2004, has left more than 200 persons dying every day as a result of crowded, unhygienic conditions, together with brutal and violent attacks in the camps, according to the World Health Organization.
On 18 September, the Security Council passed resolution 1564 (2004), increasing pressure on the Government of Sudan to protect the civilian population of Darfur. It also requested that the Secretary-General establish an international commission of inquiry to investigate reports of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and to determine whether or not acts of genocide had occurred in Darfur and identify the perpetrators.
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Secretary-General Kofi Annan's initiative to bring lasting peace, stability and development to the countries of Central Africa, several of which have been torn by decades of war, took an important step in early September 2004 with the first preparatory committee meeting for a regional summit, which will be held by the end of the year. Participants from the seven core countries of the International Conference for the Great Lakes region—Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia—and from neighbouring States and regional organization, gathered in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, for the week-long meeting, the first of three before the summit. The International Conference for peace, security, democracy and development in the Great Lakes region was first proposed by Mr. Annan and is co-sponsored by the United Nations and the African Union.
As government forces and the rebels in Burundi continued to clash near Bujumbura, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were constructing temporary shelters for an estimated 25,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on 15 September. The new camps in Kabezi Commune, just south of the Burundi capital, put some distance between the IDPs and government military positions, which are regularly attacked by the Front National de Libération (FNL)—the only rebel group not to have joined the peace process after a decade of war in the country. In May, the Security Council established the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB), with an eventual strength of 5,650 military personnel and up to 1,000 national and international civilian staff, to help restore lasting peace and bring about national reconciliation between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis.
The UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) on 23 September relinquished security responsibility to government forces for the last of the country's four provinces. UN peacekeepers in the western area, which includes the capital Freetown, lowered the United Nations flag for the last time and handed it over to the Commander of the UNAMSIL Northern Command, Brig. Gen. Alhaji Nuhu Bamalli, who then gave it to the regional police commander, Chief Superintendent Sahid Ibrahim Koroma. There was also a change of guard from UN peacekeepers to officers of the Sierra Leone Police. Speaking at the ceremony, UNAMSIL Force Commander Maj. Gen. Sajjad Akram said the Mission was handing over primacy of security to the police, but peacekeepers would "remain ultimately responsible for security, but now in consultation with the Government. … We will still offer advice, identify solutions and always be available to support the security agencies to deal with serious security issues." Established in October 1999 to help with the implementation of the Lomé Peace Agreement, and the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration plan, UNAMSIL is in the process of gradually reducing its forces, which had an authorized maximum strength of 17,500 military personnel. The Mission now stands at about 8,500 troops.
Although Liberia has registered "remarkable progress" in the past year since the United Nations moved in to enforce a peace accord that ended nearly 15 years of vicious civil war, insufficient international funding to tackle the many formidable challenges ahead is cause for serious concern, according to a new assessment. Budget shortfalls threaten the reintegration of ex-combatants, the return of refugees and the resettlement of IDPs, as well as overall recovery efforts and the timetable for the registration of voters for the October 2005 elections, as declared by Liberian, UN and West African officials after a joint session at UN Headquarters in New York on 22 September 2004.
The first meeting of the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL), United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Coordination Mechanism called on donors to contribute in a timely manner the necessary funds, noting that only half of the $520 million pledged by donors in February 2004 had so far been received. The gathering also praised the great strides made in key areas such as: deployment throughout the country of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), which has over 14,500 troops on the ground, as well as 1,090 civilian police officers; the demobilization of over 76,000 former fighters; the training of recruits for a new Liberian police service; efforts to extend State authority throughout the country; and preparations for the national elections.
Prominent political figures in Côte d'Ivoire continue to posture for partisan gains for themselves in the current peace process, a group overseeing the country's troubled path towards peace and unity said in a September report to the Security Council. The tripartite monitoring group, comprising representatives from the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), the African Union and ECOWAS, reported that the political atmosphere was suffering as a result and "[t]his posture could lead to a revival of political vindications and animosities, which could erode the full and unconditional commitment to the Accra III Agreement". In late July, the parties in Côte d'Ivoire signed this accord that binds the Government to the 2003 Linas-Marcoussis Agreement, which ended fighting in the West African country and created a government of national reconciliation. The Accra III Agreement focuses on those parts of the 2003 pact that were still disputed.
The monitoring group's report noted that there were "divergent interpretations" of the meaning of the Accra III Agreement, adding that the National Assembly was also risking gridlock over the introduction of contentious legislation. However, it found a "silver lining" in the willingness of the different armed forces in the country to end their belligerency towards each other and uphold the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme slated to start in October 2004. The group called on Secretary-General Annan and the chairpersons of ECOWAS and the African Union to put pressure on Côte d'Ivoire's major political figures to place "national interest above partisan advantage". Citing President Laurent Gbagbo, leader of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), and the opposition leaders—Henri Konan Bedié of the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI), Alassane Ouattara of Rally of the Republicans (RDR) and Guillaume Soro of Forces Nouvelles—the monitoring group urged them "to stay on the course of the road map to peace and national reconciliation". Peacekeeping forces from UNOCI currently divide Côte d'Ivoire between the Government-controlled south and the opposition-dominated north.
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| Refugees in Bonga camp, western Ethiopia. UNHCR photo/N. Behring |
While taking note of some positive developments between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the Security Council on 14 September extended the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea for six months. UNMEE oversees the ceasefire between the two countries, which signed a cessation of hostilities agreement in June 2000 after a two-year border war. The Council also stressed the responsibility of both sides for the implementation of the Algiers Agreement and the decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission. It called on both parties "to show political leadership to achieve a full normalization of their relationship, including through the adoption of further confidence-building measures". In a report released in early September 2004, the Secretary-General noted that Eritrea and Ethiopia remained in a stalemate, and said the longer the deadlock continued, the greater the risk that an isolated incident could unravel the truce which ended the fierce border war. |
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On 24 August 2004, in his first visit to the country since his appointment, the top UN envoy for Iraq, Secretary-General's Special Representative Ashraf Qazi discussed the United Nations role in reconstruction and development efforts with senior officials of the Interim Government. Mr. Qazi and Planning Minister Mahdi al-Hafez of Iraq focused their discussions on reconstruction efforts in cities like Najaf and Al-Sadr in Baghdad, the scene of fierce fighting.
"Unemployment and poverty lead to the proliferation of crime and terrorism", Mr. al-Hafez said. They also discussed the Government's development priorities, with the Iraqi Minister calling for an active UN role in his country's reconstruction and rehabilitation programme, as well as in the transitional political process. Minister of State Kassim Daoud also attended the meeting. Mr. Qazi pledged the full support of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), security circumstances permitting, to help the Iraqi people, in cooperation with the Interim Government.
With the Mission's deployment, the UN presence in that country has been reestablished. However, a light footprint was unavoidable in the current security situation, Mr Qazi told the Security Council on 14 September. He said security had to be a paramount concern to the United Nations. Two days earlier, the Council unanimously renewed UNAMI for a further year. The Mission's tasks include coordinating various humanitarian operations and helping the war-ravaged country to organize elections by the end of January 2005 and draft a new constitution. Reaffirming that the United Nations should play a leading role in assisting the Iraqi Government and people in the formation of institutions for a representative government, the Council said that it would review the UNAMI mandate in twelve months or sooner, if requested by the Government. The Mission was initially established by the Security Council on 14 August 2003, when Mr. Annan called for it to have a staff, both international and local, of over 300. On 19 August 2003, a terrorist bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad took the lives of 22 persons, including the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, and wounded over 100.
Due to the security situation, international staff working for the United Nations in Iraq were "operating at the outer limit of acceptable and prudent risk", and the ceiling of UN international substantive support and security staff remained at 35, Mr. Annan said in report of 3 September 2004. The report warned that the UN presence on the ground would remain limited and security would be a "primary obstacle and constraint". While pledging to "do everything possible, as circumstances permit, to support Iraqi efforts in the political and economic reconstruction of their country", the Secretary-General said that no country had yet committed to providing any security staff for UN workers there. However, the Interim Government of Iraq had taken a number of positive initial steps since its formation in June 2004 to start rebuilding the country.
With an eye to the upcoming elections in Lebanon, the Security Council on 2 September adopted a resolution, by a vote of 9 in favour, with 6 abstentions, declaring support for polling free of outside influence and calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces, the disbanding of all militias and the extension of Government control over the entire country. The measure, introduced by France and the United States and garnering the minimum support required for passage, drew opposition from Foreign Minister Mohamad Issa of Lebanon. Addressing the Council, he disputed the basis of the resolution, saying Israel's occupation had prompted a national resistance that was used where and when needed.
Voicing alarm at the humanitarian crisis created by the activitiy of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory and strongly condemning the terrorist acts of Palestinian suicide bombers against Israeli civilians, the Secretary-General on 13 September called for prompt implementation of the Road Map Peace Plan. "Otherwise, both sides will face the grim reality of a never-ending stalemate and continued violence", he told the International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian people at UN Headquarters in New York. Both Palestinian and Israeli NGOs took part in the two-day meeting.
According to a United Nations briefing on the Middle East on 11 August, both Israelis and Palestinians are undermining prospects for peace, with the former failing to end the settlement expansion and carrying out collective punishment, and the latter failing to end violence and combat terror; civilians on both sides have been suffering. "For each side to cite the actions of the other does not in any way excuse it from fulfilling its own obligations", UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast told the Council, in what he called a "depressingly familiar" monthly briefing that reported no tangible progress towards resuming the peace process. |
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The Security Council on 17 September 2004 voted to extend the mandate of the international troop force in Afghanistan for another year and called upon countries to commit more personnel and funds so that it could work more effectively. Extending the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) until 13 October 2005, the resolution noted that the responsibility for maintaining law and order ultimately rested with the Afghans themselves. It urged ISAF, which has been expanded across the country after being confined to the capital Kabul to work closely with the country's transitional administration and successors. Eurocorps—a multinational army comprised of forces from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain—took over the command of ISAF from Canada in August. The Council also stressed the importance of conducting free and fair elections, disarming and reintegrating ex-combatants, preventing the illegal drug trade and ensuring that the central government authority extends all across Afghanistan.
More than 6 million Afghans will continue to need food relief or other assistance in 2005 because persistent drought in some areas and pests and diseases in others, have caused crop failures across the country, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and the World Food Programme (WFP). Based on a joint mission to affected areas in July 2004, the report stated the rising prices of some basic crops such as wheat placed them out of reach of the poorest Afghans.
On 7 September, the campaign for Afghanistan's first open presidential election in its history was formally opened, with 18 candidates vying for the post, it was announced by the joint United Nations-Afghan body handling the polling.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on 2 September noted a symbolic milestone with the return home from Iran of the one-millionth Afghan since the start of voluntary repatriation to their war-ravaged country in April 2002, reducing by half the overall Afghan refugee population there. "I remain concerned at the deterioration in the security situation in some regions, but today gives us all the opportunity to take stock of how much has been accomplished already", High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers said. "Behind this figure, there are 1 million individual stories", he added, "1 million people who made the choice to go back, and are now rebuilding not just their own lives but also their homeland." If the current trend continues, UNHCR estimates that another 200,000 Afghans will have gone home by the scheduled end in March 2005 of the voluntary repatriation programme.
Noting that extremist violence, factionalism and the illicit drug industry were on the rise in Afghanistan, threatening lasting peace as the country prepared for elections, Secretary-General Annan in a 17 August 2004 report said that terrorist and criminal violence was resulting in "the loss of too many Afghan lives and increasingly of those of international assistance workers". However, the high rate of voter registrations—more than 9.9 million people, 41 per cent of them female—showed that the groups responsible for the violence were politically isolated ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls. Mr. Annan also warned that Afghanistan's illicit drug trade was growing, with at least one initiative by the country's authorities to eradicate opium poppy fields "largely ineffective". Corruption caused by the drug trade was on the rise. More anti-drug officials and greater determination to tackle the problem were necessary, he said, if Afghan farmers were going to stop production and turn to legal crops. |
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Secretary-General Annan on 22 September called for international support for Haiti in the wake of tropical storm Jeanne, as the death toll reached some 1,500. The storm left a trail of floods and mudslides across the north of the impoverished Caribbean country. The United Nations was accelerating its efforts to provide food, clean water, shelter and health care to the estimated 300,000 people affected by the tropical storm, which struck Haiti and neighbouring Dominican Republic. WFP had dispatched food rations to Gonaïves, one of the cities most affected. The UN Children's Fund sent maternal health kits, as well as thirty social workers to help traumatized children. The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the World Health Organization and NGOs are also stepping up their efforts to provide and distribute relief aid, especially clean drinking water. A seven-member UN disaster assessment and coordination team also went to Haiti to help local authorities organize their response.
The United Nations has been sending disaster teams and aid to other countries affected by Jeanne and hurricane Ivan, which had also inflicted heavy destruction across a number of Caribbean countries just over a week earlier. |
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