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Peace Force In Darfur Faces Major Challenges
Children watch as Canadian armored personnel carriers arrive at El Fashir, Sudan, to help forces from the African Union maintain a fragile cease-fire in Darfur. A new report says other ground vehicles, helicopters and communications equipment are also in short supply.
(Photos By Abd Raouf -- Associated Press)
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On the ground, the peacekeepers said they were still awaiting body armor and often heard about violence but did not have enough helicopters to investigate.
"It's very, very dangerous not to have enough aerial reconnaissance in these wide-open fields where militia and rebels are roaming," said Brian Johnstone, a British police liaison to the African Union. "You would not see any other forces like the U.N. or NATO left alone like this. It's frustrating to hear of an attack hundreds of miles away and not do anything about it."
The crisis erupted in February 2003 after rebels from African tribes took up arms against the government, saying Darfur was underdeveloped and lacked political power.
The government bombed villages to force the rebels out and allegedly unleashed the Arab militias that mounted a campaign of burning and pillaging villages, inflaming old rivalries over resources between Arab nomads and African farmers.
At least 200,000 people have died, according to the United Nations. The crisis has emptied villages across Darfur, leaving more than 2 million people in camps.
The United Nations and the U.S. government initially blamed the Janjaweed and the government for much of the bloodshed. But the situation has grown increasingly chaotic as various rebel factions have engaged in more recent violence, including kidnappings of peacekeepers and humanitarian workers and seizures of food convoys.
U.N. officials and humanitarian workers have suggested that a stronger peacekeeping organization, such as NATO, be brought in. Sudan's government rejects that idea.
After a speech at the University of Khartoum, Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick said that foreign forces were not an option and that the peace process would have to move forward through talks in Abjua, the Nigerian capital. "Frankly I don't think foreign forces want to get in the middle of a tribal war of Sudanese," Zoellick said.
Sudanese professors and opposition party leaders said they enjoyed the speech -- except for Zoellick's blunt declaration that "all sides in Sudan also have to be committed to peace."
Some in the audience expressed doubt that all parties would ever be truly committed to peace. "When he said that, well, that just really frightened me," said Ezekiel Kondgo, an Episcopal bishop who looked grim and laughed nervously.
