‘If we die today, you will be responsible’

14 June 2008

David Bosco accompanies the UN Security Council on its visit to Darfur and finds that even meeting the victims of the conflict can’t stiffen the Council’s resolve

Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem was holding court last Thursday in the VIP lounge at Khartoum International Airport. Sudan’s voluble United Nations ambassador was accompanying the UN Security Council as it prepared for the short flight to northern Darfur. Many hoped that the Council’s visit to the war-torn region would bring diplomats of the member states face to face with the suffering, and so provoke a strong condemnation of Sudanese war crimes. Instead, all our mission really served to highlight was the lack of resolve among UN officials and the lack of contrition from the Sudanese.

From the outset, Abdalhaleem cast the Darfur crisis as little more than a Western plot to weaken Sudan. ‘If Darfur is over tomorrow, they will find a new Darfur. They want to keep us in the intensive care unit.’ The images of horror that prevail in the West are a fabrication, he said. ‘We don’t think there’s a humanitarian crisis in Darfur.’ (The death toll in Darfur is calculated at some 210,000, and 2.1 million people have been forced from their homes by the fighting.) The refugee camps are ‘five-star camps’, he said with a laugh. ‘You’ll see.’

Across the room, America’s deputy UN ambassador, Alejandro Wolff, took in the spectacle. ‘I’m not sure why anyone would be proud of hosting the largest humanitarian operation in the world,’ he said. Wolff and several of his Western colleagues hoped that the mission might help convince Khartoum to remove obstacles to the deployment of peacekeepers. The Council has authorised a force of 20,000, but sluggish contributions and Khartoum’s blocking tactics have kept them from reaching full strength. Just 8,000 mainly African peacekeepers are struggling to secure the region. Several Council members also wanted to remind Sudan of its obligation to comply with the International Criminal Court’s rulings. The court has indicted two Sudanese officials — one a serving minister. But the Council was not united in its determination to ratchet up the pressure. Moscow and Beijing have consistently opposed confrontation. They dispatched diplomats on the trip, but they kept a low profile.

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sebastian

June 13th, 2008 6:53am Report this comment

The failed litmus test for that expensive talking shop and vote mart called the UN. David has done well to describe this charade so vividly. And so......is it better to have a largely useless organisation; or none at all? Would it be better to abandon the Darfur (and millions of other) victims the UN can do little or nothing for; or to continue with breadline rations for a few and false promises for most?
How much did that visit cost? Lots. How much was gained? Nothing.
The UN's often a cruel and wasteful disgrace. It talks itself into regular inertia. There's much interest in national (or private) profit - minerals; ore; oil; cheap labour; contracts drafted and sold; mining rights peddled - not humanitarian matters. It's disgusting. Our continued payments to it should be linked to reforms.

Riaz Ahmad

June 15th, 2008 10:18pm Report this comment

David Bosco, you and others like you know extremely well why UN is incapable of preventing mass murder and suffering; for the sake of national vested interest, you all are conveniently very silent. The problem is the scurity council deliberately designed to serve the vested interest of the powerful at the expanse of fairness and justice for the weak and poor. If there was a free vote of the member states, things will be totally different. If the powerful, like the USA failed to act, then all this talk of spreading democracy and human rights will sound very hollow and fake.

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