‘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

The Council’s visit came at a delicate moment. New fighting is threatening the fragile peace between Khartoum and semi-autonomous southern Sudan. In Darfur, humanitarian agencies warn of disintegrating security. Two weeks earlier, the Darfur-based rebel Justice and Equality Movement raided the outskirts of Khartoum, killing dozens of Sudanese police and soldiers and rattling the regime’s nerves. Then came word that ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo was ready to condemn the entire Sudanese leadership for complicity in the atrocities. Costa Rica’s UN ambassador, Jorge Urbina, announced that his country was drafting a statement condemning Khartoum for its refusal to co-operate with the ICC Tribunal at the Hague.

In the VIP lounge, the sparring continued. ‘Costa Rica is like a village compared to Sudan,’ Abdalhaleem boasted. ‘We don’t interfere in banana republics. Why should they interfere with us?’ ‘At least we’re a republic,’ replied Urbina, from across the room. The call to board the flight ended the exchange.

Khartoum made sure that the Council ambassadors witnessed plenty of its muscle; a move designed to dispel any thought about a more robust approach to the Darfur crisis. Two Sudanese helicopter gunships sat not 50 yards from where the ambassadors disembarked. Their proximity could hardly have been accidental, but Sudanese security officials made, as officials of totalitarian regimes will, an elaborate show of prohibiting photographs of the war machines. ‘Big problem, big problem,’ one yelled at a journalist who pointed his camera at the helicopters. Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and police agents watched the Council’s every move.

The UN’s struggling peacekeeping force in Darfur, Unamid, did its best to showcase its own capacity. Pickup trucks full of well-kitted peacekeepers wearing blue body armour and toting rocket-propelled grenade launchers escorted the Council throughout the day-long visit. A helicopter — a precious commodity for peacekeepers these days — kept a watchful eye on the diplomats from above. After a quick briefing at the UN’s headquarters, the Council piled into four-wheel-drive vehicles for the 45-minute journey to the Zam Zam camp for displaced persons.

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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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