Mick Hartley

The latest on Darfur from Eric Reeves:

With terrible predictability, peace talks in Sirte, Libya between the Khartoum regime and Darfur’s various rebel groups broke off yesterday, having accomplished nothing other than to reveal the poverty of international efforts in halting the ongoing genocide in Sudan’s western region. Nor was progress made in fashioning a ceasefire, the essential context for meaningful negotiations. Instead, Khartoum – which had announced with much fanfare a unilateral ceasefire when talks opened on October 27 – launched the very next day what may be a final solution to its Darfur problem: the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and journalists in the region are all reporting Khartoum’s assaults on camps for displaced persons, including violent relocation of civilians to insecure areas. […]

[T]he real reason for the failure in Sirte is that neither the UN nor the AU is willing to confront Khartoum with meaningful consequences for its serial violation of UN resolutions and its continuing obstruction of humanitarian aid and the deployment of the hybrid UN/AU peace support operation authorized by the security council in July. Nor has Khartoum paid a price for its systematic reneging on the north/south comprehensive peace agreement of January 2005. Nor has it been held accountable for its failure to implement the terms of the disastrously consummated Abuja peace agreement, including compensation payments, releasing of development funds, or security arrangements, including disarming of the Janjaweed.

Quite simply, the rebels and the people of Darfur have no reason whatsoever to trust that a negotiated agreement will mean anything. Over 18 years in power, the National Islamic Front (National Congress party) regime that dominates a merely notional Government of National Unity in Khartoum has never abided by any agreement with any Sudanese party – not one, not ever. Why, Darfuris ask, should they or the international community expect this occasion to be different? Even the Janjaweed have been betrayed by Khartoum, which has reneged on various promises to give expropriated land to these Arab militia groups. Inter-tribal violence now plagues Arab populations in Darfur as well as non-Arab or African peoples – and only Khartoum’s cynical divide-and-rule objectives are furthered.

Serial violation of UN resolutions by an Arab regime, alongside appalling suffering for its people…sounds familiar. There are plenty of differences between Sudan now and Iraq under Saddam of course – for a start Omar al-Bashir doesn’t as far as I know have delusions of being the new Saladin – but since military intervention to overthrow the Khartoum regime isn’t an option, we’re now getting a chance to see how the other way works: the way, that is, of UN-led negotiations and diplomacy. Doesn’t look too good so far.