Email 
Print 
MEDIAWATCH: U.N. genocide resolution fails first test
Written by: Joanne Tomkinson
General Martin Agwai, commander of the new joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur and an aide listen to a field commander in Mulagat. REUTERS/Ho New
Three years after the United Nations adopted a "groundbreaking" resolution legalising international intervention to protect civilians from genocide when governments have failed to do so, The New York Times declares the resolution has failed its first test - Darfur. A joint U.N.-African Union force - known as UNAMID - took over peacekeeping operations in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region on Jan 1. The region has endured five years of violence between government troops, nomadic militia and rebel groups, leaving 200,000 people dead and uprooting 2.5 million others. The Sudanese government is widely accused of arming militias drawn from Arab communities, and of failing to protect civilians. So far, the UNAMID force has had limited success in protecting civilians in Darfur. According to The New York Times, this failure is down to obstructions from the Sudanese government, a lack of logistical support from Western governments and international reticence to implement the resolution. Bureaucratic and operational setbacks have been so great that the UNAMID force is still only a third of its planned strength of 26,000. Some developing countries that originally supported the resolution have backed off out of fear they themselves could become targets of intervention, notes the paper. The Irish Times agrees that the Sudanese government's hostility to U.N. intervention is a major obstacle for the force. Khartoum has blocked the deployment of non-African peacekeepers, and this week appointed Musa Hilal, who is subject to a U.N. ban on travel for his alleged role in the unrest, as adviser to the federal affairs minister. "The welfare of displaced people continues to be ignored while armed groups and the government bicker and impede the complete deployment of UNAMID," Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty International's Africa programme, is quoted as saying. The International Press Service (IPS), meanwhile, concentrates its attention on the failings of Western governments to support U.N. activities in Darfur, noting that the UNAMID force "has been virtually grounded even before it could take off due largely to lack of troops and military equipment". "We have not yet received any offers of helicopters from Western states", says Marie Okabe, deputy spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. These logistical issues have political roots, according to Bill Fletcher, former president of human rights group TransAfrica Forum. "The government of Sudan has been able to utilise the perception of 'foreign intervention' as a way of leading various governments to believe that the deployment of peacekeepers is somehow inappropriate", says the IPS, summarising Fletcher. Says the New York Times: "Darfur, in short, has shown that there is a great difference between gaining acceptance for a working theory and making the theory work."
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.
1 response to “MEDIAWATCH: U.N. genocide resolution fails first test”
Please note that comments should not be regarded as the views of Reuters.
Leave a Reply
When you submit a comment to us we request your name, e-mail address and optionally a link to a website. Please note where you submit a website address, we may link to it via your name. By sending us a comment, you accept that we have the right to show the comment and your name to users. Although we require your email address, this will not be published on the site, and is only required to enable us to check facts with you, e.g. if you are making a claim we can not confirm easily. Additionally, if you would like your comment removed at anytime, you'll have to use this e-mail address when you contact us. To remove a comment at any time please e-mail us at blogs-(at)-reuters-(dot)-com (address obscured to avoid spam) specifying who you are and what you would like removed. We moderate all comments and will publish everything that advances the post directly or with relevant tangential information. We reserve the right to edit comments in order to maintain the quality of the comments, and may not include links to irrelevant material. We try not to publish comments that we think are offensive or appear to pass you off as another person, and we will be conservative if comments may be considered libelous. Reuters will use your data in accordance with Reuters privacy policy. Reuters Group is primarily responsible for managing your data. As Reuters is a global company your data will be transferred and available internationally, including in countries which do not have privacy laws but Reuters seeks to comply with its privacy policy.
Unlike some other content on this website, the written content in this article may be republished or redistributed by any means free of charge. Any use of photographs and graphics on this website is expressly prohibited. You must check whether written content contained in other articles on this website may be republished or redistributed without the express permission of Reuters or the relevant third party provider.
25 Jan 2008 16:15:27 GMT
And what has the International criminal Court in Hague has to say about the Kenyan War-lords whose intentions has so far caused a mini-genocide?I would wish that they act with speed to protect the Innocent citizens from the hands of the Political class. Let there be Peace in the World.Praise Jesus.