A bad idea is about to deploy in Darfur

The demands on natural resources of one international peacekeeper are many times that of a single Darfurian. It is estimated that each peacekeeper will use 40 times more water than a Sudanese, for example. There will inevitably be greatly increased demand for precious construction materials – timber and bricks. And so on.

“No one thinks UNAMID is a good idea,” says one of those who attended a recent brainstorming session in Khartoum. “They are all going into it knowing it is going to be a nightmare,” says another. “They are playing up to public opinion. It is absolutely disgraceful.”

As UN forces begin to deploy in Darfur, a look at the folly of the whole operation, from an expert on the region. As Julie Flint notes, the deployment of UNAMID is the result of “ill-informed religious groups” whose “unchanging narrative of “genocide” and “slaughter,” the inflation of death tolls, and the reduction of a complex conflict to a simple morality tale created mass hysteria which limited the ability of decision-makers to pursue legitimate policy options and craft solutions relevant to the facts on the ground.”

And now we’re stuck with a hopless solution that will do more harm than good and, if we’re honest, is just time-serving for U.S. oil interests.

For the last several years, international efforts to end the war in Darfur have focused on the deployment of a 26,000-man peacekeeping force which Darfurians have come to believe will “save” them. In the words of one of the force’s strongest supporters: “Activists have pressed relentlessly for the deployment of a UN-led force to protect civilians in Darfur, and we are almost there.”

The truth is that we are nowhere near there – and most probably never will be. With less than a month to go before the force is due to deploy, senior United Nations officials say the best-case scenario is for 6,500 troops to be in Darfur by January 1, 2008, the date of the official transition from the present 7,000-man African Union force to a “hybrid” UN-AU force (UNAMID). Of the 24 helicopters that are needed, not one has been forthcoming.

Posted by Szamko
Just tries to tell the truth.