Urgent Action Needed to End Darfur Slaughter

By David Kilgour

The London Free Press

August 6, 2004

Only four months ago, a Canadian delegation joined thousands of mourners in Rwanda's capital to mark the 10th anniversary of their Genocide. The banner in the national stadium read, “Never Again”.              

That same week, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the world that the risk of genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan remained “frighteningly real” and added that further action might be needed, including “a continuum of steps which may include military action”.                                                     

Darfur Today

That was in April.  Today the situation in Darfur has become the worst humanitarian disaster on earth. In a population of roughly 6.5 million in the region there are about four million “Africans”. An estimated 2.5 million in this community are now seriously affected by the conflict, which in the looming famine conditions could quickly become five thousand people dying daily from a variety of causes.                                                                      

A full million have already fled their homes. The current estimates of those dead are in the 30,000- 50,000 range; more have died from disease and the effects of malnutrition.  As these numbers rise unchecked by adequate international response, some are reportedly asking seriously if the UN Security Council and international community at large have since the Rwandan experience raised the threshold to a million deaths before they will undertake effective measures. The situations are certainly different, but Canada’s hero Romeo Dallaire wrote that an armed intervention of only 5000 soldiers would quickly have stopped the slaughter in Rwanda .

No serious observer has the slightest doubt about the cause of most of the violence: the janjaweed militias. Human Rights Watch recently noted that documents of the Sudanese government itself prove that its own officials directed the recruiting and arming of these killers.

                                                  Amnesty International             

 Amnesty International's own report indicates that the janjaweed methods include the raping of eight-year-old girls. Ethnic cleansing has again jumped continents. Amnesty International provides statements from militiamen specifying that their attacks are directed exclusively at the African communities of the region.  If so, such conduct falls squarely within the 1948 UN Genocide Convention-signed by 127 states, including Canada-which expressly defines genocide to include acts aimed at destroying an “ethnic, racial or religious group.”                       

The newly-formed African Union to its great credit has sent a peace-monitoring mission to Darfur, which could presumably be transformed quickly into the first stage of a peace-making force.  And peace making will be required: no-one should expect Khartoum to provide a single moment of peace in the region except for tactical reasons.  It is the regime itself that has engineered virtually all the bloodshed and suffering.                 

            Responsibility to Protect                                                                              

Canada itself sponsored the international study, which three years ago concluded that in defined circumstances the international community has an obligation to act to prevent the kind of catastrophe that occurred in Rwanda and now in Darfur. Are all or most of the conditions not already present to justify an intervention by peacemakers from a group of countries, including Canada, and led by African participants?                                            

At a particularly dangerous moment in Sierra Leone's recent past, Canada was urged by a highly- respected African leader to intervene there to save civilian lives. Our government declined, insisting that prior obligations in Europe made it impossible. The United Kingdom successfully led the hazardous peace-making mission and our reputation dropped a large notch in Africa.                                                                                                                    

Avoiding responsibility must not be our policy in this latest humanitarian crisis. As the nation which is still the beacon for so many around the world, Canada must find immediately a really effective role in Darfur.  A good first step would be sending the Canadian Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to prevent the onset of secondary effects of the crisis such as the spreading of disease.