Today, along with Rob Bell, Bill Hybels, Jim Wallis and a lot of other people, I signed a document that will run in newsp
apers across the US to encourage action/pressure to improve the situation in Darfur Sudan. This is "kingdom" stuff. Know what's going on.
Darfur Backgrounder and Policy Points
Courtesy of the Save Darfur Coalition
October 16, 2006
Situation in Darfur
According to recent estimates, at least 400,000 people have died in Darfur since the genocide began in February of 2003. It is impossible to know what the final number will be, however, as the genocide is still taking place today. What is known is that there are approximately 3.5 million men, women and children in the western Darfur region of Sudan trying to survive the Sudanese government-sponsored campaign of violence and forced starvation. These innocent victims are essentially on life support, their continued existence dependent on U.S. and international humanitarian aid and the presence of African Union peacekeepers. Despite the best efforts of the under-funded and under-manned African Union peacekeeping force, attacks have increased in recent months, leading to tens of thousands of new arrivals at refugee camps in Darfur and across the border in Chad.
This situation has been seriously exacerbated by the Government of Sudan’s military offensive in Darfur, initiated in late August, which has displaced thousand of additional Darfurians and will likely cost thousands of additional lives. Given this new offensive, civilians are looking at an ever more precarious future, one in which dependency on international aid is likely to rise. Violence is already visibly increasing. The International Rescue Committee reported a dramatic increase in systematic rape earlier this summer, and more humanitarian aid workers were killed in July of this year than had been killed in the previous three years combined.
To be clear, the preferred solution is for the international community to flex its diplomatic muscles, not its military ones, in order to compel President Bashir’s consent to the UN force. What is also clear, however, is that the international community must not take no for an answer when it comes to protecting civilians in Darfur. The United Nations has made its decision, the African Union has endorsed that decision, millions of concerned individuals all over the world have spoken out, and the people of Darfur themselves have demanded that the UN peacekeeping force be deployed as soon as possible. This is how the UN international conflict resolution system is supposed to work. If the Security Council and its member states wash their hands of their responsibility and allow that system to fail, they will lose their credibility in the bargain.
What Needs to Happen Now
Below are several concrete steps that should be taken to improve security, improve diplomacy, and ensure sufficient grassroots political pressure to get the job done:
Security
Deploy the United Nations peacekeeping force now: The robust UN peacekeeping force recently authorized (Aug. 31) by the UN Security Council must be deployed immediately to take over for the current under-funded and under-manned African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. While there are no doubt difficulties to overcome in order to make this happen, there can be no doubt that they must be overcome. The U.S. and the international community must find a way to get it done.
Support the African Union troops until the UN peacekeepers are on the ground: The African Union forces have stood as the only line of defense for millions of Darfuris for far too long, and have reached the limits of their effectiveness. Until the UN peacekeeping force is deployed and operational, the international community must help the African Union provide at least some security to the people of Darfur.
Enforce a No-Fly Zone in Darfur already established by the UN Security Council: UN Security Council resolution 1591 called for a no-fly zone by banning all Sudanese military flights in Darfur, but that no-fly zone has never been enforced. The U.S. should lead the international community in making sure that the Sudanese Government’s indiscriminant bombing of villages is brought to an end.
Diplomacy
President Bush must make peace in Darfur a higher priority: It has been over two years since President Bush declared Darfur a genocide, and yet the genocide continues. The President and his Administration have made some progress, but the situation on the ground has continued to deteriorate. The escalating nature of the crisis demands more than words on paper, it demands results on the ground.
The UN Security Council and its member nations must enforce sanctions already on the books against the Government of Sudan: The UN Security Council has already agreed to sanctions against the Sudanese government, but the UN Sanctions Committee has yet to enforce them.
***From Reuters: Friday, October 13, 2006***
"President Bush on Friday signed a law imposing sanctions against people responsible for genocide and war crimes in Sudan. The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, which passed the U.S. Congress last month with strong bipartisan support, freezes the assets of those deemed complicit in the atrocities and denies them entry into the United States. It also encourages the Bush administration to deny Sudan's government access to oil revenues. In addition to signing the legislation, Bush also signed an executive order that leaves in place the existing sanctions but eases some on parts of southern Sudan. It also includes exemptions to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid to Darfur. But the order toughens some sanctions, including a provision that bars any American from engaging in oil-related transactions in Sudan. The order comes as the Bush administration's new special envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, began a trip to Sudan, where he plans to meet with government officials and visit war-torn Darfur."
International pressure on Sudan from individual UN Security Council members: Individual governments can pressure Sudan directly to accept the UN peacekeeping force and end its military offensive in Darfur. China in particular has a lot of influence with Sudan given their status as Sudan’s top trading partner. Additionally, member-nations of the African Union and Arab League have strong relationships with Sudan and could be diplomatically persuasive.
Legislation
Urge the President to request and Congress to approve adequate funding for Darfur in the Fiscal Year 2008 budgeting process: While we hope that the situation in Darfur will be in vastly improved when Fiscal Year 2008 begins on October 1, 2007, the reality is that peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, and development will likely still be needed. The budgeting process for FY08 has already begun, and we must make sure that the President and his Administration request sufficient funds to cover the projected needs. It’s important to remember that Congress can always choose not to fund the President’s request if events have gone better than expected and the need is no longer there when the funding bills are eventually passed. It is very difficult, however, for Congress to add significantly to a funding bill if they have not been factored into the budgeting process all along. The President should therefore make sure that the necessary funds are included in the FY08 budget from the start.
Urge Congress to provide additional funding for Darfur immediately to make up the pending funding gap:
Increased funding for the planned UN peacekeeping operation in Darfur
The President’s FY07 budget provides only $441 million for UN peacekeeping operation in Sudan, all of which was intended for the UN force in South Sudan, not Darfur. The proposed Darfur UN force will be both at least twice the size of the force in South Sudan, and will have a much more difficult mission. While the total cost of the force is not yet known, it is abundantly clear that it will require a substantial amount of U.S. funding if it is to succeed.
Increased funding for the current African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur
While a UN peacekeeping force is the ultimate goal, Congress cannot let future plans blind them from current needs. Until such time as a UN force is deployed (now estimated at January of 2007) we need to continue to support the African Union peacekeepers who are already there. The President’s budget contains no funding for the African Union peacekeepers for the final three months of this year, despite the strong possibility that they will remain on the ground through December. At an international African Union donor pledging conference on July 18, the international community committed to provided less than half of the funding necessary to keep the African Union mission afloat for the remainder of the year. While the U.S. was the largest single donor, the money pledged was limited to funds that have already approved by Congress. In essence, the U.S. pledged only what money they had already promised to provide.
Increased funding for humanitarian aid in Darfur
Earlier this year, the World Food Program announced that it was cutting daily rations to half the minimum safe level due to lack of funding. That situation cannot be allowed to happen again. Congress should not rely on mid-year emergency supplemental funding bills to provide its commitment to Darfur.
To contact the President, call (202) 456-1111, or email
[email protected], to contact your Representative and Senators, call the Capitol operator at (202) 224-3121 or go to
www.house.gov and
www.senate.gov to find email information.
Congregational Action
Download our Congregational Tool Kit: Visit
www.evangelicalsfordarfur.org and click on the Download Our Activist Toolkit box in the middle of the home page. The toolkit serves as a "how-to" manual for educating and activating your congregation around Darfur.
Weekend of Prayer and Action for Darfur: On November 19, evangelical Christians across the nation will join together with people of faith from across the political and theological spectrum in a unified show of prayer and support for Darfur, calling for the immediate deployment of UN peacekeepers. With this united and powerful voice, there can be no question that the issue of Darfur now concerns the entire evangelical community. Visit
www.evangelicalsfordarfur.org to find out more about ways you can participate.
This increase in violence has put the humanitarian life-support system on life-support itself, and the nightmare scenario of a complete security collapse and the spike in death-rate that will surely follow now appears to be not a possibility, but a probability. UN official Jan Egland has previously said that he believes
the death-rate could rise as high as 100,000 per month if security collapses. The situation in Darfur may soon test that theory.
International Action
On August 31, the UN Security Council passed resolution 1706, authorizing a robust peacekeeping force for Darfur with a strong mandate to protect civilians. While this was a crucial step, it will remain merely words on paper until there are UN boots on the ground. Adding further urgency is the tenuous nature of the African Union’s operations in Darfur. Already short on funding, manpower, and clarity of mandate, the African Union has begun to reduce its protective operations, including firewood patrols which had proved moderately successful at protecting women from rape.
The African Union and many African heads of state have repeatedly called for a transition to a UN peacekeeping force, but their call has thus far fallen on deaf ears in Khartoum, where President Omar el-Bashir continues to resist the deployment of UN peacekeepers to Darfur, leaving the prospects for peace in Darfur hanging by an increasingly thin thread.
A Challenge to the International Community
We now find ourselves approaching what may be the decisive hour for the future of Darfur. U.S. Secretary of State Rice put it well when she recently said that the Government of Sudan faces a choice between cooperation and confrontation. The UN has authorized a strong peacekeeping force to protect civilians, help implement the Darfur Peace Agreement, and promote the continuation of the peace process. The African Union has said that it wants that peacekeeping force to be deployed as soon as possible. Perhaps most importantly, the people of Darfur themselves have demanded that UN peacekeepers be deployed. And yet
President Bashir and the Government of Sudan are standing in the way of that UN deployment, daring the international community to live up to its responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves. If this pattern continues, and more innocent lives are jeopardized as a result, the world must act.