[Mb-civic] UN force urgently needed in Darfur - Linda Mason - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

  UN force urgently needed in Darfur

By Linda Mason  |  March 9, 2006  |  The Boston Globe

TWO WEEKS AGO, while in Darfur, Sudan, I accompanied an African Union 
military protection unit on a seven-hour patrol. The patrol that day 
went out to accompany and protect women as they searched for firewood as 
far as 15 kilometers, more than 9 miles, from the camp where they have 
been living since their villages were destroyed by government-backed 
militia two years ago.

The patrol proceeded without incident. We passed several groups of camel 
nomads, undoubtedly armed, but none approached. As I remarked to the 
commander about the effectiveness of this patrol, he answered, ''Yes, 
but we are bulls without horns."

This commander, as well as every other African Union officer I spoke 
with in Darfur, acknowledged the organization's limited impact -- their 
mandate is too narrow, their numbers are too small, and their logistic, 
light armament, and communication support are grossly insufficient.

Nearly 18 months after then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell first 
labeled the war in Darfur a genocide, the Bush administration now 
appears to realize that the cease-fire monitors have been ''protection 
on the cheap," as one diplomat stated, and cannot solve this crisis. Of 
the estimated 300,000 who have been killed to date, up to one-half have 
died since Powell's statement.

During my most recent trip to Darfur in February I spent my time 
primarily with African Union forces on their military bases and on a 
military patrol. Generally, the organization succeeds in stabilizing 
displacement camps, dramatically reducing the number of women who are 
attacked and raped as they leave their camps to gather firewood.

However, 2 million Sudanese -- fully a third of Darfur's population -- 
are virtual prisoners in the squalid camps in which they have sought 
refuge. They cannot return to their lands for fear of the renegade 
militia that now roam the countryside and perimeters of the camps, 
attacking, plundering, and raping at will.

African Union officers state that their mandate only allows troops to 
observe and monitor; they do not intervene in conflicts. Both 
government-backed forces and rebel troops know this; fighting has 
continued on all fronts with impunity. Colonel Kamili, the Rwandan 
sector commander in Zalengei, Darfur, recounted to me how just one week 
earlier he went to investigate an outbreak of fighting in Jebel Marra 
and was turned back by a rebel roadblock. He felt he could do no more 
than return to his base and file a report.

In addition, African Union forces are grossly underequipped; the 
region's various militia are far better armed. One commander in southern 
Darfur, Lieutenant Colonel Dibba, reported to me that he has 136 troops 
in his military protection force. However, he has only five vehicles, 
one of which has been broken for months. They can only send out one 
patrol a day in three vehicles. The vehicles have radios, but there is 
no base station. They keep one vehicle in the base parking lot to 
communicate with the patrol.

This same military protection unit has just one satellite phone, but 
they operate with prepaid credit and they rapidly use up their monthly 
allotted minutes in the first week or two. They have only one 
interpreter for the 136 troops. It is impossible to communicate, let 
alone protect and enforce peace.

At the nearby 14,000-resident displacement camp, I heard countless 
stories of people being attacked and raped when they left the settlement 
to collect firewood or to attempt to return to their lands to farm. Just 
two days earlier, two women were assaulted by armed men on camelback. 
They ran back in such terror that one woman arrived in the camp with the 
skin on her feet completely torn off.

In recent months, the security situation throughout Darfur has further 
deteriorated. With Sudanese government forces and rebel groups 
continuing to attack, and with armed brigands becoming increasingly 
emboldened, the African Union has limited capacity to respond and has 
done little to slow the spiraling increase in violence and attacks -- 
with humanitarian groups and the forces themselves increasingly the target.

Recent proposals by President Bush and US Ambassador to the United 
Nations John Bolton are critically important -- and overdue -- and must 
be implemented:

The UN must supplement African Union forces with additional troops, for 
a total force of 15,000 to 20,000 soldiers.

While the UN provides this additional force, NATO needs to increase 
technical and logistical support and donor nations need to offer 
additional troops and equipment.

The UN force's mandate needs to be a stronger Chapter 7 status, meaning 
that peacekeepers can intervene in conflicts and actively enforce the 
cease-fire agreement.

Bush's $514 million supplemental funding request to Congress for Darfur 
peacekeeping and humanitarian aid must be passed without delay.

There is a strong consensus among African Union officers that a UN force 
is the answer. When I asked Colonel Raji, the Nigerian commanding 
officer in Nyala, if he felt it should be African Union or UN 
peacekeepers in Darfur, he recounted to me a Nigerian fable: ''A 
villager walking down the road saw a dangerous snake but could not kill 
it. Another man from a nearby village walking by was able to seize the 
snake and kill it. It doesn't matter who kills the snake. What matters 
is that it is dead."

Linda Mason is a member of the board of Human Rights Watch and chairman 
of Bright Horizons Family Solutions.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/09/un_force_urgently_needed_in_darfur/
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