For the first time in history, an arrest warrant has been issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for an acting Head of State. On March 4, President Omar al Bashir of Sudan was charged with seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Congratulations world. We finally acknowledged that a man who has orchestrated the genocide of more than 300,000 people and the displacement of nearly 2.7 million people should be punished. But this begs the question: who is going to arrest him? And more importantly, who will bring peace to Darfur? With no Jack Bauer-led ICC police force in existence, the responsibility falls to a motley crew called the African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur (known as UNAMID). However, only with a more robust mandate, more troops and better co-ordination with aid organizations could they possibly become Darfur’s saviour.
Unfortunately, due to the overriding right to sovereignty, foreign forces can only enter Sudan with permission from the criminal in question or by military invasion endorsed by the UN Security Council. Considering Sudan has a 394,250 member army ed by 95,000 reserve troops, not to mention tanks, fighter jets and helicopters kindly supplied by China in exchange for oil and influence, I doubt anyone currently has the balls to try.
Somehow, in the midst of a tense political climate, UNAMID deployed, with the consent of the Sudanese Government, an African-only peacekeeping force to Darfur in 2007, a full four years after the conflict began. The force currently totals about 15,179 uniformed personnel; however, the effectiveness of UNAMID is questionable.
Currently, UNAMID’s primary mandate is to contribute to the protection of civilian populations under imminent threat of physical violence and to provide for and monitor violations of the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement, in which the rebel groups and the Government made what now seems to be an irrelevant promise to stop all violence. This mandate has allowed UNAMID to set up 29 bases near Darfur communities and internally displaced person (IDP) camps for logistical help and monitoring, but the force is restricted from engaging combatants as it is sworn to neutrality.
UNAMID’s mandate needs to make protection of civilians its top priority. Its bases need to encom and actively guard (not just patrol) refugee camps so that they are safe from attack. Just like in Rwanda in 1994, there are too many stories of peacekeepers watching atrocities occurring outside their bases. UNAMID’s mandate will only change if the Responsibility to Protect doctrine (R2P) is accepted after being stalled indefinitely in the United Nations. R2P is legislation that, if ratified, would allow the international community to override a state’s sovereignty if a government is unable to provide adequate protection to its citizens. UNAMID needs a stronger mandate, invoking R2P, which would allow them to get in between militants and citizens and to return fire when fired upon. Now that the genocidal Sudanese President has been publicly charged with crimes against his citizens, R2P legislation makes more sense than ever.
Although the Sudanese government has had no problem lashing out against peacekeepers from time to time, this has occurred only in small, isolated incidents. The number of incidents would only decrease if UNAMID reached or sured its fully mandated size of 26,000. And, fearing international retaliation from neighbouring countries who have invested troops in the UN force, the Sudanese government would not risk an all-out clash with UNAMID. More IDP camps must be set up, as they are currently critically overcrowded. With enough UNAMID camps, Darfurians will experience a larger peaceful zone, necessary to start rebuilding their lives.
Although UNAMID provides protection and logistical for aid organizations, it does not actually provide aid itself. With the early March expulsion of 13 aid organizations from Darfur in response to the ICC arrest warrant, the 2.7 million people relying on this aid will soon experience a drastic shortage of food and medical supplies. The aid organizations need to be brought back with adequate supplies and proper co-ordination so that IDP camps are sustained by aid organizations and protected by a robust UNAMID force.
Mr. al Bashir only let UNAMID into his country because of the weak mandate. Now that UNAMID is on the ground and operational, they need to use the momentum from the ICC indictment and invoke R2P to strengthen their mandate and show Mr. al Bashir that they aren’t leaving until the genocide has stopped—whether he likes it or not.
Lee Hodgkinson is the co-president of Queen’s Students Taking Action Now: Darfur. Learn more from a discussion, Mar. 26 at 6 p.m. in Dunning Hall, room 12.
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