With an estimated 30,000 killed, and two million displaced by Arab militias in Darfur, western Sudan, the U.S. has vowed to increase pressure on the Khartoum government to stop human rights atrocities in the region, despite any negative effects this may have on the recent peace agreement between the government and the southern SPLM/A rebels let by John Garang.
The May 26th signing of three key protocols on power-sharing and oil revenue distribution by the government of Sudan and the SPLM/A has been hailed as a solid opportunity to end the 21 year civil-war that has devastated the country and left over two million Sudanese dead. But as fighting between the north and the south has died down, conflict has erupted in the west.
Many believe the Khartoum government is taking advantage of the United States' desire to see an end to the civil war as a chance to crush the armed opposition in Darfur, which has emerged as a greater threat than the SPLM/A posed. A solution the north-south conflict has proved extremely elusive in the past, and, if achieved, would provide the Bush administration with an important success story in Africa.
At a U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Briefing on Tuesday entitled "Sudan: Peace But at What Price", Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) sought to dispell this notion. "Some of our friends are reportedly concerned that confronting Khartoum too directly about atrocities in Darfur will jeopardize any prospect for lasting peace in southern Sudan," he said. "They may be right. But if hundreds of thousands of lives are the price of peace in southern Sudan, the price is too high."
At the same briefing, Acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Charles Snyder said the US government "cannot and will not lessen pressure on the Government of Sudan and allow what is happening in Darfur to continue in order to achieve a north-south peace accord." He added that the US government is exploring actions that it could take, including the freezing of Sudanese assets in the US and the prohibiting of the issuance of visas to those responsible for the atrocities in Darfur.
With the rainy season approaching in Sudan, USAID has estimated that as many as 350,000 Sudanese could die if aid agencies don't act immediately. Flooding will impede the transportation of vital medicines and food aid, delivery of which has already proved difficult because of strict customs procedures. Humanitarian access to the west of the country has improved but is still vastly insufficient, as many are forced to wait extended periods of time for entry visas.
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In his opening statement at the hearing, Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) called on the administration to request a budget supplemental to "provide the funds necessary to address the humanitarian crisis." After a pledge by USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios of $188.5 million at a donor's conference on June 3, the planned US contribution to the region totals $300 million.
Yet even if the Sudanese government lifted all impediments to humanitarian access, allowing the millions of dollars of pledged-aid to reach the needy populations, there would still exist the problem of security on the ground. An influx of food and medicine to Darfur without a proportional increase in security would only give government-backed 'jinjaweed' militias additional motivation to raid and pilfer more frequently, non-governmental organizations argue.
In his address to the Senate hearing, John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group said "the current approach to preventing famine and further atrocities simply will not succeed." He suggests that Congress and the Bush administration work both through the UN and unilaterally to increase aid to Darfur, while also putting an end to the atrocities there and pushing for a sustainable peace.
