ENOUGH Project (Washington, DC)
6 September 2007
press release
Washington, D.C. — The promotion of anarchy and inter-communal fighting is part and parcel of Khartoum’s genocidal counter-insurgency campaign, argue the authors of an ENOUGH Project strategy briefing released today. Chaotic conditions and increased violence in both Darfur and eastern Chad are the echoes of that genocidal policy.
John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen, respective co-chair and policy advisor to ENOUGH and co-authors of the paper, challenge recent news reports that suggest the genocidal attacks by Khartoum’s militias have largely ended and that Darfur’s agony is now borne of anarchy.
Rather, Prendergast and Thomas-Jensen argue that the regime and its assortment of militia allies and turncoat rebels continue to employ multiple tactics aimed at destroying the Darfurian opposition, permanently altering the demographics of Darfur, and denying Darfurians a meaningful role in national politics.
Click here to read “Echoes of Genocide in Darfur and Eastern Chad.
The paper states that increased fighting between and among communities has indeed occurred. But Prendergast says, “The rise in inter-communal fighting – one of the principal objectives of the genocidal counter-insurgency strategy – masks the more intentional, better resourced, and well camouflaged strategy pursued by the Sudanese regime to control Darfur and its people, within which many of those leading the fighting on the ground today are but pawns.”
Khartoum has largely managed to contain the chaos within Darfur and export it to Chad with minimal disruption to its main business: hoarding Sudan’s growing oil wealth while it undermines the landmark 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement with rebels from the South.
Meanwhile, Prendergast and Thomas-Jensen argue that chronic insecurity – the direct result of policy decisions made at the highest levels of the Sudanese government – continues to hamper efforts to alleviate worsening humanitarian conditions.
The paper elaborates policy implications from this analysis, including ensuring that negotiators better understand Khartoum’s use of negotiations as war by other means; that the AU-UN hybrid force currently planning for deployment ensure that its central focus is the protection of civilians; and that the UN Security Council and European Union be prepared to impose targeted sanctions on any government or rebel official who obstructs the peace process or hybrid force deployment.
“It is not too late to reverse the situation in Darfur and eastern Chad,” says Thomas-Jensen, “but it will require correct analysis and increased engagement on the part of key Security Council and African Union countries to ensure that the regime’s efforts to create total anarchy do not succeed.”
To read “Echoes of Genocide in Darfur and Eastern Chad,” go to http://www.enoughproject.org .
The ENOUGH Project is an initiative to end genocide and crimes against humanity
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