Darfur (Continuación)

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By John McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona and Bob Dole, a longtime senator from Kansas and the 1996 Republican presidential nominee (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/09/06):

In 1995, the writing was on the wall. The conflict in Bosnia was escalating. Tens of thousands of civilians had been driven from their homes and were trapped in places the United Nations had designated as "safe areas," including Srebrenica. Only a few hundred poorly equipped U.N. peacekeepers stood between those civilians and Bosnian Serb forces. The Serbs had signaled their defiance of the United Nations, their disdain for diplomatic overtures and their determination to advance on the safe areas and finish the job of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Par Pierre Prier, grand reporter au service étranger du Figaro (LE FIGARO, 05/09/06):

Pendant que l'ONU essaie de rassembler 15 000 soldats pour pacifier le petit Liban, une région grande comme la France aurait bien besoin, elle aussi, de Casques bleus : George W. Bush a dépêché le 25 août dernier un émissaire au Soudan, Jendayi Frazer, secrétaire d'État adjoint pour les Affaires africaines, pour convaincre Khartoum d'accepter le déploiement d'une force de paix de l'ONU au Darfour. Sans succès. Le 31 août, le Conseil de sécurité est passé outre l'opposition du gouvernement soudanais et a approuvé le déploiement d'une force onusienne au Darfour.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College (THE WASHINGTON POST, 03/09/06):

In the face of ongoing genocide in Darfur, the international community's failure to accept the "responsibility to protect" (that's United Nations language, officially adopted) innocent civilian lives has taken its last, abject form. The National Islamic Front (NIF) regime in Khartoum, made up of the very men who have for more than three years orchestrated the systematic destruction of Darfur's African tribal populations, has been told directly and unambiguously that there will be no U.N. peacemaking force without its consent.

In the revealing words of British U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, Khartoum's agreement to U.N.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Nick Grono is vice president of the International Crisis Group. John Prendergast is a senior adviser to the group (International Herald Tribune, 22/08/06):

Hard though it is to believe, the horrific humanitarian situation in Darfur is getting worse. There are more clashes now than a year ago, the number of rapes has steadily climbed and humanitarian workers are being attacked. The Darfur Peace Agreement, signed in May, is on the verge of collapse, and more than two million people continue to languish in refugee camps.

Meanwhile the United Nations and its member states fiddle, gently trying to persuade the government of Sudan to accept a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, but getting nowhere.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By James M. Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust (THE TIMES, 11/07/06):

A COUNTDOWN of less than 90 days has begun until the vulnerable people of Darfur are abandoned by world leaders who cannot make a decision — whether to protect them or leave them at the mercy of a Government that has killed at least a quarter of a million and driven millions more from their land. The scene is set for the world’s worst humanitarian crisis to tip from bad to worse.

The head of the African Union mission to Darfur, Baba Gana Kingibe, has said it is willing to hold the fort in Darfur until the end of the year.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Wole Soyinka, escritor y galardonado con el Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1986, y David L. Phillips, director ejecutivo de la Fundación Elie Wiesel para la Humanidad (EL PAÍS, 06/07/06):

Las perspectivas de paz en Darfur se desvanecen porque el Gobierno de Sudán está saboteando los esfuerzos internacionales para ayudar y proteger a las víctimas del conflicto. El presidente Omar Hassan al Bashir no sólo se ha negado a permitir que Naciones Unidas despliegue una fuerza de paz, sino que además su gobierno ha rechazado una solicitud de varios premios Nobel para visitar Sudán. A Sudán le interesa permitir la entrada de los observadores internacionales en Darfur.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Julie Flint is the co-author of Darfur: A Short History of a Long War (NEW YORK TIMES, 17/06/06):

AS the peace talks for the Darfur region of Sudan drew to a close last month, the United States took over the task of defining the solution. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick flew into Abuja, Nigeria, where the talks were being held, on May 2 and three days later the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed. The only trouble is, the United States is backing the most abusive rebel leader in Darfur.

The response to the peace agreement was tepid in Abuja. But it was far cooler in Darfur, where the agreement is widely viewed as a peace between two criminal elements: the Sudanese government and Minni Arcua Minnawi, the leader of the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army that is drawn mainly from the Zaghawa tribe.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Alan J. Kuperman, an assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Texas, is an editor of "Gambling on Humanitarian Intervention: Moral Hazard, Rebellion and Civil War." (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 31/05/06):

THOUSANDS of Americans who wear green wristbands and demand military intervention to stop Sudan's Arab government from perpetrating genocide against black tribes in Darfur must be perplexed by recent developments.

Without such intervention, Sudan's government last month agreed to a peace accord pledging to disarm Arab janjaweed militias and resettle displaced civilians. By contrast, Darfur's black rebels, who are touted by the wristband crowd as freedom fighters, rejected the deal because it did not give them full regional control.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Jaccky Mamou, presidente del colectivo Urgence Dafur y ex presidente de la organización Médicos del Mundo (EL MUNDO, 25/05/06):

Mientras la comunidad internacional acaba de conmemorar el duodécimo aniversario del genocidio de Ruanda y, con la mano en el corazón, jura que algo así no se puede volver a repetir nunca más, en el oeste de Sudán continúan produciéndose desde hace más de tres años los asesinatos, las violaciones, los saqueos y los desplazamientos forzosos de las poblaciones africanas negras de Four, Massalit y Zaghawa.

Para reprimir a los pequeños grupos armados surgidos en estas poblaciones, el Gobierno de Jartum ha reforzado sus medios militares, armando a las milicias janjawids, reclutadas entre las tribus nómadas que se sienten orgullosas de su arabidad.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Anthony Lake, a professor at Georgetown, was a national security adviser to President Bill Clinton and Francis Fukuyama, a professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins, is the author of "America at the Crossroads." (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 21/05/06):

FOR three years, despite the official rhetoric and the growing public support for bold international action to end the first genocide of the 21st century, Darfur has largely remained a neglected tragedy.

Until now. With the signing of a peace agreement in Nigeria on May 5, Darfur, in western Sudan, faces a new and more hopeful prospect. Although two of the main rebel groups did not sign the accord, the Sudanese government and the largest insurgent faction did.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Jonathan Steele (THE GUARDIAN, 05/05/06):

By the time you read this, there may be good news from Africa. A peace agreement could have been signed for Darfur, the place often compared with Rwanda as a cause for international shame because warnings of genocide went unheeded. If done by last night's midnight deadline, a deal will surprise most people, since with very few exceptions the world's press has ignored the negotiations that have been inching forward under African Union (AU) mediation in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

I call it the Darfur Disconnect. One TV reporter after another does the standard tour into Sudan's western region, guided by rebel groups.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Dr Paul Moorcraft, a former Ministry of Defence policy expert, is director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Analysis; he has been visiting Sudan regularly for 10 years (THE GUARDIAN, 06/04/06):

If there is a world journalism record for being arrested by Sudan's dictatorial government, I probably hold it: I was detained on the first morning of my first visit. Despite many less eventful subsequent visits to Sudan, I remain very wary of the regime.Nevertheless, Khartoum does have a point about the dangers of western military intervention in Darfur. In February President Bush, during an unscripted question-and-answer session in Florida, suggested an expanded international role in Darfur, with "Nato stewardship" of a UN force there.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Par Jack Straw, Secrétaire au Foreign Office (LE FIGARO, 09/03/06):

La crise qui sévit au Darfour depuis trois ans a déjà fait entre 70 000 et 400 000 morts. Seul un règlement politique qui en prenne en compte les causes profondes pourra y mettre fin. C'est le but que sont censées poursuivre les parties en présence aux pourparlers de paix actuellement en cours à Abuja, devant qui je me suis exprimé mardi. Le Royaume-Uni soutient ce processus de paix, et j'ai annoncé la semaine dernière que nous dégagerions une enveloppe supplémentaire d'un million de livres à son endroit.

Les précédents pourparlers ont permis quelques avancées.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Kofi A. Annan, secretary general of the United Nations (THE WHASINGTON POST, 24/01/06 - EL PAÍS, 03/02/06):

Cuando visité Darfur el pasado mayo me sentí esperanzado. Hoy soy pesimista, a menos que se logre organizar otra gran campaña internacional en las próximas semanas. En mayo visité una aldea cuyos habitantes habían regresado después de huir de la violencia, y vivían con relativa seguridad gracias a la presencia de los soldados de la Unión Africana (UA). Es cierto que no era más que un comienzo. Gran parte de la vasta región seguía presa de la violencia esporádica, con más de un millón de personas que todavía vivían en campamentos.…  Seguir leyendo »

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How can the United States best use its monthlong turn as president of the United Nations Security Council, which it assumes tomorrow? It could start by devoting itself to ending the violence in the Darfur region of western Sudan — violence that President Bush has characterized as genocide.

There is precedent for such action. The last time the United States assumed the rotating presidency of the 15-member Security Council, it made a real contribution to peace in the region. John C. Danforth, then the ambassador to the United Nations, brought the entire Security Council to Kenya to pressure the government in Khartoum and the insurgents in the south to end their 21-year civil war.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Nat Hentoff, escritora (GEES, 16/01/06):

Mientras los líderes de China, Rusia y los países árabes evitan lo que pasa por sus conciencias desde Darfur, un líder espiritual, el Papa Benedicto, sí habló al mundo acerca de los constantes crímenes contra la humanidad en Sudán a los que raramente se presta atención en la continua corriente de los medios. Decía el Papa Benedicto al arzobispo de Jartoum en la Ciudad del Vaticano el 28 de noviembre: “El horror de los acontecimientos que se desarrollan en Darfur señala la necesidad de una resolución internacional más firme para garantizar la seguridad y los derechos humanos básicos”.…  Seguir leyendo »