Sudán (Continuación)

Over the past three years, more than 400,000 people have perished in the Darfur genocide. Fighting has intensified in recent months as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have faltered. The government in Khartoum bears principal responsibility for the continued killing, but recently an unexpected obstacle to ending the bloodshed has emerged: the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Critics of the ICC predicted early on that it would be more a hindrance than a help to ending most conflicts. The threat of prosecution would rarely motivate both parties to stop fighting, they argued, but in many cases it would be powerful enough to convince at least one side that it was better off continuing to fight.…  Seguir leyendo »

You might have read newspaper articles about the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur, or seen images on television of refugees languishing in camps, and thought: "What does any of this have to do with me, and besides what could I actually do to help?" After all, these atrocities are taking place 7,000 miles away, and responding to mass violence against civilians is the responsibility of big bureaucratic agencies such as the United Nations, right?

The answer to these questions says a lot about the power that U.S. citizens have to effect change in other parts of the world. If you look closely at the international community's response to the Sudanese government's decision to unleash the murderous janjaweed militias on its own citizens in Darfur, and against civilians in neighboring Chad, you will find that ordinary U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

More than two years ago I met three women fleeing from Darfur to Chad. Their villages were burnt, they saw their husbands and children killed, and they were then gang raped, leaving two pregnant.

After trite words of sympathy I assured them the international community would bring protection; such atrocities would not be allowed to continue so soon after the genocide in Rwanda. World leaders who witnessed the atrocities in Darfur spoke strongly to Sudan’s Government. But the Sudanese, like the Serb nationalists a decade earlier, ignored these words and instead looked at the actions of these statesmen. The lack of action to back up the words told them they could get away with murder.…  Seguir leyendo »

By J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Chester A. Crocker, professor of strategic studies, Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, and former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (THE WASHINGTON POST, 07/11/06):

The demand by American activists for U.S.-led military intervention to halt genocide in Darfur by the Sudan government and its militia proxies is a utopian diversion that has led nowhere. Their verbal attacks on Khartoum and calls on China and Russia to stop blocking possible UN coercive action may express their frustration but do not make good foreign policy.…  Seguir leyendo »

Por Paul Kennedy, director de Estudios sobre Seguridad Internacional en la Universidad de Yale. Traducción de M. L. Rodríguez Tapia (EL PAÍS, 01/11/06):

Tuvo algo de conmovedor y anticuado el discurso que el secretario de Defensa, Donald Rumsfeld, pronunció el pasado agosto ante la Legión Americana en Salt Lake City y en el que prácticamente acusó a los partidarios de "salir corriendo" de Irak de pertenecer a la tradición, tristemente famosa, de las políticas de apaciguamiento de Neville Chamberlain en los años treinta.

¿Por qué "anticuado"? Porque, como han descubierto los estudiosos del periodo de entreguerras, la distinción tajante que hace Rumsfeld entre los cobardes apaciguadores y los valientes anti-apaciguadores (invocó el nombre de Winston Churchill) no sirve de mucho.…  Seguir leyendo »

Por Kofi A. Annan, secretario general de Naciones Unidas (EL PAÍS, 25/10/06):

El rayo de esperanza que muchos sentimos cuando se firmó el acuerdo de paz de Darfur hace cuatro meses -si bien sólo por dos de las partes- se está extinguiendo ante la reanudación de la lucha entre facciones. Incumpliendo el acuerdo, el Gobierno sudanés ha enviado a miles de soldados a Darfur y reiniciado los bombardeos.

Condeno firmemente esta escalada. El Gobierno de Sudán debería poner fin a su ofensiva de inmediato. Todas las partes deberían cumplir lo prometido y respetar las resoluciones del Consejo de Seguridad de Naciones Unidas.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Brian Brivati and Philip Spencer. They teach genocide studies at Kingston University (THE GUARDIAN, 25/10/06):

Raul Hilberg, the Holocaust historian, explained that for genocide to take place there has to be a triangle: perpetrators, victims and bystanders. In Darfur all the elements are present. We have the victims, the perpetrators, the indifference of bystanders. The issue is what will happen next: will this escalate further as civil war with crimes against humanity, or is there something different here that will bring it into the realm Hilberg describes.

Who are the victims? More than 200,000 black African Muslims have been killed in two years.…  Seguir leyendo »

Por Inocencio F. Arias, diplomático y autor de Confesiones de un diplomático: del 11-S al 11-M (EL MUNDO, 24/10/06):

Lo que aquí nos hace falta es un George Clooney. Un guaperas, además excelente actor, un productor inquieto, comprometido socialmente. Hace días, el valiente sex symbol se plantó en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU y le cantó las cuarenta. Abordó el drama de Darfur en Sudán, donde la gente muere a raudales, y dijo, más o menos, a los miembros del Consejo: sigan hablando y hablando de esto y aquello pero, como no intervengan pronto en Sudán, pueden archivar la ONU.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Adam Lebor, the author of 'Complicity with Evil: The United Nations in the Age of Modern Genocide' (THE TIMES, 24/10/06):

HAPPY BIRTHDAY United Nations, 61 today. The best present that could be given to your Secretary-General elect, Ban Ki Moon, is a copy of your charter, so that he can focus on returning the UN to its founding humanitarian principles. These, after all, are why the UN was set up and why it still exists.

The charter, ratified on October 24, 1945, aims to save “succeeding generations from the scourge of war . . . to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and nations large and small”.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Morton Abramowitz, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a former assistant secretary of state (THE WASHINGTON POST, 22/10/06):

Instead of saving Darfur's people, their advocates may be prolonging their agony. They need to consider whether a different message is required to get urgent action from the Bush administration on ending the violence. Specifically: Is it not time to go beyond urging greater pressure on Sudan and using force in the region to seek an effective negotiated peace settlement between Sudan's leader and the rebel groups in Darfur? That is a necessity in any event.

For three years nongovernmental organizations and the media have pursued a relentless campaign to persuade Western governments to stop the killing in Darfur, protect and feed its people, and get millions of refugees out of camps and back home.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Jonathan Steele (THE GUARDIAN, 06/10/06):

A cruel hoax is being perpetrated on the desperate people of Darfur. With their constant demands for UN troops to go to Sudan's western region as the only way to protect civilians, George Bush and Tony Blair are raising hopes in a grossly irresponsible way. When reality dawns and new despair takes over, Washington and London will have to take the blame.It is not just that the Khartoum government rejects the idea of UN troops. More important, Bush and Blair know that, even if Khartoum were to back down, they will not be sending US or British troops to replace the African Union (AU) force.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Susan E. Rice, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, was assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1997 to 2001, Anthony Lake, a professor at Georgetown University, was national security adviser from 1993 to 1997 and Donald M. Payne, a democratic representative from New Jersey (THE WASHINGTON POST, 02/10/06):

With Darfur set to be hit by a second wave of genocide, world leaders are shifting into diplomatic high gear. The government of Sudan flatly rejects deployment of a 22,000-strong U.N. force, knowing it would be much more effective than the African Union's, even if augmented by additional personnel as is now planned.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Alex de Waal, the author, with Julie Flint, of Darfur: A Short History of a Long War; he was an adviser to the African Union mediation for the conflict in Darfur (THE GUARDIAN, 29/09/06):

There is still a chance to protect Darfur's civilians from a further round of violence, hunger and displacement, but only if government and rebels resume peace negotiations. This means stepping back from rhetorical confrontation and empty threats of military action. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir knows that US and British saber-rattling is moralistic hyperventilation, and he has called their bluff. Finding a solution hinges on a sober assessment of what is practical, not on making Darfur a guinea pig for "the duty to protect" or a test case for a new global moral consciousness.…  Seguir leyendo »

THE NEW YORK TIMES, 28/09/06:

The United Nations selects its next secretary general this fall through a series of straw polls. The third of these — the most decisive to date — will be held today. In the vote, the 15 members of the Security Council “encourage,” “discourage” or venture “no opinion” on each of the candidates. To win, a candidate must have at least nine encouraging votes and no discouragement from any of the five permanent members of the Security Council. The winner is then presented to the General Assembly for ratification.

The Op-Ed page asked all seven candidates to respond to two questions.…  Seguir leyendo »

By James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust. Response to 'Sorry George Clooney, but...' and 'The inhumane folly...' (THE GUARDIAN, 21/09/06):

Jonathan Steele's attack on the Darfur "something must be done brigade" was reinforced by Simon Jenkins yesterday, who sought to complicate simple moral choices (Sorry George Clooney, but the last thing Darfur needs is western troops, September 19; The inhumane folly of our interventionist machismo, September 20).With Amnesty International and the Darfur Union, the Aegis Trust organised London's Day for Darfur rally on Sunday, as tens of thousands in more than 40 countries took up the call for the protection of Darfur's Africans.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Simon Jenins (THE GUARDIAN, 20/09/06):

It is official. Tony Blair says so. The United Nations, the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Clooney, Elton John and the BBC en bloc say so. It is something-must-be-done-about-Darfur week - yet again. Something had to be done two years ago, when the situation was declared "unacceptable" by Jack Straw, to which every party cried amen. The adjective has this year been upgraded to "completely unacceptable" in honour of the UN general assembly in New York, the annual bid to exhaust world supplies of lobster, Pomerol and hypocrisy.

Even by UN standards last weekend's "global day for Darfur" was cringe-worthy, ranking with the £100m squandered by the British government in Gleneagles last year to pretend to fight poverty.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Jonathan Steele (THE GUARDIAN, 19/09/06):

An air of unreality, if not cant, surrounds the latest upsurge of calls for UN troops to go into Sudan's western region of Darfur. The actor George Clooney takes to the stage at the UN security council, pleading for action. Tony Blair seizes on the issue to write letters to fellow EU leaders. In cities around the world protesters hold a "global day for Darfur" to warn of looming genocide. Is it really possible that western governments, in spite of being burned by their interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, would use force against another Muslim state?…  Seguir leyendo »

By David Aaronovitch (THE TIMES, 19/09/06):

LAST WEEK IT WAS as though we had slipped a millennium. There was Pope Benedict XVI holed up with his guards in Castelgandolfo, fearing the wrath of Muslims angered by his invocation of the words of a Byzantine emperor. It wanted only an outbreak of Catharism and a dose of the Black Death to complete the tapestry.

Hardly were the words of Three Stages in the Programme of De-Hellenisation past the pontifical lips before the offended crowds were out on the streets of Islamabad. Such gatherings are mobilised faster than the local fire brigade, giving rise to the thought that there must be — in that great city — waiting rooms full of eager men on blasphemy-alert for offence to be given.…  Seguir leyendo »

Por Esteban Beltrán Verdes, director de Amnistía Internacional España (EL CORREO DIGITAL, 17/09/06):

Este verano, África y sus conflictos han sido de nuevo los grandes olvidados de los políticos, de los medios de comunicación y de los ciudadanos. Mientras los televisores introducían en nuestras vacaciones el horror que se vivía en Líbano e Israel, la gravísima situación que viven los habitantes de Darfur, una región tan grande como Francia en el oeste de Sudán, pasaba casi inadvertida.

Nadie escuchó este verano la voz de un habitante del pueblo de Bir Kedous, entrevistado por los investigadores de Amnistía Internacional. Contaba como gritaban los yanyawid, milicias nómadas aliadas con el Gobierno: «Hemos venido a matar a los esclavos negros».…  Seguir leyendo »

By Desmond Tutu, a South African cleric and activist (THE TIMES, 17/09/06):

Here is an inconvenient fact about Africa: our genocides tend to happen away from television cameras. Almost 1m people were killed in Rwanda in 1994; 2m died in southern Sudan in the past two decades; and 4m people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have died since 1997. The totals are staggering, and hardly a column inch or minute of airtime have marked them.

On the 10th anniversary of Rwanda there was talk of never again allowing innocent civilians to be butchered with impunity. But even as the politicians were deploring the inaction of the international community, another African genocide was under way.…  Seguir leyendo »