Darfuris in Cairo

I did several interviews with Darfuri refugees here in Cairo today. Each person requested anonymity, and I understand why. Not only are they still scared for family and friends remaining in Darfur, but life for them here is not easy either. I’ll leave that issue there for now, but suffice to say, making it out of Sudan is not the end of the road in terms of hardships for these individuals. As is so often the case, I find myself in awe of the strength of those who are trying to rebuild their lives under circumstances in which I fear would lead me to simply give up.

Their voices, and the voices of many other Darfuris I have been speaking to around the world, will be woven throughout the book, but for today I just wanted to share a couple of the quotes that really struck me.

• “Some of the rebels are courageous. But many of them have shifted. They are rarely now talking about the average Darfuri person . . . Any move getting Darfuris together to talk about the future is more important than anything else right now.”

• “UNAMID is just a burden for the international community. They do some good for the IDPs when they are at the perimeters of the camps and by protecting the humanitarian aid, but when it comes to protection, they can’t do anything. They can’t protect themselves.”

• “Justice is the only way out. How else do you stop the violence?”

Finally, the saddest comment of the day for me was from a man who told me about the infrequent phone-calls he manages with the members of his family that are still in Darfur.

• “There has been so much violence they don’t even know what safety is anymore”

It is these people – regular (yet extraordinary) Darfuris – who need to be at the helm of Darfur’s future. That is what Mandate Darfur was about. The day its forced cancellation was announced I was furious, frustrated and most of all, disappointed. I did what I tend to do in such circumstances – penned an op ed.  No paper was interested, so it never saw the light of day, but the plea contained within it seems relevant to post tonight.

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Enemy of the Peace

May 9, 2009 (unpublished)

How often, over the past six years of the Darfur crisis, have representatives of the Arab League, African Union, European Union and United States all unified in support of one initiative? Never. At least that was the track record until a Darfurian civil society initiative, “Mandate Darfur”, was announced earlier this year. Now it too has been thwarted – not by divisions among a diverse international community, but by the well-rehearsed obstructionism of the Sudanese government.

Mandate Darfur was set to bring 300 delegates – “genuine representatives of Darfur . . . including traditional and young leaders and a strong contingent of Darfurian women” – together in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia next week. The initiative was launched at the request of Darfuris themselves, and was sponsored by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. On Friday, the foundation announced that: “After many months of working with Darfurian civil society to build a mandate for peace, we regret to acknowledge that the Sudanese government is obstructing the safe passage of Darfurian delegates from Sudan, forcing us to cancel the conference.”

Obstruction of this kind by the Sudanese government is nothing new. For the first 12 months of the Darfur crisis, Khartoum enforced a series of bureaucratic hurdles that prevented even the United Nations from delivering humanitarian aid to civilians in need. And this paled in comparison to Khartoum’s decision to expel 13 aid agencies in March this year. The agencies had been covering around 40% of the humanitarian needs in Darfur and they are yet to be re-admitted.

At other times, Khartoum’s obstructionism has been less obvious – but no less destructive. With regard to civilian protection, the UN Department of Peacekeeping has had to negotiate with Khartoum over each unit deployed. And the too-scarce offers of assistance from the international community have invariably taken months longer than they should have to get where they were needed. In one example, 105 Armored Personnel Carriers donated by the Canadian government to the under-resourced African Union peacekeepers sat idle for five months, because Khartoum refused to process the necessary paperwork.

Many a journalist can attest to the endless bureaucratic obstacles faced by anyone who tries to get inside Darfur to cover the conflict first-hand.  Some have experienced waiting weeks in Khartoum for a travel permit to Darfur, only to be issued one that expires the first day they can reach the war-ravaged region. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, mandated by the United Nations to investigate atrocities in Darfur, has had to conduct his entire investigation from the outside.

But these have not been the only obstacles facing the Darfuris longing for security and peace in their homeland. Their hopes have also been dashed by the disingenuous leaders of an ever-expanding number of rebel factions. These men have claimed to represent the interests of Darfuris, while invariably prioritizing their own self-interest. The Sudanese government has been skilled at exploiting this dynamic, and the result has been six long years without a serious peace process taking hold.

The Mandate Darfur initiative was the most promising venue for the true interests of Darfuris to be heard, and for the foundations of a genuine peace process to slowly be built. It is no surprise then, that Khartoum was so threatened by this prospect that it set out to sabotage the initiative. But Mandate Darfur has something that no other Darfur initiative has had to date – a diverse constituency of support that includes Khartoum’s allies.

On April 29, Arab League Chairperson, Amr Moussa, signaled the Arab League’s “total readiness to cooperate” with Mandate Darfur. The joint African Union/UN mediator,  Djibrill Bassolé, gave his support to the initiative, as did former African heads of state including Joaqim Chissano and Nelson Mandela. In expressing his support, President Obama’s Special Envoy, Scott Gration said “I believe strongly that solutions to the present conflict in Darfur must come from Darfurians themselves.” He is right. Those who have said they support Mandate Darfur must now force Khartoum to change course, and give Darfuris the chance to lead the way to peace.