Brains Like a Shoe

The post-trip writing continues.  I posted this piece today at Change.org.

Protection, Trust and UNAMID in Darfur

“We need active forces, not UNAMID. They are a tourism army,” declared a leader of an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in West Darfur. He expressed in these words the frustrations of many Darfuris whom I met during a recent week spent travelling in Darfur. Another former state minister complained that the United Nations/African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) was “only good at writing reports in their air-conditioned offices.” With news that violence was flaring in the Jebel Marra area of Darfur and that UNAMID lacked the full authority to investigate the reports of civilian causalities and mass displacement there, these complaints certainly resonated.

Such blame, while understandable, should not be directed at those courageously serving or leading UNAMID. The Sudanese government and Darfuri rebel movements continue to prevent UNAMID from fully carrying out its mandate. The UN Security Council sent UNAMID to keep a peace that did not exist – a common refrain from those associated with the mission. In practice, this reality means that UNAMID can only carry out its Chapter 7 mandate and other duties to protect civilians with the consent of the Sudanese government. Only after you have sat in a UNAMID convoy as it passed through a Sudanese Armed Forces checkpoint do you understand the inherent restrictions on the mission.

Read the rest at Change.org

Since I returned from Sudan, I have been busy writing. Here is a piece I posted today at Foreign Policy’s new Middle East Channel.

What the Islamic Conference got wrong on Darfur

Members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) pledged $850 million dollars for future development in Darfur on Sunday in Cairo. Egypt and Turkey co-chaired the donor’s conference–which aimed to jumpstart international commitment to long-term reconstruction and development in Darfur after seven years of conflict, mass displacement, and humanitarian crisis. Some countries making generous pledges willfully ignored the ongoing security challenges and unresolved conflict between the Darfuri rebels and the Sudanese government. In this way, the OIC–like the League of Arab States in its response to the Darfur crisis–sought to help the people of Darfur without addressing those most responsible for their deplorable conditions.

Read the rest at Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel

And here is a piece on the Darfur peace process that I posted at Huffington Post.

Darfuri Civil Society: Still Missing from the Table

“This step constitutes a strong and vital addition to efforts to bring peace in Darfur,” declared Sudan’s Second Vice President Ali Osman Taha in Doha yesterday, after signing a framework agreement with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM). That may be true, but as I wrote last week, peace in Darfur remains a long way off.

Read the rest at Huffington Post

Abou Shouk Camp, near El-Fasher (Save Darfur/Mark Lotwis)

First posted at Save Darfur…

A month ago in one of my first meetings in Khartoum, I sat through an extended lecture from Dr. Hasabu Abdel-Rahman, the Humanitarian Aid Commissioner.  For more than an hour, he extolled the ability of the Sudanese state to provide for the millions of displaced in Darfur and sharply critiqued the international humanitarian assistance efforts.  It was his opinion that Darfur is well on its way to a full recovery. He shot out statistic after statistic to make his case, including that over 1.2 million Darfuris had returned home from 2007 to 2009 – a number flatly denied by numerous sources during the rest of our trip.

Dr. Hasabu also wanted us to know that international NGOs lack appropriate transparency mechanisms . He complained that while the Sudanese government is forced to sign numerous “treaties” and documents holding them accountable for international assistance that donors and NGOs act with few constraints.  His argument carried with it the implicit accusation that one of his employees made directly when we visited Abou Shouk camp outside of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.  This man argued with a straight face that 80% of the budget of INGOs goes to administrative costs and only 20% go to services for the people. He said that these organizations are making millions off of the suffering in Darfur.

Therefore, I found it highly ironic yesterday when I read a story in the Sudan Tribune about Dr. Hasabu:

The Sudanese cabinet issued an unannounced decision to investigate the disappearance of 10 billion pounds from the ministry of humanitarian affairs, a newspaper reported today.

The Akhir-Lahza newspaper said that the council of Ministers wants a probe into the performance of the ministry and the relationship between the minister and the state minister.

Furthermore the report indicated that the humanitarian aid commissioner Hasabu Abdel-Rahman has been relieved from his duties but did not say when the decision was taken. The Sudanese official is running for parliamentary elections and is therefore prohibited from keeping his position at the ministry.

The newspaper quoted reliable sources saying that issue is an outcome of what it called the chaos in decision-making within the ministry and spoke unaccounted funds including eight billion pounds earmarked for the emergency program, two billion pounds for humanitarian action.

I hope Dr. Hasabu takes care in his own involuntary return.

Just posted this piece at Foreign Policy’s new Middle East Channel.

Peace in Darfur: still a long way off

It is too early to tell – but the “framework agreement” recently signed between the Government of Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the most effective armed rebel movement in Darfur, offers some hope for peace in Darfur. The commitment to an immediate ceasefire and reaching a final accord by March 15 advances the dialogue further than at any point since May 2006 – when President Omar al-Bashir’s government signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) with what was then considered the strongest of the movements. The problems with that agreement are the same as those threatening the current talks: the fragmentation of the movements and questions about the sincerity of the Sudanese government.

Read the rest here.

First posted at Save Darfur’s blog…

My colleagues Jerry Fowler and Mark Lotwis left Sudan last Friday heading back to Washington.  In order to set up a few more meetings in the South, I stayed on in Juba. Little did we know President Omar al-Bashir and his entourage of advisors and security agents would be coming to town—and staying in the same modest hotel as the Save Darfur delegation, in the very wing where Jerry had been sleeping.

Over the weekend, I had heard that Bashir would be traveling to Juba and a few other towns in the South to campaign.  In my mind, I imagined a quick dash by motorcade from the airport to a rally in Juba and then a few darts by plane to some other choice locations in the Greater Equatoria states.

So I was quite surprised when early Monday afternoon, I was confronted by a newly erected roadblock in front of my hotel.  Initially, the mix of police and security officials told me that I could not pass. When I explained that I was staying at the hotel beyond their checkpoint, they quickly scanned my backpack and then gave me strict instructions on how to walk to the next crowd of security personnel suddenly stationed in front of hotel gate.  After another round of negotiations that involved coaxing hotel staff out to verify my claims, I was finally permitted to enter the foyer—where I was promptly urged by a security guard to take my room key and, like a misbehaving child, go straight to my room.

Read the rest of this entry