Extension of African Union Mission Frustrates Efforts for More Effective Intervention

March 13, 2006

The African Union’s peacekeeping mandate in Darfur has been extended for six months, undermining world-wide efforts to initiate a stronger, more effective intervention to stop the genocide in Darfur. The AU mission is too small and under-funded and has thus failed in its mission to protect civilians in Darfur.

Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy is dismayed to know that the United Nations, United States, European Union, and rest of the international community are not willing to become involved in a serious effort to stop the genocide, even in the face of recent escalations by the government and Janjaweed. The AU mission ensures neither transparency nor accountability in Darfur. The Sudanese government, through the use of threats, propaganda, and intransigence, has successfully shelved an effective intervention in favor of this token force. As a result, the murder and destruction in Darfur assuredly will continue.

Damanga Coalition maintains that intervention by UN or other Western peacekeepers is the only way to stop the genocide in Darfur. The extension of the AU mission is the repetition of a failed tactic that enables perpetrators of genocide to continue their crimes in the presence of a weak international actor. To extend the AU mandate rather than deploy a more robust and capable international force suggests a greater interest in appearing to intervene meaningfully rather than in actually doing so. Damanga Coalition believes the UN is failing in its purpose as a facilitator of peace, and that the world has plainly decided to await more killing and more violence before responding in a serious manner.

The Arab League nations also have only pretended to work with the AU to protect the people of Darfur, and have addressed the Darfur situation only when it appears that a Western intervention is likely. The Arab League has taken no initiative to halt the activities of Sudan’s Arab regime or the Arab Janjaweed. They have consistently placed ethnic ties above the human rights of the people of Darfur. If the international community truly believes that Arab League and AU cooperation will stop the genocide or in any way serve the people of Darfur, then they are fooling themselves. To place such trust in these organizations is a major mistake.

International comity should not supersede the need to protect the lives of the civilian population in Darfur. The UN must accept responsibility for further events on the ground in Darfur that take place as a consequence of this decision to extend the AU mandate. That extension came with no guarantee of ceasefire or effort to disarm the Janjaweed and other forces working with the government. We strongly urge the UN, US, and EU to live up to their responsibility to use their strength and resources to stop this genocide. It is not possible to ignore these events without accepting some degree of responsibility.