Expulsion of Journalists Underscores Critical Need for Foreign Intervention

March 5, 2006

News reports indicate that the government of Sudan has expelled foreign correspondents from within its borders. Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy believes that this action is part of an organized campaign by the Sudanese government to intimidate the international community from intervening to stop the genocide in Darfur. The proposed UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur is essential. The reluctance and slowness of powerful world actors to defend the people of Darfur will only further encourage Sudanese propaganda and attempts to block foreign intervention.

According to Scotsman.com,¹ Sudanese Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, who is one of the world’s most wanted for crimes against humanity, recently expelled foreign journalists from a press conference held in Khartoum, saying “We don’t want you in here.” He accused the journalists of spying and concocting a genocide story rather than reporting the facts. The journalists, however, were asking serious questions and reporting the obvious truth of genocide in Darfur. Such bullying is merely one component of Sudan’s campaign to prevent the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to Sudan in favor of continuing the ineffective presence of the African Union.

Supposedly oppositionist political parties in Sudan have been collaborating with the government’s anti-peacekeeper agenda. The UMA and the Democratic Unionist Party, along with the Baath Party, are helping to perpetuate the genocide in Darfur by standing with the government of Sudan in opposition to a peacekeeping mission. Even the Sudanese Communist Party opposes effective international intervention on behalf of Darfurians. Despite their nominal political independence, these parties are supporting the Arab agenda of attacking black African civilians in Darfur. Recent developments have brought this alliance to light.

Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy asks the UN not to shrink from their proposed peacekeeping mission to Darfur. The UN must keep its promises, and the US must remain committed to its responsibilities toward Darfur. We ask all Western nations and organizations, including the EU, Canada, and Australia, to demand transparency in Sudan and to support the UN peacekeeping plan. The Sudanese government spuriously mischaracterizes the proposed mission as an attempt to meddle in internal Sudanese political affairs; however, it is clear that the Western troops’ only motive would be to stop the massacre of civilians.

The African Union troops, whose mandate expired at the end of February, clearly have failed to achieve their objectives of enforcing a ceasefire and protecting civilians in Darfur. Their inaction and complacency permits the Sudanese government and Janjaweed continued access to all parts of the country to perpetrate massacres, rape women, and burn villages. If the international community were to abandon UN peacekeeping in favor of maintaining the AU mission, they would only serve the purposes of the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed Militia who have been carrying out the atrocities.

Peace cannot be established in Darfur without security on the ground, and the lives of human beings are at stake. With no ceasefire achieved or attacks stopped, the violence has spread all over Darfur. It has been especially frequent and brutal along the border between Darfur and Chad. Subsequent waves of attacks have forced refugees and civilians across the border to Chad, and then back to Darfur, with dozens killed while fleeing.

Clearly, the only solution is to send an intervening force from the UN as soon as possible. Endless discussion and successive Security Council resolutions are simply taking more time, while there is a moral imperative to act immediately. Lives depend on action right now.