14/09/06, Roméo Dallaire, History will judge Canada, not Sudan, on the fate of Darfur
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The international mission to rescue those in Darfur from mass murder, systematic violence and starvation at the hands of armed militia and bandits has stalled. Why has there been this impasse when most of the pieces needed to address the crisis are already in place?
The Darfur peace agreement was signed in May by most of the parties in the conflict, including the Khartoum government. The United Nations Security Council recently passed Resolution 1706, authorizing a UN peacekeeping force for Darfur with a mandate to protect civilians.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan released a detailed report in July about the horrific conditions in Darfur since the conflict began three-and-a-half years ago. Recently, Mr. Annan publicly denounced the Sudan government for both its refusal to allow a UN force to take over from the beleaguered 7,000 African Union troops, and its threat to expel the AU force at the end of this month.
The easy answer is for the world to point to the Khartoum government and say, "They won't let us in." But while Sudan's refusal to allow a UN mission is despicable and cruel, and while every effort should be made to exert diplomatic pressure on Sudan to consent to the deployment, Canadians need to realize that a large part of Sudan's intransigence can be directly linked to our own government's unwillingness to accept leadership of the UN mission to Darfur.
One of the underlying justifications of Sudan's refusal to accept a UN mission is its professed fear that letting the United Nations in means letting the United States and other major powers into the area.
Canadian inaction enables the Sudanese to continue balking on this point. It is not only the responsibility of the U.S. and other Security Council members to solve the crisis in Darfur. Their efforts to protect the millions of displaced and menaced people living in Darfur by passing Resolution 1706 have been commendable. It now falls to Canada, as a leader of the world's middle powers, to take charge of the mission, prepare for deployment of Canadian Forces and rally other middle powers -- such as Japan, Germany, India, Brazil, and the Scandinavian countries -- to commit the resources and troops needed to stop the slaughter.
Canada's reputation as a leading global citizen, earned through diplomacy and our ability to send highly trained soldiers abroad, is at stake. As we decide our next step toward Darfur, we must resolve to prevent disgracing that tradition.
So what's holding Canada back?
Certainly, it's not an absence of legal or ethical grounds to undertake the mission. In addition to the authority approved by Security Council Resolution 1706, the Canadian-initiated doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was adopted by the United Nations one year ago. If anything, Canada now has a moral responsibility to walk the walk.
Does Canada lack the soldiers for a meaningful mission to Darfur? No. In fact, Defence Department policy planners wrote to Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor in February that "the Canadian Forces currently have the capacity to maintain two land task forces for potential deployment to two different theatres of operation."
One of these is already doing important work in Afghanistan. A second task force of 1,200 troops, the minister was told, "forms the basis for contingency planning for other possible missions the government may wish to consider." Such as Darfur.
What's lacking is political will, and what's needed is for ordinary Canadians to shout to their politicians that they will not accept the shame of failing to act in Darfur, where 200,000 people have already been killed, tens of thousands of women and girls raped, and millions displaced to squalid camps, where they huddle in fear, underfed and without medical care, waiting to be attacked and butchered by armed militia.
This Sunday, ordinary Canadians will have an opportunity to raise their voices and express Canada's true conscience regarding the tragedy in Darfur. That day, which marks the one year anniversary of the UN's adoption of the R2P doctrine, has been designated "Global Day for Darfur," when rallies in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Halifax and other cities around the world will voice humanity's commitment to the people of Darfur.
After the Rwandan genocide in 1994, world leaders tried to excuse their failure to act by saying, "We didn't know." In 2006, we all know about the plight of Darfur's people, and on Sunday, the people of the world need to remind their leaders that the massacre in Sudan is there for all to see. No more excuses.
Senator Roméo Dallaire is a retired lieutenant-general and former commander of the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda.
The Darfur peace agreement was signed in May by most of the parties in the conflict, including the Khartoum government. The United Nations Security Council recently passed Resolution 1706, authorizing a UN peacekeeping force for Darfur with a mandate to protect civilians.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan released a detailed report in July about the horrific conditions in Darfur since the conflict began three-and-a-half years ago. Recently, Mr. Annan publicly denounced the Sudan government for both its refusal to allow a UN force to take over from the beleaguered 7,000 African Union troops, and its threat to expel the AU force at the end of this month.
The easy answer is for the world to point to the Khartoum government and say, "They won't let us in." But while Sudan's refusal to allow a UN mission is despicable and cruel, and while every effort should be made to exert diplomatic pressure on Sudan to consent to the deployment, Canadians need to realize that a large part of Sudan's intransigence can be directly linked to our own government's unwillingness to accept leadership of the UN mission to Darfur.
One of the underlying justifications of Sudan's refusal to accept a UN mission is its professed fear that letting the United Nations in means letting the United States and other major powers into the area.
Canadian inaction enables the Sudanese to continue balking on this point. It is not only the responsibility of the U.S. and other Security Council members to solve the crisis in Darfur. Their efforts to protect the millions of displaced and menaced people living in Darfur by passing Resolution 1706 have been commendable. It now falls to Canada, as a leader of the world's middle powers, to take charge of the mission, prepare for deployment of Canadian Forces and rally other middle powers -- such as Japan, Germany, India, Brazil, and the Scandinavian countries -- to commit the resources and troops needed to stop the slaughter.
Canada's reputation as a leading global citizen, earned through diplomacy and our ability to send highly trained soldiers abroad, is at stake. As we decide our next step toward Darfur, we must resolve to prevent disgracing that tradition.
So what's holding Canada back?
Certainly, it's not an absence of legal or ethical grounds to undertake the mission. In addition to the authority approved by Security Council Resolution 1706, the Canadian-initiated doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was adopted by the United Nations one year ago. If anything, Canada now has a moral responsibility to walk the walk.
Does Canada lack the soldiers for a meaningful mission to Darfur? No. In fact, Defence Department policy planners wrote to Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor in February that "the Canadian Forces currently have the capacity to maintain two land task forces for potential deployment to two different theatres of operation."
One of these is already doing important work in Afghanistan. A second task force of 1,200 troops, the minister was told, "forms the basis for contingency planning for other possible missions the government may wish to consider." Such as Darfur.
What's lacking is political will, and what's needed is for ordinary Canadians to shout to their politicians that they will not accept the shame of failing to act in Darfur, where 200,000 people have already been killed, tens of thousands of women and girls raped, and millions displaced to squalid camps, where they huddle in fear, underfed and without medical care, waiting to be attacked and butchered by armed militia.
This Sunday, ordinary Canadians will have an opportunity to raise their voices and express Canada's true conscience regarding the tragedy in Darfur. That day, which marks the one year anniversary of the UN's adoption of the R2P doctrine, has been designated "Global Day for Darfur," when rallies in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Halifax and other cities around the world will voice humanity's commitment to the people of Darfur.
After the Rwandan genocide in 1994, world leaders tried to excuse their failure to act by saying, "We didn't know." In 2006, we all know about the plight of Darfur's people, and on Sunday, the people of the world need to remind their leaders that the massacre in Sudan is there for all to see. No more excuses.
Senator Roméo Dallaire is a retired lieutenant-general and former commander of the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda.
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