24 août 2006

Citizenship: meanwhile in Darfour...

[source: IHT]
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/21/opinion/edgrono.php

The Darfur Peace Agreement, signed in May, is on the verge of collapse, and more than two million people continue to languish in refugee camps. And Sudan has been keen to use the international crisis while international attention is tuned elsewhere...

Meanwhile the United Nations and its member states fiddle, gently trying to persuade the government of Sudan to accept a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, but getting nowhere. That's not surprising, as, over the last 15 years, constructive engagement with Khartoum has rarely produced results. Only when it has been subject to real pressure has the regime changed its behavior. It was tough UN and U.S. sanctions in the 1990s that forced Khartoum to cut its ties with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Until significant costs are imposed on it, Khartoum has no incentive to stop its current campaign of atrocities - let alone agree to the deployment of a UN force, disarm the janjaweed militias, and implement its other obligations under the Darfur Peace Agreement. UN member states must change the calculus of self-interest for the Sudanese regime, and one of the most effective ways of doing this is to target its sources of illicit income and unravel the Sudanese leadership's shadowy web of commercial interests.
Targeting the ruling party's assets and those of its security agencies and fraudulent charities could inflict real damage on the regime's ability to sustain its ethnic cleansing campaign
Appeals to Khartoum's conscience, and requests for its assistance in winding back its ethnic cleansing campaign, are destined to fail.

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