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Summary

The international response to the systematic killing, rape, displacement, and looting that have characterized the armed conflict in Darfur over the last three years has been consistently too little, too late.

The U.N. Security Council has passed several resolutions raising concerns about war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur by the Sudanese government, its security forces and government-backed “Janjaweed” militias against civilians from the same ethnic groups as the rebels in the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The Security Council has repeatedly demanded that the Sudanese government disarm its militia forces and prosecute individuals responsible for the crimes. But the Security Council has failed to take the necessary action to ensure that any of these demands are implemented.  Meanwhile, the government of Sudan has resisted providing protection for Darfur’s civilian population or seriously prosecuting the numerous international crimes committed against them, and has been consolidating “ethnic cleansing” in Darfur.

The U.N. Security Council must take urgent and decisive action to ensure that Sudanese civilians are protected. It must act on its responsibility to protect civilians and immediately secure the consent of the Sudanese government to the prompt and robust deployment of a U.N. force in Darfur.  The Council must ensure that the U.N. force has a Chapter VII mandate and has sufficient resources to enable it to restore security to the region by protecting civilians throughout Darfur, securing the population’s access to humanitarian assistance, monitoring the Security Council’s arms embargo on Darfur, supporting accountability and undertaking additional peace support tasks as the situation in Darfur stabilizes.

Securing the protection of the civilian population in Darfur will have a significant impact on broader regional security.  The ethnic cleansing that has taken place must be reversed and consultations commenced with a wide range of communities in Darfur to assure that abuses do not recur.

An international civilian protection force in Darfur will require real political support and commitment. States members of the U.N. Security Council are particularly important, but support from key regional organizations such as the European Union, the African Union, and the Arab League is also essential.

To date, the Sudanese government has succeeded in dividing and manipulating the international community to the detriment of more than 1.7 million displaced people in Darfur—as it did in Southern Sudan to the detriment of four million displaced persons during its twenty-one year war there. Without greater international pressure on the parties to the Darfur conflict, it is unlikely that there will be significant progress on civilian protection and humanitarian assistance in Darfur.