For last many years Darfur has become a symbol of human suffering and civil strife causing exodus of millions of refugees. Perturbed by the reported atrocities by the Khartoum supported Janjaweed militia and pressed by the European public opinion on massive refugee problem, the European Union and the United Nations are planning to send international peacekeeping force to the Darfur refugee camps in neighboring Chad.
Darfur, a semi-arid region of Western Sudan lays devastated due to a decade of war between local Christian Liberation Army and the Arab Muslim dominated Government of Sudan. All began in 2001 as a pretty scuffle between the local public and the Sudanese officials on the question of drought relief measures, control over local resources and political autonomy. The effort of Khartoum to impose Islamic laws much to the Chagrin of the Christian and tribal population of Darfur led to the full-scale civil war in 2003. The stubborn Sudanese authorities sponsored terror by arming the Janjaweed militias that led to killings, rapes and physical mutilation of thousands of innocent people.
Darfur has seen one of the highest human casualties in violence with at least 200,000 people are projected to have died. Another 2.3 million refugees hounded from their villages now lives in the camps near the border of Chad. But the forces supported by Khartoum continue to attack the refugee campsites with the motive of ethnic cleansing. Chad has been accusing Sudan backed militia as constantly attacking its border villages that led to internal displacement of 120,000 of its own citizens.
The decision to send international peacekeeping force with police power is welcome idea to provide security to the refugees. But the talks are in a preliminary stage and will take time. The French proposal for creating a human corridor from Darfur to Chad is yet to get approval by the EU. The U.N. Security Council resolution for Chad envisages a joint United Nations and African Union force in Darfur, which can’t be expected till early next year. The existing African Union force is unable to protect the lives of refugees and foreign nationals engaged in humanitarian work there. It is also accused of corruption and connivance with warring factions to loot relief material intended for the people of Darfur.
Meanwhile people of Darfur continue to suffer and the world leaders persist on planning.
Via: REUTERS
