Darfur: Reflections on the Crisis and the Responses
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Darfur: Reflections on the Crisis and the Responses Martello#35Book.indb 1 22/09/09 12:14 PM Martello#35Book.indb 2 22/09/09 12:14 PM Darfur: Reflections on the Crisis and the Responses J. Andrew Grant (ed.) Centre for International Relations, Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada 2009 Martello#35Book.indb 3 22/09/09 12:14 PM Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Darfur : reflections on the crisis and the responses / J. Andrew Grant (ed.). (Martello papers ; 35) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-55339-242-2 1. Sudan—History—Darfur Conflict, 2003-. 2. Humanitarian assistance, Canadian—Sudan—Darfur. 3. Humanitarian assistance—Sudan—Darfur. I. Grant, J. Andrew (John Andrew), 1974- II. Queen’s University (Kingston, Ont.). Centre for International Relations III. Series: Martello papers ; 35 DT159.6.D27D375 2009 962.404’3 C2009-905175-3 © Copyright 2009 Martello#35Book.indb 4 22/09/09 12:14 PM Martello Paper Series Queen’s University’s Centre for International Relations (QCIR) is pleased to present the latest in its series of monographs, the Martello Papers. Taking their name from the distinctive towers built during the nineteenth century to defend Kingston, Ontario, these papers cover a wide range of topics and issues in foreign and defence policy, and in the study of international peace and security. This Martello Paper brings together seven original papers based on presentations at a workshop on Darfur held at Queen’s University on March 17, 2007 and sponsored by the Centre for International Relations and the Ethnicity and Democratic Governance project. For more than five years, international concern with the humanitarian crisis in western Sudan has paralleled that with the armed interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. While in the latter two cases robust intervention overthrowing brutal regimes was succeeded by a difficult international presence with uncertain prospects, in the case of Darfur the difficulty and uncertainty are up front, and a robust, decisive intervention remains unlikely. Why has this been so? In different ways, these papers underline the paradoxes that Darfur poses for the international community in general and for Canada in particular. First, while it seems a case tailor-made for the Responsibility to Protect as enunciated in the 2001 report of the Inter- national Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, it has proved a non-starter even for the compromised version of the doctrine adopted by the United Nations in 2005. Second, beyond purely humanitarian concerns, the very considerations that render international action urgent – the regional spillover to Chad and the unstable Horn of Africa, the stakes for the UN, the EU and African security organizations, and the usual great-power ri- valries – also serve to hobble it. Martello#35Book.indb 5 22/09/09 12:14 PM vi J. Andrew Grant Third, while the Afghanistan mission was brought to Canadians by government and the military without a lot of public involvement, Darfur is a relatively “popular” international cause driven by civil society and the media. It appeals to Canadians who regret the recent decline of Africa among Canadian priorities and who see Darfur as a “purer” form of humanitarian intervention than Afghanistan. On the other hand, the more that Canadi- ans learn of its complexities, not to mention the diplomatic and logistical requisites of a large-scale intervention there, the more Darfur may come to look like another Afghanistan, not an alternative to it. We are, as always, grateful to the Security and Defence Forum of the Department of National Defence, whose ongoing support enables the Centre to conduct and disseminate research on issues of importance to national and international security. As is the case with all Martello Papers, the views expressed here are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Centre or any of its supporting agencies. Charles C. Pentland Director, QCIR July 2009 Martello#35Book.indb 6 22/09/09 12:14 PM Darfur: Reflections on the Crisis and the Responses vii Contents Section I: The Crisis 1. Introduction ........................................................................................ 3 J. Andrew Grant 2. Darfur: A Diagnosis of the Conflict .................................................. 19 Abdelkérim Ousman 3. Women and Conflict in Darfur: Towards a Gendered Perspective of Security Studies ........................................................ 37 Anita Singh Section II: The Responses 4. Responsibility without Capability: Norms, Credibility, and the Challenges of Humanitarian Intervention .................................. 61 Ulrich Petersohn 5. Lessons Learned? Credible International and Canadian Responses to the Crisis in Darfur ..................................................... 77 Brent Beardsley and John Schram 6. Once Bitten, Twice Shy: The Evolution of US Policy on the Crisis in Darfur ........................................................................... 93 Clement E. Adibe Martello#35Book.indb 7 22/09/09 12:14 PM viii J. Andrew Grant 7. Civil Society Responses to Darfur: The Case of STAND Canada ...............................................................................115 Ira Goldstein and Devin McDougall Notes on Contributors .................................................................... 129 Martello#35Book.indb 8 22/09/09 12:14 PM Section I The Crisis Martello#35Book.indb 1 22/09/09 12:14 PM Martello#35Book.indb 2 22/09/09 12:14 PM 1. Introduction J. Andrew Grant Introduction The humanitarian crisis in Darfur is by nature a political one. The Darfur conflict has been largely portrayed in the international media in simplified, ahistoric terms with readily identifiable perpetrators and victims. Yet, this obscures the politicization of identity surrounding who is ‘Arab’ and who is ‘African’ (or ‘Black’), the multi-group competition over scarce land resources since the late-1930s, and regional conflict in and around Sudan. Against this backdrop, one must also consider the ramifications of elite competition within the political classes of Khartoum and the transition from a bipolar international system to one that is arguably unipolar and whose predominant power is waging a ‘War on Terror’. The Darfur crisis exhibits the characteristics of the so-called ‘new wars’ envisioned by scholars such as Mary Kaldor (2007) and Mark Duffield (2001), and draws attention to the importance of understanding emerging ‘regionalisms’, regional link- ages, and processes (Grant and Söderbaum, 2003; Söderbaum and Shaw, 2003; Bøås et al., 2005) at both the cross-border and sub-regional levels. Few observers deny the existence of a humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Estimates of the number of deaths in the region since the crisis began in early 2003 range from 200,000 to 450,000.1 An additional 2.7 million individuals have been displaced by the violence in Darfur (Reeves, 2008; 1. For an interesting discussion of the debates concerning the estimates of deaths in Darfur since 2003, see Eric Reeves (2007). Martello#35Book.indb 3 22/09/09 12:14 PM 4 J. Andrew Grant Holmes, 2007, 5). Armed groups and militias from all sides of the conflict have perpetrated hundreds – perhaps thousands – of reported and unre- ported acts of sexual violence against women and girls in Darfur since 2003 (Human Rights Watch, 2008, 10-11).2 Given the complexity of the crisis and the most recent response by the international community – that is, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1769 (2007) of 31 July 2007 which established the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) – this chapter attempts to place primacy on the politi- cal aspects of the situation in Darfur. Indeed, the incorporation of political deliberation has the best chance of instigating positive change. This is not meant to privilege politics over morality. Moral considerations, whether acknowledged or not, underpin myriad humanistic appeals ranging from peace-keeping to addressing genocide and other war crimes. It follows that moral considerations emerge in several of the chapters in this edited volume. This chapter begins by tracing the roots of the Darfur crisis and examines the sluggish response by the international community. Next, the question of whether the Darfur crisis should be considered genocide is addressed. This supplies the reader with a preliminary introduction to the various is- sues and themes that are elaborated upon by the contributors to the edited monograph. The penultimate section of the chapter also provides a preview of the substantive aspects of subsequent chapters. The chapter concludes by assessing the prospects for peace in Darfur under the purview of UNAMID. The Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur Many reports cite February 2003 as the beginning of the present crisis in Darfur, which coincides with Khartoum’s decision to use the Janjaweed to respond to an uprising by the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A)3 in the region. It should be noted that the Sudanese government employed what are now referred to as Janjaweed militias as early as the 1990s (de Waal, 2007a; Prunier, 2005; Flint and de Waal, 2005).4 However, 2. See also Andjela Jurisic (2005) and Anita Singh (this volume, chapter 3). 3. The Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) is also referred to as the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and, less commonly, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM). In the interests of consistency, SLM/A will be