December 2004/January 2005
Vol. X, No. 4
Sudan: Policy Options for Stopping the Genocide
Former diplomats express confidence that the North-South peace process can end Darfur’s tragedy
A Sudanese refugee cries after fleeing political violence in Darfur, Sudan. |
Saying that “passion is great, but passion connected to a brain is better,” Chester Crocker, recently retired chairman of the board of the United States Institute of Peace, argued that the United States faces a difficult choice if it wants to stop the killing in Darfur. Darfur, a province in Sudan where ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide are taking place, has become a focus of international concern over the past year or so as evidence of atrocities has mounted.
Crocker argued that the only viable option to end the killing was to pursue and finalize the peace agreement being worked out between the Sudanese government and the main rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army [an agreement that has since been signed—ed.]. That peace process has recently accelerated, and many hope that a final resolution to the twenty-year conflict may be at hand. The alternative, said Crocker, would be to dispatch tens of thousands of highly trained troops into a hostile Muslim country—an option he thought unlikely to gather much traction.
Crocker’s comments came during an Institute Current Issues Briefing held in mid-November to discuss policy options for halting the genocide. The other speakers were Francis Deng, a leader in the Brookings-School for Strategic and International Studies Project on Internal Displacement, and Richard Williamson, a partner at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. The event was moderated by George Ward, director of the Institute’s Professional Training Program.
Deng, a Sudanese scholar and former senior fellow at the Institute, opened the briefing with an overview of Sudan’s complex history. The South, left behind under colonialism and a former poaching ground for slaves by northerners who think of themselves as Arabs and hence superior, rebelled soon after independence in 1956. A peace agreement forged in 1972 promised greater equality between the North and South, and a ten-year hiatus ensued between the end of the first civil war and the commencement of the second, in 1983. In the interim, oil was discovered in the South, adding complexity to the fragile relationship between the two regions. The war that began in 1983 has continued, with varying intensity, until the present day, costing between 1.5 and 2 million lives. Yet the paradox of Sudan’s civil war is that while it is fueled by a fierce sense of regional identity, northerners and southerners are much more alike than they recognize. Many northerners, for example, are as African in appearance as anyone from the South, and many southerners are as devoutly Muslim as most northerners.
Former Institute Chair Chester Crocker (far right) listens as Sudanese scholar and former Institute fellow Frances Deng makes a point. |
Williamson worked for the State Department for many years, most recently as the U.S. representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights. He argued that a “dynamic of consensus” in the United Nations often overrides concern about the situation on the ground. Reflecting that tendency, he said, was the recent decision to weaken the language of a UN resolution warning Sudan about Darfur in order to achieve a unanimous vote. It would have been preferable to propose a tough resolution and “call countries out” if they chose to vote against it.
Crocker, who was President Ronald Reagan’s assistant secretary of state for African affairs, expressed considerable optimism about the recently signed agreement between the two sides of the civil war, and said that the only viable way forward on Darfur is to use the leverage of the North-South peace process to put mechanisms in place to protect the people of Darfur. In particular, he singled out the prospect—called for under the agreement—of rebel leader John Garang joining the government as the best hope of ending Darfur’s tragedy. “Once he sits at that table,” said Crocker, “he’s going to make a difference.” Ward, a former U.S. ambassador to Namibia, concurred with Crocker’s assessment. He pointed out that the North-South negotiations encompass such issues as power-sharing, wealth-sharing, and other agreements that “will help resolve the crisis in Darfur, as well as . . . prevent further violence in other parts of Sudan.”
Institute Resources:
