Blogging a news story: Darfur

I said you could write about any kind of story for your own blog entries, but for my own I thought I'd write about an ongoing story that is simply horrific. The situation in Darfur is one of the world's worst conflict situations, and even threatens to spread outside Sudan to neighboring Chad. It is a situation that is now involving the UN Security Council, NATO, the African Union, the Arab League and other international organizations. There is supposed to be intervention to stop ongoing genocide, but the logistical and political problems are very serious.

According to Jennie Matthew writing from Khartoum:

The head of the UN peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region has highlighted an urgent need for helicopters, saying the global community must donate them or the entire mission must be reviewed.

The international force, set to number 26 000, will formally replace a small African Union mission on January 1, but still lacks six combat and 18 transport helicopters, vital to operate in a war-torn Sudanese area the size of Texas.

She quotes the head of the African Union force on the ground as saying:

"The international community has got its back to the wall and some are asking 'really is it impossible for the entire international community to mobilise 24 helicopters,'"

She also notes that the UN blamed the Sudanese government for the problems:

On Tuesday, the head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, complained that Sudanese government red tape and lack of resources are delaying the deployment of the peacekeepers

But Reuters News said that the Sudanese government blamed the UN itself for the delays:

SUNA [Sudan's state news agency] quoted senior foreign ministry official Suraj el-Din Hamid as saying President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had already issued directives to allocate all the land the mission needed, and that the United Nations had delayed meetings in New York to discuss the deployment twice in two weeks.

"The problems in dealing with the United Nations on this peacekeeping operation reflects the ability of the peacekeeping unit to direct this mission," Hamid said.

Meanwhile China threatened one of the major rebel groups fighting the Sudanese government. The Justice and Equality Movement, an Islamist group fighting against Arab domination of the Sudan, had said that Chinese troops were only going to Sudan to protect Chinese investments, and said that they would specifically target Chinese troops among any United Nations forces.

According to a report on a South African website:

China on Wednesday fired back at a rebel group's threats against its peacekeepers in Darfur, saying Beijing was committed to stabilising the troubled Sudanese region and urged the opposition to join in peace talks.

. . .

Rebels in the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement have warned that they could target Chinese troops because Beijing supplies military and economic support to Sudan's government.

The movement, which has boycotted peace talks, claims the Chinese were sent to protect Beijing's investments in the oil industry. Last month, its fighters attacked the Chinese-run Defra oil field in neighbouring Kordofan region and abducted two foreign workers.

I hope you will take an interest in this important, ongoing story and learn something of the background to this conflict. If Japan is really going to ask for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and take a more important role in international affairs, people will have to learn more about what is going on in the outside world.

More information is available at the Save Darfur website, among other places.