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China must emulate AU
wisdom in Sudan
The African Union rejects the Sudanese president
for its revolving chair, avoiding absurdity, and
now it is up to China to pressure Khartoum,
despite its interests in Sudan.
Feb,03,2007-
by Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch (30/01/07)
Summits such as Monday’s African Union (AU)
gathering in Addis Ababa are often depicted as
"pivotal" or "ground-breaking" or some such
hyperbolic epithet. But for once, such
appellations may actually be applicable. This
time, the AU refused to allocate its revolving
chairmanship to Sudanese leader Oman al-Bashir.
Had it not, the AU would have been left in the
absurd position of being formally headed by a
state that is a central player in a conflict
region where AU peacekeeping troops are
deployed.
Rebels in Sudan's troubled Darfur region had
pre-empted the summit by declaring that AU
peacekeepers would become legitimate targets
should Sudan be given the AU chair.
This time last year disagreement among AU states
over rights abuses and ongoing violence in
Darfur saw al-Bashir’s candidacy postponed until
2007. However, the situation in Darfur has
deteriorated since early 2006. A May peace
agreement was signed by one rebel faction and
the government; however, the main ethnic Fur
faction refused to sign, as did the pan-Sudanese
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
Since then, rebels have splintered and
realigned, making it increasingly difficult to
establish allegiances and fiefs on the ground.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese government has breached
the agreement with self-admitted aerial bombing
raids. Another 250,000 people have been
displaced and Janjaweed militias, supported by
the government, have wreaked more havoc on
civilians, upping the ante by strutting through
Darfur’s urban areas in paramilitary uniform.
Last year alone, 13 aid workers - all Sudanese -
were killed. In December, 400 expatriate aid
staff withdrew amid targeting of humanitarian
facilities and personnel. A French aid worker
for Action Contre le Faim was raped in late
December, while some of her colleagues were
sexually assaulted by unidentified rebels.
Sudanese police sexually assaulted UN staff in
Nyala recently, while another foreign worker for
the French Medecins Sans Frontiers suffered a
similar fate.
Almost three million civilians are now left
vulnerable to the military outcome of Darfur’s
conflict, with aid agencies forced into lockdown
or withdrawal. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
has urged Khartoum to allow a UN mission enter
the region. Sudan already consented to a hybrid
AU-UN force, to be dominated by Africans, but
deployable only in three yet-to-be-defined
stages.
The AU determination to prevent al-Bashir’s
presidency is a shot across the bows for the
National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum. While
it is likely that the announcement was
stage-managed, with pre-conference networking
between diplomats ensuring that a public row
between Sudan and others in the AU was averted,
it is no less significant for that. Clearly,
intra-African lobbying and deal-making played at
least as significant a role as UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s
presence at the summit.
A managed consensus overseen by South African
President Thabo Mbeki and seven other African
leaders ensured that Sudan consented to a
further postponement of its AU leadership.
The AU built the concept of "peer review" into
its almost-defunct New Partnership for African
Development (NEPAD). Peer review meant, at least
in theory, that African governments were to
assess each others’ performance. While the
allotting of the AU chair to Ghana’s John Kufour
was not down to a formal peer review, it
represented a more effective form of peer review
than anything outlined by the flawed peer review
concept.
After all, the US government would not likely
consent to assessment by the British or Canadian
governments, so to expect African governments to
do likewise is hollow - not to mention absurd,
given that undemocratic states would assess
solid democracies in Benin, Ghana, Mali etc,
while not having to be accountable to their own
citizens.
Monday’s AU announcement needs to be followed up
by Chinese pressure on Khartoum to allow
effective and aggressive peacekeepers into
Darfur. President Hu Jintao visits Sudan as part
of an eight-nation African tour in early
February. China is a key investor in Sudan’s
lucrative oil sector and has repeatedly asserted
that diplomacy is the only solution to Darfur’s
conflict. UN troops might not be the perfect
solution, but Khartoum’s intransigence prevents
any effective security for civilians caught in
the middle.
The Sudanese government protests that it already
hosts 10,000 blue helmets policing the 2005
peace deal between the NCP and southern Sudan
People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). That
deal is looking shaky - and Chinese
self-interest should dictate that Hu requests
all sides to focus on trust-building, given that
a return to war between north and south would
harm oil drilling and exporting.
But while Darfur burns, north-south peace will
come under severe pressure, as the NCP-dominated
government in Khartoum seeks oil revenues to
fund its military activities in Darfur, to the
detriment of southern revenue entitlements
established in the 2005 agreement.
If that is to be the case, Beijng is the hinge.
Effete and inconsistent Western efforts to end
the violence have yielded nothing apart from a
flawed peace agreement. It remains to be seen,
however, what leverage an undemocratic China may
bring to a conflict scarred by massive rights
abuses, when this may compromise commercial
interests.
However, China must emulate the example set by
African leaders, and face down the Sudanese
government. Otherwise, the West, so far
willfully impotent to resolve the Darfur crisis,
should compromise commercial interests of its
own.
But for now, the ball is in Beijing's court.
Simon Roughneen is a senior writer for ISN
Security Watch and has worked in Sudan,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone,
Somalia and Uganda.
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