Darfur Helicopters. World's Shame

Waiting for helicopters, when will they come? (source: http://ufonews.tv)

When in the midst of the 1994 Rwandan genocide the UN members finally agreed to send 5,500 additional troops consisting of mainly African soldiers to try and stop the killings, the UN asked the United States to supply armoured personnel carriers for the mission. 

The Clinton administration agreed, but instead of lending military equipment to the UN (to whom the US owed hundreds of millions of dollars in membership fees at the time), the US government decided to lease it for $15 million.

The UN, fully dependent on its negligent members to pay for missions, did not have the money. The 5,500 additional troops never arrived in Rwanda to intervene. The genocide was stopped by the Tutsi rebel forces a few weeks later. Around one million people died on everyone’s watch in only three months.

After the Rwandan genocide, many world leaders publicly promised [again] that they would never again delay intervention while innocent people are slaughtered around the world. George W. Bush said, "not on my watch."

Yet, it took them only a decade to forget their promises.

Darfur conflict is in its sixth year. The UN and aid agencies estimate that around 200,000 people have died in the conflict since 2003, while over 2 million people are living in camps after fleeing fighting in the region. 

On July 31, 2007, the UN Security Council approved the 26,000-strong force for the Darfur peacekeeping mission. Since then, the UN has been having problems to find enough troops for Darfur since the Sudanese government insists on African-only force. Furthermore, like in Rwanda, there is a problem in finding equipment for the mission.

In the previous twelve months, the UN, African Union, and aid groups numerous times asked the world powers to provide the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) with six attack helicopters and eighteen transport helicopters so they can start protecting civilians in Darfur. Helicopters are essential for any success of the mission in the vast and remote region the size of France. 

To this day, no country has supplied even one helicopter for the Darfur mission.

The current world order is based on realism, or Realpolitik, the oldest and most used theory of international relations. The realist approach views states as rational and unitary factors focused on self-interests, national security, and balance of power. Realism influences states to pursue their national interests even if they are contrary to the interests of other states and peoples. Morals, ethics, and legality are the least important principles for realists.

One of the by-products of international relations based on the realist theory is the lack of interest in conflicts that do not come under the sphere of national interests or could hurt the balance of power in the world.

Sadly for the people in Darfur, their suffering does not really bother those in power who could make a difference. 

Western politicians talk about Darfur in their speeches, but their actions show that they really do not care about the anguish of millions in this war-torn Sudanese region. The inability to find helicopters is just one example of this. 

China′s interest in Sudan is oil and Chinese will do everything to be on good terms with the Sudanese government. Not long ago, China claimed in the UN Security Council that the human suffering in Darfur was insufficient to provoke serious reflection on whether Sudan was fulfilling its responsibilities to its citizens. As one of the five members with veto power, China can block any UN decision concerning Darfur.

The UN cannot intervene in Darfur or any other conflict on its own, since it is an umbrella organization dependent on its member states for decisions, funds, equipment, and troops.

Many people, NGO′s, and human rights and aid organizations care about the suffering in Darfur and elsewhere around the world. Many protest, write letters, and campaign. But this is often not enough to influence powerful states to intervene and stop the atrocities, as long as the international relations are based solely on realism, and not at all on empathy, legal principles, ethics, and morals. 

Savo Heleta*
Port Elizabeth - South Africa

* The author a postgraduate student in Conflict Transformation and Management at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He is the author of Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia (AMACOM, March 2008).

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