Beyond Disgrace and Disbelief

So, once again, China's economic interests and veto on the UN Security Council prevents the UN from taking any effective action in another world crisis. First Zimbabwe and Sudan, now Burma. And just yesterday UN chief Ban Ki-moon was saying, "To deliver on the world’s high expectations for us, we need to be faster, more flexible and mobile. We need to pay less attention to rhetoric and more attention to results — to getting things done... The Human Rights Council must live up to its responsibilities as the torchbearer for human rights consistently and equitably around the world. I will strive to translate the concept of our Responsibility to Protect from words to deeds, to ensure timely action so that populations do not face genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity." Sadly, all just talk, once again...

The UN has proven itself this summer to be wholly irrelevant. There can be no more second chances for this sorry institution, not when so many lives are at stake. It is time for reform. At least France, Burma's biggest Western investor, is now talking about trade sanctions and even disinvestment.

UPDATE: Apparently Russia has also taken the opportunity to play games throw its weight around once more, threatening France instead of helping to send a unanimous message to the Burmese military.

Sarkozy & Brown's Darfur Push

"It is the combination of a ceasefire, a peacekeeping force, economic reconstruction and the threat of sanctions that can bring a political solution to the region –– and we will spare no efforts in making this happen."

At first glance, the call in today's Times (and Le Monde) by Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy for intense action to secure a ceasefire in Darfur appears a welcome step towards stopping the genocide in Sudan. They acknowledge that the ceasefire "cannot on its own resolve such a complex conflict" and that "we need a political settlement that addresses the root causes of the violence." They also go further than last month's UN Resolution 1769 in that they threaten "further sanctions against those who fail to fulfil their commitments, obstruct the political process or continue to violate the ceasefire." They are also right to "look beyond Darfur, to the issues affecting Sudan and the region," including the need for better security and greater humanitarian assistance among the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the conflict across the border into Chad.

And yet, underneath, they seem to be accepting a number of false presuppositions:

• They describe the weak UNAMID operation as the deployment of a "robust force," though it has no authority to disarm the militias or to pursue and arrest suspected war criminals indicted by the International Criminal Court.
• They make reference to the meeting of Darfur's rebel groups in Tanzania earlier this month, but neglect to mention that the Sudanese Government's subsequent escalation of violence is already causing the rebels to reconsider attending full negotiations.
• They also make no mention of breaches in existing sanctions, notably by China and Russia, including photographs (such as the one above) published by Amnesty International just last Friday showing military equipment being supplied by Russia at West Darfur's Geneina airport.
• Perhaps most fundamentally, they appear to believe that a political solution will be the inevitable outcome of the supposed ceasefire and the recently agreed peacekeeping force, whereas in reality a political solution must be found first if any ceasefire is to hold.

To quote both Rodolphe Adada, the new UN-AU mission head, and Mark Kroeker, the retiring UN police chief, once again, although UNAMID is sure to be one of the main tools for forwarding peace in Darfur, "it's only a peace operation — you need to have peace to keep," and "The countries that have been talking about Darfur need to now do something about Darfur with their deployment of police in probably the most desperate place in the world."

The People's President

Breaking News: Turkey's parliament has just approved by 361 votes to 94 a first reading of the constitutional amendment proposed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last Sunday to allow the country's president to be elected directly by the public instead of by MPs. The proposal will now need to be debated and approved a second time before President Ahmet Necdet Sezer signs it into law — assuming the courts don't block its passage.

In view of the risks for Europe if Turkish reformers are rebuffed, it is hoped both that these tentative moves towards greater democracy will prove successful and that the commitment from France's new president-elect to "be on the side of the oppressed around the world" and his conciliatory talk of a "Mediterranean Union" between Europe and Africa will mean Nicolas Sarkozy, whose five year mandate will be over before any decision is made on Turkey's bid to join the EU, will adopt a softer line on Turkey once he is in office than he did during his campaigning.

Quote of the Day

"The French people ... have chosen to break with the ideas and habits of the past. I will thus rehabilitate work, authority, morality, respect, merit"

"Those who have been broken, those who have been worn down by life, must know they have not been abandoned, that they will be helped, they will be rescued. Those who feel that whatever they do they cannot escape, must be assured that they will not be left by the side and that they will have the same chances as others. I call on all the French, beyond their beliefs, beyond their origins, to unite with me so that France starts moving again. I call on everyone to not let themselves be trapped in intolerance or in sectarianism but to open themselves to those who have different ideas, to those who have different convictions."

Nicolas Sarkozy, French president-elect

One feels we could do with a little rehabilitation of morality, respect, and merit here, too.