By Isabella Gyau Orhin
It has been described by the United Nations as "one of the world's worst humanitarian crises" - Sudan's Western region of Darfur.
More than a million have fled their homes in western Sudan since February 2004 while. Some 10,000 people are dying from disease and conflict every month, according to the World Health Organisation.
“I have urged the Security Council to act on the draft resolution without delay, and to be united as possible in the face of the crisis," said former UN Secretary-General Mr. Annan.
"It is urgent to act now. Civilians are still being attacked and fleeing their villages as we speak," he said at the time.
Kofi Annan said civilians were being attacked "even as we speak" despite Khartoum's pledge to stop the violence.
Today, three years on, the crisis in Dafur continues unabated. And that is not the only hotspot in the world that is demanding the attention of the UN, the African Union (AU), ECOWAS and other regional bodies around the world.
Ghana’s role in international Peacekeeping is very paramount particularly now that President John Kufuor is the African Union Chairman.
Last week, International experts on Peace Keeping gathered at the Kofi Annan Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra to deliberate on “Halting widespread or systematic attacks on civilians: Military strategies and operational Concepts.”
They included senior personnel and military officers from all over the world with knowledge and years of experience to deliberate on civilian protection issues.
The meeting was supported by the Henry L Stimson Centre based in Washington DC, USA.
In 1999, the then UN secretary General Kofi Annan made several pleas to the international community to strive for a consensus on how to approach the issue of the protection of civilians and to forge unity around the basic principles and processes involved in civilian protection.
The government of Canada together with a group of major foundations took up the challenge in response to the Secretary General’s call establishing the International Commission on Intervention and States Sovereignty (ICISS).
The Work of the Commission has culminated in the “Responsibility to Protect” principle.
The core argument of this principle is that sovereign states have a responsibility to protect their own citizens from avoidable catastrophe such as mass murder, widespread torture, rape and starvation.
However, when a state is unwilling or unable to do so, that responsibility must be borne by the broader community of states.
“There is the need to protect civilians through military intervention to prevent genocide, ethnic cleansing or mass killings,” says Victoria Holt, a Senior Associate of the Stimson Centre.
“Civilian protection should be the primary mission.” According to her when a state is unable to protect its citizens, then the sovereign rights will fall back.
She said in the case of genocide in any part of the world, how the military will operate without hurting the civilians is very important.
She also said there is the need to examine the crisis in Rwanda, Sierra-Leone, Bosnia, and Democratic Republic of Congo to find out what strategies were used and how they can be improved to enhance future peacekeeping operations and also to handle the Dafur crisis.
The meeting was a follow up to an earlier one held in September 2006, on Garnering the political will to meet the Responsibility to protect In Africa.
According to the KAIPTC, this meeting generated lots of interesting debates on civilian protection and getting the international community involved in ensuring that the concept of the Responsibility to Protect becomes successful on the African continent.
The emphasis was to draw the attention of African leaders on the Responsibility to Protect and also get them more involved in operationalising the concept.
“The Protection of human rights during civil war is crucial,” says Major General John Attipoe, Commandant of the KAIPTC.
Major-General Attipoe described the meeting as timely taking into consideration the crisis in Dafur and a few other places in the continent of Africa.
“As a follow up, we are gathered here today, to take the issue a step further by considering primary military challenges and concepts to halt widespread attacks on civilians.
The Minister for Defence, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor, said the rights of innocent civilians have been consistently violated with impunity while the international community and host governments remain unconcerned as it happened in the case of Rwanda, DRC, Sebrenica and East Timor.
These abuses committed by both state and non-state actors and the inaction on the part of the international community ought to be addressed either through preventive or reactionary measures under the Responsibility to Protect concept.
“While we all agree that the implementation of the Responsibility to Protect is a primary duty of government, the states responsibility to protect its own citizens or citizens of other countries must be equally complemented by efforts of non-state actors.”
This is to ensure “rapid decision making processes and timely intervention during threatening humanitarian disasters.”
Special consideration must therefore be given to the role of intergovernmental and Non-governmental organizations, associations or networks –individually or collectively in operationalising the concept of Responsibility to Protect through policy development, research programmes, training and other relevant measures.
“We must also begin to think about obligations to the civilians we protect after we have intervened,” Dr. Addo-Kufuor said.
This is because if the military departs prematurely, the possibility of abuses recurring becomes greater. Therefore “appropriate or sound withdrawal strategies ought to be put in place to guarantee the success of the intervention.”
“The Dafur crisis in Sudan constitutes a major challenge or test case for the protection of civilians,” he said adding, “In Sudan, there has been clear evidence of systematic attacks on specific targets in the population.”
“The question is how long will this continue, despite the presence of AU and the involvement of the UN in finding a solution to the conflict?” Dr. Addo-Kufuor asked.
“There is the urgent need for the AU and the UN to act with dispatch to save the lives and property in Dafur,” he said.
Source : Public Agenda Newspaper Ghana
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