Time to Follow Brian on Darfur
August 6, 2007
When I met Brian Steidle in late 2005 at a conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I was struck by the singular gravity in his countenance. It seemed as if the collective anguish of an entire population thousands of miles away was etched in his quiet, earnest face. Brian had good reason to be somber: he had witnessed the Darfur genocide firsthand the year before.
Located in the Western part of Sudan, the Darfur region was once home to six million inhabitants known as the Fur people. By 2004, this previously unfamiliar place gained international infamy as an area devastated by a relentless, state-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing. Since January 2003, gangs of militia called the Janjaweed (meaning “men on horseback” in Arabic) have razed thousands of villages, systematically raped women and girls, stolen livestock and other forms of livelihood, and mutilated and killed men and boys. As many as 500 Darfurians die each day. Since the violence began, 400,000 Darfurians have been killed by the Janjaweed and 2.4 million have been displaced (often in neighboring and equally fragile Chad). Millions more are vulnerable to starvation and disease. Add up all the numbers and you’re left with nearly every person in an area the size of Texas affected by the violence.
The Sudanese government has long denied any involvement in the Darfur atrocities, but the international community knows otherwise. Still, for the first few years of the crisis, there was no solid proof of collaboration between the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed. That all changed this past spring—the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has been investigating the Darfur atrocities, has made a critical evidentiary link between Janjaweed leaders and the Sudanese government officials who support their crimes.
A U.S. Marine at the time, Brian went to Darfur in 2004 as one of three unarmed American observers accompanying the African Union’s (AU) understaffed and overstretched monitoring force on the ground. Once there, Brian took hundreds of pictures to document what he was witnessing: everyday Darfurians killed, maimed, or haunted by the death, mutilation, and murder of neighbors and family members. When he came back to the States, Brian brought the images with him and set out on a nationwide campaign to show his pictures and compel his own people and government to act. Last week a new documentary by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern of Break Thru Films was released, aptly titled “The Devil Came on Horseback”(you absolutely m.u.s.t. click on this link). The film captures Brian Steidle’s remarkable journey and shows audiences why Brian’s countenance is far more serious than most people his age. As for the rest of us, the film serves as a stark reminder of just how little has been done to stop a genocide that has gone for longer than a U.S. Presidential term.
Many Americans have followed in Brian’s footsteps. American students, journalists like Nicholas Kristof, activists, actors such as George Clooney, Mia Farrow, and Don Cheadle, and even officials like New Mexico’s governor (and Democratic Presidential candidate) Bill Richardson have traveled to Darfur and continue to galvanize American support to end the Darfur genocide. There are also grassroots organizations such as the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net) that work tirelessly to raise Americans’ awareness and push for concrete action on Darfur. With so many Americans seemingly engaged, why has the once emphatic promise of Never Again been reduced to over and over again in Darfur?
President Bush has referred to the ongoing atrocities in Darfur as genocide. But neither he nor his Administration has matched efforts such as Brian’s in the fight to end the Darfur crisis. In fact, some Administration actions have seemed downright shameful in the face of such violence and suffering.
In March 2005, over two years after the violence started, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), on which the U.S. has a permanent seat, was preparing to consider referring the Darfur situation to the ICC under Chapter VII of the UN Charter and Article 13 of the ICC’s Rome Statute. A recently obtained Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request suggests that the Administration went out of its way to keep the ICC referral option off the table due to its opposition to the Court. When its efforts failed to pay off with both its European and African counterparts, the Administration was faced with either vetoing the resolution or putting its dislike of the ICC aside long enough to give Darfurians a real shot for justice and accountability at the Court. In the end, the U.S. abstained from the vote altogether, along with permanent member China and rotating members Algeria and Brazil. Resolution 1593 passed on March 31, 2005, enabling the first-ever permanent international criminal court to do what no one has thus far done for Darfur: go after those most responsible for the worst atrocities.
Since the March 2005 referral, the ICC has conducted a painstaking investigation of the Darfur atrocities, often from refugee camps in neighboring Chad (the Sudanese government won’t allow Court officials in Darfur for obvious reasons). This past spring marked a milestone for Darfur as the ICC issued two arrest warrants for Ahmad Harun, a Sudanese Minister (of humanitarian affairs, no less) and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb. The men are accused of committing 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the people of Darfur. And the investigation has just started gaining momentum. Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has made clear that he will go wherever the evidence takes him. Most importantly, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has presented evidence that clearly links Harun and Kushayb in crimes committed between 2003 and 2004, meaning that the Sudanese government is complicit, if not outright orchestrating, the Darfur genocide.
Notwithstaning public declarations of the Darfur atrocities as genocide, senior Administration officials have failed to prioritize Darfur in U.S. foreign policy. A case in point: In 2006, U.S. officials met with Senior Security Minister Salih Gosh at least once on U.S. soil to discuss Sudanese cooperation with the Administration’s “war on terror” abroad. Mr. Gosh lucked out—the Genocide Accountablity Act that would have likely allowed for his capture and prosecution by U.S. courts was only introduced this year and has yet to pass the House of Representatives. Mr. Gosh is widely believed to be the No. 2 in command in Sudan and deeply involved in the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
Last week the UNSC finally passed a long overdue resolution authorizing a 26,000 member strong hybrid UN/AU force to be deployed to Darfur. The catch? No cooperation with the ICC on executing its arrest warrants against Harun, Kushayb, and any perpetrators identified in the future. While the much stronger hybrid UN/AU force is sorely needed on the ground, the resolution has come at a maddeningly slow pace and has lacked any strong leadership from the Administration. Indeed, the Administration has dragged its feet on Darfur for so long that the use of the G-word by President Bush rings hollow and seems terribly disingenuous in light of the ongoing violence. Even as the Darfur case is at the ICC, the U.S. has done little to assist the Court and show a true commitment to ensuring peace, justice, and accountability for Darfurians. Simply put, the Administration’s largely discounted, highly counterproductive policy toward the ICC has resulted in a mind-boggling “come to us approach” executed in large part by the Department of State. Of course this isn’t the official Administration position—after all, Mr. John B. Bellinger III, the Legal Advisor to the Secretary of State, has recently been credited with expressing U.S. “openness” to Darfur-related U.S. assistance to the ICC. But in between the lines is the unofficial truth when it comes to U.S. support (of which there has been none thus far) on the ICC’s Darfur case. Pay close attention to the words I’ve bolded in an excerpt from a recent speech Mr. Bellinger gave in The Hague, the Netherlands:
“We did not oppose the Security Council’s referral of the Darfur situation to the ICC, and have expressed our willingness to consider assisting the ICC Prosecutor’s Darfur work should we receive an appropriate request.”
Mr. Bellinger, Darfurians don’t owe us a thank you for not vetoing the ICC referral. By abstaining from the vote, we only succeeded in showing the world that we are more paranoid about an ill-conceived threat from the ICC than we are committed to universal principles of justice, fairness, and accountability. And Darfurians definitely don’t have time for the “come to us” approach we’re favoring these days. This is a genocide, not a game of political strategery. The ICC is a legal body, not a political institution. That means that we should assist the ICC investigation in any way we can—from turning over satellite imagery of the Janjaweed’s aerial bombardments of Darfur villages with Sudanese government gunships to re-prioritizing the conflict as a whole in our foreign policy.
Even the staunchest ICC opponents must concede that specific assistance on the Darfur case is not the same as blanket approval for the ICC as an institution. With the Sudanese government transplanting new populations in place of the ones it has slaughtered in Darfur, time and evidence is running out. Did we not swear Never Again after World War II and the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides? How many more deaths must there be before our government’s inaction makes us complicit in genocide?
Thankfully, Congress has been much more proactive in addressing and redressing the Darfur crisis. Last week, with the help of groups like GI-Net, the House of Representatives passed the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act (DADA) with 152 co-sponsors and a vote of 418 to 1 (don’t ask about the lone dissenter—(s)he gets to stay anonymous). GI-Net summed up the Bill best in its July 31st press release:
[…]this bill will authorize and protect states that divest from the culpable companies that support the genocidal government of Sudan and refuse to change their behavior..Despite existing bans prohibiting U.S. companies from conducting business operations in Sudan, institutions and even individuals throughout the United States are indirectly fueling the genocide by investing in foreign companies complicit in the bloodshed. The Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act will establish a federal list of the culpable foreign companies to better inform Americans regarding their investments. Furthermore, the bill forbids the U.S. federal government from entering into or renewing contracts with companies included on that list and authorizes state and local governments to do the same. H.R. 180 also protects these state and local governments and asset managers who divest. Since the government of Sudan relies heavily on foreign investment to fund its military, divestment is an effective strategic move against the crisis.”
DADA is now in the Senate and it’s time for us–everyday Americans like Brian Steidle—to take a stand. The dedicated folks at GI-NET have set up a hotline for us to call and tell our Senators to pass DADA: 1-800-GENOCIDE.
Brian Steidle has done his part ten times over to push for an end to the Darfur violence, but he is still one American. There are 300 million of us in this country, and we can’t afford to drag our feet. I’m not asking you to go to Darfur. I’m asking for a one-minute phone call. Never Again starts with us, and it starts now. After you call your Senator, check out the listings for Brian’s documentary. As they say, a picture is worth a thousands words. In Brian’s case, these pictures may be worth a thousand lives. Since the time you started reading this blog posting, three Darfurians have died from violence, starvation, or disease.
For the latest news on Darfur, check out my IJ Wire.
For my briefing paper, “No Peace without Justice: U.S. Must Cooperate with ICC on Darfur,” co-authored with colleague Julia Fitzpatrick, click here.
For more information on the Darfur crisis, check out these organizations’ websites:
