Gloomy result of the Blue Helmet operation in western Sudan: International community fails to provide civilian population with protection

One year after the decision of the Security Council to send a joint peace-keeping force of the United Nations and the African Union (AU) to Darfur in the west of Sudan , the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) drew up on Tuesday a crushing balance on the Blue Helmet operation. „Instead of protecting the civilian population the peace-keeping soldiers are concerned only with securing their own survival”, said the GfbV Africa expert, Ulrich Delius. With inadequate equipment and with an unsatisfactory mandate the Blue Helmets of the UNAMID force have become the pawns of the Sudanese conflict parties. However the GfbV warned against making scapegoats out of the UNAMID. It is not the Blue Helmets, but the international community which bears the responsibility for the failure of the peace-force.

It is a scandal that hardly any Blue Helmets have arrived in West Sudan at all. Of the 19,555 soldiers and 6,432 policemen promised only 8,000 soldiers and 1,800 policemen are at present in Darfur , and these are for the most part the same people who served under the AU mission which has already failed. „In view of 180,000 new displaced people since January 2008 and 160 convoys of lorries with aid supplies attacked the international community must at last show more interest in the protection of the civilian population”, demanded Delius and criticised that the Security Council and the international community have not reacted resolutely against the constant obstruction of the UNAMID.

Khartoum has for months refused land for the construction of accommodation and the import of equipment – and no action has bee n taken to sanction this. The Blue Helmets are obstructed in leaving their camps and intimidated with attacks. And then the obstinate refusal of the Sudanese government to take further troops from Asia into the Blue Helmet contingent as requested by the UNAMID has been accepted with scarcely any reaction.

The threats of Bona Malwal, an adviser to the Sudanese President, that Sudan could not further guarantee the safety of the UNAMID if the International Court of Justice takes up proceedings against President Omar al-Bashir have long become reality. Before even the beginning of the dispute over a prosecution of the head of state the UNAMID has been placed under such pressure that it can hardly fulfil its task. The Blue Helmets are constantly being ambushed by militia allied with the Sudanese government. The last incident was on 9th July when seven UNAMID soldiers were killed and more than 20 injured.