Often "Darfur" appears as some disembodied phenomenon -- a crisis out of context.In fact, of course, the word is shorthand for a complex, multiyear, multilayered conflict. Violence occurs not in some stand-alone time and space, but rather against the backdrop of issues that span all of Sudan.
Even this broad a view is too narrow. Just as violence in Darfur must be considered within the context of Sudan, troubles in Sudan must be considered within the context of the northern/eastern quadrant of Africa.
Thus in "Beyond Band-Aids for Darfur," a Huffington Post op-ed, our colleague Monika Kalra Varma recently argued:
A strong U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Major General Scott Gration, has been named, sending a message to Khartoum, but an equally strong message must be sent to Chad. The new administration must entrust Maj. Gen. Gration with a broad mandate to confront the interrelated problems in both Sudan and Chad to find regional solutions for peace, similar to the current approach to Pakistan and Afghanistan. He must be able to deal with all actors in the region, including not only governments and rebels, but also tribal, civil society, refugee and IDP leaders.This call for a regional approach by Varma, Director for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights, reflects a policy paper that the RFK Center issued during the recent U.S. visits of 2 of its Human Rights Laureates, Delphine Djiraibe, a Chadian attorney and human rights advocate, and Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah, a Darfuri physician. (Am honored to note that among the places that Dr. Mohammed Ahmed visited was the California International Law Center at King Hall, University of California, Davis, School of Law, where he gave a public talk and met privately with the 40-plus students who are taking part in a CILC-RFK partnership aimed at developing a framework for peace and reconciliation processes.) Entitled "The Need for a Regional Approach to Solve the Crisis in Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic," the paper notes the sad statistics respecting deaths and displacement in Darfur, and stresses that the negative consequences of conflict cross borders into Chad and Central African Republic. Accordingly, the paper contends, peace negotiations must engage all 3 countries. Such negotiations, moreover, must bring to the table not only the government and rebels, but also tribal and other leaders in civil society.
A key component of any such effort, both Varma's op-ed and the policy paper maintain, is U.S. expansion of the special envoy's mandate to assure that Darfur is considered in comprehensive context.
(credit for 2007 BBC regional map)
