Ambassador Susan Rice

During Wednesday’s briefing to the UN Security Council on ‘Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict’, Ambassador Susan Rice’s statement included multiple references to the situation in Sudan. The issue of civilian protection is particularly critical in Sudan, where over 4.9 million people are internally displaced, with over 100,000 civilians displaced in Darfur in the first few months of this year alone. Ambassador Rice’s statement focused on three themes:

“First, providing the safety that humanitarian efforts need to function; second, moving from the ambition to protect civilians to successful actions by peacekeeping missions; and third, enhancing the legal capacity to support accountability.”

I applaud Ambassador Rice for referring to the situation in Sudan when addressing each of these three major points, and throughout her remarks on civilian protection. In her first point on security for humanitarian and peacekeeping personnel, Rice condemned violence against aid workers, which as she noted has been an escalating problem in Sudan. The lack of security for aid personnel has become increasingly dire since the April elections, with peacekeepers facing attacks, banditry and abductions. In Rice’s second point on the importance of peacekeeping missions providing protection for civilians, she underscored the United States’support for the renewal of UNAMID’s mandate this month as well as U.S. concern regarding the security situation for IDPs and refugees in Chad once MINURCAT’s mandate expires. Such concern is merited: after MINURCAT’s mandate expires this December, hundreds of thousands of Darfuri refugees, internally displaced Chadians and refugees from the Central African Republic will be left lacking security in a country that placed 2^nd from the top on the 2010 Foreign Policy index of failed states. Ambassador Rice also called for an end to impunity and reiterated the U.S.’s support for the ICC in its work to ensure accountability for individuals who commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. As the ICC pursues cases against Omar al-Bashir and others responsible for mass atrocities in Sudan, such strong support by the U.S. is critical.

Once again, Ambassador Rice has come out strong in her support of justice and civilian protection for the Sudanese people. However, her strong statements must now be translated into meaningful action by the United States government to encourage enforcement of the ICC arrest warrants and to strengthen the protection of civilians in eastern Chad, Darfur and throughout Sudan.

The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.

Tags: ICC, Obama Administration, Susan Rice, UNAMID, White House

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Obama Administration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.