Salim Salim, the former chief mediator for the African Union in Darfur, published an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune yesterday strongly criticizing the international community for failure to support UNAMID:
If the international community is serious about fulfilling its responsibility to protect civilians in Darfur, it can start by providing the basics that Unamid urgently needs. Such support could have saved some of those peacekeepers who died this month gallantly trying to protect civilians. The least we can do in their memory is to make sure that no more civilians or peacekeepers perish because of resource constraints.
Salim Salim spent the last 18 months trying to reinvigorate the stalled peace process and believes that only a peace process can ultimately solve the conflict in Darfur. But he also argues convincingly that UNAMID can be an effective building block towards peace in Darfur.
A properly equipped Unamid could protect civilians in key areas and help to bring some measure of stability to the region, thus making the atmosphere more conducive to dialogue. But it can only do so if the peacekeepers receive adequate resources.
It is absurd that a peacekeeping force sent to protect millions of civilians does not have the necessary trucks, helicopters, and other resources to do their job effectively. Salim Salim’s op-ed is yet another call for these resources, but now we need our elected leaders to take action.
Please click here to urge the U.N. Security Council to immediately deploy peacekeepers and provide them with the resources they need to be successful.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
