“undermaned and underfunded”

I’m getting tired of hearing this.

The Darfur Consortium – a group of 50 mostly Africa-based non-profits – has just released a report (or here) which accuses UNAMID, the joint AU/UN peacekeeping force, of not protecting the civilians of Darfur. The principal reasons given for this failure: UNAMID does not have enough money or personnel.

It shows up in every report to the Security Council and practically every news story that is even tangentially related to Darfur. It is the politically correct and safe thing to say. But it is simply not true.

(Journalists are fond of citing the story of AU soldiers not being given new UN-blue helmets when the mission came under UN control at the beginning of the year, forcing them to tie plastic bags around them. While a vivid image, it is hardly an honest one.)

Yes, UNAMID may have far fewer troops on the ground than was originally projected; yes, they still have not received the oft-mentioned air assets (attack helicopters, specifically) which they have requested. Yet these are not the reasons for the failure of their mission.

It was doomed from the beginning. The roots of the problem lie not in the lack of people or money. (The mission has plenty of people sitting in offices doing nothing and plenty of money, to the point where they are hiring extra staff in order to justify their huge budget.)

The roots lie in the forfeiting of authority and independence to the Government of Sudan and, secondarily, in the managerial incompetence of important UNAMID staff. The latter is a product of the first, since the GoS was allowed to have a final say on which countries and individuals were part of the mission.

UNAMID’s subjugation to the GoS has meant that they have been stymied at every turn. They can not bring in the supplies and equipment they need because the authorities keep them holed up in customs for several months even if these are allowed to enter the country. Most ludicrously, GoS police and military authorities must be notified about (read, “approve”) UNAMID’s every move. Recently I heard, from a well-placed UNAMID staff member, “Night patrols are out of the question.” These are just a few of the myriad problems. Like I’ve said before, its a joke.

Alex de Waal and others have suggested that the whole idea of a peacekeeping force in Darfur is probably a bad one. There is no peace to keep; the more UNAMID personnel are here, the more targets there are for trigger-happy, profit-eager bandits and not-so-cooperative-after-all government proxies.