U.S. steps up criticism as Darfur deteriorates

Since early March, when Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir expelled international aid groups from Darfur after being indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, the troubled region has taken a turn for the worse.

Today, as Bashir was received on a state visit in Eritrea, U.S. officials stepped up their criticism and vowed to hold the Sudanese government responsible for the deteriorating situation.

"Let me be clear," U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said in a statement Monday. "This is not a made up crisis, as the representative of Sudan would have you believe. On the contrary, this is a very real and urgent crisis of his government’s own making. President Bashir and his government are responsible and must be held accountable for each and every death caused by these callous and calculated actions. The Sudanese government made this decision and owns its consequences."

"It is getting worse," a U.S. official on the ground in Sudan told Foreign Policy. "It varies slightly from camp to camp, but there are some generalities one can make: People have food, but fuel for motorized water pumps is in short supply so there are long lines to use hand pumps. Some clinics have closed; hundreds of IDPs [internally displaced people] have lost precarious livelihoods and easier access to some skills and services. People fear the government and its organs, what they might do in the future. They are feeling more exposed.

"Overall, life has become a little more miserable and constrained for these desperate people," the U.S. official continued, "but there is no mass dying or starvation at this point."

Also Monday, State Department spokesman Robert Wood gave a readout on the recent Darfur trip by officials from the U.S. Embassy Sudan and USAID. "The arrival of more than 36,000 IDPs fleeing recent fighting in the past two months between armed opposition groups and the Sudanese government in South Darfur has severely strained Zam Zam camp’s limited resources," Wood said. "This crisis has been exacerbated by the March 4 and 5 expulsions of 13 major international humanitarian agencies and the dissolution of three Sudanese non-governmental organizations by the government of Sudan."

"As Secretary Clinton remarked last week, President Bashir and the government in Khartoum will be held responsible for each death that occurs in those camps caused by their expulsion of the aid workers," Wood said.

"Given the [Sudanese] government’s decision to take out the humanitarian workers and create crisis, … there is no option of not responding," said Tom Malinowski, Human Rights Watch’s Washington advocacy director, explaining what appeared to be a coordinated media campaign by the Obama administration.

Last week, Obama named former Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration as the U.S. special envoy to Sudan. Gration, a friend of the president’s, was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Asked if Obama was facing higher expectations for effective action on the Darfur crisis, Malinkowski said, "They are high because he said appropriately tough things on this during the campaign." Obama’s global standing relative to that of his predecessor, he said, has also fueled hopes that he could motivate a stronger international response. "Does that mean he will be able to magically come up with the rescue force for this extraordinarily complicated crisis? No. But it does raise expectations that this administration will be able to do more than just declare ‘genocide’ and walk away."

In the past, policymakers determined that a military no-fly zone might impede humanitarian assistance in Darfur. "It’s an interesting question whether Bashir’s expulsion of humanitarian groups changes that equation," Malinowski said.

He said the ICC indictment also introduces uncertainty to the equation. "One of the arguments for the ICC indictment was it creates a dynamic where other members of the elite in Khartoum may calculate that it’s not in their best long term interest to be hitched to the Bashir wagon," Malinowski said.

The ICC’s indictment of Bashir "was not necessarily a mistake," a U.S. Africa hand told Foreign Policy. "But those who thought it would make the regime more amenable were wrong. Things can always get worse in Sudan. On the other hand, there is always the slight chance that Bashir’s henchmen will turn on him."