By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Jun 28 2006 (IPS)

Nearly two months after the signing of a peace accord between Sudan and a rebel group in Darfur, the humanitarian situation there appears to have worsened, while Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militia continue to attack towns and villages in neighbouring Chad.

Human rights groups and others are calling for urgent action by the African Union (AU) and the United Nations to prevent the violence from further destabilising the entire sub-region along Sudan’s lengthy western border, possibly plunging the area into the kind of maelstrom that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in central Africa’s Great Lakes region over the past eight years.

London-based Amnesty International Wednesday urged the two organisations to take steps to protect civilians in eastern Chad from cross-border attacks by the Janjaweed, as well as to urgently bolster an AU force in Darfur, known as AMIS, and prepare the deployment of a larger U.N. peacekeeping force there by Oct. 1.

“This is a key opportunity for both the AU and the U.N. to deliver a coordinated and effective response to the longstanding human rights crisis in Darfur, a crisis that is now spilling across the border into Chad and could destabilise the region,” said Irene Khan, Amnesty’s secretary-general.

“The Chadian government must step up to its responsibility to ensure the protection of its civilians and seek the assistance of an international force if necessary,” added Khan, who also released a video depicting the aftermath of recent Janjaweed raids on villages in eastern Chad.

Her remarks came on the eve of an AU summit this weekend in Banjul where growing western pressure on Sudan to permit the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force with a strong mandate to protect civilians and enforce previous U.N. Security Council resolutions on Darfur, possibly including the disarmament and dissolution of the Janjaweed, will top the agenda.

“Life is actually worse for the civilians suffering in Darfur, in spite of the peace agreement,” said Peter Takirambudde, HRW’s Africa director. “Violence is rising, and additional African forces are needed to reinforce the 7,000 troops now on the ground, so they can better protect civilians.”

In May, the AU formally asked Khartoum to agree to a U.N. takeover of the AMIS mission “at the earliest possible time”, but in recent days, al-Bashir has rejected the idea in increasingly strident terms.

“We do not reject the United Nations,” he told reporters in Khartoum Jun. 20, “but in no way will we accept U.N. troops because… (they) have an imperial and colonial agenda. Changing (the AMIS) mission to the United Nations will never happen, never ever happen,” he added.

His foreign minister, Lam Akol, has been somewhat less categorical, suggesting that Khartoum will reject any U.N. force with a “Chapter 7” mandate – one with full authority to enforce Security Council resolutions – but may accept a U.N. operation with a less powerful mandate whose precise terms would be subject to agreement with the host government.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has himself repeatedly echoed human rights groups’ demands for a U.N. force armed with a “robust” mandate, is expected to urge al-Bashir to reconsider his position during this weekend’s summit.

His chief peacekeeping aide, Jean-Marie Guehenno, who returned this week from a long-awaited AU-U.N. assessment mission in Darfur, has reportedly recommended a total U.N. force of some 17,000 troops to police the France-sized region.

Violence in Darfur dates from 2003 when the government mounted a “scorched-earth” counter-insurgency campaign directed against several “African” ethnic groups – namely, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa – from which two rebel movements had drawn support.

Much of the campaign was carried out on the ground by the Janjaweed, militias recruited from the region’s Arab population. In addition to arming and supplying the Janjaweed, government forces often conducted joint operations with them.

As many as 400,000 people are believed to have died as a result of the violence that has also displaced an estimated two million people, about 200,000 of whom have been living in Chad and the rest scattered around Darfur, most of them in overcrowded and unsanitary camps, unable to return home due to the prevailing insecurity throughout the region.

While Khartoum and two rebel groups agreed two years ago to a cease-fire, the AMIS, which was authorised only to monitor it, has been unable to enforce it. AU-led negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria, for a peace accord were repeatedly stymied by both Khartoum and divisions among the rebels.

Under enormous pressure from western and AU countries, the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) was signed by the government and Minni Minawi, the nominal leader of the largest rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).

Dissatisfied with the terms, however, a breakaway SLA faction and the Justice and Equality Movement, have refused to sign, setting off a new round of violence between the rebels themselves.

While AU, U.S. and U.N. diplomats have backed the DPA, many analysts here have criticised it as inadequate.

John Prendergast, a Sudan specialist at the International Crisis Group (ICG), for example, has noted its failure to include verifiable mechanisms for the disarmament and dissolution of the Janjaweed and for the safe return of those forced to flee their homes. He has also called the compensation proposed for the victims – 30 million dollars – an “insult” given the scale of death and destruction wrought by government forces and the Janjaweed.

Meanwhile, Janjaweed late last year began launching cross-border raids into Chad in apparent coordination with Chadian rebels opposed to President Idress Deby. Since last September, between 50,000 and 75,000 people, some of them refugees from Darfur have been forced from their homes, including about 15,000 who, cut off from any escape route, have actually moved into Darfur, according to Amnesty.

The Janjaweed have targeted the largest and wealthiest groups – many of them ethnically tied to their victims in Darfur – and recruited from smaller tribes, effectively promoting further fragmentation and tribal conflict in the region. Indeed, it appears that the two rebel factions from Darfur are now recruiting in Chad.

With the Chadian government seemingly unwilling or unable to prevent the attacks, local communities are now “seeking to acquire modern weapons with which to defend themselves, opening the prospect of widening violence,” according to Amnesty.

“What is occurring now in eastern Chad is reminiscent of what happened in the early days of the conflict in Darfur – we see the same pattern of abuses carried out by the same perpetrators,” said Khan. “The international community will reap a bloody harvest if it does not act urgently and consistently on both sides of the border.”

The multi-dimensional conflict is also spilling over into the Central African Republic, where Chadian rebels reportedly clashed with government and a regional peace-keeping force this week.

“Instability in one country contributes to instability in the other,” noted U.N. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari at a conference here earlier this month. “If we don’t address this, I fear we may see a situation comparable to Africa’s Great Lakes Region (that some have called) àAfrica’s First World War. We don’t want a second world war in Sudan and its neighbours.”

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