Originally published on the CGS blog on June 13, 2007.
To build upon what my colleague Raj wrote earlier on the Bush Administration’s ‘movement’ on the ICC, yesterday revealed a move by the Sudanese government that looks like a step forward but doesn’t go anywhere at all.? Am I surprised? Not really.
Sudan announced (for what seems like the hundredth time) that they accept an African Union – United Nations joint proposal for a hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur. Sudan initially agreed to the force “in principle” at a November 2006 meeting in Addis Ababa with the African Union, then U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, members of the U.N. Security Council, and the Sudanese government. Since then, they have issued several public statements accepting various packages of a three-phase deployment, with the most recent announcement in April.
We met Sudan’s announcement in April with “cautious optimism;” today I feel mildly pleased about the deal. Sudan might actually follow through on their words, but the past seven months have proved the opposite. Anyone want to place bets? We aren’t going to see anyone move to deploy this force until Sudan starts to really feel the heat – and that won’t happen until the U.S. gets the international community on board with strong multilateral diplomacy and sanctions.
