A test case for the UN
The UN has a chance to salvage its reputation and redefine itself for the 21st century, but not until the situation in Darfur is stabilized

By http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/philip_honour/profile.html Philip Honour
December 24, 2007  
Guardian
Original Source: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/philip_honour/2007/12/a_test_case_for_the_un.html

The last five years have been a http://www.unmis.org/English/darfur.htm bleak period for the United Nations. From the divisions that surfaced over Iraq to the lack of respect shown towards the International Criminal Court by security council members, it is hard to see how the UN can recover its reputation and pursue its mission of spreading peace worldwide. 
The inability and reluctance of member states to challenge the http://www.sudan-embassy.co.uk Sudanese government on the various obstructions that have been strategically placed to delay the deployment of http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unamid/index.html Unamid, the peacekeeping mission to Darfur, has again shown that the UN is becoming little more than a symbolic figurehead.
In a http://www.hrw.org/pub/2007/africa/unamid1207web.pdf report [pdf] released by 32 non-governmental organisations last Saturday, suggestions are clearly laid out about how member states can begin to repair the UN's damaged image and, more importantly, start to break the deadlock over the deployment of Unamid. 
It clearly states that, although the obstructions to deployment are primarily the result of resistance from the Sudanese government towards a hybrid force being based in Darfur, the responsibility lies with security council members to make sure that Sudan complies fully with its obligations as set out in http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sc9089.doc.htm resolution 1769.
Without this pressure from a united front, the Sudanese government will continue in its well-orchestrated plan to disrupt any effort to bring peace to this troubled region and will continue with forcible relocation of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internally_displaced_person IDP residents. 
In 2007, humanitarian organisations were forced to relocate their operations on 31 occasions and 12 workers were killed - seven of these in October alone. The increase in violence towards foreign personnel is a frightening development which appears to have made countries wary of committing troops to Unamid, but it is important that member states follow through on their responsibility to protect. As the current http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia \l 2000_.E2.80.93_Present situation in Somalia shows, the failure to intercept potentially explosive situations can lead to lawless states and a vacuum in which a disenfranchised generation could then be radicalised and become the backbone of al-Qaida style groups.
This is a worst case scenario but is a potential end-product of the reluctance of the international community to act. Nobody wants Darfur to become the next Afghanistan.
Although liberal Interventionism has become a dirty word since the disastrous Iraq campaign, it is important that the international community remembers the success of other campaigns in Kosovo and Sierra Leone and of US peacekeeping missions in the 1990s spearheaded by the Clinton administration. 
While no one wants to see a repeat of the inhumane shock and awe tactics used in Iraq in 2003, the threat of sanctions has been unsuccessful at forcing the Sudanese government to comply with the wishes of the international community.
The best-case scenario is still a diplomatic solution. Nobody wants to see a military response but the question has to be asked about how much longer can the repeated refusal from the Sudanese government to comply with its obligations under resolution 1769 be accepted by the UN?
Security council members need to consider, at the very least, strengthening existing sanctions and signalling, in the strongest language possible, that further action will be considered unless the Sudanese government ends its obstruction and proactively facilitates the deployment and operation of http://www.amis-sudan.org/ Amis and Unamid. 
British shadow cabinet member http://www.andrew-mitchell-mp.co.uk Andrew Mitchell commented earlier this year that in 50 years time, we will be astonished that we stomached rulers like President Bashir - they are like kleptomaniacs, they are no different than common criminals who terrorise council estates in South London. 
A zero-tolerance policy towards Sudan from the UN is the only hope for peace in Darfur, and while the likelihood of President Bashir ever being tried by the ICC for crimes against humanity is about as likely as Dick Cheney being http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/philip_honour/2007/12/%20http:/blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2007/11/cheney_impeachment_resolution.html impeached over Iraq, it is important to condemn world leaders who stand in the way of peace. 
This is the security council's chance to redefine itself for the 21st century but until the situation in Darfur has stabilised, people will continue to talk about the failures that have destroyed its reputation instead of the important work that it has a mandate to carry out.