Post by cjm on Feb 27, 2016 16:04:06 GMT
www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/south-africas-withdrawal-from-darfur
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Yesterday, South African President Jacob Zuma made a surprise announcement that he had decided to withdraw the 800-odd South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troops who have been participating in UNAMID – the hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan – and its predecessor AMIS (the African Union Mission in Sudan) since 2004. Zuma gave no explicit reason for his decision.
Since he announced it on the day of South Africa’s budget speech, perhaps it was essentially a cost-cutting measure. Or perhaps he intends redeploying the overstretched SANDF elsewhere. But the announcement would surely have been welcomed most enthusiastically by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. One could say Zuma thus did him, wittingly or unwittingly, another big favour – following on the refusal of the South African government to arrest al-Bashir on International Criminal Court (ICC) charges last June when he participated in the African Union (AU) summit in Johannesburg.
For al-Bashir has been trying hard to persuade the United Nations (UN) to terminate UNAMID and has gone further by making its life as difficult as possible. This has included restricting its movements and its armaments – which has often prevented it from protecting itself, let alone civilians – and denying visas to replacements.
This is in line with Khartoum’s insistence, for the past few years, that the war is over in Darfur and so the peacekeepers are no longer necessary. Zuma apparently bought this line because the statement from the presidency ended by saying; ‘President Zuma has thanked all members of the SANDF for their participation in bringing peace in Darfur.’
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Yesterday, South African President Jacob Zuma made a surprise announcement that he had decided to withdraw the 800-odd South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troops who have been participating in UNAMID – the hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan – and its predecessor AMIS (the African Union Mission in Sudan) since 2004. Zuma gave no explicit reason for his decision.
Since he announced it on the day of South Africa’s budget speech, perhaps it was essentially a cost-cutting measure. Or perhaps he intends redeploying the overstretched SANDF elsewhere. But the announcement would surely have been welcomed most enthusiastically by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. One could say Zuma thus did him, wittingly or unwittingly, another big favour – following on the refusal of the South African government to arrest al-Bashir on International Criminal Court (ICC) charges last June when he participated in the African Union (AU) summit in Johannesburg.
For al-Bashir has been trying hard to persuade the United Nations (UN) to terminate UNAMID and has gone further by making its life as difficult as possible. This has included restricting its movements and its armaments – which has often prevented it from protecting itself, let alone civilians – and denying visas to replacements.
This is in line with Khartoum’s insistence, for the past few years, that the war is over in Darfur and so the peacekeepers are no longer necessary. Zuma apparently bought this line because the statement from the presidency ended by saying; ‘President Zuma has thanked all members of the SANDF for their participation in bringing peace in Darfur.’
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