Alex de Waal: Obstacles to Peace in Darfur

Alex de Waal, advisor to the African Union at the Darfur peace talks in Abuja, discusses some of the necessary conditions for peace in Darfur and the major obstacles standing in the way. He argues that Darfur is a sideshow for the Government of Sudan (to the issues of national identity and national democratization), made important only because of international pressure. Moreover, political disunity amongst the rebel factions and dedicated, organized interests in Khartoum and neighboring regimes make real peace elusive. He argues for broader representation at future peace talks and for international activists for human rights and democracy to support the effort of Darfurians in Darfur who are struggling for change.

Author Bio: Alex de Waal is a program director at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), engaged in projects on HIV/AIDS and Social Transformation and on Emergencies and Humanitarian Action. He is also a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard, which is a partner in a consortium with the SSRC working on AIDS and governance issues, and he is director of Justice Africa, London. In his twenty-year career, de Waal has studied the social, political and health dimensions of famine, war, genocide and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes. He has been at the forefront of mobilizing African and international responses to these problems. De Waal's books include: Famine that Kills: Darfur, Sudan, 1984-5 (1989) and Facing Genocide: The Nuba of Sudan (1995). He is the editor and lead author of Islam and Its Enemies in the Horn of Africa (2004), and most recently author, with Julie Flint, of Darfur: A Short History of a Long War (2005) and AIDS and Power: Why There is No Political Crisis Yet ( 2006). De Waal earned his doctorate in social anthropology from Oxford University.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• 24hoursfordarfur
• Darfur
• genocide
• education

[lemmieatit]

Islam is the obstacle to peace, prosperity and progress. Islam has stripped and redefined Africans. Africans culture and traditions replaced with Arabic names. Only when Islam is swept away will Africans unite. Arab Muslims are not the Black mans brother

[osos2000]

Thanks for posting. As usual De Waal make a brillient analysis to the Darfur crisis.

[Omer698]

there is no genocide in Darfur

[somedisco]

thanks for posting!

[MountOlivet]

I am reading the book, Darfur: A Short History of a Long War, that you wrote with Julie Flint and it is really helping me to better understand the conflict/genocide in Darfur. I am a political science student at Luther College and during the spring semester of my freshman year for my global politics class and I thought that i had Darfur pretty well figured out but your book showed me that there are many more dimensions to the conflict/genocide in Darfur.

[inferno0020]

I just read your essay about Darfurian civil war on BBC. It is informative and eyes-opening.

Thank you Dr. de Waal for bringing the fact in Darfur.