February 21, 2007 —
I feel compelled to begin with a simple observation: today is the 21st of February, 2007. The genocide in Darfur has lasted four years and counting. An estimated 450,000 people are dead. More than 2.5 million have been displaced or rendered refugees. Every day, the situation worsens. Fifty-two days have come and gone since the expiration of the very public deadline the President's Special Envoy Andrew Natsios set at my own Brookings Institution. Last year, on November 20th, Natsios promised that harsh consequences would befall the Government of Sudan, if by January 1, 2007, it failed to meet two very clear conditions. First, Khartoum must accept unequivocally the full deployment of a 17,000 person UN-African Union "hybrid" force. And, second, it must stop killing innocent civilians.
In spite of this threat - the so-called "Plan B" — the Government of Sudan continues to kill with impunity. Last week, President Bashir reneged on his commitment to admit UN human rights monitors. And, Khartoum still has not accepted UN troops as part of a hybrid force. Bashir sent a letter late last December to Kofi Annan implying his acquiescence to UN troops - but offering no explicit acceptance. The next day Sudan's ambassador to the UN ruled out any UN forces. Sudan keeps playing this bait and switch game to its advantage, and the U.S. keeps being played. And, still, no Plan B.
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