March 9, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Are aid groups partially to blame for the expulsion last week of 13 such organizations from Darfur?
Rob Crilly, a freelance journalist who writes from Africa for The Times, in London, and other newspapers, makes that case on his blog.
Mr. Crilly has long been critical of human-rights activists such as the Save Darfur movement for oversimplifying the roots of the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. Save Darfur has pushed for the International Criminal Court to indict Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir — an event that happened last week, precipitating the ouster of the aid groups — and minimized the potentially dire consequences if the government retaliated.
But Mr. Crilly writes that humanitarian groups, which generally try to be apolitical, are also at fault.
“They have been routinely screwed by Khartoum without so much as batting an eyelid,” writes Mr. Crilly. Among the indignities with which humanitarian groups have been forced to contend: being spied on, having staff members kicked out of the country, and being restricted from travel within Sudan.
“The argument has always been that it’s better to deliver aid than make a fuss and risk losing access,” says Mr. Crilly.
In addition to losing access, aid groups may also have feared losing donations, writes Mr. Crilly. U.N. officials estimate that as much as a third of some aid groups’ budgets are raised from donations related to Darfur, he says. Mr. Crilly writes: “The crisis is supporting countless jobs in headquarters around the world and many operations in other less glamorous spots.”
Mr. Crilly says the aid organizations’ “total silence” emboldened the Sudanese government, “allowing them to think they could act with impunity, knowing that aid agencies would accept every new regulation, expulsion of country director, or smear without finding.”
What’s more, humanitarian charities’ silence gave human-rights activists such as the Save Darfur movement, which is based in the United States and has, according to Mr. Crilly, “a naive outlook,” the biggest megaphone, resulting in a preoccupation with getting the ICC to indict President Bashir and too little debate about the potentially harmful consequences.
What do you think? Should aid organizations have spoken out against injustices in Darfur?
