Indonesia can take the lead in bringing an end to Darfur conflict (By:Michael Danby)

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Antara News Agency

In April the World Movement for Democracy will be holding its annual conference in Jakarta. This is a great tribute to the people of Indonesia. It is less than 12 years since the resignation of president Soeharto.

In that short time, Indonesia has become Southeast Asia’s most successful and stable democracy, conducting three peaceful presidential and legislative elections, resolving the difficult issues of East Timor and Aceh, and defeating efforts by terrorist groups to destabilize the country.

These are great achievements which all Indonesians should be proud of. Recently Australia was honored to receive a state visit from your President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who addressed a joint session of the two houses of the Australian Parliament — the first leader from a Southeast Asian state to do so. Australia was very impressed by his dignity, his good humor and his commitment to democratic government and human rights.

Indonesia is now the world’s largest Islamic democracy, a position which gives it enormous influence. I sincerely hope that Indonesia will use that influence to further the cause of democracy and human rights in the Islamic world.

Let me give one example of a place where that influence could be used to good effect — the war-torn region of Darfur in western Sudan.

Since 2003 there has been continuing conflict between the Sudanese government of President Omar Bashir — a military dictatorship which overthrew an elected government in 1989 — and resistance groups such as the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

The people of Darfur are Muslims, but as Black Africans they have always suffered discrimination at the hands of Arab-dominated regimes in Khartoum.

The present crisis erupted because of the prolonged drought in the region, which led to conflicts over land and water.

The best estimates are that about 300,000 people have died, mostly as the result of disease and famine, but many as a result of attacks by Sudanese forces or government-backed militias on defenseless Darfur villages.

Over 2.5 million people have been displaced and are now living in refugee camps in Darfur or across the border in Chad. Darfur has become one of the worst man-made humanitarian disasters of recent times.

A particularly horrifying aspect of the Darfur conflict has been the use of rape as a weapon of war by the Sudanese militias. Organizations such as Doctors Without Frontiers have reported seeing thousands of women who have been raped by militia members.

Many more are not seen because they have been killed. There’s no doubt that this is a deliberate tactic — it was also used during the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, as well as in Chechnya and in Sierra Leone.

So far efforts to negotiate an end to the Darfur conflict have been unsuccessful. Recently the Khartoum regime has launched an offensive of deception about Darfur. It has negotiated a “peace” agreement with a group which claims to represent the Darfur people, but in fact is an ally of the regime itself.

Violence and persecution continues in Darfur. Recently the conflict has received less publicity, but that’s mainly because the regime has expelled most reporters and aid organizations from the country.

How does Sudan get away with these crimes against its own people? Sadly, the Sudanese regime has powerful friends in China, Russia and the Arab League.

China in particular has become the main defender of the Sudanese regime, buying large amounts of

Sudanese oil in exchange for sophisticated weapons, and of course diplomatic protection at the United Nations.

In February President Hu Jintao made a state visit to Khartoum to underline China’s support for Bashir’s regime.

Among the agreements signed was one to build a new presidential palace in Khartoum — this at a time when hundreds of thousands of people are starving and suffering in Darfur, as well as in other parts of Sudan.

President Bashir has tried to portray this as an issue of a Muslim country being attacked by the Western world. This is nonsense, because the people his regime is killing, raping and driving out of their homes are themselves Muslims.

But this myth can only be effectively countered by leadership from the world’s leading Islamic democracies, such as Turkey, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Turkey has made several strong statements on the need to end the violence in Darfur. Bangladesh, despite its many other problems, has sent a large contingent to join the UN-African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission, which has unfortunately not been successful in ending the violence.

Indonesia has also made a contribution, sending police to join the UN-AU force. But I’m not alone in thinking that Indonesia, as the world’s leading Islamic democracy, could be doing more.

The world needs to hear Muslim nations strongly condemning the murders and rapes being committed against the Muslim people of Darfur by the dictatorial regime in Khartoum.

That’s why when I come to Jakarta for the World Movement for Democracy congress, I’ll be bringing with me two members of the Darfur community now living in Australia.

These are people who have experienced first-hand what has been happening in their homeland over the past seven years. I hope they will meet with Indonesian civil society representatives and journalists, so that people in Indonesia become more aware of this issue.

I hope Indonesians will in this way gain a better understanding of how they and their government could be helping their fellow-Muslims in Darfur.

President Yudhoyono, as the freely elected President of the world’s largest Muslim country, is now a figure of great moral authority on the world stage. I hope we will soon see him take an initiative to help bring this terrible conflict to an end.

A particularly horrifying aspect of the Darfur conflict has been the use of rape as a weapon of war by the Sudanese militias.

The writer is chair of the Australian Parliament’s Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs.