“The deadline for Sudanese government compliance with the UN resolution calling
on it to disarm the Janjawiid expired at the end of August, with no sign of the violence
abating. A more effective approach surely would have been to bring the rebel groups and the government together at a high-profile peace conference, and have them agree to a political solution. This is what the African Union has been trying to do, but the AU lacks the leverage of the Security Council and its permanent members. The peace talks it convened between the Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government failed to reach an agreement in Abuja. The situation now calls for much more than a combination of peacemaking initiatives, condemnation, and impassioned calls on Sudan to “fulfill its commitment to disarm the Janjaweed militias and apprehend and bring to justice Janjaweed leaders and their associates.”
