Why Sudan is now allowing UN troops in Darfur

Sudan announced Monday it would allow 3,000 international peacekeepers in, leading the US and Britain to increase pressure.

By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the April 18, 2007 edition

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WASHINGTON - International pressure from the United Nations, Arab leaders, and the United States played a role in Sudan's concession this week to allow 3,000 UN peacekeepers into the country's troubled Darfur region.

So, apparently, did the image concerns of China – both one of Sudan's biggest commercial partners and an increasingly outgoing international power – as it prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.

But while some international leaders are jumping to praise Sudan's uncustomary openness to international intervention in Darfur, the US and Britain are seizing the moment to increase pressure on Sudan.

As the conflict that has left more than 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced continues unabated, questions are surfacing over which approach is likely to stem the crisis most quickly.

Some experts say Sudan simply continues to play the international community by stringing out its concessions to make them appear to be major breakthroughs, even though they are unlikely to get at the heart of Darfur's strife.

"It isn't going to make a huge difference who in the international community has got the approach to this announcement right, or even how quickly the government of Sudan acts on it, because the whole issue of UN troops has been blown out of proportion compared to what they can really do," says Alex de Waal, a Darfur expert and program director with the Social Science Research Council in New York.

"International troops are ancillary to a peace agreement for Darfur," he adds. "They are not going to be the main event of a conflict that requires a political solution."

While that may be true, international leaders – ranging from Western officials facing domestic pressure to stop what the US has termed a genocide, to Arab and African leaders increasingly fed up with the inaction of a neighboring regime – are hoping international intervention will help pave the way for a political settlement.

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