Sunset

Music

00:00

General to chopper

00:07

GEOGHEGAN:  Nigerian general, Martin Luther Agwai, has a difficult and dangerous assignment.

00:22

AGWAI:  Ah, good morning. How are you lot?

00:28

GEOGHEGAN:  He’s the commander of UNAMID, the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur.

His job, to keep the peace in one of the world’s bloodiest and most protracted conflicts.

00:32

Music

00:46

Aerials from chopper

AGWAI:  I try to remind the whole world that

00:50

Agwai. Super:
General Martin Luther Agwai
UNAMID Force Commander

if we believe that there are difficulties, there are challenges, there are things that need to be done  in Darfur, then we need to put our money where our mouth is.

00:53

SLA and Sudan army troops

GEOGHEGAN:  Caught in the middle of a war between Sudanese government forces and heavily armed rebel groups, UMAMID is undermanned and out-gunned.

01:06

After 5 years of fighting and as many as 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, the UN is meant to be bringing an end to this war. But the world’s largest peacekeeping mission is bogged down and is unable to fulfil its mandate to keep the peace.

01:21

AGWAI:  Presently in Darfur there is no peace to keep.

01:43

Agwai

That makes our job more difficult.

01:47

El Fasher

GEOGHEGAN:  In the searing heart of Darfur lies El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

There’s little sign here of the death and destruction that has ravaged this land; life goes on.

01:51

Displaced persons camp

But El Fasher can’t escape the crisis.

On the city fringes around 150 thousand people have crammed into camps seeking refuge from the fighting.

Almost two million people live in camps like this across Darfur.

02:15

UNAMID HQ

On the other side of the city, another camp.

This is where the UN and the African Union have joined forces for their mission in Darfur.

02:44

Agwai into daily Security meeting

It’s 9am and UNAMID commander General Agwai convenes his daily security meeting.

03:00

Reports of fighting have the general worried.

The recent death of several of his peacekeepers has UNAMID on a high state of alert, one step away from full evacuation.

03:13

AGWAI:  As commander, each day you keep hoping and keeping your fingers crossed that all the numerous patrols that were sent outside all come back with no incident.

03:29

But not everyday you’ll be lucky.

03:40

UNAMID vision – bodies of soldiers

GEOGHEGAN:  On the 8th of July UNAMID suffered its worst day in Darfur.

The UN suspects the Arab militia group, Janjaweed, ambushed a convoy of soldiers and policemen on its way back from a patrol.

Seven peacekeepers were killed and 22 injured in a fight that lasted more than two hours.

With no air support, they were sitting ducks.

03:44

AGWAI:   If we had attack helicopters that would have definitely been a super bonus,

04:11

Agwai

because we would have been able to bring, shift the fire on them and maybe save  more lives.

04:15

Funeral ceremony

GEOGHEGAN:  With no helicopters UNAMID is unable to counterattack, and the warring parties know it.

04:22

AGWAI:  We’re now being targeted, we’re now being pulled in as part of the conflict and sadly, a lot of them have to pay the supreme sacrifice of losing their lives.

04:32

Super:
General Martin Luther Agwai
UNAMID Force Commander

AGWAI:  I want to assure the international community that to those who think they can perpetrate this act and discourage us from our mission, I will say that they will fail.

04:47

Khartoum buildings

GEOGHEGAN:  The problem for UNAMID is the Janjaweed has support in high places.

The UN accuses the Sudanese government of directing the Arab militia.

05:03

Nafi. Super:
Dr Nafi Ali Nafi
Presidential Advisor

It’s an accusation Sudan’s presidential advisor on Darfur denies.

NAFI:   First of all, I would say very frankly and very honestly, all that is being said in the western media is deliberate distortion.

05:14

GEOGHEGAN:  So you can categorically say that your government is not funding any party in the conflict?

05:29

NAFI:   Definitely, why should we do? The rebellion is against the government, so why should the government support any group against other, except in the sense that we have always opened our doors for those who would like to come for peace, or those who would like to negotiate with us.

05:36

Soldiers

GEOGHEGAN:  Only two rebel groups have been willing to negotiate with the government and sign the Darfur Peace Agreement. Many more groups have dug in and refused to negotiate. That’s turned Darfur into a diplomatic minefield for General Agwai.

05:59

AGWAI:  Not all the actors, not all the stakeholders signed the agreement,

06:17

Agwai

so it become very difficult for you on the ground to try to enforce any peace agreement.

06:22

Aerials

GEOGHEGAN:  From the air, the enormity of General Agwai’s problem is clear.

He’s been promised a force of 26,000, but so far he has less than 10,000 peacekeepers spread thinly across the hostile Darfur landscape -- an area the size of France.

06:33

Peace has proved elusive.

What began as an uprising against African tribes people against the majority Arab government has spread.

Rival ethnic groups have been drawn into the conflict as they compete for scarce resources.

06:56

Agwai visits Umm Baru

The UNAMID commander has come to  Umm Baru in the far west of Darfur to see how some of his troops are faring.

07:20

Agwai addresses troops

AGWAI:  I just want to use this opportunity to thank all of you for all the good work you have been doing in the mission area…

07:28

GEOGHEGAN:  This is home for a company of Senegalese soldiers.

It’s oppressively hot and dusty and their commander wants to make their camp a little more comfortable.

07:41

AGWAI:   I want us for, everybody should plant one tree before you finally leave here. Good.

07:52

Agwai plays drafts with soldier

GEOGHEGAN:  Boosting morale comes easily to the general.

08:01

AGWAI:  Who’s the champion?

08:03

Agwai and Stafford in meeting

GEOGHEGAN:  UNAMID’s peacekeepers desperately need back-up and the commander and his staff are battling to make it happen.

08:15

STAFFORD:  You spoke about needing tyres and batteries for your 4 by 4s, and the trucks. What are your APCs like?

SENEGALESE COMMANDER:   We have 4 APCs here. Three are working, one not very properly, but acceptable and one didn’t work.

08:22

Stafford and Agwai  tour camp

GEOGHEGAN:  One thing’s for sure, new armoured personnel carriers will be not be arriving quickly.

Equipping UNAMID troops in Darfur is a logistical nightmare.

08:40

STAFFORD:  Yes, the isolation of the area is one of the key problems. It’s 2,220 kilometres from the port. You can’t get further from the sea.  And so

08:52

Stafford. Super:
Colonel Noddy Stafford
UNAMID Chief Planner

it is difficult to move the kit down that route. We’ve got good roads  until the halfway point and after that it deteriorates into what you and I would recognise as tracks across country.

09:03

Photos of road from port and trucks bogged in mud

And not all the lorries and the trucks can cope with those roads, and it’s taking a lot longer for us than we had anticipated in these conditions.

09:14

Agwai tours camp

AGWAI:  The major thing that most people still don’t get, come to terms with, is that the troops that were initially deployed here were deployed to observe and report the implementation of the Darfur peace agreement.

09:28

Agwai walks with Geoghegan to chopper

It became easier to deploy this way. You equip lightly, lightly equipped and to be able to move round believing that there is peace to keep. But things have turned out to be different.

09:44

Okay let’s go.

10:00

Khartoum

Music

10:03

GEOGHEGAN:  With tensions already high, the general’s problems could be about to get considerably worse.

10:12

President Omar al Bashir

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor wants Sudanese President Omar al Bashir arrested and tried for war crimes in Darfur.

10:18

Music

10:27

Khartoum

GEOGHEGAN: This would likely mean a backlash against UNAMID.

10:32

Nafi. Super:
Dr Nafi Ali Nafi
Presidential Advisor

NAFI:   The ICC is a political instrument and that they are playing with fire and that this is destabilising not only Sudan, but the whole region.

10:38

GEOGHEGAN:  Could you guarantee the safety of UNAMID if indeed President Bashir is indicted?

10:48

NAFI:  Well, security is not something that can be guaranteed by somebody, it is a state in the country.

10:54

GEOGHEGAN:  Would you ask UNAMID to leave?

NAFI:  We will look at all options that we have then and we will discuss it very thoughtfully and we take the right decision, in shallah.

11:03

Agwai. Super:
General Martin Luther Agwai
UNAMID Force Commander

AGWAI:  The international court is working on judicial issues. We belong to two different organisations, we have two different approaches. Yes, any action taken will have an impact on the other.

11:13

Agwai visits soldiers in Tine

GEOGHEGAN:  Meanwhile, General Agwai must focus on the immediate threats. And next stop is Tine on Sudan’s western border.

11:30

These peacekeepers are in a very delicate position. Just a few hundred metres away is Chad, a country that has been accused of sponsoring many of the rebels.

11:44

AGWAI:   This is one of the areas that really we have to build up to be able to monitor and maintain the full picture of what happened between the two countries.

11:56

Agwai with Geoghegan

For a lasting solution to the Darfurian crisis we must have a final solution to the Chad/Sudan problem.

12:08

High shots of Chad

GEOGHEGAN:  Chad and Sudan are seen as fighting a proxy war in Darfur.

Both governments accuse each other funding rebels to launch cross border raids.

Those Chadian backed rebels have already sent a warning to the Sudanese.

12:21

Archival footage of fighting

Music

12:39

GEOGHEGAN:   Earlier this year, the conflict came to the capital for the first time when rebels launched an audacious attack here in Khartoum. Their aim was to seize power.

12:43

The Sudanese army repelled the rebels.

12:57

Music

12:59

Refugee camps

GEOGHEGAN:  Since then, the army’s gone on the offensive, launching a series of attacks on Darfur camps for the internally displaced.

The government believes the rebels have infiltrated these camps and are using them to launch counter attacks.

13:07

NAFI:  Because these people were very well entrenched in the camps, they mobilised and they started to shoot the police before the police reacted.

13:23

Nafi. Super:
Dr Nafi Ali Nafi
Presidential Advisor

GEOGHEGAN:  But isn’t it inevitable that innocent people will be killed?

NAFI:  Definitely innocent people were killed, definitely that was very unfortunate, and definitely it is something regrettable and I think it should -- our job should be to take these people out of the camp without hurting if possible any innocent civilian. But I ask you, is that only the case in Sudan.

GEOGHEGAN:   Well very few wars have had

13:32

300,000 people dead and two and a half million displaced.

14:00

NAFI:  It is not 300,000, that was the number that was said by the British Ambassador in the UN and he regretted it.

GEOGHEGAN:  Well the United Nations says the estimate is 300,000 people dead.

NAFI:  That was not the United Nations. It was somebody in the United Nations who was British Ambassador or envoy or whoever.

14:02

GEOGHEGAN:  What’s your estimate? How many people have died in the conflict?

NAFI:  I would say that is not the right number really. I’ve heard estimates of 10,000. I heard something like this and I don’t think the number is very big actually.

GEOGHEGAN:  This is a gross understatement.

14:22

Refugee camps

Both the United Nations and African Union say 300,000 have been killed as a result of the conflict, most of them because of malnutrition.

14:38

El Fasher

The Government has extended its offensive beyond the camps and is now attacking rebel strong holds south of El Fasher.

14:52

Truckloads of soldiers – heavily armed

We were on hand when one of the most heavily armed guerrilla groups rolled into town.

It looked as though tensions could flare as they eyed off government troops.

But instead, there were to be no hostilities this afternoon.

15:01

In a surprise move the Sudanese government and a faction of the rebel forces are meeting here to try to find a way to end weeks of fighting.

15:20

Minni Minawi walking from room to room with entourage

Minni Minawi, the leader of a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army made a rare public appearance.

A key player in peace negotiations, he was one of the rebel leaders to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement with the government. But he’s threatening to abandon the deal after his soldiers were targeted by the Sudanese military.

15:30

A frantic afternoon of talks ensued, involving Sudan’s Vice President and even the US ambassador.

15:54

Minni Minawi greets Agwai at press conference

MINAWI:  General, how are you. How’s everything?

GEOGHEGAN:  Minni Minawi may be openly friendly with UNAMID’S commander,

16:01

but behind the general’s back, his faction is highly critical of UNAMID’s role.

16:12

HASHIM:  Unfortunately up to date UNAMID are not doing anything.

16:19

Hashim

They cannot protect themselves. How do you think they can protect the civilians here?

16:23

GEOGHEGAN:  Ismail Hashim, the president of Minni Minnawi’s political party, believes UNAMID is little more than a government puppet.

16:32

HASHIIM:   They don’t even have independent decisions for themselves, you know. The government is directing them as they like. Actually, I cannot see any benefit from UNAMID in this place, I don’t think so.

16:41

Cavalcade  to airport

Music

16:57

GEOGHEGAN:  With the formalities completed it was time to leave.

17:01

Rebel militiamen and government troops leading a wild ride through El Fasher before storming the airport.

17:06

Music

17:13

Minawi and entourage at airport

GEOGHEGAN:  Rebel leader Minni Minawi was clearly savouring his role as peacemaker under the terms of the Darfur Peace Agreement, known by everyone here as the DPA.

17:19

GEOGHEGAN:  What was the result of those talks?

17:31

Minawi at Geoghegan

MINAWI:  Activation of the DPA agreement, whenever there is any activation we will come back.

GEOGHEGAN:  So you’re quite happy with the government stance now, you’re quite happy with what the government is doing?

17:33

MINAWI:  Yes, we hope to be happy if they are serious.

GEOGHEGAN:  Do you think that’s the end of the conflict as far as you’re concerned?

MINAWI:  I don’t think this is the end, because the ending of the conflict there are many things that have to be started. Negotiation, and goodness and also the willingness of progress of the DPA.

17:43

Minawi boards plane

GEOGHEGAN:  Minni Minawi has returned to his people with hope that they may be spared further bloodshed. It’s a hope shared by General Agwai.

18:03

Geoghegan with Agwai

GEOGHEGAN:  Are you pleased with the way that developed?

AGWAI:  I think it’s positive. It’s better to do too much talking than fighting. The more people talk, the more they will come to terms, the more they’ll narrow their differences and the more they’ll come to an agreement.

18:13

 GEOGHEGAN:   When we spoke to Minni Minawi’s faction this morning, they were saying they’re disappointed that UNAMID hasn’t been able to do more. Have they expressed that to you?

AGWAI:  It depends on who you talks to and what perception people have. And I love it when I hear everyone criticising us that means we are neutral.

18:30

Music

18:47

GEOGHEGAN:  Neutrality may be one objective, but UNAMID’s commander knows that his mission will only be successful if peace returns to Darfur.

18:53

Music

19:01

Setting sun

AGWAI:  If you’re lucky you come out as a hero. If you’re not lucky, you come out with the whole world blaming you. That is clear, that is absolutely clear. But

19:08

Agwai

one thing that nobody will take away from me -- nobody will take away this from me -- that I am ready to give my best. And if my best brings about peace in Darfur then I will be happy for it. If my best doesn’t, I will leave being satisfied that I have rendered my best, but my best wasn’t good enough.

19:21

Credits:

Reporter – Andrew Geoghegan

Producer – Mary Ann Jolley

Cameraman – Richard Davies

Editor – Simon Brynjolffssen

Researcher – Peter Ramatseba and Molatelo Mainetje

Extra UNAMID vision – David Manyua

19:46