Darfur Sudan: UN Protest
Today, Arjun brought up this piece from Passion of the Present about the ongoing ‘situation’ in Darfur Sudan:
“The Sudanese government signed an agreement for peace on Tuesday, with great fanfair that stimulated hopeful reports in the world press. As has been the pattern, within days the government made clear that it did not intend to abide by it.
“The first key element of the agreement was that humanitarian aid workers be allowed unfettered access in Darfur. Yet humanitarian access remains so limited that on Thursday it was announced that the UN is pulling out humanitarian staff in protest.”
Perhaps I don’t understand, but how will pulling out humanitarian staff be an effective protest??
CNN explains that the Sudanese government has placed restrictions on UN aid workers and, as a concequence, are forced to sit idle until these restrictions are removed.
Is the aid agency really just re-allocating its resources, as the article suggests, and moving workers to places where aid can be delivered to those in need? Someone please explain the “protest” part of this?