Alex de Waal, advisor to the African Union at the Darfur peace talks in Abuja, discusses some of the necessary conditions for peace in Darfur and the major obstacles standing in the way. He argues that Darfur is a sideshow for the Government of Sudan (to the issues of national identity and national democratization), made important only because of international pressure. Moreover, political disunity amongst the rebel factions and dedicated, organized interests in Khartoum and neighboring regimes make real peace elusive. He argues for broader representation at future peace talks and for international activists for human rights and democracy to support the effort of Darfurians in Darfur who are struggling for change.
Author Bio: Alex de Waal is a program director at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), engaged in projects on HIV/AIDS and Social Transformation and on Emergencies and Humanitarian Action. He is also a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard, which is a partner in a consortium with the SSRC working on AIDS and governance issues, and he is director of Justice Africa, London. In his twenty-year career, de Waal has studied the social, political and health dimensions of famine, war, genocide and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes. He has been at the forefront of mobilizing African and international responses to these problems. De Waal's books include: Famine that Kills: Darfur, Sudan, 1984-5 (1989) and Facing Genocide: The Nuba of Sudan (1995). He is the editor and lead author of Islam and Its Enemies in the Horn of Africa (2004), and most recently author, with Julie Flint, of Darfur: A Short History of a Long War (2005) and AIDS and Power: Why There is No Political Crisis Yet ( 2006). De Waal earned his doctorate in social anthropology from Oxford University.
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