Providing Aid For Darfur Isn't Easy

Allen Pizzey: The Scale Is Vast, The Costs Tremendous And The Danger High

(CBS) 
Indeed, as we were leaving one camp late in the afternoon, trying to get back to the living compound before dusk fell and the curfew came into force, a lone white-painted AMIS armored personnel carrier stood at the edge of the camp, the officer standing in the turret and waving frantically at us to hurry up. The sooner we left, the sooner he and his men could retreat to the relative sanctuary of their own compound.

WFP and other aid agencies operating in Darfur all have security officers, but none are armed. Humanitarian agencies have a strict "no guns" policy. It is so strictly observed that the armed personal bodyguard of a government minister who hitched a ride on one of the flights we took was asked to give his weapon to the pilot for the duration of the flight. He complied.

The aid agencies' security men can only provide risk assessment, plot routes and tactics to keep everyone in contact, and negotiate with militias to try to ensure safe passages.

Increasingly, the WFP has had to rely on what it calls its Humanitarian Air Service.

Made up of the Soviet-era helicopters and a fleet of fixed-wing light aircraft, the service carries up to 10,000 passengers every month, including assessment teams, health workers and others.

As the security situation deteriorates, as it has continued to do in spite of much-ballyhooed "peace deals," the helicopters are used to hit what the WFP calls "targets of opportunity." That means when an area stabilizes for a while, even a day, the teams get in fast, do as much as possible and get out again.

But it costs up to $3,000 an hour to fly a helicopter, and the WFP calculates it needs an additional $27 million for the air service budget to keep it running to the end of the year.

Having hitched a ride on a couple of their flights, this reporter has nothing but admiration for those who fly on the service to save lives.

[jkantor]

The liberals have a problem with Darfur. They've proven they don't have the guts to stick it out in Iraq - and now they want someone to intervene in Darfur. I guess it doesn't matter how many troops die in a pointless cause as long as it's someone else's.