Kapila: ‘Justice now more important than aid’

Aid-organisations are wrong when they try to postpone the indictment of the Sudanese responsible for war crimes in darfur in order to avoid expulsion or more pressure from the government. That says the former UN humanitarian aid coordinator in Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, in an interview with Radio Dabanga. Kapila foretold in 2003 the possible genocide and had to leave the country for his predictions. He explains to Radio Dabanga that the root cause for the problems in Darfur is lack of justice. The ultimate solution for Darfur is also justice, not humanitarian aid. Mukesh Kapila – a medical doctor himself – says the people of Darfur should speak out whether they want the humanitarian aid or the indictment and arrest warrant for Bashir. He expects that the indictment will probably have only short term consequences for the Darfurians, but it will support the people of Darfur at the long run. He assumes that the Sudanese people will support indictment rather than having more aid. Although he expects that problems for aid organizations will continue, he does not believe that the situation will be much worsened. However he calls the people of Darfur not to expect too much from foreign organizations. He asked them to do as much by themselves as possible. Mukesh Kapila states that the current problems in Darfur are threatening the stability of the neighbour countries. Kapila told Radio Dabanga that for all these reasons, the problem of Darfur is no longer a local case, but an international issue