Of bureaucractic hurdles and the procedural 'ring of fire' faced by Humanitarians

In light of the last post I wanted to bring up a further point....

I am currently stranded outside of Sudan and have been for the last four weeks. Whilst I have not been denied a visa it simply is never issued. Similarly before I left Sudan getting work permits, residence permits and travel permits has occupied a vast amount of my and my office's time - significantly delaying our project. Each one of these documents is processed through a bureaucracy that is always extremely inefficient and very often highly politicised. My current situation is simply a microcosm of the very serious obstacles put in front of the humanitarian agencies by Khartoum.

These obstacles affect the core of the basic operations humanitarian agencies are involved in as they restrict access and absorb resources. The Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), the government agency tasked with 'coordinating' the aid effort, is widely seen as the direct opponent of the aid operations and is unanimously believed to be largely staffed by Sudanese state security.

No aid agency working in Darfur can effectively lobby for pressure to be put on Khartoum to remove such restrictions - those who have tried have witnessed a serious backlash. The most recent was the Norwegian Refugee Council who were expelled in November last year.

So why are the politicians not doing this?