Uganda: Free Besigye, says African Parliament

From the Monitor Online

THE Pan African Parliament (PAP) has passed a resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the jailed leader of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Col. Dr Kizza Besigye.

The resolution was adopted at the fourth session of the 265-member assembly, which is currently underway in Gallagar Estates, Johannesburg, South Africa.

The PAP resolved to send a strong delegation to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is the current African Union chairman, to urge him to intervene in Besigye’s case.

The resolution, a copy of which Daily Monitor has seen, instructs the President of the Pan-African Parliament to immediately deliver it to Obasanjo.

The resolution instructs Obasanjo to; a) Urgently intervene in the situation in Uganda where the arrest and detention of the main opposition leader is threatening stability in the country; b) ensure that instability is avoided by the unconditional release of besigye and c) ensure that the government of Uganda respects the rule of law and fundamental human rights of citizens in compliance with the AU Protocol on Human Rights and Peoples Freedoms.

Darfur: December Conference

From STAND via POTP

STAND is pleased to invite you to the December Darfur Conference, December 2 - 4 at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.

Highlights include speeches and workshops from Eric Reeves, Brian Steidle, Mark Bixler, Jerry Fowler, and John Prendergast.

There will also be workshops run by Americans for Informed Democracy, Ben Brandzel of MoveOn, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Ryan Spencer-Reed.

It will also feature the official launch of the Genocide Intervention Network and Alex de Waal's newest book.

The focus of this conference will be to further educate activists in Darfur, the issues, and what else can be done to end the genocide.

In addition to college students, STAND welcomes and encourages students from all educational backgrounds.

Visit http://www.standnow.org/conference/ for more details and to register. We look forward to seeing you at the conference.

If you have any questions, please email darfurdecember@gmail.com.

Darfur: Update - Rebels Injure 5 AU Troops

From Reuters

A splinter Darfur rebel group clashed with African Union monitors, injuring five soldiers, as the two main rebel groups began peace talks with the Sudanese government in Nigeria on Wednesday.

It was the latest in a series of clashes involving the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD), a breakaway group demanding a seat at the Abuja talks where only two principal rebel groups are represented.

"Five soldiers were injured, of which three were transferred to Khartoum for medical treatment," an AU spokesman in Khartoum said, adding the injuries were serious.

He said the AU did not know who was behind the attack south of Kulbus, near the Chad border.

But the NMRD said it had clashed with AU troops late on Tuesday.

"We were being attacked by government helicopters and then the AU came along in their vehicles," said Khalil Abdallah, political leader of the NMRD. "They started shooting at us first so we returned fire in self defence," he added.

Sudan: 'Peacekeeping' a Struggle

From USA Today

African Union soldiers were only a few hundred yards away when Sudanese government troops swept through this small town, firing their weapons from pickups. Four villagers were killed.

Because the AU soldiers — "peacekeepers" deployed to protect civilians — did nothing to prevent the killing, the surviving villagers ran for the nearby African Union base, where the soldiers had no choice but to protect them.

Seven weeks after that attack, the village is deserted. Hundreds of families have moved into makeshift shelters huddled beneath the floodlights of the African Union base, a stark reminder of how the AU force is failing in its mission.

"It is their duty to protect humanitarian operations and civilians in their immediate vicinity," said Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher with the group Human Rights Watch. "If they have a base at Tawilla, one would assume they would be out patrolling. And if they are seeing these things, they should immediately respond with reinforcements and deter people from attacking civilians and relief camps," she said.

Rone said the soldiers often fail to intervene when civilians are attacked.

Baba Kingibe, the African Union special representative in Sudan, confirmed the accounts of what happened in this village in the northern part of Sudan's conflict-racked Darfur region.

He and other African Union leaders admit they are struggling to adequately protect Sudanese civilians, many of whom are caught in the crossfire of warring groups. Kingibe said the AU soldiers are doing the best they can but lack money and equipment. He also said his troops at times are outgunned by rebels and government forces.

Darfur: Four AU Soldiers Wounded

From Xinhua

Four Senegalese soldiers of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission were seriously wounded in an ambush by armed Sudanese rebels in the Darfur region of western Sudan, the Senegalese official news agency reported on Wednesday.

The soldiers were on an escort mission when the attack took place. They were rescued by reinforcements who become involved in a fierce battle which saw the rebels repulsed to the border with Chad, according to the report.

Brownback Leads Trip to Africa

From the AP

Sen. Sam Brownback is setting out on an eight-day tour of African nations touched by war, genocide and other humanitarian crises.

The Kansas Republican left Tuesday on a visit to Congo, Rwanda and Kenya, where he will meet will meet with local officials, diplomats, religious leaders and aid workers. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is accompanying Brownback on the trip.

The trip begins in eastern Congo, still ravaged by back-to-back wars that killed an estimated 4 million people from 1996 to 2002. Thousands are still dying there each day - most from hunger and disease - as a result of lingering conflicts.

"He wanted to highlight the human crisis there, one of the worst in the world," Brownback spokesman Brian Hart said.

Brownback and Durbin will hear from Congo officials about upcoming elections, visit a transition center for victims of sexual violence and meet doctors at a local hospital.

They will meet local officials in Rwanda to discuss that nation's fragile recovery after the 1994 genocide of more than 500,000 people, most of them ethnic Tutsis.

International Justice: Africans Have Mixed Verdict on "Africa's Pinochet"

From Reuters

The idea of sending former Chad ruler Hissene Habre to Europe for trial touches a raw nerve in Africa, where many feel the man his accusers call "Africa's Pinochet" should face justice on his home continent.

Others fear that Senegal's decision to lay Habre's case before African leaders instead of extraditing him to Belgium could lead to him escaping the charges of torture and political killings he is accused of. Habre has lived in exile in Senegal since he was deposed 15 years ago.

Declaring the Habre dossier "an African affair", Senegal said on Sunday that an African Union summit meeting in Khartoum on Jan. 23-24 would decide where his case should be heard.

A Senegalese appeals court had declared itself unable to judge a Belgian extradition request that accuses Habre of mass murder and torture carried out by his political police between 1982 and 1990. He said he did not know this was happening.

However serious the accusations against Habre, many Africans flinch at the idea of sending him to face justice in a European former colonial power which was itself accused of atrocities in Congo before its independence in 1960.

Please, Don't Forget the People of Sudan

A piece by Rev. Lauren R. Stanley from Knight Ridder

For a while, Sudan was important on the radar screens of a lot of people here in the United States. Because of the ongoing war in western Sudan, in the Darfur region, people here finally began to pay attention. "Genocide," the United States labeled that war. The terrible tales coming from Darfur captured the attention of Americans, at least for a while.

But not now.

Now, it seems, Sudan is off the radar screen once again.

"Sudan?" people ask. "There's something going on there? But didn't peace come to that country?"

It's easy to forget about all this warfare in Africa. There have been numerous wars on that huge continent in the last 50 years, all of which are hard to keep straight. Countries have changed names, new countries have been born, leaders seem to come and go.

So keeping it all straight is hard.

But we can't forget just because it's hard to figure out.

When millions die in ethnic warfare, when people are killed for their faith, our forgetting, or worse, or refusal to pay attention, is the equivalent of rubbing salt in the wound.

The U.S. government, appalled by what was happening in South Sudan, helped broker a peace deal there. The war there came to an end in January; the peace treaty went into effect in July. But the money and help that was promised has not been as forthcoming as it needs to be.

In Darfur, the U.S. government promised $50 million to support African Union peacekeepers as they tried to end the massacres. The money was to pay for helicopters, fuel and ammunition, among other supplies. But earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to eliminate that money from the budget.

Once again, Sudan is being forgotten. Once again, the rest of the world is turning its back on those most in need.

When I return to Sudan in the next few weeks, the last thing I want to tell the people there is that once again, they have been forgotten. I would rather tell them that the United States - and the United Kingdom and the United Nations - are still paying attention, are still trying to help, will fulfill their commitments and will work to ensure that the peace will come for the entire nation, and that the peace that comes will stay.

Darfur: The Word is Genocide

Two book reviews by David Kilgour (of "Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide" by Gerard Prunier and "Darfur: A Short History of a Long War" by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal) also via POTP

If the tsunami and earthquake tragedies in Asia brought out the best in both Canadians and our government, the response to the continuing horrors in Sudan's western province of Darfur is evidence of an indifference that suggests the Canadian government has forgotten the important lessons of the Rwandan tragedy.

The recent declaration in Sudan's capital by all three members of the prime minister's task force that the murders in Darfur did not qualify as genocide is only the most recent indication. Ambassador Robert Fowler, the government's issue manager, reportedly downplayed the entire situation by asserting that it is simplistic to blame the Sudanese government for what continues to occur in Darfur. Both messages were presumably intended to convince Canadians that the ongoing crisis is not really as serious as many of us think.

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Whether war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity, Khartoum is continuing to use national sovereignty as a shield for mass murder against the African community in its western province. Governments such as Canada's, following the unprincipled lead of others, declare the regime innocent of really heinous acts and can thus continue to do nothing effective to stop the killing. What happened to our federal government's responsibility-to-protect principle when hundreds of thousands of Darfuri villagers desperately need it? Or to our much-cited human-security policy?

Despite some rhetoric critical of U.S. President George W. Bush's Sudan policy coming from Robert Fowler and the two other Canadians temporarily in Khartoum, Canada's own role is little different in substance. The U.S. assistant secretary of state, Robert Zoellick, also in Sudan's capital this month, completely mischaracterized Darfur as a "tribal war."

In reality, of course, it is a government-directed campaign to wipe out the African community in Darfur.

Canada's own policy in Darfur represents no visible Canadian value.

Darfur: Canadian Policy in Africa - A Failure of Political Will

A speech from David Kilgour, a Canadian Member of Parliment, via POTP

Let me take a few minutes to focus on one of what I believe to be a great failure in Canadian policy on Africa: the genocide in Darfur.

Canada and the larger international community's response to the Darfur catastrophe, since it began, has been to rely on the African Union's (AU) unarmed ceasefire observers and a limited number of AU soldiers – both in reality mandated for the most part by the government of Sudan.

The continuing systematic killing and raping of ‘African’ Darfurians is carried out by the Janjaweed militias. Their leader, Musa Hilal, has indicated that the joint goal of his political masters in Khartoum and himself was to “empty [Darfur] of African tribes.” Today, with an estimated 400,000 Darfurians dead of unnatural causes, Mr. Hilal and the Janjaweed still roam freely. There is no escape from one reality: Khartoum’s military regime is escalating the level of violence and insecurity with the clear goal of accelerating destruction of the African population of Darfur.

So why are the African and international communities finding it so difficult to demonstrate effective leadership on the catastrophe in Darfur, let alone a build consensus on the nature of the problem? Despite public concern across this country and much of the world, as well as a series of dire warnings issued by international organizations, it’s dismaying to see world leaders averting their eyes to allow another Rwanda or Bosnia to take place.

The inaction is not due to a lack of information. There have been numerous reports, articles and statements published begging for action. There have also been two books published – such as Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide by Gérard Prunier, and Darfur: A Short History of a Long War, by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal – which expertly pick apart the historical context and current problems in Darfur. I have brought copies of my reviews of these two, and would encourage you all to read them.

In effect, emphasis on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to bring peace; the recognition of the conflict in Sudan as a ‘humanitarian problem’ only; fear of sending peacemakers to conflicts in Africa; and Ottawa’s continued reliance on ‘constructive engagement’ strangles Canada’s duty to intervene.

The approximately one billion of our sisters and brothers who live on the continent of Africa are, of course, entitled to the same level of human security from the international community during a crisis as peoples anywhere else. As one Canadian of Sudanese origin put it about the Darfur crisis: “Are Africans not full members of the UN system?” Doesn’t the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ principle apply to every community which is being brutally attacked by agents of their own government? We simply cannot remain silent partners in genocide.

The conflict in Dafur not only calls for international action, it also presents an opportunity for the AU to learn, to build their capacity, and to become a real force in African peacekeeping. Although on the one hand it is understandable – considering such things as the colonial history and the slave trade – that African governments want to solve African problems, when so many human lives are at stake, must the world not be called into action? Our globalized planet offers possibilities non-existent in the past. Today, it is possible to place thousands of peacekeepers anywhere in the world within days; it is possible to share experience, expertise and equipment; and it is possible to end large-scale atrocities such as Darfur’s. But the will has to exist first.

Uganda: LRA Seeks Peace Talks

From the BBC

A senior commander of the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has called for peace talks with the Ugandan government.

LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti also said he would be willing to go to the international court to face justice.

He added that in his view, the government should also face justice for crimes committed in northern Uganda.

The LRA has fought in northern Uganda and Sudan for 19 years, abducting children and forcing them to fight.

Peace talks were attempted a year ago, but broke down.

Mr Otti called the BBC on a satellite phone and said that the LRA was ready to talk.

"I am Lieutenant-General Vincent Otti and want this talk with the government of Uganda to end the rebellion, because now we fought for 20 years, we are ready for this talk from today," he said.

He called on the government to respond to the request for peace talks, and said he was speaking with the backing of rebel commander Joseph Kony.

Darfur: Annan Calls on Negotiators to End Atrocities

From the UN News Center

Welcoming the beginning of the renewed Sudanese peace talks to end civil conflict in Darfur, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged representatives of the Government and the two rebel movements to stop the atrocities and bloodshed and to negotiate a just and all-inclusive accord.

Mr. Annan's call came as the leadership of all parties met in Abuja, Nigeria, for the seventh round of the African Union-led (AU) negotiations on the nearly three-year-old conflict in western Sudan, which has led to the deaths of 300,000 and displaced 2 million others. Tanzanian diplomat Salim Ahmed Salim is the chief AU mediator.

"The Secretary-General strongly appeals to the parties to the Abuja peace process – the government and the leadership of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement – to immediately stop all violence and atrocities on the ground. He calls on the parties to negotiate a just and comprehensive peace agreement. Individual leaders will be judged on their immediate action to stop the bloodshed in Darfur," the Secretary-General said through his spokesman.

Mr. Annan also called on all armed groups in Darfur to cooperate fully with the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).

Meanwhile, he appealed to donors to continue supporting both the crucial work of AMIS "in this long-suffering region" and providing critical humanitarian assistance for the millions affected by the war.

Darfur: H.O.P.E.

From Human Rights First via POTP

Join Human Rights First in the HOPE [Help Organize a Peace Envoy] for Darfur Campaign to appoint a prominent envoy to reenergize the diplomatic process in the Darfur region of Sudan. The appointment of a high-level envoy will be a visible symbol of renewed political and diplomatic will to resolve the Darfur crisis. Read HRF's Case for an Envoy.

There is an urgent need to bring an end to the human rights emergency in Darfur. In the last two months the security situation has deteriorated dramatically. United Nations personnel have withdrawn from parts of the region because of increased violence, the humanitarian relief work of international nongovernmental organizations has been greatly restricted, and the civilian toll is again climbing.

A prominent envoy appointed with the support of the United Nations, in cooperation with the United States and other key countries, is crucial to bringing peace to the region.

Send a letter to Secretary General Annan and President Bush – by clicking the take action button below – and show your HOPE for Darfur.

Eritreans Flee Amid War Fears

From AFP

Eritreans are fleeing their country in growing numbers amid fears of a new war with Ethiopia and economic hardships blamed on authoritarian government policies, according to diplomats and UN figures.

In the first eight months of 2005, more Eritreans have risked death to leave the impoverished Horn of Africa nation than in all of 2004, according to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) statistics.

As border tensions with Ethiopia rose and Asmara tightened already tough economic restrictions, 6 113 Eritreans fled between January and August, compared to 5 42 last year, the statistics show.

Of both figures, 69% went to Sudan and 31% to Ethiopia, where most of them were granted refugee status, according to the UNHCR offices in Khartoum and Addis Ababa.

Diplomats say the numbers are rising even as those who leave risk being shot if caught and their families face prosecution, something Eritrean officials say is wrong as they deny the departures have caused any kind of a crisis.

Darfur: Peace Talks Resume, Rebels in Show of Unity

From Reuters

Two Darfur rebel movements spoke with one voice at the launch of a seventh round of peace talks with the Sudanese government on Tuesday, acting on a pledge to halt infighting that has hampered progress.

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), whose two rival leaders agreed just before the talks in the Nigerian capital to put their arguments on hold, and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said they were committed to reaching a just and lasting solution to the Darfur conflict.

"Both movements have reached agreement on a common document in order to achieve as much benefit and success as possible for the people of Darfur," said Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator of JEM, on behalf of both rebel groups.

The rebels, the government and the mediators all expressed hope that this seventh round of talks would be decisive and that the rebels' recent efforts to unify their positions would ease the negotiations.

In the previous rounds, each movement spoke separately at the launch ceremony and in closed-door talks. This time, the SLA and JEM delegations will alternate in taking the lead role in talks with government, an SLA leader said.

Tugod's speech on Tuesday was noticeably less confrontational towards the government than in earlier rounds, when rebel representatives had aired long lists of accusations against Khartoum.

Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur and Minni Arcua Minnawi, who both claim to be chairman of the SLA, both attended the launch ceremony but did not give speeches. The two men, whose rivalry has torn the SLA apart, agreed last week to paper over their differences for the purposes of the peace talks.

Chief mediator Salim Ahmed Salim of the African Union (AU) called their agreement "a breakthrough", while Khartoum's chief negotiator, Majzoub al-Khalifa, said it represented "remarkable progress".

Darfur and the "Times Select"

From Editor and Publisher

At a New York Times cocktail reception this past October, NYTimes.com Editor Len Apcar took a moment to plug the launch of TimesSelect, the company's first major leap into paid online content.

Apcar noted that one of the key features to the paid section would be the interactive Op-Eds produced by Naka Nathaniel and columnist Nicholas Kristof. Nathaniel, an American based in Paris, has accompanied Kristof to far-flung and neglected parts of the globe such as Darfur and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Largely the unsung hero, Nathaniel interviews subjects, poses on-camera questions to Kristof, captures all the audio and video, and then assembles the components into award-winning interactive Op-Eds.

Together, the two have nearly single-handedly kept the public's attention focused on the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and they've filed reports from each of the three countries listed in President Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech. In addition to his work with Kristof, Nathaniel has produced multimedia Web packages on the Paris fashion, auto, and air shows and a touching look at the life of Pope John Paul II.

A graduate of the University of Texas, Nathaniel joined the New York Times as an intern in 1995 and is the last member of the editorial team that launched NYTimes.com in January 1996 to still be working for the Web site.

He answered the following questions about his role at NYTimes.com, the frustrating lack of progress in Darfur, and what skills journalists of the future should learn.

(Note: some of the links in this story may require a TimesSelect account.)

Describe the editorial process when working with Nicholas Kristof on the multimedia Op-Ed pieces.

Nick does a lot of preparation before a trip. He speaks with a lot of folks already on the ground and our trips are very well planned and efficient. We start plotting out what we'd like to do in the first day and then we build the piece along the way. We've never done it the same way twice. It's been great the way things have worked out and I've learned a lot from him.

[edit]

You have been to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and the refugee camps in Darfur, Sudan. And I just watched a video you shot of a life-saving caesarian-section in Niger. What are some of the projects you've produced that you're most proud of?

I was happy with the way each of those turned out. I use audience reaction to deem whether something is a success or not. If a piece clicks with the audience we'll get hundreds of e-mails and it's incredibly gratifying to read their kind and generous comments. The best notes are those that ask how they can help. It means that we touched on something and that our work has motivated them to take action.

Our Darfur work has been frustrating, because while we're connecting with a younger audience, the problems in Sudan persist. I wish that horrors there would come to end and it was no longer a regular destination for us.

Darfur: Sudanese Army Spokesman Killed in Rebel Attack

From BBC Monitoring (no link available)

The General Command of the People's Armed Forces has issued a statement announcing that the official spokesman of the armed forces has been killed. It said that an armed group coming from Chadian territories crossed our western borders and attacked a Sudanese village called Faryah [phonetic] at 0500 a.m. [local time] this morning, Tuesday, 29 November.

This group managed to break into an arms depot belonging to the police and seized weapons and the police station's vehicles as well as injure a number of its members.

The statement said that this group attacked an AU patrol in southern Kulbus region [phonetic] and then headed west returning from the same direction they came from.

The statement said that the armed forces is not able to anticipate such infiltration, and will remain vigilant towards the citizens' legitimate rights of peace and security.

Congo: Ugandan Rebels Attack Civilians

From the New Vision

UGANDAN rebels of the Lord's resistance Army (LRA) and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), have intensified attacks on Congolese civilians.

The administrator for Eringeti district in the North Kivu province in eastern Congo last weekend reported that over 600 families had fled from their homes in the Makembi, Bilimani and Albambara villages in the past week because of harassment and crimes being perpetrated by the ADF and the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda.

The Eringeti administrator said the Ugandan rebels had become aggressive following the recent deployment of the Congolese army (FARDC) in the area. He said the rebels were subjecting the local population to daily forced labour and other forms of harassment.

In the extreme northeastern parts of Congo, LRA rebels of Joseph Kony, who are still hiding in and around Garamba National Park, kidnapped three Congolese gold prospectors.

Africa: Southerners Scrounging for Food as Aid Lags

From Reuters

Southern Africa's food crisis is worsening, with desperate people in badly hit areas eating roots and tree bark as aid funding falls short despite repeated appeals, officials said on Tuesday.

Zambia declared a national emergency this month in the hope of spurring donations for an estimated 1.7 million hungry people, while in badly-hit Malawi officials say 5 million face serious food shortages as staple maize prices skyrocket.

"Many people are struggling to find enough food for even one meal a day and some are totally reliant on foraging for wild foods, roots and seedpods in most cases," the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman in Zambia, Jo Woods, told Reuters.

The WFP says it is still $102 million short of some $400 million needed to help Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe until the next harvest in April 2006 -- and that there were no new donations on the horizon.

The six countries, facing their fourth consecutive year of food shortages, have been hit by poor rains, inadequate supplies of fertiliser and seeds as well as the devastating AIDS epidemic which is killing off subsistence farmers.

"It is far more critical this year because people have now sustained four years of food shortages and are living hand to mouth," WFP regional spokesman Mike Huggins said in Johannesburg, adding he had seen people eating tree bark in soup on a recent trip.

"They have no assets to sell anymore to buy food. It is extremely desperate for the poorest of the poor."

Uganda: Museveni Claims No Role in Besigye Arrest

From Reuters

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said on Tuesday he was not behind the arrest of a jailed opposition leader just four months before elections.

He criticised journalists for saying he personally ordered the detention of his former ally, Kizza Besigye, who was expected to pose the biggest threat to his 19 years in power.

"The things you have been writing in the papers are all false. You have been misleading the country and the outside world that the president has the power to institute prosecutions," Museveni told a news conference.

"In the case of Besigye, the only thing you should be demanding is a quick trial. Suppose he was arrested and not brought to court? Even me, I would join the demonstration."

Besigye, once Museveni's personal doctor, was arrested earlier this month, less than three weeks after returning to a tumultuous public welcome after four years in exile.

The 49-year-old retired colonel was defeated by Museveni in violence-marred polls in 2001, and later fled the east African country accusing state agents of trying to kill him.

"If Besigye says this is political and not criminal, then the right place to decide this is in court, not the newspapers," Museveni said. "Besigye should solve his legal problems quickly, because I really want to defeat him again."

Besigye, who leads the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) opposition party, is accused of treason and rape before Uganda's civilian high court, and also faces charges of terrorism and weapons offences before an army court martial.

Burundi: President Says Rebels Must Drop Talks Conditions

From Reuters

Burundi's president said on Tuesday that he still wanted peace talks with the only remaining rebel group but ruled out their demand that its imprisoned fighters be freed as a precondition for negotiations.

The roughly 3,000-strong Forces for National Liberation said last week for the first time that it was ready to talk peace with the new government of the tiny central African nation, but said its imprisoned members must first be set free.

"These are prisoners of war," President Pierre Nkrunziza told reporters on a visit to the capital of neighbouring Rwanda. "Let the FNL come to the negotiating table and make this part of the agenda. They should stop playing tricks and be serious.

"We will not release their members unless they allow talks."

Most Burundians believe their country is on the path to peace after a series of polls culminated in Nkurunziza's election and inauguration in August, under a U.N.-backed plan to end ethnic civil war that has killed 300,000 people since 1993.

Although Nkurunziza is himself a Hutu and a former rebel, the FNL continues launching attacks from its hideouts in the hills surrounding the capital Bujumbura.

Nkurunziza was in Kigali on his first official visit to Rwanda, where he met Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Without saying what action they might take, both presidents said they would work together to deal with the threat posed by both Burundian and Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in the jungles of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, near their borders.

Both presidents said the issue of ethnic differences between the two major groups, Hutu and Tutsi, in their countries was on the verge of ending because of "new and focused" leadership.

"The tensions between these two ethnic groups in both countries were largely propelled by bad leadership," Kagame said. "The period of divisive politics in now over."

ICC: Parties Debate Aid to Victims of War Crimes

From the AP

Rules on allocating funds for victims of war crimes were under discussion by the 100-nation governing body of the International Criminal Court, which opened a six-day meeting on Monday.

The Assembly of States Parties convening in The Hague also was to debate a proposed A80 million (US$94 million) budget for next year. Some countries hope to ensure that operations reaching out to victims continue in Congo, Uganda and Sudan’s Darfur region, where the court’s first investigations are under way.

[edit]

The court’s statute makes provisions for a Victims Trust Fund, administered by an independent board, to pay for protection, psychological counseling and reparations to victims of war crimes. But powerful blocs within the court have split over how to administer the fund and at what point money may be distributed.

Britain, Canada and Australia say compensation should be withheld until the conclusion of the relevant trials when crimes have been proven and perpetrators convicted.

France, Belgium and some African countries, backed by human rights groups, want to give the fund’s directors greater discretion. They fear lengthy trials would mean serious delays in reaching victims who urgently need help.

[edit]

The money would go to public projects rather than directly to victims. "These are not individual payouts," said Richard Dicker of the New York-based Human Rights Watch. Under discussion was "how the fund can be triggered to make available counseling for rape victims or health clinics" in ravaged villages, he said.

The assembly also must set the ground rules to guarantee transparency and to determine whether donors to the victims fund may earmark the money they give for specific causes.

ICC: Success Depends on Engaging Local Populace

From Human Rights Watch

The International Criminal Court (ICC) needs to raise its profile in the countries where it is conducting investigations, Human Rights Watch said today. With the annual Assembly of States Parties (ASP) meeting scheduled to start on November 28, Human Rights Watch issued a paper outlining recommendations for enhancing operations.

“With three investigations already underway, the ICC is at a critical juncture,” said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. “As the ICC develops its strategy, it needs to put victims and witnesses higher on its radar screen.”

The past year has been a momentous one for the ICC. In October it unsealed its first arrest warrants for Uganda. For the first time, the Security Council referred a situation in Sudan, a non-State party, to the court. The ICC has established field offices in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has begun to develop programs for witness and victim protection as well as victim participation in court proceedings. It is also formulating an institution-wide strategic plan for the next five years.

However, Human Rights Watch said, more needs to be done if the court is to meet the expectations of those for whom it is working.

Congo: Ugandan Rebel Groups Harassing Civilians

From Xinhua

Ugandan rebel groups, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and National Army for Liberation of Uganda (NALU), are causing mayhem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Ugandan military has said.

The 2nd Division army spokesman, Lt. Tabaro Kiconco told Xinhua by telephone on Tuesday that the two rebel groups terrorized Congolese civilians after the Congolese army in conjunction with UN peacekeepers who started dislodging them.

"The ADF and NALU are harassing civilians in areas of Iringeti and Alubani villages in eastern Congo. They are stealing food and abducting people," said Kiconco.

He noted that the Ugandan military is closely monitoring the situation in the DRC and is ready to engage the rebels once they cross into Uganda.

"After the DRC officials have chased them out of their areas, they may try to cross into Uganda but I can assure you we shall use all the necessary means to engage them and we are ready for them," said Kiconco.

Darfur: Who Cares For the Refugees?

From the Newsquest Media Group Newspapers (no link available)

The conflict in Sudan may have been pushed from the headlines by new disasters, but for hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee their homes, their misery shows no sing of getting any better. Paul Willis reports from a shanty town many now have to call home.

IT is a 20 minute drive out of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, to the shanty town of Souba. On the way into this community of makeshift homes, made of everything from flattened-out cardboard boxes to empty rice sacks, we pass the shell of a building on our right.

"That was the police station," my guide Ali tells me with a wry smile. The police headquarters here was destroyed by local residents in retaliation to attempts by the army to evict them from their homes in May this year. Over 6,000 soldiers backed by nearly 50 trucks with machine guns mounted on the back arrived in the camp in the early morning and in the ensuing battle over 30 civilians and soldiers lost their lives.

The attack on Souba and the place itself are part of a story that is being repeated on a much larger scale and with far more brutal consequences hundreds of miles west of here in the region of Darfur.

Most of the residents in Souba are refugees from that area. The majority of them fled here in 2003 when the conflict in their homeland and the ensuing humanitarian crisis was making headlines around the world.

Since then the focus of the world community may have shifted elsewhere - to Iraq, to the US and Hurricane Katrina. But these people, and the crisis they ran away from, have not gone away.

More than 2.5 million people have fled their homes and at least 180,000 are thought to have been killed since the conflict in Darfur began nearly two years ago.

In much of Darfur all of the villages have been abandoned as Arab militias - known as Janjaweed - have driven them from their land.

The refugees are black farmers, though the distinction in Darfur between black and Arab seems to be more tribal than racial or religious - there is little to tell them apart and many of the blacks are also Muslim.

MANY inside and outside of Sudan blame the hardline Islamic government here for the continuing crisis in Darfur.

Not only is the government of the military leader Omar Al Bashir accused of arming the Janjaweed militias but army helicopters and troops have frequently taken part in attacks on villages.

The plight of Darfur refugees in Souba seems to attest to a cruel lack of concern and hostility on the part of Bashir's government.

There is no electricity here, no government schools or hospitals. The women, many of them widowed by the conflict, make a meagre living collecting firewood, which they sell on for a pittance. They cannot afford to send their children to school so they are educated by volunteers - sitting on the bare earth they repeat lessons by heart because they have no exercise books or pens to write with.

Perhaps it is no worse here than many other parts of this impoverished continent but when you consider what these people have had to endure, it seems all the more cruel that their escape has led them to this. Ali, himself a Darfurian, leads me into a small courtyard to meet some of the women. I ask him if they will mind me taking their picture.

"Don't worry," he says. "They want to talk to you, they want you to tell the world what has happened to them."

No-one is helping these people, and it shows. They look tired, their haunted faces a stark contrast to their colourful hijabs. The stories they tell me are depressing and inspiring in equal measure.

Halima Isa, a 30-year-old from West Darfur, witnessed her parents being murdered when her village was attacked. She said the Janjaweed arrived late in the afternoon.

"If the man had a watch on his hand," she tells me. "They made him take it off and give it to them, then they killed him. For the small children they asked if it was a boy or a girl and if it was a boy, they killed him."

She describes witnessing young girls being gang raped, their genitals mutilated by their attackers.

Another woman, Mariam Abdul Shivai, tells me how she and her husband and their two children walked for ten days before they made it to a town after their homes were destroyed.

They scavenged for food and survived by drinking water from streams. But the saddest and most horrific thing of all about these disturbing stories is that they are still going on.

Sudan's government seem either unwilling or unable to rein in the Janjaweed, whilst peace talks between rebels for the Sudan Liberation Army - who represent the black farmers - and the government have made little difference to the situation on the ground.

THE conflict in Darfur has not ended and though the violence may have been scaled-down it is ongoing and brutal. Masaad Ali is a human rights lawyer working in Nyala, South Darfur, for the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT).

He says: "If the number of attacks on villages have gone down that is only because there is no-one living there now. They are all in the refugee camps."

Mr Ali says the camps, which are home to most of the region's estimated 1.8 million population of internally-displaced people, were increasingly the targets of militia attacks. He says there was almost no security around camps meaning refugees were left totally vulnerable.

There are three camps around Nyala, all at least ten kilometres from the town, which are home to over 250,000 refugees.

Women searching for firewood on the outskirts of the camps were particularly at risk and Mr Ali says his organisation had recorded three rape cases there in the last week. He says: "The attacks all follow the same pattern. A group of usually between five and six militia men attack the women and beat them and rape them before setting them free.

"It is no good telling these women to stay in the camps because they have to collect firewood to cook, otherwise they will starve."

THE camp's security is meant to be under the authority of Sudanese police, who are monitored by a civilian police force from the African Union, acting as peacekeepers in the region. However Mr Ali says in reality government police do nothing to protect the camps, whilst the AU officers have neither the mandate nor the means to take action against the militias.

He says: "The local police don't care and the African Union simply don't have the power - their police officers don't carry weapons so they couldn't intervene even if they wanted to. The camps are a long way out of the towns and frequently the Arab militias will stay only a few kilometres from them, so the refugees are left totally vulnerable, like sitting ducks."

So far the international community has ruled out sending a NATO force to the area despite warnings that the conflict there could not be resolved unless more troops were committed to the region.

The leading think-tank the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report published last month that the AU should be given more powers and its troop level brought up in order to intervene to protect citizens.

A few weeks ago, three African Union peacekeepers were killed in attacks thought to have been carried out by SLA rebels. Mr Ali says despite the recent peace talks the security situation around the camps was worsening.

He says: "The problems of Darfur are not going away. The international community must act to help these people because if they don't, then who will?"

What's to Be Done About Darfur? Plenty

The latest from Nick Kristof

In 1915, Woodrow Wilson turned a blind eye to the Armenian genocide. In the 1940's, Franklin Roosevelt refused to bomb the rail lines leading to Auschwitz. In 1994, Bill Clinton turned away from the slaughter in Rwanda. And in 2005, President Bush is acquiescing in the first genocide of the 21st century, in Darfur.

Mr. Bush is paralyzed for the same reasons as his predecessors. There is no great public outcry, there are no neat solutions, we already have our hands full, and it all seems rather distant and hopeless.

But Darfur is not hopeless. Here's what we should do.

First, we must pony up for the African Union security force. The single most disgraceful action the U.S. has taken was Congress's decision, with the complicity of the Bush administration, to cut out all $50 million in the current budget to help pay for the African peacekeepers in Darfur. Shame on Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona -- and the White House -- for facilitating genocide.

Mr. Bush needs to find $50 million fast and get it to the peacekeepers.

Second, the U.S. needs to push for an expanded security force in Darfur. The African Union force is a good start, but it lacks sufficient troops and weaponry. The most practical solution is to ''blue hat'' the force, making it a U.N. peacekeeping force built around the African Union core. It needs more resources and a more robust mandate, plus contributions from NATO or at least from major countries like Canada, Germany and Japan.

Third, we should impose a no-fly zone. The U.S. should warn Sudan that if it bombs civilians, then afterward we will destroy the airplanes involved.

Fourth, the House should pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. This legislation, which would apply targeted sanctions and pressure Sudan to stop the killing, passed the Senate unanimously but now faces an uphill struggle in the House.

Fifth, Mr. Bush should use the bully pulpit. He should talk about Darfur in his speeches and invite survivors to the Oval Office. He should wear a green ''Save Darfur'' bracelet -- or how about getting a Darfur lawn sign for the White House? (Both are available, along with ideas for action, from www.savedarfur.org.) He can call Hosni Mubarak and other Arab and African leaders and ask them to visit Darfur. He can call on China to stop underwriting this genocide.

Sixth, President Bush and Kofi Annan should jointly appoint a special envoy to negotiate with tribal sheiks. Colin Powell or James Baker III would be ideal in working with the sheiks and other parties to hammer out a peace deal. The envoy would choose a Sudanese chief of staff like Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, a leading Sudanese human rights activist who has been pushing just such a plan with the help of Human Rights First.

So far, peace negotiations have failed because they center on two groups that are partly composed of recalcitrant thugs: the government and the increasingly splintered rebels. But Darfur has a traditional system of conflict resolution based on tribal sheiks, and it's crucial to bring those sheiks into the process.

Ordinary readers can push for all these moves. Before he died, Senator Paul Simon said that if only 100 people in each Congressional district had demanded a stop to the Rwandan genocide, that effort would have generated a determination to stop it. But Americans didn't write such letters to their members of Congress then, and they're not writing them now.

Finding the right policy tools to confront genocide is an excruciating challenge, but it's not the biggest problem. The hardest thing to find is the political will.

For all my criticisms of Mr. Bush, he has sent tons of humanitarian aid, and his deputy secretary of state, Robert Zoellick, has traveled to Darfur four times this year. But far more needs to be done.

As Simon Deng, a Sudanese activist living in the U.S., puts it: ''Tell me why we have Milosevic and Saddam Hussein on trial for their crimes, but we do nothing in Sudan. Why not just let all the war criminals go. When it comes to black people being slaughtered, do we look the other way?''

Put aside for a moment the question of whether Mr. Bush misled the nation on W.M.D. in Iraq. It's just as important to ask whether he was truthful when he declared in his second inaugural address, ''All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors.''

Mr. Bush, so far that has been a ringing falsehood -- but, please, make it true.

Darfur: Genocide? Who cares?

A column from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Sam Totten, the university professor and genocide scholar from the University Arkansas, is frustrated. The two-year-old genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan continues, but the world still pays little attention. That’s been standard from the beginning of the bloody business in Darfur. Everybody knows it’s going on, but few care enough to do something about it.

According to Professor Totten, that even includes scholars who study the subject of genocide. He’s been able to generate little interest among his colleagues in his petition that something be done to stop the violence in Darfur. At a recent international conference on genocide, he was the only one in attendance who even brought up Darfur. The conference was more interested in discussing genocides of the past than in the one going on today.

Frustrations about the reaction to Darfur finally led Sam Totten to send an impassioned letter this month to the director of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. In the letter, the scholar from Northwest Arkansas challenged the association to do more about Darfur. He also questioned the commitment of association members to taking action instead of just studying genocides from the past.

“Why do so many (indeed, the vast majority of) genocide scholars go about their everyday lives enjoying the bounties they are graced with and yet ignore the horrors staring them in the face?” he asked in his letter. And he suggested an answer to his own question : Too many scholars are more interested in making a name for themselves among their peers or in getting their works published than in an ongoing genocide.

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For now, Sam Totten’s collecting signatures on his latest petition. It calls for an immediate end to the violence, humanitarian aid for all the displaced survivors, the return of the refugees to their homes, and accountability for those responsible for the genocide in Darfur. When he gets at least 2,000 signatures, he’ll present the petitions to Congress and the U.N.

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Anybody interested in signing Sam Totten’s petition can reach him by e-mail at stotten@uark.edu

Darfur: NMRD Rebels Attack Town, Demand Seat at Talks

From Reuters

A Darfur rebel faction said it attacked a town in West Darfur state on Tuesday, killing 37 soldiers and police, to push for its inclusion in peace talks due to open in the Nigerian capital Abuja later in the day.

The Sudanese army confirmed troop movements in the area where the rebels said they carried out their attack but gave no further details. A source in the aid community confirmed an attack on a police station in the town of Sirba and said three policemen had been wounded.

The rebels, the breakaway National Movement for Reform and Development, (NMRD) are not represented at the African Union-sponsored talks and say they no longer respect a ceasefire they signed with the government, after Sudanese armed forces attacked their positions near the border with Chad.

"This morning at 6:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) we attacked and took control of Sirba town in West Darfur. We are now in control of the town," Khalil Abdallah, the political leader of the group, told Reuters from Darfur.

He said the rebels had killed 37 troops and police and taken six vehicles.

"For one year we are cooperating with the African Union and still we are not part of the negotiations in Abuja," he said, giving as the reason why the group had attacked the town.

Darfur: UN Envoy Calls on Rebel Factions to Cooperate in Peace Talks

From the UN News Center

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative in Sudan, visiting the leaders of two rebel factions at odds in Darfur over the past few days, has stressed that they must work together for the sake of their people at the Abuja peace talks, which officially recommence tomorrow in the Nigerian capital.

"Jan Pronk has delivered a message to both SLM factions that Abuja is the only game in town," said a UN spokesman, referring to factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).

"The message has gone out to both faction leaders that the United Nations does not play sides," he continued. "That message is: you have to come together to negotiate for the sake of your people."

According to Mr. Annan's latest report, critical elements of a coordinated approach to peace in the strife torn region should include not only repairing the rift between the factions, which had serious engagements with Government forces in October, but also consultations between the African Union's (AU) mediating team and the Sudanese parties over a power-sharing commission for the region.

Uganda/Sudan: Military Prepares for Action Against Kony

From The Monitor

AS the three- month amnesty given to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels run out, Sudan says it is preparing for military action against them.

The Sudanese Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Mr Deng Alor Kuol, said on November 25 that the Sudan government gave the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, a grace period of three months starting October 2005 to surrender.

Deng said one month has already lapsed without any sign of surrendering. Kony is believed to have relocated to his bases in southern Sudan from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"They were given three months and one month is gone. They have to respond to this peaceful gesture. If they don't show up and take up the offer seriously, we have no choice but to take military action," Deng said.

The Sudan minister was briefing the press at Hotel Africana, in Kampala, on the forthcoming African Union summit to be held in Khartoum, early next year. The Sudanese Ambassador, Mr Hussein Ibrahim Gadkarim, and the Deputy Head of Mission, Mr Mohammed Eisa Ismail Dahab, accompanied him.

"I am here to invite President Yoweri Museveni to attend the OAU summit in Khartoum. From here I will go to Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi, Seychelles, Mauritius and Comoro Islands," he said.

"When we signed the peace agreement, we were very clear that we shall not tolerate the presence of the LRA. We made several pronouncements, but the response from LRA was by killings in the eastern Equatorial region and have now moved to the west of the Nile," Deng said.

The Sudan minister said they set the December deadline because of the bad terrain in the region during the rainy season. "December will be dry and mobility will be okay because there will be no rains. Right now, rains and the conditions of the roads make it difficult to move.

“In the meantime, we are preparing the SPLA and Sudan army," he said. Asked where LRA is getting support from, the Minister said: “Kony is now a desperate person. I don't think he is getting support from anywhere".

Researcher Says Carnage Too Easy to Ignore

From The Register-Guard

If Paul Slovic's research assumptions are correct, there's a good chance you'll stop reading this story as soon as you learn what it's about: genocide in Darfur.

In the African country of Sudan, gangs of assassins called Janjaweed have systematically murdered hundreds of thousands of people, with close to another 2 million interned in refugee camps, threatened with death from famine and disease.

But as the numbers grow, Americans may be less rather than more inclined to help, according to Slovic, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and president of Decision Research, a nonprofit institute that studies human decision-making and perceptions of risk.

It's not that Americans lack compassion - witness the outpouring of support for victims of Hurricane Katrina earlier this fall, and for survivors of last year's devastating tsunami in Asia.

But in what Slovic labels a "fundamental deficiency in our humanity," people are much less likely to come to the aid of victims of mass murder.

In a paper he delivered earlier this month to an international academic society in Toronto, Slovic offers one reason why: The emotional side of people's brains grows numb in the face of mass killing, preventing them from feeling empathy and taking action.

"If people are not going to act at 100,000 murders, they're not going to act at 300,000 murders," he said. "The only reason to know how many have died is to have a number to report when we memorialize another genocide 10 years after the fact."

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Research suggests that if a single identifiable person is killed or threatened, people are aghast, Slovic said. But the greater the number in peril, the harder it is for people to connect.

"The difference between no lives lost and one life lost is huge," he said. "But your reaction would be identical if you heard that 87 or 88 people died in an accident. If you're the 88th person, your life is less valuable than if you were the first."

Humans also tend to draw a distinction between natural and man-made disasters. For one thing, hurricanes and tsunamis tend to have a beginning, middle and end - as opposed to the interminable duration of political mayhem.

Also, even if they never experience one, people can imagine a hurricane or tsunami happening to them. But mass murder? Genocide "is such an extreme level of violence, it's hard to wrap our minds around," Slovic said. "It doesn't seem real - and the fact that it doesn't get much news coverage makes it less real."

In just one example of media aversion, Slovic points to a study that shows ABC devoted 18 minutes last year in its nightly newscasts to the genocide in Darfur, NBC five minutes and CBS three minutes.

During the same 12 months, the three networks combined to devote 130 minutes to fashion maven Martha Stewart.

But the crux of the matter may be how humans mesh the analytical, rational side of their brain with the more intuitive, feelings-based side, Slovic said.

"When we think logically and morally, we know it's wrong for a government to brutalize its people like the government of Sudan is brutalizing the people of Darfur," he said. "But when we let the more experiential side dominate, we numb out with the numbers."

Darfur: Peace Talks

From IRIN: Mediators Hope for “Decisive Round” of Peace Talks

African Union (AU) mediators are hoping for decisive progress in efforts to end the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region when a seventh round of peace talks opens in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Tuesday.

Violence, killings and rapes have escalated in the past two months in contravention of a ceasefire and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last week warned that Darfur could descend into complete lawlessness and anarchy.

Talks initially due to resume a week ago were delayed as mediators worked to patch up divisions in the main Darfur rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Movement/ Army (SLM/A).

In a breakthrough on Saturday, the two rival faction leaders within the group, Abdul Waheed Al-Nur and Mini Minawi, met in the Chadian capital Ndjamena and agreed to present a joint position at the talks.

An AU statement welcomed the decision on Monday and said it expected “this round will be a decisive one” as pledged by the rebels and the government when the previous talks ended in October.

Representatives of the SLM/A and smaller rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have already arrived in Abuja, and representatives of the Sudanese government are expected to follow, said AU spokesman Nouredinne Mezni.

The AU decided to invite both the Al-Nur and Minawi factions to ensure no one was kept out, said Mezni.

The presence of Minawi, who boycotted previous peace talks also in Abuja, is seen as crucial to the success of the negotiations as he has the support of many of the SLM/A’s fighters in the field.

From Reuters: Rebels Pledge Unity to Break Talks Deadlock

Rival rebel leaders from the Sudanese region of Darfur sounded a rare note of unity on Monday as they worked on a common negotiating position for the seventh round of peace talks with the government.

Minni Arcua Minnawi and Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, who both claim to be chairman of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said they would put on hold infighting that has held back progress in previous rounds of peace talks in the Nigerian capital.

"I don't want to make any competition here, because our people on the ground need us to remain united. Any division and the only winner is the government of Sudan," Nur told Reuters in Abuja, where the talks are due to start on Tuesday.

Minnawi, who boycotted the previous round and whose participation is seen as crucial because he commands loyalty from many fighters in the field, had a similar message.

"We are going to enter the talks with one delegation ... I came here because I hope this should be the final round," he told Reuters.

ICC: Prosecutor Sees First Arrests, Trials in 2006

From Reuters

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Monday he expects suspects to be handed over by mid-2006 so the new tribunal investigating three conflicts in Africa can start its first trials.

The ICC, set up in 2002 as the world's first permanent global war crimes court, issued its first arrest warrants earlier this year, for leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army accused of stoking 19 years of conflict in the north of the country.

The court has also launched investigations into war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan's Darfur region.

"We are confident that during the first half of 2006 individuals will be surrendered to the court allowing the commencement of hearings and trials," prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the annual meeting of the state signatories to the court's treaty.

Moreno-Ocampo declined to say from which country he expected the delivery of the first suspects, but said he hoped to seek arrest warrants soon for senior figures in Congo and added that the detention of indictees in Uganda was urgent.

Chad: President Deby Lobs Fresh "Destabilisation" Charges at Sudan

From IRIN

Sudan continues to provide arms and logistical support to Chadian rebels, despite several appeals by the Chadian government, President Idriss Deby said on Monday.

“We have proof. The Sudanese government has armed [rebels], put vehicles at their disposal, given them logistics and communications materials,” Deby told Radio France Internationale.

“The Sudanese government is complicit.”

Deby said a group of Chadian rebels is based inside Sudan, about 200 kilometres from the border.

“We have officially requested of the Sudanese government the right [to pursue the rebels]. The government refused.”

Darfur: Mission Creep

A recent piece from Samantha Power in The New Yorker via From the Salmon

The A.U. mission is clearly overwhelmed. Its teams, spread out across an area the size of France, manage at most three patrols per day in various sectors of the region, and African countries are hardly eager to send more soldiers. In a literal rendition of “death by a thousand paper cuts,” Khartoum has blocked the delivery of a hundred and five Canadian armored vehicles to vulnerable A.U. troops; grounded the A.U.’s helicopters by imposing arbitrary flight restrictions; and delayed visas for nato officials meant to train A.U. troops. When the A.U. patrols encounter skirmishes, they are under instructions to inform the organization’s headquarters, in Addis Ababa, but responsibility for the protection of citizens has been explicitly left to the government of Sudan.

Soon, this stopgap mission will fail not only those in need of protection but all the other interested parties as well. The Western powers have already spent more than a billion dollars feeding refugees in camps that feel increasingly permanent, and it is nearly inevitable that, as in the West Bank and Pakistan, some Muslims in these camps will be radicalized, and take up arms locally, or, perhaps, farther afield. And once the U.S. and Europe follow through on their recent decisions to slash funding for the African Union, the U.N. will be forced to assume peacekeeping duties in Darfur after all. “The A.U. is looking for a peg to hang success on so it can walk away gracefully,” one U.N. official told me.

That peg may be hard to find. The peace talks between Khartoum and an ever increasing number of rebel groups, which began last year and are now entering their seventh round, have become a farce. The prospects for stability are so dim that diplomats have begun trotting out alibis from past ethnic conflicts. “It’s a tribal war,” Zoellick said in Khartoum, on November 9th. “And, frankly, I don’t think foreign forces ought to get themselves in the middle of a tribal war.” But, if a humanitarian calamity is going to be averted, “foreign forces” will be required. Darfur’s displaced have gathered in some three hundred sites, and someone needs to protect them from the janjaweed who prowl nearby. Roads must be made safe for humanitarian relief convoys. In the longer term, a political deal must be struck between the region’s warring factions, and the majority of Darfur’s displaced must feel safe enough to return home.

These are monumental tasks that the African Union alone cannot perform. Roméo Dallaire, the U.N.’s commander during the Rwanda genocide, has said that a multinational force of up to forty-four thousand troops is needed. Other experts have said that twenty-five thousand armed troops, with a mandate to protect civilians, would vastly improve the situation. If planning starts now, within six months or so the A.U. mission could be absorbed into a far larger multinational U.N. force that could appeal for troops from such peacekeeping veterans as Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Jordan.

Persuading these countries to send their troops to Darfur won’t be easy. Nor will obtaining permission from Sudan, which, in a ghastly coincidence of timing, takes over the A.U.’s rotating presidency in January. But the alternative is a far bigger African problem—with no African, or international, solution.

African Women Rebels Get Crash Course in Human Rights

From AFP

Current and former female rebels from guerrilla armies across Africa have just met in Ethiopia for an unusual course on human rights aimed a promoting women's empowerment during conflict and post-war situations.

About 35 female active and ex-members of rebel groups from Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe gathered at African Union (AU) headquarters for the unprecedented week-long conference, officials said.

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To be sure, many African rebel groups are not known for their female-friendly ways although women have played significant roles -- militarily and otherwise -- in some insurgencies, notably in Eritrea.

But most are more well-known for shocking treatment of women and girls, particularly Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) which is accused of turning kidnapped children into sex slaves for rebel commanders.

"They sexually abused me by giving me to a man," said Mary, now an 18-year-old, who was abducted by the LRA in 1998 at age 11. "I was 12 years old and that man was nineteen."

She and four friends were returning home from school in northern Uganda when they were kidnapped by the LRA, taken across the border to neighboring Sudan and trained to be fighters in the brutal 20-year-old insurgency.

Mary took advantage of a government amnesty program and left the LRA in 2002 and was one of three former female members at the conference, says now that committing human rights abuses was business as usual for the group.

"Once, I was forced to burn to death around 70 civilians inside their houses after I tried to escape," she told AFP, matter of factly recounting a blood-curdling atrocity. "I set them on fire and locked them inside."

While not all the course participants had such horror stories to tell, most confessed to bewilderment at their role within their rebel groups during wartime and then in transition periods that accompanied peace processes.

"I have the impression that this meeting was organized just for me, a woman from Darfur, because we are really the most marginalized people in the world," said 35-year-old Nimat Adam Ahmadi.

A member of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLA) that along with a smaller group is fighting pro-Khartoum militia's in the troubled western Sudanese region, Nimat is well aware that rape has been used as a weapon of war there.

"We are the first victims," she said, referring to sexual violence that human rights groups say is rampant in Darfur. "The majority of women live in camps and the main challenge is to get firewood without being raped or killed."

Zimbabwe: Death Toll Mounts for Operation Murambatsvina Victims

From Sokwanele via POTP

If anyone thought for a moment that the suffering caused by Operation Murambatsvina ("Sweep away the filth") was over, or had abated, they would be seriously mistaken. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Six months on from the initial brutal assault which saw 700,000 people in cities across the country losing either their homes, their sources of income or both and a further 2.4 million affected in varying degrees, the misery of the victims continues. Indeed for many it has only intensified in the ensuing months. And the death toll among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) increases week by week.

In her report on this vicious programme the United Nations Special Envoy, Mrs Anna Tibaijuka, noted in July that "the humanitarian consequences ... are enormous. It will take several years before the people and society as a whole can recover". Mrs Tibaijuka further commented that there was "an immediate need for the Government of Zimbabwe to recognise the virtual state of emergency that has resulted, and to allow unhindered access by the international and humanitarian community to assist those that have been affected." She referred specifically to the priority needs of providing shelter and non-food items, food and health support services.

Although it is almost beyond belief the fact is that the government of Robert Mugabe has neither recognised the "virtual state of emergency" resulting from this catastrophic programme, nor allowed unhindered access to those international and humanitarian agencies able and willing to help. On the contrary it has continued, and intensified, its propaganda of denial and deceit, while at the same time obstructing genuine offers of much-needed assistance. When the UN proposed an international relief appeal to assist the homeless victims with temporary shelter, Mugabe's ministers refused to cooperate. The UN's "common response plan" for US$ 30 million was eventually launched in September without the signature of Zimbabwe. Only belatedly and under extreme pressure has the regime modified its stance, permitting the world body to provide humanitarian assistance to some of its suffering citizens, on terms yet to be made public. Where church and civic groups have responded to the ongoing crisis with genuine and generous relief measures for even a few hundred of the hundreds of thousands of IDPs, with few exceptions they have been met with suspicion, hostility and outright opposition by agents of the regime.

But the statistics alone, as horrifying as they are, hardly convey the trauma, pain and wretchedness of the victims.

Darfur: Pope Pleads for Peace

More on the Pope from Catholic World News via POTP

Pope Benedict XVI decried the "horror of events unfolding in Darfur," and demanded an end to "the cycle of violence and misery there," as he met on November 28 with a group of Catholic pilgrims from Sudan.

The Pope assured his visitors-- who were led by Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum-- of his "prayers and deep concern" for their country, which has been torn by civil war for years. While he lamented the continued bloodshed and misery in the Darfur province, he welcomed the peace agreement that has brought an end to the long and costly war in southern Sudan.

"The cessation of the civil war and the enactment of a new constitution have brought hope to the long-suffering people of Sudan," the Pope said. The construction of a new coalition government, he continued, provides "an unprecedented opportunity and indeed duty" for Christians to become involved in building a permanent and stable peace. "Though a minority, Catholics have much to offer through inter-religious dialogue as well as the provision of greatly needed social services," the Pope noted.

This was the first time during the pontificate of Benedict XVI that official representatives of the Sudanese bishops' conference met with the Pontiff. During their latest ad limina visit, in December 2003, the Sudanese bishops heard Pope John Paul II encourage them to work for an end to the civil war that was still ravaging the south of their country.

Darfur: Now or Never

An new article from Eric Reeves in The New Republic - It is also available here

What will happen after humanitarian organizations leave Darfur? The question grows more relevant daily. For much of 2004, humanitarian groups ramped up their operations in Darfur. These efforts temporarily blocked the genocidal aims of the Sudanese government from coming to full fruition. Throughout 2003 and 2004, government-backed militias terrorized Darfur's African tribal populations, evicting them from their villages and cutting them off from their livelihoods. Many ended up in refugee camps, where only the efforts of humanitarian groups have allowed them to stay alive. Sudan's leaders would like nothing more than to see these groups leave the country, so that disease and malnutrition can finish the work the militias started three years ago.

They may soon get their wish. There is considerable evidence that many humanitarian organizations are on the brink of withdrawing from Darfur--or at least suspending operations. An upsurge in violence against humanitarian workers has pushed many groups to the very limit of tolerable risk. The consequences of such a withdrawal will be stark: hundreds of thousands dead. As a result, the reality facing America and its allies is simple: If we really believe that something should be done to save Darfur, then we have to do it now. Soon, it will be too late to do anything at all.

Women Dying in Darfur

An alert from Amnesty International regarding an upcoming event in New York

Amnesty International invites you to the second panel in the series, Confronting War Crimes against Women.

Join us in hearing high-level speakers address this urgent topic, and learn how you can do something
meaningful to help.

Panel 2: Women Dying in Darfur

Wednesday, November 30, 2005 • 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Judson Memorial Church, Assembly Hall
239 Thompson Street (South side of Washington Square)
Admission Free

Speakers:
• Pamela Shifman, moderator, Child Protection
Officer, UNICEF.
• Sandra Krause, Director of the Reproductive Health
Project at the Women's Commission for Refugee Women
and Children, an affiliate of the International Rescue
Committee.
• Rachel Mayanja, United Nations Assistant Secretary
General and Special Advisor on Gender Issues and
Advancement for Women.
• Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of the
Africa Division at Human Rights Watch.
• Alex de Waal, Fellow of the Global Equity
Initiative at Harvard University and a Co-director of
Justice Africa in London, and was Chairman of Mines
Advisory Group when it was named a 1997 Nobel Peace
Prize Co-Laureate.

RSVP (optional) to AmnestyRSVP@yahoo.com.

Sponsored by: Amnesty International (AI) • AI NYC
Women’s Human Rights Action Team • AI Group 11 •
Columbia Law School AI • Columbia University AI • New
York University AI • NYU Law Students for Human Rights
• Space provided courtesy of Judson Memorial Church

Zimbabwe: NGO Coalition Calls on ICC to Intervene

From IRIN

Zimbabwe's National Association of NGOs (NANGO) has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute government officials responsible for the country's controversial urban clean-up campaign five months ago.

UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka visited Zimbabwe in July to assess the aftermath of campaign, which began in May 2005, and compiled a scathing report that called on the government to punish those who, "with indifference to human suffering" had carried out the evictions and subsequent destruction of homes and informal markets.

The envoy, also the director of UN-HABITAT, labelled Operation Murambatsvina a "breach of both national and international human rights law provisions guiding evictions". NANGO wants Tibaijuka's report to be implemented, and the perpetrators brought to book.

The ICC, unlike the International Court of Justice, can try individuals and investigate crimes, such as drug trafficking and genocide, referred to it by governments as well as the UN Security Council.

Rejecting the NGOs' call, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche said the government was not going to arrest anyone for pursuing a national programme.

"Like those international organisations that want to say we committed a crime against humanity by destroying illegal, degrading and inhumane shelters, local organisations demanding spurious prosecutions know that they are fooling themselves. It is funny that no one is saying anything about the follow-up housing programme that has already borne so much fruit," Goche said.

Service Identifies Companies That Have Links to Sudan

From InvestmentNews

The continuing genocide in Darfur in western Sudan has spurred several states to pass Sudan divestment legislation, which bars state pension funds from investing in companies doing business in the Sudan.

In response, KLD Research and Analytics Inc. in Boston has launched the Sudan Compliance Service.

The service, announced this month, identifies more than 120 publicly traded non-U.S. companies doing business in the Sudan and explains why they are on the list.

"The Sudan poses compliance problems for money managers similar to those in the 1980s, when public pensions and university endowments divested companies doing business in South Africa," Peter Kinder, president of KLD, said in a statement.

Some of the companies on the list include:

• Alcatel, a Paris-based telecommunications firm, which was awarded a contract to lay the undersea cable linking the Sudan with Saudi Arabia.

• Total SA, a Courbevoie, France-based oil company, which regularly renews its rights to an oil field located in southeastern Sudan.

• Siemens AG, a Munich, Germany-based technology company, which contracted with the 50% state-owned Sudanese Telecommunications Co. Ltd. to expand telecommunications networks and integrated digital services in the Sudan.

Companies based in the United States are barred from doing business in the Sudan.

Chad: Africans to Decide Ex-Dictator's Fate

From the AP

The African Union will decide the fate of Chad's former dictator, wanted in Belgium for trial on human-rights abuses allegedly committed during his regime, Senegal's foreign minister said Sunday.

Whether Hissene Habre should be extradited to Belgium for trial "isn't a Senegalese affair but an African affair," Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio told reporters in the capital, Dakar.

The subject will be taken up at a two-day AU conference scheduled to begin January 23 in Khartoum, Sudan, Gadio said.

A commission set up in Chad in 1992 accused Habre's regime of 40,000 political killings and 200,000 cases of torture.

Uganda: Strike Halts High Court

From the BBC

Lawyers in Uganda are holding a one-day strike in protest at the recent deployment of troops at the High Court.
Some 100 lawyers gathered in black gowns and called on the attorney general to resign.

Soldiers in black T-shirts and wielding machine-guns were sent to a court where men accused of treason with opposition leader Kizza Besigye were appearing.

The deployment was widely condemned by lawyers and judges as an attack on the independence of Uganda's judiciary.

The government insists that there is nothing untoward - the strong security measures are needed against men accused of trying to topple President Yoweri Museveni.

Darfur: The New Rwanda

An editorial from The New York Times

Who says George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have nothing in common? Just as President Clinton did on Rwanda, President Bush is doing precious little to try to stop a genocide in Darfur. Indeed, this entire generation of world leaders has a dismal record at intervening in this kind of wholesale murder, and now they are failing to stop the elimination of entire African tribes in the Sudan countryside.

Obviously, most of the blame here can be laid squarely at the door of Sudan's government. Sudan has armed and supplied the militia groups who have been going from village to village, hut to hut, and systematically raping and murdering women, men and even children.

The Times columnist Nicholas Kristof reports that last month, members of the janjaweed militia attacked the village of Tama in southern Darfur, killing 37 people, with another 12 still missing. In one particularly gruesome case, the marauders yanked 2-year old Zahra Abdullah from the back of her mother, Fatima Omar Adam, as Ms. Fatima tried to escape with her children. They bludgeoned the little girl on the ground in front of her screaming mother and sister. Ms. Fatima eventually escaped with two of her children, but was forced to leave Zahra to die at the hands of the janjaweed.

In another column, Mr. Kristof wrote that Arab men in military uniforms gang-raped Noura Moussa, saying, "We cannot let black people live in this land." Ms. Noura said the men called her a slave and added, "We can kill any members of African tribes."

The shocking fact is, apparently they can. The Sudanese government is enabling them, and the rest of the world isn't doing much to stop it. It's the same old Rwanda story, with the same indifference from the world's governments.

Darfur: Shame and Responsibility

A new article from Eric Reeves in Dissent Magazine

Two and a half years after major conflict began in the Darfur province of far western Sudan, it is perversely clear how the future history of this tortured region will be written. Any meaningful account will be guided by a chronology that includes readily discernible signposts of genocidal destruction, beginning in spring 2003; various occasions for empty international condemnation of accelerating ethnically targeted destruction of non-Arab, or “African,” tribal populations throughout Darfur; the numerous, belated stages in an inadequate humanitarian response to rapidly growing concentrations of vulnerable civilian victims; serial failures by the UN and Western democracies to confront Khartoum’s génocidaires; and desperately expedient reliance upon a glib notion of “African solutions for African problems.”

The protagonists in this history will be many, but are again readily identified: Khartoum’s National Islamic Front regime, which continues to dominate Sudan’s new “government of national unity,” formed in July 2005; the Janjaweed, Khartoum’s savagely destructive Arab militia force in Darfur; both of the main insurgency groups in Darfur, which emerged from decades of political and economic marginalization, as well as in response to more recent Arab militia raiding, only to become blind to the massive civilian suffering their increasingly callous actions occasioned; and the African Union (AU), particularly those countries such as Nigeria, Libya, and Egypt that so adamantly refused to acknowledge either the scale of Darfur’s security requirements or the desperate need for non-African humanitarian intervention.

The UN is also culpable, with the manifest failures of both its humanitarian and political organizations—China in particular has paralyzed the UN Security Council, ensuring that no effective actions have been taken against a regime that has allowed Chinese oil companies to become dominant in Sudan’s burgeoning petroleum industry; blame also falls on the United States, the United Kingdom, and Denmark—all of which muted their criticism of Khartoum’s genocide in Darfur for much of 2003–2004 in the interest of securing a north/south Sudanese peace agreement; and particular disgrace falls to those wealthy nations—such as Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and the oil-rich Arab countries—that failed to respond meaningfully to desperate funding appeals for starving and acutely vulnerable civilians.

It is a history that will flatter none, shame all, and take its grim place within the ongoing debate about the criteria and threshold for international humanitarian intervention. Even as all this is painfully clear, as of August 2005, only one significant international organization, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, has called for humanitarian intervention in Darfur involving non-AU forces. The ICG’s July 2005 report on the Darfur crisis (“The AU’s Mission in Darfur: Bridging the Gaps”) is one of many by the organization that has traced—with authoritative research and real intellectual force—Darfur’s catastrophe almost from the beginning of major fighting. But only two and a half years after the beginning of conflict did ICG become the first important international actor to argue explicitly for a military force to supplement what the AU has provided.

Darfur: Peace Talks to Open Tuesday, Says Africa Union

From Reuters

Peace talks to end Sudan's Darfur conflict will begin on Tuesday, delayed at the request of all parties, the African Union said on Monday, as violence plagues a huge humanitarian operation on the ground.

The talks were scheduled to begin on November 21, but were delayed unofficially for one week to allow for mediation between two leaders of the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), who both claim the presidency of the movement.

"At the request of all the Sudanese sides, the talks will officially open on Tuesday afternoon," an AU spokesman in Khartoum said.

Both rebel leaders agreed to attend the talks and the AU flew them to Abuja. The government delegation was due to leave on Monday for the Nigerian capital where the seventh round of the AU-sponsored talks will open.

Six previous rounds have agreed on little other than a declaration of principles between the two main Darfur rebel groups and the government. Observers have said they see little hope for success for this round after a split in the SLA leadership earlier this month.

But the AU said it hoped progress would be made this round.

Darfur: Pope Say World Must Do More to End "Horror"

From Reuters

Pope Benedict told the Archbishop of Khartoum on Monday the world must do more to end conflict in west Sudan's Darfur region, where tens of thousands have been killed and over two million forced from their homes.

"The horror of events unfolding in Darfur ... points to the need for a stronger international resolve to ensure security and basic human rights," the Pope told Gabriel Zubeir Wako at a meeting in the Vatican.

Darfur: A Tolerable Genocide

The latest from Nick Kristof

Who would have thought that a genocide could become worse? But after two years of heartbreaking slaughter, rape and mayhem, the situation in Darfur is now spiraling downward.

More villages are again being attacked and burned -- over the last week thatch-roof huts have been burning near the town of Gereida and far to the northwest near Jebel Mun.

Aid workers have been stripped, beaten and robbed. A few more attacks on aid workers, and agencies may pull out -- leaving the hapless people of Darfur with no buffer between themselves and the butchers.

The international community has delegated security to the African Union, but its 7,000 troops can't even defend themselves, let alone protect civilians. One group of 18 peacekeepers was kidnapped last month, and then 20 soldiers sent to rescue them were kidnapped as well; four other soldiers and two contractors were killed in a separate incident.

What will happen if the situation continues to deteriorate sharply and aid groups pull out? The U.N. has estimated that the death toll could then rise to 100,000 a month.

The turmoil has also infected neighboring Chad, which is inhabited by some of the same tribes as Sudan. Diplomats and U.N. officials are increasingly worried that Chad could tumble back into its own horrific civil war as well.

This downward spiral has happened because for more than two years, the international community has treated this as a tolerable genocide. In my next column, my last from Darfur, I'll outline the steps we need to take. But the essential starting point is outrage: a recognition that countering genocide must be a global priority.

It's true that a few hundred thousand deaths in Darfur -- a good guess of the toll so far -- might not amount to much in a world where two million a year die of malaria. But there is something special about genocide. When humans deliberately wipe out others because of their tribe or skin color, when babies succumb not to diarrhea but to bayonets and bonfires, that is not just one more tragedy. It is a monstrosity that demands a response from other humans. We demean our own humanity, and that of the victims, when we avert our eyes.

Already, large swaths of Darfur are so unsafe that they are ''no go'' areas for humanitarian organizations -- meaning that we don't know what horrors are occurring in those areas. But we have some clues.

There are widespread reports that the janjaweed, the government-backed Arab marauders who have been slaughtering members of several African tribes, sometimes find it convenient not to kill or expel every last African but to leave a few alive to grow vegetables and run markets. So they let some live in exchange for protection money or slave labor.

One Western aid worker in Darfur told me that she had visited an area controlled by janjaweed. In public, everyone insisted -- meekly and fearfully -- that everything was fine.

Then she spoke privately to two sisters, both of the Fur tribe. They said that the local Fur were being enslaved by the janjaweed, forced to work in the fields and even to pay protection money every month just to be allowed to live. The two sisters said that they were forced to cook for the janjaweed troops and to accept being raped by them.

Finally, they said, their terrified father had summoned the courage to beg the janjaweed commander to let his daughters go. That's when the commander beheaded the father in front of his daughters.

''They told me they just wanted to die,'' the aid worker remembered in frustration. ''They're living like slaves, in complete and utter fear. And we can't do anything about it.''

That aid worker has found her own voice, by starting a blog called ''Sleepless in Sudan'' in which she describes what she sees around her. It sears at http://sleeplessinsudan.blogspot.com, without the self-censorship that aid groups routinely accept as the price for being permitted to save lives in Darfur.

Our leaders still haven't found their voices, though. Congress has even facilitated the genocide by lately cutting all funds for the African Union peacekeepers in Darfur; we urgently need to persuade Congress to restore that money.

So what will it take? Will President Bush and other leaders discover some backbone if the killing spreads to Chad and the death toll reaches 500,000? One million? God forbid, two million?

How much genocide is too much?

Away

I am going to be gone until next week.

Please check out Passion of the Present for continuing updates on Darfur and other important issues.

Darfur: Annan Calls For Framework Peace Agreement by End of Next Month

From the UN News Center

With violence increasing dangerously as militias and bandits grow more aggressive in western Sudan's Darfur region, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on the international community and the Sudanese to ensure that a framework peace agreement is negotiated in the Nigerian capital by the end of next month.

"A further deterioration of the situation can be averted only by rapidly consolidating the progress made at the sixth round of talks in Abuja," he says in his latest monthly report to the Security Council.

To achieve a political solution, the Sudanese and the international community must work towards laying the groundwork for a seventh round of peace talks in Abuja, which should be the final round, Mr. Annan says.

Uganda: UN to Step Up Support for 2 Million Displaced by Conflict With Rebels

From the UN News Center

United Nations is planning to increase its activities in northern Uganda in the coming year to help some 2 million Ugandans displaced by Africa’s longest running yet one of its least reported conflicts, a senior relief official said today.
“This is one of the longest, largest, and least addressed humanitarian crises in the world today,” the Special Advisor on Displacement to the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Dennis McNamara declared of the fighting with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

“It has uprooted as many people as the Bosnian war did 10 years ago, but gets only a fraction of the international attention,” he added. “All actors – the UN, the NGOs (non-government organizations), the Ugandan Government, and donor governments – need to do considerably more, and to increase their assistance if this long-neglected tragedy is to be overcome.”

Mr. McNamara has just spent a week in Uganda discussing the grave humanitarian crisis, visiting Kitgum in the north, where two NGO staff were killed in recent weeks by the LRA.
Nearly 2 million people have been displaced by the 19 year-old conflict, 1.7 million of whom live in over 200 squalid and overcrowded camps, relying largely on international assistance to survive. Estimates indicate that more than 1,000 people a week die from disease or violence, according to a July 2005 Ministry of Health/UN World Health Organization (WHO) mortality survey.

The UN is planning to further increase its international presence next year, especially through its main humanitarian organizations including the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It will also increase its request for funding for humanitarian programmes to more than $200 million for 2006.

Darfur: Africa Action Urges UN Mandate for AU Operation

From Africa Action

Africa Action today called for a Chapter 7 United Nations (UN) mandate to be extended to the African Union (AU) force in Darfur, Sudan. As new reports from the media and from the UN confirm a sharp increase in violence in Darfur in recent weeks, Africa Action today reiterated its call for action in the UN to provide a stronger mandate and larger force to support the AU operation.

Citing precedents of such cooperation in West Africa in the past decade, and more recently in Burundi, Africa Action urges the U.S. to lead UN action, under Chapter 7 of its Charter, to confer international authority and a protection mandate on the AU mission in Darfur, and to immediately begin to reinforce this mission with a UN intervention force to protect the people of Darfur.

Darfur: News Round Up

The latest round-up of Darfur news from the Genocide Intervention Network is available

Hopes that the SLA rebels in Darfur had achieved unity faded this week as factions continue to denounce newly elected president Minni Arcua Minnawi. The unfortunate ripple effects of the world’s failure to provide security to Darfur continued to show this week as concerns over security led to potential cuts in personnel and funding for aid work in Darfur.

International action to take a strong, active stance in support of the African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur or against the government of Sudan continues to stall. Despite governments’ failures to fulfill their responsibility to protect the victims of genocidal violence, students continue to take committed, effective action. This week student led divestment campaigns are beginning to pick up speed. Such campaigns are essential to decreasing funding to the genocidal government of Sudan and to showing them that the world is watching and willing to act.

Uganda/Sudan: Three Forces to Attack LRA

From New Vision

THE Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has joined the hunt for the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in southern Sudan.

The UPDF, Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and SPLA on Saturday agreed to jointly execute the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against the LRA top commanders. The three armed forces will for the first time carry out joint operations against Kony and his rebels.

The three commanders met on Saturday in Entebbe and discussed strategies for the arrest of Kony and three of his commanders.

Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, SAF's Maj. Gen. Almahi Mahmoud and SPLA's Maj. Gen. Pieng Deng Kuol signed a joint communiqué after the meeting.

The protocol extended the UPDF operations against the LRA in the Sudan to January 19, 2006 and removed the Red Line, which hitherto limited the UPDF to particular areas. The protocol also stated that SAF and the SPLA should ensure that Kony does not re-occupy the camps from which he was dislodged.

The UPDF is also allowed to use helicopter gunships, subject to coordination by ground forces and intelligence of the three armies. Uganda will, for the first time, also be permitted to use Yei and Juba airports for its operations.

The SAF and SPLA shall also ensure that units or individuals within their forces do not establish contacts with LRA, which may undermine the operations, according to the protocol.

Nyakairima said under the protocol, the three armies would ensure that the LRA are not allowed to use their territories.

"If they pass through UPDF, SAF or SPLA units and we do nothing, we will be asked why and we must answer. It is an obligation on each one of us to ensure that the ICC mandate is met. We should also make it clear to them that the arrest warrant is only for Kony and his three commanders and that the door for peace talks or amnesty is still open," Aronda said.

Darfur: Kristof's Latest

Save Darfur has posted Nicholas Kristof's latest column

So who killed 2-year-old Zahra Abdullah for belonging to the Fur tribe?

At one level, the answer is simple: The murderers were members of the janjaweed militia that stormed into this mud-brick village in the South Darfur region at dawn four weeks ago on horses, camels and trucks. Zahra's mother, Fatima Omar Adam, woke to gunfire and smoke and knew at once what was happening.

She jumped up from her sleeping mat and put Zahra on her back, then grabbed the hands of her two older children and raced out of her thatch-roof hut with her husband.

Some of the marauders were right outside. They yanked Zahra from Ms. Fatima's back and began bludgeoning her on the ground in front of her shrieking mother and sister. Then the men began beating Ms. Fatima and the other two children, so she grabbed them and fled - and the men returned to beating the life out of Zahra.

At another level, responsibility belongs to the Sudanese government, which armed the janjaweed and gave them license to slaughter and rape members of several African tribes, including the Fur.

Then some responsibility attaches to the rebels in Darfur. They claim to be representing the tribes being ethnically cleansed, but they have been fighting each other instead of negotiating a peace with the government that would end the bloodbath.

And finally, responsibility belongs to the international community - to you and me - for acquiescing in yet another genocide.

[edit]

Darfur is just the latest chapter in a sorry history of repeated inaction in the face of genocide, from that of Armenians, through the Holocaust, to the slaughter of Cambodians, Bosnians and Rwandans. If we had acted more resolutely last year, then Zahra would probably still be alive.

Attacks on villages like Tama occur regularly. Over the last week, one tribe called the Falata, backed and armed by the Sudanese government, has burned villages belonging to the Masalit tribe south of here. Dozens of bodies are said to be lying unclaimed on the ground.

President Bush, where are you? You emphasize your willingness to speak bluntly about evil, but you barely let the word Darfur pass your lips. The central lesson of the history of genocide is that the essential starting point of any response is to bellow moral outrage - but instead, Mr. President, you're whispering.

In a later column, I'll talk more specifically about actions we should take, and it's true that this is a complex mess without easy solutions. But for starters we need a dose of moral clarity. For all the myriad complexities of Darfur, what history will remember is that this is where little girls were bashed to death in front of their parents because of their tribe - and because the world couldn't be bothered to notice.

Sudan: Southerners Bemoan Lack of Peace Dividend

From Reuters

Mary Nyamom lies by her half-dead child in the bare hospital in Kurmuk on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, declaring she will return to the refugee camp she lived in before because it had better health services.

Nyamom trekked back across the mine-strewn border to her native Sudan, hoping to find her soldier husband after years of living as a refugee in neighbouring Ethiopia, where more than 100,000 Sudanese fled the bitter southern civil war.

But almost a year after the war ended in January, the people of the south bemoan the slow implementation of the armistice agreement and the lack of a peace dividend after years of suffering in a conflict which claimed two million lives.

"I'm going straight back to the camp in Ethiopia," Nyamom said. But she would have to wait until she and her son were cured of the severe bouts of malaria which claim many victims in the leafy, mosquito-ridden area.

"Kurmuk hospital with 24 hour emergency unit," said a new sign written in English. But as the run-down buildings with paint peeling from the walls had no electricity, patients lay in beds outside in the courtyard to find shade from the hot sun under the branches of huge trees.

"The peace did not begin with the deal, rather we are in a period of cold war," said Santino Samar, a Kurmuk resident. "If this was peace, the roads would have opened up, the water would flow and we would have education and health -- but instead we have nothing."

Lend Liberia a Hand

An op-ed from Chris Fomunyoh and John Prendergast in the Los Angeles Times

Less than two years ago during a walk through Monrovia, Liberia's capital, you couldn't miss stepping on spent bullet cartridges from the daily fighting among armed factions carving up the country. But last weekend, Liberians punctuated their efforts to change their country when they chose Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-trained economist who previously worked for the World Bank and the United Nations, as their leader. The election results have been challenged (even that process has been orderly and peaceful), but it seems probable that Johnson-Sirleaf will be Africa's first elected female president.

When a phoenix begins to rise, it is important to comprehend from what ashes it is emerging. The U.N. publishes a roster every year that ranks countries in terms of a "human development index." Liberia isn't even listed. Few people live past the age of 40, and unemployment hovers around 80%. There's no central electricity. Hospitals, roads and schools have crumbled.

Government has been a predator in Liberia, venal and corrupt, as one regime after another preyed on the country's vast natural resources and its long-suffering people. Warlord Charles Taylor won presidential elections in 1997 but was driven into exile in a civil war. His army, a network of militias and death squads, has been dismantled, and African and European peacekeepers have helped bring stability.

[edit]

If the international community fails to come through, and the U.N. peacekeepers use the success of the elections as a justification to leave, Liberia could roll back into war by the end of the decade. Lest we forget, broken promises to ex-combatants in 1997 left a vacuum that Taylor's autocratic regime was only too glad to fill.

Why should Americans care about all of this? Modern-day Liberia was built in large part by freed slaves from the United States. Liberia was also one of Washington's closest African allies during the Cold War. Evidence that Al Qaeda has used Liberia's diamond industry to launder money, and concerns about terrorists operating in failed states, underscore the need to help Liberia prosper. Finally, Liberia is bordered by fragile countries; it now has the potential to become the linchpin for regional stability and economic recovery.

Last weekend's elections are not a panacea. But they represent the first step in a long road to Liberia's recovery and redemption. With a little more international aid and attention, sustainable democracy and development could flourish.

Uganda: LRA Kills Twelve

From IRIN

Twelve people were killed in northern Uganda on Monday when rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) ambushed a vehicle and set it ablaze with the passengers still inside, the Ugandan army said.

"Today at around 10.00 a.m (0700 GMT) between Pader and Pajure, about seven rebels ambushed a minibus heading to Kitgum," the Ugandan army spokesman in the northern region, Capt Chris Magezi, told IRIN by phone.

"Twelve people were killed and five seriously injured. Some were killed inside the vehicle while others died of gunshot wounds," he added.

A local church official said the victims, mainly civilians, were set on fire inside the vehicle. "It was a grisly act because the people were burnt [alive] inside the vehicle," the official said from Gulu town, 380 km north of Kampala.

Darfur: Peace Force Faces Major Challenges

From Emily Wax in the Washington Post

Under the blazing sun, a squad of African Union peacekeepers guarded a group of women as they gathered yams in a field outside the charred remains of this village in Sudan's Darfur region, making sure they were not followed or assaulted by marauding gunmen.

"It's the least we can do. But we just pray nothing happens to us while we are doing it," said Mustafa Aleu, 28, a Nigerian peacekeeper standing watch near the village, which was burned and bombed two months ago in renewed violence between African rebels and pro-government Arab militias.

At outposts across Darfur, African Union forces have been coordinating patrols to protect women as they collect firewood or toil in the fields, where many have reported being harassed, beaten and even raped. But the peacekeepers themselves are also vulnerable to attack. Last month, two Nigerians were found dead after they reportedly ran out of ammunition during a firefight.

"Those men were like my brothers. They were good men," said Aleu, adding that the entire mission, now at 7,000 troops, was shaken by the deaths. "My wife calls me every day now. She has terrible dreams. We just need so much more to do this job right."

[edit]

Even so, there is still widespread fear among the African Union forces that they will be forgotten as world leaders focus on a seventh round of Darfur peace talks in Nigeria and on high-level efforts by the U.S. government to unite a fractured anti-government rebel group.

[edit]

On the ground, the peacekeepers said they were still awaiting body armor and often heard about violence but did not have enough helicopters to investigate.

"It's very, very dangerous not to have enough aerial reconnaissance in these wide-open fields where militia and rebels are roaming," said Brian Johnstone, a British police liaison to the African Union. "You would not see any other forces like the U.N. or NATO left alone like this. It's frustrating to hear of an attack hundreds of miles away and not do anything about it."

Darfur: Envoys Try to Unite Rebel Leaders Ahead of Talks

From IRIN

On Friday, the head of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, met with SLM/A’s factional leader Minni Arko Minnawi in Muhajeria in South Darfur.

Kingibe stressed that there could be no meaningful negotiations on the future of Darfur without the effective participation of the SLM/A and its leadership, according to an AU statement released on Sunday.

Growing rifts between both political leaders and military commanders as well as between Zaghawa and Fur factions of the SLM/A have led to a breakdown in the movement's command structure and contributed to the deadlock in the Abuja talks.

Kingibe urged Minnawi to cooperate with the international community in their efforts to assist the SLM/A leadership overcome their differences.

Friday's meeting was followed by a closed-door reconciliation session on Saturday in the capital of North Darfur State, El Fasher, facilitated by the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador Jendayi Frazer.

Kingibe, US special envoy for Darfur Roger Winter, and other top US and AU officials attended Friday's meeting, which brought together the two factional leaders of the SLM/A, Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur and Minnawi.

Although no breakthrough was achieved, the two SLM/A leaders agreed to attend and participate in the scheduled seventh round of the Abuja peace talks, which had previously been boycotted by Minnawi.

Ghosts of Rwanda: The Failure of the African Union in Darfur (Part II)

The latest analysis from Eric Reeves

Darfur is slipping yet deeper into catastrophe before the very eyes of an unmoved international community. The radical inadequacy of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) daily becomes more grimly apparent. The increasingly desperate security tasks in Darfur---protecting both acutely vulnerable civilian populations and equally vulnerable humanitarian operations---are clearly far beyond the capability of AMIS, now or in the foreseeable future. International willingness to accept these terrible threats to human security in Darfur, as well as the accompanying disingenuous characterization of AMIS abilities, ensures that no adequate or timely protection resources will be provided in Darfur.

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To be sure, the AU for its part itself makes such mendacity and disingenuousness all too easy. AU Special Representative to Darfur, Baba Gana Kingibe, recently (August 2005) declared: “We stand or fall in Darfur. If we fail here, nobody is going to look to the AU for a solution to other conflicts on the continent” (BR page 25). It is an irony beyond tragedy that Kingibe speaks more truly than he knows; for one of the greatest costs of AU failure in Darfur will indeed be a terrible loss in credibility for an organization that deserves the strongest possible international support. That the still fledgling AU cannot presently undertake the enormous challenges of human security in Darfur says nothing about its future critical importance as a source of peacekeeping and human protection in Africa.

Still, we must accept that the AU is not ready for the challenges of Darfur, militarily or politically. Indeed, the ominous prospect of an AU summit hosted by Khartoum’s genocidaires calls into question whether the African Union has fully surmounted the political challenges of replacing the corrupt and self-serving Organization of African Unity (OAU).

For its part, the international community may choose to accept honest, well-researched assessments of AU limitations, political and military---or it may accept with Jendayi Frazer the shameful pretense that the AU can somehow avert ongoing genocidal destruction in Darfur.

The choice gives all evidence of having been made; the ghosts of Rwanda continue to stir.

Sudan: Human Rights Groups Ask Appeals Court to Give Genocide Victims Relief

From the AP

For the people of Sudan, a case slowly moving through the U.S. courts holds great potential - a lawsuit that claims a major Canadian energy producer aided in genocide in its pursuit of oil.

But winning relief in a court half a world away will depend on how many people will be able to join in the lawsuit.

A U.S. federal judge recently limited the scope of the 2001 lawsuit brought by the Presbyterian Church of Sudan against Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. in U.S. District Court in Manhattan by refusing to grant class-action status.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide by the end of this year whether to consider the class-action issue before the case goes to trial in January 2007.

The plaintiffs say class-action status is crucial to set the stage for a potentially large payout to Sudanese victims and to set a precedent for U.S. courts to aid suffering people worldwide who cannot find relief in their own courts. The church brought the case in the U.S. because the American courts are often the traditional route for such genocide cases.

Without it, "thousands of victims will be effectively denied any opportunity to pursue legal redress for acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," said Beth Van Schaack, assistant professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law. She submitted court papers on behalf of human rights groups and activists asking the appeals court to hear the issue.

The lawsuit alleges that Talisman, a major natural gas company in Canada and oil producer in the North Sea, joined the Sudanese government in ethnic cleansing, killings, war crimes, property confiscation, enslavement, kidnapping and rape.

The plaintiffs allege Talisman supplied the Sudanese military with money, logistics, fuel, vehicles and accommodations as Sudan sought to depopulate 142 villages near oilfields by attacking them with bombers and helicopter gunships from 1999 through 2002. The plaintiffs - victims of aerial attacks - say Talisman aided genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Chad Says Sudan Using its Deserters to Fight Rebels

From Reuters

Chad accused neighbouring Sudan on Sunday of deliberately trying to destabilise it by using Chadian army deserters who fled over the border to help fight rebels.

Sudanese troops and rebels clashed in heavy fighting on Saturday in Sudan's western Darfur region, where Chad says scores of army deserters who fled their barracks in late September are sheltering.

"The Sudanese government is using the Chadian deserters in the fight against its armed opposition with disregard for the principles of (regional bloc) CENSAD and the African Union," Chad's government said in a statement seen by Reuters.

"The resumption of violence with deserters from the Chadian army at the side of Sudanese government forces constitutes a manifest desire to destabilise Chad, the principal mediator in the Darfur crisis," it said.

Tens of thousands have been killed since a revolt began in Darfur in early 2003, heightening tensions with Chad as hundreds of thousands of refugees poured into its poor, arid east, putting immense pressure on already meagre resources.

The Chadian statement said a "coalition of Sudanese government forces and a group of Chadian deserters" had attacked the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) in the mountainous Jabel Moun area of Darfur. It gave no date for the clash.

Sudanese forces said on Saturday they had attacked Chadian rebels who had crossed into Jabel Moun but one Darfur rebel group -- the National Movement for Reform and Development -- said neither account was true and that its bases were in fact the target.

The African Union, which has ceasefire monitors in Darfur, said there had been heavy fighting in the area and reported casualties but did not have any figures.

Uganda: LRA Kills Five in Ambush

From Reuters

Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels killed five people and wounded four others in an ambush on a civilian lorry in the remote north of the country, the military said on Sunday.

The attack took place on Friday as the members of a local dance troupe drove to a function in eastern Pader district, said Lieutenant Chris Magezi, Uganda's northern army spokesman.

"Five civilians were killed while four others were injured, some critically. After ambushing the lorry between Patongo and Adilang (villages) ...the thugs looted the vehicle and set it on fire before disappearing in the bush," he said.

The military could not confirmed reports from local residents who said as many as nine people may have died in the attack, 350 km (220 miles) north of the capital Kampala.

The LRA, which has no clear political aims, has terrorized isolated northern communities for 19 years, uprooting more than 1.6 million people and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

Darfur: New Clashes as US Envoy Mounts Peace Drive

From Reuters

Sudanese troops and rebels clashed in the western Darfur region clashed on Saturday and a rebel group said 14 civilians and eight insurgents had been killed in the past 48 hours.

A senior U.S. envoy, Jendayi Frazer, made an unannounced visit to Darfur in a peace drive, meeting two leaders of the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), who have been squabbling over the SLA's presidency.

Sudanese forces said they had attacked Chadian rebels who had crossed the border to the mountainous Jabel Moun area, but one Darfur rebel group said this was untrue and that the government was attacking its bases.

"Again we were attacked today, as we were (on Friday)," Khalil Abdallah, political leader of the National Movement for Reform and Development, told Reuters.

In a statement, the Sudanese army said 120 dissident Chadian troops had crossed the border and made a base in Jabel Moun.

"The armed forces have undertaken operations in Jabal Moun ... to expel the Chadian dissident forces," the army said, adding one Chadian had been arrested.

The African Union (AU), which has ceasefire monitors in Darfur, said there had been heavy fighting in the area and reported casualties but did not have any figures.

Darfur: Senate Passes Darfur Peace and Accountability Act

A press release from Save Darfur

The Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of 140 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights groups representing 130 million Americans, today praised the Senate for passing the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act (S. 1462) last night and urged leaders in the House of Representatives to pass the bill in the strongest form possible.

The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, endorsed by the Save Darfur Coalition (http://www.savedarfur.org), has 37 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate and 105 in the House of Representatives. Among its provisions, the bill authorizes additional U.S. assistance to the African Union's peacekeeping force in Sudan, calls for a new U.N. Security Council resolution concerning Darfur, and provides for additional sanctions against the perpetrators of the genocide.

"The Senate has done its job, and now the House International Relations Committee needs to do its part by sending a strong bill with real teeth to the House floor for a vote," said Richard Cizik, vice president for Governmental Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. "Congress needs to pass legislation that provides resources for African Union troops, consequences for the Sudanese government, and directs the Administration to prioritize this fight."

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"Now is the time for action. We need to use the moral, physical, and economic strength of America to stop what the Bush Administration has already deemed genocide," said Coalition Coordinator David Rubenstein. "As the situation worsens, the people of Darfur desperately need more than just empty words from House members, they need action. We are grateful to Senators Brownback and Corzine for sponsoring the bill, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Lugar for discharging it out of his committee with a positive recommendation, and Senate Majority Leader Frist for bringing it to the floor."

A press release from Sen. Lugar is here

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar applauded Senate passage of S.1462, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. Lugar favorably discharged the legislation from the Foreign Relations Committee on October 28 and signaled his support for Senate passage to the Majority Leader’s office.

“The United States has been leading the international response to the Darfur crisis, and Congress has been in the vanguard since the reports of the situation reached our offices in early 2004,” said Lugar. “Senate passage of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act is an additional call for international participation and devotion of resources to the crisis in Darfur and to reinforcing the common goal of peace and stability.”

“The situation in Darfur remains grave,” Lugar continued. “The international community and the United States must not relinquish their responsibility to consolidate a comprehensive peace in Sudan, which is contingent upon a resolution to the Darfur crisis.”

Darfur: 21 Days on the Ground

A press release from the Genocide Intervention Network

Beginning Monday, Nov. 21, people around the world will be able to view a web broadcast directly from refugee camps in Darfur, Sudan, and the Chad border. Individuals will also be able to communicate directly with American activists on the ground. The 21-day webcast and blog, Interactive Activism (I-Act), is sponsored by the Genocide Intervention Network and StopGenocideNow.org.

The I-Act team will travel to the refugee camps of Eastern Chad and the destroyed villages of the Darfur region of Sudan. They will use the power of the Internet to put a face to the mind-numbing counts of the dead, dying and displaced in the Darfur genocide.

Unlike traditional news broadcasts or other reports from the region, visitors to GenocideIntervention.net and StopGenocideNow.org will be able to track individual stories of families who have lost everything while fleeing their homes in fear of annihilation.

“This project is absolutely essential to helping the world community understand what is going on in Darfur and why the civilians there need our help,” says Rajaa Shakir, Education Director of the Genocide Intervention Network. “We must tune in, we must tell our families and friends to tune in and, most importantly, we must act.”

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I-Act will be interviewing officials from the African Union in addition to the refugees, and will also speak with representatives of Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders, the World Food Program, International Medical Corps, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other NGOs.

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Simply by visiting the websites of the GenocideIntervention.net and StopGenocideNow.org, visitors will see the human face of this ongoing crisis as well as receiving daily updates from Darfur and Eastern Chad with real-time security information about the villages and refugees. Viewers are invited to make comments, ask questions and post suggestions on the websites’ interactive blog feature.

Anyone can be a part of this unique, educational and powerful project and help bring anti-genocide activism to a new and even more effective level. Millions of Internet users around the world will follow the daily plight of innocent victims in this preventable tragedy — putting a human face on an ongoing genocide and using on-the-ground reports to facilitate both awareness and action.

“Each person has the ability — and the unfortunate responsibility — to bear witness to the utter failure of the international community to stop genocide,” Shakir said. “Ten thousand innocent civilians continue to die each month, waiting for assistance and security that is shamefully slow in coming. Perhaps hearing this cry directly from the trenches of Darfur will prompt politicians in Washington and around the world to finally take action.”

Darfur: Reminders

1) Young Professionals in Foreign Policy is hosting "The United States, the United Nations, and the Problem of Genocide" on Monday

2) Africa Action wants you to send a postcard to President Bush.

3) Nick Kristof is back in Darfur, but his reporting is only available to "Times Select" subscribers. We are encouraging people to write to them and ask them to make it available to the general public.

4) Brown University's Darfur Action Network is lobbying Senator Chafee to support the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act.

Ethiopia Downplays Massacre, Uprising Reports

From Reuters

Ethiopia said on Friday that unrest in its restive regions was under control after allegations by rebel groups this week of a massacre in the east and an uprising in the south-west.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a group of ethnic Somalis fighting for the independence of their large eastern region, said government troops shot dead at least 30 prisoners and civilians in Qabri-daharre town on Tuesday.

And the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), fighting for independence in their south-western region, said a wave of demonstrations by students and others had broken out in a "popular uprising" that brought a severe crackdown.

Responding to the ONLF report, Ethiopia's Ministry of Information said prisoners in Qabri-daharre had killed two wardens during an escape bid. Most were re-captured.

It said the situation had been brought under control.

The ministry did not confirm or deny the ONLF report that 30 prisoners and civilians had died when troops opened fire. But it did, however, dismiss as "totally false" the ONLF accusation there was "indiscriminate" shooting at civilians in the town.

Chad: Ex-Leader Fights Belgian Extradition Request

From Reuters

Belgium's government and human rights lawyers called on Senegal on Friday to hand over Hissene Habre, the former president of Chad, who is contesting a Belgian extradition warrant for atrocities committed during his rule.

Habre, 63, appeared before a court in Dakar to face the extradition charges that he is responsible for mass murder and torture carried out by his political police between 1982 and 1990, when he was president.

He was arrested on Tuesday in Senegal, where he has lived for the last 15 years in exile. His lawyers are fighting the extradition and say their client had no knowledge that his police tortured and killed political prisoners.

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Diouf said Senegal's Appeals Court would deliver its verdict on the Belgian extradition request on Tuesday, after which President Abdoulaye Wade would make the final decision.

The Habre case poses a prickly diplomatic dilemma for Wade, who said earlier this week he would consult the African Union on whether or not to hand over the former Chadian president, dubbed "Africa's Pinochet" by human rights lawyers.

Belgium's government repeated its strong backing for the extradition request, issued in September by a Brussels magistrate under the country's universal jurisdiction law.

This allows judges there to prosecute human rights violations no matter where they were committed. At least one of the Chadian former political prisoners who accuse Habre has Belgian citizenship.

"The entire Belgian government is determined to go all the way to the end with this," Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx said in an interview published on Friday by the daily Le Soir.

She said that if Wade turned down the extradition request, Belgium could invoke international conventions against torture signed by both countries. If that failed, it could even take its case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Uganda: Judge Slams Military Moves at High Court

From Reuters via POTP

One of Uganda's top judges said on Friday that the deployment of commandos at the high court to re-arrest treason suspects this week was "chilling, despicable" and an onslaught against the rule of law.

In unprecedented scenes, soldiers wearing black T-shirts and armed with assault rifles sprang from civilian minibuses inside the court compound on Wednesday and ringed the front of the building for more than an hour.

Their aim was to re-arrest 14 suspects charged this week along with top opposition leader Kizza Besigye. The men had just been given bail by a judge, but the government says they now face separate charges before a military court.
After a tense stand-off, the suspects opted not to accept bail and returned to prison instead. The troops withdrew.

"The presence of uniformed military personnel on the premises of the high court, armed with Uzi and AK47 guns, was simply unprecedented in the annals of this or any other high court," Justice James Ogoola, the country's third most senior judge, said in a speech.

"They unleashed an incredibly chilling effect on the administration of justice in this country ... this incident was utterly despicable, to say the very least," he said.

Darfur: The Attacks Are Not Stopping

From Sleepless in Sudan

The attacks are not stopping.

More than two years have passed since Darfur's rebel groups first began fighting, and government troops and Janjaweed militia responded by fiercely attacking villages and civilians - but the scenes of horror continue in many parts of Darfur.

In Gereida/Tulus locality, dozens of villages have been destroyed and burnt to the ground over the past two weeks, with the desperate survivors fleeing to the safety of the camps. The UN has now reported more than 10,000 new arrivals in the Gereida area and - with daily reports of new attacks still flooding in - this number could well rise.

Not only is it acutely disturbing to hear locals tell you that 50, 60 or 70 people have been killed today - there are also concerns that the insecurity is still preventing humanitarian agencies from assisting victims with food, water and shelter. Two-thirds of South Darfur are still considered too unsafe for travel and it's scary to think what the situation is like in the parts we are not reaching.

Congo: LRA and Mai-Mai

From New Vision

THE Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels are still in Garamba National Park in northeastern Congo, the army has said.

Acting army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulaigye was reacting to reports from the Congolese and UN authorities that the Kony rebels were not in Congo.

Lt. Col. Thierry Provendier, the spokesman of the UN Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC), told UN news agency IRIN, "For the moment, there is no tangible evidence to confirm an LRA presence."

But Kalaigye said, "As far as the UPDF is concerned, Otti is still in Garamba, inside Congo."

From SA

Militia fighters have killed a clergyman who had been working as a peace mediator in the south-eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, United Nations officials said on Friday.

UN spokesperson Kemal Saiki said Congolese troops found two charred corpses on Thursday in mineral-rich Katanga Province and that one was that of Francois Kikuji, a reacher-turned-mediator missing since August, when he went to negotiate a dispute among Mayi-Mayi militiamen.

The other corpse belonged to one of Kikuji's followers and both were killed by Mayi-Mayi fighters, UN-run Radio Okapi reported, citing witnesses.

Darfur: US Official Returns to Press for Peace

From VOA

Just hours before her departure for Darfur, Ms. Frazer told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee she plans to meet with rebel leaders to urge them to overcome their divisions and present a united front at peace talks in Abuja, Nigera.

Previous rounds of talks in Abuja have been plagued by delays and have made little progress, amid escalating violence in Darfur.

Still, Assistant Secretary Frazer says negotiations are the only way to bring peace to the troubled region. "The most important front is to try to get a political solution. That is ultimately what will allow people to go home, to return home, to create an environment of peace and safety and security through a political negotiation," she said.

Some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers are in Darfur, where fighting between rebels and government-backed Arab militia has killed tens of thousands of people over the past two years, and left two million homeless.

Ms. Frazer says 12,000 peacekeepers are needed, and consultations are under way with the A.U. to expand the size of the force.

She called on the A.U. to clarify its mission in Darfur, saying peacekeepers have not done enough to safeguard civilians. "The AU mandate is quite clear. They do have the capacity under their mandate to protect civilians, but that that word has not gotten out to the units uniformly. So part of it is to absolutely clarifying that mandate to the various units," she said.

Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat, said he believes the Bush administration could be doing more to end the Darfur conflict. "I am getting a sense of drift right now in terms of the policy in Darfur. My hope would be that we start ramping up activity, including putting more pressure on other countries to get involved in this issue, because right now we have got an enormous number of people, who have for the past year or year and a half, have been living in camps, and there is a crisis that is going to explode if we do not catch it now," he said.

Assistant Secretary Frazer says the administration does have a sense of urgency about the situation in Darfur. "I can assure you this is getting the highest level of attention from President Bush, Secretary (of State Condoleezza) Rice, Deputy Secretary (Robert) Zoellick, myself and others," she said.

International Justice: 60 Years After Nuremberg, US Drifts From Consensus

From Reuters

The United States was the driving force behind Nuremberg, which resulted in the hanging deaths of 10 top Nazis, and it also played a key role in setting up the more recent Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals.

Its backing for those courts in turn laid the groundwork for trials on atrocities committed as far afield as Sierra Leone, East Timor and Cambodia.

But now, legal scholars say, the United States has begun to see itself as singularly vulnerable to the system of international law whose foundations it laid.

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Ruth Wedgwood, a professor of law at Johns Hopkins University, who has advised the U.S. government on international law and was an independent expert for the Yugoslavia tribunal, believes the United States has good reason to be leery.

She drew a sharp contrast between Nuremberg, where the evidence of crimes against humanity was a "simple call" and a new age where advances in technology, the rise of human rights activism and the role of the United States as the world's self-appointed policeman, have muddied the water.

"The United States has a lot of people stationed overseas, it plays a unique security role and with that comes unique vulnerabilities," she said.

"In almost every war someone will commit a war crime, burn a village or rape a woman. The hard part is mobilizing the international community for those instances that are unique."

That ad hoc approach, which draws on the legacy of Nuremberg and has proven itself time and again over the past 15 years, looks to be the way forward for Washington.

The United States remains a strong backer of tribunals that are limited in time, territory and focus and do not risk threatening its own interests. Most recently, the United States has played a key role in helping Iraqis prepare the trial of Saddam Hussein.

Without the United States, however, legal experts say the ICC looks like a hollow body and the future for international courts is less than clear 60 years after Nuremberg.

Eritrea/Ethiopia: Military Officials to Discuss Border Tension

From IRIN

Senior military officers from Ethiopia and Eritrea are to discuss tensions along their common frontier at a meeting next week in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, a UN official said on Friday.

The officers will hold one-day talks on 25 November, according to UN spokeswoman Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte. The current military standoff between the two neighbours, which has been exacerbated by troop movements, had caused the situation to remain "tense and potentially volatile", she added.

The UN, Sainte explained, hoped to use the Nairobi meeting to address international fears that a new conflict could erupt in the region.

Uganda: Caught Off Guard, Leader Cracks Down

From Reuters

Not so long ago, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was feted by the West and showered with aid as an example of good governance and social commitment on a continent largely run by corrupt "Big Men".

That reputation, cultivated assiduously throughout his 19 years in power, is increasingly at risk. The latest dent in Museveni's image was this week's arrest of a top opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, just days after his return from exile.

Some now ask whether long years in office have turned Museveni from a donor darling into the sort of power-hungry despot he once mocked as a major factor in Africa's decline.

At the least, analysts say, Museveni appears to have been caught off guard by the warm public reception given his former comrade-in-arms and doctor, and many echo opposition fears that Besigye's detention on treason charges is politically motivated.

Burundi: Army Probes Source of "UN Military Uniforms" in Rebel Hands

From IRIN

The Burundian army is investigating circumstances under which uniforms belonging to UN peacekeepers were found with fighters of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), the country's remaining active rebel group, Defence Minister Maj-Gen Germain Niyoyankana said on Thursday.

He told a news conference in the capital, Bujumbura, that he could not accuse the UN Mission in Burundi, known as ONUB, of collaboration with the FNL but that the seizure of the uniforms, from captured FNL rebels, was a sign of "negligence on the part of ONUB troops".

Niyoyankana was referring to the seizure of helmets and uniforms belonging to UN troops when the army captured several FNL combatants early November.

A senior FNL combatant, Aloys Nzabampema, and an aide were captured in Bujumbura on 8 November and helmets and uniforms belonging to ONUB's South African contingent seized from them. Other FNL combatants were also captured in Gihanga, in the northwestern province of Bubanza, with uniforms belonging to ONUB's Nepalese contingent.

Darfur: AU Reinforced as Violence Spirals

From Reuters

Armoured vehicles began arriving in Sudan's Darfur region on Friday, a move officials said would significantly improve the capabilities of African Union forces trying to cope with spiralling violence.

The armoured personnel carriers (APCs) landed in Darfur's main town of el-Fasher as infighting amongst rebels and Arab militias in the past week claimed up to 85 lives and forced 10,000 people from their homes in many parts of the vast region the size of France, a U.N. report said.

"The APCs will give them authority, confidence, punch and significant flexibility," the Canadian prime minister's special envoy for Africa, Bob Fowler, told Reuters. Canada paid for the 105 vehicles, which finally arrived after months of diplomatic wrangling with Khartoum.

"It is all about protecting a delicate peace and allowing this mission to do its job in keeping stability in this country," he said.

A 6,000-strong AU force is monitoring a shaky truce in the desert region. But the force has regularly come under fire and suffered its first casualties in an armed ambush last month.

Troops ran out of ammunition and were forced to retreat leaving behind two soldiers, who were later apparently executed.

The attack raised questions about the force's ability to defend itself and millions of civilians, who have borne the brunt of the violence, called genocide by the United States.

AU officials say the APCs will be a deterrent to any force contemplating an attack on their soldiers and would provide valuable protection for the troops, who currently travel on open benches in the back of jeeps, exposing them as one soldier said as "sitting ducks".

A U.N. report said 62 members of the smaller Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), died in the past week during attacks on villages in South Darfur.

The U.N. report did not say who JEM forces were fighting but the region is an area where JEM and the other main Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), have clashed before.

The report also said 23 members of Arab militias died in clashes over cattle between militia members in West Darfur.

Ethiopia/Eritrea: UN's Capacity to Monitor Frontier Deteriorating

From the UN News Center

The ability of the United Nations to monitor the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) separating Ethiopia and Eritrea is shrinking while posturing by the formerly-warring Horn of Africa countries is raising the stakes, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping said today in New York.

"Our visibility of what is happening on the ground has continued to deteriorate," Jean-Marie Guéhenno told reporters following his closed-door briefing to the Security Council. "It is probably about 40 per cent now that we can really monitor with some measure of confidence."

Constraints on the movements of the UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which is charged with monitoring their peace accord, "have continued to not only be there but to tighten," Mr. Guéhenno said, adding that there are limitations in the TSZ and on its north and south sides, diminishing the UN's capacity to monitor the area.

The Under-Secretary-General also pointed to troop movements, which have been reported on the Eritrean and Ethiopian sides. "Both sides disclaim any intent to go to war," he said.

While there is no sign of an imminent war, he said "the kind of posture that the respective armed forces are taking creates a very unstable and very dangerous situation."

Mr. Guéhenno also voiced concern about the safety of UN workers in the area. "We now have had eight peacekeepers who have had to be evacuated by road in very difficult circumstances" because flights have been suspended, he said. "So we have troop contributing countries who – because of their commitment to peace and security – are putting their people at some risk."

Darfur: Send a Postcard to the President

From African Action via POTP

Recent reports coming out of Darfur indicate that the security situation is deteriorating rapidly. There have been fresh assaults on villages and the Janjaweed, with Sudanese government air support, have attacked a camp for internally displaced people, who had already lost their homes in previous attacks. In the past month, the United Nations evacuated all but essential personnel. Some aid agencies are no longer able to reach the camps in some areas of Darfur because insecurity has made the roads impassable, cutting off access to tens of thousands of people.

It is now estimated that 80-90% of all African villages in Darfur have been destroyed and 6000 people are dying every month in camps where there are overcrowded conditions and shortages of food, clean water, sanitation, shelter and medical supplies. Despite the desperate situation on the ground, recent remarks by Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick indicate that the U.S. continues to shy away from referring to the crisis in Darfur as genocide and to avoid the moral responsibility to respond to this unique crime against humanity.

Children are the youngest survivors of this genocide, and their drawings depict the atrocities that they face. Dr. Jerry Ehrlich, a pediatrician from New Jersey, collected drawings from children in Darfur and smuggled them to the U.S. in pages of a Sunday edition of the New York Times. Africa Action has converted these drawings into an exhibit to help remind people of the on-going genocide in Darfur. With that exhibit we have produced postcards with a child’s artwork and a message to George Bush. Please join us today by signing this electronic postcard to the President calling for action to protect the children of Darfur.

Chad: Deby Removes Kinsmen From Military Leadership

From IRIN

Vowing defiance in the wake of a series of incidents that may have loosened his grip on power, Chad’s President Idriss Deby has removed members of his own ethnic group from the military’s top posts.

Speaking on Wednesday to hundreds of supporters gathered outside the presidential palace, an embattled Deby pledged to stand firm despite recent desertions and attacks on the military.

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The situation is particularly tense in the country’s east where an unestablished number of soldiers have joined the rebel Rally for Change, National Unity and Democracy (SCUD) after deserting their posts.

Two years of fighting in neighbouring Sudan’s Darfur Province have destabilised eastern Chad and proved a real conundrum for Deby.

The conflict opposes the Sudanese government, which facilitated Deby’s rise to power, to rebels, many of whom belong to the president’s own Zaghawa ethnic group that dominates senior posts in the armed forces.

But a number of Chadian officers have criticised the president for not giving enough support to Darfur’s Zaghawas and his kinsmen were behind a mutiny in May 2004. The head of the SCUD group of deserters, Yaya Dillo Djerou, is also Zaghawa.

In a decree on Tuesday night, Deby named Banyara Kossingar chief of staff and made Nadjita Beassoumal, a former companion in arms, commander of the air force.

Both are southerners and were promoted at the expense of Zaghawas.

In all, there are 200 names on Tuesday’s decree which extends to the police and military units throughout the country.

No official explanation was given but officers contacted by IRIN said that Deby, whose power base traditionally lies with the Zaghawas, no longer trusts his kinsmen and is reaching out to other ethnic groups to regain control of the situation.

Darfur: For Members Only

It appears as if Nicholas Kristof is back "on the ground" in Darfur, but you wouldn't know it because the feature is reserved for those with a "Times Select" account

I just landed in Khartoum with my multimedia partner, Naka Nathaniel, and will be heading to Darfur at the crack of dawn tomorrow, Tuesday. I should have on-and-off email access there, so send in your written questions -- about Darfur only -- and I'll reply to some of them by video on the Times site. The questions should go to a new email address we've just set up:

kristofontheground@yahoo.com

I'll check that while in Darfur, and will post some video answers late this week or next week. You can find them here or on my Columnist Page: nytimes.com/kristof.

And if you have questions you have for others in Darfur -- aid workers, or victims of the genocide -- then send them in, and we can try to get them answered as well.

Kristof has been a driving force in bringing attention to the situation in Darfur and it is unfortunate that the New York Times would choose to lock this important feature away in its "Times Select" center where very few can access it.

If you are so inclined, you might want to contact the "Time Select," or Kristof himself, and ask them to considering making this available to the general public.

Here is the letter I sent, though I encourage you to write your own

I am writing to ask you to consider making Nicholas Kristof's "On The Ground" in Darfur feature available to the general public.

Kristof has been a leading voice in raising awareness of the situation in Darfur and has been a source of vital information for those of us who are working on the issue.

His current trip to Darfur will likely produce a great deal of important information and, were it made available to non-subscribers, would allow us to share it with as wide an audience as possible.

The ability to contact Kristof with questions of our own and receive answers from him while he is on the ground in Darfur provides a unique opportunity for engagement on this topic and I urge you to consider making it available to a wider audience.

Sincerely,
Eugene Oregon
Co-Founder - The Coalition for Darfur
http://coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/

Darfur: Women Decry Impunity For Rape

From Reuters

A culture of impunity for rape in Sudan's Darfur region means women like Mariam, assaulted and left for dead, say they don't even bother to report the attacks to police, aid workers and officials said.

Mariam, who was too afraid to give her full name because she was worried about reprisals for discussing the taboo subject, says women are most at risk when they leave the refugee camps that house around 2 million mostly women and children.

She arrived at the al-Bileel camp near the state capital Nyala after fleeing her home in South Darfur state six months ago. She says she watched as her 12-year-old cousin was raped, and then was subjected to the same assault.

"I was out looking for firewood not far from here when this man dressed in green khaki grabbed me and started beating me with his gun," she said. Mariam was then raped and beaten for an hour. She lost the sight in her right eye for more than a month.

"The police don't investigate anything so we don't even bother to report it anymore," she said.

Unravelling her long green and yellow covering, a tiny baby emerged from the folds of the fabric. "This is my youngest -- I have six," she said, after relating the story told by so many Darfur women struggling to keep their families alive on scant provisions while also trying to fend off the violence aid workers say is systematic.

Canada's special envoy for peace in Sudan, Mobina Jaffer, said the government needed to find and prosecute those who have sexually assaulted hundreds of women in Darfur to stop the crime, otherwise it would continue unchecked.

Rwanda: Former Mayor Pleads Guilty to Genocide

From IRIN

The former mayor of Gikoro Commune in Rural Kigali, Paul Bisengimana, stood before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on Thursday and pleaded guilty to charges of murder and extermination during the 1994 genocide.

"This is an unequivocal plea of guilt," Bisengimana told Judge Arlette Ramarason.

He said no one had pressured him or offered awards to him for making the plea.

Bisengimana admitted he was present at Musha Church in Gikoro Commune when thousands of Tutsis were massacred. He also admitted to having planned and participated in the killing of several thousand of people who had sought refuge in Gikoro Commune.

In related news, Colonel Theoneste Bagasora, widely considered the mastermind of the 1994 genocide, is also on trial and blaming General Romeo Dallaire for the assassination of the Rwandan Prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana as well as ten Belgian peacekeepers and saying "world leaders" were responsible for the genocide.

Uganda: Museveni Warns Against Foreign Interference

From VOA

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has told foreigners not to interfere in the internal affairs of his country. Mr. Museveni made the comments Wednesday night while addressing a convention of his National Resistance Movement. His remarks came as foreign diplomats stationed in Uganda met with government ministers to voice concerns over the arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who was arrested Monday and charged with treason and rape.

Darfur: Nightmare In A Foreign Land

From NBC 4 - in Los Angeles

ANCHOR INTRO: He's an excelling student at USC who once had dreams of going into business. But all that changed the day he decided to become a volunteer in East Africa, helping the less fortunate, and came face to face with genocide and the terrifying prospect of his own death.

COLLEEN WILLIAMS (VIDEO SHOWS VICTIMS): You are looking at only a few victims of what the United States has condemned as genocide.

JUSTIN ARANA: They would come and kill all the men. They would rape every woman they saw.

COLLEEN WILLIAMS: Villagers in Darfur, a region of northwest Sudan, sympathetic to anti-government rebels. Nightmarish images almost never seen on television shot by an international crisis group at the risk of their own lives and provided to Channel 4 News.

It was pictures like this that plunged 20-year-old Laguna Beach resident Justin Arana into a nightmare of his own. One day, an idealistic USC student volunteering with a humanitarian group. The next, thrown into a lonely prison cell by the Sudanese government, thousands of miles from home, facing a possible death penalty for simply carrying a camera in a land where foreign press is prohibited.

JUSTIN ARANA: They do not want the outside world to know what is going on in Darfur and I was accused of taking those photographs charged with crimes against the state punishable by execution.

COLLEN WILLIAMS: The United States estimates that more than 200,000 people have been massacred by government backed militias. Humanitarian groups say the number of dead is double that, with Justin nearly added to the list.

(ADDRESSING ARANA): How fearful were you while you were in there?

JUSTIN ARANA: I had those sharp sharp feelings of fear but they would subside in a matter of one or two seconds.

COLLEEN WILLIAMS (ADDRESSING ARANA): Did you know what the penalty was?

JUSTIN ARANA: Yes, yes. When I was in prison I saw those children get beat -- I saw, 10 feet from me... just cry and they cry the more they scream the more they get beat. The blood... just pouring out of their head and I knew that if I showed that emotion I wouldn't be here.

COLLEEN WILLIAMS: The humanitarian group Justin worked with has asked that their name be withheld to protect volunteers still in Darfur. The group worked with a union of neighboring African governments to get him released after three days. Justin was relieved, but says he has no regrets about putting his own life on the line.

JUSTIN ARANA: What's happening to me, it is upon no level of what I have been amongst. Why is my survival any more important than theirs?

COLLEEN WILLIAMS: Justin says most of his photos were destroyed. The pictures in this story were smuggled out by another photographer.

JUSTIN ARANA: We cannot allow them to die in vain.

Darfur: Peace Talks Delayed a Week

From the AP

The next round of African Union-sponsored talks aimed at ending fighting in Sudan’s Darfur have been delayed a week for logistical reasons, a spokesman at the continental body’s headquarters said Thursday.

The talks were due to start Monday but will now resume on Nov. 28, said spokesman Assane Ba.

Uganda: U.S. "Deeply Concerned" by Treason Trial

From Reuters

The United States expressed deep concern on Thursday about the arrest of Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye and called for his treason trial to be completed well before elections in early 2006.

Besigye -- who had been expected to be the biggest challenger to President Yoweri Museveni at the polls -- was detained on Monday, less than three weeks after returning home to a tumultuous welcome from four years exile in South Africa.

His arrest triggered the worst riots in the capital for decades as his supporters took to the streets for two days.

"The United States is deeply concerned about the arrest of Dr Kizza Besigye on November 14 and the disruption to Uganda's political process," the U.S. embassy in Kampala said.

"We urge the Government of Uganda to examine the basis for these charges carefully and to honor its commitments under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights," the U.S. statement said.

Congo: Thousands Displaced as Army Attacks Militias

From IRIN

Thousands of civilians are fleeing fighting that has been raging since Monday between the UN-backed Congolese army and local militias around the Semliki River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s northeastern district of Ituri, an aid official said.

"The displaced people need food aid, shelter and medicine, particular those who did not have time to collect their belongings," said Modibo Traoré, the head of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bunia, capital of Ituri District.

He said 1,400 families had arrived at the town of Komanda, 75 km southwest of Bunia. Most are from the village of Mandibe, south of the Semliki River that separates Congo and Uganda.

Another 2,000 families have arrived farther south of Bunia in Kagaba, he said. Many of them are residents of Gety town where soldiers have launched an attack to regain positions they lost to militiamen on 11 November.

He also said that by Tuesday 160 displaced families had arrived in Bunia and some 120 families were camped in and around the villages of Marabo and Nyakunde, both some 40 km southwest of Bunia.

Darfur: Sudan Court Sentences Two Soldiers to Death

From Reuters

Sudan's special court for Darfur crimes has sentenced two army soldiers to death for torturing and killing a civilian, the head of the court said on Thursday.

The U.N. Security Council has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged war crimes in Darfur but Sudan has said it would not extradite anyone, preferring to form its own court to try suspects.

The head of the Sudanese special court, Mahmoud Mohamed Saeed Abkam, said two soldiers had arrested civilians in North Darfur state and accused them of belonging to the local rebel movement. They then tortured the civilians and beat one of them to death.

"They were both sentenced to death yesterday," Abkam told Reuters by telephone from North Darfur state, adding the soldiers had 15 days to appeal their conviction. The victim was beaten on his head and stomach and later died of his injuries in hospital, Abkam added.

Sudan: Rebels Urge AU to Move January Summit From Khartoum

From IRIN

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of the two main rebel groups in the conflict-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur, has asked the African Union not to go ahead with a plan to hold its January summit in Khartoum, and to ensure that Sudan does not assume the AU presidency in 2006.

The planned summit, JEM president Khalil Ibrahim Mohamed said, would compromise the AU’s mediation role in Sudanese peace talks.

"We are totally refusing the suggestion that Bashir would become the new chairman of the AU. The AU troops will lose their impartiality," Mohamed, told IRIN on Wednesday.

"Bashir can never hold the AU presidency while conducting peace negotiations in Darfur at the same time," the rebel leader added.

Sudan is scheduled to host the annual AU summit on 23-24 January. Host president, Umar al-Bashir, is one of the candidates for the AU presidency, which will rotate this year to East Africa.

Sudan: Zoellick Opens New Consulate

From the Washington File

The new U.S. consulate in Juba, Sudan, is an important milestone on the way to peace for that country, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said November 11 at a press conference following its opening. The consulate will be the headquarters for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission.

Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir, joining Zoellick at the press conference, said he considered the opening "a very big step forward" in "assuring the cooperation and support of the USA to the peace process in Sudan and to the road map of Southern Sudan in particular."

He said the consulate will make keeping in contact "on a daily basis" with U.S. officials much easier, and enhance the ability to keep them informed about how the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) is progressing. Juba is the seat of the recently appointed government of Southern Sudan.

Zoellick said that much economic activity at the consulate will be focused on southern regions of Sudan in the future, although the focus now is on building roads.

Kiir said his discussions with Zoellick centered on finding a solution to the Darfur crisis, as well as the implementation of the CPA, which he described as "taking a low profile in the international community because they [the international community] feel that the pressing issue today is the issue of Darfur, and so attention is much more drawn to Darfur."

Zoellick agreed that there has been "a lot of focus on Darfur, understandably," but said it would be "a huge mistake" if the involved parties let their attention turn from the critical matter of "working with the government of Southern Sudan and then the government of national unity in the peace process."

Sudan: A Shameful Place for an African Summit

From Human Rights Watch

By allowing Khartoum to host its summit in January, the African Union would tarnish its credibility and condone the Sudanese government’s complicity in crimes against humanity in Darfur, Human Rights Watch warned today in a letter to African heads of state.

[edit]

“The African Union’s efforts in Darfur have been met with constant obstruction by a government that refuses to change its abusive policies,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The African Union should not reward the sponsors of crimes against humanity with the honor of hosting the AU summit or ascending to its presidency.”

Sudanese President Omar El Bashir is apparently one of the candidates for the African Union presidency, which this year will rotate to East Africa. Although Sudan is also scheduled to host the AU summit, the two are no longer linked. Previously, Sudan had been slated to host the AU summit in July and take over the presidency at that time. But the African Union changed the venue to Libya due to concern over the Sudanese government’s continuing human rights abuses and ceasefire violations in Darfur. Since then, Nigeria has continued to hold the AU presidency. Under the African Union’s new procedure, the president will be elected by the member countries at the summit on January 23-24.

[edit]

“How can the African Union be seen as a credible mediator in Darfur if one of the warring parties hosts its summit and becomes the head of the organization as well?” asked Takirambudde. “It’s not too late for the African Union to hold its summit elsewhere or for African leaders to encourage a better candidate to run for the presidency.”

Event: The United States, the United Nations, and the Problem of Genocide

From Young Professionals in Foreign Policy

Start: Nov 21 2005 - 6:00pm
End: Nov 21 2005 - 9:00pm
Event Description: The United States, the United Nations, and the Problem of Genocide

Young Professionals in Foreign Policy & The Georgetown Journal of International Law present a distinguished panel discussion on Darfur featuring experts and activists:

Sally Chin - Refugees International

Sulliman Giddo - Darfur Peace and Development

John Heffernan - Physicians for Human Rights

Tod Lindberg - Hoover Institution

John Prendergast - International Crisis Group

Please scroll down to read the short biographies of the panelists.

Monday, November 21, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Georgetown University Law Center
600 New Jersey Ave NW - Gewirz Hall, 12th Floor
(Judiciary Square and Union Station metros)

Please RSVP to ypfpinfo@gmail.com
Contact jenny.tolan@ypfp.org for questions

Special thanks to:

The Georgetown University Law Center
The People Speak Series & The Open Society Institute
The Genocide Intervention Network
Students Taking Action Now Darfur
International Crisis Group
The Save Darfur Coalition

Zimbabwe: Rights Groups Seek Action

From Reuters

More than 150 international rights groups petitioned African governments and the continent's main political union on Wednesday to act on what they called a humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.

President Robert Mugabe's government drew global criticism over its demolition of urban slums earlier this year which the United Nations says destroyed the homes or jobs of at least 700,000 people and affected the lives of 2.4 million others.

"Today's mass letter-writing appeal highlights the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country and the failure of African states and the AU (African Union) to address the situation in any meaningful way," a coalition led by Amnesty International and the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said in a statement.

"The silence of African leaders on Zimbabwe represents a failure to honor their commitments to the human rights of ordinary Africans," a spokesman for the groups said.

Rwanda: Genocide Survivors in Danger

From the Hirondelle News Agency

Genocide survivors "will be wiped out" if the Rwandan government does not step up their security and bring to justice murderers intent on destroying evidence in genocide trials, the biggest genocide survivors organization in Rwanda said on Tuesday.

"Policies of tolerance and reconciliation have led to less and less punishment for criminals and now some people are not afraid of killing", said Benoit Kaboyi, spokesperson of IBUKA (translation: Remember) less than a week after the violent murder of a genocide survivor in the north west Rwanda province of Gisenyi.

Verediyana Nyiransabana was reportedly clubbed to death before her body was dumped in a river. This happened on Wednesday night, a few hours after she had testified in a local genocide trial, said Kaboyi.

"The government should see to it that such cases are followed up diligently and perpetrators punished severely", said Kaboyi.

Nyiransabana's murder came only a week after another genocide survivor in the east Rwanda town of Kabuga.

According to the police, attackers used an iron bar to shatter John Muhinda's head as he cycled home.

Uganda: Suspects Return to Jail After Showdown

From Reuters

Fourteen suspected Ugandan rebels were ordered to be freed on bail on Wednesday, but in unprecedented scenes at a high court the men opted to return to prison fearing re-arrest by commandos waiting for them outside.

Toting assault rifles, gunmen in black T-shirts, believed to be Ugandan security forces, deployed outside the court during the bail hearing for the suspects, who are among 22 people charged with treason with top opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

Supporters of Besigye, president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party and main presidential challenger in next year's poll, say his arrest on Monday was politically motivated, and have rioted on the streets in protest.

Court officials said "procedural delays" had prevented Besigye, once President Yoweri Museveni's doctor and close friend, from appearing in court on Wednesday.

Following the stand-off about who would take custody of the suspects, the 14 accused rebels were returned to prison.

"Because of the presence of a band of armed men who wanted to re-arrest them, our sureties were not able to sign the bail forms," Salama Musumba, a senior FDC official, told reporters.

"We thought it was unwise to release our members to men whose unit is not even known," added one FDC lawyer.

The gunmen, some wearing bandanas, arrived at the court in two civilian minibuses.

Zimbabwe Agrees to UN Aid for Demolitions Victims

From AFP via POTP

Zimbabwe's government has decided to accept a UN offer to build emergency shelter for victims of its demolitions campaign, scrapping its previous refusal of the aid, a UN official said Tuesday.

"We received a letter which conveys the wish of the government for the UN to proceed with phase one of the shelter programme," the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

Under the first phase, the United Nations is to build 2,500 units for Zimbabweans left homeless after their shacks were destroyed in the campaign from May to July.

The United Nations had offered the aid, fearing that the plight of the homeless would worsen with the onset of the rainy season.

But UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in late October expressed dismay after Zimbabwe turned down the UN offer to help build temporary shelter for victims of the demolition blitz, saying it preferred help to build permanent homes.

The overall UN aid offer would involve the construction of 20,000 temporary housing units at a cost of about 18 million US dollars (15 million euros), according to the official.

Responsibility to Protect and UN Reform

From Embassy

The former Australian foreign minister and now president of the International Crisis Group uses the words "depressing" and "desolate" to describe the outcome of September's UN summit. The event was ballyhooed in its lead-up as a critical juncture in the UN's renewal, but it had little to show in the end.

"There emerged from the last minute scramble to avoid a diplomatic train-wreck a few shafts of light," he remarks during his NPSIA lecture this week. "And a few passages of dim light holding out the hope of brightness beyond."

Mr. Evans was a member of blue-ribbon panel appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that penned a blueprint last year on achievable ideas to transform the global body. A handful of its recommendations, and some important ones, appeared in the pages of the leaders' closing statement in New York. Mr. Evans points to the positive endorsements: the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, the establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission (eventually), and new resources for the High Commissioner for Human Rights along with a Human Rights Council (also still in the works.) to replace the discredited Commission.

Mr. Evans praises Canada for its diplomatic and political leadership in cajoling nations to get behind R2P, a concept he helped develop as co-chair of a Canadian-commissioned report on the topic in 2001. R2P demands international attention to prevent genocide and other mass atrocities, and flexed to its extreme could warrant military intervention.

"People are going to feel a lot more guilty about not doing the right thing when before they had sovereignty to hide behind," he says.

Mr. Evans believes the concept has already permeated the conscious of many state governments. "What is important is that people are approaching the issues with a sense of responsibility and commitment, rather than neglect and (an attitude of) 'That's not our business.' That is what has changed. Even though Darfur is still extremely troubling for us, and deteriorating, it's certainly not a situation that is being ignored."

Darfur: Donor Fatigue Threatens Aid to Refugees

From Reuters

One of the world's largest aid efforts last year, coordinated by the United Nations and carried out by humanitarian groups, helped bring the crisis under control.

But as the fighting continues and peace talks falter, humanitarian workers say donors are becoming more reluctant to pay for a never-ending emergency and are starting to reduce aid, a development some fear could further destabilise the region.

"I'm very worried this will cause a lot more instability," said Canada's special Sudan envoy Mobina Jaffer. "People go hungry so there's more fighting over less resources."

Narinder Sharma, a U.N. official in Darfur, said aid agencies were already phasing out their activites and any decrease in funding would spell disaster for millions of people.

"All our work would be undone," he said. "I just could not bear to see the children go back to that state."

[edit]

Youssef said his father was among 43 people killed in the attack on the village of Tama more than two weeks ago. He was killed as he knelt down to say morning prayers at the mosque.

"I managed to run off as soon as I heard the shooting and screaming, but those who couldn't run away in time were killed."

Abdel Malik, 15, also fled to the Otash camp outside Nyala town in South Darfur. He pointed to a large scar on his head.

"They smashed me on the head with a big gun," he said.

Mahjoub Mohamed Adam, also from Tama, said he had received no aid since he arrived at the camp. "I don't understand why since we've been here we've had no food or help."

Darfur: Insecurity Forces Temporary Reduction in Operations

From the ICRC

The situation in Sudan's conflict-ridden region of Darfur is continuing to become increasingly volatile and insecure. Clashes between the parties to the conflict and frequent acts of banditry against civilians and aid organizations have caused further displacement of the population - mainly to camps for internally displaced people and nearby urban centres - and increased restrictions of movement in some areas of Darfur.

The work of aid agencies has been hampered by armed groups that are attacking convoys and looting goods with increasing regularity. The civilian population and aid workers have sometimes been mistreated in the process. Vehicles, such as Land Cruisers and pick-up trucks, are becoming a recurrent target in addition to mobile and satellite telecommunications equipment.

On 1 November an ICRC field-assessment team travelling in two vehicles was set upon in West Darfur. The six-member team had gone to the area north of Seleia to provide post-operative care to war-wounded civilians and to assess the food-security situation as harvest time approaches. An unknown armed group robbed them of their personal belongings and made off with the vehicles, leaving the team stranded on the roadside. The ICRC has requested the authorities and the parties to the conflict to retrieve the vehicles and provide security guarantees for its personnel working in this area. This follows a similar incident in early October, also in West Darfur, when another ICRC team was ambushed and robbed.

The ICRC has temporarily suspended its activities in Seleia and will continue to limit its movements south of Al-Geneina until security guarantees are obtained from the parties to the conflict and other key players in this region. Operations in other parts of Darfur remain so far unaffected, although security reviews are being conducted on a daily basis.

Congo: 43 Killed in Fighting

From the AP

At least 40 militiamen and three Congolese soldiers were killed in two days of fighting as hundreds of Congolese soldiers backed by U.N. peacekeepers attacked a northeastern rebel stronghold, a Congolese army spokesman said Wednesday.

Forty militiamen and three Congolese soldiers were killed, said Olivier Mputu, Congo's army spokesman in North Kivu. The army had given an early count of 19 militiamen dead and one Congolese soldier wounded.

Some 1,000 Congolese soldiers backed by 300 U.N. peacekeepers attacked Monday to dislodge a rebel group known as the Revolutionary Movement of Congo around the town of Similiki, 40 kilometers (25 miles)south of Bunia, U.N. Spokesman Maj. Hans-Jakob Reichen said.

Genocide: Rusesabagina and Messinger

From The Tufts Daily

Paul Rusesabagina, the inspiration for the film "Hotel Rwanda," spoke to a packed Cohen Auditorium Tuesday night and condemned an international community that stood by as almost a million of his countrymen perished.

[edit]

At the end of the talk Rusesabagina compared the genocide in Rwanda to other contemporary conflicts in Africa. In the last ten years, 4 million have died in fighting in the Congo, 1.8 million people have been displaced in Northern Uganda, and 2 million have been displaced in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Rusesabagina recently traveled to Sudan and said Darfur looked exactly as Rwanda had in 1993 and1994.

"[The refugees] sleep on the Sahara sand. They have no food. They have no shelter. They have no water," Rusesabagina said. "It is now or never for all of us to stand up and say no."

From The Oklahoma Daily

Ruth Messinger said Americans cannot ignore the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, but rather they have an obligation to help those affected by it.

Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Service, described her experiences in Darfur and Chad Tuesday in a speech titled “Darfur: A Genocide We Can Stop” at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Messinger said the situation in Darfur is not even close to becoming hopeful.

While in Chad, home to 300,000 displaced Darfurians, she visited hospitals and feeding tents of malnourished and sick children.

“Many of them will not survive,” she said.

[edit]

Messinger said her organization has put pressure on the White House to do something, but the issue remains unattended.

“When genocide is in the world, none of us can sit idly by,” she said. “The issue cannot be dismissed as someone else’s problem. There is now a genocide, and this is an issue that your children and grandchildren will ask you about.”

Chad: Unrest "A Security Threat"

From the AP

A brewing rebellion in Chad threatens regional security, says a top African Union official on Wednesday.

Attacks on two military camps in Chad earlier this week had been linked to a possible rebellion.

The attacks took place after soldiers deserted several military camps and regrouped in eastern Chad - near the border with Sudan's volatile Darfur region - scene of one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The unrest had forced people to flee the region and take shelter in Darfur. Aid workers were worried that civil war in eastern Chad could undermine efforts to end the conflict in Darfur.

Darfur: Steidle Shares Photos

From The Stanford Daily

A retired Marine captain who recently spent six months as a ceasefire monitor with the African Union force in Darfur shocked a full lecture hall in the Geology Corner last night with horrifying details of what he calls an ongoing government-sponsored genocide. The event was organized by Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) and was co-sponsored by seven other student groups.

Captain Brian Steidle described his experiences as he said he watched powerlessly as the government of Sudan or its proxies killed and displaced tens of thousands of innocent civilians in mass attacks on villages. As an unarmed U.S. State Department observer, he could do nothing but document the mass killings in Darfur, a region the size of Texas.

“All I was there to do was take their pictures, write down their names, write reports and move on,” he said, explaining that survivors of the attacks he came to document thought he was a doctor and cried for his assistance. “That’s all we did every single day for six months.”

[edit]

“This is not over; it’s ongoing,” he said. “As we sit here, people are dying in Darfur.”

Steidle says that Sudanese government leaders should ultimately be held responsible.

“The root of the problem is the government in Khartoum,” he said, adding that he was certain the director of intelligence and the vice president are personally notified of and authorize attacks on civilians.

[edit]

Steidle offered several steps individuals and the U.S. government could take to deal with what he called genocide, from letter-writing and divestment campaigns to the deployment of U.S. military forces.

“There are some bills before Congress that are not very strong, but they send the right message,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s going to take a strong western force to protect the people. It’s very important to get troops on the ground.”

Encouraging everyone in the audience to write a letter, he noted that politicians in Washington, D.C. do not feel pressure to take serious action in Sudan.

“People at the White House say they’re feeling no heat,” he said. “We need the voices to be louder. We need more letters and e-mails.”

Steidle, who spent six months living with the African Union, questioned the organization’s ability to bring peace. Stating that troops need permission from Sudan to be there, he argued that the African Union — which has received $190 million from the U.S. — cannot be successful without a wider mandate.

“A lot of aid does not get to the people because the roads are insecure or blocked,” he said.

Steidle also criticized the U.S. government for failing to take a more proactive role in the region.

“Our government has been backtracking since the beginning,” he said, pointing out that Sudan has been given some exemptions from a trade embargo and that the government has the same ranking on severity of human exploitation as Switzerland.

Darfur: STAND National Call-In Day

This came from STAND, in a comment to a previous post

On Nov. 16, please join with thousands around the country in a National Call-In Day for Darfur! Last month's National Call-In Day spurred FIVE new Senators to co-sponsor the bill! Our legislators are listening, so please take the time to let them know you care about peace and accountability in Darfur.

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Please, take a moment on Nov 16th to call your senators and representative and ask them to support the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act and to push for a vote before the holidays. Your call will make a difference! Information on contacting your members of Congress and a sample script to help you make the call is included below. Members of Congress need to hear from constituents that there is strong public support for promoting peace and accountability in Darfur.

Thank you for joining the National Call-In Day for Darfur! Please pass this message on to others to multiply our message.

Read more here.

Chad: Arrest of "African Pinochet" Comes After 15 Years

From the BBC

The pressure group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed the arrest of Hissene Habre, former president of Chad and the man it calls the "African Pinochet".

Mr Habre took power in 1982 after a long military campaign and was in turn overthrown in a coup d'etat in 1990 by the current president of Chad, Idriss Deby.

He then went into exile in Dakar, the Senegalese capital.

Since then, HRW has been instrumental in helping Chadian victims of the former dictator shape a series of detailed allegations against his regime.

Mr Habre has now been arrested in Senegal on an international warrant issued by Belgium for crimes allegedly committed during his time in power.

HRW investigator Reed Brody has personally been pursuing Mr Habre for more than six years.

Standing outside the state prosecutor's office in Senegal, Mr Brody told the BBC by mobile phone: "This could be the first step in extraditing Habre to Belgium."

And this from the AP

Police on Tuesday arrested Hissene Habre, the former dictator of Chad who was wanted on an international war crimes warrant 15 years after his fall from power in the destitute central African country.

Habre, who is accused of murder, torture and a host of other crimes during his eight-year reign, was arrested at his home in Senegal's seaside capital, where he had lived in exile with his family since his ouster in 1990.

Wearing white robes and cap, the 63-year old Habre waved to reporters outside court after his arrest. He made no remarks before being taken to jail and his lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.

"Fear has now changed sides. Now it's no longer the victims who are afraid," said Boucounta Diallo, a lawyer for nearly two dozen people who accuse Habre of torture and other war crimes in a suit filed in Belgium.

Belgium had issued an international arrest warrant for Habre under its "universal jurisdiction" laws, which allow for prosecutions for crimes against humanity wherever they were committed. Suspects in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have been tried in Belgium under the law.

"It has taken 15 years and a lots of twists and turns, but justice and (Habre's) victims are catching up with him," said Reed Brody, a researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch. "We hope Senegal will live up to his word and its international obligations and extradite him to Belgium where he can have a fair trial."

Uganda/Sudan: LRA Welcomes SPLM Mediation Offer

A statement from the LRA via the Sudan Tribune

The LRA/M is ready to engage in negotiations with the SPLM/A and its representatives in the Government of South Sudan in order to reach and agree an understanding between the two organizations.

By so doing, we hope not only to explore ways of halting the humanitarian crisis in the region, but also bring the most wanted security and stability in order to allow for the return and resettlement of IDPs and other southern Sudanese citizens displaced elsewhere.

In the long run too, we also hope to find a just and lasting solution to the conflict in northern Uganda between ourselves (the LRA/M) and the Government of Uganda especially if:

*Such talks are conducted in a neutral country.

*An internationally recognized entity (ies) is/are present to moderate the process.

*All parties show that they are genuine in their intentions and are committed to the negotiations without putting forward any preconditions, which may hinder or stall the process.

*All parties recognize that justice, including respect for human rights, and mutual respect for one another are the key to mediation and reconciliation in order to find lasting solution and genuine peace and stability within the region.

The LRA/M is once again thanking the SPLM/A leadership for making this timely gesture which is not just a key element missing in previous attempts at peace talks with the Ugandan government but also a key turning point in the way this conflict will be finally resolved and future stability of the region will be maintained.

The LRA/M however, regrets that the same SPLM/A leadership that is offering to mediate is reportedly being asked to join the UPDF and the Sudanese Army in fighting the LRA composed mainly of ethnic communities from northern Ugandan and southern Sudan, thus complicating and escalating the conflict further. For this, and many other local and regional issues at stake, we hereby would like to welcome this SPLM/A statement by calling on their leadership to commit themselves to it.

Sudan: Clashes Force U.N. To Leave Town

From the AP

Tribal clashes in a key town in southern Sudan have left several people dead and forced the United Nations to evacuate international staff, aid workers said Tuesday.

The violence in Yambio, a Sudanese town near the border with Congo, began Monday afternoon with minor skirmishes that quickly escalated into widespread clashes between members of the Zambe tribe, dominant in the immediate area, and the Dinka, the largest ethnic community in southern Sudan, U.N. workers said.

Those involved in the conflict fired assault rifles, torched homes and a compound belonging to the U.N.'s World Health Organization. No U.N. worker was wounded or killed.

Aid workers, however, saw several dead bodies in the town, a U.N. worker said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the organization.

The dead included the Sudanese head of an agriculture training center that is affiliated with Catholic Relief Services, said James Ashman of the Baltimore, Maryland-based relief agency.

"They were driving into the town, and the car was shot at and this person was killed," Ashman told The Associated Press in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. "It was an ambush, and it is unlikely that they were targeted."

Aid workers gathered at the compound run by the U.N. Children's agency as gunfire continued in the town late Monday and on Tuesday. Some of the at least 40 humanitarian workers were later evacuated to neighboring Kenya and other parts of Sudan.

Darfur: AU Force Needs Stronger Mandate Says Dallaire

From Reuters

African Union forces in the Darfur region need a stronger mandate and more resources to avoid losing credibility as a peacekeeping force, former U.N. force commander Romeo Dallaire said on Tuesday.

"They (the AU) need a stronger mandate with enough resources to implement it," said Dallaire, who spent more than 35 years in the Canadian army. "Their Achilles' heel is in the area of logistical and communications requirements."

The more than 6,000-strong AU mission was brought into Sudan to monitor a tentative truce in the vast desert region.

Aid workers and observers say the main problem with it is an unclear mandate -- politicians say the AU can protect civilians, but soldiers believe they can only monitor ceasefire violations and not intervene in conflict.

But after talks with AU commanders on his first visit to Darfur, Dallaire said the problem was the force did not have enough equipment or troops to implement the mandate.

"There is concern among the people around here as to the full effectiveness of the AU," he said. "(But) if you do not give them sufficient resources then you are setting them up."

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He said the force needed to have the ability to "impose their will" on both government and rebel forces who interfered in its work helping the huge humanitarian operation in Darfur, involving more than 11,000 aid workers.

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Dallaire said 18 months ago it appeared genocide was underway in Darfur, but on Tuesday he said he did not think that was the Sudanese government's intention.

"All the indications at that time looked as though we were moving toward a genocide," he said. "The jury is still out ... but I don't think that intention was clear."

Dallaire said the displacement of the civilian population using "horror" tactics of rape, destruction and mutilation had been concluded without significant intervention from the international community, so it was not clear the government had intended a genocide of the non-Arabs in Darfur.

Congo: MSF Warns of Catastrophic Health Crisis

From IRIN

There is no longer armed conflict in most of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but people there have no more access to healthcare now that than they did at the height of the war in 2001, according to results of surveys in five health zones published on Tuesday by the NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

"The findings of the surveys are disturbing," MSF said in a statement released for the survey report titled "Access to healthcare, mortality and violence in the DRC".

Between 45 percent and 67 percent of the people interviewed in the survey said they had no access to basic medical care.

"The mortality rates indicate an ongoing emergency situation in four of the five zones surveyed," MSF said.

"Even more worrying is that the indicators for three of the five zones point to a catastrophic health crisis, including in regions unaffected by conflict and violence," it added.

Uganda: Police Shoot Rioter Dead

From the BBC

Police in Uganda have shot dead at least one rioter on the second day of protests over the arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

As police fired bullets and tear gas, charges of rape and treason were read out to Dr Besigye in the High Court.

The protesters believe the charges are designed to stop him challenging the president in elections next year.

The BBC's Will Ross in Kampala says there is a growing concern about the political climate in Uganda.

Sudan: Political Developments Raise Concern, Analysts Say

From IRIN

The creation of a government of national unity was meant to unite war-torn Sudan following the January signing of the southern peace agreement, but analysts have cautioned that recent political developments could jeopardise national unity.

Among other challenges, these events show that Sudan's ruling elite still seem reluctant to share power with the former southern rebels as stipulated under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), one analyst said.

Withdraw Support From the Despot of Darfur

A new piece from Julie Flint in the Daily Star

Not long after rebels took up arms in Darfur - to fight against marginalization and injustice, they said - Abdel-Rahman Ali Mohammadayn, a king of the Zaghawa tribe that is one of the mainstays of the rebellion, was captured, bound hand and foot, hanged from a tree and beaten to death. He was killed not by the Sudanese government, but by the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) - specifically, by that faction of the rebel movement whose leader, Minni Arkoi Minawi, was last week "elected" chairman of the SLA. The inverted commas are essential here: Minawi's "unity" conference was little more than a coup, a grab for power portrayed as a move toward "democratization."

Mohammadayn was not the first to be killed by Minawi's men and, unless Minawi puts his house in order, he will not be the last. Tur al-Hadi Mohammad Abdel-Rahman, a notable of the Tunjur tribe, another tribe that has rallied to the SLA, was shot dead in front of a crowd that included his own nephew. One of those who witnessed the execution - a security officer in Minawi's faction - says there were killings "every sunset" in the weeks he spent in Minawi's headquarters. Most were accused of being government spies, but some were simply "educated people" - possible rivals to Minawi.

Amnesty International warned last week that Suleiman Marajan, an SLA commander well-known to the international partners attending the Darfur peace talks, has been arrested by Minawi and is "at risk of execution." The seizure of Marajan, a popular commander who enjoys widespread support in both factions of the SLA, has pushed many of those who were sitting on the fence into open opposition to Minawi. Equally importantly, it has captured the attention of Western governments that were, until relatively recently, not unsupportive of the self-proclaimed "secretary general" of the SLA. Marajan, unlike Mohammadayn and Tur al-Hadi, is not an unknown to the international community. His death, perhaps just his continued imprisonment, will cause much blood to flow in Darfur. It will also guarantee that international sympathy for Minawi, already waning, withers and dies.

Sudan: First APCs to Arrive on Friday

From IRIN

The first armoured personnel carriers (APCs) intended to enhance the peacekeeping capabilities of the African Union (AU) forces are expected to arrive in the western Sudanese region of Darfur on Friday, according to an AU official.

Noureddine Mezni, spokesman of the AU in Khartoum, said on Tuesday that the Sudanese authorities had authorised the deployment of 105 APCs donated by the government of Canada.

"The first three or four APCs will arrive in El Fasher [the capital of North Darfur] on 18 November with a direct flight from Dakar [the capital of Senegal]," Mezni said, adding that it would take a month for all of the APCs to arrive in Darfur.

Following recent attacks on AU troops that killed four soldiers, the Sudanese government had come under international pressure to allow the rapid deployment of the vehicles.

"They will be very useful for the protection of AU forces, for the protection of civilians and to enhance the protection of humanitarian convoys," Mezni noted. "They will also enhance the flexibility of our operations."

China Ready to Deepen Relations with Sudan

From Xinhua

China is ready to further deepen friendly cooperation with Sudan and advance bilateral relations in a stable and healthy way, a senior Chinese official said Monday in Khartoum.

Li Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks when meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed El-Beshir.

Li said that since China and Sudan established diplomatic relations 46 years ago, bilateral relations have maintained stable expansion despite changes in international situation.

In recent years, the two countries have greatly strengthened their economic cooperation while maintaining smooth expansion of political relations, he said, noting that China has become the top trade partner of Sudan.

China is ready to further deepen cooperation with Sudan in all fields on the basis of equality and mutual benefit and advance Sino-Sudanese relations in an ever stable and healthy way, said the Chinese official.

China appreciates the Sudanese government's consistent adherence to the one-China policy, Li said.

Li expressed satisfaction over the exchanges between the political parties of China and Sudan, saying further strengthening exchanges and cooperation between the CPC and the National Congress of Sudan conforms with the fundamental interests of both countries and their people.

Li highly praised Sudan's achievements in national development and economic growth, and congratulated Sudan on the signing of the comprehensive peace accord between the country's north and south sides in the beginning of this year.

He said China is a true friend of Sudan and will continue to support peace and development of the country, adding that China is willing to make active contributions to the smooth implementation of the peace agreement and reconstruction of Sudan.

Beshir welcomed Li to visit Sudan and expressed satisfaction with the development of Sudan-China relations, saying bilateral cooperation in various fields has withstood different kinds of tests.

Facts have proved that Sudan-China cooperation has a solid foundation, great potential and bright future, said the president.

Darfur: GI-Net Condems Zoellick's Characterization of Crisis

From the Genocide Intervention Network

The Genocide Intervention Network today strongly condemned Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick’s mischaracterization of the current genocide in Darfur, Sudan, as a “tribal war.” More than a year ago, President Bush and the United States Congress declared that genocide was occurring in Darfur, and the facts of the conflict have not changed since that time.

Many politicians made similar claims to Sec. Zoellick during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, attempting to draw attention away from the responsibility of international governments to protect civilians being systematically slaughtered by their own government. Like in Rwanda, the Genocide Intervention Network said, the use of the “tribal war” explanation in Darfur ignores the calculated political decisions being made by the Sudanese government in conducting genocide.

Since the genocide began in 2003, more than 400,000 civilians have been killed and 2.5 million Darfurians have been displaced.

“The civilians of Darfur have not been fighting a two-sided tribal war,” GI-Net Education Director Rajaa Shakir said, “they have been fleeing a government-sponsored campaign to eliminate them.”

Darfur: Brent Beardsley - Don't Be a Bystander to Genocide

From Western News

On the eve of Remembrance Day, Major Brent Beardsley, one-time personal staff officer to former Major-General Romeo Dallaire, was urging about 50 high school students and others to become activists in the fight against genocide in Darfur.

Delivering a speech about the Rwanda and Darfur genocides at the University of Western Ontario, Beardsley cautioned his audience "not to become mere bystanders in the face of genocide."

"Get rid of hatred in your family, in your church and in your community, and have the courage to care and to demand action," said Beardsley.

"Make Darfur an election issue, and keep it alive in the public media," he said.

"The media not only reports on, but also creates public opinion, and you should demand news coverage about this horrendous situation," he said.

Beardsley showed a documentary in which his audience heard eyewitness accounts of gang rapes of women and children. It heard stories of infants having their throats slit. It heard stories of ordinary people being forced to hate and kill their fellow neighbours.

"Don't let the lesson of 'never again in Rwanda' fall into oblivion," cautioned Beardsley.

Darfur: Lawyer Tries to Cast Light on the Suffering

From the Los Angeles Times

With the end of widespread killings, the troubled Darfur region of Sudan has faded from the world's headlines. And that, says Sudanese lawyer Salih Mahmoud Osman, is his country's latest tragedy.

The systematic slayings of hundreds of thousands of rural Darfur people by militias believed to be backed by Sudan's government have stopped, said the activist who represents many survivors. But that is only because an agenda of "ethnic cleansing" has succeeded, he said.

"The international community has forgotten about Darfur," said Osman, a quiet man with watchful eyes. "You do not see us on the front page of your papers, even though in many ways, our suffering is worse than it was a year ago."

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In the absence of hope in Darfur, Osman has tried to provide at least a record of alleged war crimes perpetrated against the region's tribes. At most, he offers a chance for justice.

For two decades, Osman defended people who were allegedly arbitrarily detained and tortured by the Sudanese government. After Khartoum responded to rebel attacks in 2003 by systematically cleansing the region of anyone associated with the rebels, suddenly injustice arrived at his own doorstep. Members of his own family, he said, were killed, tortured or burned out of their homes by the militias, which survivors call janjaweed.

And so, his Sudan Organization Against Torture provides legal help, medical aid and psychological counseling to those who were targeted by the militias.

The organization's small legal team is working to have rape prosecuted as a war crime. Under Sudanese law, prosecution of rape requires proof or witnesses — forcing victims to often settle for lesser charges if the case is heard at all.

"The Sudanese justice system does not work very well," he said in an interview this week at the United Nations. "It is incompetent and unwilling to provide justice. There is impunity for these crimes, and victims have no confidence in the courts."

For his efforts to confront the government, he was imprisoned for more than seven months in 2004 and only released after a long hunger strike and international pressure on Khartoum.

"We are putting crimes on the record," he said. "We're exposing the war criminals who continue to lie about what they're doing. And we're giving some comfort to the victims, who must know that they are not forgotten, that their suffering has been documented."

Someday, his team's efforts may mean even more than that. His interviews with victims, done in coordination with the international monitoring group Human Rights Watch, have been turned over to the International Criminal Court. The prosecutors hold a sealed list of several dozen names of Sudanese officials and militia leaders believed responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the massive displacement campaign.

But action has stalled, as Sudan and its defenders argue that to start prosecuting officials who sit in the fledgling coalition government would cause the country to crumble into anarchy and war.

Osman, for one, believes that holding leaders accountable is the first step to peace.

"It is not ethical to leave war criminals in power," he said. "We cannot bargain away justice for politics. Two million people are still waiting in camps to go home. We cannot let negotiations come ahead of their lives."

Rwanda: Genocide Remembrance and Inquiry

A letter from Rep. Donald Payne

Dear Colleague:

As the genocide in Darfur, Sudan continues unabated, I urge your support for H. Con. Res. 88 to remember the victims of the genocide that occurred in 1994 in Rwanda and pledge to work to ensure that such an atrocity does not take place again.

This resolution has two key objectives: to document what happened prior to, and during, the Rwandan genocide and to mobilize support for the creation of a Commission of Inquiry to examine the role of the United States so that we can learn from our past mistakes. France and Belgium set up a commission of inquiry and issued reports of their findings. The United Nations also established a commission of inquiry. We, as one of the key players in the international scene, should do the same.

It is important we learn all that we can about the genocide in Rwanda. Hopefully learning from our past mistakes, we will gain insight into what we can do to stop the crisis in Darfur.

H. Con. Res. 88, in addition to resolving that Congress "remembers the victims of the genocide that occurred in 1994 in Rwanda and pledges to work to ensure that such an atrocity does not take place again" calls for

an investigation of the role played by the United States Government prior to and during the Rwandan genocide, noting that the parliaments of Belgium and France both created commissions of inquiry to investigate the roles played by their respective governments and issued their findings; and

strongly urges the creation of a bi-partisan Commission of Inquiry for Rwanda to investigate all aspects of the role played by the United States Government prior to and during the Rwandan genocide, with a strong mandate and subpoena power to access relevant documents and witnesses, a definite end date for completion of its work, and sufficient funding to cover necessary expenses.

Uganda: Opposition Leader Charged With Treason

From Reuters

Prosecutors have charged Uganda's main opposition leader with treason for trying to topple the government, a senior police official said on Monday.

'The director of public prosecutions has sanctioned that Dr Kizza Besigye be charged with treason under section 23 of the penal code,' Major-General Kale Kayhura, inspector general of police, told a news conference.

'Dr Besigye together with 22 others are accused of plotting to overthrow the government of Uganda by force of arms,' he said.

The charges and Besigye's arrest came less than three weeks after he returned to Uganda ending four years of exile in South Africa.

If found guilty, Besigye could face the death penalty.

Darfur: Chafee Email Campaign

From Brown University's Darfur Action Network

During the next 2 weeks (10/31-11/11) the Darfur Action Network is launching a lobbying project to encourage Senator Chafee to support this bill, and we need you.

Using the talking points below whip up a courteous and respectful email (remember, they are here to help us!) to Senator Chafee's legislative assistant encouraging and urging action. Unlike other action items, this IS going to an actual staffer, so it WILL be read and it will only take you five minutes! Just use these talking points, and let the Senator know why you care about Darfur!

Sudan Okays Deployment of Armored Canadian Vehicles in Darfur

From AFP via POTP

Sudan has given the green light for the deployment of armored personnel carriers (APCs) in its war-torn Darfur region to enhance the African Union’s peacekeeping capabilities, the AU said Monday.

"The Sudanese government has now issued the diplomatic clearance to allow for the delivery of all 105 APCs donated by the government of Canada," spokesman Noureddine Mezni told AFP.

Khartoum had come under intense international pressure to allow in the APCs following recent attacks against AU troops that left four soldiers dead and dozens abducted.

Menzi said delivery of the vehicles will begin over the next few days, adding that the Canadian-donated APCs will be flown in from Dakar, Senegal, and assigned to AU troops in various areas of Darfur.

"The carriers, whose delivery will take about a month, will be deployed in Darfur’s eight sectors comprising the areas of responsibility of AMIS in the region," he said.

Darfur: Winter

From Sleepless in Sudan

While my Northern soul may not be particularly sympathetic towards the gradual change in climate just yet, it does remind me that the families living in Darfur's camps will soon be facing some new and uncomfortable challenges.
Particularly when I visit the new arrivals in the camps, I am vividly reminded of the fact that people are entirely exposed to the elements due to their displacement. Some of the families that have sought refuge in the camps from the last few months' militia attacks on their villages are still living in rickety little shelters constructed from merely a few small branches and pieces of thin cloth or fabric (often colourful sarongs - called 'tobes' in Sudan - that the women wear). Families crouch together in these makeshift huts with hardly any protection against the sun, wind or nighttime chill. Most don't even have mats to sleep on, and simply put their children to bed directly on top of the deep sand.

In meetings and reports with other aid agencies, I continue to hear and read that the public health situation and general condition of Darfur's displaced people is improving - and while I know this is true, I sometimes wonder if people outside of Sudan realise that this is entirely due to the agencies' non-stop efforts to stabilise the situation. The impact that the humanitarian work has had inside the camps is huge - but it remains fragile, with more than two million people entirely dependent on the international community for all of their basic needs.

And while I'm glad (and somewhat proud) that there are now less malnourished and sick men, women and children inside Darfur's camps, I still worry each day about the big and small events - whether it's the slow arrival of the winter, or a massive new wave of insecurity - that prove to me that Darfur is still only just hanging on by a thin piece of thread.

Darfur: Open Letter to President Bush

From Save Darfur

As you prepare for your upcoming trip to China, we urge you to include on the agenda for your meeting with President Hu Jintao a frank discussion of China’s role in ending the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. We make this request on behalf of the Save Darfur Coalition (www.savedarfur.org), an alliance of 137 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights groups representing more than 130 million Americans. As Sudan’s largest customer for oil, one of its largest suppliers of arms, and one of its staunchest allies on the U.N. Security Council, China is uniquely positioned to press the Sudanese government for real action to halt the carnage in Darfur.

As you are aware, the Sudanese Government and its paramilitary allies have killed at least 180,000 innocent people, driven 2.5 million people from their homes, and left 3.5 million people without sufficient food to sustain themselves. Sudan has heeded your call to cooperate in the war on terror and to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended the two-decade long Sudan civil war between the Muslim government in the north and Christian and Animist population in the south. It has failed, however, to live up to its promise and obligation to disarm and disperse the Janjaweed militias responsible for the daily slaughter of civilians in Darfur. This failure has resulted in a steadily worsening security situation which threatens the very Comprehensive Peace Agreement that you have worked so hard to implement.

In the face of Sudan’s defiance, China has the opportunity to act as a responsible stakeholder in the international community by pressing the Sudanese Government to live up to U.N. Security Council resolutions 1556 and 1564 by disarming the Janjaweed militias and bringing their leaders to justice. Instead of seizing this opportunity, China has repeatedly acted as the regime’s protector in the U.N., forcing the U.S. and other members of the Security Council to weaken already moderate resolutions by making sanctions optional instead of automatic. We urge you to make clear during your visit that it is in China’s best interest to see a stable and secure Sudan, and that cannot come about until the situation in Darfur is properly resolved. As Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick put it on September 21 of this year, “China should take more than oil from Sudan – it should take some responsibility for resolving Sudan’s human crisis.”

The U.S. – indeed the world – has a moral imperative to respond to genocide. We hope that you will seize this opportunity to engage China on this issue and make ending the genocide in Darfur a priority of your Administration. “Not on my watch” needs to become more than a marginal notation, it must be a guiding policy.

There is a related op-ed in the Washington Times

Even as the violence in Darfur worsened and the Sudanese government's role in supporting it became clearer, China was Sudan's staunchest ally and chief protector in the U.N. Security Council. It has repeatedly forced the U.S. and other members of the Security Council to weaken already moderate resolutions by making sanctions optional instead of automatic for failing to disarm the Janjaweed militias and bring their leaders to justice. Those resolutions condemned the Sudanese government's involvement in the crimes against humanity in Darfur and warned that the Security Council "shall consider taking additional measures" if Sudan failed to comply fully with its commitment to disarm the Janjaweed militias.

As originally proposed, the resolutions would have explicitly used the term "sanctions" and made repercussions for noncompliance automatic instead of merely suggested. China, which abstained from the votes but did not exercise a threatened veto, was instrumental in the weakening of these resolutions.

Ghosts of Rwanda: The Failure of the African Union in Darfur

The latest from Eric Reeves

The ghosts of Rwanda are stirring ever more ominously in Darfur. Differences in geography, history, and genocidal means do less and less to obscure the ghastly similarities between international failure in 1994 and the world’s current willingness to allow ethnically-targeted human destruction to proceed essentially unchecked. To be sure, the Hutu genocidaires in Rwanda accomplished their frenzied destruction of perhaps 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in approximately 100 days; the genocidaires in Khartoum’s National Islamic Front have been more patient, more calculating, more willing to accomplish their goals through “genocide by attrition.” But their savage equivalent to the Hutu Interahamwe---the Arab tribal militias that have come to be called the Janjaweed---are no less efficient or relentless in their human destruction. And as the death toll in Darfur now likely exceeds 400,000, with human mortality poised to increase significantly in coming weeks and months, there is no clear evidence that Rwanda’s unspeakable slaughter will not eventually be numerically surpassed.

In 1994 the international community knowingly abandoned the clear targets of genocidal destruction, leaving in place only a hopelessly inadequate remnant of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), led heroically in failure by Lt. General Romeo Dallaire. Dallaire’s unsparing account of this international failure (“Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda”) gives us what is in many ways the most relentlessly insightful chronicle of the decisions, equivocations, mendacity, and cowardice that left hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians to die by machetes, small arms, and innumerable other acts of individual and collective savagery.

In Darfur, we are witnessing an equivalently dishonest and cowardly failure. The international community has expediently chosen to rely exclusively on an African Union (AU) observer force to provide human security amidst violence that has never been controlled and is once again accelerating. The AU is no more capable of halting the ongoing destruction of primarily African tribal populations than Dallaire was able to halt the Interahamwe or deter the Hutu extremists of the Rwandan government and military.

Dallaire’s account of the actions and calculated inaction of the UN (including Kofi Annan, then head of UN peacekeeping operations), the Clinton administration in the US, France, Belgium, and many other international actors makes for excruciating reading. But a recent series of detailed, independent reports on the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) makes powerfully clear that current international failure to protect innocent civilians in Africa is distinguished only by different forms of unctuous pronouncement, a more ingenious expediency, a greater sophistication in dishonesty.

Any accurate history of the world’s response to Darfur, more than two and half years into genocidal conflict, will need to take careful account of extensively researched reports released this past week by Refugees International and the Brookings Institution/University of Bern (see below). In conjunction with a recent series of authoritative reports from the International Crisis Group, these assessments strip away all means of obscuring how fundamentally the AU in failing in Darfur, and how deeply complicit in this failure the international community has become.

Congo: Days May Be Numbered for Ituri Militiamen

From Reuters

Sporting a scruffy beard and ill-fitting denim jacket as he stood next to four co-defendants in flip-flops, Chief Kahwa Mandro looked a shadow of his former self.

As a traditional chief and head of one of half a dozen militias in Congo's northeastern Ituri district, Mandro had grown accustomed to a private army, thousands of dollars in taxation revenues every month and support from foreign backers.

But in early October he stood in court charged with murder, arson and being a member of a criminal group while hundreds of civilians, terrorised for years by the militias, clamoured around a heavily protected building to see him face justice.

Mandro is the first of the militia leaders to stand trial. Half a dozen others have been arrested, the army is boosting its presence in Ituri and more than 16,000 gunmen have joined a disarmament scheme, the army says.

With Mandro's trial ongoing and Ituri's gunmen surrendering in such large numbers, analysts and aid workers say the days are numbered for the militia groups which have manipulated traditional ethnic rivalries for so long.

Uganda: Opposition Leader Arrested

From the BBC

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been arrested three weeks after he returned home from four years exile.
Police chief General Kale Kaihura accused Mr Besigye of belonging to two rebel groups, the Lord's Resistance Army and the People's Redemption Army.

Mr Besigye has denied the allegations. He fled Uganda after finishing second to President Yoweri Museveni in polls.

He is seen as the strongest challenger to Mr Museveni in the next elections scheduled for March next year.

Once Mr Museveni's doctor, he became his political opponent and fled after the 2001 polls saying his life was in danger.

Garang's Death Leaves Many Questions

From ABC News via Passion of the Present

In Juba, I met with Garang's widow, Rebecca Garang. When riots broke out after her husband's death, Garang almost single-handedly kept Sudan from descending back into war. Southern Sudanese immediately saw the accident as a plot by the government in Khartoum. But Rebecca Garang appealed for calm, urged people to wait for a formal investigation and suggested that the official explanation of Garang's death was probably correct: the helicopter crash was an accident caused by bad weather. Now Garang tells us she is not so sure.

"An accident had happened," she said. "But the way the accident happened was very funny."

"What was funny about it?"

"They went a long way from Uganda and then the accident happened at the border. Yes, it was bad weather, but it was not weather which can make a helicopter crash. So this is what I want to know. What happened inside the helicopter? Was there a mechanical problem?"

On the rugged streets of Juba, everybody I talked to blames the government for John Garang's death, but Garang does not make that accusation. She is stoically waiting for the results of an international investigation.

"If somebody implemented a plan to kill my husband, I would say that God made it that way. … But I want law to get its course so that I know what happened. Was it natural? Was there somebody behind it? I can't say until I know what happened. I need to know for sure what has happened."

Sudan Falters as US House Rethinks Aid

From the Christian Science Monitor

A year ago, the House of Representatives passed a resolution inviting the United States to call the violence in Sudan's Darfur region "by its rightful name: genocide."

President Bush complied, and international action was taken to stop militia violence against Darfur's black African minority, including deployment of an African Union peacekeeping force.

But earlier this month a House committee - in a budget-cutting mode and amid what Darfur experts say is a mistaken sense that violence in the traumatized region has been quelled - voted to trim the $50 million that lawmakers had approved earlier in the year for the African Union force.

Some experts haven't minced words. "Congress should be ashamed of itself," says Jonathan Morganstein, a Marine reserve officer with peacekeeping experience who co-wrote a new report on Darfur by Refugees International. Citing the now-famous case of pork-barrel funding for "bridges to nowhere" in recent transportation appropriations, he adds, "For less than 15 percent of [the bridges' cost] we can help stave off this genocide."

Darfur: 73 People Killed in Fighting

From Kuna

Fighting between armed tribes and rebels resulted in the killing of 73 people in the troubled western region of Darfur, a local press center reported on Sunday.

The Sudanese Press Center, citing tribal sources in a statement, said the armed tribesmen killed 73 members of the rebel movement, Justice and Rebel Movement, when forces of the group attacked strongholds of the tribes.

The statement quoted tribal leaders as calling on the African Union to play a mediation role and coerce the rebels to cease recurring attacks on civilian targets in the region.

The rebels, it said, have been holding hostages and freeing them in exchange for money.

Darfur: Call for UN to Take Over From African Union

From the Scotsman

THE United Nations should take over responsibility for peacekeeping in Sudan's western region of Darfur because African Union troops are not up to the job, according to a report by a humanitarian watchdog.

Refugees International said the AU lacked the resources to monitor an often-ignored ceasefire and has been unable to prevent the area sliding further into anarchy.

"With the recent upsurge in violence over the past two months, the AU's shortcomings have come into full focus. The AU is hobbled by a weak mandate, too few weapons and fewer than 7,000 troops to cover an area the size of Texas," the report said. It calls on donor countries to provide more weaponry to the AU mission and on the UN to step in.

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And the AU force has itself become a target. Five Nigerian soldiers and two civilian contractors were killed as they tried to intervene in an attack last month.

Senior officers say morale is low. "We came here to monitor and now we find ourselves ducking bullets," said one general. "It seems the warring parties no longer recognise us."

Their concerns are matched by international observers. Nicki Bennett, spokeswoman for Oxfam in Sudan, said: "The African Union Mission in Sudan is at a critical turning point: if it does not receive the financial and logistical means to fully implement its mandate and take its troops to their full strength, the international community is setting the AU up for failure and turning its back on Darfur."

Chad: Four Attackers Killed in Assault on Army Camps

From Reuters

Security forces in Chad killed four gunmen and arrested 15 others as they attacked and tried to steal weapons from two army bases in the capital N'Djamena on Monday, Communications Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said.

He said the gunmen were thought to be young men from surrounding villages but added that the security forces strongly suspected one or two "well-known" army officers may have been behind the attacks.

The armed men attacked the Koundoul military training centre on the southern edge of the capital and the Nomad Guard camp in the centre of the city in the early hours of Monday.

"There are four dead among those who attacked Koundoul and tried to get arms there, and two injured among those who broke into the Nomad Guard camp," Doumgor told French radio.

"There are around 15 prisoners in total," he said, adding that four soldiers had been injured.

Scores of soldiers fled their barracks in N'Djamena in late September before regrouping in Chad's remote east near the border with Sudan's Darfur region.

The self-proclaimed head of the group, Yaya Dillo Djerou, told Reuters this month he had the military and political means to topple President Idriss Deby and said his men were ready to fight until the leader left power.

Regional Conflicts Weigh Heavily on Sudan's Future

From The Power and Interest News Report (PINR)

Sudan's precarious stability has grown weaker in recent months. The long-sought agreement between the north and south has been signed, but the southern rebels' leader died shortly thereafter, leaving a power vacuum that has only been filled by weak leaders not committed to the agreement nor given the power in the newly formed government to demonstrate to its people the benefits of remaining part of Sudan.

The rebels in the west have recently been observed or implicated in attacks against each other and international aid workers, not just the government-sponsored Janjaweed militias they claim to be fighting against. An African Union (A.U.) peacekeeping mission to Darfur has been ineffectual at best, a failure by design of the United Nations Security Council at worst. The government has pursued genocide by attrition in Darfur by limiting the access of aid workers, continuing to support the militias, and preventing the planting and harvesting of crops in the region. [See: "Sudan's Changing Map"]

At the same time, Khartoum has curried favor with Washington by cooperating on intelligence issues and moving forward on the north-south peace accords. China has found a natural partner for resources in Sudan, as sanctions prevent most other countries with the means to do so from investing in Sudan's oil infrastructure. The simmering tensions in the eastern region have turned violent, with the rebel movement there sorting itself into two camps -- those willing to negotiate with the government and those willing to attack the government. Both camps seem to be benefiting from this split, and Eritrea and Libya are now working together to moderate negotiations toward a peace agreement in the east between the violent rebel groups and Khartoum.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick stepped into this mess last week. He first met with Darfur's rebel leaders in Kenya hoping to heal their internal divisions, then flew to Sudan to help the new power-sharing government get off the ground. After being walked out on and shouted at, he left Sudan with little progress to announce.

With three conflicts at varying stages of disarray, a foreign policy in flux, and an uncertain response from the United Nations and Western powers, Sudan's future is in a state of crisis. Its western conflict shows no sign of resolution. Its eastern conflict -- potentially the most economically costly of all the country's regional conflicts -- is approaching both resolution through negotiation and escalation through attacks perpetrated by both sides. The north-south peace deal is looking weak after the death of John Garang, making secession appear more likely and low-grade violence on the soon-to-exist border may increase as each side tries to better its claim to the oil fields that they share. Sudan's complexly fragile situation may persist for the midterm, but it cannot hold for much longer.

Uganda, Sudan Start Joint Military Operations Against LRA

From the Sudan Tribune

Ugandan Defense Minister Amama Mbabazi on Friday said Ugandan army has started joint operations with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and Sudanese army to pursue Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels inside Sudan.

Mbabazi was quoted by Ugandan government radio as saying that Sudan has permitted Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) to cross the Red Line and to use limited aerial power inside Sudan.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Radio Uganda, Amama Mbabazi clarified that Joseph Kony is still in Sudan saying that his efforts to cross over to the Democratic Republic of Congo were blocked by SPLA and UPDF forces.

Amama Mbabazi said Sudan had permitted UPDF to cross the red line and to use limited area of power inside Sudan.

He was satisfied with the level of cooperation between Uganda and Sudan, saying that Joseph Kony has no more territorial protection.

Sudan to US : "We Don't Need You"

From AFP/ST

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir threw cold water Sunday on US efforts to promote peace in his war-torn country, just two days after US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick left Sudan.

The US official spent four days in Sudan trying to shore up a January peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south war and pressing for a solution to the devastating conflict in the western region of Darfur.

"We don’t need Zoellick to resolve our internal problems," the official SUNA news agency quoted Beshir as saying.

The president made the comment after receiving proposals from members of his ruling National Congress for a regional conference bringing around the same table all the parties involved in Darfur.

"The solution to the root causes of the problem lies with the people of Darfur themselves," Beshir said.

Sudan: US Agrees to Relax Economic Sanctions

From the AFP via POTP

The United States has agreed an exemption to its economic sanctions against Sudan, lifting a ban on the delivery of US-made trains to aid the implementation of the north-south peace agreement, the Sudanese foreign minister said.

Foreign Minister Lam Akol Ajawin said the sanctions issue was one of the most important topics discussed on a visit to Washington earlier this month by First Vice President and southern leader Salva Kiir.

"In spite of the renewed sanctions, we have succeeded in persuading the US officials to lift the ban on the export to the Sudan of American-made trains and locomotives," he told reporters.

He said this was because the peace deal "requires a tremendous transportation capability which can be provided only by railways and due to the inavailibility of the spare parts, those trains are not operating at present."

"They have promised to issue an order of exemption in this regard," Ajawin said.

He also dismissed as "unfounded" the notion that US sanctions could be imposed only on the north and vehemently rejected reports that Kiir has been less than sincere about Sudanese unity.

"It is a unitary country run by the national unity government and therefore no part of it could be privileged over the other."

Darfur: Sudan Says West Has Blown Situation "Out of Proportion"

From Xinhua/ST

Visiting Sudanese Second Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha on Sunday accused some Western countries of "blowing up" the crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region out of proportion.

"The Darfur problem has been blown up out of proportion," Taha told reporters following a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

"It (the Darfur issue) was a typical African problem that stems from lack of development and service," he said, adding that the international sanctions imposed against Sudan had worsened the problem.

The Sudanese vice president also denied claims by the United States and some other Western countries that the Sudanese government had adopted an ethnic-cleansing policy in the conflicts-ridden region.

"The conflict in Darfur was a tribal one, not a political or ethnical cleansing issue," He said, adding "the problem was entirely different from what some people abroad had pictured it." Rebels took up arms in the arid Darfur region in February 2003, accusing the government of negligence. Many people have been killed in the conflict and more displaced.

Rwanda to Darfur: A Mockery of 'Never Again'

A piece by Gerald Caplan, author of "Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide" (PDF), in the Globe and Mail

Noble Rwanda: Ten years after being abandoned and betrayed by everyone in the world, it had become the poster child for Never Again. Noble Darfur: If anyone is left alive there in 10 years, the hypocrites' chorus will tell the world that we must not let (fill in the blank) become the next Darfur.

It's quite a phenomenon. No matter how cynical and jaded you become, the so-called "international community" can sink you to depths never previously glimpsed. As Prunier implies, comparing the U.S. invasion of Iraq to its reaction to Darfur tells us all we need to know about the honourable R2P (responsibility to protect) formula that Canada pushes with such earnestness. In the real world, those with power and resources virtually never act on the basis of their moral responsibility to protect the vulnerable. Often as not, they have been in part responsible for the crisis demanding intervention. The will to intervene is invariably driven by self-interest, however dishonestly spun, and most interventions have been illicit. When they are morally justified, they don't happen.

[edit]

In Darfur, they're complicated and messy, which is why even genocide specialists are divided on the matter. That's why the ICTR's answers won't help Gérard Prunier overcome his ambiguity. And why they're ultimately irrelevant to Darfur. Genocide or not, terrible things are happening in that vast, remote part of Africa, the government of Sudan is up to its eyeballs in treachery and collusion, and the "international community" is once again allowing hundreds of thousands of innocent Africans to die miserable deaths.

Darfur: Shortfalls Seen in AU Force

From The Boston Globe

The 6,700-member African Union force sent to help prevent genocidal attacks in the Darfur region of Sudan has been unable to protect its own soldiers, let alone the 2 million displaced people living in camps there, humanitarian groups and regional specialists say.

The force, dispatched last year to monitor an unraveling cease-fire in an area roughly the size of France, has been targeted by government-backed militias, which attracted worldwide condemnation for attacking civilians, and by rebel groups that are fighting the government.

Two groups asserted this week in separate reports that the African soldiers do not have enough equipment or soldiers to protect themselves and they lack a mandate to take the offensive -- even when they have advance warning of planned attacks against civilians. The reports quoted members of the force. In the past two months, at least five African Union soldiers have been killed and 38 kidnapped.

''Things have been getting much, much worse now that attackers have seen there is no real consequence for targeting the African Union troops, internally displaced people, or the aid community," said Sally Chin of Refugees International, a Washington-based humanitarian group that issued a report calling for the African Union to increase its force in the short run, and eventually hand over the mission to the United Nations.

The Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, released a similar report this week. It called for 20,000 African Union troops on the ground, or for the United Nations, the European Union, or NATO to take over.

[edit]

Some human rights groups and Sudan specialists say the force's limited mandate makes the soldiers helpless witnesses to slaughter, much as the UN peacekeeping force was during the 1994 genocide of an estimated 800,000 Rwandans.

''This is hopelessly inadequate," said Eric Reeves, a Smith College professor who monitors events in Darfur. ''To pretend otherwise is to indulge a fiction that risks hundreds of thousands of lives. I think you see an increasing concern about the unfolding of a Rwanda-like event."

Sudan: Embassy Appeals to U.S. Religious and Civil Rights Activists to persuade US to Remove Sanctions

From The Washington Times

The head of the Sudanese Embassy yesterday appealed to U.S. religious and civil rights activists to persuade the United States to remove the economic sanctions on his country.

"Sudan is still under a number of sanction regimes, which impact negatively. We believe they should be removed today, rather than tomorrow," Khidir Haroun Ahmed, the charge d'affaires, told a luncheon forum hosted by the World Media Association at The Washington Times yesterday.

"Our railroads are crippled. Our trains are made by General Electric and General Motors. Our air fleet is made by Boeing, and they are under severe U.S. sanctions."

He said the new peace agreement is working and his country, five times the size of Texas, is struggling to better the lives of the Sudanese people, our correspondent Tom Carter reports.

William Reed, of the Give Peace A Chance coalition, agreed. He said the U.S. government view that genocide is being committed by Sudanese troops, especially in the Darfur region, is mistaken.

"You have never heard an African leader say it was genocide," he said, calling that description a concession to religious conservatives in America. "The United States should be involved in conflict resolution and creating stability."

The Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, a former D.C. congressional delegate, said the time had come for selected sanctions to be removed. He said the key to Sudan is that religious leaders of all faiths and political leaders must work together to craft equitable solutions to political conflicts.

Sudan/Uganda: SPLM Offers to Mediate LRA/Govt Peace Talks

From the New Vision

Sudan People’s liberation Army (SPLM) leaders in Juba have offered to mediate between Joseph Kony’s Lord’s resistance Army (LRA) rebels and the Uganda government on condition that the rebels surrender to the SPLA.

SPLM deputy vice-chairman and the southern Sudan acting president, Riyak Machar, said this at the last funeral rites of John Garang on Wednesday.

He said Kony and his rebels had three options to take within three months.

Garang, who was described as a hero and champion of peace, died in a Ugandan presidential helicopter accident on July 31, while travelling from Uganda to New Site in southern Sudan.

Machar who represented Salva Kiir, said the first option available to the LRA was to surrender to the SPLA and accept to negotiate with the Uganda government under the chairmanship of SPLA.

The second was for the rebels to vacate Sudan and continue fighting for their cause inside Uganda. The last option is for LRA to be flushed out of southern Sudan by force, an ultimatum that would be implemented in the next two months.

“Kiir has notified the LRA leadership about three options. The offer is for three months starting from October. If the rebels fail to respond, we shall have no option but to use maximum force to flush them out,” said Machar.

Darfur: U.N Mission Hears of Attacks

From UPI

The U.N. Mission in Sudan says some 1,500 armed men on camels and horses may have attacked several villages in southern Sudan, killing 18 people.

The mission said Thursday it had received unconfirmed reports indicating six villages in southern Darfur were attacked and burned Sunday and Monday by men on horses and camels and in vehicles. Some 18 people were killed and another 16 wounded, UNMIS said Thursday.

[edit]

The African Union will investigate the latest attack, UNMIS said.

Darfur: As Peace Talks Stall, Refugees Live Life of Fear

From Reuters

Far removed from government and rebel leaders jockeying for position in turgid peace talks, Khadija and two million other refugees in Darfur live in daily fear of killings, hunger and the end of hope.

"I had to flee here - pregnant - 11 months ago to escape the fighters who attacked my village," said Khadija, cradling her four-month-old daughter Sulafa in her arms at the Kalma refugee camp in southern Darfur. She would not give their second name for fear of reprisals for speaking out.

Kalma, which hosts at least 90,000 refugees, is the biggest camp in the remote western region and has been a hotbed of unrest.

[edit]

Six rounds of peace talks between the central government and Darfur rebels have so far yielded few results, and splits within the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), have widened as its leaders squabble over who can represent Darfuris at the next round in Abuja on Nov. 21.

"The camps are becoming less stable," said Bob Kitchen, who heads the local programme of U.S.-based aid group International Rescue Committee. "The safety ... is still compromised on a regular basis by incursions and violence outside the camps."

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who has been holding talks with the rebels and the government this week to push them to work harder towards a peace deal, went to Kalma on Thursday to see the suffering first hand on his fourth trip to Darfur to show U.S. support.

Beneath his approaching helicopter, a sea of blue, white and green tarpaulin sheets spread over thousands upon thousands of tents and makeshift huts sprawled out towards the horizon.

As his delegation entered Kalma, refugees huddled in a semi-circle often ten-people deep to catch glimpse of the visitors, while African Union soldiers - normally peacekeepers in Darfur - stood guard to keep the crowds in check.

Behind the teeming welcome party, the misery of the camp unfolded.

"I've been here for two years. My son was born here. But we do not feel safe. My wife Mariam was attacked," said 42-year-old Adam Ali Taglu, pointing to his wife, who sat on the sand floor of their rickety hut with her arm in a makeshift splint and a bruise on her forehead.

"We have no work, no hope," said Mona Ahmed, who lives with her eight children in a tiny hut, surrounded by a fence of twigs a slight wind could knock down.

Several refugees said armed horsemen had attacked the camp that morning, but U.S. officials were not able to confirm the incident.

Darfur: Gov't Slow to Let APCs into Country

From the CBC

Dozens of Canadian armoured vehicles are sitting idle in Senegal, three months after they were delivered to help African Union soldiers stop human rights abuses in Sudan.

"It's been very frustrating dealing with the Sudanese government," Defence Minister Bill Graham acknowledged Wednesday.

"It's obviously very frustrating to have that equipment there that could enhance the performance of the African Union troops and their inability to get them."

The 105 vehicles were supposed to be a big part of Canada's contribution to peacekeeping efforts in Sudan, a loan to troops trying to police the ethnic conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Darfur and left two million homeless.

[edit]

Retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie is not surprised by the delay, which he said underlines the need for a more robust military presence in Darfur.

The African Union presence alone isn't enough, he said.

"If their mandate doesn't permit them to kill the bad guys, when you get bad guys who are doing the raping and murdering, the presence of vehicles will just enhance the movement capability. It won't stop the killing," said MacKenzie.

The Department of National Defence said that once Khartoum grants final permission to allow the vehicles in, it will move the Grizzlies and Huskies into the country using leased aircraft.

Sudan: Political Parties Organizing Large Darfur Demonstration

Text of report from the Sudanese newspaper Al-Khabar via the BBC Monitoring Service (no link available)

Political parties and forces are intending to organize a large demonstration in Khartoum to present a petition to the government and draw the international community's attention to the necessity of exerting pressure on all sides to speed up the resolution of the Darfur problem and resolve the humanitarian situation there.

The demonstration, which is expected to be organized within the next few days, is due to coincide with sit-ins in other Sudanese state capitals and in front of Sudanese embassies abroad. Their aim is to send a clear signal to the world that the situation in Darfur cannot bare further delays and that it is necessary to find radical solutions to protect Darfur's citizens after the AU had failed in this regard.

During a meeting to discuss the Darfur problem organized by the Ummah Party, representatives of opposition parties and forums said the crisis had become more complicated and called for the unification of Darfur citizens. They said they considered it was a political problem which meant all sides needed to adopt a constructive debate approach in order to resolve it.

They further called on the international community to have a more active role in the protection of Darfur citizens after the AU had proven it's weakness in carrying out its duties. Those attending the meeting recommended it was necessary to reach solutions to security, administrative and humanitarian issues.

Leader of the Ummah party, Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi described the Abuja talks between the government and Darfur rebels as futile saying that even if it came up with solutions they would be ineffective. He further described all the initiatives the government said were national as pointless exercises adding that he was calling for the creation of a project based on the demands of Darfur citizens in order to resolve the problem.

The meeting was attended by head of the sons of Darfur forum, Lt- Gen Ibrahim Sulayman, political secretary of the Popular National Congress Party, Dr Bashir Adam Rahmah, spokesman for the Communist Party, Yusuf Husayn and representatives of Ba'th party, the Darfur lawyers association and voluntary organizations in addition to the UN representative to Sudan.

Religious Freedom: Sudan

The State Department's 2005 International Religious Freedom Report cites Sudan, among others

Sudan. The Government considers itself an Islamic government, and Islamization is an objective of the governing party. It continued to place many restrictions on and discriminate against non-Muslims, non-Arab Muslims, and Muslims from tribes or groups not affiliated with the ruling party. Applications to build mosques generally were granted; however, the process for applications to build churches continued to be difficult--the last permit was issued around 1975. Many non‑Muslims stated that they are treated as second-class citizens and discriminated against in government jobs and contracts. Some Muslims received preferential treatment regarding limited government services, such as access to medical care, and preferential treatment in court cases involving Muslims against non-Muslims.

Also, the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations will be holding a hearing on the report on November 15th.

Uganda: Get Tough, Security Council

An op-ed by Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International, in the International Herald Tribune

The war in northern Uganda is now Africa's longest-running conflict. In the camps where almost two million people live in crowded, unsanitary grass-thatched huts, they say it feels like "the end of time." For them, it has become hard to believe that 19 years of fighting between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) will ever come to an end.

To date, the United Nations Security Council has done nothing to give them any hope. Since the conflict began, the council has passed more than 1,000 resolutions. None of them have addressed the situation in northern Uganda. In that time, over 25,000 children have been abducted by the LRA and forced to fight for the rebel army or, if they are girls, to become sex slaves to rebel commanders. Each week, 1,000 innocent people die as a result of the war.

The situation has taken a turn for the worse. Two weeks ago, three brutal LRA attacks left two aid workers dead and several others seriously injured. Many agencies, including Oxfam, were forced to temporarily suspend their operations. With almost two million people living in camps, reliant on aid agencies for food, water and medicines, it will not take long for death rates to start rising.

The situation in northern Uganda is a threat to international peace and security - LRA fighters have recently been operating in both Congo and Sudan, raising the temperature among the three countries. It is also a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions. Yet the Security Council continues to turn a blind eye.

International Aid: Dallaire Says Military, NGOs Must Work Together

From The Tyee

Once upon a time, soldiers were soldiers and they were something quite apart from aid workers.

Not anymore. American officers in Iraq have had to mediate local power struggles and oversee the repair of electricity grids and sewage systems; Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan buttress their peacekeeping with development projects; and aid workers in places like Somalia and Rwanda have been targeted by armed factions. We seem to have entered an era of nation-building at gunpoint.

The shift has been a long time coming, according to Romeo Dallaire, retired Canadian general and recently appointed senator. Dallaire argues that it's not the merging of development and security that's difficult, but the lack of leadership. "We don't have leadership that can comprehend the dimensions of development and the dimensions of security and see how they can be complimentary," Dallaire said. "The leaders just don't know what the others are doing, and in fact, look at each other in the most pejorative of fashions, and often even downplay each other's efforts."

But it is not only the military that needs to change, Dallaire told The Tyee on a recent trip to Vancouver: The aid community must adapt, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) need to learn to coordinate with their peacekeeping counterparts in conflict zones.

Darfur: Zoellick Shouts at Official

From the AP

A shouting match Thursday between a senior U.S. envoy and a Darfur government official illustrated the difficulties of peacemaking in the restive region of western Sudan.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick had listened to African Union military observers describe a recent outbreak of violence that had turned southern Darfur's Shek en Nil into a ghost village of burned out homes, and heard local leaders profess their commitment to peace.

Regional commissioner Sadiek Abdel Nabi followed as Zoellick stepped away for what was to have been a private additional AU briefing in the remnants of a village home. An angry Zoellick ordered Nabi out, saying: "I want to hear a straight story ... and I can't trust your government."

When Nabi refused, Zoellick said he would protest to President Omar el-Bashir.

"I am Bashir here!" Nabi, who had previously relied on an Arabic translator, shouted three times in English, standing inches (centimeters) from Zoellick.

An AU officer persuaded Nabi to back off, and Zoellick heard details of three attacks on Shek en Nil in late September -- all violations of a tattered cease-fire.

[edit]

Four hours before Zoellick arrived at Kalma camp, some 50 Arab men on horseback reportedly went in and shot one man dead while searching for cattle they claimed were stolen.

Zimbabwe: Fast Becoming Africa's North Korea

A KRT feed of an earlier Chicago Tribune article

This is the grim, Kafkaesque world of modern Zimbabwe, perhaps the only place on this hustling continent where market traders run in fear from prospective customers rather than mob them - the legacy of a tattered police state that is fast becoming the North Korea of Africa.

A recent trip through this beautiful but insular country, which greatly restricts the access and movement of foreign journalists, revealed a nation fast approaching economic meltdown, where triple-digit inflation has spawned absurd parking fines of 1 million Zimbabwean dollars, roughly $12 at the black market exchange rate; where asset stripping has degenerated into leasing out scenic chunks of world-famous national parks to busi