Sudan: Rep. Wolf Calls for Special Envoy

A press release from Congressman Frank Wolf

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) today released the attached letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice officially asking that a special envoy to Sudan be appointed to focus on ending the genocide in Darfur and ensuring that the North-South peace agreement holds.

Wolf, co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Human Rights Caucus and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee with oversight of the State Department, recommended that former Ohio Congressman Tony Hall be named envoy. Hall is presently the U.S. ambassador to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations in Rome.

“The appointment of a special envoy will send a clear message to Khartoum that the international community will not back down on Darfur and that we will not let the [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] fail,” wrote Wolf, who has been to Sudan five times. “While no one can guarantee that this approach will work, we owe it to the women and children clinging to life in refugee camps to try everything.”

Chad: Dozens Dead After Armed Attack

From the AP

An armed group crossed the border from Sudan and attacked a town in eastern Chad, leaving dozens dead on both sides of the conflict and forcing 4,000 civilians from their homes, a government official said Friday.

Twelve government soldiers and dozens of fighters from the armed group died in Thursday's violence in Modeina, Gen. Mahamat Ali Abdallah, Chad's territorial administration minister, said in a statement.

"Forces coming from Sudan and under the control of the regime of Khartoum have attacked the town of Modeina," Abdallah said, adding that government forces "kicked out the assailants, who returned deep into Sudanese territory."

He described the armed group as "mercenaries" but did not elaborate.

The fighting displaced 4,000 civilians, Abdallah said.

DRC: Rebels Abducting Children to Fight

From Reuters - The AI press release is here

Rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo are recruiting children as young as 12, often by force, to swell their ranks before historic elections in the giant central African state, Amnesty International said on Friday.

The London-based rights watchdog said many of those taking up guns in the lawless east are former child soldiers who had been demobilised and reunited with their families. A fresh wave of conscription was forcing many others to flee their homes.

Congo is struggling to recover from a 1998-2003 war but violence continues across much of its east, threatening to undermine elections due in June. The polls are meant to draw a line under a conflict that killed some four million people.

"Once again Congolese children are being abducted and ruthlessly exploited by military leaders to further their own military and political ends," Amnesty researcher Veronique Aubert said in a statement on Friday.

"For several weeks, anti-government forces loyal to dissident general Laurent Nkunda have been recruiting children, often by force, in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories of North Kivu (province)," Aubert added.

Nkunda's men are one of several armed groups that continue to operate in the mineral-rich east, despite the presence of thousands of U.N. peacekeepers and efforts over the last three years to rebuild the Congolese army out of a plethora of rebel movements.

Chad: New Clashes, Government Blames Sudan

From IRIN

Fierce fighting in eastern Chad between army troops and rebels allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan has left dozens dead including the army chief, General Abakar Youssouf Mahamat Itno, Chadian officials told IRIN on Friday.

The government blamed Sudan for Thursday’s clashes, saying armed groups and Sudanese Janjawid militia attacked Chadian troops near the border with the troubled Darfur region, displacing thousands of civilians.

Aid workers in the region are concerned that violence in the region could spread, severely hampering humanitarian aid for over a quarter-million Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians.

Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-mi told IRIN by telephone that the Janjawid and what he called “Chadian mercenaries” had attacked around the towns of Ade and Moudeina.

On Friday the minister of territorial administration Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour told reporters in the capital N’djamena that government troops had “vigorously repelled” the attack.

[edit]

An analyst says Thursday’s incident indicates deep problems within the Chadian army, which has seen waves of defections of soldiers and senior officers since October. “The fact that the chief of staff of the land army was so exposed suggests that the command structures must be significantly deteriorated already,” said Chris Melville, Africa expert with the London-based research group Global Insight.

Nassour told reporters on Friday the latest clashes forced some 4,000 Chadians from their homes, adding to 30,000 civilians the government says have been displaced by repeated incursions in eastern Chad.

“The people [in this region] have always been the victims of these Chadian mercenaries and Sudanese militia,” he said.

Eastern Chad has repeatedly been hit by violence linked to the war in the Darfur region over the border but in recent months has also become home to a Chadian rebel movement.

Humanitarian sources say it is difficult to estimate how many Chadians have been dislodged by recent violence in the region - which already hosts some 207,000 Sudanese refugees - but one aid worker in the area said at least 25,000 Chadians have fled their homes.

Insecurity recently forced a team of aid workers to pull out of Ade, said Nicolai Panke, deputy chief of delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Chad.

Sudan’s Shaky Peace

From the International Crisis Group

The agreement that ended 21 years of war in Sudan could begin to unravel unless the parties refocus on their core commitments and the international community plays a much more supportive and forceful role.

Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement: The Long Road Ahead*, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines Sudan’s faltering Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in January 2005. 15 months in, there is little reason for optimism as the NCP systematically delays and undermines the implementation process, and the SPLM is in disarray.

“Sudan’s peace agreement is on shaky ground”, says Dave Mozersky, Crisis Group Senior Analyst. “The unstable partnership between a strong but unwilling NCP and a weak but committed SPLM is making the implementation process highly volatile”.

Darfur: "President George Bush on Wednesday Said That 'Genocide Has to be Stopped'"

The latest from Eric Reeves

In remarks that do far more to highlight US impotence and lack of resolve, President Bush went on to declare that, “‘this is serious business. This is not playing a diplomatic holding game.... When we say genocide, that means genocide has to be stopped’” (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, South African Press Agency [dateline: Washington, DC], March 29, 2006).

Perhaps President Bush has forgotten that his administration made a formal genocide determination over a year and a half ago: on September 9, 2004 then-Secretary of State Colin Powell testified to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “genocide has been committed in Darfur, and the government of Sudan and the Janjawid bear responsibility.” The many hundreds of thousands of Darfuris who have subsequently perished, experienced violent displacement, rape, torture, and the misery of lives defined by fear and deprivation provide gruesomely abundant evidence that the genocide continues. These victims also make clear that the Bush administration does not really regard genocide in Darfur---and increasingly eastern Chad---as urgent or “serious business.” In fact, all evidence suggests that the administration is indeed playing precisely a “diplomatic holding game.”

Certainly if the President and his State Department think that a highly limited, finally nebulous commitment from NATO to provide transport and minimal logistics to an overwhelmed African Union force somehow sends “a clear signal” to Khartoum’s genocidaires, then we can be in no doubt that disingenuousness and expediency continue to rule US policy on Darfur. And there should be no mistake about the highly limited nature of NATO’s commitment. The word from NATO headquarters in Brussels yesterday was a strong re-assertion of previous declarations by NATO Secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer:

“NATO said it had agreed to a request by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to look at how it could provide support to troops there, but said there was no question of it intervening on the ground. ‘No one is discussing, planning or considering a NATO force on the ground in Darfur. That is not one of the options,’ NATO spokesman James Appathurai told a regular briefing. ‘We should look at this in the context of what NATO is already providing.’” (Reuters [dateline: Brussels], March 29, 2006)

What NATO is “already providing” consists entirely of transport lift capacity, as well as very limited logistics and training. This is certainly nothing that will change the calculations in Khartoum about how to continue with its genocidal counter-insurgency strategy, or how the regime might politically consolidate the effects of previous genocidal actions. It sends no “clear signal” to Khartoum that it must halt the genocide, but only confirms the regime in its belief that the Western powers are content to substitute words for meaningful action.

Moreover, de Hoop Scheffer has made it clear that NATO will not act without UN authority, precisely the authority that the African Union has recently refused to request. Instead, the AU (at its March 10 Peace and Security Council meeting in Addis Ababa) spoke only of a future handover to the UN---in six months---and this only “in principle.” Further, the just concluded Arab League summit (revealingly held in Khartoum) pointedly rejected any UN authorization or deployment unless requested by the genocidaires who make up the National Islamic Front regime. This is the context in which to understand NATO’s position on Darfur:

“[De Hoop Scheffer] ruled out [ ] sending troops from the western military alliance to Sudan's strife-torn Darfur province. De Hoop Scheffer said he believed that NATO could help in the region during the transition phase from an African Union operation to one led by the UN but only with a clear UN mandate. ‘Then we can discuss a NATO role, which I do see in the enabling sphere and not the boots of troops on the ground,’ he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defence ministers in Innsbruck, Austria.” (Agence France Presse, March 6, 2006)

President Bush’s assertion that the “involvement by NATO should send a 'clear signal'” to Khartoum, like his previous declaration that there should be “NATO stewardship” for the Darfur protection mission, is mere political expediency.

Darfur: Aid Worker Fears 'Disaster of Biblical Proportions'

From ABC News

Matthew McGarry has spent a year crisscrossing West Darfur with food and aid to help the victims of a government-supported campaign of rape, killing, looting and destruction. Unless the situation improves quickly, he fears he may have only delayed their horrible fate.

Not only has violence flared up again, hindering humanitarian aid but the conflict has spilled into neighboring Chad. To make matters worse, money is running short after a year wracked with international crises.
"If there is no progress or a solution or relief funds dry out, all the work that went in keeping people alive is going to vanish," said McGarry, a 27-year-old relief coordinator for Christian Relief Services.

He fears a "disaster of biblical proportions" unless more people pay attention to this parched corner of Africa.

[edit]

Halfway through McGarry's year in Darfur, the territory was awash with weapons, while rebel factions kept feuding and militias began to pursue aid organizations.

"Before it was simple banditry with cell phones and computers being stolen. But over the past six months, there has been a spike with NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and the U.N. targeted," he said.

On Wednesday, a U.N. staffer died after an attack on a refugee compound in Southern Sudan.

McGarry says that he has never ran into ambushes or been attacked, but that the lack of security kept him from traveling. Most aid organizations have stopped their deliveries.

"It was by far the most heartbreaking, especially after I spent eight months in communities building some positive relationships," he said.

Chad: UN Agency Condemns Forced Recruitment of Refugees

From the UN News Center

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) today called for an end to the forced conscription of Sudanese refugees in Chad, warning that the practice is further evidence of mounting insecurity along the volatile border area.

“UNHCR strongly condemns the forced recruitment of Sudanese refugees from Darfur by various armed groups in some of our camps in eastern Chad, breaching the civilian character of asylum and of our camps,” agency spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva. “We call upon all parties involved to put an end to these activities in our camps.”

Investigations by UNHCR teams and testimonies from refugees show that recruiting took place between Friday afternoon, 17 March, and Sunday, 19 March – a weekend, when fewer humanitarian staff are present in the camps. “Although we're unable at this stage to give precise figures, initial assessments indicate that several hundred men were recruited in Treguine, Breidjing and Farchana,” Mr. Redmond said.

While most of those targeted were aged 15 to 35, even younger boys were also conscripted, he said. Most were recruited by force, but some joined voluntarily.

While declining to speculate on who was responsible, Mr. Redmond said the agency had been told by some refugees that they had been brought to training bases across the border in Darfur.

“This activity is further evidence of the growing insecurity that has now spread to both sides of the Chad-Sudan border – something High Commissioner António Guterres has been warning about for months,” Mr. Redmond said, noting that clashes continue to be reported in eastern Chad.

Sudan: Health Deteriorating

From WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) today warned of adverse consequences for the health of millions of people throughout Sudan unless funds for humanitarian interventions are secured immediately.

The current lack of funding coupled with growing security concerns in areas such as Darfur will reduce access to safe water and healthcare services resulting in a possible significant rise in cases of malaria, meningitis, diarrhoeal diseases, acute respiratory infections and measles.

As part of the United Nations Work Plan for Sudan, WHO has developed 20 health projects for the enhancement of health of the population of Sudan. These projects focus on the improvement of information and coordination management, access to hospital care, referral systems and primary strategic health care, communicable disease control, surveillance and outbreak response and environmental health.

"WHO and partners need sustained financial support in order to continue to reduce suffering and save lives in Sudan. A significant increase in disease incidence and in preventable deaths is expected unless the shortfall of US$ 24 million in funds for health are provided immediately," says Dr Ala Din Alwan, Representative of Director-General for Health Action in Crises.

Communicable diseases are the leading cause of death in Sudan. Over the last six months, Sudan has experienced major outbreaks of epidemic diseases such as acute watery diarrhoea and cholera, dengue, yellow fever, monkey pox and meningitis, placing additional strains on already stretched health care services.

Chad: General Dies in Rebel Battle

From the BBC

Chad's senior army commander has been killed in fighting with rebels on its border with Sudan, army officials say.

Gen Abakar Itno - the nephew of Chad's President Idriss Deby - died of injuries he in clashes in the Moudeina area, south of the border town of Adre.

Chad alleges Rally for Democracy and Liberty rebels receive support from the Janjaweed militia operating in the neighbouring Sudanese region of Darfur.

Aid officials say the fighting involved about 1,000 men on each side.

Gen Itno was commanding the military operation launched 10 days ago against the rebels.

"Gen Abakar Youssouf Mahamat Itno has died of his injuries," an unnamed military source told Reuters news agency.

"Caught without communications, the general was surprised by the rebels who seriously wounded him," the source added.

Darfur: Twenty-Six IDPs Killied

From WOAT

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), a member of the OMCT network, that on 15 March 2006, armed forces with land cruisers and armed militias on horses and camels, allegedly the Janjaweed militias, numbering more than 900, attacked and looted Tibon IDP camp in Jebel Marra, West Darfur. The militias also attacked three other villages on the same day, Daya, Turra and Kindo in Jebel Marra. During the attack, approximately 26 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were killed and 6 were wounded. The injured IDPs have not been able to receive medical treatment. There are currently no medical clinics in Jebel Marra due to the departure of humanitarian organizations in February 2006 on acount of the deterioration in the security situation in the area.

Chad Accuses Sudan of New Attack

From SAPA-AFP

Chad claimed on Thursday that a joint force of Sudanese Janjaweed militia and Chadian rebels launched what it called a "new aggression" in the east of the country.

It said Janjaweed militias, accused of atrocities against civilians in the neighbouring Sudanese region of Darfur, backed by mercenaries, attacked in the area of Moudeina.

"The Chadian national army bravely repulsed this new aggression, which constitutes a flagrant violation by the Khartoum government of the Tripoli agreements of February 8, 2006," the foreign ministry said in N'Djamena.

"Chad condemns this aggression and will draw the necessary consequences," it said, without detailing what these might be.

Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami told AFP that the "mercenaries" were in fact rebels from the Rally for Democracy and Liberty (RDL), which Chad accuses Sudan of arming and backing.

Military sources in N'Djamena said heavy fighting was continuing several hours after the initial attack.

Darfur: Justice Kennedy Raises Concerns

From the AP

Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy called Thursday for more attention to reports of genocide in Sudan's Darfur region, saying that Rwanda should serve as a lesson to the world.

Kennedy used a speech at a meeting of the American Society of International Law to call attention to Darfur. He said that his views were his own, not those of the United States.

"It is the duty of the world to do more than watch," he said.

Kennedy said that after the genocide in Rwanda "the world wept but little, and then went on its way."

DRC: Eastern Militias on Offensive Before Polls

From Reuters

Militia groups in Congo's lawless Ituri district are swelling in numbers and on the offensive just months ahead of planned elections as attempts to disarm them fail, the United Nations said on Thursday.

U.N. peacekeepers are battling daily to protect the Congolese army from repeated attacks by the resurgent militias, which have regrouped since a U.N.-led offensive last year reduced them to just a few hundred fighters.

"The number of 2,000 (militiamen) is pretty accurate and their numbers are going up, not down," said Major Hans-Jakob Reichen, spokesman for the U.N. forces in eastern Congo.

"This is because they are recruiting and the lack of integration into civilian life after disarmament," he added by phone from Bunia, Ituri's main town. "Some of those who disarmed have rejoined the militia."

Uganda: From Captivity to Slavery

This is absolutely unbelievable - from The Monitor

It was started as a farm to help formerly abducted children from the LRA war make a living. Labora farm has however turned out to be a place where under the same structure as the LRA, the abductees are tortured

Even when his left eye socket wound hurt, the result of a gunshot, 15-year-old Denis Okonya was never allowed to seek treatment. Okonya was shot in a gun battle in June 2003, with a bullet ripping across it and now is one-eyed.Instead, his bosses, who also just happen to be his former captors, accused him of trying to dodge work.

No longer in rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) captivity, Okonya and scores of formerly abducted children find themselves still working under some of their former rebel commanders - this time on the government-founded Labora Farm in Gulu. With little or no government or civil society monitoring, a Daily Monitor investigation found that abuses such as forced labour are common on the 50-acre farm that grows food crops such as maize and soybeans for sale.

Captured in action in 2004, Brig. Kenneth Banya, said to have once been the LRA number three, is the master of Labora Farm, located 14km outside Gulu in Koro sub-county. Lt. Col. Francis Okwang, who deputised him in the bush, maintains the same position at Labora, alongside other assistants.

[edit]

When the government drew up the Shs54m Labora Farm proposal a few years ago, donors shied away for unclear reasons. But under the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund, the Uganda government funded the programme.

And so the farm came into being late in 2004 to help homeless returnees make a living. Well, it has turned out to be, as one humanitarian worker described it, a "transit labour camp where traumatised ex-LRA abductees are tormented and abused under the same structure as that of the LRA".

Darfur: UN Official Invites Sudanese Minister to Headquarters for Talks

From the UN New Center

The top United Nations political official has invited the Sudan’s Foreign Minister to the world body’s New York Headquarters to hold discussions on transitioning from an African Union (AU) force in the country’s troubled Darfur region to a UN peacekeeping operation there.

Ibrahim Gambari, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told reporters of the initiative today in the Sudanese capital Khartoum where he is meeting with officials who attended the League of Arab States Summit that closed yesterday.

In discussions with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismael, Mr. Gambari “stressed that the United Nations, if it were to deploy forces, would build on and complement the good work of the AU to achieve peace, security and stability all over the Sudan,” a UN spokesperson said in New York.

Mr. Gambari also met with the Special Representative of the AU in Sudan to discuss that organization’s continuing role in Darfur, where much of the population continues to be caught in a conflict between the Government, militias and rebel forces, and where close to 200,000 people have already died, with over two million displaced.

Darfur: NATO Rules Out Sending Troops

From United Press International

NATO has categorically ruled out sending troops to Darfur despite pleas from U.S. President George W. Bush and several high-ranking senators for a more robust alliance role to prevent further bloodletting in the war-torn Sudanese province.

Last month, Bush phoned NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to press the case for the 26-member military bloc to "take the lead" in stopping the slaughter in Darfur. At a White House meeting last week, the U.S. president repeated his demand for the alliance to adopt a more muscular stance on Sudan. Bush said that if the African Union, which currently heads the peacekeeping effort in Darfur, hands over its mission to the United Nations later this year, "NATO can move in with United States' help ... to make it clear to the Sudanese Government that we're intent upon providing security for the people there."

Prominent U.S senators have also called on the Brussels-based military club to become more involved in Darfur. Democrat Joseph Biden of Delaware and Kansas Republican Sam Brownback last month tabled a resolution calling for NATO troops to be sent to the region and for the alliance to enforce a no-flight zone over Darfur.

However, there seems to be little appetite for a greatly enhanced NATO role within the alliance. "No one is discussing, planning or considering a NATO force on the ground in Darfur. That is not one of the options," spokesman James Appathurai told reporters Wednesday after a meeting of NATO ambassadors.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a NATO official told United Press International that the idea of the alliance dispatching ground troops to the troubled province was a "non-starter with the Africans, a non-starter with the United Nations and a non-starter with NATO." Officials in Brussels also criticized the U.S. president for sending out confused messages about what he expects from the alliance. "Bush has been a little bit unclear in his language," said one, referring to the president's call for 20,000 peacekeepers to be sent to Darfur under NATO's command.

[edit]

NATO's reluctance to get dragged further into the Darfur conflict, which is already spilling over the borders into Chad, is partly explained by the fact that its member nations' troops are already bogged down in Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan. But there is also strong opposition to international peacekeepers arriving in Darfur within Sudan. Earlier this month, thousands of protestors marched through the capital Khartoum to voice their resistance to United Nations soldiers taking over peacekeeping duties in Darfur. "U.N. troops bring your coffins with you," said one banner at the demonstration. One NATO diplomat told the International Herald Tribune that neither the Sudanese government nor the African Union "want to see white, European troops coming into Sudan," adding that the idea of a no-flight zone over Darfur would be impossible to implement. "Which NATO country would be willing to shoot down a Sudanese plane?"

Darfur: Podcast with Jon Sawyer

A new podcast with Jon Sawyer, director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, who recently spent a week in Darfur with the African Union monitoring force - from the Committee on Conscience

In Tawila, that is in central north Darfur, sixty or one hundred miles south of El Fasher, the capital, we saw another interesting demonstration of the African Union’s strengths and weaknesses. They have a base established there, next to the town of Tawila, there is a very large camp called Dali camp for internally displaced persons. It has 18,000 or 19,000 people housed, just outside of Dali. Just outside of Tawila, the other side of the town from the African Union base, and we went over to see Dali, and Dali is completely deserted. It is a sea of empty tents and tarps. Everybody left after the government of Sudan, plus some army and some Janjaweed attacked Tawila. They attacked the mosque, they shot up the mosque, they shot up in the town of Tawila, and then they went into Dali; some people were shot in Dali. Everybody then fled. They have been gone since end of September. Most of them went south, and in that area of North Darfur the Janjaweed is strong just north of Tawila. The rebels have more of a presence south of Tawila. Most of the people fled south into the hills and in that direction, but about 5,000 people went to the African Union base which is just a couple miles north of the Dali camp. The African Union base is sitting out on the edge of the town in the desert, and people just started building grass huts and using what plastic they could. They created their own ad hoc displaced persons camp, literally on the fence of the African Union base because they thought there was some security that they could get from being as close as possible to where the African Union folks were, and they have been there since, and that has now become the base. The African Union has accommodated, they put up some latrines and toilets for the people there, and they are trying to work as best they can, but the other problem they have in Tawila is that the NGOs have pretty much pulled out. This has been the story many places in Darfur, that as security has gotten worse, the NGOs have left, so the African Union commanders in the sectors talk about it as a kind of chicken and egg thing. They are trying to encourage people to come back to their villages, to their home areas, but the people are not coming back because there are no services, there are no humanitarian services available. The humanitarian folks say that they cannot come back because there is not security and the people are not there.

JERRY FOWLER: It would seem to me that it is kind of a pretty stark illustration of the limitations of the African Union force that an attack was launched on an internally displaced person’s camp in a town that was just a couple of miles from an African Union base.

JON SAWYER: The African Union police witnessed the attack; they were there. Some of the African Union police were in the mosque when the Sudan police came in and opened fire, and the African Union police—people may not realized this—are all unarmed. They do not have any weapons. They are there to work with the Sudan government police to give some assurance to the displaced persons and the general population that there is neutral law enforcement, but they have no fire power. They have no weaponry on their own so that when that happened in September, in Tawila, what the police did is that they got back to their base as quickly as they could, they kind of scurried back to their base to protect themselves because that was all that they could do.

JERRY FOWLER: Presumably there were African Union soldiers that were back at that base, but they did not have any capability or inclination to go and stop the attack?

JON SAWYER: Right. I think the feeling that they had was that there was no way they could stop the attack. They did not have enough force to respond to what happened. Also, I think the incident happened quickly, and I think as in many places in Darfur, it was a warning to the populous that worse could come. One of the things that surprised me when I was flying around the countryside by helicopter—and we covered a good bit of North and South and West Darfur—is that you see all of the burned out villages that you see—and there are many of those—but there were many more, at least where I was traveling, abandoned villages. I described them as like stepping stones across the desert, where you will have open country, and then, in the middle of nowhere you will have a circular settlement of thatched roof houses. Of the ones that are burned, all that is left is the mud-brick structure of the house, no roofs, but there are many where the roofs are still there, and it is an intact village, but the people are gone because they have fled in fear of attack.

Darfur: Rebel Group Dismisses Peace Talks

From SAPA-DPA

The chairperson of the Sudanese rebel Justice and Equality Movement, Khalil Mohammed, on Wednesday dismissed the ongoing Abuja peace talks on the conflict in Darfur as "a waste of time, energy and resources of stakeholders."

He said the peace talks would not achieve any meaningful result as they were "merely going in circles."

Mohammed said that if the African Union's (AU) April deadline for peace in the region lapsed without success, "the people of Darfur will be left with no choice other than to ask for self-determination".

"There is no longer time for dialogue or negotiations. Negotiations cannot solve the problem of Darfur. It is time for all parties involved in the conflict to take sharp political decisions on the way forward," he said.

Mohammed, however, expressed the hope that a peace agreement would be signed before the end of April.

He added that self-determination for Darfur was a last resort but warned that "Darfur cannot continue in a state of no peace, no future and hopelessness".

"If living in peace with the rest of Sudan is harmful and without benefit, the best thing for us is to seek our sovereignty," he said, calling on all Darfur residents in the Sudanese government to resign and return home.

"If we do not get our own sovereignty, the only alternative is a forceful change of the government in Khartoum," Mohammed threatened.

Darfur: Fighting Uproots Another 50,000

From AFP - via POTP

An upsurge of violence in Sudan's conflict-ravaged region of Darfur has uprooted a further 50,000 people since the start of the year, a senior aid official said Wednesday.

Robbie Thomson, head of Darfur aid operations at the International Organisation for Migration, said the increase in the number of displaced people was the biggest in the region since fighting broke out there three years ago.

"The situation in Darfur is as bad now as at any time since 2003," said Thomson, whose agency registers internal refugees.

The conflict in impoverished Darfur pits rebels against militias backed by Sudanese government troops, and has left some 300,000 people dead and displaced more than two million others since 2003.

Around 200,000 people have fled to neighbouring Chad.

Besides getting caught up in the conflict, civilians and relief workers in Darfur also suffer frequent attacks by bandits.

Aid agencies, which are already stretched as they try to operate across an arid region the size of France, have seen their logistical problems compounded by rising insecurity which has left many areas off-limits for their staff.

"Violence is the reason that international humanitarian community doesn't have access," Thomson told reporters.

"I see it continuing. I don't see any cause for it to stop. There has been no solution for the problems," he said.

Int'l Justice: Sierra Leone Court Requests Hague Trial for Taylor

From Reuters

A U.N.-backed court for Sierra Leone due to try ex-Liberian leader Charles Taylor for war crimes said on Thursday it had asked the Netherlands to hold the trial in The Hague due to security concerns.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry said it had received, and was ready to consider cooperating with, a request from the U.N.-backed Special Court to move the trial to The Hague.

The request was made on Wednesday, the same day that Taylor, 58, who is accused of multiple war crimes stemming from Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war, was delivered by U.N. forces to the court in Freetown after being deported from Nigeria.

The request cited fears the trial in Sierra Leone of Taylor, some of whose supporters in Liberia have threatened violence if he is brought before a judge, could provoke unrest in both of the small and war-ravaged West African neighbours.

Newly-elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who has argued Taylor should not face justice in a "hostile" venue, said on Thursday the U.N. Security Council should approve a change of venue from Sierra Leone "to a more conducive environment such as ... The Hague".

"We are willing to cooperate, but some things have to be arranged before you can say yes on a definite basis," a Dutch foreign ministry spokesman said.

Uganda: Report Highlights Failure to End Conflict

More on the report mentioned yesterday - from VOA

A new report on two decades of conflict in northern Uganda describes a forgotten and rapidly deteriorating region. The report says only strong action by the United Nations and a real commitment by the warring parties will end the suffering of an estimated two million displaced people and some 25,000 children abducted during 20 years of conflict.
Kathy Relleen, a policy adviser in Uganda for the British charity Oxfam, says two decades of civil war in northern Uganda are nothing less than a scar on the world's conscience.

"We have seen minimal action by the international community to actually respond to this conflict and to support and encourage the government of Uganda to actually make the protection of civilians its first priority," she said. "The fact that this conflict has been allowed to continue for so long, to cost about $1.7 billion during that time. And a whole generation [has] just grown up knowing conflict."

Oxfam is just one of more than 50 non-governmental organizations that make up the coalition that authored the report, entitled "Counting the Cost: Twenty Years of War in Northern Uganda."

According to Relleen, that cost in human terms has been incredibly high and continues to this day.

"We're seeing around 901 excess deaths each week," she explained. "And that's a combination of deaths from violence through killings, but also primarily through conditions in the camps. We've seen 1.8 million people who have been forced to live in extremely squalid conditions, subject to terrible illnesses. I mean the basic facts in this report show that we're seeing deaths that should not be allowed to continue."

From the report summary - "Counting the Cost: Twenty Years of War in Northern Uganda"

Northern Uganda is trapped in a deadly cycle of violence and suffering. After 20 years the war shows no signs of abating, and each passing day takes a greater toll on the women, men, and children affected by the crisis.

Each month more than 3,500 people die from easily preventable diseases, extreme violence and torture. Hundreds of children are abducted and abused, or killed in battle. Nearly two million people are forced to live in squalid and life-threatening conditions, dependent upon relief and denied access to incomes and education. Millions of dollars are squandered in wasted productivity and in the pursuit of a military ’solution’.

It is a situation that has produced a humanitarian catastrophe of dreadful proportions.

But this is a catastrophe that is fuelled not only by terrible acts of war and violence. It is also fuelled by a shameful litany of failure — the continuing failure of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to cease its brutal campaign of violence against civilians, and of both the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the international community to uphold their legal obligations to secure the protection, security, and peace for the civilians of northern Uganda.

After 20 years, the time has come for all parties involved to act decisively. It is time for the LRA, the GoU, and the international community to fully acknowledge the true scale and horror of the situation in northern Uganda, and to act resolutely and without delay, both to guarantee the effective protection of civilians and to secure a just and lasting peace.

Sudan: N.Y. Times Probed on Ad Insert

From Forward

The State Department is investigating to see whether The New York Times violated American sanctions against Sudan by publishing an advertising supplement touting investment in the country.

America has maintained a complex set of sanctions against the North African nation since 1997. The sanctions initially were aimed at punishing Sudan's support for international terrorism, efforts to destabilize neighboring governments and violations of human rights. In recent years, the government in Khartoum has come under intense criticism from Western nations and human rights groups for allegedly encouraging genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

The same day that the eight-page supplement was published, the Times ran an editorial decrying the spread of genocide from the Darfur region of Sudan into neighboring Chad, the latest in a series of efforts by the newspaper to shine a spotlight on the mass killings in Darfur and to encourage major international pressure on Khartoum. The Times has caught the attention of the State Department, but not in the way that the newspaper had hoped.

"We are currently examining the advertising supplement," Erin Tariot, a spokeswoman for the State Department, told the Forward. "We are looking into it in regards to our own policies with respect to the U.S. sanctions regime against Sudan."

The issue was not the ad's content, but the financial transaction.

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Summit Communications, a company that produces special advertisements in The New York Times for countries looking to attract attention and investment, composed the supplement. According to Tariot, the State Department has not received a license application from Summit to do business in Sudan.

The eight-page color supplement — known in the business as an "advertorial" — featured news-style articles touting the favorable business climate in Sudan. The lead segment bore the headline "The Peace Dividend: Prosperity Could Lie Ahead After Years of Conflict." In the segment, Sudanese ministers complained about media coverage of Sudan. One minister was quoted as saying, "Sudan is not only Darfur." Other articles highlighted investment opportunities in oil, agriculture and infrastructure, and criticized American sanctions.

The Times would not reveal how much the advertisement cost, but the paper's published rate for color advertorials is $173,119 per page. This means that an eight-page ad would cost $1.4 million. However, American Jewish World Service and other human rights groups have estimated that, because the ad ran only in the New York metropolitan area, the ad cost would have been closer to $1 million.

Darfur: Mercenaries

From The Virginian-Pilot

Stepping into a potential political minefield, Blackwater USA is offering itself up as an army for hire to police the world's trouble spots.

Cofer Black, vice chairman of the Moyock, N.C.-based private military company, told an international conference in Amman, Jordan, this week that Blackwater stands ready to help keep or restore the peace anywhere it is needed.

Such a role would be a quantum leap for Blackwater and raises a host of policy questions.

Until now, the eight-year-old company has confined itself to training military and police personnel and providing security guards for government and private clients. Under Black's proposal, it would take on an overt combat role.

"We're low-cost and fast," Black was quoted as saying. "The issue is, who's going to let us play on their team?"

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Another place where Blackwater could help restore order, Taylor said, is the Darfur region of Sudan, where millions have been killed or displaced by civil strife. The company could send troops under the control of the United Nations, NATO or the African Union, he said.

Taylor and Black said the company would undertake such a mission only with the approval of the U.S. government.

Peter Singer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who has written a book on private military companies, said the concept of private armies engaging in counter-insurgency missions raises myriad questions about staffing standards, rules of engagement and accountability.

"No matter how you slice it, it's a private entity making decisions of a political nature," he said.

"It gets dicey."

“Darfur violence ‘as bad as ever’”

The BBC has this report

Conflict in Sudan's Darfur region has forced 50,000 people from their homes since the year began, the International Organisation for Migration says.

The group said this was the highest quarterly figure in three years.

The IOM warned the level of violence in Darfur had not lessened since fighting began in 2003, and was putting many areas beyond the reach of aid agencies.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the Darfur conflict, with more than 1.5m made homeless.

"Darfur is a difficult, dangerous conflict that has a good chance of getting worse," the IOM's head of operations in Darfur, Robbie Thompson, told journalists in Geneva.

Sudan: Security Council Extends Mandate of Panel of Experts

From the UN Security Council

Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Security Council decided this afternoon to extend until 29 September 2006 the mandate of the Panel of Experts on the Sudan originally appointed under resolution 1591 (2005) and extended by resolution 1651 (2005).

By its unanimous adoption of resolution 1665 (2006), the Council requested the Panel of Experts to provide, no later than 90 days after the adoption of today’s text, a midterm briefing on its work to the Committee established pursuant to paragraph 3 (a) of resolution 1591 (2005), and a final report to the Council on its findings and recommendations no later than 30 days prior to the end of its mandate.

The Council urged all States, relevant United Nations bodies, the African Union and other interested parties, to cooperate fully with the Committee and the Panel of Experts, particularly by supplying any information at their disposal on implementation of the measures imposed by resolution 1591 (2005) and resolution 1556 (2004).

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Background

The Security Council had before it the final report of the Panel of Experts on the Sudan (document S/2006/65), which was established pursuant to its resolution 1591 of 29 March 2005. By that text, in light of the failure of all parties to the conflict in Darfur to fulfil their commitments, the Council imposed a travel ban and assets freeze on those impeding the peace process, committing human rights violations and violating measures set out in previous resolutions. To designate such individuals and to monitor the implementation of the sanctions, the Council established a Committee consisting of all Council members. A four-member Panel of Experts was set up to assist the Committee in monitoring implementation of those measures.

“It is clear that arms, especially small arms and ammunition, continue to enter Darfur”, the experts conclude. Since the Council imposed an arms embargo on all non-governmental groups by its resolution 1556 (2004), the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have continued to receive arms, ammunition and/or equipment from Chad, Eritrea, Libya, non-governmental groups and other sources. In addition, there have been numerous reports that the rebel groups receive financial, political and other material support from neighbouring countries. It also appears that the Council’s intent to deny arms to the so-called Janjaweed militia was circumvented by the fact that many of the militias were already formally part of the Government security organs or were incorporated into those organs, especially the Popular Defence Force (PDF), the border intelligence guard, the central reserve police, the popular police and the nomadic police, after the adoption of resolution 1556 (2004).

The report concludes that the Government of the Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), and to a lesser extent JEM, have committed consistent, wilful and systematic violations of the N’Djamena Ceasefire Agreement. In addition, the Government of the Sudan has abjectly failed to fulfil its agreed commitments to identify, neutralize and disarm armed militia groups under its control or influence. The Panel has found that the Government continues to support certain militia groups and, indeed, has on occasion engaged in coordinated military operations with armed militias. Several individuals have been identified as having committed acts intended to impede the work of the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS), including perpetrating hostile acts against AMIS personnel.

Having found that the Government of the Sudan continues to violate the provisions of the arms embargo through movement of arms into Darfur from other parts of the Sudan and deployment of additional attack helicopters to Darfur, the experts recommend strengthening that embargo. Among possible options, the Panel proposes retention of the present embargo while complementing it with the installation of a verification/inventory component; extension of the arms embargo to the entire territory of the Sudan; and extension of the embargo to the entire territory while providing appropriate exemptions for the Government of southern Sudan and the Government of the Sudan.

The Panel also found evidence of widespread violations of international humanitarian law in Darfur during the period from 29 March to 5 December 2005. The parties to the N’Djamena Ceasefire Agreement and other belligerents operating in Darfur, in particular the non-State militia groups, have undertaken military operations with scant regard for the principles of distinction, proportionality or military imperative. While all parties ( SLA, JEM, the Government of the Sudan and militia groups) have violated the rules and norms of armed conflict, the SLA, the Government and the militia groups have shown the least regard for the welfare of civilians.

The experts propose that the Committee and the Security Council adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to violations of the N’Djamena Ceasefire Agreement. Any future ceasefire violation reports, verified by the Joint Commission, should be used as the basis for direct action by the Committee against the leadership of the violating party and against the local commanders that committed the offending act. In view of the abject failure of the Government of the Sudan to identify, neutralize and disarm the armed militia groups in Darfur, the Council should consider subjecting individuals, identified by the Panel as failing to disarm the militias, to the targeted measures under resolution 1591 (2005). Additional measures should be considered against select members of the Government of the Sudan as provided for under Article 41 of the Charter.

By the time the Panel was finalizing its final report, the Committee had not yet designated any individual against whom the financial sanctions and the travel ban would be applied. For that reason, the Panel was unable to fulfil its mandate of assisting the Committee in monitoring the implementation of those sanctions. The experts recommend that the Committee consider designating individuals against whom the sanctions should be applied. The Panel has identified a number of individuals who impede the peace process and commit violations of international humanitarian or human rights law and has included their names in a confidential annex to the report.

The Security Council should also consider options for establishing a standing civilian protection monitoring capacity to investigate and report directly to the Council on the acts that may constitute violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Darfur. To ensure that the Government does not employ military air assets for offensive purposes in the future, the report also addresses the possibility of establishing a prohibition on the operation by the Government of the Sudan of all military aircraft in Darfur, except in cases where the use of such aircraft is approved in advance by the Committee. Another option in that respect relates to the designation of those who request/authorize the use of air assets for offensive purposes as subject to the provisions of paragraphs 3 (d) and 3 (e) of resolution 1591 (2005).

Uganda: Deaths Rates Three-Times Higher Than Iraq

From AFP

The rate of violent deaths resulting from two decades of conflict in northern Uganda is three-times higher than in Iraq since the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, charity groups said in a report published Thursday.

Some 146 people die every week in northern Uganda, which represents 0.17 deaths per 10,000 people compared to 0.052 per 10,000 in Iraq, said a report prepared by 50 aid groups, including Oxfam International, Care International, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and International Rescue Committee.

"Twenty years of conflict have had a devastating impact on children," said the Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU) report, released as UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs Jan Egeland was holding talks with Ugandan officials.

Some "25,000 children have been abducted during the course of the war, 41 percent of all deaths in the camps are amongst children under five (and) 250,000 children in northern Uganda receive no education, despite Uganda's policy of universal primary education," the report said.

"An estimated 1,000 children have been born in LRA captivity to girls abducted by the rebel army," the report added.

"At the times of heightened insecurity up to 45,000 children 'night commute' each evening and sleep in streets or makeshift shelters in town centres to avoid being abducted by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)," the group added.

Liberia: Taylor in Custody

From Reuters

U.N. officials took custody of ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor in Liberia on Wednesday and flew him to Sierra Leone to face trial for war crimes only hours after Nigeria had captured him as he tried to flee.

Protected by a ring of U.N. troops, U.N. and Liberian officials handcuffed the grim-faced former warlord after he was flown from northern Nigeria where police intercepted him on Wednesday trying to sneak across the border into Cameroon.

He was immediately flown by helicopter toward Freetown, the Sierra Leonean capital, where a U.N.-backed special court has indicted him on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

Darfur: NATO Force Not an Option, May Provide Support

From Reuters

Separately, NATO said it had agreed to a request by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to look at how it could provide support to troops there, but said there was no question of it intervening on the ground.

"No one is discussing, planning or considering a NATO force on the ground in Darfur. That is not one of the options," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told a regular briefing.

"We should look at this in the context of what NATO is already providing," he said, noting that the 26-member alliance begun providing transport and training to AU troops last year. Under pressure from Sudan, the African Union voted this month to extend its mission in Darfur through Sept. 30, while affirming its readiness to eventually hand over to a United Nations force, which the EU and the United States pushed for.

[edit]

NATO planes airlifted several thousand AU troops into Darfur last year and it helped again with troop rotations last month. It has also provided training for several hundred AU officers.

Appathurai said NATO planners would assess how the alliance could help in the period leading up to the envisaged handover from AU troops to the UN force and beyond.

There have been calls from think tanks and others for NATO nations to send troops to Darfur but Western diplomats see no chance of Sudan allowing European soldiers on its soil.

Nigeria: Taylor Flown Back to Liberia After Arrest

From the AP

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was being flown back to his homeland Wednesday after being arrested on the run in Nigeria, days after escaping custody while awaiting trial on war crimes charges.

Taylor was captured Tuesday night by security forces in the far northeastern border town of Gamboru, in Borno State, nearly 600 miles from the villa in southern Calabar from which he reportedly disappeared Monday night, Information Minister Frank Nweke said in a statement. He was trying to cross the border into Cameroon.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, on a visit to the White House, gave few details about Taylor's arrest except to say he was picked up in a car with his wife and taken to a regional state capital.

A Nigerian police official said Taylor was in a vehicle with his son, an aide and a local guide when arrested. They also were carrying two 110-pound sacks filled with U.S. and European currency, Alhaji Mohammed Aminu Bello said.

Taylor and his son were taken into custody while the others were let go, Bello said.

A plane carrying Taylor left from Maiduguri, capital of northwestern Borno state, for Liberia, a senior police official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Darfur: Podcast with Bradley Whitford

A new podcast with Bradley Whitford of "The West Wing" about an episode he recently wrote focusing on Darfur - from the Committee on Conscience

JERRY FOWLER: That is interesting. In this most recent episode that you wrote—as you said it is called "Internal Displacement"—one of the main story lines had to do with the genocide in Darfur. What is it that led you to include Darfur in the episode?

BRADLEY WHITFORD: I am active in—although I would not call myself an Episcopalian—I was raised Quaker, but I go to this big, very active, wonderful, Episcopalian Church out here where we have talked a lot about Darfur, and then I started reading about a guy named Eric Reeves, who, I do not know, have you spoken to—

JERRY FOWLER: Oh, yes, he was a guest on Voices on Genocide Prevention a few weeks ago.

BRADLEY WHITFORD: Yes, he is a remarkable g