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.

[edit]

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?"

[edit]

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).

[edit]

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 guy who I sort of stumbled into and started reading his web postings. He is a very interesting guy who is an English professor—he is not a lawyer, he is not an international affairs expert—and this issue caught his attention, and he basically gave up everything to get the numbers right which he felt were grossly under estimated. He is a very interesting story because he came back from one of his trips there, and I think he thought he had malaria or something, and it turned out he was very sick, and he has cancer. Initially I thought that I wanted to do something on Darfur, and I thought that this was an interesting character to bring into the White House. What happens in the process of writing this is that that character does not exist in it. I was supported by John Wells and the rest of the writing staff about the notion that we wanted to do something on Darfur, and it is interesting I think that the story problems that a situation like Darfur presents. Generally there is an event that sort of initiates a story line in a movie or a television show or a play, and this bizarre, sort of static place where we become comfortable with an ongoing crisis simply because it is ongoing was something I wanted to dramatize and was a very tricky thing to dramatize. Do you have an event that sort of artificially kicks off a full-blown crisis there on the show so that the President is forced to deal with it? Or do you deal with what it takes during this ongoing carnage for us on the other side of the world to realize that we can do something about it? It was an interesting thing to dramatize. Eric was very helpful to me; I talked to him a couple of times and used his research. It is a very tricky thing to dramatize because you have to get into how the government rationalizes inaction and how they sort of stiff-arm the horror and sort of pooh-pooh any real action as something that would be naïve. We are not as a country too naïve to establish democracy in Iraq, but apparently we are too naïve to put an end to babies being thrown into fires.

JERRY FOWLER: It was interesting the way the episode unfolds. An activist from a non-governmental organization comes in and talks to CJ, the Chief of Staff, and she is really quite cold to him. She does not seem very receptive to his message. Why was it that you had her respond that way?

BRADLEY WHITFORD: What I wanted to show—it was a very tricky line because—what I wanted to show was her heroism was sort of pragmatic heroism. The NGO guy was in fact being a bit naïve about what was actually going to be the solution, and that she had to function in a world where there were all of these pressures. The fact of it was that you are not going to get—and it is the truth of the situation in Darfur now; we are not going to commit troops to go in there. There is not the will to do it. One of the things that is talked about in there is getting United Nations troops in there and the fact that the African Union troops are not up to this particular task. I wanted her to be savvy enough. If there was an easy solution to it in her world, there is no question that she would execute it. It was a dangerous line because I did not want to over do it. There is a guy named Ken Bacon who is a friend of mine at Refugees International. These guys are not naïve.

JERRY FOWLER: Right; well he is actually former spokesman for the Pentagon during the Clinton Administration.

BRADLEY WHITFORD: What I was worried about dramatically was making the NGO guy too naïve, and so what I tried to create was a situation where even somebody who was not naïve was just completely fed up with the inaction there. It is partially a dramatic thing. There is no tension if somebody comes in and says that there are these horrible things happening in the world and why don't you fix them, and then the person across the room says, "Okay, you are right." I was also trying to dramatize what a lot of people in the White House feel who I have talked to—that worked in the Clinton Administration—who felt frustrated. I have a friend who worked in the White House and a lot of his close friends were advocates for low-cost urban housing, and when they would call him, they would accuse him of being cynical, and his perception of them was that they were completely naïve about something that was actually going to get done. I am babbling a little but, ultimately, I wanted the heroism in her—she is doing something she is not going to get any credit for, but it is actually going to have an affect—and part of that was created by the artificial situation on the show.

[edit]

JERRY FOWLER: The run of the West Wing is coming to an end, and I am going to hold off on asking you such things like who wins the presidential race, whether you and Donna get together, but let me ask you this: will Darfur come back before the end of the season?

BRADLEY WHITFORD: It will not. I had pushed for it, but the campaign took over, and the transition took over, and it will not come up. It is so upsetting to me, it looks to me like we are in a situation that the reason some action is finally being taken is because things are really on the verge of further deterioration over there. I was thinking the other day, what is the best way to raise awareness about this? From my limited tool which is story telling, how do you get the story out there so that you are not doing another Hotel Rwanda five years after it is over? How do you raise awareness while it is happening? I have been looking at other ways to tell the story of Darfur.

JERRY FOWLER: That would be great if you found them.

BRADLEY WHITFORD: I hate that about the Hollywood community—now I am criticizing the Hollywood community—do it now. Don't wait until you have to make some heart-rending movie about it. Stop it.

Darfur: EU to Give 50 Million Euros to AU

From Reuters

he European Union has set aside 50 million euros ($60 million) for the African Union to help it finance a six-month extension of its mission to halt violence in Darfur, EU diplomats said on Wednesday. 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 off to a United Nations force, which the EU and the United States pushed for.

The AU's 7,000 poorly equipped troops in Sudan's western province of Darfur have been unable to stop violence in which tens of thousands of people have died and 2 million have fled their homes in the last three years.

Ambassadors from the 25-member EU bloc gave a green light on Tuesday to the European Commission to prepare 50 million euros in aid, EU diplomats said.

This sum would be the EU executive's contribution at an international pledging conference set for the end of April or May, an EU executive official said.

It would be enough to fund the AU for only two and a half to three months, the official added.

The AU says it costs around $24 million a month to run its mission, for which it relies on donor nations.

Darfur: Rabbi Meets Genocide's General

From Nat Hentoff in the Village Voice

I have wondered what it would be like to be in the presence of Sudanese president General Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the apprentice Hitler of our time, who is responsible for the genocide in Darfur, which is very likely to surpass the Rwanda genocide in the number of slaughtered corpses. Rwanda's atrocities lasted less than a year, but Darfur's started in 2003, and in addition to the killings, more than 2 million black Africans have been displaced from their razed homes and villages.

Recently, however, I talked to an American rabbi who actually has been in the same room with the mass murderer Bashir, members of his cabinet, and other officials.

The rabbi is Mordechai Liebling, vice president for programs at the Jewish Fund for Justice. In June of last year, he was invited by the Muslim American Freedom Foundation to be part of an interfaith, interracial delegation of religious leaders to Sudan.

Rabbi Liebling was briefly in a quandary. Since his first wife died four years ago, he has been raising four young children. And as he wrote in the March–April Jewish Currents, Bashir's government had "arrested the two senior members of Doctors Without Borders for releasing a report on rape . . . and journalists were being detained and accused of being spies. . . . I imagined myself being arrested as a Zionist spy."

"But how could I not go?" he said in the article, "A Rabbi Investigates in Sudan." He was to be the only rabbi in the delegation. Moreover, he added, "My parents were Holocaust survivors, and I grew up in a home crowded with murdered grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins."

The delegation had access to the top rank of Sudanese officials and even had a motorcycle escort on their rounds. Not surprisingly, however, as the rabbi noted, "President Bashir and senior Sudanese officials repeatedly lied, with great sincerity, right to our faces about the past, and about their intentions."

[edit]

"What was General Bashir like?" I was compelled to ask Rabbi Liebling.

"The general," he began, "is a master politician. He exudes warmth, congeniality, and seeming sincerity. And he denies any involvement in the murders and rapes by the janjaweed." These Arab militias armed and financed by the Bashir government, along with Sudanese army officers and soldiers, are on the front line in the killing fields of Darfur.

The rabbi also met, as he described in Jewish Currents, "the cultural and political elite of the country, among them scores of elderly Sudanese with Ph.D.'s from European and American universities. They were charming, erudite, lovely people who did not admit to us any government wrongdoing. . . . I think I now understand how privilege and denial function together—as happened in Germany. It made me reflect on my own levels of denial as a privileged person in our global society."

When the rabbi and I spoke, he added: "These genteel, cultivated people showed me no consciousness of the rapes and murders by the janjaweed. They would not engage in any discussion of the slow genocide that keeps going on. It was a classic example of cognitive dissonance, of denial, and that is how it also happened in Germany."

Darfur: Swedish Foreign Minister Barred Entry

From SAPA-DPA

Sweden's acting foreign minister, Carin Jamtin, has been barred from visiting Sudan's western region of Darfur, Swedish media reported on Wednesday.

Jamtin said she was notified of the decision on her arrival to Sudan late on Tuesday, and was told that the decision was linked to security concerns over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

The governor of Darfur who stopped the visit cited that Sweden was one of the countries where the controversial caricatures were published, and that Stockholm had not issued an apology.

"This was a total surprise," Jamtin told Swedish radio, adding that she had wanted to visit Darfur after receiving "worrying reports" about the humanitarian and security situation there.

The visit had earlier been cleared by the Khartoum government.

Jamtin added that she believed the governor's decision was linked to Swedish efforts in the United Nations to send UN peacekeepers to Darfur rather than to the cartoon controversy.

Darfur: Arab Funds Too Late

From Reuters

An Arab offer to fund African Union forces in Sudan's Darfur region from October is too late as troops need immediate cash to help stop escalating violence there, an AU official said on Wednesday.

"This is medicine after death," said Baba Gana Kingibe, the head of the AU mission in Sudan. "We need the assistance now in order to be able to resolve the crisis."

At an annual Arab summit in Khartoum, leaders promised to fund the cash-strapped AU force from Oct. 1, but the AU has renewed its mandate only until the end of September. They declined to specify how much they would give.

But Kingibe welcomed the show of solidarity for Arab-African relations in the 53-member AU, where there are often divisions between Arabic-speaking states and sub-Saharan nations.

Sudan is refusing to bend under international pressure to accept a U.N. takeover of the AU mission in Darfur, although some officials have said they may consider it after a peace deal is signed.

[edit]

Kingibe said the AU mission, with its increased needs, now cost $24 million a month to run. There are around 7,000 AU police and soldiers working in Darfur.

"We have assured funding to the end of March," he told Reuters, adding the European Union had also pledged 50 million euros ($60.02 million).

The U.N. Security Council has asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to report by April 24 with a plan for the possible take over. The AU has agreed in principle to support the transition.

Liberia/Nigeria: Warlord Charles Taylor Arrested

From the New York Times

A day after his evident escape, Nigerian police arrested former Liberian warlord and president Charles G. Taylor today as he tried to cross into Cameroon, according to Nigerian police officials.

Nigeria's government plans to send him directly to Liberia, where government officials have said they plan to send him immediately here, to face a 17-count indictment on war crimes for his role in the bloody, decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone.

"Mr. Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, was arrested this morning at the Nigeria Cameroon border," said Haz Iwendi, a spokesman for the National Police, in a telephone interview. "He was arrested in company of a driver and a woman and they have been taken into custody."

Alert border guards spotted Mr. Taylor, who was in a Land Rover with diplomatic plates, early this morning in the border town of Gamboru-Ngala, Mr. Iwendi said.

Mr. Tayor would be sent to Abuja later today and then transferred to Liberia, Mr. Iwendi said, though he could not say how soon Mr. Taylor would arrive in Monrovia.

His arrest was a dramatic turn in the already complicated saga of the effort to bring Mr. Taylor, who ignited a series of civil wars that killed 300,000 people and engulfed much of West Africa during the 1990s, to justice.

Darfur: Arabs Pledge to Fund AU Troops

From Reuters

Arab leaders have promised to fund African soldiers in Darfur from October this year, despite international pressure to allow the United Nations to take over the mission.

Sudan‘s president, wary of U.N. military intervention in Darfur, asked an Arab summit in Khartoum on Tuesday to provide more cash for African Union forces struggling to contain violence in the troubled west.

"There was a complete commitment from Arab leaders to fund the African Union mission in Darfur from October 1, 2006," said Sudan‘s minister of state for foreign affairs, al-Samani al-Wasiyla.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said: "The AU is able to finance with the donors still 6 months. After that (during) the second mandate the Arabs are going to support those troops."

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa told Reuters the decision could mean the Arab League would entirely fund the cash-strapped mission if necessary.

But given the AU earlier this month renewed its mission only until end-September, a period the United Nations considers transitional and are making plans to take over, the Arabs are unlikely to have to live up to their pledge.

Liberia: Charles Taylor Disappears

From the Associated Press

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor disappeared from his Nigerian haven, days after his hosts agreed to transfer him to a war crimes tribunal for the murder, rape and maiming of more than a half-million Africans, officials said Tuesday.

The announcement of Taylor's disappearance came the day before Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo was to meet with President Bush at the White House.

That visit was supposed to occur on a high note after Obasanjo resolved two issues of concern to his U.S. allies - Monday's release of kidnapped American oil workers and last week's deal to hand over Africa's most infamous warlord.

But Taylor vanished Monday night from his villa in the southern town of Calabar, the government said. A presidential spokeswoman said members of Taylor's Nigerian security detail had been arrested.

The presidential statement offered no details on how Taylor's disappearance was discovered or whether he was being hunted. Nigeria's Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday that dozens of people who were living with Taylor in a walled government compound had left Monday and were flying to Lagos en route to an unknown destination.

Sudan: More Kirstof Reaction

More reaction from Nick Kristof to the ad placed in the NYT last week - from his "TimesSelect" page

Taking Blood Money from Sudan

I’ve finally had a chance to look at the infamous Sudanese advertising insert published in The New York Times on March 20. It’s an eight-page tribute to the Sudanese government, beginning with a cheery lead story, “The Peace Dividend: Prosperity could lie ahead after years of conflict.” It also shows a picture of what is supposed to be a sunrise on the Nile (although I think I recognize the scene, and if so it’s facing west and must be a sunset – a more apt metaphor).

I’ve been getting lots of indignant emails from friends. Most begin something like, “How could you!” Oh, they aren’t mad at me personally, but they are furious at the Times for publishing a paid supplement intended to whitewash the work of genocidal maniacs.

Frankly, I’m not so horrified. As readers know, I try to emphasize practical consequences, and I don’t see that publishing this ad supplement hurts the people of Darfur in any way whatsoever. You can't argue that this supplement is going to persuade Americans to stop complaining about the genocide – on the contrary, it is so “in your face” that it has goaded Americans to speak up against the slaughter.

I also do think that in general newspapers should make themselves, including their advertising pages, an open forum for all your views, and should be very reluctant to block particular views. If this supplement were a racist tract saying that all Zaghawa tribe members are scum and should die, that would be so offensive that I would agree that it should be blocked. On the other hand, this advertising isn’t racist; this is just pabulum.

So I don’t think the Times let the people of Darfur down on this one. Frankly, I think a better case could be made for protesting the Times – and the rest of the media, especially TV – on the basis that we all didn’t cover Darfur as aggressively as we should have. That lapse was a breach of our responsibility and it really did harm the people of Darfur, and that would be a good reason to galvanize a public outcry. (And there are efforts in that direction, like the Be A Witness Campaign, at www.beawitness.org.)

All that said, do I feel good about this advertising supplement? No, of course not. I look at it, and I want to take a shower. It represents blood money. It tarnishes a newspaper I love. But that seems to me more of an internal blemish, a housekeeping matter for the Times itself and a question of our own internal standards, than a moral failure that makes us complicit in genocide.

Darfur: Sudan Asks Arab Leaders to Back AU Force

From Reuters

Sudan's president, wary of U.N. military intervention in Darfur, asked Arab leaders on Tuesday to provide more cash for African forces struggling to contain violence in the troubled western region.

Sudan is under international pressure to allow U.N. troops to take over from a cash-strapped African Union mission in Darfur.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has so far rejected any such transition to the United Nations. He has said the government would only consider it if a peace deal is reached with Darfur rebels at negotiations in Nigeria's capital Abuja.

Bashir took the presidency of the Arab League as host of the annual summit and asked the twelve heads of state present to provide the AU mission with money and troops, but diplomats said they were unlikely to get much.

"We renew our call to the international community and our Arab and African brothers to provide the necessary funding for these forces and to increase the participation of Arab-African soldiers," Bashir said in his opening address.

However, Arab and international rights groups urged Arab states to support transition to a U.N. force which they said would be more capable to stop the violence.

"Arab leaders must put the interests of Sudan's people first and support the transition to a U.N. force in Darfur," a statement from 15 human rights groups said.

[edit]

The AU earlier this month agreed to extend its mandate for six months, which the United Nations considers a transitional period to plan for a U.N. peacekeeping force.

"We hope during this period to put the problem of Darfur behind us forever," Bashir said.

Kofi Annan told the summit the envisioned U.N. force would likely include AU troops already on the ground rather than large numbers of Western soldiers.

"I expect that a significant number of AU personnel would have to be absorbed into the UN force, to ensure that the transition is effective," he said in a speech read on his behalf.

Arab League officials say the pan-Arab body has already given about $200,000 to the AU mission in Darfur and another $50,000 to the Abuja peace process, a minor amount considering the AU mission needs $17 million a month.

"They are unlikely to get a significant amount of money," said one Arab diplomat who declined to be named.

Unable to Post

I am going to be unable to post for Monday and Tuesday - please check out Passion of the Present, Sudan Watch, or Save Darfur for the lastest news.

Sudan: Summit Communications

Summit Communications has posted the 8 page advertisement it placed in the New York Times last week on its website - click here for the PDF version.

See this, this, and this for more information regarding the ad.

Darfur: Sudan Rebukes U.N. Plan for Takeover

From Reuters

Sudan on Saturday urged the United Nations to stop sending negative signals to Darfur rebels after the U.N. Security Council voted to speed planning for a new peacekeeping force there.

Sudan has rejected the deployment of U.N. troops to its western Darfur region to relieve a 7,000-strong underfunded and under-equipped African Union force currently monitoring a widely ignored ceasefire there.

Darfur rebels have from the beginning of the conflict demanded U.N. troops be deployed in Darfur and the government feels the U.N. takeover would encourage intransigence from the armed groups.

"They should refrain from mentioning these negative messages and taking the wrong decisions at the wrong time," state minister of foreign affairs al-Samani al-Wasiyla told reporters in Khartoum.

[edit]

Wasiyla added Sudan did not reject a U.N. force outright, but had to decide when or if it was necessary for U.N. troops to take over from the Africans already deployed. He said that time could be after a peace deal was agreed in the Nigerian capital Abuja, where faltering talks continue.

Sudan signed a separate peace deal last year to end Africa's longest civil war in its south. Under that deal 10,715 U.N. troops and police are being deployed to monitor the ceasefire.

Wasiyla said that should be used as a model for the international community for Darfur.

[edit]

Wasiyla said Sudan was opposed to U.N. forces because that would imply a failure of the AU mission, which is unable to complete its work because of a lack of funds and equipment. He said the international community should fulfil those needs.

"We do not want to be the reason for the failure of the African Union," he said, adding the United Nations should be trying to strengthen the AU as a regional peacekeeping body.

Presidential Advisor Mustafa Osman Ismail on Friday told reporters Sudan would be asking Arab leaders meeting in Khartoum for an annual summit next week to provide more money to the AU mission to continue its work.

Extending Sudan Mission, Security Council Lays Groundwork for UN Force

From the UN News Center

The Security Council today decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission focussed on southern Sudan (UNMIS) until 24 September 2006, requesting that Secretary-General Kofi Annan also expedite the planning for a transformation of the African Union force in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region to a UN-led operation.

Through the unanimously adopted resolution, the Council also requested that UNMIS intensify its efforts to coordinate closely with the African force, known as AMIS, during the transitional period.

During that period, the Council asked the Secretary-General to plan ways in which UNMIS can reinforce the peace efforts in Darfur through additional assistance to AMIS in logistics, mobility, communications and other areas, and to present a range of options for a UN operation in Darfur to the Council by 24 April 2006.

As part of those options, the Council requested recommendations for dealing more effectively with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the Uganda-based group which the Council condemned for its attacks on civilians and other human rights abuses.

Prior to the adoption of the resolution, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the head of UN peacekeeping, said that despite the obstacles, planning the transition to a UN operation in Darfur was going ahead.

“Yes, the train has left the station, in the sense that there is a sense of urgency,” he said. “We are going to work very closely with the African Union we are going to work also with the Government of Sudan and also to strengthen the Abuja process,” he added, referring to the peace negotiations taking place in Nigeria.

He stressed that a political agreement was primary, both for peace in Darfur and for the success of a UN mission.

Asked if the Government of Sudan could still stop the UN mission, he said that obviously it could only go ahead with the consent of the Government of Sudan, but emphasized that it was crucial that the Government understand that the continuing violence could not be left unchecked.

A related article from Reuters

The U.N. Security Council voted on Friday to speed planning for a new U.N. peacekeeping force to be sent to Sudan's western Darfur region later this year to relieve underfinanced African Union troops.

A resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council gave Secretary-General Kofi Annan until April 24 to prepare "a range of options for a United Nations operation in Darfur."

But U.N. officials and council diplomats acknowledged they could not send in U.N. troops or even an assessment mission to help in the planning without the approval of the government of Sudan, and they encouraged Khartoum to cooperate in an eventual transition.

"Obviously this is a mission that will deploy with the consent of the government of Sudan," U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno told reporters.

[edit]

Mustafa Osman Ismail, adviser to the Sudanese president for foreign affairs, told reporters in Khartoum on Friday his government would be asking Arab leaders attending a summit in Sudan to contribute to the AU force in Darfur.

"We will be asking them to give funds at this summit," he said. Arab leaders meet next week in Khartoum for the annual summit of the Arab League.

The main donors to the AU mission in Sudan are Canada, the United States, Britain and the European Union.

The Security Council resolution also extended the mandate of a separate U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan, due to expire on Friday.

Int'l Justice: Nigeria To Hand Over Taylor

From CNN

The Nigerian government on Saturday agreed to allow Liberian authorities to arrest exiled leader Charles Taylor and return him to Liberia, where he is accused of war crimes.

Nigerian government spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode said the agreement followed a meeting late Friday between representatives of both nations.

Nigeria, a powerful African nation and currently head of the African Union, has resisted calls to hand over Taylor, citing its agreement with Taylor granting him safe asylum.

The Liberians say Taylor could be back in the coming weeks.

[edit]

Taylor was indicted in 2003 by a U.N.-backed court in neighboring Sierra Leone on charges of war crimes related to his support for rebels in that country who were committing widespread atrocities. He was president of Liberia from 1997 until forced out of office in 2003.

Taylor reportedly supplied arms to the Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for diamonds.

Taylor is being monitored but is not under Nigerian house arrest. It is conceivable that he could flee to avoid detention. Obasanjo is scheduled to meet with President Bush in Washington on Wednesday and Taylor's status is expected to be on the agenda.

The Nigerian decision was made after consultations with the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States.

Sudan: Jan Pronk's Weblog

Ingrid at Sudan Watch has discovered that Jan Pronk, the UN Special Envoy to Sudan, has a website that includes a blog

The political climate in Sudan towards the UN is deteriorating. In the press statements have been published citing civil society organizations calling for “resistance against foreign intervention”, “raising the flag of Jihad”, warning both the international community and Sudanese authorities not to “help the colonization to come to Darfur”, referring to the West as “the devil”, calling for martyrdom and for a readiness to sacrifice and “to repulse any attack”, announcing a “graveyard for the invaders”. In most statements reference is made to the examples of Afghanistan and Iraq. Clearly the majority of the people assume that there are UN forces in these two countries. This is not the case, but opinion leaders and the public do not make a distinction between the UN and the US or NATO. Those who are aware of the difference express their fear that the UN will pave the way for the US and NATO or say that the UN is an instrument in the hands of the US. So far, the Government has done nothing to correct such views. On the contrary, statements by President Beshir, Vice President Taha and by ministers and other high officials are feeding the animosity at the grassroots level. Vicious verbal attacks against the UN and Kofi Annan have not been answered by the authorities. This has added to a climate within which threats have become quite nasty: “we warn the ambassadors of the US and the UK and the Special Representative of the UN that they might be shot”, and “we are waiting for you, but please come with enough coffins”.

[edit]

The threats are nasty indeed. An award of $100.000 has been promised to the person who will kill me. This has been published in the newspaper Al Watan, with the name of the organization and its leader who have announced this award. It goes with the job and we cannot afford to be intimidated. Particularly alarming is, however, that individual UN staff members are receiving anonymous threats. Some were threatened by phone, one was abducted in the street, blindfolded, threatened and released with the message to leave the UN or else…..

The attacks on the United Nations cannot be attributed to the Government only. The Government is under pressure by powerful groups. Sudan is not a democratic society, far from it. The regime is a conglomerate of power groups, dependent on each other, checking each other and wheeling and dealing behind the scenes. Political pressure is not exerted in a democratic fashion, in a free and independent parliament, a free press and public meetings. Since the formation of the Government of National Unity mid last year and the adoption of the new Constitution the political system has become more open. The parliamentary debate is less controlled than before. The press is no longer being censored, anyway not before the news is printed. Critics speak out. However, all of this takes place within limits. There is always the risk of being visited by National Security. That means that there are no public checks and balances. Much pressure takes place behind closed doors. Political deals as well as political threats are mostly secret.

Initially the position of the Government towards a UN force in Darfur was not so negative. Ministers had told me that they understood that such a transition would bre inevitable if the African Union itself would decide in favor. For them the mandate of a UN force and its composition were crucial. A UN peace keeping force with a Chapter 6 mandate and without NATO troops would be acceptable. However, when some powerful groups in Sudan demanded the Government never to accept any new foreign peace keeping force, the President changed his position. It is like always in Sudan: policies are determined by one overriding motivation only: how to stay in power.

Sudan: Arab League Summit Expected to Support Gov't

From Reuters

Sudan, which has spared no expense to prepare its capital to host Arab leaders at a summit next week, is expected to be rewarded with the presidency of the Arab League and support on issues such as Darfur.

The atmosphere will be at sharp odds with a summit in Khartoum in January when African presidents spent most of their time arguing over how to prevent Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir from taking over the head of the African Union.

"Of course the host of the summit will be the president and in our opinion (the host) should have been the president of the African Union too," Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, told reporters in Khartoum this week as he prepared for the summit.

Moussa said the Arab League did not share its African brothers' reservations about having Sudan, accused of widespread atrocities in its western Darfur region, at the head of the pan-Arab body.

[edit]

The Arab League has taken a supportive stance of Sudan on the issue, saying U.N. troops can only be deployed with the consent of the government.

Sudanese opposition politician Mubarak al-Fadil said Arab leaders were not likely to push on the Darfur affair as they traditionally have sat on the fence on divisive issues.

"They wouldn't like to entangle themselves in it," he said. "You are in someone's home -- you say these things behind his back but you don't say it to his face."

Chad Accuses Sudan of Violating Truce

From Reuters

Chad's President Idriss Deby called on Libya and the African Union on Friday to press Sudan to respect an agreement to ban insurgents operating in its violent western Darfur region after a string of attacks.

Chad and Sudan accuse each other of backing rebels fighting governments in N'Djamena and Khartoum but agreed at a summit hosted by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli in February to stop insurgents setting up bases on their territory.

"We signed an agreement and since it was signed it is certain that the Sudanese government has not respected this agreement. I would even say it has violated certain clauses," Deby told French radio in an interview broadcast on Friday.

"I appeal to the international community, the African Union mediation, the mediation of (Libyan leader) Gaddafi, to put pressure on the Sudanese government so that it respects the terms of the agreement we signed as quickly as possible."

Diplomats have said the uneasy relationship between the two countries risks spreading the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, which borders Chad, even more widely.

Chad/Sudan: Violence Along Border Threatens Thousands

From the WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme warned today that an escalation of the violence that has forced thousands of people from their homes along the Chadian border with Sudan's Darfur region could seriously impede humanitarian assistance.

WFP currently feeds 207,400 Sudanese refugees housed in 12 camps inside Chad. Most refugees have been in Chad since 2004, but a fresh influx from Sudan has arrived over the past few months.

A violent cocktail of regular and rebel forces on both sides of the frontier, combined with an increasing number of incursions by armed groups, has led to fresh population movements on a worrying scale and renewed concern for the basic needs of those immediately affected.

"It is clear that the security situation along the border has deteriorated in recent weeks," said WFP Chad Country Director, Stefano Porretti. "WFP is coordinating with partners, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, to ensure the situation is closely monitored. But the longer the insecurity in the area persists, the more serious the situation will become."

An initial WFP assessment of the most affected areas in the eastern Chad border zone indicated that most people still have substantial food stocks that they can access, largely because the last harvest was one of the best in recent years. The most immediate need reported was for the safety of civilians in the prevailing insecurity.

However, with the annual 'hunger season' approaching WFP said there were very real fears that people would soon require essential humanitarian assistance. While it was difficult to assess the magnitude of needs because of current insecurity, WFP estimated that several thousand people would require assistance.

"Most people affected by the recent violence have enough food for another month or two, but after that, things are far less certain. Financially, our operation in eastern Chad is already clinging on by its fingertips – significant new requirements will require significant new resources from our donors," said Porretti.

Darfur: UN to Speed Planning for Peacekeepers

From Reuters

The U.N. Security Council agreed on Thursday to ask Secretary-General Kofi Annan to greatly speed planning for a new U.N. force in Sudan's western Darfur region.

The text of a draft resolution, put forward by Washington and set to be adopted by the 15-nation council on Friday, would give Annan until April 24 to prepare "a range of options for a United Nations operation in Darfur,' according to a copy obtained by Reuters.

It would also ask the U.N. leader to prepare recommendations within a month on how a separate U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan could help crack down on Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army, an armed group that has wreaked havoc in the region for decades.

The LRA has terrorized communities in Uganda's remote north for two decades and some of its fighters have recently crossed over into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

Led by self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony, the LRA has killed tens of thousands of unarmed villagers, slicing off survivors' lips or ears and abducting more than 10,000 children as fighters, porters and sex slaves.

[edit]

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said this week he wanted the new resolution to accelerate planning and lay the groundwork for a smooth transition to a U.N. force in Darfur without waiting for formal approval from the AU and Sudan.

The text would also extend the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the south, due to expire on Friday.

Darfur: Bashir Says Foreign Intervention Inflamed Crisis

From the AP

Sudanese president Thursday blamed the Darfur crisis on foreign intervention motivated by economic interests and rebel "intransigence."

Speaking to a gathering of Arab finance ministers, President Omar al-Bashir said his government could resolve the three-year conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, if "foreign intervention ceases" and "Darfur rebels end their intransigence."

He claimed the dispute began with "a fight over a camel" that was inflamed by foreigners who were interested in Darfur’s natural resources, which included petroleum.

"The enemies of the country wanted to set a fire of sedition in Darfur, which until then had been a mere tribal problem," al-Bashir said.

Darfur: Kristof's Response

Here is Nick Kristof's response to the ad mentioned in the previous post - from his "TimesSelect" page

I’ve just seen various indignant messages asking me about an advertising supplement from Sudan that apparently ran in Monday’s New York Times. I haven’t seen the supplement, so I don’t want to comment.

Moreover, I feel some ambivalence. I don’t want the good name of The New York Times sullied by propaganda from a government that is committing genocide. But on the other hand, money spent on the propaganda is money that Sudan isn’t spending on Ak-47’s (or, granted, on rural clinics). And in general, I think it’s great if Sudan is lured into the arena of public opinion, because that’s an arena in which genocide will never win – and if Sudan is sensitive to its public image, that’s a plus for the people being slaughtered in Darfur and now in Chad.

Darfur: Write a Letter to the New York Times

From Save Darfur - see this earlier post for more details on the ad

For two years, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has courageously traveled where few other reporters have gone to describe the brutal genocide in Darfur.

Through Kristof's reporting - and that of others at the Times - we have read of the tremendous suffering that has befallen the innocent people of Darfur - at the hands of their very own government.

Yet last Sunday, the New York Times accepted nearly one million dollars from the Sudanese government to run a special eight-page advertising section! The insert, placed in New York-area papers, consisted of pretty words about Sudan's "peaceful, prosperous and democratic future." This propaganda was written on behalf of a government the Times reports has sponsored a mass effort to kill, rape, and force people from their homes.

The New York Times needs to hear from you telling them it was wrong to accept this ad!

Click here now to write a letter to the editor of the New York Times. Demand the Times contribute the ad proceeds to humanitarian relief efforts in Darfur.

(Please note that the Save Darfur Coalition is not involved in humanitarian relief efforts, and we are not in any way asking for financial support from the Times.)

We encourage free speech and hope the Times continues to report on all perspectives, including those of Sudan's rulers. Since the genocide in Darfur began, the New York Times has spent more time and money reporting the story than any other American news organization.

In fact, on the day the Times ran the Sudanese advertisement, the paper also ran an editorial condemning Sudanese-government-sponsored militias responsible for murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people and displacing millions more.

It is unconscionable that the Times' sales department accepted nearly one million dollars from the murderous Sudanese government to run an advertisement filled with rosy images of an investment haven.

The New York Times is free to choose its business partners and this was a paid advertisement the Times could have chosen to reject! The New York Times should not profit with blood-stained money that would be better spent on health clinics than on advertising. Neither should they turn a profit on the propaganda of those they themselves believe guilty of mass murder.

Click here now to write a letter to the editor of the New York Times and demand they donate the tainted proceeds of the ad to relief work in Darfur!

Sudan: Sharia Row Hits Peace Deal

From the BBC

A row over whether Sudan's capital, Khartoum, should be subject to Islamic law has hit relations between former rebels and its partner in government.

This question was a key part of a last year's deal to end 21 years of war between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south.

But the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says the deal was vague on the details.

Violence has risen, due to frustration over the lack of rebuilding in the south, a UN envoy said this week.

Pol Ring, head of the former rebel SPLM in Khartoum's parliament, said the draft constitution propsed for the city was the same as the existing Sharia law.

This was unacceptable because Khartoum is the capital for the whole country, he said.

The SPLM has now pulled out of the committee drafting Khartoum's new constitution.

DRC: UN Still Mum on Guatemalan Troops' Deaths

From Reuters

An urgent U.N. inquiry into the killing of eight Guatemalan peacekeepers during a botched hunt for a Ugandan rebel leader in Congo in January is still not done after missing two deadlines for its completion, a U.N. spokesman said on Thursday.

The U.N. investigation "is still ongoing. It is not complete," said the official, adding there was no new deadline for its completion.

Eight "Kaibil" Special Forces soldiers were killed and five were wounded on Jan. 23 during what the U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has acknowledged was an ambush during a secret mission to try to capture or kill Vincent Otti.

Otti is the deputy commander of Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army.

A U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said afterward that the soldiers' recovered bodies had shown signs of torture, and the Paris newspaper Le Monde said some had been beheaded.

But U.N. officials have insisted there was no evidence the peacekeepers had been tortured or mutilated. They said autopsy reports had already been given to the Guatemalan government, which has made no public comment on them.

[edit]

It was as yet unclear whether MONUC or Annan intended to make the report public, the official said.

Somalia: Scores Die in Battles for Control

From the AP

Two days of fierce clashes in Mogadishu between an Islamic militia and forces that have challenged clerics' growing power have killed at least 60 people, according to medical workers.

At least 20 people were killed in fighting Thursday, while the toll from Wednesday was 40, said Dr. Abdi Ibrahim, citing figures gathered from hospitals in Mogadishu by the city's doctors' association.

At least 10 combatants were killed at the front line, said Abdulkadir Ahmed, who saw the dead while fleeing his home there.

A passenger bus was hit by a mortar round, killing five civilians. Gunmen shot dead two passengers in another public bus. Militiamen killed a man who denied them permission to hide behind his house. Two people were killed when a mortar shell exploded at their house, other witnesses said.

Sporadic gunshots that began early Thursday escalated into heavier fighting later in the day, with the sound of exploding mortars and gunfire ringing in northeastern Mogadishu, residents said.

Some Islamist clerics denounced the fighting and pressed both sides to negotiate unconditionally for an end to the conflict.

"This fighting has nothing to do with religion," said Sheik Hassan Indho Giir, chairman of an Islamic Cort in the Hararyalleh neighborhood of Mogadishu.

Both sides reinforced their positions overnight with combatants, arms, ammunition and trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns. Commanders held meetings late into Wednesday night to plot strategy.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew the government and then began fighting each other.

Fundamentalist Islamic clerics have increasingly sought to set themselves up as an alternative to the clan-based fiefdoms and the transitional federal government that is struggling to assert its authority.

But businessmen and warlords who formed an armed alliance last month describe the fundamentalist clerics as terrorists and accuse them of killing moderate intellectuals, Muslim scholars and former military officials in a string of unexplained murders.

Darfur: Podcast With John Prendergast

A new podcast with John Prendergast from the Committee on Conscience

JERRY FOWLER: John, I caught you between planes; you just came in from Rhode Island, and you are on your way to Los Angeles. You are doing a lot of traveling around the country. What is your sense of interest in Darfur around the United States these days?

JOHN PRENDERGAST: It is very exciting to be part of something that I have not felt a part of since the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s and early 90s, with respect to trying to change the apartheid system in South Africa. What we have is the makings on an embryonic movement against the genocide that is unfolding in Darfur that encompasses communities from around the country, involving probably three constituency groups which have been student groups, Christian groups and Jewish American organizations. All three of these constituencies stood up and began to organize letter writing campaigns, demonstrations, and all kinds of different activities in opposition to the genocide unfolding in Sudan and in support of bolder action on the part of the United States to confront it.

JERRY FOWLER: As you are traveling around—we will get to the substance in just a second, and spend most of our time on that—what kind of advice are you giving to people in terms of what kind of activity and intervention on their part can make the most difference?

JOHN PRENDERGAST: I think we have sort of moved beyond the “shouldn’t you care, President Bush,” stage. In any kind of situation, whether it is crimes against humanity being committed in Eastern Congo or Liberia or Northern Uganda or wherever these crimes against humanity and war crimes are occurring, trying to get the attention of the Administration is usually your first priority. Well, Darfur has got the attention of the Administration, so now we have to get a little bit more specific. When a person is captivated by this issue and wants to do something, they have to be educated so I try to spend as much time as I can deepening that education as much as possible—not the history of Darfur from 1432, but rather, understanding why what is happening is happening now in Darfur and what really can be done about it, and trying to boil down two or three things that they can do or that they can ask their elected officials to do that might make a difference to the people of Darfur.

JERRY FOWLER: That then raises the obvious question, what are the two or three things that you are suggesting?

JOHN PRENDERGAST: I think in every situation, when we look back at the genocides of the 20th century, and we look at the crises marked by the Commission of Mass Atrocities, I find that there are really three categories of action that always need to part of parcel, central to our response. Those three categories, three baskets of response, are protecting civilians, holding the perpetrators accountable and dealing with the root causes of the crisis. Let us talk very briefly about all three of them.

Civilian protection—that is really the biggest failure of the international community every time. Darfur is just the latest manifestation of our inability or unwillingness to do what it takes to protect civilians from this scourge of atrocities and the commission of these kinds of grave human rights abuses. The kinds of obstacles that we have in our way—indifference and apathy and sometimes institutional prerogatives that root our policy makers in the status quo rather than a more forward leaning response—opposing that or confronting that requires constituency building and movement building on the part of the American public. Our policy makers have to hear from the public that it matters to them that they respond. Civilian protection is the core of the response.

Then, secondly, accountability. I think that to give leverage to the external efforts to address these problems and to break the cycles of impunity that we always talk about that occur in these types of situations, the international community has to look at the tools that exist to really hold people accountable for those most culpable for committing these atrocious crimes. In the case of Darfur, and many others, there are two principal tools; the first one is targeted sanctions that the United Nations Security Council is primarily the repository for. Putting a scarlet letter on the shirt pocket of the main perpetrators of the crimes is really the objective. Some of them do not care, some of them do. In the case of Sudan, these guys do not want to be targeted, they do not want to be called out, spotlight shone upon them, so I think that doing that will have a very rapid impact on their calculations, and the second part of the accountability piece is the International Criminal Court which is such an important innovation during this last century of trying to address these kinds of crimes from Nuremberg on, that we finally now, instead of these ad hoc trials, we finally have an institution that can address these things systematically, and Sudan, the case of Darfur, has become the first case that has been referred by the United Nations Security Council to the International Criminal Court, so we need to be pressing the United States to support the efforts of the International Criminal Court, even if it does not support the International Criminal Court itself by sharing information. We could have a very rapid impact on accelerating the investigations of the International Criminal Court.

Thirdly; now we have talked about civilian protection and accountability—the third arena is dealing with the root causes, and that is to address, through peace process the fundamental issues that divide people, that allow people to be used to commit these kinds of crimes. The United States has demonstrated that in the past, when it engages at a high level and at a sustained level, we can make a difference in Africa. Time and again, when we have partnered with African institutions to do conflict resolution we have succeeded, and I think that we have not made that commitment yet in full to the Darfur case. We need to do with the Special Envoy of the President which is what is needed urgently right now to press the case forward and move towards a peace agreement in Darfur.

Darfur: How to Avoid Another Iraq

This is several days old, but it is an interesting piece by Paul Moorcraft, formerly in the UK defence ministry and current director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Analysis in Business Day - via Sudan Watch

Then last month President George Bush set the cat among the pigeons during an unscripted question-and-answer session in Tampa, Florida. He said he wanted an expanded international role in Darfur, suggesting a "Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) stewardship". This statement caught his own administration off guard, although there is a growing bi-partisan movement in the US Congress for a greater effort.

At first glance there is much to be said for an augmented Nato role. Already the alliance and the European Union are assisting with logistics, especially American air transport, for the current AU operation. The US air force has transported tons of supplies and thousands of African troops, and provided some but not all of the promised $190m for training and building camps for peacekeepers.

The idea is for the west to provide a stop-gap until a large UN force -- perhaps 20000 troops -- can replace the AU. A more robust and better led force could do much to prevent the tribal fighting. Nato could provide better weapons, mobility and intelligence. Besides, the argument goes, the UN is already operating in the south of the country, enabling possibly millions to return home from internal displacement in the north.

The only problem is it won't work. Defence officials in London and Nato headquarters in Brussels are not keen on putting white, western, Christian troops on the ground in Darfur. This is the only thing which would unite all the warring tribes -- but in a holy war against outsiders. It could be worse than Iraq, and at least as disastrous as the 1993 intervention in Somalia.

Darfur: Nigeria Condemns Sudanese Gov't

From The Tide

Nigeria has condemned the Sudanese government for instigating the local population against African Union’s (AU) efforts toward peace in troubled Darfur region.

Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Olu Adeniji who appeared on a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja at the weekend, said that such blunder was bad for the regional body’s painstaking efforts.

With the government and rebel groups yet to agree on a deal toward permanent peace in Darfur, Adeniji said that the least the government could do was to allow the AU to explore all available peace initiatives.

“Before you get peace, you must talk and that is what the AU is doing. That is where we come in. It is imperative that the government takes note of this,” he declared.

He said that the AU at its peace and security council meeting in Addis Ababa, resolved that it should maintain its 7,000 peace keeping force in Darfur, but also unanimously resolved that the UN must now be “greatly involved.”

Adeniji said that maintaining the 7,000 peace keepers in Darfur had been “a very huge problem.”

Arguing further on why the UN should be involved, Adeniji said: “Since the world is a global village, every part of the village must share in the joy and misery of the village.”

Arguing further, he explained that the African troops in Darfur were not sufficient in number and equipment, hence the need for the entire world to contribute.

He, however, disagreed that the UN presence might make the AU irrelevant to the Darfur situation.

“To ensure permanent peace, the parties must talk and this is where Africa comes in,” he said.

Darfur: UN and UNMIS

From Security Council Report

The Council will meet by the end of the week to adopt a resolution extending the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). The current mandate expires on 24 March.

The draft resolution presented by the US includes:

a rollover of UNMIS for six months, without any changes to the mandate; and
a re-endorsement of the Council's decision in February regarding Darfur and a 30-day deadline for Secretariat contingency planning for the transition from the AU force (AMIS) to a UN force.

The inclusion of Darfur in the US draft will take many Council members by surprise. To some extent, it reflects a widely held concern about the need to maintain momentum with the transition and avoid delays. It is also no doubt seen as an important signal to Khartoum.

There is a perceived risk in that, since the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) decided on 10 March to extend the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) until 30 September, this could give space for the transition to be delayed or derailed.

But, at time of writing, it was unclear whether the US will be successful in getting consensus on the inclusion of all of these elements relating to Darfur in the draft. And there will be concerns about the practicality of a very short deadline for preparation of the contingency plan.

Because of the 24 March deadline for expiry of the UNMIS mandate, the room for manoeuvre is limited. One option may be a short technical rollover for further negotiation. Another option may be to limit the references to Darfur to reiteration of what the Council agreed in February.

The issue is all the more complicated because Council members are also negotiating in parallel a Presidential Statement dealing with Darfur. It would welcome the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC)'s 10 March decision and address the transition issues in more detail. The idea behind the separate statement - to be adopted at a later date - had been to avoid the need to negotiate the complex - and probably controversial - details of the transition in the context of the UNMIS rollover resolution.

Some Council members - China, Russia and Qatar - are likely to want some language that recognises the need for Sudan's consent and this is likely to take some time to resolve. Khartoum has already shifted its position to some extent and now suggests that a transition would be acceptable after a peace agreement is reached in Abuja. Other Council members are likely to want to leave open the possibility of a UN operation proceeding even if a peace agreement is not reached.

The 10 March PSC decision extending AMIS has been positively interpreted by the Secretariat and Council members as an acceptance of the transition, despite the persistence of the expression "in principle". Special Representative of the Secretary-General Jan Pronk indicated that the signal from the PSC was that the final decision should be made by the Security Council.

Some Council members consider that proposals for an operational NATO role in Darfur are unhelpful and have strengthened Sudan's opposition. The dynamics inside the AU suggest that, if this were included in the concept for the transition, it would result in a hardening of the Sudanese position. The AU dynamics also suggest increasing frustration with the degree of pressure for the transition, the unresponsiveness of the Council surrounding the AU's role in the future and the overall uncertainties.

The AMIS' six-month extension was perceived as an elegant compromise by the AU leadership, in that it steps around the immediate Sudanese objections and in the meantime provides the Secretariat with the time, which in any event it needed, to prepare the transition and to allow some room for negotiations with Khartoum. With the adoption of the UNMIS rollover - also expected until the end of September - both AMIS and UNMIS will be on coincidental timelines for review.

The PSC decision still maintains that the transition should be carried out within the framework of a partnership between the UN and the AU. The decision adds further clarification to the AU expectations in this regard. In particular, it states that the transition should maintain:

(i) the "African character of the mission", especially its composition and leadership, as much as possible; and
(ii) the AU's leadership in the Darfur peace process, including the Abuja talks and the Darfur-Darfur dialogue.

The African Council members can be expected to seek to include these elements in future Council decisions, perhaps even in the upcoming Presidential Statement.

The Council is also expected to adopt a rollover of the mandate of the Panel of Experts and to renew the sanctions regime. Despite some support in the Council for strengthening the arms embargo, no new provisions are expected.

Because the sanctions committee is still negotiating guidelines necessary to list and de-list individuals, the targeted sanctions are not yet operational. There are divisions related to the adoption of a consensus rule. France interprets the Charter as mandating the majority rule in all Council subsidiary bodies, but this position has become difficult given the fact that other committees operate on the basis of consensus.

Africa: Leaders Face Key Tests on Justice

From the Christian Science Monitor

The AU has already been asked once this year to decide on a request for a former head of state to stand trial. That concerned Hissène Habré, the one-time ruler of Chad whose government is accused of 40,000 political killings and 200,000 cases of torture, earning him the nickname "Africa's Pinochet."

In November, Senegal, where Mr. Habré has lived for the past 15 years, referred an extradition request from Belgium to the AU, which in January appointed a committee to consider the case. The European Parliament last week called on Senegal to bring Habré to trial or extradite him to Belgium.

Some observers note that the sensitivities raised in the Habré case - namely the possibility of a European country, and former colonial ruler, meting out justice in Africa - are not an issue when it comes to Taylor.

If African leaders were to approve Taylor's extradition, he would be tried in the UN-backed Special Court - on African soil, with some African judges on the bench. Thus, many analysts say, it comes down to the simple question of whether the immunity of top leaders that has long stunted democratic growth on the continent will again triumph over accountability.

Taylor's advisers have cried conspiracy and maintain that transferring the ex-leader from Nigeria risks destabilizing both Liberia, where the former warlord still has thousands of supporters and his ex-wife is now a senator, and Sierra Leone, where the last UN peacekeepers have now left.

Mr. De Silva concedes the possibility that Nigeria may only consent to Taylor leaving if he is tried in a more neutral atmosphere, in which case the Special Court could sit at The Hague.

But putting Taylor in the dock one way or the other would be a judicial coup for the Sierra Leone prosecutors, whose other high-profile defendant, rebel leader Foday Sankoh, died in custody.

"With Milosevic no longer around, if Taylor is brought to court, he could be the first head of state in history to have been indicted in office and have his trial completed," de Silva says.

Africa: Sham Democracies

From the San Francisco Chronicle

In the closing week of campaigning in Uganda's presidential elections last month, incumbent Yoweri Museveni held his final public rally at an airstrip on the outskirts of this capital city. The 62-year-old Ugandan ruler stood imperiously in his trademark broad-brimmed hat above a crowd of supporters chanting: "No change, no change!" The event seemed more like a victory celebration than an appeal for votes.

The suspicion that Museveni's victory was a foregone conclusion has grown since he was comfortably elected to a third term despite widespread accusations of fraud, intimidation and misuse of state funds. International election observers said Uganda lacked a level playing field for its first multiparty elections in more than two decades, while a spokesman for the main opposition, the Forum for Democratic Change, went further: "This election was as free and fair as it would have been under Saddam or Hitler."

The same story is being repeated across Africa as nations -- often in response to pressures from the West -- introduce democratic reforms that their leaders are then accused of manipulating to stay in power.

Christopher Albin-Lackey, an Africa specialist with Human Rights Watch, said, "These governments have become increasingly adept at using the trappings of Western democracy for repressive ends."

U.N. Clears Way to Abolish Rights Panel

From the AP

The U.N. gave a green light Wednesday night to abolish the discredited Human Rights Commission on June 16, clearing the way for the new Human Rights Council to become the U.N.'s main rights watchdog.

Last week, the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to replace the highly politicized and often criticized commission with a new human rights body. The assembly ignored U.S. objections that not enough was done to prevent abusive countries from becoming members.

The Economic and Social Council, which coordinates the U.N.'s work in those fields, approved a resolution abolishing the Human Rights Commission without a vote.

The commission will be replaced by a new 47-member Human Rights Council, which will be elected on May 9 and hold its first meeting on June 19. Like the commission, the council will be based in Geneva.

Darfur: U.S. Fund Joins Call for Divestment

From Reuters

A U.S. mutual fund manager on Wednesday joined an escalating campaign to pressure companies to exit Sudan to protest the ethnic violence labeled genocide by the United States.

Citizens Advisers, the investment manager to Citizens Funds, said it had written to chief executives at about 20 companies within its portfolio calling on them to review and divest any business activities in the African country.

Citizens said it was the first mutual fund management firm to urge divestment from its portfolio companies although the move follows similar calls by other U.S. organizations, some of whom have started to sell out of companies that refuse.

"We believe that encouraging companies to divest of their businesses in Sudan has the potential to have the same tremendous positive impact as the South Africa divestiture campaign of the 1990s," said Joanne Dowdell, vice president of corporate responsibility at Boston-based Citizens.

"This campaign has really started to get momentum, starting from the university level, expanding to state pension funds and now moving to the investment community."

The Sudan Divestment Campaign, headquartered at Williams College in the state of Massachusetts, says research shows about 81 U.S. public pension funds have about $91 billion invested in companies with business activities in Sudan.

For while American companies are barred from doing business with Sudan following sanctions introduced in 1997 by the Clinton Administration, many international companies still operate there.

According to KLD Research and Analytics, an independent U.S.-based investment research company, there are about 120 publicly traded companies doing business with Sudan and some U.S. state and city pension funds have holdings in these.

"What a world without U.S. power looks like"

This WSJ opinion piece nails it:

One lesson of Darfur is that there really are limits to American power, and in its absence the world's savages have freer reign.

(Hat tip QD@SA)

Sudan: U.N. Troops Engage Attackers

From Reuters

An attack on a U.N. site in south Sudan, most likely by Ugandan rebels, pushed peacekeepers into their first deadly exchange of fire, a U.N. official said on Wednesday.

Three attackers were killed and two U.N. soldiers were wounded, he said.

A more than 10,000-strong U.N. force is being deployed to lawless southern Sudan to monitor the implementation of a peace deal signed last year to end Africa's longest civil war.

But the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has sought refuge in neighbouring lawless southern Sudan for years, has increased attacks on civilians in recent weeks as their supply lines have been cut off by the cessation of hostilities in the south.

The attack on a U.N. building in Yambio, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on March 19 injured two Bangladeshi U.N. troops and three of the attackers were killed, said new U.N. force commander Jasbir Singh Lidder.

"Two of our soldiers got wounded, three attackers went in...from their features we have reason to believe that these were from the LRA," Lidder said.

[edit]

Lidder said the government was refusing to allow the United Nations to be involved in an investigation into the attack for reasons he said he could not understand.

"I feel this is a ceasefire violation and the U.N. has to be a party to the investigation," he told reporters in Khartoum. "Then only the investigation will be credible, acceptable, transparent."

Chad: Capital City Deserted After Gunfire Near Presidential Palace

From IRIN

Schools, businesses and offices were deserted in the Chadian capital, N’djamena, Wednesday after shooting near the presidential palace sent people fleeing.

Gunfire heard between 10:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday near the presidential palace prompted people to flee workplaces and pull their children from schools, one Chadian said from home after quitting his office.

“The shooting caused panic. Everyone thought it was a coup,” he said.

But the government swiftly issued a communique saying there was only a minor incident over “a misunderstanding related to salaries” and that the entire country “is under the control of the government security and armed forces.”

The statement, signed by communications minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, said all had returned to calm, “contrary to tendentious and alarmist rumours spreading about the trouble seen this morning in the capital.” Broadcasting the statement on state radio in the early afternoon, the government appealed to citizens to stay calm and return to their normal activities.

Wednesday’s events come amid heavy tension in Chad, where on Monday government forces attacked a rebel post in the east and days earlier the government announced it had thwarted a coup plot against President Idriss Deby.

Deby is currently in eastern Chad, not far from where government forces attacked rebel positions this week.

“The incident of this morning has nothing to do with the national army’s offensive in eastern Chad,” the statement said. The government said members of a national mine clearance commission – whose office is near the presidential compound – had a disagreement over salaries and it degenerated into "an altercation".

“Certain malicious groups try, as usual, to use this unfortunate incident with the aim of destabilising by way of disinformation and poisonous propaganda on the airwaves and particularly on certain well-known websites,” the government said. “Whether these doomsayers like it or not,” the Wednesday incident was not linked to clashes between the national army and rebels, it added.

Zimbabwe: Gov't Warns Opposition Against Protests

From Reuters - via POTP

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ruling party has warned the opposition against engaging in anti-government street protests, saying this could lead to bloodshed, state media said on Wednesday.

The warning, reported in the Herald newspaper, came one day after Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters the opposition party was formulating a plan for resistance.

Tsvangirai had urged Zimbabweans at a party congress last weekend to save food and money ahead of what he called a "cold season of peaceful democratic resistance" to end Mugabe's 26-year-old rule.

"Those who reject the legal and democratic way of running the government and choose confrontation will be confronted by the long arm of the law," Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party said in a statement published in the Herald.

"ZANU-PF alone has the gruelling experience of war, and strongly urges the armchair talkers to shut up. War is not like a picnic or a dinner party, it is blood, sweat, injuries and death."

Darfur: 60% Say U.S. Has a Responsibility to Stop Killings

Nick Kristof mentioned this Zogby poll in his Sunday column - via POTP

Seven in Ten Likely Voters Back No-Fly Zone, Say U.S. Has a Responsibility to Stop Darfur Killings

Ending the killing in the Sudan is a U.S. responsibility, according to a majority of likely voters in the latest Zogby America poll of 1,007 likely voters nationwide.

The poll finds three in five likely voters saying the U.S. has a responsibility to end the slaughter in the Sudan’s Darfur region, while seven in ten back imposing a no-fly zone to prevent Sudanese planes from bombing civilians.

The poll of likely voters, conducted March 14 through 16, finds 59% of U.S. voters believe more can be done diplomatically to end the crisis in the Sudan, while just one in four (24%) disagree. There is even stronger support for limited military action, with 70% backing creation of a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone over the African nation.

The call for U.S. action to resolve the three-year-old crisis is consistent across the nation. Support is nearly uniform in both the Republican leaning “Red States” and their Democrat-leaning “Blue State” counterparts. And while African-Americans and voters under the age of 30 are the most likely to say the U.S. has a responsibility to end the mass killings in the western region of the Sudan, both groups are a bit less likely than their peers to back imposition of a no-fly zone.

Republicans seem more ready to embrace direct action to end the humanitarian crisis, with 75% supporting a no-fly zone, compared to 68% of Democrats; Democrats, meanwhile, back further diplomatic action in greater numbers than Republicans, with 66% saying more can be done on the diplomatic front, compared to 50% of their GOP counterparts. In both instances, independents track closer to the Democratic viewpoint. Women and men in the poll register similar levels of agreement on both agreeing greater responsibility for ending the crisis lies with the U.S. and in their belief that more diplomatic efforts are needed. Among men, 74% embrace controlling Sudanese airspace, compared to 66% of women who agree.

The nationwide telephone poll of 1,007 likely voters, conducted March 14 through 16, has a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points.

Sudan: Interview With Sudan FM Lam Akol

In Asharq Alawsat

(Asharq Al-Awsat) Statements were also made threatening to withdraw from the African Union if it decides to shift its mission to the United Nations. Do you not think that such a threat might strain Sudan's relations with the African Union?

(Akol) As I said, our position does not conflict with that of the African Union, but we reminded the Union during our meeting with it that it was originally established for two main purposes. These are self-reliance and resolution of African issues by the African countries themselves. If the continent fails to solve its problems, some may ask: If the African Union cannot succeed in handling a small mission in Darfur, where can it succeed? We did not say we wanted to withdraw from the African Union. Sudan is a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and later the African Union. We play a large role in this Union. We are members of even the African Peace and Security Council.

(Asharq Al-Awsat) There is much talk about a hidden agenda that is playing a role in what is happening in Sudan through the African Union. How much do you support this opinion?

(Akol) I said in this regard that huge pressures were put on the African Union member states by certain states in order to adopt a certain decision. These pressures were not concealed this time. They came in papers that were publicly distributed among the member states. This is what I meant. If the African Union adopts decisions under pressure from states outside Africa, this will certainly undermine the credibility of the Union and make people doubt its ability to lead the continent. But as I said in a previous statement, the African states have proven that they do not take instructions from abroad all the time as some might imagine.

[edit]

(Asharq Al-Awsat) In your latest statement (on Thursday), you said bad relations with the United States would harm the peace agreement. How can you improve relations with it under this tense atmosphere and lack of unity of vision in dealing with it?

(Akol) This, of course, is a fact because the United States played a large role in the Machakos and Naivasha negotiations. It also played a large role in persuading the two sides to sign the peace agreement and in financing the talks. It was a witness to the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement. Washington was so eager to establish peace that it shifted the UN Security Council sessions to Nairobi in November 2004 during its presidency of the UN Security Council as a clear message to the parties on the need to reach a peace agreement before the end of 2004. This did actually happen as agreement was reached at the end of December that year. Moreover, the United States is the world's superpower and it is not in Sudan's interest to antagonize the United States. We expected the United States to change its policies after the signing of the peace agreement and the formation of the national unity government because the government formed after the peace agreement was completely different from the previous one. We hoped the United States would give this government a chance to accomplish the tasks entrusted to it in accordance with the comprehensive peace agreement.

But the US policy continued as it is. It continued to oppose Sudan at world forums and continued to behave as if nothing had changed. Nevertheless, we insist on dialogue with the United States. We believe that there is a misunderstanding that should be cleared up so that relations can be normalized. They are relations of friendship, cooperation, and joint work. There are no differences in opinion about the need to improve relations between Khartoum and Washington. This is an opinion that is approved by the national unity government, but the methods used do not lead to this improvement. It is the job of the Foreign Ministry to study the way to improve relations with the United States and other countries. We are in constant contact with it. Dialogue with it has not stopped whether during the visit the first vice president paid to the United States in November last year or my meeting with the assistant foreign secretary, in addition to other meetings designed to continue dialogue with the United States.

[edit]

(Asharq Al-Awsat) Your relations with the United Nations sometimes appear to be tense or in bad shape. Minister of State Ali Karti summoned UN envoy Jan Pronk and spoke to him in a language that sounded like a warning. Pronk, however, said he was not summoned but invited to a meeting. What is the truth about this issue?

(Akol) First of all, I do not think that our relations with the United Nations are bad. We are part of the United Nations and we cooperate with it. It is present in Sudan upon an agreement with the Sudanese Government.

Jan Pronk, the personal envoy of the UN secretary general in Sudan, makes statements which sometimes go beyond the limits of his work that are known to us. This is why he was summoned to the Foreign Ministry. He was summoned after the statements he made in order to be told that these statements, which go beyond the agreement the Sudanese Government and the United Nations signed, must be stopped. He must be playing with words when he says he was invited and not summoned. The ministry summoned him; he did not come upon his own will.

[edit]

(Asharq Al-Awsat) How do you view the possibility of reaching peace in Darfur?

(Akol) The problem of Darfur worries all. I think a peaceful political solution will be the most ideal solution. Actually, it is the only solution which can end all problems in Darfur. We must address the root causes of the problem in order to be able to find suitable solutions. We embarked on dialogue with the National Congress right from the beginning in order to jointly and urgently discuss the issue and spare blood as we did in the South. Agreement was reached with the National Congress on a common concept for negotiations in Abuja. This is the reason for the presence of SPLM members in the government delegation there. We are in agreement that top priority must be given to the peace negotiations. The delegation there is fully authorized to reach a peaceful solution. We are glad that the latest African Peace and Security Council meeting has emphasized the need to expedite the attainment of peace. It has even set a deadline for reaching a peace agreement.

Regarding eastern Sudan, we have reached a common vision on the way to reach a peaceful solution to the problem. The Eritrean Government's position on the mediator obstructed the start of talks. In fact, we have not called him a mediator thus far. We called him a facilitator. The Eritrean Government wants to play a role in this regard.

(Asharq Al-Awsat) What do you expect from the next UN Security Council meeting?

(Akol) This meeting is considered a continuation of a previous UN Security Council meeting that was held after the African Peace and Security Council meeting, during which it issued its known decision. There were differences in views. Some countries, including the United States and Britain, thought that the decision authorized the United Nations to take over the mission of the current African Union forces in Darfur and that six months were needed to prepare for this shift and that this will be done in accordance with a decision by the concerned party. The other countries, including China, Russia, Qatar, and Congo believed that what happened was a decision extending the mandate of the African forces and that the decision approved in principle the possibility of this shift. This shift, however, should be negotiated with the Sudanese Government. We expect the next session to witness a continuation of this discussion.

Darfur: Egeland Urges Sudan to Accept UN Peacekeepers

From AFP

The top United Nations humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, on Wednesday urged Sudan's government to accept the intervention of UN peacekeepers to tackle worsening strife in the western region of Darfur.

"The UN should be able to take over security in Darfur simply because the world is not able to equip the African Union (AU) force as it should," the UN emergency relief coordinator told journalists.

"I'm suggesting the Sudanese government sees ... that their people, women and children, are dying massively and they need help. They should accept the offer of help that is there," he added.

"This would be totally in line with the cultural and religious beliefs of all parties in Sudan."

[edit]

Egeland, who was spearheading the launch in Geneva of a Norwegian report on some 24-million internally displaced people in the world, said the situation in Darfur was deteriorating.

Humanitarian agencies were "retreating every week", he added.

"If we are denied access we have very, very serious problems. We are being delayed now and even our advance team is not allowed to go to Khartoum to plan for such a mission.

"I fear the next months more than I have done in any previous period since summer 2004, because the UN takeover could potentially take many, many months," he added, referring to a peak of suffering in Darfur that prompted a massive aid effort.

DRC/Uganda: UN Observer Mission Captures LRA Commander

From Xinhua

The UN Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC) and the Congolese army captured a senior commander of the Lord's Resistance Army rebel in Garamba, according to report reaching here Wednesday.

Bosco Atubo's capture in the northeastern Congolese town of Aba Monday is the first tangible confirmation of the rebel group's presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Atubo was the second rebel commander in custody in DRC after Richard Odong, who was captured early this month on the Yei-Juba road.

"We are happy that the MONUC and the Congolese army have finally seen the truth and are getting serious with the Kony rebels," said state-owned New Vision daily quoting a senior security official.

The LRA led by Joseph Kony had no ground to continue their bandit style insurgency, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced 1.4 million civilians in northern Uganda for the last 20 years, following intensified pressure from military operations.

Ugandan military has been put on high alert since Kony has reportedly left his hideout in southern Sudan to join his deputy Vincent Otti in the eastern DRC.

The Congolese army had handed over Atubo to the MONUC who in turn handed him over to the Ugandan government.

DRC: MONUC Gets Tough on Foreign Armed Groups

A lengthy piece from IRIN

The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) has taken a more aggressive stance in its fourth year of helping the country disarm, demobilise and repatriate foreign armed groups operating mainly from the east of the vast nation.

"We have launched several MONUC-FARDC [Congolese army] military operations since mid-December 2005 to flush out these groups," Alpha Sow, the head of MONUC in South Kivu Province, said. "So far, we are maintaining the carrot-and-stick approach. Those who want to repatriate voluntarily, we encourage, and we take stern measures against those who don't."

He added: "We have had [operation] Falcon Sweep, Iron Fist and others conducted by MONUC's South Kivu Brigade in coordination with FARDC, with the ultimate aim of transferring the responsibility of civilian protection to the Congolese army."

Chad: Rebel Base Destroyed, Says Army

From Reuters

Chad's government said on Wednesday its troops had destroyed an eastern rebel base in an operation aimed at heading off a rebel offensive ahead of elections in May in the landlocked central African country.

But a rebel leader said his fighters were still holding the position close to the eastern border with Sudan and had killed dozens of government troops, including senior officers.

The conflicting reports followed an offensive launched by President Idriss Deby's government on Monday designed to inflict an early strike against the rebels to stop them disrupting preparations for a May 3 presidential election.

"Loyalist forces have totally destroyed the rebel base at Hadjer Marfain," Information Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said, adding government troops had captured several senior rebel officers, destroyed a dozen vehicles and seized others.

"The area has been cleared out and there is no more fighting there," another official, who asked not to be identified, said.

But the SCUD rebel group targeted by the army offensive said it was still occupying its Hadjer Marfain base after heavy clashes in which it said its fighters killed more than 200 government troops, including senior officers.

There was no independent confirmation of either versions.

SCUD leader Yaya Dillo Djerou told Reuters by satellite phone he expected further attacks. "We are prepared," he said.

[edit]

There was brief panic on the streets of N'Djamena on Wednesday when a heated argument over wages in a government department opposite the presidency provoked the deployment of armed soldiers backed by a tank, witnesses said.

Residents and passers-by, fearing a coup or an armed confrontation, ran in panic until calm was restored and the soldiers withdrew.

Government officials said the army offensive this week had targeted not just SCUD, a group formed largely by army deserters, but also the anti-Deby RPJ (Popular Rally for Justice) led by another high-level defector, Abakar Tollimi.

They said some of the military plotters involved in last week's failed coup attempt, which included a plan to shoot down the president's plane, had fled to the eastern Hadjer Marfain area to join SCUD rebels already hiding there.

Deby, denouncing a spillover into Chad of the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, has accused the Sudanese government of backing efforts to topple him, a charge denied by Khartoum.

Doumgor said rebels wounded in the Hadjer Marfain fighting were being treated at the hospital in el-Geneina, in Sudan's Darfur not far from the border with Chad.

Darfur: Attacks Overwhelm Peace Force

From New York Times

The United Nations special envoy to Sudan said Tuesday that violence was rising in Darfur and that lack of progress in the south was jeopardizing a peace agreement that ended a separate conflict there.

The official, Jan Pronk, told the Security Council that killings, rapes and armed attacks on Darfur villagers were committed by armed gangs secure in the knowledge that no one would stop or punish them.

"In South Darfur, militia continue to cleanse village after village," he said. "The government has not disarmed them. On the contrary, African Union commanders on the ground openly speak about continued support to militia by forces allied to the government."

In what the United Nations calls the greatest humanitarian crisis and the Bush administration has labeled genocide, more than 200,000 people in Darfur have been killed and up to 2 million black villagers driven from their homes by Arab militias.

Mr. Pronk called on the international community to augment and assist the 7,000 African Union troops now in Sudan and not wait until the force is reorganized later this year as a United Nations force.

[edit]

Mr. Pronk said people in Sudan were confused about the United Nations and were subjected to propaganda campaigns claiming that the organization would challenge the nation's sovereignty.

"Groups on the ground put pressure on the government to resist what they call 'recolonization,' " he said. "In 2006 it's a hot topic because it is 50 years ago that Sudan became an independent country. People expressed genuine fear of the Iraq scenario being repeated in Sudan."

He said he sought to reassure them that the United Nations was acting in their interest. "I tell them it is Sudan plus 200 other countries," he said, "not 200 other countries against Sudan."

Mr. Pronk urged the Council not to borrow troops for Darfur from the existing peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan, where a peace agreement 14 months ago ended 20 years of civil war. "Cannibalization of any forces from southern Sudan would be tantamount to sending the watchman home in the afternoon," he said.

Security was deteriorating in the South, he said, and reconstruction and development were lagging dangerously. "If not addressed," he said, "people will ask what difference peace has made for them."

Somalia: UN Almost Doubles Aid Appeal

From the UN News Center

The United Nations today almost doubled its appeal for humanitarian aid for war-torn Somalia to more than $300 million, after the worst drought in a decade ravaged crops and left more than 2 million people in urgent need in the impoverished African country.

The appeal for $326,718,040, up from $174 million, addresses the critical humanitarian needs of the drought affected and vulnerable populations, including 710,000 people in a state of Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis, 915,000 experiencing a Humanitarian Emergency 1 and up to 400,000 internally displaced people, the Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia said in a statement.

“This current drought is unprecedented in ten years and the impact it is having on food, water, health, education and livelihoods is alarming. With a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation, the humanitarian community needs to scale up its current response exponentially,” said Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Christian Balslev-Olese.

Mr. Balslev-Olese also warned that if the upcoming main rainy season failed, and climate predictions already suggest a significant possibility of poor rains, “a tragedy will unfold,” and he appealed to “all aid organisations, the government, local authorities and the donors to work together to alleviate the egregious effects of the drought in this country.”

The statement said that in the event that this “worse case scenario materializes”, the number of vulnerable populations will increase to 2.2 million between July and December 2006, adding that while seemingly not such a large increase, “it does include a major shift in severity, with a nearly 40 per cent increase in the number of people facing Humanitarian Emergency or Famine conditions.”

Darfur: Parties Submit Views on Humanitarian Ceasefire

From AFP

Sudan's government and the two armed Darfur rebel movements in talks have submitted their reactions to draft proposals from African Union (AU) mediators for a humanitarian pact, the AU stated Tuesday.

"The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, the government of the Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have submitted their written responses to the Draft Agreement," said a statement from the AU, which is seeking to end the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region.

The agreement aims "to immediately bring to a stop the deteriorating security situation on the ground in Darfur, protect the internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps and create conducive conditions for the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the needy population," it said.

The draft proposals for an Enhanced Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement (EHCA), as it is formally known, centres on the demilitarisation of humanitarian supply routes and camps for displaced people, the text said.

The proposed accord also specifies that Khartoum forces and the two movements withdraw their forces to clearly identified areas, with buffer zones between them.

Sudan: Violence Surges in Both South and Darfur

An update of this earlier post - from Reuters

Violence is surging in Sudan's south as well as its western Darfur region, fueled by government inaction even after years of global attention, U.N. envoy Jan Pronk told the Security Council on Tuesday.

In the south, reconstruction, development and security initiatives have yet to get off the ground more than 14 months after a peace agreement ending two decades of civil war there, while in a separate conflict in Darfur, a cease-fire is being completely ignored and killing continues, Pronk said.

Sudan's government reached a peace deal with southern rebels in January 2005, and the Security Council approved a peacekeeping mission for the south two months later. It has been slowly deploying ever since and is now up to 80 percent of full strength, Pronk said.

But former rebel units have yet to be disbanded, weapons remain in abundant supply, and violent clashes between rival armed groups are on the rise as a result, he said.

Yet peacekeepers cannot step in because the security mechanism envisioned by the peace deal has not begun functioning and the government has imposed restrictions on U.N. troop movements in the affected areas, he said.

If the south's problems are not addressed, "people will ask what difference peace has made for them. Frustration will mount. Violence will increase," Pronk predicted.

In Darfur, fighting still rages between government and rebel forces despite a cease-fire and the government is still supporting Arab militias conducting ethnic cleansing in "village after village," Pronk said.

To quell the violence in Darfur, he called on the international community to quickly beef up an African Union peacekeeping force of some 7,000 troops already there, and not wait until that force is reconfigured as a U.N. force in a move expected later this year.

"Whoever is on the ground and whenever the transition will take place, a substantial strengthening of the present peacekeeping forces in Darfur is required as soon as possible," Pronk said.

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U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the Security Council nonetheless expected Sudan to work closely with U.N. planners preparing for the new mission in Darfur.

He said Washington was preparing a draft Security Council resolution seeking to lay the groundwork for a smooth transition to a U.N. force in Darfur. The text would also extend the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the south, which is due to expire on Friday.

Pronk agreed government consent for the new U.N. force would "greatly further the cause of peace in Sudan," along with a stronger cease-fire and a deal in the Abuja peace talks.

While some diplomats have suggested getting a new Darfur mission off to quick start by borrowing troops from the mission now in southern Sudan, Pronk warned that "cannibalization of any forces from southern Sudan would be tantamount to sending the watchman home in the afternoon."

Darfur: Podcast with Kristof

A good podcast with Nick Kristof from the Committee on Conscience

JERRY FOWLER: That was one of the things I wanted to ask you about. The French do have a contingent that is in that area of Eastern Chad based in Abeche. Have they had any reaction to these Janjaweed attacks that you saw the results of?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF: They have done more than anybody else, but still, almost nothing. When I was driving along the border, just about the only other moving vehicles I saw the whole time I was in that area was a French military convoy of troops based in Abeche, and driving along the border in an area that nobody else would go to. It was a little bit unclear what they were doing there. They did not encounter any resistance, of course, because the Janjaweed would see the French and immediately melt away. It was a substantial convoy. It was useful to have them there along the border to show a presence. I must say that they did not go in the even more insecure area beyond Aday. They were between Adrei and Aday and in fact, leaving—at the point I met them—the area of greatest uncertainty where the Janjaweed were making daily attacks, so they could do more, but at least they have sent somebody to go to that border area and demonstrate some kind of a presence.

JERRY FOWLER: Did you get a chance to talk to them and find out what their orders are?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF: I chatted with them, but I did not get a clear sense of what their instructions were, and I think there is a real deliberate ambiguity there. The French have not said what they will do if there is another invasion. During the first invasion, this attack at the end of December, French aircrafts buzzed along overhead monitoring the situation but did not actually bomb anybody or strafe anybody. It is seen as something of a warning. The sense I get is that there has been no decision yet made by the French, and ultimately it will be up to President Chirac to decide; does he attack an invading force or not? It would sure seem to me to be useful for the French—in conjunction with the United States—to say ahead of time, “Yes, we will,” that if these Chadian rebels invade, that the French will use air power to bomb and strafe the invading forces because I think that would essentially reduce the chance that an invasion would take place. The stakes are huge. Chad is a country that has had a long civil war itself, but now has a bit of stability. An invasion could trigger a new civil war that could last many, many years. There also are at least two major refugee camps with tens and tens of thousand of Darfur refugees right in that invasion corridor, and I think if you did have the Chadian rebels and the Janjaweed passing in that area, it would be very tempting for them to use their machine guns in those refugee camps and kill thousands and thousands of people. We have a huge interest in trying to stop the invasion from happening.

Darfur: Continuing Killings, Rapes, Human Rights Abuse Threaten Peace in All of Sudan

From the UN Security Council

The people of Darfur continued to yearn for peace, and the killings, rapes and abuse of human rights, in direct violation of agreements and Security Council resolutions, constituted a threat to peace in the Sudan as a whole, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Jan Pronk, told the Council this morning.

Noting that the situation in Darfur had not changed in the two months since his last briefing, he said militia in South Darfur continued to cleanse village after village. The Government had not disarmed them. On the contrary, African Union commanders on the ground openly spoke about continued support to militia by forces allied to the Government.

Demands laid down in Council resolutions were brushed aside, he continued. The Djamena ceasefire agreement was violated day after day. “The ceasefire does not function; the Joint Committee does not meet. The sanctions foreseen with the establishment of the Security Council Panel of Experts exist only in theory.” He believed the strategy of the United Nations should focus on two objectives: peace and protection -- peace between the warring parties and protection of unarmed civilians, particularly against movements that did not bother sitting at the table to talk peace.

To that end, he called for the swift conclusion of an agreement in Abuja on power and wealth sharing, followed by an all-inclusive dialogue on Darfur between all stakeholders, including civil society, to make it sustainable. He also called for a new ceasefire agreement that could hold, saying a so called humanitarian ceasefire, guaranteeing humanitarian assistance and relief workers’ access to victims, was not sufficient. A comprehensive ceasefire should guarantee that the victims themselves were protected and that no new victims were made.

The third necessary step was a robust peace force, large enough to be everywhere needed, strong enough to deter any attack, with a mandate broad enough to meet all possible threats and with staying power. “We must mend our own shortcomings and provide a future UN operation in Darfur with a robust mandate and a strong force, not just to preserve lives, but to ensure that all Darfurians can choose to live wherever they want to and their children can look forward to a future that their parents were denied”, he stated.

Among the few positive developments since his last briefing, he announced the successful conclusion of the Status of Forces Agreement with the Government, and the extension of the moratorium on measures curtailing humanitarian assistance, negotiated for the first time in July 2004 between Secretary-General Kofi Annan and President Bashir.

Darfur: Delegation Head Accuses African Leaders of Accepting Bribes

From Asharq Alawsat

A Sudanese official launched a strong attack on some African leaders and on the African Peace and Security Council's (APSC) resolution to extend the mandate of the African Union's (AU) forces in Darfur for another six months before handing the mission over to UN forces. However, despite this, the official expected the "peace agreement in Darfur to be signed within weeks."

Majdhub al-Khalifah, the head of the Sudanese Government's delegation for the Darfur negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria, said some African leaders "were bought" to pass the West's agendas and added, "These leaders yield to Western pressures to bring colonialism back to Africa." He pointed out that this is done by using the African leaders themselves and taming others to restore the "masters in the West and slaves in Africa" equation. He said some African leaders are working against Africa from within the UN Security Council and "are stabbing their countries in the back. They take your share there and sell it."

According to Al-Khalifah, the APSC resolution was issued after pressure was exerted on the African leaders. He stated that the resolution "is a summary of the Western pressures to hand the forces over to the United Nations on one side and the Sudanese pressures against removing the mission from the AU on the other side." He added that the persistence to hand over the mission of monitoring the ceasefire in Darfur to the United Nations has had a negative impact on the Abuja negotiations and "the agreement on sharing the resources between the two sides would have been signed had it not been for the pressures exerted in that direction."

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At another press conference held at the presidential palace, Sudanese Vice President Ali Othman Taha stressed that intensification of the Abuja negotiations would be the main priority in the forthcoming stage, adding that this was agreed on with EU and American officials in Brussels. He stated that all the parties would gather in Abuja and underlined the need for his government to mobilize "all the resources, expertise, and abilities" for the sake of the political solution to the satisfaction of the Sudanese people. According to Taha, "the Sudanese peace agreement is not the only point of reference for the peace process in Darfur but is important so that its clauses are not breached in Abuja."

After mentioning that the Sudanese cabinet welcomed the positive points in the APSC resolution, Taha criticized some clauses severely saying, "Some of them are surprising and it seems we do not want to use any other words." He explained that the resolution demanded that the Sudanese people should not protest and "this goes beyond the boundaries of propriety." He added, "Neither the APSC nor any other party in the world can prevent the Sudanese people from expressing their feelings" adding, "They do not need anyone to teach them how to defend their rights." He noted that the government expressed reservation over any clause in the resolution referring to the transfer of the AU forces in Darfur to the UN forces, as the AU does not have this right and is a matter of Sudanese sovereignty.

Sudan: UN Refugee Agency Expands Suspension of Repatriation Operations

From the UN News Center

The United Nations refugee agency today expanded its suspension of repatriation operations in southern Sudan after a recent spate of armed attacks and is temporarily relocating staff from certain areas where they were preparing for the return of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese who fled a two-decade-long civil war.

“We are sending three people on mission today from Geneva to assess the security situation in the repatriation areas of South Sudan, and to evaluate the measures needed to ensure the security and safety of our staff,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told a news briefing in Geneva.

The agency, which last week suspended repatriation from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the Yei region after gunmen attacked its compound there, killing a local guard and critically wounding an international staff member and another guard, expanded the suspension to the Yambio, Kajo Keji and Tambura areas.

“Our international staff working in these locations in Central and Western Equatoria have been relocated or are in the process of being relocated to other areas in south Sudan for two weeks,” Ms. Pagonis said.

The suspension, which also extended to returnees from the Central African Republic (CAR) and Uganda, was ordered after heavy fighting in Yambio on Saturday night near the compound of a non-governmental organization (NGO). The Sudanese People Liberation Army (SPLA) intervened and scattered the armed groups.

Even though UNHCR staff were not directly targeted the decision was taken “in view of the extremely volatile situation.” Other humanitarian agencies have also relocated from Yambio.

Sudan: Special Advertisement in the New York Times

From the New York Daily News

Human-rights activists are scorching The New York Times for taking almost a million dollars in advertising from the blood-soaked country of Sudan, whose leaders — according to the paper's own news and editorial pages, as well as its Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof — promote slavery and genocide on a grand scale.

"I practically fell off my seat on the subway this morning. I could not believe it," Human Rights Watch program director Iain Levine told me about the eight-page adver­tising supplement, for which The Times charged the Sudanese an estimated $929,000 for yesterday's New York-area editions.

The ad copy — by international image consultants Summit Communcations — touts Sudan's "peaceful, prosperous and democratic future" and complains about international media coverage "focused almost exclusively on the fighting between rebels and Arab militias" in Darfur.

"I haven't read the whole thing," Levine said, "so I won't call it a tissue of lies. But it is propaganda. I would argue that publishing it is morally questionable."

Ironically, The Times published a powerful editorial yesterday condemning Sudanese government-financed Arab militias that slaughter black Africans by the hundreds of thousands. "Nick Kristof has waged an almost single-handed campaign against the atrocities," Levine added. "If I was Nick Kristof, I would say this is a slap in the face."

Kristof was in Pakistan yesterday and unavailable for comment. Times spokeswoman Catherine J. Mathis said: "We accepted this special advertising section … in our strong belief that all pages of the paper — news, editorial and advertising — must remain open to the free flow of ideas. In accepting it, we do not endorse the politics, trade practices or actions of the country or the character of its leaders."

Sudan: Hindering Humanitarian Assistance

A press release from the State Department via AllAfrica

The United States is greatly concerned about the Sudanese government's closure of Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO) offices in El Geneina and Zalingei on March 11, 2006. The commission also closed the organization's health clinic and food distribution center in West Darfur and froze its local bank accounts. The Sudan Social Development Organization is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The head of SUDO, Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, met with President Bush last week. The United States calls on the Government of National Unity to reverse its decision and permit the Sudan Social Development Organization to resume its essential work in West Darfur.

The humanitarian community in Darfur is serving the vital purpose of assisting those who are struggling and dying from displacement, hunger, and sickness, as well as the constant threat of violence. We support the efforts of organizations working there in such adverse conditions.

The Humanitarian Aid Commission should stop obstructing delivery of humanitarian assistance across the country. We are concerned that pending legislation, intrusive inspections of humanitarian vehicles, and exorbitant administrative fees and delays in the receipt of travel permits will further constrict the ability and add hurdles to the delivery of necessary assistance by non-governmental organizations.

We call on the Government of National Unity to address immediately all obstacles to delivery of humanitarian assistance and provide protection for civilians and aide workers in the affected areas. This includes ending intrusive inspections of humanitarian vehicles, and exorbitant administrative fees and delays in the receipt of travel permits. In this regard, the United States urges the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the Humanitarian Aid Commission to extend the moratorium on restrictions on humanitarian activities for Darfur to ensure unfettered access by these organizations.

Darfur: Where is Europe's Voice Against Genocide?

An op-ed by Kenneth Jacobson in the International Herald Tribune

When we talk about the genocide in Darfur, the one element that needs far more attention is the disgraceful role of Western Europe. It has often been said with regard to Middle East issues, and it applies to Darfur as well, that where Europe goes often determines where many other nations will go.

Europe has been missing in action. It has not labeled what is taking place as genocide. It has not supported the United States in advocating stronger action by the United Nations. It has not picked up on the idea that NATO ought to get involved to provide the kind of security for the people of Darfur that the African Union has not provided.

It is time that this story were told, in the hope that exposure might generate enough pressure and public embarrassment to reverse the European position.

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Given the scale of what is happening in Darfur, however, and the U.S. focus on Iraq, this cannot be a unilateral American effort. If the EU were to join the United States, first in describing what is taking place as genocide and then in advocating a UN force with greater military responsibilities to protect the people of Darfur, a new momentum could be created. It would then be far more difficult for other nations to rationalize inaction.

One hears time and again the question of whether, a few years from now, the Western world will be asking itself where it was when the people of Darfur most needed it. Fortunately, the Jewish community has responded. It is motivated by a philosophy of "never again." The U.S. government is doing its share, though more is needed.

Now we need to state bluntly to Europe that the balance of the historical record lies in European hands. Europe can either join the United States in an aggressive campaign to place substantial forces in Darfur to prevent an even greater tragedy or continue on its current path and be held accountable for the consequences.

Indeed, given Europe's inaction on Darfur, the question must be asked: Is there truly a new Europe?

Uganda: Too Scared to Return Home

From IRIN

Akera is one of the 1.6 million-plus people who have been displaced by two decades of war between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda. He has lived in Padibe camp for years, relying on aid agencies to survive. The camp is located in the northern Kitgum district - one of the areas worst hit by the rebellion.

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At Padibe, according to 19-year-old Alex Akena, four children who had gone to gather mangoes had disappeared - most probably having been abducted by the LRA - one week before the UN delegation’s visit. They represent only a tiny fraction of a particularly vulnerable group that has borne the brunt of the conflict. Children, perhaps more than anybody else, will live longest with brutal memories of the terror and abuse they suffered as captives of the LRA.

Irene Ajok, nine, is afraid to sleep at night. She said that if she slept, she might be abducted and forced to eat a human being, as her sister was almost made to do when the rebels abducted them. "They killed a person and ordered the freshly abducted children, including my sister, Lillian, to eat the body. They refused to eat that body, and she was made to carry a heavy load of sorghum for a long distance as a punishment," Ajok told IRIN at a night commuters’ centre at a school in Kitgum. She is one of 400 children who seek refuge there every night.

Night commuters are children who, out of fear of LRA abduction, flee their home villages each night to sleep in the relative safety of larger towns. In the morning, they return to their villages. There are an estimated 40,000 night commuters in northern Uganda. The children said life as a night commuter was difficult, but better than living with the cruel treatment meted out by the rebels.

For many former abductees, the memories of atrocities committed by either their peers or LRA rebels torment them the most. Twelve-year-old Walter said he was never tortured or made to kill when he was abducted two years ago, but he had seen people having their heads cut off when they tried to escape. "Their eyes were looking at me," Walter remembered, speaking quickly in a monotone.

Rights groups and relief agencies estimate that the LRA has abducted at least 25,000 children to serve as fighters, porters and sex slaves since the rebellion started in northern Uganda in 1988.

Sudan: Refugee Returns Partly Suspended

From Reuters

The United Nations said on Tuesday that it was temporarily suspending repatriation of Sudanese refugees from three African countries to parts of southern Sudan following recent armed attacks.

Three officials from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will assess security in the volatile region for its staff, including 24 international employees who are being temporarily relocated, it said.

"We have decided to suspend our repatriation of Sudanese refugees from the Central African Republic, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Yei, Yambio, and Kajo Keji areas of south Sudan starting today (Tuesday) and to Tambura from Wednesday," spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told a briefing.

"Our international staff in these locations have been moved out to other areas in southern Sudan for two weeks while we undergo a review of the situation there," she said.

The decision was taken after heavy fighting in Yambio on Saturday evening near the compound of an aid agency and follows last week's deadly attack on a UNHCR compound in Yei.

Darfur: Sudan Blocks U.N. Aid Planners

From The New York Sun

A week after Secretary General Annan said Khartoum is "softening" its opposition to a U.N. force that could save lives in Darfur, Turtle Bay planners are yet to be allowed in the country.

The U.N. peacekeeping department, which planned to send an assessment team to Darfur on March 6, is yet to receive permission from the Sudanese government to enter the country so they can begin planning for the deployment of an up to 20,000-troop force to monitor the violence in Sudan.

And while President Bush yesterday reiterated his determination to involve NATO in support of the efforts to halt the Darfur genocide, Sudan did not signal it would relent on its resistance to any involvement of troops that are not part of the existing weak force controlled by the African Union.

"We are not there yet," U.N. spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told The New York Sun yesterday when asked if visas were extended by Khartoum to U.N. military planners who would begin preparations for a Darfur force.

According to one Turtle Bay official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, the peacekeeping department is hoping permission would be given after next week's Arab League summit, which convenes in Khartoum. "We are not going to get a definitive answer before that," the official said.

Chad: Army Launches Offensive Against Eastern Rebels

From Reuters

Government troops in Chad have launched a military offensive against rebels in the east as President Idriss Deby seeks to reassert his control over the country ahead of a presidential election in May.

Government sources in N'Djamena said on Tuesday the Chadian army had since Monday attacked at least one rebel command post in the mountains of Hadjer Marfain, south of Adre, near the eastern border with Sudan.

"We've gone on the offensive since yesterday morning and we've dislodged the rebels from the mountains of Hadjer Marfain where they had installed a command post," one of the government sources, who asked not to be named, said.

The source gave no casualty report but said the Chadian army had destroyed several rebel vehicles.

A leader of the Chadian SCUD rebel group confirmed an attack against one of his bases, but said his fighters had repulsed the government assault, inflicting heavy casualties.

"They attacked from two sides, from the east and the west, but we are controlling our position," SCUD rebel leader Yaya Dillo Djerou told Reuters by satellite phone.

Deby, who has faced increasing attacks and incursions on Chad's eastern border by groups of Chadian rebels and army deserters in recent months, was directing the offensive in the east of the country, along with his defense minister.

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"This is a first offensive and others will follow to end the activities of all these rebel movements," the government source said.

SCUD leader Dillo said the government offensive was an attempt by Deby to demonstrate he could still control the country and defend its borders, despite a wave of defections by military officers and close aides since last year.

"It's not a big threat for us. After the last desertion, he (Deby) is trying to shore up his international credibility," he said.

Darfur: Week of Prayer and Action

A press release from Save Darfur

The Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than 150 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights groups representing 130 million Americans, announced today it is launching a "Week of Prayer and Action for Darfur" from April 2 - 9 and inviting communities of all faiths to participate. The goal is to promote its "Million Voices for Darfur" campaign to generate one million postcards to President Bush urging him to use the power of his office to fulfill his Feb. 17 pledge to support a stronger multi-national force to protect the Darfuri people (http://www.MillionVoicesForDarfur.org). Ending the killing in the Sudan is a U.S. responsibility, according to a majority of likely voters in the latest Zogby America poll of 1,007 likely voters nationwide (see poll results at: http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1083).

The Save Darfur Coalition also announced that it has generated an impressive 100,000 electronic and hand-written postcards since launching the Million Voices for Darfur campaign on Jan. 12, the 55th anniversary of the International Genocide Prevention Day.

Darfur: Senator Clinton Calls on President Bush to do More

A letter from Senator Hillary Clinton to Preisdent Bush and UN Ambassador John Bolton

I write with great concern about the crisis in Sudan. Despite the work of the African Union, violence against civilians and aid workers in Darfur is increasing and spilling across the border into Chad. Between 200,000 and 400,000 people have been killed, and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other credible experts continue to warn that three million civilians are displaced and at risk in Darfur and in eastern Chad. The situation in eastern Sudan is also of concern.

The United States and United Nations (U.N.) now possess extensive, official accounts of the violence and, through a U.N. Panel of Experts and other sources, we also know who may be responsible. The Government of Sudan – reported by the U.S. State Department on March 8, 2006 to be responsible for the genocide in Darfur – continues to deny the existence of a crisis. It continues to threaten retaliation against an international intervention, and, according to a U.N. report dated January 30, 2006, it continues to introduce additional military aircraft into Darfur. The United States can and must do more. Below are 13 ways in which you can take action.

Click the link for the rest of the letter.

Sudan: Two Peacekeepers Wounded in Another Attack on UN Post

From the UN News Center

In the second attack on a United Nations post in southern Sudan in less than a week, two peacekeepers from Bangladesh were wounded yesterday when 100 armed men tried to confine the blue helmets to their base in order to loot other compounds in Yambio near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The two wounded men, part of a UN force supporting a peace agreement that ended a two-decade-long civil war, were hit by ricocheting bullets rather than any fired at them, and initial indications are that the attackers were seeking communications equipment, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reported today.

Three of the gunmen were killed in the attack, which occurred just past midnight on Saturday and ended soon after local Sudanese troops reached the scene. UNMIS said security will be upgraded at the base.

Last Wednesday, a local guard was killed and a staff member and a second local guard seriously wounded when two gunmen attacked a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) compound in Yei, forcing the suspension of the planned repatriation of some of the hundreds of thousands of Sudanese who fled the civil war.

Darfur: Non-African Troops Risks 'Iraq', Says Sudan

From Reuters

Letting non-African troops into Sudan's troubled Darfur region risks creating turmoil like that seen after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Sudan's president said on Monday.

Despite the widespread view that an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force had done little to quell violence in Darfur, President Omar al-Bashir argued it was doing its job well and needed no outside help.

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"We have witnessed what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and learned lessons that shouldn't be repeated on the African continent," Bashir told a one-day regional summit in Nairobi.

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Bashir said the AU mission's work was a "success for Africa" and proof the continent could work out its problems without foreign intervention.

"We will spare no effort to create the conducive atmosphere for the African Union mission to carry out its task until we reach a negotiated comprehensive peaceful settlement in Darfur in the very near future," he said.

Chad: 100 Military Coup plot Suspects Arrested

From Reuters

Chad's government has arrested 100 military officers and soldiers implicated in a failed assassination plot against President Idriss Deby last week, the security minister said on Monday.

Routouang Yoma Golom also ruled out peace negotiations with Chadian rebels and army deserters who are threatening to launch an offensive from the east of the landlocked oil producer to try to topple Deby as he prepares for a May 3 presidential election.

The Chadian leader, whose 16-year rule has been weakened by a spate of high-level military desertions in recent months, rushed home from an African summit a week ago to foil what officials said was a plot to shoot down his plane.

"There are around 100 members of the military implicated in this coup who have been arrested. They will be brought to trial," Golom told reporters, without identifying the suspects or explaining their involvement in the plot.

He added a military court would sentence them over the next one or two months.

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Golom said that since the government announced the failed coup plot last week, Deby had been visiting military barracks to ensure the loyalty of his troops.

"The situation is totally under control and calm has returned. The head of state has personally gone several times to military camps .... to restore order," the minister said.

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"Negotiating with coup plotters is out of the question," Golom said.

"If there's someone who you've forgiven two, three times already and he wants to kill you, you're not going to carry on forgiving him. I don't seen any opportunity for negotiations."

Last week's announcement of a coup plot came weeks before a presidential election which is widely expected to extend the rule of 53-year-old Deby.

Golom insisted there had been a plan to kill Deby, rejecting charges by one rebel leader that this had just been an invention by the government to cover up another embarrassing wave of high-level military desertions.

The minister said the arrested plotters "had coordinated with those who are rebelling (against Deby) from inside Sudan to allow them into Chadian territory".

"The plan was to strike in N'Djamena and when N'Djamena falls, the way is open and there'll be less resistance for them to penetrate into Chad and reach N'Djamena," he added.

Analysts fear the threat posed to Deby by the rebels, who appear to be able to operate from Darfur, risked increasing the conflict already spilling over from that Sudanese territory, where ethnic and political violence has killed thousands.

Darfur: Bush Says U.S. Backs NATO Force to Provide Security

From Bloomberg

President George W. Bush said the U.S. supports a North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeeping mission to provide security for refugees displaced in the violence-stricken Darfur region of Sudan.

NATO can take a role once the African Union requests its security force be converted to a United Nation's mission, Bush said at the White House after meeting with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Once that's done, he said, ``NATO can move in with United States help within -- inside of NATO -- to make it clear to the Sudanese government that we're intent upon providing security for the people there, and intent upon helping work toward a lasting peace agreement.''

[edit]

De Hoop Scheffer said that when the UN request is made, ``the NATO allies will be ready.''

The AP has more

NATO is prepared to support a U.N. force in the Darfur region of Sudan, the alliance's secretary-general told President Bush in a White House visit Monday.

"I'm quite sure, as I told the president, that when the U.N. comes, the NATO allies will be ready to do more in enabling a United Nations force in Darfur," Jaap De Hoop Scheffer told reporters after his meeting with Bush.

Bush has called for greater NATO involvement in Darfur, which the United Nations has described as the world's gravest humanitarian crisis. The conflict there has left more than 180,000 people dead and 2 million displaced.

But Bush said the African Union must request that its mission in Darfur be converted to a U.N. mission. When that happens, NATO can move in with U.S. help "to make it clear to the Sudanese government that we're intent upon providing security for the people there and intent upon helping work toward a lasting peace agreement," Bush said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meeting with the NATO secretary-general, said Monday "NATO can play a very important role in enhancing the capabilities of African Union forces."

De Hoop Scheffer, repeating what he said at the White House while having his picture taken with Rice, said he was "quite sure that when that question comes that the NATO allies will stand ready to support that mission in Darfur."

"I'm not talking about NATO forces on the ground," he said later as he left the State Department. "But could you enable the mission by giving logistical support, by going on in the transport of the forces, by giving training, then I think the NATO allies would take a very positive stand on that."

ICC: First Suspect Makes Appearance

From Reuters

A Congolese militia leader, the first suspect to face trial at the International Criminal Court, made an initial appearance in The Hague on Monday on charges of conscripting children for war.

Thomas Lubanga was transferred to the ICC on Friday night after he was flown from the Democratic Republic of Congo aboard a French military plane the day after Congolese authorities surrendered him to the court.

Lubanga, dressed in a dark suit, confirmed his identity and heard a list of his rights, but refused to hear a readout of his arrest charges, saying he had already been informed about it earlier in The Hague.

"I was born on the 29th of December 1960 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am a politician by profession," Lubanga said speaking in French.

He was the founder and leader of one of the most dangerous militia in Congo's lawless northeastern district of Ituri, the ICC has said.

Presiding Judge Claude Jorda set the next hearing on June 27, when the court would confirm the precise charges.

Darfur: Attacks on Tibon IDP Camp and Villages in Jebel Marra

From SOTA

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 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 2005 on account of the deterioration in the security situation in the area.

Nigeria: Several Die in Clashes Ahead of Census

From Reuters

Several people were killed and dozens injured in weekend clashes between two communities in southwestern Nigeria which police said on Monday were linked to this week's controversial national census.

The census is the first attempt in 15 years to count residents in Africa's most populous country.

Headcounts have been controversial in Nigeria since independence from Britain in 1960 because population is the yardstick used to allocate oil revenues and decide political representation.

But as well as the logistical challenges of a vast, chaotic, impoverished country with few decent roads, organisers have to contend with competing regions, religious communities and ethnic groups all eager to assert their numerical superiority.

These issues are explosive in Nigeria, where at least 14,000 people have died in ethnic, religious or political violence since the return to civilian rule in 1999 after 15 years of military dictatorship.

The bloodiest contests for power usually occur between small villages fighting over disputed boundaries or political control of local councils.

Darfur: Rape, Attempted Rape, and the Death Penalty

From SOAT

On 07 March 2005, two armed militias in military uniform attacked four girls from Seraif IDP camp, Hay AlGeer, West Nyala, Southern Darfur. The girls were attacked whilst collecting firewood outside the camp at 11:30. During the attack, one of the men assaulted one of the girls and attempted to rape her. The armed man touched the girl’s breasts and attempted to forcefully remove her underwear. When she resisted, the man began to beat her. In defence she grabbed a knife that she had been using to cut the firewood and stabbed the attacker in the stomach.

[edit]

Following the stabbing, the girls managed to escape and returned to Seraif camp where they reported the incident to police officers inside the camp. The police refused to file the case.

On the same day, 07 March 2005, in the afternoon, police officers inside the camp were told of the death of a stabbing victim. Following the news of the death, the officers immediately arrested the four girls inside the camp on suspicion of murder.

The girls were initially taken to Nyala Shamal police station where they were detained for five days and charged with murder under Article 130 of the 1991 Penal Code. If convicted, the girls face death by hanging.

[edit]

In a separate incident, on 15 March 2006, fifteen armed militia men attacked and raped five women (details withheld) from Kalma IDP camp. The women (aged between 18 and 27) were attacked whilst collecting firewood outside the camp, approximately 3 Km North East of the camp. During the attack, the women were raped and flogged. SOAT partner Organisation in Nyala, the Amel Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture has referred the women to Medicines Sans Frontiers clinic in Kalma IDP camp, where they are receiving medical treatment.

Uganda: Museveni Says It's Time to Finish LRA 'Once and For All'

From Sapa-AFP

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday urged neighbouring states Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help decimate insurgents from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that has waged a brutal war in the country's northern region.

A day after threatening to redeploy Uganda's military in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo if LRA rebels hiding there attacked his country, Museveni said the insurgents had already been driven from northern Uganda and southern Sudan.

"Remnants of them have now fled to the Garamba National Park of Congo. This area is under control of the United Nations and Kinshasa government. We should use the same cooperation to decimate this group," Museveni told an Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in Kenya.

Museveni said Uganda, DRC, the Khartoum government and the group in control of southern Sudan, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, should work together "to finish this problem once and for all".

"Otherwise, these killers are using Congo now to kill people in southern Sudan in areas of Meridi and Yei," he said.

Darfur: Refugees Trickle Home as AU Aids Security

From Reuters

a barren Darfuri village in Sudan's remote west there are fresh signs of life. Farmers are trickling back to the homes and plots of land they had abandoned to raiding militias.

They say African Union forces deployed around Habila Konare have restored some of their trust in authorities after three years of conflict during which the line between protector and predator was often blurred.

"Now there is good security and people are back to plant in time for the harvest," said resident Yagoub Mohamed Yahia.

He said since AU forces last visited the village a few months ago around 300 people had returned from squatter camps near the state capital el-Geneina, where they had taken refuge in 2003.

Those who have returned can even leave the village to look for firewood without fear of attack, Yahia added.

That statement in another part of the world might seem insignificant but in Darfur it is a sign of immense progress. For three years Darfuris have been unable to perform even the most basic daily tasks for fear of rape and murder.

Uganda/Sudan: LRA Terrorizes Sudan

From The Sunday Vision

“Since the LRA moved into Western Equatoria and Congo, our movements have really been curtailed,” says Ahmed Warsame, the head of the UNHCR office in Yei. “We cannot travel without escorts on all roads leading out of Yei. Because of the LRA threat, we had to evacuate our staff from the Congolese border town of Aba and relocate our office to Aru. As a result, the operation of resettling refugees from that area had to be put on hold. If the security situation deteriorates, we shall have to revise our programme. Security is the primary concern of the refugees. ‘Is it safe?’ is the first question they ask us when we visit the camps.”

The minister of Information in the new government of Southern Sudan, Dr. Samson Kwaje, believes the LRA is part of the destabilisation plan of Khartoum. “The ruling party is using the LRA to discredit its partner-in-peace so that it does not deliver,” he told us in his residence in Juba. “It has learned a lesson from the Ugandan elections, where Museveni was voted out in the north for failing to maintain security.”

According to the minister, the LRA is only one out of three militias used by Khartoum to frustrate the government of Southern Sudan. “In Upper Nile, it is using the SSDF (Southern Sudan Defence Forces) of Gordon Kong. In Bahr El Ghazal, it is using the Bahr El Ghazal Peace Force of Tom El Nur. But in Equatoria, it failed to raise a local militia since the Equatoria Defence Forces (EDF) had joined the SPLA. The LRA was therefore brought back in. There is evidence of fresh supplies to the LRA. On March 3, after attacking the village of Wonduruba in Lanya, Yei district, villagers witnessed the LRA breaking open new boxes of ammunition with Arabic inscriptions.”

The commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces in Juba, however, brushed away these allegations. “In the past, when we fought the SPLA, we were assisting the LRA,” he said in the army barracks in Juba. “We stopped assisting them in 1998, after we reached an agreement with Uganda. The LRA hid some of the ammunition we had given to them, which they are digging up now.” The general, who refused to be named, fiercely denies accusations of continued support to the LRA. “There is no reason for us to help the LRA,” he maintains. “They attacked our troops. They killed our people. They are our enemy.”

Whatever the case, the LRA has effectively disrupted reconstruction and resettlement operations in Southern Sudan. “The LRA is posing restrictions on our movements,” confirms James Ellery, the regional coordinator of the UN peace keeping mission in Sudan (UNMIS). “It is affecting the delivery of humanitarian goods. World Food Programme has been de-mining and building roads, which have made it possible for relief goods to come in and for trade to pick up. Prices have halved as a result. We don’t want the LRA to frustrate that process.”

“Anybody still supporting the LRA, has to watch out. We will soon hear about it. It would be taken very seriously. The LRA is a malign force. Their actions of attacking unarmed villagers are brutal and absolutely unforgivable. The people of Southern Sudan hate them. Fortunately, insurgencies without an agenda or local support don’t last very long. Their days are numbered,” he warns.

Asked if the UN would help the government of Southern Sudan to fight the LRA, Ellery says their mandate did not allow that. “We operate under Chapter 6, which does not allow peace enforcement. But we are willing to provide the SPLA with all other assistance, apart from combat, to chase out the LRA. It is intolerable that a foreign terrorist group is operating in Southern Sudan to the detriment of the peace process.”

DRC/Uganda: Museveni Will Send Troops if LRA Attacks

From Reuters

Uganda will not hesitate to send troops back into Congo if it is attacked by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels hiding there, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said in an interview on Sunday.

Uganda says LRA leader Joseph Kony fled hideouts in southern Sudan this week and joined his deputy in the lawless jungles of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Museveni told the state-owned Sunday Vision newspaper the Ugandan military would respond firmly to any LRA incursion.

"If they attack any part of Uganda, we shall follow them into Congo with or without approval," the president said.

"Under international law, we have a right of self-defence. That one we have said and it is clear."

DRC: Hungry Dying in Food-Short Katanga Camps

From Reuters

Dozens of displaced civilians are dying of hunger each month in south-east Congo, where government troops are fighting to control a renegade militia before national elections, aid workers said on Sunday.

Humanitarian workers in Democratic Republic of Congo are trying to help thousands of hungry people in camps in north and central Katanga province, but said they were overwhelmed and did not have enough food supplies to prevent severe malnutrition.

Jan Peter Stellema, a project coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, said up to 20 people were dying each week in one of three camps at Dubie, 350 km (210 miles) north of Lubumbashi, where nearly 20,000 civilians have sought shelter.

"There is no reason for malnutrition rates to go down because there is not enough food. I see people eating manioc skin, which is usually thrown away or fed to the pigs," he told visiting journalists and United Nations aid workers in Dubie.

Hungry civilians seeking shelter in Dubie say they go for days without a meal. Some are considering leaving the camps to die at home rather than in the remote Katangese town.

Darfur/Chad: The Silence of Bystanders

The latest from Nick Kristof

I saw a lot of heartbreak on my latest visit to the fringes of Darfur: two orphan boys living under a tree after their family was murdered, a 13-year-old girl shot in the chest and a 6-year-old boy trying desperately not to cry as doctors treated shrapnel wounds to his leg.

But the face of genocide I found most searing belonged to Idris Ismael, a 32-year-old Chadian. Mr. Idris said that a Sudan-sponsored janjaweed militia had attacked his village, Damri, that very morning. He had managed to run away. But his wife, Halima, eight months pregnant, could only hobble. And so she was still in the village, along with their four children, ages 3 to 12.

"The village is surrounded by janjaweed, with civilians inside," Mr. Idris said. "There's no way for people to escape. The janjaweed will kill all the men, women and children, take all our blankets and other property, and then burn our homes. They will kill every last person."

"The janjaweed will rape and kill my family," Mr. Idris added. "And there's nothing I can do."

Elie Wiesel once said, referring to victims of genocide: "Let us remember: what hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander." And it's our own silence that I find inexplicable.

In Darfur, we have even less excuse than in past genocides. We have known about this for more than two years, we have photos and eyewitnesses, our president has even described it as genocide, and yet we're still paralyzed. Part of the problem is that President Bush hasn't made it a top priority, but at least he is now showing signs of stirring — and in fact he's done more than most other world leaders, and more than many Democrats. Our failure in Darfur is utterly bipartisan.

Mr. Bush met recently at the White House with Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, an authentic Sudanese hero, to get advice on Darfur, and he seems engaged — though still not ready to leap into the issue publicly by making a major speech on Darfur, or by welcoming refugees for a photo op at the White House. Alas, Mr. Bush is far more timid than the American people.

A new poll by Zogby International that surveyed 1,000 Americans a few days ago asked about Darfur. Sixty-two percent said that "the United States has a responsibility to help stop the killings in the Darfur region of Sudan"; only 24 percent disagreed.

In response to another question, only 24 percent said that "the U.S. has done enough diplomatically to help end the crisis." In contrast, 59 percent said that more could be done.

One measure we could take would be to enforce a no-fly zone from the air base in Abéché, Chad. The president of Chad says he would be happy to have Americans do this, and it would be easy: instead of keeping airplanes in the air, we would simply wait until a Sudanese plane bombed a village, then strafe that plane on the ground afterward. (The first time, we would just damage the plane; we would destroy any after that.)

Asked about such a no-fly zone in the Zogby poll, 70 percent said they supported the idea, and only 13 percent opposed it.

So Americans are, I think, better than our national policy. How do we align our government with our hearts? The only way is to push our leaders, whether by calling the White House or members of Congress, or by attending the rally in Washington on April 30 planned by the Save Darfur Coalition (www.savedarfur.org).

Darfur is not hopeless. We need a new peace initiative, focused on the sheiks of the region. We need a well-equipped U.N. peacekeeping force and a no-fly zone. We need a public pledge by France to use its military forces in Chad to stop any invasion from Sudan. And we need Arab leaders to speak up for the Muslim victims of Darfur: where are you, Hosni Mubarak? With those measures, Darfur might again be a place where children play, rather than one in which they are thrown into bonfires.

Among the few heroes in this genocide are the ordinary Chadian villagers. They are desperately poor, but when 200,000 Darfuris escaped into Chad, these villagers shared water, forage and food with them.

Now these same Chadians are themselves becoming victims of an ever-expanding Sudanese genocide. In the town of Borota, I talked to Fatima Adam, 15, who described being gang-raped and beaten by six janjaweed a few days earlier. As often happens, the men had used racial slurs against blacks to justify the attack.

"The same things they were doing in Darfur," Fatima said, "now they are doing to us."

Chad/Darfur: Misery Follows Influx

From The Boston Globe

In an alarming development in a part of Africa that has witnessed some of the world's deadliest warfare, about 8,000 refugees from Chad have poured into Sudan's Darfur region in the past few months. Their plight, along with that of the thousands of Sudanese who have fled into Chad, has added to fears that the humanitarian disaster in Sudan is now threatening the stability of the entire region.

In the Gelu camp, along the Chad-Sudan border, the refugees from Chad squatted in the shade of straw huts to escape the blistering heat and wind in late February. They had arrived in Darfur more than a month earlier, fleeing attacks by tribal militias backed by the Chadian army. The militias are fighting rebels trying to topple Chad's government. The unrest inside Chad is fueling the new crisis.

Operating from bases along the border inside Sudan, Chadian rebels seeking to oust President Idriss Déby have begun preparing for a major offensive. Since their first major attack, on the eastern city of Adré in December, their numbers have grown to between 8,000 and 9,000 well-armed men, according to their leader, Mohammad Nour.

[edit]

At the refugee camp, Ibrahim Osman, the camp's 30-year old sheik, reflected on the cross-border quagmire.

''Before the Chadian rebels ever attacked government positions, we came under fire from the Chadian army and militias from rival tribes who said, 'We will start with you, you belong to the same tribe as the opposition.' " Osman said. ''I hear that the problem here in Darfur is the same, only reversed."

Reuters has a similar story

"They came in cars, they stole all our cattle and drove us out into the desert," said a wearily bemused Osman, waving her wrinkled, bony arms.

"I walked for eight days before arriving here."

Each day more families trickle in from across the border in Chad. Many tribes traverse both sides of the Sudan/Chad border and the residents of Geylu in Darfur have welcomed their kinsmen. But food is running out fast as the number of refugees grows.

"We have nothing here, just what is in our hands," said Zeinab Abdallah. "They came in camouflaged vehicles, stole everything we had and drove us out," she said, holding her baby whose runny nose was attracting a cloud of flies.

The refugees said since December the Zaghawa-led Chadian government had been using militia to orchestrate attacks on villages along the border, searching for the insurgents.

"Ever since the Adre attack the government has been arming their people, the Zaghawa, and attacking us," said Suleiman Ismail, a tribal leader among the Chadian refugees.

Ismail is Tama, the same tribe as Mahamat Nour, the leader of the Chadian guerrillas who attacked in December. Deby's Zaghawa tribe and the Tama have long clashed but the recent attacks were politically motivated, Ismail said.

"When they attacked my village they were shouting 'you are all rebels' -- but we don't have any links to rebels," he said. Ismail said six people were murdered in the attack on his village Gaffou, including his father.

Darfur: Annan Hopes Sudan Will Allow Peacekeepers

From Reuters

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the Sudanese government on Sunday to back plans to deploy U.N. peacekeepers in its troubled western Darfur region.

"I hope we will have the cooperation of the Sudanese government," he said when asked about Darfur at the end of a 4-day visit to the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar.

[edit]

Annan said the 6-month extension of the AU mission would give the United Nations time to prepare its force for Darfur.

But he also said the situation was critical.

Tens of thousands have died and 2 million have been forced from their homes in a civil war that has wrought havoc on Sudan's vast Darfur region since February 2003.

"The security situation in Darfur is worsening," he told reporters.

Annan said he knew Khartoum was "not so hot" on the idea of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur but their deployment in south Sudan to implement a 2005 north-south peace deal was a good precedent.

Annan hoped Khartoum and the Darfur rebels could strike a deal in the Nigeria "as soon as possible".

Darfur: Sudan Facing Fresh Charges of Genocide

From the Scotsman

SUDANESE government forces massacred their own citizens in a mosque in Darfur, according to fresh evidence presented by the African Union.

The AU, which is attempting to keep the peace in the devastated region, sent monitors to the town of Tawilla to investigate reports of a massacre last September.

A confidential AU report, obtained by The Scotsman, reveals that four people were killed and 24 injured.

It came to light as human rights organisations criticised the Sudanese government for its continued attempts to prevent the United Nations from taking over the peacekeeping role in Darfur, where upwards of 400,000 people are believed to have been killed in genocidal attacks.

[edit]

New evidence of those attacks is apparent in the AU's reports. One details an attack in September last year in Tawilla in which Sudanese government forces had used "heavy and light weapons against an unarmed crowd of civilians".

The report added that the police then embarked on "a wanton destruction of properties, leaving 30 houses and market stalls burnt down" in a clear violation of peace accords signed by the government.

The AU said 30 heavily armed police soldiers opened fire on unarmed and innocent civilians who went to the mosque for afternoon prayers.

The report was signed off by a Sudanese colonel, but only after he had recorded his view that the incident was precipitated by an attack on police by Sudanese rebels carrying grenades in the mosque. The AU noted that a number of police were injured by a grenade.

Witnesses described how the police fired into the mosque using heavy weapons.

Darfur: ICG Calls on France to Lead UN Transition

More from the report from the International Crisis Group mentioned earlier

Crisis Group has long contended that because AMIS has reached the outer limits of its competence, and a UN mission authorised today would not be fully ready to take over from it for some six months, a distinct and separate multinational force should be sent to Darfur to bridge that gap and help stabilise the immediate situation. We have argued, and continue to believe, that NATO would be best from a practical military point of view. Unfortunately, political opposition to this in Khartoum, within the AU and even perhaps within the Atlantic Alliance itself, means it is not achievable at this time.

What we now propose, therefore, is a compromise driven by the urgent need for a more robust force in Darfur. A militarily capable UN member state – France seems most promising since it already has troops and aircraft in the area – should offer to the Security Council to go now to Darfur, wearing blue helmets, as the lead nation in the first phase of the incoming UN mission. It could be joined from the outset by forces from one or two other militarily capable UN members (and would probably need to be if the desirable target of around 5,000 personnel for this force is to be achieved). This stabilisation force would be a self-contained, separately commanded UN mission with identified functional or geographic divisions of responsibility that would work beside AMIS and through a liaison unit at its headquarters until arrangements were in place for a 1 October transition to the full UN mission. That full mission would need to be recruited from the best AMIS elements as well as a wider circle of Asian and other member states – no easy task at a time when several large UN peacekeeping missions in Africa and elsewhere have exhausted the capabilities of many contribution candidates.

Darfur: Huge Funding Shortfall Threatens 2 Million Children

From the UN News Center

Nearly 2 million children in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region are threatened by severe funding shortfalls, with only 11 per cent of the urgently needed $89 million either committed or pledged, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported today.

“Without significant and immediate funding, and given existing problems with security and access, the humanitarian crisis that was averted only last year will return,” country representative Ted Chaiban said.

“Conflict in Darfur has entered its third year and is no longer front page news. UNICEF is sounding the alarm that lack of funding for essential water and sanitation, health, education and protection programmes is an additional threat facing children.”

With only $10.9 million committed or pledged, 89 per cent is still outstanding of the total funding UNICEF needs to operate in the region for the remainder of the year. These resources will run out in a matter of months.

Update: ICC Receives First Suspect

From Reuters

Congo sent a militia leader suspected of ordering the killing of nine U.N. peacekeepers last year to the International Criminal Court on Friday, making him its first prisoner, the court said.

The suspect, Thomas Lubanga, leads the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an ethnic militia now registered as a political party and accused of widespread human rights abuses in eastern Congo's lawless Ituri district.

"Thomas Lubanga Dyilo ... was arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court ... Thomas Lubanga must answer for war crimes," the International Criminal Court (ICC) said in a statement.

Lubanga, who left aboard a French military plane, was expected to arrive in The Netherlands later on Friday.

The controversial ICC in the Hague was set up as the first permanent global war crimes court to try individuals, and Lubanga is the first suspect to be delivered into its custody.

[edit]

Lubanga's UPC, dominated by the Hema ethnic group, stands accused of widespread human rights violations in Ituri, where a range of foreign and local militias have raped, looted and murdered civilians during and since Congo's 1998-2003 war.

"The Chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to believe Lubanga had committed the following war crime: conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years and using them to participate actively in hostilities," the ICC said in its statement.

Lubanga was arrested in March 2005 in the Congolese capital Kinshasa, where he had moved more than a year earlier and registered the UPC as a political party.

His arrest was part of a U.N. crackdown after nine Bangladeshi U.N. peacekeepers were killed in February 2005 in the deadliest attack on the world body's biggest peacekeeping force.

U.N. military sources said Lubanga was suspected of ordering the attack from Kinshasa. Other militia leaders also accused of involvement have been arrested and detained in Kinshasa.

Uganda: Multi-Pronged Plan Needed to Address Conflict

From the UN News Center

In an effort to mitigate the serious regional impact of the 20-year-long rebellion in Uganda by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), in which almost 2 million civilians have been uprooted, the United Nations top relief official is to visit the east African country later this month to outline a systematic multi-pronged approach.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, who is the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, will visit Uganda on 30 and 31 March, at the invitation of the Government to discuss a proposal that all aspects of the issue, including the humanitarian aspect, be more systematically addressed.

“This is an important first attempt by the UN to go beyond relief assistance and to try and develop a comprehensive plan of action for the northern Ugandan crisis,” the director of the Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Dennis McNamara, said today.

The delivery of humanitarian assistance in southern Sudan is seriously affected by the activities of the LRA, which has been accused of grave human rights violations, including the kidnapping of thousands of children as fighters or “wives,” and is now estimated to have more fighters in southern Sudan and north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) than in northern Uganda.

The insecurity is threatening to disrupt the repatriation process of Sudanese refugees from DRC and the Central African Republic (CAR) to their homes in southern Sudan, where only two days ago unknown intruders attacked a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) compound in Yei, killing a local guard and seriously wounding an Iraqi staffer and a second local guard.

The LRA is considered responsible for the January attack on UN peacekeeping troops in Garamba National Park in north eastern DRC, in which eight Guatemalan peacekeepers were killed.

Darfur: A Humanitarian Disaster That Challenges the Conscience of the World

An excerpt from the remarks delivered by Rep. Nancy Pelosi

"We have seen variations of this 'problem from hell' before. Most recently in Rwanda - and we promised, 'never again.'

"The situation in Darfur is a humanitarian disaster that challenges the conscience of the world. It is the systematic destruction of a people - it is genocide.

"While we were in Sudan, back at home President Bush reaffirmed that this is indeed 'genocide.' Yesterday, members of our delegation met with the President at the White House to thank him for his leadership and report on our trip. During that meeting, we strongly endorsed the appointment of a U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan. This Special Envoy would signal that bringing peace and stability to Sudan is a priority for the United States.

"To do this, we must: stop the violence, bring the parties to the negotiating table, and get humanitarian relief to the people who need it.

"Essential to stopping the violence, is stopping the Janjaweed.

"After persistent questioning by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Vice President Taha finally admitted that the Government of Sudan had supported the Janjaweed in the past. In fact, the U.S. military briefed us that the Janjaweed is an extension of the Sudanese military, and is engaged in state-sponsored violence. That must end.

Darfur: AU Peacekeepers Suffer From Lack of Resources

From the Sudan Tribune

Head of the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) Ambassador, Baba Ghana Kengaibi, said that African forces are still lack sufficient resources to accomplish their peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.

n a press conference he held here Thursday, he said that the AU mission in Darfur is still suffering from lack of resources and logistic requirements, a matter which hampers the performance of the mission and prevents it from making quick access to the areas of security tension.

Baba Ghana disclosed that Senegalese forces are due to arrive in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region within weeks to support the AU forces.

He said that the donors have fulfilled their commitments, but they have not provided us with what we needed. He explained that the European Union (EU) has promised to provide additional financial support.

Baba Ghana also explained that Darfur is witnessing security tension, particularly in areas such as Geraida and Shiriya in South Darfur and Jabal-Moon in West Darfur State. He said that many parties are involved in the armed attacks including militias, some troops from the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (Menawi faction) and Chadian rebels.

He further said that they received information which indicate that the activities of Janjaweed militias are still ongoing and that are still receiving support from the government, adding that mission has not received any official information to confirm this matter.

Darfur: Matching Rhetoric with Action

A piece by John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen in AllAfrica

Last month, in the town of Mershing, South Darfur, there was chaos and carnage. On a scorching day in February, four hundred Janjaweed militiamen attacked, firing indiscriminately on civilians, destroying homes, and looting livestock. Eight hours after the initial onslaught, the Janjaweed returned for a second round of mayhem, assaulting women and children and looting the town's main market.

Following a terror-filled night, the 55,000 residents of Mershing fled for their lives. Thirteen infants were trampled to death and 220 children separated from their families in the exodus. The day after, here in Washington, a senior State Department official told journalists that "there isn't large-scale organized violence taking place" in Darfur.

President Bush has called for a doubling of the number of peacekeeping troops in Darfur and said that the transition from the current African-led force to a larger, more robust UN peacekeeping mission will require significant NATO involvement. This pronouncement is laudable, but likely to be viewed as yet another example of schizophrenic U.S. policy on Darfur.

The administration's rhetoric has been consistently inconsistent with its actions and with the reality on the ground. Despite the government of Sudan and their proxy Janjaweed militias' sadistic campaign to murder and displace Darfur's non-Arab civilians, some U.S. officials continue to heap disproportionate public blame on Darfur's rebel groups for the lack of security. Although the rebels frequently commit atrocities against civilians and should be censured, Khartoum's counterinsurgency strategy has caused the deaths of more than 200,000 people and displaced two million more.

While U.S. diplomats have credited Sudanese officials with "acknowledging what's taking place in Darfur," Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir recently said that "the so-called Darfur conflict is an invention by foreign interests." Indeed, the Sudanese government has made numerous commitments to disarm its militias and prosecute war criminals, only to flaunt its disregard for these obligations by denying responsibility and continuing to support the Janjaweed. Government helicopters that provided air support for recent Janjaweed attacks on civilians in eastern Chad confirm that this patron-killer relationship remains intact.

Some U.S. officials blame this growing insecurity on "tribal" violence, the same code language that previous U.S. administrations used in Rwanda and Bosnia as they twiddled their thumbs in inaction. Further, "tribal war" denotes anarchy, removing clear culpability for atrocities.

Sudan's ruling party has traditionally employed a divide-and-destroy strategy to eliminate enemies, and claims of anarchy in Darfur are self-fulfilling. Sudanese military intelligence agents manipulate local ethnic divisions and exacerbate tensions, and then the government blames the bloodshed on lawlessness and tribalism. The U.S. government must recognize that ethnic violence is not the root cause of the conflict but a deliberate tactic of the barbaric braintrust in Khartoum.

What is behind all this rhetorical contortionism? The answer is simple: the Bush administration wants to look tough on Darfur without jeopardising Khartoum's cooperation on counterterrorism. Many of the Sudanese military intelligence officials who offer information to the CIA are the principal perpetrators of atrocity crimes in Darfur, responsible for arming, training, and unleashing the Janjaweed on innocent civilians. But the administration cannot justify this moral sacrifice on national security grounds: it is in U.S. interests to oppose a regime it accuses of genocide.

Darfur: Sudan Sees Peace Deal by End of April

I can't even count the number of times Khartoum has said there will be a peace deal by [fill in any date] and it has yet to happen - but here is another one via Reuters

Sudan said on Friday it was optimistic of reaching a peace deal next month with two main rebel groups in Darfur.

Civil war has raged in Darfur since February 2003, pitting the rebels against government forces and Arab militias. Tens of thousands have been killed and 2 million made homeless.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol said a detailed new ceasefire proposal presented to the warring parties by the African Union (AU) last week would enable them to make peace quickly.

"The AU has been very optimistic and ... confident that before the end of April a solution will be available in Darfur," Akol told reporters in Nairobi.

The AU voted last week to extend its 7,000-strong mission in Darfur until Sept 30, then support "in principle" its transformation into a larger, better-equipped U.N. force.

Sudan said deployment of such a force before a peace deal would mean the end of AU-mediated talks in Nigeria with the two main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).

"The problem is there seems to be false hope that a solution will come from outside or will be imposed by the UN or NATO and so on," said Akol.

"As long as there is war, unfortunately people will have to die, and the U.N. will not stop it," he added.

He said the government would welcome the U.N. troops after a peace deal was reached in April, which he said was a "very realistic" time frame.

"We are concerned about the people of Darfur. We want to stop their suffering as quickly as possible," he said.

Darfur: "Dismal" World Strategy Risks More Horror

From Reuters

The international community's "dismal" response to a three-year conflict in Sudan's Darfur region risks costing thousands more lives and creating proxy wars in a swathe of Africa, a think-tank said on Friday.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) said thousands of U.N. peacekeepers should immediately join a stretched African Union (AU) force to prevent more suffering in the vast region of west Sudan where fighting has displaced 2 million people.

Failure to do that could also fan tensions between Sudan and neighbouring Chad, which accuses Khartoum of backing rebels intent on overthrowing President Idriss Deby.

"The consequences if these steps are not taken are all too easy to foresee: tens of thousands more lives lost, spill-over of the conflict into Chad and proxy wars that destabilise a wide swathe of Africa," said the ICG report titled "To Save Darfur".

From the ICG report

The international strategy for dealing with the Darfur crisis primarily through the small (7,000 troops) African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) is at a dead end. AMIS credibility is at an all-time low, with the ceasefire it could never monitor properly in tatters. In the face of this, the international community is backing away from meaningful action. The African Union (AU) yielded to Khartoum’s pressure on 10 March 2006 and did not ask the UN to put into Darfur the stronger international force that is needed. If the tragedy of the past three years is not to be compounded, the AU and its partners must address the growing regional crisis by getting more troops with greater mobility and firepower on the ground at once and rapidly transforming AMIS into a larger, stronger UN peacekeeping mission with a robust mandate focused on civilian protection.

The battlefield now extends into eastern Chad, and the escalating proxy war between Sudan and Chad threatens to produce a new humanitarian catastrophe on both sides of the border. Inside Darfur humanitarian access is at its lowest in two years, civilians continue to bear the brunt of the violence, and political talks are stalled. Fighting is most intense and civilians are at greatest risk in West Darfur along the Chad-Sudan border, where a major invasion by Chadian rebels appears imminent, and in southern Darfur in the Tawila-Graida corridor.

The Sudanese government bears primary responsibility for the deteriorating situation. It is still making little effort to stabilise matters, rein in militias or secure roads from bandits and rogue elements. In violation of numerous commitments, it still uses offensive air power, supports militias and stokes inter-communal violence as part of its counter-insurgency campaign. Security elements from Khartoum are supporting the well-armed Chadian rebels in Western Darfur, while President Deby in N’djamena scrambles to bolster his position by reaching out in turn to the Darfur rebels. A failed coup attempt against Deby on 15 March further underscored the fragility of the Chadian regime. Clashes in eastern Chad between Sudan-backed insurgents and Deby loyalists would not only have drastic consequences for civilians of both countries but could also lead to the complete breakdown of peace talks in Abuja and reignite all-out war in Darfur. But the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), the principal rebel group, has increased its ceasefire violations over the past six months, and some elements are more committed to the battlefield than to the Abuja talks. Insurgent dissension plays into Khartoum’s hands and contributes to growing lawlessness.

The AU failed earlier this month to take the timely and decisive action required to reverse these trends. Instead it extended the AMIS mandate to 30 September 2006, neglected to amend it for better protection of civilians and made no provision for either more African or UN troops to come into Darfur to stabilise the situation over the next half-year. While it repeated its previous acceptance in principle that AMIS would eventually have to be replaced by blue helmets, if only because donors’ willingness to subsidise it is running out, it appeared impressed by Khartoum’s complaint that anything other than an African mission would amount to colonialism and its threat that Darfur would become a “graveyard” for any multinational force sent without its agreement.

Darfur: AU Has No Authority to Transfer Mandate, says Kengaibi

From the Sudan Tribune

Head of the African Union Mission in the Sudan, Baba Ghana Kengaibi, affirmed that the AU have no the authority to transfer its mandate and tasks in Darfur to any other organization.

In a press conference he held here Thursday, he said that the recent decision of the AU Peace and Security Council only extended the mandate of the AU Mission in Darfur up till next September, the state-run SUNA reported.

By the end of this mandate period, the Peace and Security Commission will view whether to extend this mandate further or terminate it, said Baba Ghana.

He affirmed that the presence of the AU forces was upon the agreement of Sudan government and in accordance with a specific mandate for monitoring the cease-fire protocol, which was signed by the parties of the conflict in Darfur.

He said that the AU forces are working in coordination with all the parties and within the context of cooperation with the international community and the United Nations to solve the issue of Darfur.

Sudan: Pelosi to Call for Special Envoy

From Reuters

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is calling for the appointment of a U.S. special envoy to Sudan, where a three-year rebellion in the Darfur region has left an estimated 180,000 people dead and displaced 2 million more.

"This special envoy would signal that bringing peace and stability to Sudan is a priority for the United States," Pelosi, D-Calif., said in prepared text of a speech to be delivered Friday at the Center for National Policy.

"To do this we must stop the violence, bring the parties to the negotiating table and get humanitarian relief to the people who need it."

[edit]

Pelosi led a delegation of lawmakers to Sudan last month, and some of them met with President Bush on Thursday and endorsed creating a special envoy post, she said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the United States would consider taking that step.

A White House spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.

Darfur: Security Council Must Act to Ensure U.N. Deployment

A letter from Human Rights Watch to the UN Security Council

Over the past few years, the Sudanese government has committed massive crimes in violation of international law against hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur. Two million people have been displaced, but the abuses are far from over. Conditions in Darfur are deteriorating, as Darfur residents continue to suffer grave human rights violations and the Darfur conflict spills over into neighboring Chad.

Only prompt and decisive action by the U.N. Security Council can prevent the already unacceptable human rights conditions in Darfur from becoming worse and threatening the lives, homes, and security of tens of thousands of more people in Darfur and surrounding areas. The Security Council must take up its responsibility to protect civilians in Darfur and eastern Chad from further crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In advance of the Security Council’s upcoming discussions on the situation in Darfur, Human Rights Watch urges the Security Council to take the following actions:

Take all necessary measures, including passage of any relevant resolutions, to ensure the deployment of a U.N. force in Darfur on or before October 1, 2006 (following expiry of the mandate of African Union mission in Darfur on September 30, 2006);

* Immediately apply targeted sanctions to Sudanese government officials obstructing the deployment of the U.N. force and otherwise contributing to abuses of civilians;

* Extend the arms embargo in Darfur throughout Sudan; and

* Support the African Union’s efforts in Darfur to reach full operational capacity and to robustly interpret its mandate to protect civilians until transition.

ICC: Congo Hands Militia Chief to Hague

From Reuters

Congo is handing a militia leader suspected of ordering the killing of nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers last year to the International Criminal Court, making him its first prisoner, a U.N. source said on Friday.

The suspect, Thomas Lubanga, leads the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an ethnic militia now registered as a political party and accused of widespread human rights abuses in eastern Congo's lawless Ituri district.

A U.N. source, who declined to be identified, said Lubanga was being transferred to the ICC headquarters in the Hague.

"The plane is here and he will be going this evening," the source said.

The controversial ICC was set up as the first permanent global war crimes court to try individuals, and Lubanga is the first suspect to be delivered into its custody.

ICC officials in the Hague declined to comment.

Uganda: UN Says Operations Have Failed

From Reuters

The U.N., donors and the government have failed 1.6 million people uprooted by two decades of civil war in northern Uganda, but a new initiative provides a glimmer of hope, a U.N. aid official said on Friday.

Dennis McNamara, the United Nations special adviser on internal displacement, said some members of the Security Council remained reluctant to put the conflict on its agenda.

But he said meetings next week among the U.N., Uganda and donors would aim to forge a plan to end the suffering.

"There is a very intense international effort, which has not happened before," McNamara told reporters in Kampala. He gave no further details.

Northern Uganda's people live in scores of squalid camps, sheltering from fighting between government troops and rebels from the cult-like Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) -- notorious for kidnapping at least 25,000 children.

"They are over-crowded, unacceptable slums where people do not get services and they are unprotected," McNamara said.

Living conditions are worsened because "the government is not protecting them properly... They are violated and abused with impunity by many sides, not just the LRA."

Aid workers say the north ranks among the world's most neglected humanitarian disasters. Death rates are higher than they were a year ago, the U.N. says, and twice as high as those in neighbouring Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region.

Uganda's army often says the LRA is on the verge of defeat, but McNamara said those claims did not tally with his experiences on several recent visits to the north.

"We are told it is nearly over, then we are escorted by two armoured cars and 35 soldiers," he said. "So, obviously, there are basic inconsistencies in what we are being told."

Darfur: UC Regents Vote to Divest

From the AP

University of California regents voted Thursday to divest from several companies doing business with Sudan in protest of the humanitarian crisis in the country's Darfur region.

Students, who had campaigned for months in favor of divestment, roared with approval as regents voted unanimously to divest UC shares from nine businesses, mostly overseas oil companies.

"Today's a historic day for the University of California," said Adam Rosenthal, the student regent who brought the issue to the board.

"It's the second time in 138 years that we have made a very bold statement that we will put human rights at the forefront of our agenda," he said, referring to UC's 1986 divestment from companies doing business in South Africa to protest apartheid.

The United States and international humanitarian groups have accused the Sudanese government of using its oil wealth to wage genocide against the people in the western Darfur region.

Unseen Deaths: Aid Agencies Try to Count War's Cost

From Reuters

How do you calculate the death toll from a war in a country with no census and no medical records, where people are scattered in remote jungle villages or crammed into makeshift camps.

Aid agencies say if politicians and the public knew how many thousands of civilians die every day in some of the world's worst war zones -- like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Sudan -- they might be more likely to act.

But pinning down precise mortality rates in some of the world's most hostile environments can be difficult, dangerous, and sometimes intensely political.

[edit]

A survey of deaths in squalid camps for displaced people in northern Uganda -- where a cult-like rebel group has been preying on local people for almost 20 years -- estimated that 26,000 people had died between January and July 2005.

Researchers initially had trouble persuading Kampala to approve their report, which showed a death toll of 1,000 a week.

Another difficult area to research is Darfur, western Sudan where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes during three years of war.

In 2004, the World Health Organisation estimated between 5,000 and 14,000 people were dying each month and calculated that up 70,000 displaced people had died, mostly from preventable diseases, between March and September that year.

International non-governmental organisations have complained of harassment by Sudan's authorities and some have been asked to leave.

Even when researchers publish their findings in publications like the Lancet, they can come under fire from journalists and governments who attack the science behind the conclusions.

That's why it's so important to be rigorous.

"If you're going to get into policy advice or an advocacy role, you've got to be sure the numbers are right," said Lancet editor Horton. "It's about allying science to the notion of witnessing ... the objective is to reduce loss of life."

Liberia Requests Extradition of Taylor

From Reuters

Liberia has formally requested the extradition of former president Charles Taylor, who is living in exile in Nigeria and is indicted for war crimes, the Nigerian presidency said in a statement on Friday.

Taylor agreed to step down and take asylum in Nigeria in 2003 as part of a peace deal ending 14 years of civil war in Liberia, but he was indicted for war crimes by a special U.N.-backed court in neighboring Sierra Leone.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is consulting with the African Union and regional bloc ECOWAS on how to respond to the request, the statement added.

"In keeping with his commitment to give consideration to any formal request from a democratically-elected government of Liberia for the return of former president Charles Taylor, President Olusegun Obasanjo has duly notified the chairmen of the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that President Johnson-Sirleaf has made such a request," the statement said.

Obasanjo will take a decision on the request based on the views of the two regional groups, it added.

Darfur: Evidence of Sudanese Bombing

From a media outlet called Channel 4 in the UK -- UPDATE: The video is now available on the website, as is an interview with Hilary Benn

More4 News has obtained evidence the Sudanese air force has resumed aerial bombardment of villages in Darfur.

It comes in breach of a ceasefire and no-fly zone agreed more than a year ago.

Last week we filmed charred and blackened huts in several villages which had been recently set on fire by Janjaweed militiamen - confirming reports of an increase in attacks since the beginning of the year.

But in the village of Donkey Dreisa, south of Nyala, the damage was clearly different - buildings had been reduced to rubble by bombardment which villagers told us came from Sudanese air force Antonov jets.

More 4 News was told that the attack on Donkey Dreisa on February 17th followed earlier aerial bombardment of villages near the town of Omgonya, also in South Darfur.

Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for International Development told More 4 News he was very concerned to hear the news.

"We were aware there had been attacks in Gereida in February but these are the first reports that I have heard that there may have been attacks from the air."

Watch the report on More 4 News at 8pm

Darfur: Podcast

The most recent podcast featuring Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, Chair of the Sudan Social Development Organization, an organization that, oddly enough, just had three of its offices shut down by the government - from the Committee on Conscience

JERRY FOWLER: Let us talk first about a political process. There is a political process that is ongoing in the Nigerian capitol of Abuja which is basically negotiations between rebel leaders and the Sudanese government. Is that political process going to work?

MUDAWI IBRAHIM ADAM: This political process is not inclusive because not all of the artists of the conflict are involved in the talks. If this Abuja process in this composition now resulted in any kind of agreement it would be an incomplete agreement. It will be between the rebels and the government. It will not involve militias who are fighting on the ground, tribes who are fighting with the rebels on the ground. You need a kind of complete and inclusive process to take place in Darfur.

JERRY FOWLER: So basically if I understand you correctly, you are saying that there are not enough people at the table in Abuja? Not all of the interests in the conflict are represented?

MUDAWI IBRAHIM ADAM: Actually what is happening on the ground that the government is not fighting directly with the rebels; they are fighting by proxy; they are using local conflicts which is conflicts between the tribes on issues—land, other resources like water, or grazing land—and they are using these militias to fight on their behalf. These are the real parties to the conflict on the ground. Then you have people that have been displaced. There is an assumption that the rebels representing those people who are displaced and this is not true. These people—this is a very big majority in Darfur—are not brought to the negotiating table, so whatever comes out of Abuja will be between the rebels and the government of Sudan. It will not be between all Darfuris; they will not be accepting it because they have not negotiated it and they will not feel as if it is representing them.

JERRY FOWLER: One of the tactics as you have alluded to that the Sudanese government is using in Darfur and has used elsewhere—for example in the South for many years—is inflaming local conflicts, inflaming ethnic tensions. Do they even have an interest in bringing about peace in Darfur?

MUDAWI IBRAHIM ADAM: No, I do not think they are in a position to accept any kind of a peace deal in Darfur because if you look at the CPA, the CPA—

JERRY FOWLER: The CPA is the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government and the Southern rebels.

MUDAWI IBRAHIM ADAM: It is saying that the North is having something like seventy percent of the share of the power. Out of this is fifty-two percent going to the NCPA, which is the ruling party, the National Congress Party. Fourteen percent will be going to the other Northern position parties. If you are going to get any share for the Darfuris from the power sharing—if they are saying Darfur is going to get a share of twenty percent from the total—they are going to take it from the fifty-two percent of the National Congress, and the National Congress is not going to accept because the National Congress will be a minority in the government; they will lose power. They are maintaining power through this fifty-two percent. They are not really going to go into a real peace process which ground the different people or the different regions that are sharing power.

JERRY FOWLER: Let me ask you this then: if the government really does not have an interest in reaching an agreement is this process that you envision one that includes the government or is it Darfurians without the government even being present?

MUDAWI IBRAHIM ADAM: It should be Darfurian without the government being present. You might have government agents, but the government itself, if it is present, it will undermine the whole process because they have a history of corrupting people, and using this money, and dividing them—the same thing they are doing on the ground.

[edit]

JERRY FOWLER: There were reports of demonstrations in Khartoum against greater United Nations involvement. What does it mean in a country like Sudan—not in a country like Sudan, but in Sudan—with a dictatorship when there is a demonstration? How do those come about?

MUDAWI IBRAHIM ADAM: This is very simple. It is organized by the National Congress. It is organized by the ruling party, and it is not a big demonstration, but if you are in power you can bring people using different means. It is organized and done by the ruling party. They might name it under different names and organizations, but all people know that this is the National Congress Party.

Darfur: Monthly Situation Report

From WFP

In order to mitigate the effects of anticipated commodity shortfalls in the country during the hunger gap, WFP reduced rations of pulses, sugar and salt from March affecting up to 3.5 million people. Ration cuts come in the wake of a slow donor response to WFP’s Emergency Operation in Sudan, which currently stands only fifteen percent funded. The move will serve to extend limited stocks into the critical hunger gap and to allow for pre-positioning of commodities in areas for which there will be no land access during the rainy season in Darfur, the South and Three Areas. Meanwhile, a strategic stock of sugar will be preserved to support therapeutic feeding programmes in feeding centres across the country.

[edit]

WFP carried out a joint assessment with UNHCR during the reporting period to verify the food security situation of displaced persons in Gellu, approximately 35km north of El Geneina. The populations are noted to predominantly consist of Chadian refugees who are surviving on food provided by host communities from villages in the vicinity. Despite the vulnerability of those assessed, the current level of insecurity in the area was deemed not conducive for general food distribution to be established. The team did, however, recommend supplementary feeding for the highly vulnerable groups such as under fives and pregnant and lactating women.

[edit]

The security situation remained tense during the month with continued reports of the build-up of troops, artillery and vehicles in West Darfur by both government and rebel groups. Humanitarian access to the north of El Geneina remains closed with continued reports of attacks targeting commercial trucks. WFP conducted a security assessment along the southwest corridor from Habilah in a bid to reopen access to approximately 30,000 beneficiaries in Kongo Haraza, Masteri and Arara who missed their January rations. Although the mission recommended the reclassification of the route to allow for UN movement, due to subsequent clashes access to the affected populations was once again restricted. Heavy fighting in the vicinity of Shearia, South Darfur between armed government and rebel groups was reported during the month leading to further displacements in the state and towards North Darfur. UNDSS subsequently recommended restricted movement to Shearia and its surrounding villages, disrupting humanitarian activity in the area.

Banditry attacks targeting commercial vehicles, some carrying WFP relief supplies, remained rife across the region during the month.

Full report here.

Chad: Rebels Say They Will Try to Block May Elections

From Reuters

Chadian rebels fighting to overthrow President Idriss Deby said on Thursday they planned to try to stop him holding May elections, a day after his beleaguered government announced it had foiled a coup plot.

Deby's 16-year rule is reeling from high-level military defections and coup threats just weeks before a May 3 presidential election which could extend his leadership over the arid, landlocked, oil-producing country.

"The whole Chadian people doesn't support this election. It's not going to be a democratic election," Yaya Dillo Djerou, leader of the Chadian rebel group SCUD, told Reuters by satellite telephone.

SCUD is part of a loose but fractious alliance of anti-Deby groups whose members have threatened to launch military offensives on N'Djamena from eastern Chad unless the president agrees to talks on democratic change.

"We have a plan to avoid the elections," Dillo said, but he declined to give more details, saying "only God will tell" if Deby would still be in power by the time of the May polls.

Darfur: AU Fails the "Rwanda Test"

The latest from Eric Reeves

No voice has been more honest or courageous throughout the Darfur catastrophe than that of Jan Egeland, head of UN humanitarian operations. It is only appropriate, then, that our understanding of ongoing genocidal destruction in western Sudan and eastern Chad be framed by Egeland’s assertion that this is the “test case for the world for having no more Rwandas and no more massive loss of innocent lives." It is a test that the international community has now failed---massively, conspicuously, irredeemably. Security has essentially collapsed in large areas of Darfur, and as a result humanitarian operations cannot reach hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians; ethnically targeted destruction is expanding unchecked into eastern Chad; and remaining rural populations are completely vulnerable to ongoing predations by Khartoum’s regular and militia forces. The prideful yet cowardly African Union decision to maintain its control of the current mission in Darfur for another six months ensures that conditions will deteriorate rapidly and precipitously.

The consequences of the AU decision, which effectively forecloses robust international humanitarian intervention for the foreseeable future, are also implicitly articulated by Egeland:

“As a result of [deteriorating insecurity], Egeland said, UN relief officials and relief organizations cannot reach more than 300,000 people on the Chad border in western Darfur and the central mountainous region of Jebal Marra because they are too dangerous. These unreachable areas, he said, ‘will soon get massively increased mortality because there is nothing else but international assistance.’ He expected deaths to increase markedly within weeks.” (Associated Press [dateline: United Nations], March 13, 2006)

Additional hundreds of thousands of civilians are inaccessible in South Darfur and North Darfur states. Egeland declared that “Darfur is returning to ‘the abyss’ of early 2004 when the region was ‘the killing fields of this world.’ ‘We're losing ground every day in the humanitarian operation which is the lifeline for more than 3 million people.’” In fact, aggregated UN estimates for the conflict-affected population in Darfur and eastern Chad now total approximately 4 million human beings. Tens of thousands of these people will certainly die in the coming weeks and months; the number of deaths could easily range into the hundreds of thousands over the full course of this rapidly accelerating catastrophe.

Knowing full well the consequences of leaving humanitarian personnel and vulnerable civilians without protection, the international community has nonetheless disingenuously welcomed the African Union decision to retain control of the Darfur mission---suggesting that somehow this decision represents either a triumph of tactful diplomacy or, at worst, the innocuous preservation of a status quo that couldn’t be fundamentally changed in any event.

Such dishonesty will be recorded by history as the defining moment of the Darfur genocide, inaugurating what will become the greatest cycle of human destruction. It no longer matters what happens in Abuja (Nigeria): peace has been irretrievably lost on the ground and only exhaustion through destruction will bring an end to the killing and dying.

Darfur: Some CBC Members Wary of Hyde Legislation

From The Hill

A House Republican bill aimed at eliminating genocide in Sudan has generated a lukewarm reaction from Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members, some of whom say they may vote against the bill because it does not go far enough.

The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, which House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) introduced last year, has garnered bipartisan support from 154 co-sponsors, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the ranking member on Hyde's panel.

However, the bill has not gained the public support of a significant number of CBC members, in contrast to legislation on the issue introduced by Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.).

[edit]

An International Relations Committee staffer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there are key differences between the Hyde and Payne bills, indicating that some members believe the Hyde bill may not be strong enough to have an impact.

The CBC has not yet taken an official position on the Hyde bill but has backed the Payne bill, according to a CBC aide.

The Hyde measure, which Hyde's committee approved by voice vote last week, would direct the president to block the assets, as well as restrict visas, of any individual involved in acts of genocide in Sudan. The president would have to notify members of Congress if he granted a waiver.

The bill also would authorize the administration to provide training, intelligence and material assistance to African Union forces in Darfur, direct the U.S. representative to the United Nations to call for a resolution applying sanctions against Sudan and continue previous restrictions implemented toward the Sudanese government.

[edit]

A significant reason for the difficulty in garnering CBC support relates to provisions that were in the Payne legislation but were left out of the Hyde bill to ensure its passage, according to the International Relations Committee staffer. Notably, the Payne bill would authorize the president to "use all necessary means, including use of the United States armed forces, to stop genocide in Darfur," impose a no-fly zone and employ unmanned aircraft to neutralize militia groups.

[edit]

Another reason offered for the drop in public support is that Hyde's office did not reach out to CBC members to garner their endorsement, according to the committee staffer, adding that Hyde likely believed acquiring Payne's support alone would have secured CBC member endorsements.

Sudan: UN Refugee Worker Killed

From the BBC

Two gunmen have attacked an office of the UN refugee agency in southern Sudan, killing a local guard and wounding two workers, the agency says.

The UNHCR said it was still seeking more details about the attack in the southern town of Yei.

Following the attack, the planned return of refugees in Democratic Republic of Congo has been suspended.

The UNHCR says there are still 350,000 Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries follwing a 21-year war.

More than 13,000 refugees are in DR Congo.

The two wounded UNHCR employees are being treated in hospital in the southern capital, Juba, before being airlifted in Nairobi, Kenya.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said the attack was a "shocking" event.

Uganda: Army Says LRA's Kony Enters Congo

From Reuters

Uganda's army said on Thursday the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels had left a south Sudanese hideout and joined his deputy in the jungles of neighboring Congo.

Uganda's military spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye said intelligence reports that LRA leader Joseph Kony, wanted internationally for war crimes, had entered the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday partly prompted an extra deployment of troops along the Congolese border.

We have stepped up security and we are on high alert, although Kony and his men are weakened," he said. "We don't want to take chances. We have to ensure our people are safe."

On Tuesday, the military said it was increasing border surveillance because of fresh fears that other anti-Ugandan rebels in Congo might slip into the country and launch attacks.

Uganda has long accused Congo of being a safe haven for rebels seeking to destabilize it and has twice joined Rwanda to invade the huge country with the stated aim of flushing out rebel bases in its eastern forests.

Both Kony, a self-proclaimed mystic, and LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Darfur: Raising a Million Voices

An interview with Brian Stiedle from In These Times

Just to put this in terms as stark as possible: Since 2003 the Sudanese government has carried out a strategic campaign to either destroy or herd the residents of the region into as compact an area as possible so they can be exterminated.

Absolutely. It’s not necessarily extermination through direct means. It’s a slow process of surrender or starve. They put them in refugee camps where they know diseases are rampant, where they know they’re not going to get enough aid or food, and then they restrict the aid organizations from them so they slowly, slowly die off. We’re seeing the majority of people dying in these camps where they can’t survive. I’ve heard reports that they were getting 1,000 calories a day in Kalma and last year they had to cut back to 800 calories per person, per day because they couldn’t bring in enough food aid for all of them. That’s not enough to survive.

I can only speculate on the amount of fear that these people live in: not knowing whether you are going to be killed at any moment; not knowing when you leave your camp to go get firewood if you’re going to be raped; not knowing if there’s going to be a helicopter gunship that’s going to swoop down over you at any time and mow you and your family down. They’re living crammed on top of each other in rinky-dink tents or grass mounds. A lot of them don’t even have tents. They have sticks that shield them from the wind, the sandstorms, the rain, the sun.

Who’s administering the camps?

Each one is administered by a different organization. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees is heavily involved in the operations as well. But each camp is on Sudanese territory and is subject to the Sudanese government telling them what they can do.

If the NGOs speak out, they could be kicked out of the country and not able to provide aid to these individuals.

[edit]

Right now you’re traveling around the country as part of the Million Voices for Darfur Campaign. How hopeful are you in the wake of Iraq that you can convince people this is the sort of thing we should be supporting?

I’m very hopeful or I wouldn’t be out there doing it. First of all, this mission and the United States support that would go to this mission isn’t anything along the lines of Iraq. I’m not advocating U.S. troops on the ground even if NATO goes in there. But more than people’s trepidation about Iraq, the biggest obstacle, really, is just trying to convince people to do something that is good, something that is right, for nothing. People tend to want something out of it: cheap oil, security. But what you get out of it is being able to go to bed at night and think, “I did something good today.”

If out of an audience of 400 people, I can convince half or a third or a quarter of them to write a letter to their senator or congressman, or come to Washington on April 30 for the rally, I’ve done my job and I can move on to the next city. I’m the catalyst, but they’ve got to do the work. They’ve got to pass out postcards on campus, they’ve got to walk around with bright green T-shirts or green armbands.

That’s why we have a democracy, so that we can influence the people we’ve elected to do what we want to see happen. If we can raise enough interest and get enough articles in newspapers, we can change policy in the United States.

Darfur: UN Reports Deadly Attacks in West

From the UN News Center

The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) today reported that it has received various reports about a series of deadly attacks in West Darfur over the past week.

A UN spokesman said this weekend, around 1,000 unidentified militants, travelling in motor vehicles and on camels and horses, reportedly attacked a village and killed eight people and stole livestock.

Sudan: UN Force in South Not Complete

From Reuters

U.N. deployment of a peacekeeping force of nearly 10,000 troops in southern Sudan is still running behind schedule but should be largely completed by the end of March, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

The report comes as the United Nations prepares to send troops to Sudan's western Darfur region later this year.

U.N. officials warn that their ability to deploy peacekeepers in Darfur, as in the south, will depend on governments' willingness to assemble the needed troops and equipment at a time supplies of both are extremely tight.

[edit]

The U.N. force in southern Sudan now includes 7,697 U.N. soldiers, or 78 percent of an expected contingent of 9,880 peacekeepers from 66 countries, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a progress report to the U.N. Security Council.

While deployment is expected to be "largely completed" within two weeks, some critical units are yet to be in place, including Russian and Pakistani aviation units, three land mine clearance units, most of a promised Kenyan contingent and support units from China, Annan said.

Heightened security concerns on the ground south of Juba and limited numbers of available vehicles and barges are contributing to the delays, he said.

Darfur: Stand In for Victims of the Slaughter

Sign the petition - and be sure to watch the short film - from Human Rights First

We're looking for at least 200,000 caring people to stand in for the victims of mass atrocities in Darfur. We need you to speak for those who have been killed, raped and displaced—the innocent people who can no longer speak for themselves.

The international community has not agreed on a number of those killed in the slaughter—estimates range from 180,000 to 400,000. The New York Times reported the number 200,000 in March 2006.

At least two million people have been forced to flee their homes—and are displaced in Sudan or in camps in
neighboring Chad.

Help us stand up for those who cannot speak for themselves. We are asking you to sign our petition to
call for a U.N. appointed diplomat of the highest international stature to lead a peace process in Darfur. Click here to read more about the case for an envoy

Will you be one of the 200,000 world citizens who says “enough is enough”? Will you help us gather names? When you sign up, you’ll represent a victim who has been killed, harmed or displaced so you can act as a voice for someone who cannot speak out.

Darfur: Sudan Again Rejects UN Forces, ICC

From SAPA

Khartoum renewed its opposition to the deployment of UN forces in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region on Tuesday, saying any UN role there should be restricted to development.

"Our unchanged position is absolute rejection of sending international forces to Darfur, even if no peace agreement is reached there," vice-president Ali Osman Taha said.

"Instead of dispatching military forces, the UN role will be restricted to boosting the development process in Darfur," he added

AU foreign ministers decided to extend the current AU mission in Sudan's western region for six months on Friday, but also agreed in principle to eventually transfer the mission in Darfur to the UN.

Taha also renewed Khartoum's opposition to Sudanese suspected of committing war crimes or crimes against humanity in Darfur being tried by the international criminal court.

"We unequivocally reject the trial of any Sudanese suspected of perpetrating a Darfur conflict-related crime by the international criminal court and any such suspect will be tried inside Sudan and in accordance with the Sudanese judicial system," he said.

Chad: Analyst Foresees More Political Insecurity, Threats to Humanitarian Operations

From VOA

The coup plot reported Wednesday by Chad’s security forces underscores growing political tensions in the country – and could disrupt humanitarian operations for Darfur refugees. So says Suliman Baldo, Africa program director for the International Crisis Group.

From New York, Baldo spoke to English to Africa reporter Joe De Capua about the reported coup plot: “This is just one new phase in a trend of continued deterioration in the political scene in Chad. It follows masses of defections within the inner circles of power in N’djamena, capital of Chad. It follows months of successive desertions from the Chadian army to join the platform for Democracy and Change in Sudan (SCUD), a group of deserters who are bent on toppling the government of President Idriss Deby, and who are now accused of being behind this failed coup attempt.”

The situation, he says, is related to Chad’s relations with Sudan: “It’s clear that Sudan now is backing armed groups that are opposed to the regime of President Idriss Deby. And these armed groups have a plan to prevent Deby from presenting himself again for the presidency in elections that are scheduled for May. And that’s why I expect that we’ll be seeing more of these developments of instability in Chad in the coming weeks.”

The ICG official says it could directly affect humanitarian operations in Chad for Darfur refugees and displaced Sudanese in Darfur itself. That’s because civilians could be caught in between fighting between supporters and opponents of Deby.

UN: Human Rights Council Approved

From Reuters

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday created a new U.N. human rights body, despite objections from the United States.

Sustained applause greeted the announcement of the 170 to 4 vote with 3 abstentions. Joining the United States in a "no" vote were Israel, Marshall Islands and Palau. Abstaining were: Belarus, Iran and Venezuela.

The new 47-seat U.N. Human Rights Council would replace the 53-country Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission, which in recent years has included some of the world's most abysmal rights violators.

As the preeminent international rights watchdog, the council will aim to expose human rights abusers and help nations draw up rights legislation.

Darfur: Call Your Representative Today

An email from Save Darfur

Later today, the House of Representatives will vote on whether or not to provide critical funding for African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.

Already over 300,000 lives have been claimed and millions more have been left homeless and starving by the ongoing genocide in the region. African Union troops continue to serve as the only line of defense for innocent civilians in the region, and it is critical that the U.S. continues to provide them the funding and resources they need.

In mid-February, President Bush requested that Congress provide $389 million for peacekeeping and humanitarian aid programs in Darfur. Congress must provide these funds at a minimum, and should provide at least an additional $100 million. Recent events have made it clear that the peacekeeping component of the President’s initial request was much too low because it was written with the expectation that the United Nations would soon be deploying its own peacekeeping force in Darfur to relieve the under-funded and under-equipped African Union. Unfortunately, the prospect for a quick transition to UN peacekeepers in Darfur is now in serious doubt. We need Congress to provide the additional funds necessary for the African Union to continue and improve its peacekeeping mission.

Please call your Representative today and ask that he or she support increased funding for African Union peacekeepers in Darfur within the FY06 supplemental spending bill.

Just one minute of your time can have a tremendous impact for the millions of innocent men, women, and children in Darfur who live every day in fear of murder, starvation, and rape.

You can find contact information fo