Darfur: Founding Declaration of the National Redemption Front

Via the SudanTribune

Driven by our deep commitment to end the suffering of the people of Darfur and the tragic conditions in the refugee and displaced camps in particular;

Committed to end political, economic, cultural and social injustices, and all forms of repression in Darfur as well as other marginalized areas of Sudan;

Aware of the unity of purpose and fundamental objectives of the Darfur armed movements and other political forces in opposition to the government of Khartoum;

Determined to end the genocidal war and ethnic cleansing in Darfur by the Khartoum regime and its militias;

Conscious of the values of solidarity, cooperation and coordination between our revolutionary movements and other Sudanese opposition forces in the struggle against the hegemony of repressive minority regimes, the tyranny of internal colonialism; and, to free marginalized peoples from the horrors of war, poverty, exclusion and exploitation.

Cognizant of the after effects of the failed Abuja’s process of May 5th, 2006.

We, leaders of political and military organizations abstaining from signing the Abuja document, who earlier issued a joint statement in Asmara on June 7th 2006; reaffirm our rejection of that faulty process.

Realizing the virtues of combining efforts and resources to end the suffering of our people, we hereby join hands in establishing the National Redemption Front (NRF), as an instrument for coordinating political, military, diplomatic and media initiatives.

Fellow Citizens:

We, the revolutionary movements listed below and signatory to this statement: 1. Sudan Liberation Movement/ Army (SLM/ A); 2. Jusstice& Equality Movement - Sudan (JEM); 3. Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA); call upon organizations of marginalized communities and other opposition political forces to join NRF in realizing the following principles:-

1. Uphold Sudan as multicultural, multi-religious and multiethnic country where diversity constitutes the basis of citizenship for individuals, and unity of our nation.

2. Citizenship is the sole basis for all rights and obligations without discrimination on religious, ethnic, cultural or regional background.

3. Guarantee all human nrights, basic freedoms, rule of law, along with the recognition that accountability and transparency are necessary conditions for good governance.

4. Safeguarding democracy, political pluralism, freedom of expression as fundamental for sharing and transferring state power.

5. Ensuring priority of human development programs and capacity building as prerequisites for social and sustainable development. Introducing affirmative action in support of free basic social services; health, and education as well as introducing job creation policies.

6. Realizing harmony and interaction between people in various regions, and thereby consolidate national unity by facilitating travel and communication facilities throughout Sudan.

NRF objectives include:-

a) Bringing together all Darfurians in their various movements, organizations, groups, associations within and outside Sudan.

b) Organizing and unifying political, military, diplomatic, legal, media and various popular initiatives for the realization and protection of the legitimate rights of Darfurians and all Sudanese.

c) Ending the unceasing genocide and prosecuting its perpetrators.

d) Coordination and consolidation .of regional and international efforts to end the suffering of our refugees and displaced; and ensure a fair compensation as well as their repatriation to the original regions and villages.

e) Endorse all legitimate demands of the marginalized areas.

f) Advocate a just system for sharing wealth and power between the various regions of Sudan.

g) Realize the full and unimpeded implementation of a federal system; and, ensure regional self-rule.

h) Guarantee a fair participation in administering national political, economic, military and civil service institutions on the bases of population percentages of various regions.

NRF structure is composed of a leadership council from the leaders of the founding organization with a rotating presidency; and a general-secretariat responsible for the daily executive affairs.

We appeal to all people of Darfur and the marginalized communities of Sudan to join NRF in order to realize justice and lasting peace for all. In conjunction with this declaration, a separate statement on our position regarding the Abuja document will be issued. Victory to our people and glory to our martyrs.

Darfur: Holdout Rebels Form New Alliance

From the Sudan Tribune

Three Darfur rebel groups that have refused to sign up to an African Union-mediated peace deal for the troubled western Sudanese region formed a new alliance to fight Khartoum on Friday.

Officials from the groups created the National Redemption Front (NRF) after talks in the Eritrean capital and reaffirmed their opposition to the Abuja peace agreement, signed by only one rebel army and Khartoum in May.

The front is made up of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a holdout faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA), according to a "founding declaration" released in Asmara.

"We, leaders of political and military organisations abstaining from signing the Abuja document ... reaffirm our rejection of that faulty process," they said in a statement.

"Realising the virtues of combining efforts and resources to end the suffering of our people, we hereby join hands in establishing the National Redemption Front (NRF), as an instrument for coordinating political, military, diplomatic and media initiatives," they said.

The declaration was signed by JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim, Khamis Abdalla Abakar of the dissident SLM faction and Sharif Harir and Ahmed Ibrahim Diraige from the SFDA, all of whom said the peace deal did not go far enough.

Darfur: Gosh Rejects UN Force, Calls for Martyrdom

From the Sudan Tribune

In a way to show the regime’s opposition to the United Nations force into Darfur region, the Chief of the security service said he prefers to die as martyr instead of accepting international troops.

The head of Sudan national security and intelligence organ, Lt General Salah Abdalla Gosh has declared on Wednesday 28 June his out right rejection of deployment of International peace-keepers in Darfur: “If the choice is between recolonialisation of Sudan and incursion into its soil by foreign troops, then interior of earth is better than its surface”, he said.

Gosh received messages of support and allegiance at his headquarters, on behalf of president Omer al-Bashir, from 10 thousand members of the security organ and Popular Defence Forces, the Sudanese al-Ray alAam daily newspaper reported.

The security chief made his statement on the occasion that marked the end of a 3-day long walk from the centre of Gezira State to Khartoum in which thousands of security and land-based forces participated in a security operation that has been described as first of its kind.

He reasserted in his speech that the entire country’s leadership prefers death and martyrdom for the sake of Allah to living in a country whose citizens’ wishes and nation’s sovereignty is not respected.

"We will not allow international troops under the U.N. to deploy in Darfur," Bashir said in an address marking the anniversary of the coup d’Etat that brought him to power in 1989.

The Chief of the Sudanese security service launched threats against political forces which support the UN takeover in Sudan’s troubled region of Darfur.

He said if and when such a battle breaks out, they would begin with “fifth columnists in Khartoum and internal agents of foreign powers who muddle with national and citizens’ security”.

The head of the security service promised that his institution would be at the forefront of the official and popular resistance, which has already been declared by the president. He assured his listeners that they would not tolerate amongst their numbers any traitor who betrays the national soil and its call for martyrdom.

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At the end of the gathering, Lt General Salah Gosh received on behalf of the president what was described as “death pledges” from a large number of attendants: “to obey and to be steadfast and confidence in the face of any eminent foreign intervention.”

Uganda: ICC Offers Kony Fee Passage to Hague

From Xinhua

The UN's International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague has offered a safe passage to the most wanted rebel in Africa and leader of a Ugandan rebel group, Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Luis Moreno Ocampo, the ICC chief prosecutor, was quoted by local press on Friday, summoning Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet to make a formal response to the war crimes charges hours after the top rebel protested against accusations of killings and abductions in the war ravaged northern Uganda.

"I invite Kony and the other commanders identified in the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court to come forward to the court and respond to the charges," Ocampo said in a statement.

In October 2005, judges of the ICC issued arrest warrants against Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Raska Lukwiya. Each is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, committed in the war torn north since July 2002.

Kony's insurgency has left tens of thousands of people killed and over 1.4 million homeless in the last 20 years.

"The court will guarantee their safe passage to The Hague, and they will be given every opportunity and facility to present their case before an independent judicial body with the highest guarantees of the due process," Ocampo said.

CAR: At Least 43 Died in Rebel Raid

From Reuters

More than a dozen government soldiers and foreign peacekeepers as well as some 30 rebels were killed during a raid by Chadian insurgents into Central African Republic this week, the former French colony's government said.

The rebels -- who have vowed to overthrow Chad's President Idriss Deby -- launched an attack on a settlement in the north of Central African Republic, the government said this week, after a similar raid a month ago.

Jean-Francis Bozize, chief of staff for the Central African Republic's defence minister and son of President Francois Bozize, said in a statement late on Wednesday 11 government soldiers had been killed along with two peacekeepers from a Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) force.

He said at least 30 Chadian rebels -- whom Chad's Deby says are in the pay of Sudan -- were killed and one taken prisoner.

Sudan denies the charge.

Darfur: Sudan to Lobby Rwanda on UN

From the New Times

The Sudanese government is planning to send a delegation to Rwanda in its efforts to seek support from African countries in a bid to block a United Nations peacekeeping force from going to Darfur.

Speaking to The New Times, Ismail Dahab Mohamed, the Sudanese Deputy Head of Mission in Kampala said his government is opposed to replacing the African Union troops with those of the United Nations.

"Rwanda and Burundi are good countries and are near us. We shall also go there to seek for their support against the proposal to replace the African Union peacekeeping forces with those of the United Nations. We shall go there like we are doing to other countries so that we can be supported in our efforts to block these troops from coming to Darfur," he said.

Dahab said that the AU peacekeeping forces only need logistical and financial support to bring about stability in the area.

"As Sudan, we do not think that by taking the UN forces there, the problem will be solved, but we think that the AU mandate should be supported because they can contain the situation," he said.

Dahab also revealed that the African leaders are to meet at the end of this month in the Sudan to discuss Darfur problems and also come up with possible solutions.

"We are committed to ending this problem and we want support from our friends in Africa. We hope that we can resolve the problems as Africans under our organisational structures. At the end of this month, we hope to meet many other African leaders and we discuss matters of the Sudan peace processes. We shall also discuss the issue of UN forces coming to Sudan. We want support from Africa so that we can resolve the matter and head toward peace in the region," he said. Efforts to contact the foreign affairs minister Dr. Charles Murigande on phone by press time yesterday, were fruitless.

Darfur: More Progress Needed to Ensure Protection For Civilians in Armed Conflict

From the UN Security Council

Addressing the Security Council this afternoon, the top United Nations humanitarian official said that not enough progress had been made to ensure better protection for civilians in armed conflict, stressing that the numbers of innocent civilians who continued to be killed and lived with the constant threat of violence was unacceptable.

“There are too many times when we still do not come to the defence of civilian populations in need,” Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said at the outset of the Council’s open debate. “When our response is weak, we appear to wash our hands of our humanitarian responsibilities to protect lives. The world is a safer place for most of us, but it is still a death trap for too many defenceless civilians, men, women and children.”

In Iraq, Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said, civilians continued to bear the full brunt of armed conflict and terror. Despite all efforts, women were still raped and violated as a matter of course; children were still forcibly recruited; and defenceless civilians continued to be killed - in violation of the most basic principles enshrined in centuries of international lawmaking.

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Many delegations expressed concern about the ongoing crisis in Darfur, and especially the impact of conflict on civilians in that area. Continuing insecurity, stated the representative of the United States, had a direct, detrimental impact on the international community’s ability to deliver assistance and provide basic services for the victims of conflict. The situation in Darfur illustrated the urgent role that States must play to safeguard civilians, including those who had been internally displaced.

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In Darfur, he said, the African Union had reported that 69 people had been killed in the month immediately after the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement. “We know that the real figures are much higher, and that general mortality is once again on the rise among the hundreds and thousands of people in Darfur, to whom there is limited or no humanitarian access.”

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In Darfur and eastern Chad, attacks against civilians continued to be undertaken by the Janjaweed, other militia groups, elements of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and by Government forces. In late May, militia attacks around Mukjar in West Darfur had killed over 25 civilians, displacing scores more. In North Darfur, intra-rebel fighting prior to and after the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement had displaced thousands, and included horrific acts of violence. Janjaweed incursions moving further into Chad had brought fear and significantly threatened the civilian nature of refugee camps. Between 12 and 14 April, 118 people had been shot or brutally hacked to death in a massacre in Djawara and three other villages, 70 kilometres east of the Sudanese border. Recent analysis from the United Nations Mission indicated that that might have been the beginning of a new phase of violence, in which armed groups, militias, rebel groups and the army were intensifying their targeting of civilian populations.

Darfur: Annan Decries Lack of Will

From Herald Sun

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has decried a lack of "political will" among world leaders to end the Darfur crisis, in an interview with BBC television to be aired later Thursday.

Speaking ahead of an African Union summit in Banjul to discuss Sudan's refusal to accept a UN force in Darfur, Mr Annan said it was "in the interest of Sudan to cooperate with the UN and the international community in Darfur".

"We are not strangers," the secretary general said, recalling that the United Nations has previously deployed troops in southern Sudan, scene of a separate long-running insurgency.

"They are used to cooperating with us, and I think we need to convince them and dissuade them of their suspicions.

Acknowledging "similarities" between Darfur and the Rwanda genocide in 1994, Mr Annan said "everybody" is looking to see if world leaders will make good on their World Summit pledge last September to protect vulnerable communities.

"You need political will," he said. "A certain political will is required for action - and I don't think we have the kind of political will that is required to drive things home."

Such will is lacking "to some extent amongst the powerful nations," he said, adding: "I think the African leaders from north through south, east and west will have to work collectively with the Sudanese government to convince them that it is in their interest to cooperate with the international community".

"Quite frankly, if the Sudanese government had been able to protect the population in Darfur ... we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Darfur: Bashir Again Rules Out UN Force

From Reuters

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ruled out deploying U.N. troops in Darfur on Thursday, darkening the prospects of gaining consent for such a move at this weekend's African Union (AU) summit in Gambia.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due to meet Bashir at the summit to try to overcome his rejection of U.N. troops, which Annan has described at "incomprehensible".

In an open-air speech attended by thousands in Khartoum, Bashir said a U.N. force was out of the question.

"We will not allow international troops under the U.N. to deploy in Darfur," Bashir said in an address marking the anniversary of the bloodless coup that brought him to power in 1989.

"Life in Darfur will return to its normal state without the presence of the international community or the participation of international troops in Darfur," he added.

Darfur: Crisis Looming

From United Press International

A government crisis is looming in Sudan where peace partners are divided over the deployment of international peacekeepers in war-torn Darfur.

The conflict sharpened Thursday between the ruling National Congress Party of President Omar al-Bashir and the Sudan People's Movement as party deputy president Nafeh Ali Nafeh addressed harsh criticism against Denk Alor, a government minister and leader of the People's Movement, over the latter's remarks on Darfur.

Alor declared to the press earlier that Bashir's rejection of the deployment of U.N. forces in Darfur reflected his own party and not the stance of Sudan's government of national unity.

Bashir told his party's legislators last week that he will personally lead an armed resistance in case international peacekeepers were dispatched to Darfur.

Speaking after a meeting of the National Congress Party chaired by Bashir, Nafeh said: "it is not proper or correct that such remarks be made by an official (Alor) who knows very well that the president, government and parliament in which his movement is represented have rejected the international intervention."

He charged that Alor's comment "is wrong and unacceptable in addition to lacking employment discipline and it constituted a breach of the spirit of partnership between the Congress party and the Popular Movement, especially that the two partners have agreed to deal with controversial issues away from the media."

Nafeh added, "Alor's conduct was not correct and we hope he will issue a rectification of his comments."

Chad/Darfur: Video Evidence

In conjunction with the release of its new report, Amnesty International also released "video footage graphically revealing evidence of the murder and destruction taking place along Chad's border with Sudan."

A link to the video can be found here.

Uganda: Unforgiveable

From the BBC

Ugandan Ochola John, 25, describes how he was abducted by rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army after his village, Namkora in northern Uganda, was attacked in February 2002. During the attack 50 people were axed to death and he was one of the 35 abductees.

I wish I could be born again. It hurts me to see my reflection because of the way I now look.

The memories of it all are so painful.

It was in the night when I saw a number of torches flash at me. I was commanded to lie down facing the ground. As I did so, the rebels began raiding other houses around me.

They arrested many - tying, and lying the victims on the ground in three lines.

People were screaming from all corners of our village.

Two men were tied and forced onto the ground where their heads were joined together. The rebels tried to force me to pick up a log and hit their heads but I refused so one came for me with a knife and cut off my left ear. He accused me of being a government soldier and said that I would be finished off if I failed to smash their heads.

But then, they started smashing the people's heads themselves. I was put in the middle as they smashed the people's heads.

At about 0700 in the morning, they led 35 of us into the bush. About five kms (approximately three miles) from the scene they began taunting me, saying that I was big-headed, and because I refused to respect them I would be cooked alive.

They kept on beating us and they denied food or water from us. We complained saying we were hungry and thirsty. They stopped raping the women that were in our group and acted as though they were going to let us eat and drink. The ladies were forced to boil water in a big tin.

Shortly after this they announced that we would eat the government soldier - supposedly, me.

For a long time, the rebels took turns at beating us men with hot metal, and raping the girls.

I was already spiritually dead.

They returned to me at some point and re-tied me before chopping off my lips. They then cut off my right ear and my nose.

Chad/Sudan: Sowing the Seeds of Darfur

Here is the new report from Amnesty International

A new human rights tragedy is unfolding today in the eastern part of Chad. It is a direct product of the long-running crisis in Sudan’s neighbouring Darfur region, where the Janjawid, funded by the Sudanese government, have been attacking and systematically displacing those ethnic groups associated with Sudanese armed groups opposed to the Sudanese government. In Darfur, the Janjawid, often assisted by the Sudanese air force, caused the forcible displacement of some 2 million people and many thousands of deaths. These ruthless, mobile fighters have now extended their activities into eastern Chad. There, they have targeted a diverse range of ethnic groups who identify themselves and are identified by others as "African" rather than "Arab." The Janjawid have stolen the cattle that are their main source of wealth, driven them from their homes and villages, and killed or dispersed their inhabitants.

All along Chad’s eastern border with Sudan, Janjawid incursions have been clearing the land of members of communities such as the Dajo, Mobeh, Masalit, Kajaksa and other groups. Although such incursions have occurred at least since 2003, they have become far more intensive, serious and abusive since the last months of 2005 as relations between the Sudan and Chad governments have deteriorated. The Janjawid attacks are also divisive. Certain Chadian communities have been singled out for attack, apparently on account of their wealth and for ethnic and other reasons, while others have been exempted or have become active participants with the Janjawid in attacking their neighbours.

The Sudanese government has taken no action to stop the attacks or to control and disarm the Janjawid, despite the commitments it has made to do so, or to bring to justice those leaders and members of the Janjawid who have committed gross human rights abuses. On the contrary, the Sudanese forces do not effectively patrol the country’s border or make any efforts either to intercept or pursue the Janjawid or to protect the civilian populations on which they prey. They continue to support the Janjawid, whose fighters wear uniforms similar to those of the Sudanese army and have been found to be carrying identity cards showing them to be members of Sudanese paramilitary forces. Their raids often coincide with the attacks made against the government of Chad by Chadian armed groups based in Sudan, when the Janjawid take advantage of the absence of Chadian government troops to attack defenceless civilians.

In face of this threat, the government of Chad has preferred to deploy its troops to defend against the armed opposition groups rather than to protect the civilian population from Janjawid attacks. The government has failed to station troops so as to secure the country’s eastern border, and the communities living within it, against Janjawid incursions. When concerned about possible new attacks by armed opposition groups, it has withdrawn any troops deployed in rural locations, so exposing the local inhabitants to Janjawid attack.

Since September 2005, Janjawid attacks into eastern Chad have caused the forcible displacement of between 50,000 and 75,000 people. Many of these people remain in Chad as internally displaced, but at least 15,000, cut off from safer means of escape, have fled into Darfur, despite the continuing conflict and disruption there. Those displaced have virtually no access to humanitarian assistance and, in Chad at least, people who have been internally displaced have congregated in informal camps where often they remain exposed to the threat of further attack.

Unsurprisingly, some Chadian communities are now seeking to acquire modern weapons with which to defend themselves, opening the prospect of widening violence. Others, including children, are being recruited into the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), an armed group fighting the Sudan government.

Urgent action is required by the UN, the African Union (AU) and particularly the two governments involved if this new, emerging crisis is to be forestalled in eastern Chad. Each of these bodies must take all possible action to secure three key objectives: protection from attacks for civilians; ensuring the provision of humanitarian assistance and access for humanitarian agencies and human rights monitors; and ending impunity for human rights abuses in both Chad and Sudan.

Sudan: U.S. Supports Derided DPA

From United Press International

Even after the signing of a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and one of the largest rebel groups, the United States has said the war-torn country is not stable enough to support the return of displaced persons living in refugee camps.

Michael Ranneberger, senior Sudan representative for the U.S. State Department, told United Press International the United States doesn't support the current return of the refugees to their southern homes.

"Our position is that people should not go home until security is such that it would be safe," Ranneberger said.

The current foreign policy, as outlined by the U.S. State Department, supports a peace agreement to end the Sudan conflict, seeks cooperation against terrorism and "is deeply concerned" about human rights violations. According to current department statistics, the government provides 89 percent of the country's food aid and has sent more than $1.3 billion to fund reconstruction, humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts.

The guiding ideology fueling U.S. policy in Sudan is to establish democracy in the country by ending violence and genocide, Ranneberger said.

Washington is working through humanitarian groups to provide adequate food, clothing and health care to the millions of displaced people. Humanitarian groups have expressed frustration in the two peace agreements' limited power and large failures, as yet, to establish a safe environment.

The International Rescue Committee has many humanitarian officials entrenched throughout Sudan and is working on restoring these people to their homes. Experts assert that returning displaced people is a complex issue and often involves neighboring countries. Currently many refugees are resistant to return home.

J. Stephen Morrison, Africa program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, offered several explanations for why many displaced Sudanese do not want to return.

"The population may be living a marginalized existence, but are somewhat protected," he said at a recent conference. "The movement of populations is highly political."

Amanya Michael Ebye, a deputy county representative for western Sudan, agreed that the returns process is a difficult road. He said many of the region's citizens are afraid to leave their houses, let alone take dangerous journeys back to their homes. Because traveling is difficult, Ebye said, travelers would need walking security and adequate space for humanitarian efforts.

"Looking at the whole process, the recovery needs to be putting into place basic needs... including the management of facilities so they can own this process," said Anne Mesopir, a member of the IRC's south Sudan program.

The African Union, a recently formed multinational coalition to provide "African solutions for African problems," has deployed nearly 7,000 troops to patrol an area the size of France. The United States and many United Nations' officials support a transfer of patrol power from the understaffed and poorly funded AU to the U.N., but the Sudanese government opposes the transfer.

Ranneberger said it is in the best interest of Sudan to allow the transfer.

"The African Union is doing great job in Darfur, but it is not set up to maintain forces for a sustained amount of time," Ranneberger told UPI. "The African Union could form the core of the force. Sudan will simply need to cooperate."

He said the United States expects the U.N. Security Council's full support in the transfer.

The Darfur Peace Agreement has been subject to criticism, and violence in the area has been on the increase since the agreement was signed in May. But the United States has retained its commitment to the agreement's survival -- Ranneberger said the United States isn't abandoning the agreement and believes that over time, it will aid in ending violence.

"The DPA is the only way for the people to achieve peace and stability," he said. "The U.S. is strongly committed to the DPA and believes it will be successful."

Darfur/Chad: Chadians Look for Refuge

From IRIN

Insecurity in southeastern Chad has become so widespread that more than 11,000 people, fleeing militia attacks, have recently left their villages to seek refuge in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, aid workers say.

Since Chadian rebels based in Darfur started attacking government strongholds late last year, Chad has pulled its cash-strapped army back to protect key towns, leaving vast swathes of the border unprotected.

As the army focuses on fighting back the rebels, Janjawid militia groups from Darfur have been crossing the border to loot and sometimes occupy Chadian villages. The UN estimates that more than 50,000 people have fled their homes, scattering throughout eastern Chad and over the invisible line in the sand that separates Chad from Sudan.

"Janjawid incursions further into Chad have brought fear and significantly threatened the civilian nature of refugee camps," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland told the Security Council on Thursday. "Recent analysis from human rights colleagues of the UN Mission indicates that this may be the beginning of a new phase of violence in which armed groups, militias, rebel groups and the army are intensifying their targeting of the civilian population."

Their resources exhausted, targeted groups find it hard to travel the long distances to the relative safety of the Goz Beida area inside Chad. Many opt instead to flee the 36 km across the border from Tissi to Um Dukhun - despite the prevalence of Janjawid and Chadian armed opposition groups in this area.

In Um Dukhun, a village on the Sudan-Chad border near the Central African Republic, 11,900 people have arrived over the past two months and are living in temporary shelters on the edge of town or are staying with relatives.

"After the Chadian villages were attacked, the people said they fled to the nearest safe spot," explained Vanessa van Schoor, head of mission for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Holland in Darfur. "Um Dukhun has Sudanese security forces in place and the new arrivals can get medical assistance. The main thing they are looking for is security and Um Dukhun is stable."

Matthew Conway, spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Chad, also mentioned that some people were "profiteering" from the insecurity by charging high prices to move Chadians further inland in Chad. As a result, many ethnic groups - whose populations live on both sides of the frontier and consider the border between Chad/Sudan rather "artificial" - had decided to take their chances in Darfur.

Besides security and shelter, other urgent priorities for the new arrivals include sanitation and food. "We're seeing about 40 percent more patients in our therapeutic feeding programme compared to June last year," van Schoor said. "Latrines are a priority too. There are so many people coming in just ahead of the rainy season, and we are already witnessing an increase in watery diarrhoea in South Darfur."

"The first attack was the worst, there were over a hundred of them," a 25-year-old woman from the Chadian village of Um Ladja - in the Tissi area - told MSF at Um Dukhun. "They scared everyone and rounded us up. They took everything and killed anyone who was in the way. They said that they were going to take all the cows, and that they would kill anyone who went to farm and take his children. We came to Um Dukhun as soon as we could get out, because they kept coming back."

UN Must Police Both Darfur and Chad

From Reuters

The United Nations should immediately deploy troops not only in Sudan's Darfur region but also in eastern Chad to stop ethnic conflict from spilling across the border, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Tens of thousands of civilians in lawless eastern Chad have already fled increasingly brutal cross-border raids by Darfur's Janjaweed Arab militia, but the problem will only worsen if U.N. troops are sent just to Darfur, Amnesty's head Irene Khan said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan travels to an African Union summit in Gambia this weekend to lobby Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to relax his opposition to U.N. troops in Darfur. But Khan urged the United Nations not to forget Chad.

"They can't ignore eastern Chad: it is part of the same problem," Khan told Reuters in an interview, coinciding with the launch on Thursday of an Amnesty report on the region.

"If they sent peacekeepers just to Darfur, that would just push the militia across the border into Chad ... We have seen it in many other situations in Africa."

With talk of the United Nations taking over from an ineffective African Union force in Darfur, the Janjaweed have already begun to clear themselves a living space in eastern Chad by permanently seizing land there, Khan said.

"Things are getting worse. The situation in eastern chad is deteriorating rapidly," she said, citing testimony from Chadian refugees who fled Janjaweed raids and returned to find the militia had occupied their territory.

"They are saying the same things we heard in Darfur: 'You are slaves, this is our land'."

Darfur/Chad: International Action Needed to Protect Civilians

From Amnesty International

As the African Union heads of state gather in Banjul, The Gambia, and the UN Security Council discusses the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur, Amnesty International today called for urgent action to be taken by the international community to protect civilians in eastern Chad from cross-border attacks originating in Sudan.

"This is a key opportunity for both the African Union and the United Nations to deliver a coodinated and effective response to the long standing human rights crisis in Darfur -- a crisis which is now spilling across the border into Chad, and could destabilise the region," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

"The Chadian government must step up to its responsibility to ensure the protection of its civilians and seek the assistance of an international force if necessary."

Amnesty International's call came as it released video footage graphically revealing the murder and destruction taking place alongside Chad's border with Sudan, together with a report analysing the abuses and highlighting the failure of both governments to live up to their responsibilities.

"The Chadian government has virtually abdicated responsibility for protecting its own citizens along the border with Sudan, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by the Janjawid militia and exploitation from the Sudanese armed groups present in eastern Chad."

"The Sudanese government is allowing Janjawid militia to attack Chadian civilians across its border with impunity -- killing, looting and de-populating land along the border."

"The Janjawid are targeting virtually defenceless communities -- unhindered by the governments of either Sudan or Chad. Effective action must be taken now by the international community -- before the situation deteriorates even further."

"The AU Summit meeting this week needs to send a clear signal to Sudan that it cannot continue to block the deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation without consequences. The AU should establish a clear programme of action to pressure the Sudanese government, which could include sanctions as well as suspending the decision to allow Sudan to take the AU Chairmanship in 2007."

Burma: The Longest War

Kevin Sites of The Hot Zone is in Burma

The KNLA and its coordinating political arm, the Karen National Union (KNU), have waged a war of liberation against the Burmese military government since shortly after Burma's independence from Britain in 1948. It is a rebellion against ethnic oppression, according to the Karen people, which they have suffered at the hands of the military regime.

At 58 years and counting, the Karen conflict, one of several ethnic conflicts in Burma, is the oldest civil war in the world. From this exposure, it appears the men who are leading it have not missed much of that struggle.

The first commander is introduced to me as Colonel Pawdoh, 51, the youngest of the bunch. He wears a beret, striped polo shirt, black cargo pants and zip up combat boots. His mouth full of betel nut, he says he has been with the KNLA since he was 20 years old.

The second command is a 63-year-old, named Major Thasu, who claims he has fought with the KNLA for 44 years. The battalion's adjutant is a bespectacled and kindly-looking 65-year-old named Captain Raylo, a veteran of 42 years.

On the wall behind a lectern is a painting of Saw Ba U Gyi, the founder and first chairman of the Karen National Union (KNU). Flanking the painting on either side are the KNU's four principles, written in English on the left and in curvy Karen script on the right.

While we speak, I write them in my notebook:

1) For us, surrender is out of the question.
2) We shall retain our arms.
3) The recognition of the Karen State must be complete.
4) We shall decide our own political destiny.

They seem, as I look at them, to be ready-made demands, both reaffirmation of the struggle's purpose (probably necessary in one this protracted) as well as clear signposts of deal-breaking points in any negotiations with the Burmese government, known by its latest Big Brother-esque acronym, the SPDC, or State Peace and Development Council.

And at this point in its existence, both the political wing, the KNU, and the military arm, the KNLA, need all the reaffirmation they can muster. They are plagued by division, aging leadership and shortages of manpower and materials.

"At the present," says Pawdoh, "we have no operations going on. We are working on peaceful negotiations."

And in fact there is a kind of "gentlemen's agreement," as Pawdoh calls it, between the KNLA and the Burmese military — the result of a meeting with the military junta in Yangon two years ago.

But it seems to be, at best, a loose agreement. Regular violence is reported, with a flood of Karen and other Burmese refugees crossing the border into Thailand any time there is fresh fighting between the KNLA and government troops.

"The Burmese military constantly violates the cease-fire," says Mahn Sha, the general secretary of the Karen National Union, from a location in Mae Sot on the Thai side of the border. "If they don't stop their military offensive against the Karen people, we will be forced to defend ourselves."

But the threat seems to lack teeth. Quietly, many in the Karen leadership concede that the lengthy struggle has sapped the will of many of the Karen people to continue the fight.

His first post is here

Darfur: The Meaning of Khartoum’s Suspension of Humanitarian Access

Another new piece from Eric Reeves

Khartoum’s decision to suspend for two days most UN humanitarian operations in Darfur---including the World Health Organization, the UN High Commission for Refugees, the UN Mission in Sudan, and others---had little to do with the reason offered by the regime, viz., UN transporting of Suliman Jamous, the recently rescued Sudan Liberation Movement humanitarian official. Jamous had been imprisoned by the increasingly brutal and tyrannical Minni Minawi, and on securing his release the UN was understandably eager to afford him shelter from re-capture. To be sure, Khartoum’s vicious Military Intelligence was angry that the UN moved Jamous without permission. But the real purpose of suspending UN humanitarian aid had little to do directly with the rescue of a man who has been indispensable to humanitarian operations throughout Darfur. Rather, Khartoum’s action was, in effect, a pointed threat:

“We have the power to shut down humanitarian operations overnight---and completely. The present suspension was simply a warning, a reminder. But if we are pressed, if our most consequential claims of national sovereignty are ignored, if the UN should demand that we accept a force capable of protecting civilians and humanitarians, then we will respond much more severely the next time.”

There should be no doubt about the deadly seriousness of Khartoum’s threat, or about the ghastly history that stands as its guarantor. The National Islamic Front regime, which came to power by military coup 17 years ago this month, has a long and lethal record of humanitarian aid obstruction, harassment, and denial---and has on many occasions directly attacked humanitarian operations and workers (see below). Though we have over the past three years seen much of this barbarous denial of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war in Darfur, it is imperative to recall what the NIF has done previously in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and is currently undertaking in eastern Sudan.

Uganda: Disbelief at Kony's Denial

From the BBC

Uganda's government has dismissed as "ridiculous" rebel leader Joseph Kony's claims that his Lord's Resistance Army was not involved in atrocities.

International rights group Human Rights Watch expressed surprise at Mr Kony's claim but said he must defend himself at the International Criminal Court.

Thousands have died in a conflict in which the LRA targetted children.

Mr Kony told the BBC the LRA was not responsible for killings, maimings and abductions in northern Uganda.

Ugandan government spokesman Robert Kabushenga said Mr Kony's denial was "ridiculous".

"A lot of information, a lot of evidence has been given by people abducted into the LRA," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"Young children, people who were their commanders have all admitted publicly [to atrocities], and of course there are reports by journalists who have gone to areas where the LRA has been in and massacred."

HRW East Africa co-ordinator Jemera Rone said Mr Kony's insistence on his innocence was "amazing".

"We have testimony of extensive atrocities by the LRA," Ms Rone told the BBC News website.

She emphasised however that Mr Kony must be presumed innocent until proven guilty by the ICC, which has indicted him for war crimes.

"I think it is a good thing that Joseph Kony has come out of the woodwork and tried to engage with the international community, and I hope he will avail himself of the opportunity to clear his name," Ms Rone said.

Uganda: Gov't Considers Participating in LRA Talks

From IRIN

Uganda has been formally invited by the government of southern Sudan to attend peace talks with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group whose brutal attacks, mostly directed at civilians, have wreaked havoc in northern Uganda over the last two decades.

"The invitation has been sent to us and we are preparing to send a technical team to meet with [southern Sudan's] President Salva Kiir and also sort out issues to do with the format of the talks, the agenda, the composition of delegations, and other procedural issues," said James Mugume, the permanent secretary in the Ugandan foreign ministry.

The southern Sudanese administration is trying to broker a peace deal between the Ugandan government and the LRA.

Mugume said that the technical team would try to establish whether the LRA was genuine in its latest peace overtures. Kampala, he added, was still emphatic that Ugandan government representatives would not talk to LRA officials already indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). LRA leader Joseph Kony and four of his is top commanders have been indicted by the ICC.

Denying reports that Kampala was not keen on reaching a peaceful settlement with the LRA, he added: "Nobody here is reluctant to go for talks, but it is a question of interest. We have interests that we follow. We are looking at many issues. For example, we must make sure that we are not taken for a ride."

Darfur: AU Mulls Sanctions

From Reuters

The African Union is ready to impose sanctions on any group undermining a peace agreement for Sudan's violent western Darfur region, the chairwoman of the AU's Peace and Security Council said on Wednesday.

South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the AU Peace and Security Council which she chairs had decided to impose sanctions on "anyone who undermines the peace process" although she declined to say who may be targeted.

One of three Darfur rebel groups and Sudan's Khartoum-based central government signed a peace deal in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5. The African Union has around 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur to help promote peace.

Since the deal, the AU has come under attack in the camps which house 2.5 million displaced Darfuris, and their patrols have been obstructed by hostile armed factions who did not sign the deal or were not present at negotiations.

Key deadlines, including receiving Khartoum's crucial plan to disarm pro-government militias by June 22, have been missed with no repercussions.

Dlamini-Zuma was expanding on comments made after a Peace and Security Council meeting on Tuesday in the Gambian capital Banjul.

"We discussed how to deal with those who undermine the implementation of the Abuja agreement on Darfur, and said that (with) those who actually undermine the agreement, we must take certain measures. Measures like a ban on travel and (seizing) their assets and so forth," she told reporters late on Tuesday.

Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, Dlamini-Zuma declined to say whether the sanctions were more likely to be targeted at Darfur rebel groups, the pro-Sudanese government Janjaweed militia, or even governments.

"I do not want to speculate. It's enough to say 'anyone who undermines the implementation of the peace process.' The act of not signing in itself does not constitute anything wrong," she said.

The African Union wants to transfer its peacekeeping force in Darfur to the United Nations, but so far the Khartoum government has refused to allow a U.N. force to deploy.

After Tuesday's meeting, Dlamini-Zuma insisted that unless something changed, the African Union would allow its force's mandate to expire as scheduled at the end of September.

"The mandate should finish by September 30 with a view to transferring to the United Nations," she said.

"We are willing to review that decision if there are new developments in the discussions between Sudan and the United Nations. For instance, if in their discussions they agree it can be transferred to the U.N. but maybe the U.N. says it needs a little bit more time to come in, then we can review it in that light," she said.

"We don't have the finances to continue beyond the date we have set ourselves, September 30, unless there are new developments," she said.

Uganda: Africa's Most Wanted Man

Here is the interview with Kony that served as the source for the other articles - from the Times Online [via POTP]

AS WE walk into the dark, airless jungle clearing after 12 days of increasingly arduous travel I understand how Stanley must have felt when he finally tracked down Livingstone.

My quarry is rather less benign. Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), is the most wanted man in Africa. He and his followers are accused of slaughtering 10,000 civilians during a 20-year campaign of terror in northern Uganda, abducting 25,000 children and turning them into killers, and driving as many as two million villagers into filthy refugee camps.

For two decades Kony has thwarted every effort to capture him, but now he is in front of me, in green Ugandan army uniform, surrounded by a ragtag group of heavily armed guards who regard him with manifest awe. He wears a blue beret, a sash over his shoulder, and green Wellington boots.

He is tall — perhaps 6ft 1in (1.8m) — and looks younger than his 46 years. He grins, exposing two chipped and blackened front teeth, then shakes my hand. “I’m a freedom fighter who is fighting for freedom in Uganda,” he tells me. “I am not a terrorist.”

This is the first interview Kony has given to a journalist, and the timing is no accident. He has offered the Ugandan Government peace talks. He has a negotiating team waiting in Juba, capital of southern Sudan. But President Museveni of Uganda is sceptical and reluctant to engage. “Peace talks are good for me,” Kony says. “If Museveni can agree to talk with me it is only a very good thing, which I know will bring peace to the people of Uganda.”

He does not explain why he is suddenly suing for peace. His enemies in Kampala claim the LRA is a broken force; he says he has 3,000 fighters.

But he insists that he is not the monster his reputation suggests, that the atrocities of which he is accused are trumped up by Museveni to blacken his name, and that all he has ever sought to do is to protect the Acholi people of northern Uganda from government repression. He also claims that he is guided by spirits.

Darfur: AU Mission to "End Soon"

From SAPA-AFP

The poorly equipped African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur is set to quit the troubled western Sudanese region by end of September due to a lack of funds, the AU's security organ said on Tuesday.

"Whatever happens, our mandate ends on September 31 unless there are new developments," South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said after chairing an AU Peace and Security Council meeting ahead of a weekend summit of heads of state.

"Even if we wanted to continue, we don't have the finances to continue beyond the date we have set ... unless [there is] a new development, which would mean there would be support for that [extension] from the United Nations," she told reporters.

Sudan has consistently opposed a handover of peacekeeping duties in Darfur to an international force, but has of late shown readiness to discuss the issue since reaching a peace agreement with the main rebel group last month.

However, President Omar al-Beshir was quoted as saying on Sunday that Sudanese troops were ready to take over from the AU force, in what was seen as a fresh rebuff to UN plans to deploy its own force.

Al-Beshir has repeatedly warned he will turn Darfur into "a graveyard" for Western troops, accusing the West of seeking to "recolonise Sudan".

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan this month said that Darfur needed UN peacekeepers despite al-Beshir's opposition.

Dlamini-Zuma said the AU would be "willing to review" its departure date from Darfur if there were new developments in Sudanese-UN discussions for a transfer of the operation to the world body.

"Maybe if the UN says it would need a little bit more time to come in, then we can review that," she said.

[edit]

Dlamini-Zuma said the AU's Security Council also discussed how to deal with individuals who seek to undermine the Abuja peace agreement signed in May by Sudan and Darfur's biggest rebel group, the main faction of the Sudanese Liberation Movement.

"Those who actually undermine the agreement, we must take certain measures such as a ban on travel and look at assets," she said.

From the BBC

The African Union has insisted its peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region will end in three months' time.

The peacekeepers will leave by the end of September even if there is no agreement on replacing it with a United Nations force, an AU meeting agreed.

Sudan is vehemently against this move, but UN boss Kofi Annan hopes to change their mind at this weekend's AU summit.

South Africa's foreign minister said the AU did not have the money to continue even if it wanted to.

But the UN head of peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, says the UN is committed to bolstering the AU mission.

[edit]

"Whatever happens our mandate ends on 30 September unless there are new developments in the discussions between the Sudan and the UN," said South Africa's Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlaminini Zuma, who chaired an AU Peace and Security Council meeting on the subject.

"For us that mandate should end and the UN should be the one who takes over."

Uganda: Kony Breaks Silence

From the BBC

In his first major interview with a journalist, the leader of Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army, has dismissed accusations he is responsible for atrocities.

Joseph Kony has been blamed for thousands of deaths and abductions - many of children - and for maiming civilians in his twenty year campaign of terror. The latter he blames on the forces of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

"That is not true. It's just propaganda," he says. "Let me tell you clearly what happened in Uganda. Museveni went into the villages and cut off the ears of the people, telling the people that it was the work of the LRA. I cannot cut the ear of my brother; I cannot kill the eye of my brother."

Along with four of his most senior commanders, Kony is now top of the International Criminal Courts warrant list. Kony alone is wanted for 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Speaking in the jungle of the Democratic Republic of Congo, surrounded by some of what he estimates as 3,000 heavily-armed fighters, he insists he is not the monster he is portrayed to be.

[edit]

"I am a human being like you," he declares. "I have eyes, a brain and wear clothes but they are saying we don't talk with people, we eat people. We are killers. That is not true. Why do you meet me if I am a killer?"

The scarcely-educated spiritual leader who launched an uprising in the northern Uganda region of Acholi after Museveni seized power in 1986, claims his forces have only targeted government troops.

"It is Museveni who is oppressing the Acholi people and driving the villagers into camps. Our wealth, our property, was destroyed by Museveni. He want to destroy all Acholi so that the land of Acholi will be his land... I did not kill the civilian of Uganda. I kill the soldier of Museveni."

Youths joined the LRA voluntarily but were never abducted, he claimed, "I don't have acres of maize, of onion, of cabbages. I don't have food. If I abducted children like that, here in the bush, what do they eat?"

Asked about the ICC charges, he insisted: "I am not guilty. I am not guilty. I am not guilty. But we want

He says he is guided by spirits, "I don't know the number but they speak to me. They load through me. They will tell us what is going to happen. They say 'you, Mr Joseph, tell your people that the enemy is planning to come and attack'."

From Reuters

Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony says in a rare interview that he is a freedom fighter, not a terrorist, and declares he is innocent of war crimes, a British newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, denies being responsible for killings, abductions and mutilations perpetrated in his name, The Times said.

The interview with Sam Farmar, which The Times said was his first with a journalist, is to be screened on the BBC's Newsnight programme on Wednesday evening.

"I'm a freedom fighter who is fighting for freedom in Uganda," Kony said. "I am not a terrorist."

Kony has recently called for an end to his two-decade-old war with President Yoweri Museveni's government.

"Peace talks are good for me," Kony was quoted as saying. "If Museveni can agree to talk with me it is only a very good thing, which I know will bring peace to the people of Uganda."

Kony does not explain why he is seeking peace, The Times said. He says he has 3,000 fighters but the Uganda government says the LRA is a broken force, it added.

"I am not guilty," he said when asked about the international court's charges against him and four of his commanders. The prosecutors "just hear from what Museveni stated to them," he said.

Asked what he was fighting for, Kony replied: "We want the people of Uganda to be free. We are fighting for democracy. We want our leader to be elected -- but not a movement like the one of Museveni."

Darfur: Annan Hopes Pressure Sways Sudan on UN

From the AP

Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed hope that pressure at an African Union summit will persuade Sudan's president to drop his opposition to a U.N. peacekeeping force in conflict-wracked Darfur.

Annan said he plans to meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir at the summit this weekend in the Gambian capital, Banjul. He said other African leaders were also anxious to talk to al-Bashir about a U.N. takeover of AU-led peacekeeping in the vast western region.

"I hope the collective pressure will make a difference," the secretary-general told reporters Tuesday.

Al-Bashir has said the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers will "never take place" while he is president, insisting that U.N. troops want to use Sudan to start "colonizing Africa" again. He blamed "Jewish organizations" for pushing for a U.N. force.

Despite al-Bashir's opposition, Annan said he is not giving up, especially since the African Union has said it cannot handle long-term peacekeeping in Darfur and wants its 7,000-strong force replaced by better-equipped and better-funded U.N. peacekeepers.

"In politics, words like 'never' and 'forever' do not exist," Annan told reporters. "We have seen leaders say lots of things, but they also find reasons and ways to adapt, to shift, to change direction, and often forget that they have used the word 'never.'"

The secretary-general also appealed to members of the U.N. Security Council "to bring their collective and individual pressure to bear ... not just on the Sudanese government to cooperate and support the deployment" but also on all rebel factions to sign the Darfur Peace agreement.

The government and one faction of the Sudan Liberation Army signed the May 5 agreement, but another faction and the separate Justice and Equality Movement have refused to sign.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said African Union members should pressure al-Bashir to comply with the peace agreement and support a U.N. force. He said the United States would decide on its next steps after the AU summit.

Annan and Bolton spoke to reporters after a closed-door briefing to the council by Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno, who just returned from a two-week assessment mission to Darfur with the African Union's peace commissioner, Said Djinnit.

Guehenno said the AU mission — which won't be replaced until early 2007 even if the Sudanese government gives its approval — must be strengthened immediately because the situation in Darfur remains "very fragile."

The U.N. and the AU agree that three brigades should be deployed in Darfur "so the situation doesn't deteriorate," he said, adding that the Sudanese government has not objected to beefing up the AU force. That would mean adding about 3,500 new troops, bringing the AU force to about 10,500.

Sudan/Uganda/DRC: Beyond Victimhood

A new report from the International Crisis Group

Peacebuilding cannot succeed if half the population is excluded from the process. Crisis Group’s research in Sudan, Congo (DRC) and Uganda suggests that peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction, and governance do better when women are involved. Women make a difference, in part because they adopt a more inclusive approach toward security and address key social and economic issues that would otherwise be ignored. But in all three countries, as different as each is, they remain marginalised in formal processes and under-represented in the security sector as a whole. Governments and the international community must do much more to support women peace activists.

The scale of discrimination and violence against women in each armed conflict – and the impunity with which it continues to be committed – remain the central obstacles to expanding the good work being done by women peacebuilders. The international community speaks a great deal about including women in formal peace-making processes and recognising their peacebuilding contributions but fails to do so in a systematic, meaningful way. Advances have been made in understanding the links between gender, development, human rights, peace, security and justice. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 reaffirmed the role of women in preventing and resolving conflicts and mandates UN member states to take steps to increase women’s participation in decision-making. However, endemic discrimination and sexual violence are significant barriers to achieving Resolution 1325’s goal of inclusivity.

The stereotype of “women as only victims” should not be reinforced. An array of women’s organisations and women leaders are doing remarkable work in each of the three countries, under difficult circumstances. The daily struggle for survival greatly limits the numbers who have become peace activists but their potential is significant. Because those who are courageous and capable enough to involve themselves as catalysts in peacebuilding are an endangered minority, they should be safeguarded and strengthened with funding, training and inclusion in assessment missions and other decision-making mechanisms that shape fundamental questions of security.

Properly supported, women’s peace movements can affect large sectors of the population and be a powerful force for reducing violence and building democratic and participatory public institutions, particularly in the post-conflict period. Their organisations should be identified at the outset of peacemaking processes and helped to work within broader peace initiatives and to communicate their messages to both national leaders and the international community.

The role of Sudanese women varies by region. Though women contribute prominently to peacebuilding through civil society, they were largely excluded from both the North-South and Darfur peace negotiations. Two pressing issues for women peace activists are the return of refugees and the internally displaced, and increasing women’s capacity to enter the democratisation processes set in motion this past year. Neither the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement nor the May 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement provide guarantees for women’s participation in the implementation processes. Women are under-represented at national and local levels, and even stated commitments to their participation in formal government structures have not been fulfilled.

Congolese women have registered and voted in impressive numbers and secured commitments on paper for greater roles in governance. However, in practice they remain badly under-represented and violence against them, often rape, is widespread and committed with impunity. Without greater political representation and more robust efforts to deal with the flood of weapons and militias that make the East highly unstable, women will continue to suffer disproportionately from the impacts of this conflict, and their potential as peacebuilders will not be fully achieved.

Though the situation is far from ideal, Uganda has by far the most advanced, articulate and organised women’s peace movement of the three countries – one whose basic principles can be replicated. The model that has evolved there relies on autonomy, including to some extent in funding, which makes its organisations both more independent and sustainable. It relies on networking to share common experiences among disparate regions and offer practical training for conflict resolution and trauma counselling both within families and in wider community and inter-community disputes – an approach with a proven success rate in reducing violence. With careful consultation, a commitment to learn lessons and a strong budgetary mechanism, and if leadership remains with the women who have created it, it could serve as the basis for a women’s regional peace initiative.

Darfur: Action Needed to Seize the Moment

From the UN News Center

To seize the moment of opportunity that the Abuja peace deal offers for ending the suffering in Sudan’s Darfur region, African peacekeeping must immediately be bolstered in anticipation of a “substantial” United Nations force and dialogue must start quickly between the local parties, the world body’s top peacekeeping official said today.

“The situation in Darfur remains very fragile – there is an agreement and that’s a major achievement – but it’s an agreement that opens a window, and that’s a window that needs to be seized,” Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the press after briefing the Security Council on the results of his recent assessment mission to Sudan.

For the immediate strengthening of the African Union mission, an 18 July international pledging conference will be crucial, he said, while there must be political progress at the same time through the Darfur/Darfur dialogue between the parties on the ground, which is called for in the Abuja agreement, Mr. Guéhenno said.

In view of the fragility of the situation, he said that “it would be wise” to have, by January 2007, a substantial UN force on the ground, perhaps consisting of some three brigades of three to five battalions each.

A solid military presence in Western Darfur could also address the situation in Chad, he added, where there are allegations by both countries of cross-border incursions along a 900 kilometre-long border in a situation that is growing increasingly worrisome.

Since the 5 May Abuja agreement there has been a decline in violence in much of Darfur, except for the western region where there is factional fighting and an actual deterioration of security, he said.

The big question still remains whether the Sudanese Government in Khartoum, which has so far balked at the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission, will agree to it, Mr. Guéhenno said.

Addressing that issue in a separate press encounter, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he, along with African officials, would be engaging Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir on the matter at a meeting sponsored by the African Union (AU) on 1 July.

He said he had also appealed to Security Council members to bring their collective and individual pressure to bear not just on the Sudanese Government to support the deployment, but also on the rebels that are outside the agreement to sign it, and on all parties to implement the pact in good faith.

Asked how he could expect a turnaround from Sudan when President Al-Bashir has already pledged in front of his parliament that he would never allow a UN peacekeeping force, he replied: “In politics, words like ‘never’ and ‘forever’ do not exist. We have seen leaders say lots of things, but they also find reasons and ways to adapt, to shift, to change direction, and often forget that they have used the word ‘never.’”

Darfur: UN Must Help African Union Now

From Reuters

The United Nations should immediately beef up the African Union force in Darfur with communications, transport and other help in preparation for its own operation, the head of U.N. peacekeeping said on Tuesday.

Although Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has rejected a U.N. force, the world body might be able to gain a foothold in Darfur by augmenting the African Union's 7,000-strong monitoring operation, said U.N. Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno.

"We believe that the United Nations can help the African mission," Guehenno told reporters. "We did not get any objection from the government of Sudan so we are going to work in earnest on that."

"If there is an evolution in the position of (the) government of Sudan, we will be in a much better position to deploy a U.N. mission," Guehenno said.

"The people of Darfur are too important to let go," he said, referring to the tens of thousands who have been killed in three years of warfare and the 2.3 million people driven into squalid camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad.

Guehenno, in briefing the Security Council on his recent military assessment mission in Darfur, proposed building a communications system and strengthening command and control capabilities.

"This could mean an enhancement of the U.N. presence in the region, through an augmented (U.N.) office in Darfur, with a significant number of United Nations staff fully dedicated to supporting the African mission in Sudan," he told the council, according to his text, obtained by Reuters.

Uganda: Demystifying Kony

From IWPR

Cloaked in an aura of mystery, Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, LRA, rebels in Uganda, has often been portrayed as a raving cult leader best known for his group's mass abduction of children, mutilations and massacres.

The stereotype obscures the real man whose movement is rooted in a history of political alienation, and whose mysticism masks a raw instinct for survival that has confounded his many adversaries.

Kony met western journalists, possibly for the first time ever, in the second week of June this year during talks with southern Sudanese vice-president Riek Machar in a clearing near Sudan's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, to discuss arrangements for peace negotiations with the Ugandan government.

Coupled with film of Kony attending a previous meeting with Machar on May 3, an image is emerging of a more conventional rebel leader than the man described by former followers as a prophet who talked to angels.

In contrast to the snapshot of a dread-locked guerrilla constantly recycled by Ugandan newspapers, Kony appeared in the video with short hair and a crisp military uniform, and said in English that he was "a human being" who wanted to talk peace.

Machar wants to broker an end to the uprising by the LRA, which has long staged attacks from bases in south Sudan. He wants both to neutralise the threat Kony poses to southern Sudanese civilians, and to enhance the international standing of the newly-formed southern Sudanese government, formed after the country’s long civil war ended last year.

The talks have yet to begin, but LRA delegates are already in the southern Sudanese capital, Juba, and Uganda's envoy in the town says Kampala will send representatives.

Despite his new public profile, Kony remains difficult to read. Appearing wary - some would say fearful - at his most recent meeting with Machar, he nevertheless agreed to be photographed and later interviewed - a major step for a man who had previously restricted his public statements to rare radio broadcasts and taped messages. The television interview he gave has not yet been aired, although it is likely to create even more interest in a man who has become a test case for the new International Criminal Court, ICC, in the Hague, set up to try perpetrators of the most heinous war crimes.

Uganda: Domestic Abuse in Camps

From Reuters AlertNet

Getting shot, kidnapped or raped by rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army is not the only threat faced by women in northern Uganda.

Domestic violence is also a serious but little recognised problem in camps for hundreds of thousands of families displaced by the long-running conflict, according to Elizabeth Stites, a senior researcher at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University in Boston.

Stites, speaking in London on Tuesday after returning from camps in northern Uganda's Kitgum district, said husbands and wives both blamed alcohol in part but disagreed on the other root cause.

Clan leaders say outside aid workers are undermining local Acholi culture by filling their women's heads with western ideas about women's rights. The women say they get beaten because they live in a patriarchal system.

"It's extremely prevalent," Stites said. "No one is saying this is not an issue."

She said health workers often see women with dislocated arms and legs, broken limbs or wounds to the head and face. In extreme cases some women have died. Children have also been killed trying to defend their mothers.

Women get beaten for not having meals ready on time, allowing the children to get dirty, letting the goats get away or refusing their husbands sex.

Residents in the camps reported hearing between one and 10 severe beatings every week in neighbouring huts, Stites said.

Chad: Deployment by UN Urged

From The Financial Times

The UN must consider deploying international forces to eastern Chad, both Amnesty International and the French government are warning, as the situation there starts to bear a chilling resemblance to the human rights catastrophe across the border in Sudan’s Darfur region.

In a new report to be released on Thursday, Amnesty will draw new attention to a mounting crisis that has gone relatively unnoticed, even as public pressure has grown to stop the atrocities in Sudan.

Chad wrote to the Security Council in mid-June asking for action on what it describes as a Sudanese-backed destabilisation programme, and diplomats say France is advocating the possibility of international policing in the camps and aerial surveillance.

[edit]

The violence in Chad is closely linked to the conflict in Darfur, as both Sudanese and Chadian rebels operate from across their respective borders and allegedly Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militia attack Chadian villages.

“The human rights situation is going to get much worse if the international community doesn’t wake up,” said Irene Khan, the head of Amnesty International, in an FT interview.

She noted a pattern of Chadian rebels attacking from Darfur, Chadian army forces responding and the Janjaweed moving in “from behind” to attack villages. A recent Amnesty mission gathered photographic evidence of the attackers bearing Sudanese ID cards and uniforms, she said.

Many Security Council powers are reluctant to establish a Chad force without an agreement on Darfur, with one western diplomat warning that a mission there without one on the Sudanese side of the border could worsen the situation.

But Ms Khan said it was wrong for the Chadian population to be held “hostage” by Sudanese intransigence. “They [the Security Council] should see this as a whole,” she said. “Action is needed on both sides of the border.”

Amnesty found some eastern Chadians were seeking ties with Darfur rebels and were “open in saying, we have to get armed”.

“We see the same pattern we saw in 2003 in Darfur,” Ms Khan said, noting a worrying rise in Arab versus African rhetoric. “The largest and wealthiest African groups are being targeted.”

Darfur: Congressional Leaders to Become 1,000,000th Signers

A press release from Save Darfur

WHAT: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD (R-Tenn.) will join other Members of Congress to become the 1,000,000th Americans to sign postcards to President Bush urging him to advocate for a UN Peacekeeping force to protect the people of Darfur, Sudan. Nationwide, activists from houses of worship, universities, and other organizations have generated electronic and handwritten postcards to President Bush as part of the Save Darfur Coalition's "Million Voices for Darfur Campaign" ( http://www.MillionVoicesForDarfur.org ).

Since February 2003, the worsening genocide sponsored by the Sudanese government and perpetrated by its "Janjaweed" militia allies has claimed at least 400,000 lives, displaced 2.5 million people, and left nearly 4 million completely dependant on international humanitarian aid. A UN Security Council resolution authorizing a peacekeeping force is under consideration and may be decided in the next two weeks.

PHOTO OP: Members of Congress will gather inside the LBJ Room in the Capitol to sign an enlarged postcard, becoming the 1,000,000th Americans to participate in the campaign.

WHO:

Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD (R-TN) (confirmed)

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (invited)

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) (invited)

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) (invited)

Additional Members of Congress also invited

Rev. Gloria White-Hammond, MD, pediatrician, minister, and chairwoman of the Million Voices for Darfur campaign. (confirmed)

WHEN: Thursday, June 29 at 11 a.m. Advance interviews available

WHERE: The Lyndon B. Johnson Room (S-211), U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.

Darfur: Despite Peace Accord, Region Still Lacks Proper Security

From VOA

Security continues to worsen in Darfur despite a peace accord on May 5th. As a result, many people in need are not receiving humanitarian aid. One of the aid agencies working in Darfur is the Irish NGO, GOAL. Simon Roughgreen is the program manager for the group in north Darfur state. From the town of Kutum, he spoke to VOA English to Africa reporter Joe De Capua about the lack of security there.

“Security has always been pretty precarious in our part of Darfur as it is for most of the region. But since the signing of the Darfur peace agreement conditions have actually worsened on the ground. As you know, the peace agreement was just signed by one rebel faction. There were two. There are now three.” Two factions have refused to sign.

Roughgreen says, “What that has resulted in is increased tensions on the ground, particularly between the rival SLA factions over those who signed the peace deal and those who didn’t. And that means for us, for an aid agency such as GOAL, we cannot reach the people we work with in the more outlying, more remote areas in northern Darfur.”

Goal provides health, sanitation and nutrition services to more than 150,000 people in North Darfur camps for the displaced. “We still can access some of them. There are two large camps outside the town that we’re based in at the moment and we can get to those camps. However, they are within a 10-mile radius of the town. Anything any further out we haven’t been able to access for the last five weeks. There have been a number of robberies and carjackings in the area, which have made it unsafe to travel. And there are reports of ongoing fighting between rival rebel factions, which makes it difficult for us to get out and help the people,” he says.

African Union forces are only able to provide limited protection. Roughgreen says, “We see the African Union on the ground here. You see them on patrol…people in the camps, on the ground, do not feel safe, anywhere secure based on the protection of the African Union because the African Union’s under funded and its mandate is not sufficiently strong enough to enable it to protect people, even in camps, from the likes of the janjaweed (pro government militias).

Chad: UN Rights Official Calls on International Community to Help

From the UN News Center

A United Nations humanitarian expert has called on the international community to help Chad protect and assist tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) uprooted by an upsurge of violence and theft by janjaweed militias from Sudan.

“While Chad and Sudan have suspended diplomatic relations over allegations that each hosts rebels opposed to the other’s government, the people of both countries, both the internally displaced and those who have fled across the joint border, are paying a terrible price,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Representative on the Human Rights of IDPs, Walter Kälin, said in a statement.

“Recognizing that the crisis has outstripped its resources, Chad has requested assistance from the international community to improve protection,” he added, noting that more than 50,000 Chadians have been displaced recently in addition to the over 200,000 refugees from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region that Chad is already hosting. “We must not turn our backs on this request, or to the thousands presently at risk.”

Mr. Kälin noted that Chad, a historically refugee-receiving country whose people “have extended their generosity to those in need of international support and protection,” is facing an overwhelming burden on the local population and support structures in its eastern region. “Both refugees and internally displaced persons are at risk of violence by regular and irregular groups, as are humanitarian workers,” he said.

“After three years of uncontained destruction in Darfur, the janjaweed have increasingly violated Chad’s border, initially pursuing refugees from Darfur and now targeting Chadian communities,” he added.

“I urgently call on the Chadian and Sudanese authorities, and the international community, to provide protection to the area’s residents, Sudanese and Chadian alike.”

Chad/CAR: Chadian Rebels Attack Central African Republic

The crisis in the Darfur-region continues to spread - from Reuters

Chadian rebels have launched a raid into the northeast region of Central African Republic, clashing with government troops and African peacekeepers, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

Several soldiers were killed on both sides during the attack on the settlement of Am Dafok, close to the border with Sudan, according to the ministry statement read on state radio.

The government in Bangui appealed to the international community to stop the attacks, after a similar raid a month ago near the northeast town of Tiroungoulou left two Central African soldiers dead.

From AFP

Deadly clashes broke out between the Central African Republic (CAR) army and rebels who crossed into the country from neighbouring Chad, the CAR Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Heavily armed" Chadian rebels attacked forces of the CAR and the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Cemac) near Gordil in the north-east of the country, the ministry said.

"The fighting that followed was particularly intense, causing a number of deaths on both sides," the ministry said in statement, without providing an exact toll.

A CAR military source said on condition of anonymity that 71 Chadian rebels and five members of the CAR/Cemac force died in the fighting, which took place overnight from Sunday until Monday near the Chadian border, about 800km from the capital Bangui.

Chadian rebels opposed to the regime of their country's President Idriss Déby Itno have crossed into CAR territory several times in recent months, prompting Bangui to denounce the incursions.

Two CAR soldiers were killed in an earlier clash with rebels on May 26. CAR also claims armed rebels passed through its territory from Sudan on April 8 and 9, a few days before Chadian rebels of the United Front for Change launched an unsuccessful armed coup attempt against Déby.

The president of the CAR, Francois Bozize, is a faithful supporter of Déby, who helped him win power in 2003.

The CAR government on Tuesday denounced what it called "extremely serious events, which demonstrate that Central African soil has become a real battle ground for the opponents of the N'Djamena regime" of Déby.

From the BBC

Rebels from Chad have attacked neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR), leaving an unknown number of rebels and soldiers dead, the CAR says.

Peacekeepers from a regional body were also involved in the clashes with "heavily armed" rebels in the north, the interior ministry says.

Correspondents say large parts of CAR, Chad and Sudan are devoid of authority, with many armed groups operating.

A BBC correspondent says rebels from Chad and CAR have formed an alliance.

The BBC's Joseph Benamsse in the CAR capital, Bangui, says the Chadian rebels want to be left alone in the remote northern region.

Uganda: Gov't Examining "Issues" Before Entering Talks

From DPA

Uganda is willing to enter into talks with rebels who have displaced over 1.5 million people in the north of the country but is still "sorting out issues" surrounding the talks, a senior foreign affairs official said Tuesday.

The Ugandan government has received an invitation to talks with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from the southern Sudanese authorities who are acting as mediators between the rebels and Kampala.

"The invitation has been sent to us but we are sorting out some issues before we send a technical team to the talks," James Mugume, foreign affairs permanent secretary, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone.

Analysts are saying that Uganda is reluctant to meet the LRA leadership because it does not trust the initiator of the talks, Southern Sudan's Vice-President Riak Machar.

Machar is feared to be sympathetic to the LRA, which has fought a 20-year rebellion along the border of Uganda and Sudan.

LRA rebels have repeatedly targeted civilians during the war -thousands of people have been killed or tortured with the guerillas known to sever limbs, ears, noses and lips.

The rebels have also abducted tens of thousands of children whom they have forced to fight and commit atrocities while girls have been turned into sex slaves.

During a rare meeting recently at a remote location in southern Sudan Machar gave the reclusive guerilla leader Joseph Kony 20,000 dollars.

"Uganda distrusts Machar and has been reluctant to enter into talks with the LRA under his initiative ... His position as mediator is suspect," an analyst said speaking on condition of anonymity Tuesday.

Mugume however denied that Kampala was reluctant to enter into dialogue with the LRA, which has snubbed previous efforts to end the bloody rebellion.

"It is not a question of trust, it's a question of interest. We have interests which we follow. For example, we must make sure that we are not taken for a ride," Mugume said.

Darfur: Update From Oxfam

From Oxfam

It is now three years since the escalation of the conflict in Darfur into a major humanitarian crisis. Today the situation is as desperate as ever. The sheer scale of the crisis is incredible:

- 2 million people- nearly one in three people in Darfur - have fled their homes and are sheltering in camps for Internally Displaced People (IDPs)

- A further 200,000 refugees from Darfur are in camps over the border in Chad

- 3.4 million people - that's more than half Darfur's entire population – are now reliant on humanitarian aid

Such a catastrophic situation will not improve without an end to the ongoing conflict and horrific violence. In early May, the government and one of the main rebel groups signed the Darfur Peace Agreement. But civilians continue to face daily threats of violence and displacements of entire communities. For the majority of displaced – massed in sprawling makeshift camps and overcrowded towns – the present insecurity throughout Darfur means that returning home is impossible.

Oxfam is working to provide people in Darfur with clean water and sanitation systems, and to promote good hygiene practice in the overcrowded camps. Our programmes within Darfur currently reach 400,000 people, with a further 126,000 beneficiaries in refugee camps across the border in Chad .

Getting worse

Since mid-2005 the situation in Darfur has been deteriorating further with every passing week, with almost daily reports of civilians being attacked or forced from their homes. Even the people living inside the camps are still not safe. Venturing just a short way outside to collect essential firewood or go to the market risks harassment, assault or death. The people of Darfur urgently need protection from violence and the current African Union intervention force needs to be greatly strengthened if it is to make the region safe and secure for civilians.

Aid cannot get through

The increasing violence and lawlessness throughout Darfur is restricting the ability of Oxfam and other humanitarian organisations to do our work. Roads are frequently too dangerous to travel on; aid vehicles are increasingly being hijacked or attacked, and staff are placed in growing danger. Parts of rural Darfur are completely inaccessible for aid agencies. Many of Oxfam's programmes are now reached by helicopter because roads are too insecure, and in places where there are no helicopter services we are often simply unable to get there. In Shangil Tobai in North Darfur for example, we have recently suspended some programmes because humanitarian vehicles are regularly attacked and hijacked and it is simply too dangerous to operate. It is not just staff that cannot get through to camps; essential equipment and supplies are also unable to get through to those in need. Hundreds of thousands of people are going without desperately needed assistance because of the rising insecurity.

Darfur: Brother and Sister Tackle Crisis

From The Dartmouth Online

Back from Sudan, brother and sister Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace Tu'01 reported on the crisis in the Darfur region and promoted volunteerism Friday as part of the Tucker Foundation's Sophomore Summer Opening Address. Both Steidle, a former captain with the U.S. Marine Corps, and Wallace, founder of the non-governmental organization Global Grassroots, urged attendees to react to the wrongs they see in the world, using the Sudanese genocide as an example.

Steidle went to Darfur in September 2004 as a U.S. representative to the African Union's peacekeeping mission there, allowed only to report on violations of a cease-fire. Armed with a camera, pen and pad, Steidle photographed injuries and evidence of other atrocities committed by the Janjaweed, a government-sponsored Arab militia.

During the speeches, a slide show displayed the more viewable of Steidle's photographs, images including looted stores, a government soldier burning a food supply, helicopters scorching villages and refugees staring into his camera. The photographs, he said, were difficult to take.

"I don't know how to describe most of them -- things you shouldn't see," he said.

Steidle then talked with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who wanted to write about the relatively unknown crisis in Darfur. It was then when Steidle decided to release the photographs, a move he termed "a difficult decision." Despite violating his contract and exposing himself to backlash, he released his photographs, the first ones exposing genocide in Darfur.

Steidle questioned the progress made toward ending the violence.

"I don't know if I've made any difference," he said. "People are still dying in Darfur. Villages are still being destroyed."

Darfur: Send More Troops to Protect Civilians

From Human Right Watch

African leaders meeting at the African Union summit on July 1 and 2 must contribute more troops to protect civilians in Darfur and urge Sudan to consent to a U.N. force in Darfur, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the leaders. They should also call on Senegal to prosecute the former Chadian president Hissène Habré or extradite him to Belgium for trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

Tomorrow the AU Peace and Security Council meets to discuss Darfur. On May 5, AU mediators persuaded the Sudanese government and the largest rebel group to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement in Abuja, Nigeria. But civilians in Darfur remain at high risk from continuing violence.

“Life is actually worse for the civilians suffering in Darfur, in spite of the peace agreement,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Violence is rising, and additional African forces are needed to reinforce the 7,000 troops now on the ground, so they can better protect civilians.”

Although the peace deal was signed by Khartoum and the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement led by Minni Minawi Arkau, two smaller rebel factions have yet to sign. Two million people remain displaced in camps, still targeted by the ethnic “Janjaweed” militia unleashed by the Sudanese government to wage its war against the rebels. The violence is hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid and the ability of displaced persons to return home. The Sudanese militia has now crossed the border to Chad and is attacking Chadian civilians.

In late 2004, the Peace and Security Council gave the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) a mandate to protect civilians. But, as Darfur is a vast territory with minimal infrastructure, the mission needs much greater capacity for communications, planning and logistics if it is to deter further attacks on civilians.

The mission’s operational difficulties in part prompted the AU in May to ask the Sudanese government to consent to the U.N. taking over AMIS operations in Darfur “at the earliest possible time.” In the meantime, the AU Peace and Security Council must strengthen the mandate and capacity of AMIS, which is supposed to undertake new tasks under the peace agreement.

“The AU council must equip AMIS to robustly and proactively protect civilians,’” said Takirambudde. “The alarming deterioration in security in Darfur means that even if Khartoum agrees to a U.N. force tomorrow, AMIS needs more support and capacity now.”

The Sudanese government initially said it would support the transition to a U.N. force, but only after a peace agreement was reached; now it has reneged on that commitment. On June 20, President Omar al-Bashir said Sudan would never allow U.N. troops into Darfur, even though a U.N. force of almost 10,000 is already in Sudan to support the 2005 peace agreement ending the 21-year war waged mostly in the south.

“African leaders should tell Khartoum to accept a U.N. force,” said Takirambudde. “The AU has transferred to U.N. forces in Burundi and elsewhere in Africa; why should Sudan be different?”

Uganda: Fresh Hope For Peace?

From the Christian Science Monitor

But local leaders are cautiously optimistic that the war could draw to an end because of a new peace initiative opened up by Riek Machar, vice president of neighboring southern Sudan.

Over the past eight weeks, Machar has orchestrated a series of face-to-face meetings with Kony, which observers see as a sign of trust between the two men. As second in command of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) Machar is also an ally of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

But the talks are threatened by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued warrants for the LRA leadership in October and wants Kony and his top commanders arrested for war crimes.

The ICC's credibility rests on its ability to end impunity toward human rights abuses and war crimes. The transfer of former Liberian President Charles Taylor to The Hague last week was a victory. The failure to put Kony and his top commanders in the dock, however, would seriously undermine the fledgling court.

Betty Bigombe, a former Ugandan government minister who was profiled last fall by the Monitor as part of a three-part series on African peaceseekers, has for years sought to negotiate an end to the conflict. Reached by phone in the U.S., Bigombe says Machar should be supported in his efforts to bring Kony to the negotiating table. "Any initiative to end the war must be supported by all efforts," she says, adding that the ICC remains a "complication."

[edit]

Last week, Machar's overtures gained the support of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, who argued that peace must come first, irrespective of ICC wishes. "If the government of Uganda can come to some agreement with the LRA, that has to be the priority," she said on a visit to Uganda's capital.

That view echoes those of leaders in northern Uganda. "Peace has a higher value than anything else," says Norbert Mao, a top local government official. "I believe in the [ICC]. It is a great thing. But the chief prosecutor's mother is not in a displaced-persons camp. ... We are grappling with, and living, a difficult reality."

[edit]

Others warn that the ICC should not undermine the opportunity for a negotiated peace. "This is the time for the ICC to keep quiet," argues Gulu Archbishop John Baptist Odama, who has been involved in previous failed attempts to negotiate peace with the LRA. "Something good is coming out, and threats to arrest Kony do no good," he says. "I'm not against the ICC, but mark me well: If there is a peace process going on and you talk about arrests, I cannot understand you."

Archbishop Odama lays the blame for the failure of Bigombe's recent peace efforts squarely at the feet of the ICC.

"At the same time [that we were talking peace], everyone was saying the ICC will arrest [LRA leaders], and that derailed the peace process," he says. Since then, Bigombe has struggled to rebuild trust and make meaningful contact with LRA leaders.

The ICC has reiterated its position that states are obliged to arrest Kony and his commanders and bring them to face justice in The Hague. Two weeks ago, the court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, dismissed the new peace initiative, saying it was just another example of Kony using negotiations to "buy time and regroup."

There is understandable skepticism given the failure of past negotiations, but those involved in previous talks say Machar has made remarkable progress in gaining Kony's trust.

"We should be optimistic and give support to this initiative with Machar," says Chief Acana, "because he has gone two steps further than anyone else in actually meeting with Kony face to face." A videotape released last month showed Machar meeting with Kony. In it, Machar was seen handing Kony $20,000. "Spend this on food, not weapons," he advised. Kony was heard to protest that he is a human being, too, and wants peace.

President Museveni says he will give Kony until the end of July to lay down his weapons, and has not ruled out extending amnesty to Kony. At the same time, his government has yet to send a high-level delegation to southern Sudan to meet with the LRA negotiating team, saying it must first establish the genuineness of the LRA team before engaging in any talks.

Chad: Rebels Claim Town's Seizure

From Sapa-AP

Chadian rebels claimed on Monday to have seized a southern town after a brief clash with government forces.

Government officials said they were still collecting information on the claim, which was posted on a rebel Web site.

The statement, attributed to Colonel Hassane Saleh Aldjinedi of the Chadian National Accord, a faction of the umbrella United Front for Democratic Change, said rebels attacked army positions in Kalogne, near Chad's border with the Central African Republic, early on Monday and it was "liberated with almost no resistance."

Darfur: Bulls Without Horns

From Slate

The African Union plays an important protective role for these camps. But as we were on this patrol, serious fighting broke out only 20 miles away at Jebel Marra, forcing the evacuation of international relief agencies and leaving 100,000 IDPs without aid. In that case, the African Union was nowhere to be seen.

As Col. Kamili explained, the A.U. troops don't have the means to intervene in conflict. He had headed for Jebel Marra the previous week but had been turned back at a rebel roadblock. The A.U. mandate didn't permit his convoy to force its way through. And the lightly armed A.U. troops are no match for the rebels or government troops and militias.

Increasingly, A.U. officers feel that they are becoming targets who cannot protect themselves, let alone protect innocent civilians. Speaking of the African Union's limited equipment and mandate, one officer said, "We are bulls without horns."

Col. Kamili's patrol is organized; well-equipped; and coordinates activities with internally displaced people, relief agencies, and Sudanese police, but not all operations are as effective. Another A.U. base in Darfur, next to a camp for 14,000 IDPs, was starkly underequipped and rendered nearly ineffectual as a result.

Many of the displaced try to leave this camp by day to farm their lands or find firewood. Three days before I arrived, two girls looking for firewood had been attacked by men on camelback. Both were raped and beaten. They ran back, barefoot, to the camp in such terror that one girl arrived with the skin completely torn off her feet.

As locals have congregated in densely populated camps, armed nomadic groups have descended from northern Darfur. They now control the countryside and are increasingly emboldened, rendering the displaced virtual prisoners. The A.U. force is increasingly powerless in the face of the violence, most of it targeted at ethnic populations and much of it sponsored by the Sudanese government.

The A.U. base in southern Darfur, a large encampment set in the desert and surrounded by rolls of barbed wire, features neat rows of white tents for the soldiers and air-conditioned offices. But this base of 136 troops has only one computer, one printer, and one Thuraya satellite phone, with a "prepaid credit" of 50 minutes per month. The phones are useless after a week or so.

The base has five vehicles, but only three are operational, so commanders can send out just one patrol of 24 troops each day. The vehicles are equipped with short-wave radio systems, but there is no base station for either system. If the commanding officer wants to communicate with a patrol, he goes out to the parking lot to use the radio in one of the broken vehicles.

There is one interpreter, an Arab man from Khartoum. He does not speak the local language, and the local population views him with suspicion. It is no wonder that the commanding officer says he has received no complaints from camp residents.

Despite the problems, much was impressive and encouraging. Most officers spoke with pride of the African Union taking on its first major peacekeeping mission. They were moved by the suffering they saw all around them, and there was little cynicism about their work. But many were daunted by the scale and ferocity of the conflict and their limited ability to stop the violence. The peacekeepers' impact varies widely, depending on the caliber of the local commanding officer. The African Union force is grossly underresourced for this crisis, with insufficient manpower, weapons, communications, and logistical support. There are fewer than 5,000 military protection troops, along with 2,100 unarmed civilian police and military advisers, in a war that spans a land the size of Texas.

Every A.U. officer I spoke with in Darfur expressed support for a "re-hatting" of the mission, switching from the green helmets of the African Union to the blue helmets of the United Nations. The A.U. troops would remain the core of the peacekeeping effort, under the direction of—and with support, training, and additional resources from—the United Nations.

Darfur: UN Resumes Work

From the AP

United Nations organizations in Darfur have been allowed to resume work after they were partially suspended in a dispute over a helicopter ride given to a rebel leader, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry had directed local authorities in Darfur on Sunday to suspend the work of all UN missions in the area except UNICEF and the World Food Program, claiming that the UN had transported a rebel leader in violation of agreements with Khartoum.

Sulieman Jamous, leader of a Sudan Liberation Army faction, purportedly flew from El Fasher, Darfur, to Kordufan on a UN helicopter on Saturday, said a Foreign Ministry statement issued Monday. Jamous did not sign the May 5 Darfur Peace agreement with the government in Khartoum.

Monday's decision followed a meeting between a representative of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry and the UN, a ministry statement said.

Taye-Brook Zerihoun, principal deputy special representative of the UN secretary general in Sudan, told ministry undersecretary Mutrif Sadiq that the incident was not intended to cause harm and that it would be investigated, the statement said.

DRC: Militia Threaten to Execute UN Peacekeepers

From Reuters

Congolese militia linked to gunmen holding seven Nepalese U.N. peacekeepers hostage on Monday threatened to order their execution after clashes last week.

But some U.N. sources questioned whether the group of gunmen holding the peacekeepers would take orders from the militia issuing the threat.

The men were taken hostage last month during clashes between the U.N. and gunmen, highlighting the insecurity in eastern Congo one month before historic elections are due to be held.

Militiamen loyal to Ituri warlord Peter Karim have issued a range of demands, including ransoms and the release of fellow militia fighters being held by the government, but the U.N. has called for the unconditional release of their men.

The Revolutionary Movement of Congo (MRC), a loose coalition of gunmen in the lawless northeastern district, issued the execution threat on Monday following clashes between government forces and militiamen late last week.

"If there is another such attack, the ... MRC will feel obliged to order the pure and simple execution of these hostages," the MRC said in a statement.

[edit]

But a U.N. spokesman denied any operation to rescue the hostages had taken place and said he understood it was the militia who had attacked the Congolese government positions and no U.N. peacekeepers were involved.

"Negotiations (to free the hostages) are ongoing," Major Hans-Jakob Reichen, spokesman for U.N. forces in eastern Congo, said on Monday.

"During this period U.N. forces will not conduct actions that could endanger the success of these negotiations. (But) this time of negotiations can't be considered a time of impunity," he added.

Uganda: 2 Million Living in Refugee Camps

From the AP

Pit latrines hum with flies next to crowded mud huts. Women line up for hours to get fresh water from a well, their children playing in the puddle around it. Men sit around listlessly. A drunkard staggers by.

Conditions in the Unyama refugee camp may be bad, but those who fled here from rural homes fear what lies outside is worse. For 20 years, the Lord's Resistance Army has led a brutal rebellion, killing and maiming civilians and kidnapping children in northern Uganda. Some 2 million people have taken refuge in camps patrolled by the Ugandan army.

Now, there is a glimmer of hope. Rebel leader Joseph Kony met with south Sudanese Vice President Riek Macher last month, and said he was willing to talk peace.

[edit]

Uganda's Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Felix Kulayigye, told The Associated Press that Uganda was willing to negotiate a peace deal, but would not talk to those indicted by the international court.

Sam Kolo, a former rebel spokesman and commander, spent years in the bush as one of Kony's right-hand men. He was involved in failed peace talks with a government-appointed mediator and later surrendered to the government side and was granted amnesty.

"Kony coming to these peace talks seriously is a dream," Kolo told the AP. "He is an opportunist who wants to strike gold. Peacemaking is business now, donors will listen to you if you say you are prepared to talk peace."

At their meeting, south Sudanese Vice President Macher handed Kony $20,000 and told him to buy food, not guns. Macher told the AP he gave Kony money and food to ensure the rebels would leave Sudan without plundering more villages.

"The money being spent on these peace talks is being wasted and should instead be spent on the camps here," Kolo said.

[edit]

Many Unyama residents see renewed peace talks as their only hope of returning home, growing their own food and giving their children a future.

"The war is not working, we are tired of the war," said Florence Adong, who has lived in Unyama for 10 years. Her two young children were taken by the rebels in 1994.

"The government should go to these peace talks, they owe it to us to try," she said. "Kony should be offered amnesty and then our children can come home. I pray that talking to Kony will bring peace this time."

See also this from Reuters

Ugandan troops killed eight northern rebels in clashes last week, keeping up the pressure on fugitive guerrillas who have called for peace talks with the government, the army said on Monday.

There is no ceasefire and fresh clashes have broken out as Uganda decides whether to meet representatives of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in neighbouring Southern Sudan.

"Eight LRA fighters were killed last week as they tried to raid camps in the north," said Uganda's army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye. "Our position is clear: operations continue."

Four LRA rebels were also killed by Sudanese forces in Southern Sudan last week, a state governor said.

Northern Uganda had been relatively quiet in recent weeks.

And this from The Monitor

MORE than 90 per cent of Ugandan rebels have left their refuge in Southern Sudan, showing that the policy of paying the notorious outlaws to go has been a success, the vice president of the autonomous region said yesterday.

Vice President Riek Machar said he believed the Lord's Resistance Army fighters had crossed from Southern Sudan into the Democratic Republic of Congo, but UN and Congolese officials in Kinshasa said they had no evidence of that.

Mr Machar said his administration's attempts to mediate an end to the LRA's 20-year rebellion in northern Uganda had been stalled because the Ugandan government had not sent negotiators to Juba, the southern Sudanese capital, where peace talks are due to be held.

The payments to LRA leader Joseph Kony have raised criticism, since Kony and four other LRA commanders have been indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

[edit]

Mr Machar said on Friday that in a meeting in the southern Sudan bush on May 3, he gave Kony $20,000 (Sh1.4 million) and stocks of food to ensure that the rebels would leave Sudan without plundering any more villages.

"If this tricked them to move away, that's fine with me," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Juba.

Darfur: UN Tries to Resolve Suspension

From IRIN

United National officials were on Monday trying to break a diplomatic impasse after the Sudanese government suspended their operations in the western region of Darfur.

The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement issued on Saturday, said it had instructed local authorities in Darfur to suspend all activities of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in the three Darfur states, except those of two affiliated agencies: the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the World Food Programme which provide life-saving aid to millions of people in the region.

The government accused UNMIS of exceeding its mandate in Darfur when it transported a commander of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) on Thursday. Foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Mohamed Ibrahim said that UN envoy Jan Pronk had been summoned to give an explanation of the alleged helicopter ride given to the Darfur rebel leader on Monday.

The foreign ministry said it considered the incident, "a flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty and a violation of the agreement under which the UN operates in Sudan."

In the meantime, UNMIS air operations have suspended all Darfur flights until further notice, after the head of military intelligence of the Sudanese armed forces indicated that all UNMIS flights coming to Darfur would be prohibited from landing.

Darfur: Sudan Lifts Suspension of UN Operations

From the Sudan Tribune

Sudanese government announced the removal of the suspension imposed on the United Nations activities in Sudan’s troubled region of Darfur, after apologizes of the UN envoy today in Khartoum, Radio France Internationale reported.

The Sudanese Foreign Minister spokesperson Jamal Ibrahim said in an interview with the French Language RFI, that the head of the United Nation Mission in Sudan Jan Pronk had indicated in a meeting Monday that the transport of Darfur rebel leader Suleiman Jamous was made in good faith and in humanitarian bases.

He further said Pronk had reiterated his engagement to respect agreement between Sudan and the United Nation and to notify details of UN flights to the Sudanese aviation authorities as it is stipulated in the agreement.

“Sudan has accepted the clarifications presented by the UN envoy and the suspension is removed” said the Sudanese official.

UPDATE: This article has been edited and now reads

The Sudanese Foreign Minister spokesperson Jamal Ibrahim said in an interview with the French Language RFI, that the Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Tayé-Brook Zerihoun, had indicated in a meeting Monday with acting Foreign Minister Sidiq Mutaraf that the transport of Darfur rebel leader Suleiman Jamous was made in good faith and in humanitarian bases.

He further said Zerihoum had reiterated his engagement to respect agreement between Sudan and the United Nation and to notify details of UN flights to the Sudanese aviation authorities as it is stipulated in the agreement.

“Sudan has accepted the clarifications presented by the UN deputy envoy and the suspension is removed” said the Sudanese official.

Darfur: Beshir Says Sudan Can Handle Peacekeeping

From AFP

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said his country could assume peacekeeping operations in war-torn Darfur, state media reported Monday in a fresh rebuff of the UN's deployment plan.

Sudan "is prepared to undertake the peacekeeping process in Darfur if the AU abandons or relinquishes the mandate it was granted by the government," Omdurman Radio quoted Beshir as telling a cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Beshir's renewed opposition to a proposed UN takeover of peacekeeping responsibilities from the cash-strapped and ill-equipped African Union came amid heightened tensions between Khartoum and the world body.

[edit]

A delegation from Minawi's signatory faction of the SLM was expected to arrive in Khartoum Monday to discuss means of implementing the agreement with the government.

SLM spokesman Majub Hussein, already in the Sudanese capital as part of an advance delegation, reiterated his group's call for the deployment of western forces in the war-torn region.

"Security in the region can be realised only in the presence of international forces," he told AFP.

Darfur: Tribal Rivalry Breeds Fear in Camps

From David Blair in The Telegraph - also via POTP

At first glance, the dusty alleys running between the countless shacks of Darfur's largest refugee camp seem innocent places where ragged children play. Yet these pathways have become impenetrable barriers, dividing tribe from tribe and creating a powder-keg of unrest.

Almost unnoticed, the 90,000 inhabitants of Kalma camp in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur have split along tribal lines.

Today, refugees from the minority Zaghawa tribe have gathered in two of Kalma's eight sectors. They live separately from the Fur tribe, the largest among Darfur's six million people, which dominates the rest of the camp. Fights break out between their menfolk, often armed with axes, virtually every week.

Aid workers believe that rising tensions inside the camps threaten a new round of bloodshed. Some 1.8 million people inhabit these sprawling cities of shacks, while another 200,000 refugees have fled into neighbouring Chad.

All are black Africans and most have escaped the Arab-dominated regime's notorious Janjaweed militias. Until now, the camps have been relatively safe and the world's biggest relief effort has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

But if refugee turns on refugee, it is feared the camps will become a new front in a war that has already killed up to 300,000 people through violence, starvation or disease.

"Before, the people identified themselves simply as refugees," said one United Nations official. "Now they are either Fur or Zaghawa. They sometimes object to sharing water points. It becomes a great deal more complex when providing services if they are not willing to share."

Paradoxically, a peace agreement designed to end Darfur's war sparked these tensions. Sudan's government signed the document in Nigeria last month and a faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) dominated by Zaghawas followed suit. But their Fur rivals inside the SLA refused to sign.

The rebel movement has split between Minni Minawi, the Zaghawa leader who endorsed the peace deal, and his Fur rival from the SLA's rejectionist wing, Abdul Wahid al-Nur.

This bitter struggle between the two men is polarising Darfur's camps, where many of their followers live.

"The Zaghawas create many problems over food, over shelter and water," said Halima Yahya Juma, 30, a Fur refugee who has lived in Kalma for two years.

"They are tough people and they create problems wherever they are. We don't have anything to do with them. We have to live apart. It happens every day, the Zaghawas quarrel with us over everything."

Idriss Abdullah, 43, another Fur refugee, arrived in Kalma in 2004 after the Janjaweed destroyed his village. At that time, relations with the Zaghawas were harmonious.

"We all had the same problems, we were all refugees," he said. "But the peace agreement has created problems between us."

Camp after camp across Darfur is following the pattern of Kalma, with Fur and Zaghawas inhabiting different areas. They are increasingly suspicious of outsiders.

Darfur: Mood Sours Between UN and Sudan

From SAPA-AFP - via POTP

The United Nations' bid to gain backing for its Darfur peacekeeping plan suffered a fresh blow on Sunday when Khartoum accused the world body of providing cover for a rebel leader who rejects a recent peace deal.

A demonstration was also organised in Khartoum during which thousands of pro-regime youths chanted slogans against the world body and its plans to deploy Nato-backed peacekeepers to the war-torn western region.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Jamal Mohammed Ibrahim told reporters that UN envoy Jan Pronk had been summoned to give an explanation Monday of the alleged helicopter ride given to the Darfur rebel leader.


The ministry said it had suspended all UN operations in Darfur until further notice, except those of the World Food Programme and the UN children's fund Unicef.

The foreign ministry said Suleiman Jammus, a member of a dissident faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), was taken on Saturday from the main Darfur town of El-Fasher to South Kordofan state on a UN helicopter flight.

"It was clear that the act was planned to take place behind the back of the Sudanese authorities," a statement issued late on Saturday said.

Ibrahim said the rebel leader had his face covered during the transfer, in what he said was a clear indication that the UN officials travelling on the same flight were attempting to hide the man from the authorities.

The foreign ministry said it considered the incident "a flagrant violation of the country's sovereignty and a violation of the agreement under which the UN operates in Sudan".

When contacted by AFP, UN spokesperson Radhia Achouri could not confirm that the rebel leader had indeed travelled on a UN flight and refused to comment on Khartoum's reaction.

Suleiman Jammus belongs to the wing of the SLM that opposes the fragile peace agreement signed between Minni Minawi's faction and Khartoum in Nigeria last month.

His holdout faction condemned the UN suspension, saying Khartoum was determined to continue killing the people Darfur.

"By suspending the UN mission in Darfur, the government of Sudan is preparing to finalise the last chapter of its genocidal policy in the absence of the direct supervision of the international community," the faction's spokesperson Jaffer Monro charged in a statement received by AFP in Nairobi.

He called on the world body to expedite the deployment of UN peacekeepers.

[edit]

Up to 5 000 protesters, mainly from the youth and student organisations of the ruling National Congress, gathered in front of parliament in Khartoum Sunday to protest against the proposed deployment.

"Down, Down United Nations", "Down, Down, USA", "We will not be ruled by the CIA", they chanted, as some of them torched a life-size dummy with the words UN and USA inscribed on it.

"The experience of foreign intervention in other countries, including Iraq, shows that it is not in the interest of the people," Ali Yehya, the speaker of the Council of States, the upper house of parliament, told the crowds.

Darfur: AU Defends Peace Deal

From Reuters - related to the previous post

The African Union has defended a Darfur peace deal signed by the Sudanese government and one of three rebel groups in May against critics who had said the agreement contains "serious flaws."

The International Crisis Group (ICG) has criticized the May 5 deal and said in a report released last week that the African Union-mediated agreement needed a robust U.N. peacekeeping force to avoid collapse in the remote region.

"The International Crisis Group 'Policy Briefing' on Darfur contains some serious errors of fact and interpretation, which are extremely unhelpful to the process of implementation," the AU said in a seven-page reply, seen by Reuters on Monday.

Since the deal, the AU has come under attack in the camps which house 2.5 million displaced Darfuris, and their patrols have been obstructed by hostile armed factions who did not sign the deal or were not present at negotiations.

Key deadlines, including receiving the government's crucial plan to disarm proxy militias by June 22, have been missed with no repercussions.

The AU rejected the ICG analysis that the deal contains no guarantees for implementation.

"There are in fact no fewer than three levels of guarantees either built into the (deal) or surrounding it," it said, adding that U.S., European, senior U.N. officials and African presidents who signed the deal as witnesses were guarantees.

ICG said it stood by its analysis.

"The security situation continues to be extremely worrisome," said Dave Mozersky, ICG's Sudan researcher.

"Implementation of the (deal) is likely to be challenged by a combination of government unwillingness, rebel divisions and unwillingness of the international community to stand up for a sufficiently robust peacekeeping force," he added.

Darfur: AU Reacts to ICG Report

The African Union has issued a lengthy response to the recent International Crisis Group report on the peace deal in Darfur - via Sudan Watch

The African Union reacted to a report issued last week by the International Crisis Group "Darfur’s Fragile Peace Agreement" on the signe peace deal between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi.

The African Union in the following press statement tries to respond to the issues raised in the ICG report:

"The Darfur Peace Agreement, signed on 5 May, faces many difficulties of implementation. Efforts by the Parties, the African Union and international partners are not assisted by serious misrepresentation of the contents, process and context of the DPA. Unfortunately, the International Crisis Group “Policy Briefing” on Darfur contains some serious errors of fact and interpretation, which are extremely unhelpful to the process of implementation.

This press release seeks to correct the errors of fact and interpretation in the ICG Report.

Darfur: Map

OCHA has released this map showing the areas that in Darfur to which is has limited or no humanitarian access - via GI-Net.

Darfur: Khartoum Adamantly Refuses Urgently Required UN Forces

The latest from Eric Reeves

By diminishing the nature of the monstrous crimes in Darfur, even as he curries domestic political favor by using the word “genocide” when so many governments still profess diffidence, Bush gives us the perfect portrait of a vast human catastrophe being managed rather than directly addressed. But he has much company---more than enough to sustain Khartoum’s unchanged genocidal ambitions.

Darfur: Sudan Suspends All U.N. Mission Work

From Reuters

Sudan has suspended the work of a U.N. mission in its violent Darfur region after accusing the world body of transporting a rebel leader who opposes a recent peace deal, a Sudanese official said on Sunday.

The United Nations coordinates one of the world's largest aid operations in Darfur and monitors the health, malnutrition and human rights situation in a region the size of France.


"The suspension applies for all of Darfur and this will continue until we get an explanation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim.

He said the ban was imposed because a U.N. helicopter had moved rebel leader Suleiman Adam Jamous, who rejects a peace deal signed on May 5 without consulting the government in Khartoum.

It excludes two bodies affiliated to the U.N. mission, the World Food Programme and the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF), Ibrahim said.

U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said the mission had not received any formal communication from the government.

"We have also seen the media reports but we have not received any formal and official confirmation of this from the government of Sudan," she said.

She declined to comment on whether the United Nations had moved rebel leader Jamous in a helicopter.

Darfur: Reid Praises Passage of New Sudan Legislation

A press release from Sen. Reid

Working to push the Bush administration to more fully and effectively address the ongoing genocide in Sudan, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid today hailed the passage of new legislation that will compel the Defense Department to explain its role in assisting the implementation of the recently signed Darfur Peace Agreement.

"The Congress and the Bush administration were right to label the atrocities in Sudan as genocide, but with the Darfur Peace Agreement signed, now is the time for engagement," said Reid. "Just yesterday, the African Union and the United Nations warned of the 'risk of major violence' in Darfur. Now more than ever, we must do everything possible to assist the African Union Mission in Sudan. This new legislation is an important step forward."

The new legislation, passed as part of the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill, directs the Department of Defense to report to Congress on what it can offer to support the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) in its efforts to stop the genocide, on plans to provide intelligence and tactical mobility to AMIS, on its efforts to mobilize the international community to commit troops to support a future United Nations' mission in Sudan, and on its work to improve the interoperability of AMIS's communications technology.

Earlier this week, Senator Reid also renewed his call for the appointment of a special envoy to Sudan. In a letter to the Secretary of State, Senator Reid noted that the pending departure of Bob Zoellick provided yet another reason to appoint a special envoy to oversee the implementation of the peace accords. Senator Reid first called for a special envoy in a letter sent to President Bush on May 25th.

Africa: War Games Raise Questions About NATO's Role

This AP article contained an interesting piece of information

NATO's first war games in Africa have thousands of allied troops pounding pretend terrorist bases, grappling with rioters and separating factions in a mock war over oil -- maneuvers that have many speculating on the alliance's potential role on the African mainland.

More than 7,000 troops from Europe and North America have flooded into in the dusty hills of Sao Vicente island, creating a vast boot-camp on the edge of Mindelo, a port city of 70,000 renowned for its musical traditions and pastel-painted Portuguese colonial architecture.

Exercise "Steadfast Jaguar" is billed as a crucial test for the new NATO Response Force -- a spearhead unit designed for rapid deployment around the world for missions ranging from humanitarian relief to lightning combat strikes.

[edit]

NATO is stepping up a debate on how it can better contribute to the defense of energy supplies from threats posed by terrorist, rebels groups or common criminals. NATO's top operational commander, Gen. James L. Jones, has suggested such a role could have a focus on production, storage and transport facilities in West Africa.

"There is no question that in the West African region, the security of the energy infrastructure in the Gulf of Guinea is important," Jones told reporters Thursday on Sao Vicente. "I think that's an important mission in the 21st century."

However, Jones stressed he was not talking in his role as head of NATO forces, but in his "American hat," as commander of U.S. forces in Europe and much of Africa.

The issue is sensitive, not least because France and some other European allies do not share Washington's enthusiasm for a NATO role in Africa. Paris is concerned the involvement of the U.S.-dominated alliance could erode its traditional influence in much of Africa.

France was reluctant to support NATO's assistance to African peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region, preferring that the European Union to do the job. In a compromise, both organizations are now running operations to airlift, train and provide logistics support to the peacekeepers, with France channeling its assistance through the EU.

Darfur: Concerns Over Implementation of Peace Deal

From IRIN

Despite the merits of the agreement, analysts are concerned that the peace deal will remain a dead letter as little progress has been made on its implementation since it was signed.

"There is nothing, there is no progress on the implementation of the DPA," Hafiz Mohamed, Sudan programme director for the London-based advocacy group Justice Africa, said. "That is a great worry - a lot needs to be done."

A Transitional Darfur Regional Authority was to be launched and a rebel leader was to be nominated as Senior Assistant to the President on 16 May and a complete ceasefire was set to begin on 19 May - but both deadlines passed without action. A 15 June deadline for the setting up of a Darfur Reconstruction and Development Fund and a Preparatory Committee for the Darfur Dialogue and Consultation was missed as well.

"For there to be peace, the deadlines set by the Darfur Peace Agreement must be followed," said Maureen Byrnes, Executive Director of Human Rights First. "It is now more than a month since the agreement was signed and there has been no announcement of any action on any of the key provisions. Despite a signed peace agreement, the people of Darfur still live in a violent limbo, and their confidence in the process continues to fall."

According to the DPA, the Sudanese government was also supposed to present a comprehensive plan for disarming the Janjawid militia on Thursday and the African Union Mission was expected to produce a final map indicating areas of control, buffer zones, demilitarised zones, and redeployment zones - but the plans for these key security arrangements have not been put forward so far.

"In the month since the peace agreement was signed, the people of Darfur have not seen a cessation of violence. Instead, in some parts of Darfur there's actually been a major escalation of the violence," Byrnes noted.

"You can blame the government for it, but Minni Minnawi’s group also deserves some of the blame, due to its lack of cohesion - the movement continues to splinter," Mohamed said.

The prospects of a successful implementation of the DPA are overshadowed by the refusal of two main rebel groups to sign the agreement and by dissent within Minnawi’s faction of the SLM/A. As a result, small but violent clashes between rebel groups are increasingly common across Darfur.

"One of the weakest points of the DPA is that it doesn’t bring in the majority of the Darfurians, which makes it difficult to implement," Mohamed said. "Many people in Darfur, in particular of the Fur [the largest ethnic group] oppose the DPA; especially with regard to the security arrangements and the issue of compensation."

Julie Flint, a long-term Darfur analyst, observed that Minnawi’s following amongst the Zaghawa, who make up less than 8 percent of the population, had aroused old fears among other ethnic groups. The signing of the peace deal by his SLM/A faction, militarily by far the strongest and most offensively oriented in Darfur, fuelled suspicions about a hidden agenda for the creation of a new Zaghawa homeland, carved out of the lands of other ethnic groups.

Minnawi’s movement itself was far from united, observers said, and new levels of dissent within the movement had become apparent. Mohamed observed that there was no coordination between the movement’s secretary general, Mustafa Tayrab, and its chairman, Minn Minnawi.

Aware of the large-scale opposition against the DPA within his movement, Minnawi had refused to consult with the SLM/A parliament, the Revolutionary Council of Liberation, since the signing of the peace deal. Subsequently, Minnawi sent an advance delegation to prepare for his coming to the Sudanese capital Khartoum - a move openly criticised by Tayrab.

One observer who requested anonymity, said that while the head of the SLM/A forces, Juma Hagar, and his deputy, Bakheit Abdelkarim - who are opposed to the DPA - remained silent, a number of local commanders challenged their leadership more openly. The holdout rebel groups were profiting from this situation, he said, and were recruiting Minnawi commanders opposed to the peace deal.

"We are aware of the untold pressures exerted on the sole signatory to Abuja [the Nigerian capital where the DPA was signed] who must now deal with the rage of Darfurians, fighters in the field, refugees, displaced, women and youth throughout Sudan and abroad," rebel leaders al-Nur and Ibrahim recently said in a joint statement. "He [Minnawi] is required to reconcile with his limitations and real standing within Darfur and not allow himself to become an instrument for death and destruction."

"It is a serious worry that the other groups didn’t sign - it will derail the whole process of implementation," Mohamed warned.

The fragmentation of Al-Nur’s SLM/A faction further complicated matters, the ICG said. Leaders belonging to the Birgid, Daju, Berti, and Tunjur groups and Ibrahim Madebo, a descendant of the paramount chief of the large Rizeigat Arab ethnic group in South Darfur, recently broke away, complaining that Al-Nur’s refusal to sign was unreasonable given the international guarantees. Their dissent considerably narrowed al-Nur’s predominately Fur support-base.

Another concern was whether other powerful constituencies that were left out of the DPA negotiations would abide by the agreement, such as various groups of Arab origin and government-backed militias, including the Janjawid.

"We need to put pressure on the parties who have signed the agreement to honour and implement it in good faith. We should maintain a persistent pressure on the rebels [who] have not signed, and those parties outside the agreement, to join the agreement, and really press them to honour it in good faith," UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, told reporters in Geneva on Thursday. "The peace agreement remains very tenuous and incomplete since two of the rebel movements have still not accepted it."

Darfur: U.N., African Union Warn of Risk of Renewed Violence

From the AP

The 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur requires urgent and effective support from the United Nations to prevent a new round of fighting later this year, AU and U.N. officials said Thursday.

"There is a risk of major violence," the U.N. peacekeeping chief, Jean-Marie Guehenno, said at the end of a two-week assessment mission to Sudan's western Darfur region. "The risk of fragmentation, of a new cycle of violence, after the rainy season is quite real, very real."

Guehenno, and the African Union's peace commissioner, Said Djinnit, were mandated by the U.N. Security Council to study the prospects for replacing the AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur by a larger, better equipped UN force. They held hundreds of meetings in the western Sudan region.

[edit]

The AU force needs "a more robust mandate, but also more robust support from the United Nations," Djinnit said at a news conference with Guehenno.

The one rebel leader in Darfur who signed a May 5 peace accord, Minni Minnawi, warned last week that the agreement will collapse if U.N. peacekeepers are not deployed to implement it.

But Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has ruled out any U.N. deployment in Darfur. He said Tuesday he would personally lead the "resistance" if U.N. troops came to Darfur, accusing them of being neo-colonialists.

"The U.N. is not in the business of colonizing any country," Guehenno said Thursday.

The Security Council has said it hopes to see the U.N. force take over from the AU by early 2007, but Guehenno stressed the peacekeepers would not come to Darfur without Khartoum's approval.

"As long as the government of Sudan does not accept a (U.N.) mission, there will not be one. It's as simple as that," he said.

[edit]

Guehenno said the immediate priority was to support the AU troops in Darfur.

"The idea of U.N. peacekeepers supporting an African Union mission would be something that has never been done before," he said.

The May 5 peace agreement had created "a window of opportunity for peace" in Darfur, but more needed to be done, Guehenno said.

Darfur: US to Keep Pressing for International Force

From Sapa-AFP

Up to now, al-Beshir had appeared to demonstrate a willingness to discuss the issue, particularly since the May 5 signing of a peace accord in Abuja with representatives from the main rebel group in Darfur.

The Abuja accord emerged after nearly two years of negotiations under the aegis of the African Union (AU) and other international organisations.

Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, the US point man on Sudan, suggested in April there was little way to ram foreign Darfur peacekeepers down Khartoum's throat.

"You either get the approval of the government, as the government did for the African Union force and the Nato support, or you invade, and that's a very big, serious challenge," Zoellick said.

[edit]

"The UN option is the only option," said Stephen Morrison of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, who predicts the United States will request a meeting of the UN Security Council on Sudan.

Washington has considerable support for deploying a UN force to the region, including that of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU, the European Union and Nato, the expert said.

But the support is not unanimous.

"The Sudanese are taking advantage of certain factors. They are able to draw support from within the Arab League, they are able to play their friendship with the Chinese and the Russians in the Security Council, ... they are able to play off the fallout of the war in Iraq, ... and they are advantaged by the fact that AU itself is divided and is intimidated," Morrison said.

In a report released on Tuesday, the International Crisis Group (ICG) recommended that the UN adopt a binding resolution on the matter.

"The Security Council should authorise deployment of a robust UN force, starting with a rapid reaction component, ... by 1 October 2006," with a clear mandate to "use all necessary means to protect civilians, ... including to act militarily as necessary," the group said.

Other analysts prescribed sanctions for Khartoum.

"It is time to put serious sanctions on the Sudanese government," said Princeton Lyman of the Council on Foreign Relations. "There will be resistance from China and Russia, but one has to confront them on this issue, because if the Security Council vote a peacekeeping operation and the Sudanese resist, there has to be some reaction from the council."

Uganda: Envoy Wants Threat of UN Force Against LRA

From Reuters

The United Nations should raise the threat of force against Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels, and put pressure on Sudan and Congo, to ensure the group is serious about peace talks, a Ugandan envoy said.

Uganda's representative in the southern Sudanese capital Juba said his government would soon send a delegation to meet LRA representatives waiting in the town to start negotiations, although he did not specify a timeframe.

"The military option must not be forgotten," Ambassador Busho Ndinyenka told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday. "They must know that if they are not serious about talks there is a military option."

Uganda has urged the United Nations to use troops from a peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo to disarm the LRA, who crossed into the country from Sudan last year, adding a new regional dimension to the conflict.

Ndinyenka said Uganda also wants to see more pressure put on Congo's government to deal with the LRA, one of many armed groups operating in the east of the vast country.

Kinshasa is struggling to field a credible army after years of civil war, leaving it with few resources to attempt to tackle the experienced LRA guerrillas, who killed eight Guatemalan U.N. troops in January.

"We want pressure on all involved, the backers of the LRA and the LRA itself to engage in talks," Ndinyenka said.

"I'm talking about Sudan and Congo, who are the biggest culprits in this matter," he said. "There must be pressure on all parties."

[edit]

Sudan says it stopped backing Kony under a pact signed with Uganda in 1999, but Ndinyenka said his government could not be certain that Khartoum had cut all support to the LRA.

"Sudan has broken agreements in the past," he said, calling for international pressure to ensure Khartoum had severed ties with the rebels completely.

Ndinyenka said Uganda's government was committed to negotiations, despite its doubts over Kony's motives.

"This man Kony can break your heart, when you think you are progressing well you can land on a concrete rock," he said.

The government blames the collapse of past talks on the rebels, saying they have used negotiations as a delaying tactic to buy time to rearm and abduct more recruits.

CAR/Chad: Forgotten Refugees Face Epidemics, Food Cuts

From IRIN - via POTP

In the lush malarial forests of southern Chad tens of thousands of forgotten refugees from Central African Republic squat in tattered tents exposed to shrinking food rations and infection from diseases that could easily be prevented with minimal investment.

Their story is relatively untold, as many of the more than 48,000 refugees who have surged north into Chad since 2003 to escape fighting between rebels and government loyalists barely understand the chain of events that led them to the camps.

Ngaba Boniface, a community leader at one of two camps set up by the UN refugee agency UNHCR near Gore, 150 kilometres south of the major southern Chadian town Moundou, became a refugee on 22 December last year, along with most of the others from his village Mainodjo, 70 kilometres south of the camp.

Boniface and the other villagers fled with nothing except the clothes on their backs after fighting between rebels and government troops erupted near their village. "There were arms and mines lying around and we were afraid they would come back. It was too dangerous to stay," he explained to IRIN.

After weeks wandering in the dense forest, the Mainodjo villagers crossed the border into Chad, where they were processed and moved to the camp at Gondje, 40 kilometres from the frontier.

[F]rom early June 2005, attacks against civilians and government troops intensified in northern CAR, resulting in new waves of refugees entering Chad. Refugee testimony gathered by UNHCR suggests the civilian death toll since the beginning of February has drastically increased.

No one really seems to know what is happening over the border now, except that lawlessness and widespread pillaging and deliberate attacks against civilians have occurred.

Aid officials estimate more than 100,000 people have been displaced from Ouham Prefecture alone in northwestern CAR, and that perhaps more than 50,000 are still hiding in the forest inside the country. Refugees have also scattered into CAR's western neighbour, Cameroon.

Boniface and others from his village now cramped together in squalid muddy UNHCR tents in the humid and wet refugee camp, claim not to know anything about the different rebel groups fighting government forces.

Even the UN refugee agency says it does not have reliable information about what is happening in northern CAR. The region has been beyond the control of CAR's central government, based in Bangui 400 kilometres south, for the last two years. Much of the area is deemed too dangerous for the UN to operate in.

DRC: Hunger and Disease Erode Democracy

From the New York Times

The first time the Congolese Army tried to take this village back from the militias that have fought for it since the civil war supposedly ended in 2002, the government soldiers cut and ran. That was January.

The second attempt, a month later, also failed, despite heavy backing from United Nations peacekeepers trying to stabilize the nation before elections in July, the first in more than four decades. Instead of fighting the militias, the soldiers mutinied and looted the peacekeepers' base here.

It was only after the third try, in May, that the militia was finally chased away, deep into the equatorial forest.

But while the state may have wrested control, for now, the push to do so has spawned a crisis of its own. Thousands of people have flooded the village, exhausted and haggard from waiting out the battles in the bush, perpetuating the hunger and disease that has continued to grip Congo in the aftermath of its deadly five-year civil war.

In less than a decade, an estimated four million people have died, mostly of hunger and disease caused by the fighting. It has been the deadliest conflict since World War II, with more than 1,000 people still dying each day. For many here, survival, not elections, is the milestone.

"We run because we are afraid to die in our houses," said Ngava Ngosi, one of the thousands caught in a deadly pattern of flight from village to jungle and back again in the seemingly endless chaos of eastern Congo. "But in the bush we also die."

Darfur: What is Going On?

An anyone who has been paying relatively close attention to Darfur knows, the situation seems to be growing more complex by the day. With the splintering of the rebel groups and the spill-over into Chad, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of what is going on.

Fortunately, two excellent reports have been released this week that offer clear explanations of key developments in the region.

The first is the International Crisis Group's report "Darfur's Fragile Peace Agreement." This report is extremely informative, not only explaining the details of the peace agreement signed last month by Khartoum and a faction of the SLA, but also why the rebels are splintering and why some do not support the agreement.

The developments it covers are too interconnected to excerpt here, but I would like to excerpt one section that I thought was important

Meanwhile AMIS remains in dire need of reinforcement. Working with international partners, the AU should modify AMIS’s operational concept, specify the requirements for raising its efficiency and numbers and request generous donor assistance. Without immediate support, AMIS will fail even to begin its multiple DPA tasks and thus indirectly endanger the peace agreement.

To meet the challenge, AMIS has indicated that it needs five additional battalions within two months. The AU’s international partners have agreed to provide strategic transport, train AMIS commanders to take charge of the increased capabilities and troops and certify elements for absorption into a UN peacekeeping operation. Alarmingly, some experts have now begun to argue that the inability to agree quickly on implementation concepts may mean that the first of the five battalions cannot be deployed before October and the final one until February or March 2007. More energetic intra-AU and AU-donor cooperation is required to secure these much-needed reinforcements on an accelerated schedule.

The UN Secretary-General has worked hard to secure agreement for a donors conference to support implementation of this AMIS reinforcement plan, which is expected to take place in Brussels on 7 July. It is now up to the AU to present a convincing package proposal to secure funding from donors, some of whom may be reluctant to sponsor what is seen as a mission on its last legs. But without adequate AMIS support, the DPA is likely to unravel before the UN operation takes over in Darfur. That, in turn, would make the UN task more difficult, perhaps impossible. Additionally, of course, a larger, more effective AMIS could pave the way for a smoother transition to the UN by making a greater impact on the security and humanitarian situation in the interim.

In recent days, however, there has been increasing talk that the AU at its 1-2 July summit may extend the AMIS mandate to the end of the year. This parallels the suggestion heard more and more that it will be January or February 2007 at the earliest before a UN mission can be deployed. The surface plausibility of such an extension of the AMIS mandate, especially in view of the uncertainty regarding Khartoum’s position on a UN takeover, is more than counter-balanced by the certainty that it would have a chilling effect on the donor response to any AU funding proposal and on the preparations in New York necessary to take over responsibility from the AU in a timely fashion, where there is already a suggestion that at least six months will be needed to get a mission on the ground in Darfur once it has been authorized by the Security Council.

It is critical that the transition to a UN force in Darfur occur on or around 30 September 2006, when the AMIS mandate is presently due to expire. The longer the takeover is postponed, the less legitimate the DPA will become to many in Darfur, where there is already little confidence in it and in AMIS.

If you want to understand just what is going on in Darfur at the current time, this ICG report is a must-read.

Also this week, Human Rights Watch released "Violence Beyond Borders: The Human Rights Crisis in Eastern Chad" which explains how the crisis in Darfur has spilled over into, and been exacerbated by, Chad's own internal problems.

The report explains how Chadian and Sudan rebels are being supported by the opposing governments and documents how, in recent months, Sudanese rebels have, with the aquiesence of the Chad government, begun forcibly recruting displaced civilians

At least 100 Sudanese rebels descended on Bredjing and Treguine camps on the afternoon of March 17; one of the first recruitment stops were schools, which were still in session. Hundreds of students were rounded up and taken away that first day, many of them minors. Over the course of the weekend of March 18 -19, the rebels rode roughshod over Bredjing and Treguine, plucking combat-capable men and boys from markets and conducting house-to-house and tent-to-tent searches in the camps, beating those who resisted and warning fearful family members not to get in their way.

Refugees recounted how men in military uniform (or partial uniform) armed with whips and clubs rounded them up in schools, markets and in their homes.

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Refugees were packed into pickup trucks and taken to a wadi outside the camps where men were waiting with firearms. Refugees recall with remarkable consistency a long walk to Arkoum, a Chadian town 20 kilometers southeast of Bredjing, where Sudanese rebels had set up a training camp.

Upon arrival at Arkoum, recruits were informed that they were now Sudanese rebels, their mission to liberate their country. They themselves were not free to leave, though; armed guards patrolled the perimeter of the camp day and night.

The report also documents how ethnic groups within Chad are splintering along ethnic lines in a manner that is directly related to the crisis in Darfur

Although the details are still poorly understood, preliminary investigation suggests that prior to October 2005, a broad spectrum of tribes in eastern Chad banded together in a self-defense network to resist Janjaweed incursions. Since October, however, it appears that some Chadian Arab groups became involved in Janjaweed atrocities in Chad. Testimony from the far east of Dar Sila, from villages such as Mongororo, three kilometers from Sudan, and Daguessa, ten kilometers from Sudan, hint at a reason why these new alliances are emerging. Village leaders report having been approached by Janjaweed “emissaries” late in 2005 with promises of immunity from attack in return for per capita payments in cash and cattle. These leaders claim that the “dues” would pay for membership in the wihida Arabia or “Arab Union,” with the condition that members must raid and pillage alongside the Janjaweed.

Numerous interviews in eastern Chad have made it apparent that non-Arab tribes including the Ouaddaï, Mimi and Tama have formed a kind of alliance, be it formal or informal, with Chadian and Sudanese Arab tribes. Just as Arabs are effectively immune to Janjaweed attacks, the Mimi, Ouaddaï and Tama, relatively recent arrivals in Dar Sila department, are said to be immune from such attacks as well. Non-Arab tribes such as the Dajo and Masalit, whose cousins have been Janjaweed targets in Sudan, accuse the Mimi, Ouaddaï and Tama of complicity in Janjaweed attacks, charging that they help Janjaweed locate concentrations of cattle belonging to the Dajo and Masalit for rustling.

[edit]

Chadian government efforts to shore up the border defenses by distributing arms to village self-defense groups may also be responsible for increased tensions among Chadian communities. Such distributions are said to have taken place in N’djamena and the eastern town of Guereda before and during the April 13 attacks, when Zaghawa citizens were armed by the government. The Chadian military has also reportedly armed and organized volunteers from villages south of Bahr Azoum, near the border with Central African Republic, an area of intensive Janjaweed activity.

As I noted earlier, both of these reports are extremely informative and, if you want to try and understand the increasingly complex crisis that is unfolding here, I highly recommend that you read these two reports.

Darfur: Call Senator Warner

An alert from Save Darfur

The people of Darfur need your help today.

Your senator, John Warner, has the power to make or break a bill requiring the Bush Administration to regularly update Congress on the progress of the recently signed Darfur Peace Agreement and what the U.S. is doing to help implement it.

Senator Warner is Chairman of a powerful Senate committee and his support could determine if this bill becomes law.

Please call Senator Warner at (202) 224-2023 and ask him to support the "Clinton amendment" to keep the pressure on the Sudanese government and the Darfur rebel movements. The vote on the bill is just hours away! A sample call script for you to use appears below.

Ensuring the U.S. stays involved in the Darfur region is critical to making the peace agreement a reality. The "Clinton amendment" will help do exactly that by keeping Darfur a front-burner issue for Congress and the Administration.

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Sample call script:

Hi, this is [NAME] calling from [CITY/TOWN]. I'm calling to ask Senator Warner to support the "Clinton amendment" requiring the Administration to report to Congress on the progress of the Darfur Peace Agreement. Please tell him that I expect him to help make sure that the Administration and Congress remain focused on the crisis in Darfur until it is resolved. Thank you for your time.

Darfur: Annan Hopes Sudan Will Accept UN Force

From Reuters

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that he hoped Sudan would soon accept U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur and called Khartoum's continuing refusal "incomprehensible."

Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday that U.N. troops were out of the question and suggested a "colonial" agenda in demands they be allowed to deploy.

"No-one, and least of all the United Nations, is interested in imposing anything like a colonial rule on one of its member states," Annan told journalists.

[edit]

Annan said that despite the government refusal, he would not stop trying to convince Khartoum that U.N. troops were needed for the region, where international relief agencies warn a fresh humanitarian crisis is unfolding.

[edit]

The African Union says it is unable to cope and has called for United Nations' involvement.

"I hope that ultimately we will be able to convince them (Khartoum) to accept a U.N. force," Annan said, noting that the U.N. already had some 10,000 troops in southern Sudan helping preserve peace there.

"They know how we operate and this is why it is so incomprehensible the resistance we are getting," he said.

Nevertheless, even if Khartoum did accept U.N. troops, it would take months to get them on the ground in Darfur, and in the meantime it was necessary to strengthen the African Union operation there, he said.

Next month's donor conference in Brussels must come up with "more and stronger" support, Annan said.

In the meantime, the U.N. was going ahead with preparations to deploy troops, and a final blueprint would be drawn up after an assessment mission reports back next week, he said.

The international community must keep up pressure on those rebels groups that had not accepted a ceasefire in Darfur to do so, Annan said.

Darfur: UN Situation Report

From the United Nations Country Team in Sudan - also via Sudan Watch

North Darfur:

Despite the overall decline of violence in Darfur since the signing of the DPA, due to the reduction in clashes between the Government and SLA forces, banditry, rape, cattle rustling and targeted attacks on INGO compounds and UN convoys, as well as the African Union, continue to pose a threat to peace. During the reporting period, North Darfur was particularly restive, witnessing the spectacular abduction of six IOM staff by the SLM/A-Wahid in Irgue, 50km West of Kutum. The concerned staff were released after a day, following the joint intervention of the UN and AU. In addition, on 14 June, an AMIS patrol was detained for several hours by the SLM/A-Wahid in Kaguro, 43km Southeast of Kebkabiya. The group cited non-acceptance of the DPA as their general grievance. Furthermore, they requested the AU to obtain express permission from the SLM/A leadership in El-Fasher, before undertaking any further patrols.

This week also saw renewed inter-SLM/A fighting in Kulkul and Korma on 12 and 13 June, respectively. Although the fighting in Kulkul, currently under the control of SLM/A-Wahid, was instigated by the SLM/A-Minawi, the incidents in Korma appear to have been sparked by a SLM/A-Wahid offensive, probably in a bid to regain lost territory. No details of the latter attack, or the number of casualties, are currently known. UNMIS will continue to encourage and support AMIS in the implementation of its mandate, including resuming its vital operations around the Kalma, Abou Shouk and Zalingei camps.

For the first time since his most recent detention, UNMIS gained access to SLM/A stalwart, Suleiman Jamous, on 15 June. During his meeting with Mr. Minawi on 16 June, SRSG Pronk discussed Mr. Jamous’ Release for the purposes of obtaining medical treatment. Mr. Minawi promised to free Jamous, through the UN.

West Darfur:

In West Darfur, two UN guards were shot and wounded in Geneina and Garsila. A NGO car was also hijacked in broad daylight just north of Geneina. Furthermore, NGO staff have come under threat from IDPs in Hassa Hissa camp (Zalingei), forcing them to minimize their activities. General insecurity in the Geneina IDP camps has forced the humanitarian community to set up new safety procedures; and the camps themselves have become a potential hotbed for violence. There are fears that worsening insecurity for the IDPs, particularly after the signing of the DPA, could have a deleterious effect on its implementation.

South Darfur:

In South Darfur, clashes were reported between the Rezigat in Ed Daein and the Misseriya tribe in South Kordofan, over the sharing land and water points. This resulted in 200 Rezigats households fleeing to an area south of Ed Daein locality.

On a more positive note, reports were received of returns to villages that were attacked in previous months. Inhabitants of Dito (5,200 people, attacked on 22 April) and Joghana (27,000 people, attacked on 23 April), were said to be returning to their villages. OCHA was also informed that some 9,000 Gimir IDPs in Kass were willing to return to their villages of origin, if some basic humanitarian services were made available.

Darfur: Two Terrorist Groups Emerge

Sudan Watch highlighted this development, reported in a piece by David Blair in The Telegraph

Two terrorist groups, styling themselves the "Jihad Brigade" and the "Darfur Blood Organisation", have already emerged in Darfur, vowing to fight any UN deployment.

UN officials say that Pakistanis have recently arrived in Darfur and are believed to lead the two new groups. But their strength is probably no more than a few score.

Darfur: Daunting Task Ahead for Peacekeepers

From the Financial Times

It started as a typical market day for refugees in a camp in north Darfur. Adults busy trading, children playing in the sandy terrain. But it was a day that was to turn into tragedy.

A group of boys was playing football on the camp's fringes when eight Arab militiamen, known as Janjaweed, rode by on camels and horses. Two of them stopped and began shooting, killing a four-year-old and a 10-year-old.

Sudanese police and unarmed African Union police were stationed at the camp, but took no action, the camp's residents say. Instead, the incident last year came to symbolise what they see as the AU's impotence.

For two years AU troops have been stationed in the conflict-ridden region of western Sudan, struggling to stem violence that has killed tens of thousands and forced 2m from their homes.

The mission has evolved from a few hundred soldiers, who were dispatched to monitor an ineffective April 2004 "humanitarian ceasefire", to some 7,000 troops with a stronger mandate. But violence has continued with impunity, as have doubts over the strength and effectiveness of the AU, a cash-strapped organisation with little experience or capacity for large-scale peacekeeping operations.

"We had faith in the AU, but day by day we lose it," says Sheikh Ali Abubakar Mohammed, one of Fatah Burnu camp's elders. "We saw the government police did not react and the AU did not react because they are only here to monitor and report, so we think the AU and the government are on one side."

Two AU policemen listened quietly to the account of the children's death. One complained that nothing would change if their mandate remained the same, and reflected on time spent with the UN in Kosovo when the force's police were armed.

[edit]

In spite of the challenges, AU officers argue their presence has made a difference. "I believe if you check from the time we arrived in 2004 to date, in the face of glaring constraints, we have achieved a lot," says Colonel Ladan Yusuf, an AU sector commander.

However, western military personnel attached to the AU say poor leadership has exacerbated the pan-African body's problems, adding that the mission's impact could have been greater. They say that while there are some good commanders on the ground, the operation has lacked a sound overall command structure and suffered from incompetence.

Under the force's mandate, AU troops could take action if they witnessed civilians being attacked and believe they have the capability to intervene. But the mandate has rarely been interpreted in a proactive manner, hence the perception of it simply as being a "monitor and report" mission that has done little to improve security.

The AU has also allowed itself to be manipulated by both rebels and the government, western officers add. "The government and the rebels drive this mission," says one. "The AU has never taken charge, no one has been assertive."

If UN troops were deployed much would depend on their mandate and the strength of that mission's leadership.

Yet it is unlikely Khartoum would accept a Chapter VII mandate, which would enable troops to disarm fighters threatening civilians. There is also the risk that the more aggressive peacekeepers become, the greater the chance they would become targets. Khartoum has suggested a UN deployment would equate to a western invasion and attract Jihadists, despite the fact much of the force would probably remain African.

Ultimately, all agree that no operation will succeed in Darfur unless the warring parties are genuinely ready for peace. The region is awash with weapons and its residents bear arms as others "carry mobile phones", an officer says. And UN officials are expressing concern about the level of expectations that could come with a UN operation.

Chad: Armed Groups Maraud Along Sudan Border

From Human Rights Watch - via Reuters AlertNet

The governments of Chad and Sudan support armed groups that are committing serious crimes against civilians in eastern Chad, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. The 28-page briefing paper, "Violence Beyond Borders: The Human Rights Crisis in Eastern Chad," documents a drastic deterioration in the human rights situation on the Chad side of the Chad-Sudan border, where Sudanese government-backed "Janjaweed" militias raid at will, and Darfur rebels opposed to Khartoum forcibly recruit Sudanese refugees, including children, to serve as rebel fighters. Hundreds of Chadian civilians have been killed in recent weeks in attacks by Sudanese militias and allied Chadian fighters, and more than 50,000 have been displaced.

"Civilians in eastern Chad are trapped between the carnage in Darfur and Chad's downward spiral into chaos," said Peter Takirambudde, director of the Africa division at Human Rights Watch. "Khartoum and N'djamena must immediately end their support for the armed groups wreaking havoc for civilians on both sides of the border."

The Chadian government's support for operations by Darfur rebels, including the recruitment of refugees in camps, appears to be linked to the government's attempts to defeat rebel efforts to oust President Idriss D�by. The Chadian rebels, apparently with Sudanese government support, have used Darfur as a launching pad for attacks on Chadian towns since late 2005. In the most serious attack on April 13, Chadian rebel forces besieged N'djamena, Chad's capital, but were repelled by the Chadian military, who were helped by Darfur rebels.

The Sudanese government recruited and armed the "Janjaweed" militias several years ago as part of its counter-insurgency strategy in Darfur. Khartoum has yet to disarm these militias and prosecute them for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur, despite a commitment to do so under United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Sudanese militias are ranging deeper into Chad than ever before, looting and attacking villages on an apparent ethnic basis. A June 3 raid struck 75 kilometers inside the border, close to a refugee camp hosting 20,000 Sudanese in the Goz Beida region. In a particularly brutal incident earlier reported by Human Rights Watch, 118 civilians were killed on April 12-13 in Djawara, eastern Chad, simultaneous with the unsuccessful coup attempt in N'Djamena by Chadian rebels.

In a new and worrying development, Sudanese militias have formed alliances with Chadian ethnic groups, prompting fighters from Arab, Mimi, Ouaddai and Tama tribes from Chad to join Sudanese armed groups in raids that have been linked to the attempts by Chadian rebels to oust D�by.

"The Janjaweed attacks are not only killing and displacing Chadian villagers; they're worsening latent ethnic tensions in Chad," said Takirambudde. "If the raids aren't stopped, there's a real danger that communal violence could explode in eastern Chad."

Darfur: S.Africa Says Sudan Has Not Shut Door on U.N. Troops

From Reuters

Sudan has not shut the door on deploying U.N. troops in Darfur, but Khartoum must be consulted to allay its suspicion of the plan, South Africa said on Thursday.

Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday it was out of the question for U.N. troops to be deployed in the Darfur region of western Sudan to replace an African Union (AU) force there. Bashir spoke of a "colonial" agenda by the global body.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, South Africa's foreign minister, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Johannesburg that Sudan's main complaint was that the U.N. had consulted virtually everyone on the Darfur situation but ignored Khartoum.

"Khartoum's concern was that the U.N. had never discussed the deployment with Sudan as a country. The U.N. talked to the AU, to us, and to everyone else but not to the Sudanese and they felt that was not right," Dlamini Zuma said.

"That was the cause of the suspicion by the Sudanese of what the U.N.'s motives might be. They are not against the U.N. but they need to be convinced that the deployment is necessary."

Sudan has likened the deployment of U.N. troops in Darfur to a Western invasion that would attract jihadi militants and cause an Iraq-style quagmire.

But analysts say Khartoum objected because it feared the soldiers would arrest any officials or militia leaders likely to be indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

"Khartoum prefers that the U.N. finance the current mission by the AU whose mandate can be changed into a U.N. mandate, and there are provisions for that," Dlamini Zuma added.

South Africa was keen that Bashir's government and opponents in Darfur implement an agreement reached in Nigeria so Sudan could focus on rehabilitation and economic growth, she said.

"The agreement in Abuja says nothing about making the population suffer. All parties have to act to end hostilities so people can live at peace again," Dlamini Zuma said.

[edit]

Mbeki said on Tuesday South Africa wanted to see the U.N. assist in a way agreed by the government and the African Union.

Bashir told Sudanese members of parliament on Monday that he would not let U.N. troops deploy as long as he was in power.

Dlamini Zuma said she was not suggesting that Bashir had backed down from his stance, but said a major step had been taken with his agreeing to talk to the United Nations.

"As we speak talks are going on and the subject is U.N. deployment. That's an important step," Dlamini Zuma said.

Darfur: Sudan Needs UN Force

From AFP

Sudan's war-ravaged region of Darfur needs a United Nations peacekeeping force, despite President Omar al-Beshir's repeated opposition to deployment of Western forces, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Thursday.

Annan said that such a force would be essential to uphold the "tenuous and incomplete" peace accord between Khartoum and rebel groups.

"I still think a United Nations peacekeeping force will be needed to help the parties implement the peace agreement and help provide security for the internally displaced," Annan told journalists in Geneva.

He also said more pressure needed to be placed on rebel holdouts who have rejected peace moves.

[edit]

Annan said that efforts were continuing to get Khartoum to change tack.

"I hope ultimately that we'll be able to convince them to accept a UN force," he said.

"No one, and least of all the UN, is interested in imposing anything like a colonial rule on one of its member states."

Annan noted that a UN force was already deployed in southern Sudan, where a separate peace deal in January 2005 ended two decades of civil war.

"We are on the ground. We have 10 000 UN troops in southern Sudan, so they know how we operate and this is why it's even more incomprehensible the resistance we are getting from them."

"Obviously we will build on what the African Union has created and retain some of the African Union forces," he said.

If Sudan finally gives in, it could take months to deploy a UN force in Darfur. The existing African Union force will need more international financial support in the meantime to continue its mandate, Annan said.

Darfur: AU Official Calls for Improved Security

From Xinhua

Commission Alpha Oumar Konare on Thursday stressed the necessity to improve the security situation in Sudan's western region of Darfur to create a suitable climate for the repatriation of refugees.

While meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in al-Fashir, the biggest city in Darfur, Konare said that "the security situation outside refugee camps and villages must be improved because the refugees will certainly return to their homelands."

"We can not let the residents in Darfur to be the residents of camps forever," the AU official underlined.

He said that most refugees whom he met in the camps had expressed their desire to return to their villages if the security was guaranteed and the services of food, health and education were provided.

"But the situation on the ground is still difficult and a lot of works are needed in order to improve it," added Konare.

He praised that the 7,800-strong AU forces, which are carrying out the mission of maintaining the security in Darfur, were exerting great efforts for stabilizing the situation in the region.

Konare also stressed the necessity of implementing the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) signed between the Sudanese government and a main Darfur rebel faction in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5.

"The DPA has created a positive climate which must be invested and enhanced," he said, adding that it was necessary to accumulate the support for the agreement, to propagate it and clarify its positivities to the Darfurians.

DRC: Military Operations in Ituri Counter-Productive

From IRIN

Military operations conducted in the troubled northeastern district of Ituri by the Congolese army, with the support of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), are counter productive as they have contributed to the worsening of the security situation in the district, according to a report by the Forum on early Warning and Early Response (FEWER-Africa).

"Just recently in northeastern DRC, one UN peacekeeper was killed and three wounded during a firefight with a local militia, with seven other peacekeepers still missing," FEWER said in a statement issued on Tuesday. "The situation in Ituri indicates that there is still a risk of renewed conflict in the region, either before, during or after elections [set for 30 July]."

However, MONUC said FEWER's report did not take into account the reality on the field, "because to this day there are only 2,000 local militia in the interior of the all the country and some 1,500 to 2,000 foreign combatants after the voluntary demobilisation efforts led by MONUC," Jean-Tobbie Okala, the deputy spokesperson for MONUC, said on Wednesday from Kinshasa, the DRC capital.

"We have voluntarily disarmed more than 14,000 foreign combatants who returned to their country, and inside the country around dozens of thousands of militia have surrendered their arms," he said.

Okala said: "We acknowledge that there is still instability in the east, we have never denied that security in the east is a preoccupation for the international community. The militia and foreign combatants who remain cannot sabotage the holding of the forthcoming of elections in Congo."

[edit]

FEWER's report, titled Elections and Security in Ituri: Stumbling Blocks and Opportunities for Peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, calls for the harmonisation of "local level realities in the east of the country with the national peace process". The report provides a current analysis of the political, judicial, humanitarian and security situation in Ituri.

FEWER said of the root causes of conflict in the country was lack of good governance at local and national levels. "However, this 'accountability’ deficit cannot be fixed in a security vacuum," FEWER said, adding, "as the Congolese government and the international community focus their attention on the upcoming elections, the underlying question is how to resolve conflict after elections."

DRC: AK-47s Known as 'Credit Cards' in Lawless East

From Reuters

Some fight in flip-flops, others hope potions will turn their enemy's bullets into water and most take little time to aim, trusting in the theory: "He who makes most noise wins."

But the government soldiers, militia fighters and bush bandits in eastern Congo all have one thing in common -- an AK-47 assault rifle.

"At $20 to $50 each, it's pretty easy to get your hands on an AK out here," explains a source close to the militia groups in Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless Ituri district.

"There is no shortage of weapons, there are plenty of them," the source added. "Of course ammunition is needed, but that comes in from Uganda easily."

Ituri is a particularly bloody corner of Congo, a mineral-rich but shattered country where four million people have been killed, mostly from war-related hunger and disease, since 1998.

Far removed from central government authority, Ituri has long porous borders with countries coveting its natural resources and a thinly stretched body of United Nations peacekeepers. The region highlights the challenges of controlling the flow of arms around Africa's Great Lakes.

Fighting between ethnic militias exploded in Bunia, Ituri's main town, in 2003 and European soldiers were dispatched to restore order after U.N. peacekeepers failed to prevent hundreds of civilians from being killed.

[edit]

"There are still weapons that are coming in and this will continue so long as there are people who are willing to pay for them," said Major Hans-Jakob Reichen, spokesman for the U.N. forces in eastern Congo.

Sanctions have been imposed on those breaking the arms embargo. U.N. helicopters fly at night, using thermal imaging to try and catch smugglers. And peacekeepers in speedboats patrol hundreds of miles of lakes separating Congo and its neighbors.

But militia ranks have swollen in recent months and, as a reminder of their strength, they are holding seven U.N. peacekeepers hostage following a gun battle last month.

Reichen says the United Nations can act as a deterrent but can only do so much to rid the nation of guns.

"It is a huge task that the U.N. will not be able to fulfill until the authority of the state is imposed."

Darfur: U.N. Leader Downplays Sudan Rejection

From the AP

The head of U.N. peacekeeping downplayed the Sudanese president's rejection of a U.N. mission for Darfur Wednesday, saying it was not the end of the story.

President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday accused Jewish groups of pressing for the U.N. mission, and vowed never to let U.N. peacekeepers into Sudan's western region of Darfur.

``Obviously, we would like to hear a different opinion,'' U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Gehenno told The Associated Press shortly after meeting al-Bashir. ``We want to believe that this is not the end of the road.''

[edit]

Gehenno said he had assured the Sudanese president that the UN had no ``hidden agenda.''

``There are many misunderstandings about the U.N.'s goals in Darfur that we are trying to solve with the Sudanese government,'' said Gehenno.

The U.S. and Europeans have been pushing for a large U.N. force to replace the African Union's poorly equipped 7,000 troops, who have been unable to halt the near daily killing, raping and looting of refugees in the remote region of western Sudan where more than 200,000 have died in the last three years.

Gehenno said the priority would be to strengthen the 7,000-strong AU force. He confirmed that the U.N. still hoped to send its own peacekeeping mission by early 2007.

The chief peacekeeper also insisted that U.N. peacekeepers would ``only go to Darfur in full cooperation from the Sudanese government.''

There has been ``a slight improvement'' in the situation since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement last month between the region's main rebel group and the government, Gehenno said.

But he said the situation was precarious and infighting among rebel factions had cut off over 100,000 people from humanitarian assistance.

Presidential adviser Majzoub Khalifa said the government believes letting in the U.N. could destablize Sudan.

``We do not want Darfur to become a new Iraq,'' he said, claiming tribal leaders in Darfur had warned authorities they would form insurgency groups against U.N. peacekeepers.

[edit]

The U.N. peacekeeping chief said a new cycle of violence threatened Darfur and that solving the crisis was ``an emergency.''

The suffering ``can leave no one indifferent,'' Gehenno said. ``History will judge us harshly if we do not prevent it,'' he said

Darfur: US Presses Sudan to Accept UN Force

From Reuters

The United States pressed Sudan's government on Wednesday to accept U.N. peacekeepers in the volatile Darfur region where experts say momentum for peace is fast slipping away while Khartoum balks at a U.N. force.

[edit]

U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said it was in Sudan's own interests to accept a U.N. force to back up about 7,000 underequipped African Union troops struggling to keep the peace in Darfur, an area the size of France.

"As long as violence continues in Darfur, the Sudanese government is going to be held responsible, regardless of the circumstances," Ereli told reporters.

"So the Sudanese government has a strong interest in a more effective security force in Darfur not only to be on the right side of the issue and to be seen as doing the right thing, but also to provide for better security for its own citizens."

Ereli said the United States was working closely with the European Union and others to press Sudan to "recognise the reality" it needed a U.N. force in Darfur, where tens of thousands have been killed and 2 million have fled their homes in three years of conflict.

[edit]

Sudan experts are critical of the United States, the EU and the African Union for not doing enough to put pressure on Khartoum.

They argue that momentum built up after the signing of a peace agreement last month between Darfur's main rebel group and Sudan's government is fast dissipating because of Khartoum's reluctance to accept a U.N. force.

Princeton Lyman, of the Council on Foreign Relations, said the Darfur agreement was fragile and the prospect of a U.N. force not being allowed in would encourage more violence.

"This is a very serious situation and it requires actions sooner rather than later. The first step ought to be to call a meeting of the U.N. Security Council," he said.

Lyman urged the United States and others, including Arab nations, to be tougher on Sudan and impose sanctions on Khartoum outside of the U.N. Security Council if they refused to cooperate.

"For example, companies could be forbidden from doing any business in Sudan," he said.

A report this week by the International Crisis Group, a think tank, said the Darfur deal had serious flaws and only an urgent, robust U.N. peacekeeping mission could save it.

The United States has labelled the violence in Darfur genocide and religious and human rights groups have piled pressure on the Bush administration to act.

The New York-based Elie Wiesel Foundation and more than 60 Nobel Prize winners announced on Wednesday the formation of a Commission of Nobel Laureates to monitor Darfur and recommend urgent actions to governments and international agencies.

"We express compassion with the victims and our anger at world leaders who are timorous, complacent and unwilling to take risks," said Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize

R2P: Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict

From the Security Council Report

Expected Council ActionOn 28 June, following a briefing by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, the Council will hold an open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The theme of the debate will be the implementation of resolution 1674 of 28 April 2006, especially in the context of drafting mandates of peacekeeping operations. Because of the recent adoption of this resolution, which was in many respects a landmark development, Council members are not expected to seek to negotiate any new text but instead to focus on the challenge to produce real improvements on the ground. The meeting may generate some specific recommendations in this regard. Denmark has prepared a discussion paper in advance of this open debate.

[edit]

Some members of the Council may want to focus on ways to have the Department of Peacekeeping Operations more involved in future briefings, since the primary goal remains improvement of peacekeeping mandates and operational activity so that protection of civilians would be better guaranteed. Previous resolutions on the protection of civilians (1296 and 1265) refer to protection in zones where peacekeeping operations are deployed. Other members are concerned that because humanitarian protection so often proves to be a necessary element of peacekeeping, it is also crucial to ensure that appropriately robust mandates be established.

Because the issue of "responsibility to protect" was such a major area of controversy in the formal discussion on the protection of civilians resolution earlier in April, it seems that some members may be hesitant to go into these issues again so soon.

Darfur: Khartoum's Decision Barring UN Force Worries AU

From DPA

The Sudanese government decision not to allow a United Nations peace operation in Darfur will hamper humanitarian aid efforts in the conflicted region, African Union (AU) officials warned Wednesday.

Authorities in Khartoum had earlier said they would consider AU plans to replace the understaffed and poorly equipped African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) with UN troops but announced Tuesday that they would not accept the replacement.

The planned handover was agreed earlier this year between the UN and the AU, as international concern mounted amid accusations that the marauding, state-backed Arab militia in Darfur, known as Janjaweed, was committing genocide against the African population.

[edit]

'Khartoum's latest decision would definitely call for a review of its Darfur 'policy' once again by the AU,' observed an African diplomat.

AU officials have indicated that the 15-nation AU Peace and Security Council would consider the implications of the Sudanese government decision when it meets again later this month.

Meanwhile AU chief Alpha Oumar Konare arrived in Darfur Tuesday to assess the situation ahead of the planned handover.

His itinerary includes a review of the security and humanitarian situations in the region and inspection of camps for refugees and displaced persons, according to AU information.

Chad: Thousands Displaced by Attacks From Sudan

From Amnesty International - via POTP

"The Janjawid opened fire without warning. They moved steadily inward shooting as they came. The cordon between the two villages meant any one who fled from one village to another would be killed as well. The only ones who survived were those who managed to hide behind trees and bushes (the area has a lot of brush). The Janjawid stole everything we had-all that is left is what the women took out with them in the morning and a very few things the Janjawid left behind."

A.R.Y 42, from Djawara

"There were three different attacks, with 80 to 90 Janjawid on camels or horses. They shouted against us, saying: ‘Go away, it's not your land, we're taking it all back, including the mango trees.' They went inside houses and looted - clothes, coverlets, carpets and jewels."

A.A 55, a farmer and chief, forced from his village of Hille Chaoua

The terror inflicted on these villagers has been felt by thousands in communities in Chad along the border with Darfur, western Sudan.

The situation in Eastern Chad mirrors that of Darfur itself in 2003-04. Amnesty International delegates have recorded numerous accounts of killings and looting by well-armed Janjawid militias often accompanied by allied Chadian ethnic groups. The Janjawid attack from across the border in Darfur, western Sudan and have driven 50,000-75,000 people from their land and homes. As they did in Darfur, they have targeted the sedentary farming populations in each area, killing, pillaging, and driving the villagers out. Most of the victims are from the Dajo, Mobeh, Masalit and Kajaksa and other smaller sedentary groups.

Earlier Janjawid attacks targeting the communities' livestock began in 2003. After late 2005 the intensity of the raids grew. Escaping villagers usually flee further inland and to areas they think will be secure either due to the presence of the Chadian army or the local administration (believing this will guarantee an army response if the area is attacked). Hoping to find protection, some have found themselves facing even more ferocious attacks.

At least 42 people were killed when when villages along the border with Sudan around Koloy canton were attacked on 3 March. Fleeing inland to the Koloy town, the displaced were continuously assaulted, killed and plundered until 10 days later they fled the area to the regional centre at Goz Beida. Goz Beida is the seat of the Dajo Sultan, where a large refugee camp has been established for Sudanese refugees driven out of Darfur after 2003.

The village of Moukchacha were among those attacked in Koloy. A 45-year-old man who survived described the wanderings of the displaced in search of an elusive safety:

"My village Moukchacha was attacked on 3 March from three different directions. After killing the people the Janjawid left with 500 heads of cattle; they also took our food stores. We weren't able to bury our dead and we left two days after for the village of Koloy. Two weeks after our arrival the village was attacked. Two people who were in the mosque were killed. From Koloy we left for Goz Beida [four days on foot, two by donkey, one by lorry] … Then the Sultan found us this site at Gourkouroun. We were told of a project to move us to another village, but we don't agree, we don't have the means to take down our houses to build them up somewhere else. We can't go back to our homes as there is no security, the rainy season has already begun."

The displaced resulting from a massive attack by an estimated 1,500 Janjawid on 12 and 13 April that left 118 dead in the villages in the area of Djawara and Djemeze, are clustered in settlements in Dog Dore and Tiero both near the border and lacking any protection. They fear further raids and are extremely vulnerable.

Fleeing to Darfur from the South

In the far south of Chad, near the border with the Central African Republic, the government has withdrawn all its officials as well, apparently, as its armed forces, from the region. In this lawless area the Janjawid can operate with complete impunity. The targeted groups, their resources exhausted find it difficult to travel outside the greater Tissi area to the relative safety of the Goz Beida area. As such some are fleeing into Sudan as refugees across the border from Tissi to Um Dukhun an area equally insecure due to the prevalence of Janjawid and Chadian armed opposition groups. There, over the past two months two refugee camps have been set up for Chadian refugees: Um Shalaya, 25km north of Mornay now shelters more than 3,000 Dajo while there are now 7,000 in camps and 2-3,000 living with relatives in Um Dukhun town (whose 6,000 population has been swollen to 13,000 by displaced and refugees). UNHCR is moving those who wish further away from the border to Mukjar.

Failure to protect from repeated attacks

The killings and forced displacement of Chadian villagers are a direct result of the failure of the government of Sudan to patrol its border and to disarm the Janjawid and bring them to justice.

On the Chadian side, such attacks show the government of Chad's prioritisations. Forces are deployed to protect Chad from the incursions of the Chadian armed opposition groups with next to none allocated to patrolling rural areas affected by Janjawid attacks.

The Janjawid often carry out their raids to coincide with the attacks of Chadian armed groups: the armed groups' attacks draw away the Chadian army leaving the local farming groups unprotected.

Darfur: Fragile Situation Despite Peace Deal

From IRIN

The recent signing of a Darfur peace deal has so far not resulted in a tangible improvement of the humanitarian situation in the troubled western Sudanese region where 3.6 million people continue to be affected by the conflict, United Nations officials say.

"This is a long-term emergency situation and residential populations are getting more and more vulnerable," Dawn Elizabeth Blalock, advocacy and public information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum told IRIN on Wednesday. "Since the beginning of this year, approximately 200,000 people have been newly displaced," she added. "At the same time, we also see a trickle back of IDPs [internally displaced persons] who are returning to their villages."

Some IDPs are returning to the villages of Dito and Joghana in South Darfur State, Blalock observed. More than 30,000 people had fled these settlements during attacks in April and May and had found refuge in Gereida town. The total number of displaced remains at an estimated 1.8 million, however, many of them have been displaced or redisplaced several times since the beginning of this year.

An analyst in the region said that the security situation had improved over the past weeks due to the absence of large-scale fighting between government forces and rebels. However, since the signing on 5 May of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) between the Sudan government and one faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Minni Minnawi, the conflict had been characterised by small but violent clashes between Minnawi's faction and another led by Abdelwahid Mohamed al-Nur.

Due to the ongoing security problems, the UN has been unable to reach some 250,000 vulnerable people across Darfur, Manuel Aranda da Silva, UN humanitarian coordinator and deputy special representative of the Secretary-General in Sudan, warned on Monday.

On 13 June, six staff members of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) were abducted by members of Abdelwahid’s faction of the SLA in Irgue, 50km west of Kutum town in North Darfur, but were released the following day. Further to the south, in Kaguro, the same rebel faction detained a group of African Union (AU) peacekeepers on patrol for several hours on 14 June.

According to UN sources, the Jebel Marra mountains were largely off-limits for all humanitarian actors, while access to other areas in West Darfur, north and south of the capital of El Geneina, remained problematic. Access was also difficult between Gereida and Nyala town in South Darfur and around the Tawilla- Shangil Tobayi and the Haskanita area in North Darfur.

Heightened tensions in IDP camps, and many organised protests against the DPA, were further complicating the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Although many protests were peaceful, anti-DPA demonstrations in Kalma and Kass camps in South Darfur, Zalingei in West Darfur, and Tawilla and Abu Shouk camps in North Darfur turned violent with two fatal casualties.

"We need to provide more information to explain the DPA to the local population," Blalock observed.

Darfur: UN Troops Needed to Restore Peace Says SLM-Minawi

From the Sudan Tribune/AP

U.N. troops are the best equipped to restore and maintain peace in Darfur, a rebel representative said Wednesday at the start of a two-day conference on rebuilding the shattered Sudanese region.

"As far as security is concerned, I think they are the most capable forces," Mohamed al-Tigani Eltayeb, of the Sudan Liberation Movement, told The Associated Press.

"U.N. forces are already in Sudan everywhere," he added, during a break in talks on reconstruction efforts in Darfur being hosted by the Dutch government in The Hague. "What is the reason for not having them in Darfur?"

CAR: Fear of Army Reigns

From AFP - via POTP

The desolation is absolute. Hundreds of hastily abandoned wooden houses devoured by weeds were all that remained of the villages surrounding the opposition stronghold of Paoua in the Central African Republic.

With the exception of a few elderly people who were too feeble to escape, the terrified inhabitants of these northern settlements had fled to squalid refugee camps in neighbouring Chad or spent the last five months hiding in the bush.

Five months ago, elite army troops, the Republican Guard, swept through Paoua and the villages, summarily executing scores of people before their neighbours' eyes.

They accused the victims of colluding with bandits who had terrorised the region and "rebels" opposed to President Francois Bozize. But, witnesses said many innocent civilians were among the dead.

The government in Bangui, 500km to the south, said that no more than 27 people were killed. Locals said the toll could be 10 times higher.

A health service official in Paoua said: "I think the number of victims could be between 200 and 250", indicating a mass grave containing five bodies.

Darfur: Bashir Blasts Jewish Groups

From the AP

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir escalated his rejection of the United Nations deploying peacekeepers in Darfur, calling them neo-colonialists and accusing Jewish organizations of pushing for their deployment.

His comments, made while a joint UN and African Union team was in Sudan planning for such a deployment, is likely to increase tension with the UN Security Council and provoke an angry response from US legislators.

A Security Council delegation toured Darfur early this month. The US and Europeans have been pushing for a large UN force to take over peacekeeping in Darfur from the African Union's poorly equipped 7,000 troops, who have been unable to halt the violence in the west Sudanese region.

When journalists pressed al-Bashir on his objection to UN troops in Darfur, he replied: "It is clear that there is a purpose behind the heavy propaganda and media campaigns" for international intervention in Darfur.

"If we return to the last demonstrations in the United States, and the groups that organized the demonstrations, we find that they are all Jewish organizations," al-Bashir said.

Darfur: AU Official Calls for Quick Implementation of Peace Deal

From Xinhua

Chairman of AU Commission Alpha Oumar Konare on Tuesday called for a quick implementation of a peace agreement signed last month between the Sudanese government and a main Darfur rebel faction.

"The Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) is an important step for the stabilization in Darfur and a compromise solution for ending the conflict," Konare said in a meeting with local officials in al- Fashir, capital of the North Darfur state.

"I believe that all the requirements exist for the DPA to be a comprehensive agreement, and what we need is the quick action to implement it," he said.

Konare arrived in al-Fashir earlier in the day on a three-day working visit to Darfur.

During his visit, Konare will exchange views with local government officials and representatives of the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) on the implementation of the DPA and practical steps toward a transition from an AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur to UN forces.

As for the transition issue, Konare reiterated the AU's support for Sudan's sovereignty and independence, stressing that an international force could not be sent to Sudan without an agreement of Sudan and the AU.

Governor of the North Darfur state Osman Mohammed Yousef Kibr, on his part, urged the AU to exert more pressure on rebel movements which have so far refused to sign the DPA.

He said that the security and humanitarian situation in the region had continuously improved after the signing of the peace agreement.

"But that does not mean there is no problem," the governor said, voicing hope that all the parties concerned would double their efforts to solve remaining problems.

Chad: Gov't Accuses Sudan of Cross-Border Attacks

From the AP

Chad on Tuesday accused Sudan of cross-border attacks and urged the Security Council to meet over its neighbor's alleged "aggression and destabilization."

The attacks constitute "irrefutable proof" of Sudan's efforts to threaten Chad "and even the subregion," Chad's U.N. Ambassador Mahamat Ali Adoum said in a letter to the council president.

The Chadian government has repeatedly brought the issue of Sudan's destabilization to the African Union and the international community but hasn't received "the appropriate response," Adoum said.

Chad therefore "urgently requests the Security Council ... to consider this situation in order to halt this macabre venture by the Sudan."

The letter was written days after a high-level U.N. Security Council mission visited the two countries and saw how the three-year conflict in Sudan's vast western Darfur region had spilled across the border into Chad and threatened to destabilize the subregion.

"We regard Chad's concerns as serious and intend to discuss the issue within the council," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said in a statement.

The situation in Chad may be considered during an open meeting on June 29 on the council's recent visit to Sudan and Chad, a council diplomat said.

According to Adoum, Chad's President Idriss Deby told the council that Sudan's destabilization of Chad's institutions "has never stopped."

Deby and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir signed an agreement in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 8, pledging to normallize diplomatic relations and work to prevent the presence of rebel groups on each other's territory.

But more than four months later relations have worsened. The two countries accuse each other of fomenting instability, and Chad blamed Sudan for backing an unsuccessful rebel attack on its capital, N'Djamena on April 13. Khartoum denied any involvement.

"Despite the extremely important efforts made by the Chadian government and by the head of state himself in order to help resolve the Darfur conflict, Chad has nevertheless continued to be the target of armed bands and mercenaries in the pay of the government of Khartoum," Adoum said.

Darfur: US to Press for UN Force Despite Rebuff

From VOA

The United States said Tuesday it will continue to press for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur despite a new statement by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir appearing to rule out such a deployment. The State Department also said the departure of Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick, the administration policy chief for Sudan, will not impede U.S. diplomacy on the issue.

Officials here say Sudanese officials have made conflicting statements about a U.N. force for Darfur, and that President al-Bashir's new comments on the subject are not being taken as the last word.

At a Khartoum news conference Tuesday with South African President Thabo Mbeki, Mr. Bashir said U.N. peacekeepers have a colonial agenda, and that the planned conversion of the African Union observer mission in Darfur to a U.N. peace force will never happen.

[edit]

At a news briefing, State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli said the international community is not going to "take no for an answer" on any given day, and will continue to push Khartoum authorities to live up to their initial embrace of a Darfur peace accord backed by a U.N. presence. "The government (of Sudan) has gone on record as saying that in the context of a peace agreement, this is something it can accept. We're pushing the peace agreement. We believe we've got the support and the strength of the international community behind this initiative. And this is something we're going to continue to push, and believe it's going to be implemented."

The Darfur accord was reached in the Nigerian capital Abuja May 5 with mediation by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who announced Monday he was resigning to take a senior post with the New York investment company Goldman-Sachs.

Under questioning, spokesman Ereli insisted U.S. diplomacy on Darfur would not be impaired by the loss of Zoellick, who visited Sudan four times in his year and a half as deputy secretary and became the Bush administration's Darfur policy "point man."

He said Zoellick, who signaled his intention to step down several weeks ago, had advanced Darfur peace efforts in a meaningful and tangible way but also positioned the State Department to do well after he left.

Ereli said the White House commitment to pursue peace in Darfur is "rock-solid" and that a team led by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer will carry the work forward.

Darfur: Activists in US Rally for Peace as Analysts Discuss Roadblocks

From VOA

Activists held rallies in several cities across the United States Tuesday to call for peace in Sudan's western Darfur region. Meanwhile, experts gathered to discuss continuing roadblocks to implement a peace deal signed by the Sudanese government and one rebel group in May.

As people rallied near the White House for strong U.S. action to stop the war in Darfur, a panel of experts gathered across town to discuss the crisis.

Kenneth Bacon, a former assistant secretary of defense and president of Refugees International, describes the current situation in Darfur as a series of paradoxes. "We have made a very large diplomatic and humanitarian investment. And yet the diplomatic efforts have produced a peace agreement and yet the peace agreement has not brought peace. In fact, the situation has gotten worse in many respects," he said.

Bacon emphasized the situation has deteriorated rather than improved ever since the signing of the peace deal on May 5 in Abuja, Nigeria. He called the agreement imperfect and only a starting point. "We've actually had a deterioration of humanitarian conditions for two reasons: one, the World Food Program does not have enough money. It announced it was cutting rations in half. It got some more money and food after it made its announcement. It's now providing 84 percent of its ration goal this month ... but it's unclear what it's going to be able to do for the rest of the year. Second, the delivery of humanitarian materials has gotten much more difficult in vast parts of Darfur because the security has declined," he said.

While Bacon praised the strong diplomatic intervention by the United States government, he called on the audience to press for more action to protect civilians, stop the killing and end the war. "We have to be more involved. Nothing has happened here without U.S. involvement. U.S. involvement is crucial to making progress here," he said.

There has been some movement toward approving a United Nations peacekeeping force to augment the beleaguered and underfunded African Union operation already on the ground in Darfur. But the U.N. cannot deploy a single soldier until the Sudanese government agrees to such a force, something Khartoum rejects.

Tuesday, Sudanese state media reported that President Omar al-Bashir vowed he will never allow U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur, saying his country would not be "recolonized."

Nurradin Mannan, a retired Sudanese diplomat, said Khartoum is afraid of a Chapter Seven mandate that would accompany such a U.N. operation, a mandate that has the power to use armed force to protect civilians and to confront combatants accused of committing atrocities. "These people are worried about chapter seven because this is going to drag them to the International Criminal Court. There are 51 [people] accused of war crimes in Sudan and this will give the U.N. the power, the right, to investigate those who are accused," he said.

Ann-Louise Colgan, the acting co-executive director for the group which organized Tuesday's rallies, Africa Action. She says following the signing of the Darfur accord in Abuja last month, there was a sense of optimism. But she echoed her co-panelists, saying the deal is now clearly unraveling. And she criticized the United States and the international community for not working harder to protect civilians and humanitarian workers. "We have heard from the U.S. a lot of rhetorical commitment to standing by what happened in Abuja and to protecting the people of Darfur and ensuring that peace takes hold in the region. We've also seen some action on the part of the United Nations. But there really has not been sufficient concrete actions to address this deteriorating security situation on the ground," she said.

Even though the situation in Darfur has worsened, Ms. Colgan says she remains hopeful. "We have this poster in our conference room at Africa Action and it has this anonymous quote on it. And the quote simply says 'you have no idea how many lives can be saved if you end the violence one month earlier,' " she said.

Rwanda: Slaughter Was Genocide, Says UN Court

From SAPA-AFP

A United Nations-backed tribunal has ruled that Rwanda's 1994 mass killings constituted genocide, effectively ending years of debate between defence lawyers and prosecutors over the massacre.

Some defence attorneys have challenged the existence of the genocide, arguing that prosecutors have failed to prove the killing of around 800 000 people met the legal definition of "genocide".

The appeals chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) ruled last Friday that the mass slaughter was "a fact of common knowledge" and "a part of world history" that could not be disputed.

"There is no reasonable basis for anyone to dispute that, during 1994, there was a campaign of mass killing intended to destroy, in whole or at least in very large part, Rwanda's Tutsi population," the tribunal said in the ruling.

"Although exact numbers may never be known, the great majority of Tutsis were murdered and many others were raped or otherwise harmed."

"These basic facts were broadly known even at the time of the tribunal's establishment as reflected in the Security Council resolution establishing it."

According to United Nations estimates, 800 000 people, mostly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed by extremist Hutu militia in the 100-day killing spree between April and July 1994.

Some defence attorneys and suspects have disputed the existence of the genocide, forcing the tribunal to each time establish that genocide actually occurred in Rwanda and thus delaying cases in the already back-logged court.

The constant delays prompted prosecutors last December to request the tribunal's appeals chambers to rule decisively on the matter.

Int'l Justice: Taylor Sent to Hague for Trial

From the Times Online

CHARLES TAYLOR, the former guerrilla leader and President of Liberia, was flown last night to The Hague, where he faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at a special court set up to try him.
Mr Taylor is accused of backing rebels of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone, who sent drugged child soldiers into battle and killed, mutilated and raped civilians during the country’s civil war in the 1990s. As many as 200,000 people were killed and Mr Taylor is reported to have been repaid for his support with “blood diamonds”.

The UN Security Council agreed last week that, in the interests of the stability of the region, Mr Taylor should be tried in The Hague.

The Netherlands agreed to take him only if another country would incarcerate him if he were found guilty. Britain promised last week that it would be prepared to hold Mr Taylor if he were sentenced to imprisonment.

The trial will serve as a test run of the facilities of the International Criminal Court, which is still waiting to run its first case. Mr Taylor would be the first alleged big-league war criminal brought to justice after the prolonged trial of Saddam Hussein and the aborted attempt to try Slobodan Milosevic.

Mr Taylor was flown from the compound at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, which has charged him with war crimes and will conduct his trial at The Hague. From Rotterdam airport he was led away in handcuffs and taken to a high security jail outside The Hague.

[edit]

Mr Taylor could be brought before the court within a week for a hearing. The prosecution has served 32,000 papers of evidence, and so the trial is not likely to begin until next year.

Reminder: Link TV

From Link TV

Link TV, a national, non-commercial satellite network available to 27 million households nationwide, is devoting four-hours of primetime programming to the current state of Africa and the ongoing genocide and upheaval in Darfur, as well as the nation’s hope for the future and path to recovery, beginning Tuesday, June 20 and airing again on Friday, June 30 at 5 p.m. PST and 8 p.m. EST.

The four-hour special “Crisis and Hope in Africa” highlights the voices of refugees and marginalized victims of Darfur and touches on some of the deep social and economic problems facing the nation, beginning with a clip from the heart-wrenching and critically acclaimed “Darfur Diaries.” The program will be hosted by Link TV political correspondent Mark Hertsgaard and feature American entertainer and social activist Harry Belafonte, who has been a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for nearly 20 years and initiated the idea for the 1985 “We Are the World” project, which raised $100 million in aid for Africa. Fresh from a trip to the region, Congresswoman Barbara Lee will be on hand to discuss the lasted development in the region: UN troops being sent to police Sudan.

The special will also feature, “What Will it Take to Stop Genocide in Darfur?” an unprecedented national discussion on how to end the genocide, recorded with STAND NOW activists and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. earlier this year. More than 35 universities participated in the original live Web cast, which features Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power; Ambassador Michael Ranneberger, Senior State Department Representative for Sudan, Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, Sudanese human rights defender and award-winning journalist Jon Sawyer.

When will all human’s lives, homes, safety and rights be protected vigilantly as a fundamental human right? What can you do to help the ailing nation of Darfur? Tune in and find out.

Darfur: Gov't and Rebel Faction to Meet at The Hague

From AFP

A Sudanese government delegation will meet with representatives of the largest rebel group in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), in The Hague this week to discuss a peace deal signed in May, the Dutch foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

On May 5, a peace deal aimed at ending more than three years of violence in the poverty-stricken western Sudanese region was signed by the Sudanese government and one of three rebel factions involved in Abuja peace talks.

The so-called workshop here Wednesday and Thursday will focus on implementing the accord and taking an inventory of what is needed in the short term to rebuild the war torn region of Darfur, the ministry said.

It will be the first time that the two parties will meet for talks after signing the Abuja deal.

[edit]

During this week's meetings the coordination group for the rebuilding of Darfur, which the Netherlands will head, is to be established, the ministry said.

The Sudanese government delegation is due to be led by deputy minister of finance Lhual Deng and the SLM team by Abduljabbar Mohamoud Dosa, Minnawi's righthand man.

The two-day meetings, in The Hague's Bel Air hotel, will also be attended by representatives of the United Nations, the World Bank, the African Union, the European Commission, Britain, Norway and the United States.

Darfur: US Accuses Sudan of Delaying International Peace Force

From the Sudan Tribune

A top United States diplomat riposted to Sudan refusal of UN force to Darfur by accusing Khartoum of using unhelpful tactics to delay the deployment of peacekeepers in the western region of Darfur, ravaged by more than three years of fighting.

A day after Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir voiced strong opposition to the deployment of Western troops in the region, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said Khartoum was using "tactics of delay."

"You must recall that before the African Union came in, they resisted African forces. Now they say they want only the African forces," she told reporters in Uganda.

"This is a pattern that is not helpful either to the protection of their own citizens or the reputation of the government of national unity," Frazer added.

That seems a pretty weak response to Bashir's bold declaration: "I swear that there will not be any international military intervention in Darfur as long as I am in power."

Sudan/Uganda: ICC Should Delay Pursuit of LRA

From the Reuters

A global war crimes court that wants to prosecute Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels should wait for a peace deal before pursuing justice, south Sudan's vice-president said.

Riek Machar told Reuters on Tuesday the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) should publicly endorse his government's peace initiative with the LRA.

Machar has led efforts by the south Sudanese government to mediate an end to the 19-year uprising in northern Uganda by the LRA, which has staged attacks from bases in neighbouring Sudan since the mid-1990s.

"If the ICC came out to say that they would give the peace process a chance before the legal process is done, then we would resolve the conflict in the region," Machar said, speaking in his office in the southern capital Juba.

"If they did that, they would give the peace process a big boost, it would assist the Ugandan government to boldly say 'we are going to negotiate'," he said.

[edit]

Machar met Kony on May 3 and June 11 near Sudan's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the rebels established positions last year, widening the threat posed to regional security by their insurgency.

The ICC has reiterated that governments in the region have a duty to arrest their suspects. Kony has evaded repeated attempts to capture him by Uganda's army.

Diplomats and regional security sources say the LRA killed eight Guatamalen troops from the U.N. mission in Congo who took part in an attempt in January to arrest Kony's deputy, Vincent Otti, also wanted by the ICC.

Machar stopped short of calling for the warrants to be withdrawn.

"We are a vehicle to mediate a peaceful settlement. With a peaceful settlement the environment would have been set for the ICC to trigger off the legal process," he said.

Darfur: David Blair's Diary

David Blair is traveling Darfur with Mia Farrow and her son and writing a blog from the Telegraph

Before long, I encounter 21 SLA rebels crammed on board two ancient land cruisers. Some wear camouflage turbans and dark glasses. Others have nothing more than t-shirts and ragged trousers. All wear flip-flops and elaborate armlets and necklaces covered with lucky charms. These tiny leather pouchers hold Koranic verses.

“What do they do?” I ask one youthful fighter. “They stop bullets,” he replies. “Look, this one here, it saved my life from a bullet.”

One rebel has a special lucky charm. He has attached a yellow toothbrush to his necklace. “This one is specially bullet-proof,” he says.

Many of the fighters are child soldiers, the youngest is only 14. It occurs to me that I have a random sample of 21 SLA rebels in front of me and I should make use of this. How many of them are child soldiers, defined as fighters under the age of 18? Speaking through a translator, I take on the role of schoolteacher.

“Right,” I say. “Please could you all stand together in a group.” The fighters bunch together and a few curious passers-by join in. “If you’re not a rebel, could you step out of the group,” I say. “Only armed insurgents please.”

Then comes the next stage of the exercise. “All those of you aged 18 and above, please raise your hands." A forest of hands shoots up, including several hands belonging to boys who are clearly younger than 18.

“And all of those of you under 18, please raise your hands.” Three hands go up, belonging to boys aged 14, 15 and 16. Each carries a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Their commander ambles over. “Why do you recruit child soldiers,” I ask.

“Their parents have been killed,” he replies. “We are taking care of them. They have nowhere to go and no way of living on their own.” I can think of no response.

[edit]

Minutes later, our helicopter takes off again and we are heading to another rebel-held enclave. This time, we are bound for the Jebel Marra mountains, the stronghold of the SLA faction led by Abdul Wahid al-Nur. He refused to sign the Darfur peace agreement negotiated in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, last month.

The mountains are spectacular. Great volcanic outcrops, with glittering cliff faces, rise from the arid plain. We land on a see of jagged, razor sharp rocks, the after-effects of a vast lava flow thousands of years ago. Here, the SLA commanders assure us of their determination to fight on.

The peace agreement is a betrayal, they say, and the SLA faction which agreed to sign are a bunch of traitors.

Left unspoken is the real reason for the bitter rivalry between the SLA’s competing factions.

As so often in Africa, tribal antagonism lies at its heart. Here, we are among the Fur tribe, the largest in Darfur, whose leading lights in the rebel movement rejected the peace accords.

Earlier in Gereida, we were with the Zaghawa, the smaller tribe which accepted the deal.

I can see immediately that the Fur rejectionists are in a far stronger position. Not only do they have the numbers on their side, but here in the Jebel Marra mountains they have an impregnable stronghold with a population of about 300,000. Abdul Wahid and his Fur fighters have every reason to continue waging war from this solid base and hold out for a better deal. This, in a nutshell, is why the Darfur peace agreement is going nowhere.

Darfur: Conversation With Outgoing Deputy Secretary Zoellick

From the Online NewsHour

JIM LEHRER: Do you leave your job frustrated that more has not been done quicker to help this situation?

ROBERT ZOELLICK: Well, you know, if you go to Darfur as many times as I have, your main concern is, when you see the people, your heart goes out to them. And so I'm very pleased, frankly, to be the representative of the United States, which has done more than any other country, in terms of feeding people and trying to put a focus on this issue.

And I'm very pleased that, through some tough work with the Europeans, African Union and others we were able to get this accord.

But when you look at a problem like genocide, there's no doubt that it's going to take a long time. And part of it will have to help -- I hope, as the peace accord gets implemented -- with the reconstruction and development. So this is one of those problems that's going to take time.

[edit]

JIM LEHRER: Do you leave office satisfied that the United States has done all it can or is doing all it can to resolve this tragedy?

ROBERT ZOELLICK: I really do, Jim. And that isn't to say that, you know, I'm not heartbroken by seeing the same things that happen, too.

But, you know, you find these problems. Look at what's going on in Somalia today or what people incurred -- the problems we had in Somalia in '91-'92.

And so, frankly, you know, for all the talk about the U.S. around the world and how we're seen in some of these recent polls, I'll tell you this: This problem would not even be where it is today without the U.S. leadership, from particularly President Bush, and, I have to say, backed by a lot of American people all over the country.

Darfur: A Fragile Peace Agreement

The report mentioned earlier from International Crisis Group

The Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) signed under African Union (AU) auspices on 5 May 2006 between Sudan’s government and the faction of the insurgent Sudan Liberation Army led by Minni Arkou Minawi (SLA/MM) is a first step toward ending the violence but strong, coordinated action is needed if it is to take hold. The document has serious flaws, and two of the three rebel delegations did not accept it. Fighting between rebel and government forces is down somewhat but violence is worse in some areas due to clashes between SLA factions, banditry, and inter-tribal feuds, while the Chad border remains volatile. If the DPA is not to leave Darfur more fragmented and conflict-prone than before, the international community must rapidly take practical measures to shore up its security provisions, improve prospects for the displaced to return home, bring in the holdouts and rapidly deploy a robust UN peacekeeping force with Chapter VII authority.

Two parties to the negotiations in Abuja – the SLA faction of Abdel Wahid Mohamed Nur (SLA/AW) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) – have refused to sign. Abdel Wahid demands more direct SLA participation in implementation of security arrangements and is also dissatisfied with the DPA’s provisions for political representation and a victim’s compensation fund. JEM maintains that the protocols on power and wealth sharing do not adequately address the conflict’s root causes: the structural inequities between Sudan’s centre and its periphery that led to the rebellion in 2003. Indeed, the DPA has accelerated the break-up of the insurgency into smaller blocs along loose ethnic lines.

Broadening buy-in and implementation of the security protocols will either make or break the peace in the short term. Maximum use needs to be made of the opportunity provided by the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation, a communal reconciliation process prescribed by the DPA, to get acceptance of the agreement from segments of the population that were not represented in Abuja. Women’s full participation will be important.

Security will not improve, however, unless Khartoum disarms its proxy Janjaweed forces, a commitment it has already broken on five occasions. Unfortunately, the DPA offers no guarantees on implementation. The AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) is already overstretched and lacks the capacity to perform the additional monitoring and verification duties now asked of it. The DPA also does not address the takeover of peacekeeping operations by the UN, which is daily becoming more necessary. Khartoum continues to obstruct and delay the planning process for that UN mission. If AMIS and then UN peacekeepers must ask the government’s permission at every step, they will not be able to create the confidence refugees and displaced persons (IDPs) need to go home.

Sudan: Bashir Rejects 'Colonial' Troops

From the BBC

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has opposed the deployment of international troops in his country, saying Sudan would not be "re-colonised".

The UN is considering sending peacekeepers to Sudan's Darfur region to supplement African Union troops.

Conflict in Darfur between rebels and pro-government forces has killed about 300,000 people in three years.

A report by the International Crisis Group on Monday said a UN peace force was urgently needed in Darfur.

But Mr Bashir said there would be no such force in Sudan, according to reports in state media.

"I swear that there will not be any international military intervention in Darfur as long as I am in power," Mr Bashir was quoted as telling a meeting of his ruling National Congress late on Monday.

"Sudan, which was the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence, cannot now be the first country to be re-colonised," he said.

From Reuters

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ruled out letting U.N. troops into the Darfur region, saying he would not permit such a deployment as long as he was in power, the state news agency said on Tuesday.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who arrived in Khartoum on Tuesday, is expected to keep up the pressure on Khartoum to approve a U.N. peacekeeping contingent in the western region, where African Union forces have failed to end the conflict that has driven two million people from their homes.

"President Bashir pledged himself to lead the resistance against any U.N. military intervention if it happened in Darfur," the state news agency SUNA quoted him as saying in a speech to members of parliament on Monday evening.

"Sudan, the first country in Africa south of the Sahara to win independence, will not be the first country to be recolonized," the president added.

"He was resolute that that there would be no U.N. military intervention in Darfur as long as he is in power," SUNA said.

Mbeki's delegation went straight from the airport to meetings with Bashir and Vice President Salva Kiir, a former southern rebel who took office under a peace deal last year.

The government has also signed a peace agreement with the main rebel faction in Darfur but other groups have refused to join and the government has been resisting the parallel plan to convert the African force into a U.N. force.

Darfur/Chad: Janjaweed Finding New Allies

From the BBC

As Sudan's feared Janjaweed militia step up their cross-border attacks into Chad, there is worrying new evidence that some Chadians have joined forces with the Janjaweed to attack their own countrymen.

Victims of attacks say that some Chadians are acting as "guides" to the Janjaweed, directing them to certain villages and suggesting which cattle to steal.

Many victims also say that some Chadians are taking part in the actual killings.

An estimated 50,000 Chadian civilians have been displaced by the upsurge in Janjaweed attacks.

Dozens of villages along the Chad-Sudan border now lie empty as residents, terrorised by repeated incursions from Sudanese militia, have fled their homes.

The Janjaweed are accused of carrying out the worst atrocities against black Africans during the conflict in Darfur, just over the border into Sudan.

"We had just finished praying when the Janjaweed arrived on horseback," recalled Abdulaye Yaya Abdulaye, 40 - a survivor of the now-notorious Janjaweed massacre in the village of Djawara in April, in which 118 men died.

"There were many Chadians with them. The Janjaweed were wearing military fatigues, but the Chadians were in civilian clothing. Every man was armed.

"The Janjaweed carried Kalashnikovs and M14s. The Chadians also had arms, but carried machetes as well. After people were shot, if they were still alive, they were finished off with machetes."

Exactly why Chadians would want to join forces with Sudanese militia is unclear.

Many people here talk about an "Arab alliance", where Arab Janjaweed from Sudan are teaming up with certain groups in Chad to attack non-Arab communities.

Observers are wary of jumping to conclusions about ethnic cleansing, however - after all, several non-Arab groups have been persuaded to join this "Arab alliance".

Instead, the prime motivation appears to be political.

The Sultan of this region, Seid Ibrahim Mustafa, says there is a strong link between Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militia and the Chadian rebels - who he suspects are also involved in the recent violence.

"The Janjaweed have a relationship with the Chadian rebels, and they are working for the Sudanese government," he says.

"Sudan wants to destabilise Chad. Why? We have the same tribes living on the both sides of this border.

"They [Khartoum] carried out a civil war in Sudan, and little by little, they are now coming deep into our country."

The theory is that some civilians in this area have been persuaded to join this alliance, either through coercion, or the promise of a share in the wealth as cattle are stolen and villages looted.

There are signs that the ultimate goal of this alliance may to be to overthrow Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno.

"Well before the attack, the Janjaweed visited us and asked us to join their alliance, to help overthrow President Deby," explained another survivor of the Djawara massacre, which took place on the same day Chadian rebels attacked the capital, N'Djamena.

"We said no, we are just peasants, we cannot meddle in politics. So they said: 'Ok, if you don't want to join us, you will see what will happen'.

"A few weeks later, they came back to kill us."

Many displaced Chadians are from the non-Arab Dajo ethnic group, whose members say that after refusing to join the alliance, they have been systematically targeted by Janjaweed.

The Dajo, who live along the Chad-Sudan border region, provided accommodation to Sudanese refugees when the Darfur conflict began three years ago.

Some people believe they are now being attacked by the Janjaweed as revenge for having helped their Sudanese neighbours in the past.

Darfur: Peace Deal "Weak", Needs Urgent UN Force

From Reuters

A Darfur peace deal has "serious flaws" and only an urgent, robust U.N. peacekeeping mission will ensure it does not collapse and further divide the violent region, a think tank report said on Tuesday.

An African Union-mediated May 5 peace deal for Sudan's west was signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Thousands in Darfur's refugee camps have demonstrated daily against the accord saying it does not meet their basic demands and AU forces monitoring a shaky truce there have been attacked by angry and frustrated Darfuris.

"There is a very real danger that the international community, in its eagerness to get a deal, has brokered one that is structurally weak," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a 19-page report.

"The document has serious flaws, and two of the three rebel delegations did not accept it," it added.

Rebels who did not sign say it failed to give them enough political posts or compensation for war victims. They also want a role in monitoring the disarmament of Khartoum's allied Arab militia, known locally as Janjaweed, who are blamed for much of the rape, murder and looting in the vast region.

"Sudan's government conceded little during the Abuja negotiations to the demands of Darfur's rebels for a greater share in national decision making and a fairer share of revenues for their region," the report said.

It added the deal lacked methods of implementation and guarantees disarmament would take place.

Khartoum has signed five agreements over the past two years promising to disarm the Janjaweed. But it has done little, claiming Janjaweed are not militia but petty outlaws.

Under the peace agreement Sudan has until Thursday to present a plan to the AU to disarm proxy militias.

Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2.5 million forced from their homes to miserable camps during three years of fighting in Darfur that the AU forces have been unable to stop.

The ICG said the AU should not extend the mandate of its struggling 7,000-strong force in Darfur beyond Sept. 30. Instead a rapid reaction U.N. force should be sent as the first component of a U.N. transition in Sudan's remote west.

"It is critical that the transition to a U.N. force in Darfur occur on or around 30 September 2006," the report said.

"The longer the takeover is postponed, the less legitimate the (accord) will become to many in Darfur, where there is already little confidence in it and in (the AU)."

Darfur: No Justice Without Peace?

An op-ed by Peter Quayle, a legal adviser to the Civil Division European Office of the US Department of Justice, in the Times Online

A YEAR ago, the International Criminal Court (ICC) began its investigation into atrocities in Darfur. A “veil of impunity” obscuring the burnt-black, corpse-strewn villages of Sudan’s western region would be parted. So said Kofi Annan in cheering the earlier decision of the United Nations Security Council to refer the vicious conflict to the ICC. Improvised solutions were avoided. Instead, the Security Council laid its hands on existing levers of law enforcement. Unlike earlier ad hoc UN courts for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the ICC’s jurisdiction is based upon signature of its Rome Statute, not the UN’s Charter. But, to keep the peace, the court’s jurisdiction would be imposed by the Security Council on a non-member state — an unwilling Sudan. In so doing, the UN made Darfur the defining case of the infant ICC.

After a year of work, the ICC’s progress could, generously, be called steady. Admittedly, the difficulties are legion. In theory, the ICC stands ready to investigate atrocity anywhere in the world. In practice, the Office of the Prosecutor must stand by, laboriously recruiting and training a staff — legal interpreters, investigators, evidence collectors and witness interviewers — specifically suited to this conflict zone and its crimes.

Unlike the Nuremberg Tribunal that prosecuted the Nazi leadership, the ICC is not an embellishment of huge diplomatic, military and economic forces. Friendly armies of occupation do not stand ready to lend the prosecutor every assistance. Instead, the Office of the Prosecutor is forced to investigate from afar: it has yet to set foot inside Sudan. Unable to secure evidence, witnesses and accused, the ICC is all but helpless until order is restored in Darfur.

The ICC depends upon the assistance of the African Union (AU). The Union’s small number of hapless troops on the ground struggle to police, as yet, flimsy peace agreements. The Security Council has demanded that the violent factions disarm and the AU force be swiftly scaled up. Much depends upon Sudan’s truculent government. Until now, little has been forced from them. Time will test the limits of its potentially self-incriminating co-operation.

What is apparent is that Khartoum has begun to adapt its tactics to the rules that the ICC brings with it. The international courtroom in The Hague is intended to complement not supplant national justice. The ICC can take on criminal cases only when local courts are “unwilling or unable” to investigate or prosecute. Sudan has set up a specialist tribunal — named, obviously, the Special Court for Darfur — that it claims is carrying on the work the ICC would do. But, to date, the only defendants have been a handful of the lowest ranks and civilians. The most serious crimes prosecuted: theft of livestock and unlicensed possession of firearms. In other words, these are “no-show” trials. The ICC can look past trials held with the purpose of shielding the accused from international justice. But it must do so diligently, on a case-by-case basis.

On some doubtless but distant day, The Hague will be host to solemn trials. But, is this inflexible vision of justice unavoidable? A more limber ICC, focused on outcome, might unexpectedly swamp the Sudanese court with aid and experts. In other words, call Khartoum’s bluff — build local legal capacity, demand accountability and instil human rights today instead of holding out the familiar promise of juggernaut justice for tomorrow.

The ICC was hailed as an improvement on its predecessors: instead of sitting out a conflict, it could intervene at the onset of fighting. Yet, engulfed at first with an excited debate to discern genocide — now deemed absent — Darfur’s anonymous crimes of mere mass atrocity have fallen from the headlines. Peace talks are in earnest but oblivious to crime, guilt and punishment — the obsessions of international justice. The audacity of deploying a prosecutorial presence to a war zone now seems a hoax stripped of hubris. Human rights campaigners have long chanted, “no peace without justice”. Darfur suggests: no justice without peace.

Sudan: Access for Humanitarian Aid Getting Worse

From the UN News Center

Despite last month’s peace deal in Sudan’s Darfur region between the Government and the largest rebel group, access to humanitarian aid for the people displaced by the violence there – estimated at over 2 million – and elsewhere in the impoverished African country has deteriorated in recent months, the top United Nations aid official in Sudan and other UN agency representatives said today.

The Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator Manuel Aranda da Silva also told reporters in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, that the world body had so far received less than half the funding it requires for this year’s humanitarian assistance to the country.

“Access has always been an issue in Sudan, particularly in Darfur over the last two years. In the last three months we have had deterioration in getting access in Darfur. There are at least 250,000 people we cannot reach, they are mainly in western Darfur, but they are also in North Darfur, reasons for the lack of access are mainly due to infighting,” said Mr. da Silva.

“As you know we have an ambitious work plan for this year, $1.7 billon for recovery and development activities of which $1.5 billion is for humanitarian operations. Against that $1.5 billion we have $600 million so far, and totally we have $760 million against humanitarian recovery. That is less than 50 per cent of what we require for this year,” he explained.

Other UN agency representatives raised similar access concerns for humanitarian aid in different parts of the country, in particular Kassala state in the east of Sudan bordering Eritrea and also Red Sea state in the northwest.

“We have seven refugee camps in Kassala state, and we have had problems accessing them in the past...Yesterday our people were prevented from going to Kilo 26 camp to perform regular monitoring activities,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative Kalunga Lutato told reporters.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it had similar access problems, particularly in Kassala state, where it conducts monitoring and distribution.

“The general view is we were able through the monthly plan to have access in the last two or three weeks, but it has been stopped and we cannot move out of Kassala state due to check points…We were able to distribute some commodities recently which should keep things going for some time, but if the access issues continue there will be problems,” said WFP Deputy Director Ebenezer Tagoe.

Darfur: A Moribund Peace Between War Criminals

Another new op-ed by Julie Flint in The Daily Star

It's time to say it, loud and clear: The newborn Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) is on its death bed. Without determined action to save it, the war in Darfur will continue - a steady drip of death, more or less according to the season and the mood of the Sudanese government, while hundreds of thousands of Darfurians become permanent residents of displaced camps where the Janjaweed roam.

The two signatories of the DPA are those in whom Darfurians have least trust - Sudan's government and the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) controlled by Minni Minawi. Sudan's leaders are serial war criminals; Minawi is a brutal dictator - increasingly rejected even by his own Zaghawa tribe. Neither has changed its spots since signing up for peace.

On May 20, two weeks after signing the DPA, Minawi ordered the detention of Suleiman Gamous, who, as humanitarian coordinator of the SLA, made it possible for NGOs to work in rebel areas, allowing tens of thousands of civilians to survive away from the crowded and insecure displaced camps of government-controlled Darfur. Gamous gave the SLA some credibility with the international community. He also helped hundreds of foreign journalists move safely around rebel-controlled areas. But Gamous was critical of Minawi's leadership and like most Darfurians reportedly doubts whether this peace can work. Relatives who visited Minawi's chief of staff to ask why he had been seized were told: "I can shoot Gamous and sodomize you. We will force the peace on you!" They were then tied, pistol-whipped and burned with cigarettes.

Gamous has been held in solitary confinement and without charge for a month now. He is injured - whether by accident or enemy action is not yet clear.

The government's behavior in the 40 days since it signed the agreement has been equally deplorable. On June 10, as the United Nations Security Council met in Fasher, government forces and Janjaweed attacked Galol in central Darfur. One of the founders of the SLA, a man who supports peace, e-mailed me that day: "Thirty civilians have been killed and many injured while the UN ambassadors are in Fasher. The government does not respect or care about the international community. Please do your best to show that."

But it is those who forced the DPA through who should be condemning - publicly - all the violations of their partners in peace. Unless they do so, starting today, they and their peace will lose all credibility, all virtue. The DPA has value, but it is weak on implementation. Few believe the international community has the will - or perhaps even the weapons - to force Khartoum to honor an agreement which, if implemented, will see it lose the political game when Darfurians elect their own representatives in three years' time. Darfurians have to be shown that this peace, although flawed, can work for them. This means meeting deadlines, forming committees, stopping Khartoum's security officials from taking them over and, above all, shouting from the rooftops every time a signatory steps out of line. It is not enough to slap wrists behind closed doors. The people of Darfur need to hear the "peacemakers" being called to account or they will never have any faith in the peace.

Instead we have a deafening silence. There has not been a word of condemnation about the attack on Galol; not a word of reproach to Minawi. The government and Minawi are now the good guys, to be coddled. Those who doubt the peace - admittedly for a very mixed bag of reasons - are the bad guys, to be bullied, condemned and threatened with sanctions.

As US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told doubters in the final 24 hours of the Abuja process: "I am a good friend and I am a fearsome enemy." Pity the Darfurian refuseniks: slaughtered by the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed, and now on the receiving end of Zoellick's fearsome enmity.

Washington's support for Minawi - especially within the fragmented Zaghawa environment - appears to be based on the assumption that he is the strongman of Darfur, the man who can deliver peace. Nothing could be further from the truth. Minawi's Zaghawa tribe comprises, at most, 8 percent of the population of Darfur and is itself divided, with more and more rejecting Minawi's leadership.

The Fur, historic rulers of the sultanate which gives Darfur its name, make up 26-30 percent of the population. If either of the SLA's two factional leaders has a political vision it is Abdul Wahid Mohammed al-Nur, the Fur chairman of the SLA. If either has support outside his own tribe, it is Abdul Wahid. (Not one of Abdul Wahid's key negotiators in Abuja was Fur; Minawi's, by contrast, were all Zaghawa.) As a leader of the independent Darfur Forum said in March: "All the main tribes are against Minni Minawi. Minni is a thug, Abdul Wahid is an innocent. But he is a good man and still has the solidarity of most of the tribes of Darfur."

The bias to Minawi is just one of the reasons why the peace agreement will fail unless steps are taken to redress it. Minawi is weak - in everything except his weapons and his willingness to use them - and has been for months. Today he controls only a few pockets of territory in North Darfur, the land of his own Zaghawa tribe, and has difficulty connecting the rump of his forces there with the bulk of his forces in South Darfur. The list of commanders and localities he has lost since signing the DPA is lengthening with every passing day - Biz Maza, Sayyah, Jebel Issa, Kulkul. The abuses of his men, hundreds of kilometers outside their own borders, have isolated the Zaghawa as they have never been isolated before. Minawi's acceptance of the peace agreement is reason enough for most Darfurians to reject it.

If the DPA is to survive, those who forced it across the finish line must turn their attention to the commanders who, unlike Minawi, have popular support. Rather than antagonize them, they must help them unite, organize and join an inter-communal dialogue that can put right some of what is wrong with the DPA. Without this, the DPA will be what Zaghawa are already calling it: "the Ila Digen peace" - the peace of Minawi's clan.

Sudan: Khartoum, Eastern Rebels Agree to Cease Hostilities

From Reuters

Sudan's government and eastern rebels signed a pact to cease hostilities and agreed a framework for future talks on Monday to end a long-simmering insurgency in the remote but economically important region.

Long-delayed talks between the Khartoum government and the eastern rebels began last week in neighboring Eritrea.

Eastern rebels, allied with other regional Sudanese rebel groups, have controlled Hamesh Koreb, a small area on the Eritrean-Sudan border for around a decade. The area contains Sudan's main port.

A written translation of the declaration was not immediately available, but would guide future negotiations, Yemane Gebreab, head of Political Affairs at Eritrea's ruling party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice, said.

Speaking after the brief signing ceremony in the Eritrean capital Asmara, Yemane described the talks as positive, serious, and friendly.

"They signed a declaration of principles to guide negotiations between the two sides as well as an agreement on creating a conducive environment toward peace which includes a cessation of hostilities as well as a military stand down," he told Reuters.

"We will start discussions on the agenda for the substantive issues, starting tomorrow."

Sudan: U.N. Official Accuses Gov't of Blocking Aid Access

From Reuters

Sudan is barring access for aid workers in the east of the country, and worsening security in the western Darfur region has cut off more than 250,000 people, a senior U.N. official said Monday.

Despite a May 5 peace deal in Darfur, increasing violence has put large swathes of the north, west and south out of reach of one of the world's largest aid operations, set up to help 2.5 million forced to flee their homes in the remote west of Sudan.

"There are at least 250,000 we cannot reach ... mainly due to the impact on the situation of security conditions in specific areas," said Manuel Aranda da Silva, Sudan's top U.N. humanitarian official.

He told reporters that while the parties who had signed the peace deal were no longer fighting, other factions were. Rebel infighting had caused most U.N. agencies to withdraw from areas of north Darfur.

Da Silva said camps housing those forced to flee the fighting had been restive since the deal.

"Many of the people in the camps don't recognize the agreement as their agreement," he said. "There's a need for a strong implementation of the peace agreement."

Thousands of Darfuris languishing in miserable camps have demonstrated against the peace deal almost daily, and the protests have turned violent.

[edit]

Da Silva said aid workers also have been stopped from moving in Sudan's east, where a similar conflict has simmered for a decade. Rebels there complain of neglect by the central government.

Peace talks opened last week hoping to resolve the revolt in the east, one of Sudan's poorest regions, which also shelters 120,000 refugees from neighbors Eritrea and Ethiopia.

"We have been denied access to visit refugee camps, and if we cannot have access, then we cannot provide assistance," Da Silva said. "We will not be able to continue in the east if we do not have freedom of movement."

He said despite central government assurances that they would implement a freedom of access agreement signed with the world body, local authorities in the east were not implementing that deal.

Darfur: The Twisted Trail of Chinese Weapons

From Reuters

In a rebel camp along the barren, windswept border between Sudan and Chad, dozens of trucks packed with dreadlocked fighters manning heavy machine guns are lined up.

Piled up behind them are ammunition boxes, covered in Chinese symbols -- it's impossible to know exactly where the bullets in the boxes came from but they offer a glimpse of the complex and circuitous routes of the global arms trade.

United Nations investigators have found most of the small arms fuelling the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur are Chinese, despite an arms ban on a region where tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million squat in squalid camps.

"China has been, and continues to be, a major supplier of light weapons to the government of Sudan and many of the neighbouring states," said Ernst Jan Hogendoorn, one of four U.N. experts on an panel which recommended 17 players in the Darfur conflict be sanctioned for obstructing peace.

The panel's report found Sudan's neighbours Chad, Libya and Eritrea had supplied weapons to Darfur and that most of the small arms and ammunition in the region were Chinese.

"Chinese arms and ammunition are relatively cheap compared to other suppliers -- some also argue that China asks fewer questions," said Hogendoorn.

However, he said they found no evidence China was defying the embargo and supplying arms directly to Darfur. But weapons they had sold to Khartoum were likely to end up there.

Darfur: Rebels in Khartoum for Peace Talks

From Sapa-AFP

Darfur rebels were in Khartoum on Monday for the first time since signing a peace deal with the Sudanese government last month to end three years of conflict in the western region.

The delegation from the largest rebel group -- the mainstream faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) -- was due to hold talks with the government on implementing the agreement signed in Nigeria and prepare a first visit to Khartoum by its leader Minni Minawi.

"It is a goodwill visit for enhancing dialogue with the government inside the Sudan," said delegation head Mohammed Tigani al-Tayeb.

"We will explore with government officials the best ways to implement the [peace deal]. We are here to exchange viewpoints on how to make [it] a success."

Tayeb said his group's leader would travel to Khartoum soon but declined to give a date.

Minawi's SLM faction was the only one of the three Darfur rebel groups to sign the peace deal in Abuja. A rival SLM faction and the Justice and Equality Movement both still have reservations about the agreement.

Sudan: Fighting Rebels and Cholera

From the BBC

Aid worker Matthew Langol has twice been airlifted out of southern Sudan, where he was delivering medicines to villages ravaged by cholera, after rebels ambushed aid convoys travelling behind him, blocking his way out.

"It's very dangerous work," he admits.

"No-one likes making the journey. But the disease comes in waves here, and no medicine would mean higher fatalities and a chain reaction of transmissions."

The attacks are staged by the feared Lord's Resistance Army, which has moved to Sudan from northern Uganda.

At least five aid workers travelling along this road have been ambushed and killed by the rebels since October 2005, with others suffering serious injuries.

Southern Sudan - one of the poorest parts of the world after a 21-year civil war that ended 18 months ago - has suffered over 500 cholera deaths since January.

Another 13,800 people have been affected by the disease in the region.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the epidemic could spread to Sudan's neighbours, and on Wednesday the agency confirmed reports it has spread to Darfur, where 2.5m refugees live in squalid conditions and close proximity.

Other countries in the region have seen isolated infections, but in Angola to the west, fatalities have reached 1,200 since January and 35,000 others have been made ill.

Darfur: Deputy Secretary of State Zoellick Resigning

From the Washington Post

Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, one of the administration's most prominent figures in foreign and economic policy, is resigning to join the private sector.

Zoellick's interest in leaving his high-profile post had been long rumored but it leaves a large hole in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's foreign policy team. Zoellick spearheaded efforts to end the violence in Sudan's Darfur region and was the administration's main interlocutor in the delicate relationship between the United States and China.

Rice was scheduled to make the formal announcement at 9:00 a.m.

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Zoellick said he approached Rice early this year and told her that he was ready to move on. He had planned to stay until after Chinese president Hu Jintao visited Washington in April but then his departure was delayed because he became involved in rescuing faltering Darfur peace talks being held in Nigeria.

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Even the two issues for which he is best known - Sunda and China - have reached a certain plateau, Zoellick said. With the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement by at least one rebel group, the focus will be in the implementation of the agreement, he said. On China, Zoellick held a series of high-level talks with Chinese officials and in a major speech last year reframed U.S. policy and put forth the idea that the United States wanted China to be a "responsible stakeholder" in the world. But he said "this is not activity that will be solved in one year or two years."

Darfur: Dealing With the Devil

An op-ed by Julie Flint in the New York Times

AS the peace talks for the Darfur region of Sudan drew to a close last month, the United States took over the task of defining the solution. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick flew into Abuja, Nigeria, where the talks were being held, on May 2 and three days later the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed. The only trouble is, the United States is backing the most abusive rebel leader in Darfur.

The response to the peace agreement was tepid in Abuja. But it was far cooler in Darfur, where the agreement is widely viewed as a peace between two criminal elements: the Sudanese government and Minni Arcua Minnawi, the leader of the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army that is drawn mainly from the Zaghawa tribe.

Mr. Minnawi's group is one of three rebel groups in Darfur — the two others rejected the agreement — where the Zaghawas make up less than 8 percent of the population. The wealth and influence they have gained because of their energy, drive and capacity for strategic action have caused tensions with other tribes for years.

But since the rebellion began, the abusive behavior of Mr. Minnawi's forces — often hundreds of miles outside their home area — has awakened old fears that the tribe has a hidden agenda: the creation of a new Zaghawa homeland carved out of the more fertile lands of others. Mr. Minnawi's acceptance of the peace agreement is reason enough for most Darfurians to reject it.

The tragedy of the people's rejection is that the agreement has some virtue. There is, for the first time, a timetable for the disarmament of the janjaweed, the Arab militias that with government backing are destroying everything that makes life possible in Darfur. In three years' time, Darfurians will have elections to choose their own representatives. Until then, a nominee of the rebel movements will occupy the fourth-highest position in the presidency and will control a new regional authority with a first-year budget for security, resettlement, reconstruction and development of more than a half-billion dollars.

But the agreement also has a number of critical weaknesses. Most important, it is excessively reliant on the cooperation of a government that has not honored a single commitment made since it unleashed its forces against the rebels, and the marginalized tribes from which they are drawn, early in 2003.

In addition, Mr. Minnawi's behavior in the month since he signed the agreement has not been promising. In peace as in war, Mr. Minnawi is wedded to force. On May 20, his men seized one of his most visible critics, Suliman Gamous. Mr. Gamous has been held in solitary, without charge, ever since. As humanitarian coordinator of the Sudan Liberation Army, Mr. Gamous made it possible for the United Nations and many nongovernmental groups to work in rebel areas. He helped hundreds of foreign journalists move safely around Darfur and document the plight of its people.

But Mr. Minnawi denied senior United Nations officials access to Mr. Gamous for nearly a month. When concerned Zaghawas sought a meeting to ask why Mr. Gamous had been arrested, Mr. Minnawi's chief of staff told them, "I can shoot Gamous and sodomize you." They were stripped, bound, pistol-whipped and burned with cigarettes.

African Union officials have verified the events and have rebutted Mr. Minnawi's claim that Chadian mercenaries were the perpetrators. But nobody involved in the peace plan has criticized him publicly. Once again, his abuses have been passed over in silence.

If the Darfur Peace Agreement is to have any hope of succeeding, the United States must stop empowering criminals and antagonizing those who are unconvinced. Rather, the peace brokers should assist rebel commanders critical of Mr. Minnawi to convene a conference and elect a leadership that would cross tribal lines and have popular support. Darfurians must be convinced that this peace is their peace and not, as many call it, the "Ila Digen peace," the peace of Mr. Minnawi's small clan.

The United States must increase confidence in the peace agreement by fiercely rebuking the Khartoum government — and Mr. Minnawi — for every violation of the agreement and every deadline they fail to meet. All Darfur's tribes must be brought into the peace process — most important, the Arab tribes that had no place at the Abuja table, even though the vast majority of them did not join the janjaweed. And no regional dialogue would be complete without the involvement of the janjaweed themselves, who despite their atrocities are one of the keys to a lasting settlement.

Last, the United States must make clear that there is no peace without justice. It must provide the International Criminal Court with intelligence on the conflict to ensure that nobody, government official or rebel, gets away with murder in Darfur. A first step would be to distance itself from its new favorite son. Minni Minnawi is not the guarantor of peace; he is one of the obstacles to it.

Darfur: Rebels Arrive in Khartoum Amid High Security

From Reuters

Darfur rebels arrived in Khartoum on Sunday for the first time since a peace agreement was signed last month amid tight security as they begin to implement the deal, rejected by many in Sudan.

The African Union-mediated May 5 deal was signed by only one of the three of the negotiating factions despite intense global pressure. The two groups who are holding out say the accord did not address their basic demands.

The advance team of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction led by Minni Arcua Minnawi who did sign will form a transitional authority for Darfur to oversee implementation of the deal and development of the remote western region, ravaged by more than three years of conflict.

"It is important to have the signatories of the Darfur peace agreement here because ... their presence will be extremely important for the good will of the implementation," said African Union spokesman Noureddine Mezni in Khartoum.

Minnawi did not return with the delegation despite a presidential decree granting all those who have signed the deal an amnesty to allay suspicions the government may arrest him. He remains in his rebel-controlled areas in Darfur.

Minnawi said earlier this month in an interview with Reuters he did still did not fully trust his partners in peace.

His advance team refused to meet waiting journalists at the airport, preferring to speed off to their government hotel.

Implementation of the deal has already fallen behind schedule as a Darfuri presidential adviser has not been appointed and the transitional regional authority has yet to be formed.

"Now we will start the real business with them to implement the Darfur peace agreement which is highly important," Mezni said.

The most important upcoming deadline is June 22, by when the government has to present a plan to the African Union to disarm the proxy Arab militias they used to quell the revolt and are blamed for much of the current violence.

Uganda: First Sighting of Kony as He Tries to Broker Peace

From the Telegraph

The tall, slim Ugandan glanced suspiciously at the delegates gathered around him, his general's uniform rustling as he shifted uneasily on a plastic chair.

While cold and authoritative - a single glance could send a gun-toting minion scurrying to obey an order - the jet-black eyes of Joseph Kony were also fearful: those of a man who knows he is Africa's most wanted fugitive.

After two decades of bloodshed and brutality, the self-styled prophet and leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), emerged last week from the tropical jungle that straddles southern Sudan's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and said he was ready for peace talks with the Kampala government.

About 100 of his troops stood silently and watched their leader with awe. Although dressed in uniforms and heavily armed with rifles, machine-guns and even rocket launchers, they were all young - some were little more than 12 years old. They hung on their leader's every word.

"We from the Lord's Resistance Army want peace," Kony said quietly, in heavily accented English. "But we first want protection. I want to be able to move freely."

Kony and his representatives briefly came out of hiding last week to meet Sudanese officials and discuss the possibility of peace talks between the LRA and President Yoweri Museveni's Ugandan government, to be held in the southern Sudanese town of Juba.

That Kony had also agreed to be interviewed by Western journalists, for the first time in 20 years, showed the seriousness with which he was contemplating an end to his killing campaign, which has plagued northern Uganda for a generation and more recently spread to southern Sudan and the DRC.

"Kony knows he is cornered," a source close to the talks told The Sunday Telegraph. "If the situation continues, he knows that within three or four years he will be finished."

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"If President Museveni really wants an end to the war, why is he arresting my followers who want to take part in my peace delegation?" asked Kony.

"Museveni's claim that he wants to meet us is a lie. The LRA wants peace, but Museveni still wants war. I am waiting for [the southern Sudan's government] initiative to start peace negotiations".

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Kony's critics argue that he is not serious about peace talks and is merely buying time to re-group his troops, said to number no more than 5,000, in neighbouring DRC.

"We want our troops, who are spread around northern Uganda and southern Sudan, to meet 10 hours' walk from here," said Vincent Otti, Kony's deputy, who is widely considered to be the LRA's strategic mastermind and has also been named in an ICC warrant.

But a request for south Sudan's government to guarantee safe passage for LRA troops travelling to the DRC was rejected by Riek Machar Teny, the vice-president of the semi-autonomous region.

Members of the UN Security Council warned Mr Riek last week that a possible amnesty for Kony could not be discussed, so the LRA leader will not be able to take part in negotiations himself.

At the close of their meeting, the LRA presented the Sudanese with a list of 14 delegation members. Although written on a grubby page ripped from an exercise book, the list was signed by Kony and Otti and gave delegates a mandate to negotiate on their behalf.

The paranoia among the LRA leaders was palpable, however, and as Kony slipped back into the jungle, the prospects for reaching a lasting peace agreement seemed as elusive as the man himself.

Darfur: SLM's Minawi Threatens to Quit Peace Deal

From the Sudan Tribune/AP

The only rebel leader to have endorsed the Darfur Peace Agreement threatened to pull out of the deal geared at ending three years of war if the international community does not move to support him fast.

Minni Minawi, who heads the Sudan Liberation Movement, was the only one of three rebellion leaders to sign the peace deal last month with the Sudanese government.

"The responsibility for the peace cannot remain on my sole shoulders," Minawi said in an Associated Press interview late Friday. He warned that the peace agreement could "collapse soon" if the international community failed to send a United Nations peacekeeping force to this remote region of western Sudan.

"If I don’t see support from the international community, I will return to the bush and the fighting will continue," Minawi said. He declined to specify when this could occur.

He accused the government of neighboring Chad of supporting the Darfur rebel groups that refused the peace deal and attack his troops since.

"The (Sudanese) government, all the embassies in Khartoum, have evidence that Chad is sending funds, equipment and troops to north Darfur, it is unacceptable," Minawi said.

[edit]

Abdelwahid al-Nur the leader of the second SLM faction — along with the Justice and Equality Movement, another guerrilla group — refused to sign accord, saying it did not fairly compensate refugees.

Al-Nur belongs to the Fur tribe, as do most of the refugees, and opposition to the peace agreement has lead to increased tension in the camps.

Many refugees call Minawi — who belongs to another large tribe, the Zaghawas — a traitor. Aid workers say they are worried interethnic strife could occur in some refugee camps where people have begun to regroup along tribal lines.

Humanitarian and UN workers who operate in North Darfur say SLM factions loyal to al-Nur are repeatedly breaching the cease-fire there and gaining significant ground on Minawi’s troops.

A UN report earlier this week also said that the Minnawi faction apparently retaliated in an attack on rival SLM factions, the first large-scale offensive since the peace agreement.

Minawi strongly denied this, stating that groups who broke the cease-fire did not belong to his movement. He said his troops only fought defensively. "We are soldiers, it is normal for us to defend ourselves if were are under attack," Minawi said.

The rebel leader blamed increased violence in North Darfur on the support his adversaries were getting from Chad, and possibly Khartoum. He said Chadian mercenaries and even regular troops were known to operate in the north of the region, but did not specify in what numbers.

Mazjoub Khalifa, the special adviser to the Sudanese president, who signed the Darfur peace agreement on behalf of the government, denied any meddling from Sudan in the rebel infighting.

"The government of Sudan has signed a peace agreement and will loyally support Minni Minawi in implementing it," Khalifa told the AP of the telephone from Khartoum.

He said Khartoum was aware of possible Chadian incursions in Darfur. "We intend to make sure the border is closed, and have sent a very firm message to the Chadian government," Khalifa said. He did not elaborate.

[edit]

Minawi said UN troops should come soon, or the ongoing violence would make the peace agreement impossible to implement.

He said refugees hostile to the peace deal were being manipulated by Al-Nur’s faction, but that his movement would not be able to win them over to peace if the near daily killing, raping and looting of refugees continued.

Humanitarian workers say over 100,000 people have been cut off from international aid in North Darfur because of inter-rebel fighting.

Darfur: The UN Security Council and a Final Betrayal

The lastest from Eric Reeves

Over two weeks ago Jan Egeland, UN humanitarian chief, warned of “a catastrophic situation developing in Darfur unless international donors act soon to bolster a beleaguered African peacekeeping force in the Sudanese province. ‘We either get good news in the next few weeks, or we have catastrophic news later,’ Jan Egeland [said]” (Associated Press [dateline: Brussels], May 30, 2006). No reasonable reading of statements or developments of the past two weeks by UN, US, or European officials---or any other international actors---suggests that any “good news” is in the making. Khartoum remains obdurately opposed to the kind of force necessary to halt genocidal destruction in Darfur and the increasing bleeding of ethnic violence into Chad. Egeland’s “catastrophic news” will not be long in coming.

Uganda: No Plans to Join LRA Peace Talks

From Reuters

Uganda has no immediate plans to send officials for peace talks with fugitive Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, the government said on Saturday.

[edit]

"We have no immediate plans to send anyone," said government spokesman Robert Kabushenga. "We have laid out our position very clearly. We cannot talk to any of the rebels who are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC)."

Last year the world court indicted LRA chief Joseph Kony and four of his top deputies, accusing them of committing many atrocities against civilians.

Analysts say Uganda is under pressure from ICC supporters not to negotiate with some of the world's most wanted men.

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Kabushenga called for regional cooperation to arrest Kony.

"He is now a big problem for south Sudan. Congo is obliged to hand him over to the ICC, and Monuc (the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo) is there too," he said.

"They know their job, but nothing has happened."

Darfur/Chad: Insecurity Needs Cross-Border Solution

From IRIN

The United Nations Security Council delegation that recently visited Darfur has called for a resolution of the security problems in the troubled western Sudanese region in parallel with the situation in Chad.

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told the Council on Thursday that providing adequate security in Chadian camps was an "immense challenge". It would not be acceptable to deploy a UN force in Darfur if it served to merely transfer the attacks and insecurity into eastern Chad through a porous or non-existent border, he said.

The delegation agreed with the African Union, which currently has 7,000 underfunded peacekeepers in Darfur, that the UN should take over peacekeeping responsibilities. "By the end of our visit, the mission felt we’d edged further towards the probability of the government of Sudan accepting such a deployment," Parry said.

France’s representative, Jean-Marc de la Sablière, said refugees and internally displaced people in Chad needed "increased and unremitting security" in camps along the border with Darfur, particularly because of the frequency of the militia raids, rampant forced recruitment and attacks on humanitarian workers. He urged UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to devise a plan to provide international assistance to the Chadian camps and suggested the AU/UN technical mission that is currently in Darfur incorporate it in its assessment.

The team is trying to determine measures needed to strengthen the AU peacekeeping force and enable it to perform additional tasks under the 5 May Darfur Peace Agreement. It is also evaluating the requirements for a possible transition to a UN operation.

"A serious deterioration of the situation" would follow if the security of the camps in Chad was not addressed as soon as possible, de la Sablière warned.

Reuters has a related article

France asked the United Nations on Thursday to consider ways to protect refugee camps in Chad, where rebels forcibly recruit Darfur survivors of murderous attacks by Sudanese militia.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere and his British counterpart, Emyr Jones Parry, addressed the U.N. Security Council on the 15-member body's recent trip to Sudan and Chad, aimed at convincing the Khartoum government to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in its western region of Darfur.

But the war in Darfur has spilled over to Chad. Sudanese militia, known as Janjaweed, have streamed across the border to kill, torture and rape non-Arab civilians while the rebel Sudan liberation Army has recruited, often by force, young men to join the fight.

"It is appropriate for the secretary-general (Kofi Annan) to consider this question of international protection of the camps and make recommendations to us," de la Sabliere told the council. "Personally I can only see advantages of this."

He did not elaborate on what kind of protection, such as troops, police or guards, he had in mind.

[edit]

France, which has about 1,000 airmen stationed in its former colony, has said it would not provide protection for the Chadian camps but would join any international operation.

Jones Parry, during the visit, was more noncommittal about U.N. security for Chad, saying the camps needed police protection rather than the kind of U.N. troops envisioned for Darfur.

Chad: More Than 10,000 Flee Violence

From United Press International - the MSF press release is here

More than 10,000 people have fled from violence in southeastern Chad and taken refuge in Darfur as instability continues to plague the region.

Most of the refugees are Chadian, but a large amount are Sudanese people who initially fled the conflict in Darfur only to be diplaced again by spreading unrest, according to the international humanitarian aid agency Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.

Refugees have reported that their villages in Chad were attacked by roving militia, who looted food stocks, money and clothing. MSF has treated more than 20 people with violence-related injuries at their care center in the town of Um Dukhun, including wounds caused by gunshots and axes.

"The first attack was the worst, there were over a hundred of them," said a 25-year-old woman from the village of Um Ladja in Chad. "They scared everyone and rounded us up. They took everything and killed anyone who was in the way."

During a recent assessment in southeastern Chad, MSF witnessed the consequences of ongoing violence and displacement.

"We are doing what we can, but past experiences have shown that only part of the people being displaced in Chad actually cross the border," says Chris Lockyear, project coordinator for MSF in Um Dukhun. He added that the coming rainy season will isolate villages and make it harder to provide assistance.

Uganda: Envoy Partially Welcomes LRA Talks

From Reuters

Uganda's ambassador to Sudan on Friday welcomed talks between the Lord's Resistance Army and the southern Sudanese government, but said Uganda would not talk directly to LRA leaders accused of atrocities.

The LRA, notorious for killing civilians and abducting children, has waged war on Uganda's government for 20 years, driving up to 2 million people from their homes in northern Uganda and triggering a humanitarian catastrophe.

Southern Sudan's autonomous regional government has offered to organise talks between LRA and Ugandan officials to convince the group to stop fighting and leave Sudan forever.

"We support the negotiation efforts of the government of southern Sudan and encourage them," Ugandan ambassador to Sudan Mull Katende told Reuters.

The LRA, which has kidnapped at least 10,000 children and forced them to kill or work as sex slaves, has bases in parts of southern Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Katende said there should be regional coordination to implement International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for LRA leaders.

[edit]

An advance LRA team arrived in the south Sudan capital of Juba last Thursday to take part in the talks. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had given the LRA until the end of July to lay down their arms and begin negotiations.

"We will not hold direct talks with any of the five LRA members ... who have been indicted by the ICC. But we are happy to hold talks with any mandated representative of the LRA," Katende said.

He said no Ugandan delegation would take part in talks with the LRA in southern Sudan until the issues of indirect talks and regional cooperation on the ICC warrants were clarified.

Darfur: Rebels Turn Against Each Other

From the Telegraph

On a sun-baked plateau, strewn with razor-sharp volcanic rock, hundreds of Darfur's rebels chanted a new war cry across their desolate mountain stronghold.

"Minni is betraying his people," they cried. "Down with Minni!"

These black African rebels in western Sudan rose against the regime three years ago but they were not denouncing their enemies in Khartoum.

Instead, their target was Minni Minawi, leader of a rival faction of their own Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).

A split in the rebel movement has transformed Darfur's civil war. The battle-lines in this conflict, which has forced at least two million people to flee their homes and claimed up to 300,000 lives, either through violence or disease, were once easy to describe.

The insurgents, drawn largely from Darfur's black African tribes, fought against Sudan's Arab-dominated regime and its notorious "Janjaweed" militias.

Today, by contrast, most of the fighting is taking place within the SLA. Clashes between rival factions account for the great majority of the 50 incidents recorded by the United Nations in the largest of Darfur's three provinces since May 1.

The delivery of aid is already being sabotaged. Rebel commanders have closed the Binasa area to aid workers, denying essential help to about 60,000 people in a region once considered relatively safe.

Sudan: War-Ravaged Region Seeks Help

From CBS News

Hard as it may be to believe, the Darfur crisis is not the worst tragedy Sudan's people have suffered in recent years. That occurred in southern Sudan, which is slowly emerging from a conflict that lasted more than two decades.

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hey are just two of the 4 million people displaced by the war who are returning to southern Sudan now that it's over.

"They are coming home faster this year than we had expected," says Morris, "and that's good news."

The problem is that they are coming back to nothing, says World Food Programme's Simon Crittle, who's been working closely with returnees for the past year.

"This country has been so badly affected by war, it's been completely destroyed, so the people are coming back; they are trying, but it is very, very difficult," Crittle says.

[edit]

It's only when you come to a place like this that you just start to understand how far south Sudan still has to go. It may seem as if time has stopped still for these people — but when you talk to them, you realize they know the modern world has left them behind.

And they want to catch up. Health education and schools topped the list of things they said they need desperately.

What Crittle and others working in south Sudan want the international community to understand is that just because the bullets have stopped flying doesn't mean the emergency is over.

"The Americans have given us over 200 million (dollars)," he says. "Now other governments are starting to come to the party. However we are only 50 percent funded, and if we don't get the money we need, it will literally be a tragedy for southern Sudan."

Int'l Justice: Britain to Imprison Liberia's Taylor if Convicted

From the Washington Post

Britain agreed Thursday to jail former Liberian president Charles Taylor if he is found guilty of responsibility for atrocities in Sierra Leone, ending an impasse that for months had delayed his transfer to The Hague to stand trial before a war crimes tribunal.

"I was delighted to be able to respond positively to the request of the United Nations secretary general that, should he be convicted, Charles Taylor serve his sentence in the U.K.," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in London. "My decision was driven by two compelling arguments. Firstly, that Taylor's presence in Sierra Leone remains a threat to peace in that region. Secondly, that we are demonstrating through concrete action the U.K.'s commitment to international justice."

Taylor faces 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of international humanitarian law. The United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up in 2002 to prosecute those bearing greatest responsibility for atrocities committed by rebels under Taylor's sway in the Sierra Leone civil war, which lasted from 1991 to 2002. Taylor has said he is not guilty of the charges.

Beckett's announcement ends a protracted U.N.-led effort to locate a country that would be prepared to detain Taylor.

Darfur: Recent Mission a Qualified Success

From the United Nations Security Council

The Security Council's mission last week to the Sudan had been a successful visit by a united Council and, although agreement by the Sudanese Government to transfer the peacekeeping force in the still violent Darfur region from the African Union to the United Nations had not been reached and might still be tortuous, the mission had edged further towards the probability that the Government would accept such a deployment, the Security Council was told today.

Briefing the Council this morning, United Kingdom's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and head of the mission, Emyr Jones Parry, added that such agreement, while the mission was there, had been unlikely. The United Nations and the African Union were in Khartoum now on a technical assessment mission. It sought to secure agreement from the Government to strengthen the African Union mission (AMIS), to better implement the 5 May peace agreement and to protect civilians until a United Nations force was deployed, and to identify with the Government the transition arrangements for a gradual replacement by a United Nations force. That should be very quickly agreed, and the necessary planning should be completed urgently.

If it was agreed that the AMIS' mandate must be strengthened and the United Nations should then take over that mandate, then it would be up to the Security Council to draft and agree the necessary resolution to provide the mandate for the United Nations force. Sudan's President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir had made it clear that external troops should not be mandated to attack Sudanese. He, therefore, had accepted that control of the Janjaweed, long sought by the Council and a precondition for security in Darfur, was the responsibility of his Government. Hopefully, that responsibility would now be fulfilled.

In Khartoum, he said, Council members had found many hostile perceptions of a United Nations deployment, fuelled in part by concern over the adoption of Security Council resolution 1679 under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. In fact, that was a “major irritant” for the Government. Council members had explained that Chapter VII was a technical, and not a political, issue, and that a Chapter VII mandate was likely to be required for any United Nations force in Darfur to enable it to give the necessary protection to civilians, and to itself. Chapter VII would only mean that the United Nations mission in Darfur had the same mandate as nearly all of the Organization's peacekeeping operations in Africa.

At the last stop in Chad, the mission had noted that the scale of the camps was huge. Within the camps, he had been alarmed to learn recruitment and intimidation were carried out regularly by rebel groups. Nor had he appreciated in advance the threats that the camps posed to local resources, particularly declining water supplies and firewood. Although Chad was the seventh poorest country in the world, the local community there embraced the internally displaced persons and refugees as guests. Providing adequate security for the camps was another immense challenge. It would not be acceptable to deliver a United Nations force giving better security in Darfur if that merely transferred the attacks and insecurity into eastern Chad through a porous or non-existent border.

Uganda: LRA Blames Army for Attack

From Reuters

Ugandan rebels on Thursday blamed the Ugandan army for an attack on south Sudan's capital Juba this week which killed nine people and injured nine others, calling it an attempt to derail talks.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), known for abducting child fighters and mutilating victims, held a rare news conference in Juba where they are waiting to start peace talks with the Ugandan government mediated by the autonomous south Sudan government.

"The delegation would like to state categorically that ... LRA soldiers did not attack Juba or any village nearby," said Obwony Olweny, the LRA spokesman.

He said Ugandan troops in southern Sudan as part of a now-expired agreement with their neighbour to root out the LRA, were responsible for the attack and were trying to smear them.

"The allegations must have originated from elements bent at derailing the peace process at this early stage and it is a smear campaign against the LRA as has always been done by the Ugandan Government," he added.

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Kampala have given Kony until the end of July to lay down his weapons and start talks. Some analysts fear Kony is not serious about talks and is buying time to regroup his troops in nearby Democratic Republic of Congo.

Olweny said they were positive about talks, despite previous failed attempts at dialogue. The LRA have no clear political aims and want to rule Uganda by the Ten Commandments.

"We are optimistic of the positive outcome of the talks while waiting here in Juba for the delegation of the Ugandan government to arrive," he said at a hotel in Juba.

Olweny told reporters that the Sudanese armed forces had in the past given supplies to the LRA, but they were no longer doing so. He added that was because the Ugandan army had supported the former southern Sudanese rebels.

Darfur: Emergency Bill Includes Peacekeeping Money

From the AP

The Senate on Thursday allocated $60 million toward launching a U.N. peacekeep