Darfur: Sudan Bombs Rebel Areas After AU Visit

From the AP

Sudanese forces bombed two rebel locations in Darfur just days after the head of the African Union's peacekeeping force visited the area to urge the rebels to join a cease-fire agreement, the AU said Sunday.

A Sudanese government aircraft on Friday bombed Anka and Um Rai in North Darfur province where Gen. Luke Aprezi had met on Wednesday with rebels, an AU statement said.

"When a bombing is made after I have visited an area, my credibility is involved," Aprezi told The Associated Press by telephone from Khartoum, Sudan's capital. "To that group, I don't have any credibility anymore."

The incident jeopardizes efforts to bring additional groups into the cease-fire that a single rebel faction and the government signed in May 2006, the AU said.

The AU checked the rebels' reports on Friday's attacks with soldiers from its peacekeeping mission in the area. But Aprezi declined to give details about any casualties, damage caused by the bombings or the quantity of explosives used.

The AU obtained consent from Sudanese officials in Darfur and the capital ahead of meeting the rebels, it said in the statement. It called Friday's attack "a seriously disturbing development."

Sudanese officials were not immediately available for comment.

Darfur: Conflict Engulfs Towns, Threatens Aid Operation

From Reuters

As Darfur's conflict enters its fourth year and fighting engulfs main towns, the world's largest humanitarian operation in Sudan's remote west has become increasingly threatened.

The clashes which drove some 2.5 million Darfuris from their homes and killed an estimated 200,000 were concentrated in remote villages in the early stages of the conflict. But the terror has spread to Darfur's main towns, affecting many of the 14,000 aid workers based there.

"These places were safe havens before," said Alun MacDonald, spokesman for British aid agency Oxfam. "Our headquarters are in the town, so it does affect operations," he said. "It's frustrating."

Many war victims fled to the relative safety of the three Darfur state capitals during the conflict and formed mass makeshift camps surrounding the towns.

But that feeling of safety was shattered when militia ran riot several times in recent months or clashed with former rebel forces inside Darfur's main towns. In December U.N. and aid agencies evacuated hundreds of staff from Darfur cities, paralysing some humanitarian operations.

"The situation here remains like a tinderbox," said one aid worker who witnessed clashes in December in el-Fasher town before before evacuated.

With a May peace deal signed by only one rebel faction, violence has escalated as many other rebel commanders formed a new military alliance and renewed hostilities with the government. U.N. officials say Khartoum remobilised proxy militia, known locally as Janjaweed, to combat the rebellion.

U.S. academic Eric Reeves says the militia are in the towns because the new rebel alliance had inflicted heavy losses in remote areas on government forces and their proxy militia.

"The towns now offer safe haven and easy pickings for the Janjaweed, and they are certainly less fully under control of the Sudanese armed forces," he said.

The Janjaweed "report to no one", the aid worker in el-Fasher said, adding "there is a huge amount of tension between the Janjaweed, the government of Sudan and the police."

In West Darfur's capital el-Geneina, armed men dressed in various military fatigues roam the streets in unmarked vehicles. As well as militia, insurgents from neighbouring Chad drive in and out of the town.

Aid compounds in many of Darfur's major towns have been targeted by armed men in the past few months. In North Darfur's Tawila town, all the international aid agencies have left, leaving tens of thousands of victims without help.

Oxfam's MacDonald said with the May deal, there were many more armed factions in the towns as former rebel forces have gained legitimacy but have not yet laid down their weapons. "There are lots more men with guns inside the towns," he said.

Most agencies are reluctant to leave Darfur, which U.N. officials call the world's worst humanitarian crisis, but many are operating dangerously close to the edge, stretching normal operational rules.

"They are all operating in the red zone, beyond acceptable levels of security," said Reeves. "They would never think of entering a situation like Darfur if they weren't already there."

Darfur: U.N. Changeover Could Spell Disaster

From Reuters

As African U.N. chief Kofi Annan steps down on Sunday, many fear that the Darfur war, called the world's worst humanitarian crisis, will fall off the world body's top agenda and become a forgotten disaster.

Darfur catapulted to the forefront of world attention in 2004 as Washington described it as the first genocide of the 20th century, sparking unprecedented focus in the U.N. Security Council on the war in Sudan's remote west which has killed an estimated 200,000 and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

Khartoum categorically rejects a Security Council resolution to deploy some 22,500 U.N. troops and police to Darfur, and Annan has failed to breach the impasse between Khartoum and New York as South Korean Ban Ki-Moon takes over as U.N. Secretary-General on Jan. 1.

Some within the U.N. system fear an Asian secretary-general will not focus on African issues like Darfur as much as Annan and his fellow outgoing colleagues like U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland have.

"By this time in a year people will have moved on and forgotten about Darfur," said one U.N. official in Khartoum who declined to be named. "No one can see a solution and so eventually it will drop off people's agenda."

Some say Ban's declared focus on diplomatic efforts to resolve Darfur, which have to date produced few results, are not a positive sign that the United Nations will take stronger action to stop violence in Sudan.

"The first thing is that Ban Ki-Moon has made a statement that ... there's no military solution to this problem," said Lee Feinstein, of the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S.-based think tank. "I'm not sure that Ban gets off on the right foot in emphasising the diplomatic approach."

In Sudan the top U.N. players will leave, like humanitarian coordinator Manuel Aranda da Silva and U.N. top envoy Jan Pronk who was expelled in 2006. In Khartoum's embassies, new diplomats are arriving with no prior knowledge of the crisis.

In 2004/5 Darfur's humanitarian crisis was dealt with directly at ambassadorial level but it has now been delegated to lower-level second secretaries.

And it seems Annan himself has had last-minute fears that the impasse in Darfur over a U.N. force will dwindle attention given to the crisis after he leaves office.

Before leaving Annan appointed a special envoy to Darfur, Jan Eliasson, to lobby European capitals, and nominated another personal envoy, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, to meet President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to try to convince Khartoum to accept a compromise U.N.-African Union hybrid force. Bashir also rejected this.

"Annan seems to have fully awakened to the realities of Darfur and the very real possibility that the region will be completely abandoned, destined to sink below detectable levels on the 'to-do list' of the incoming secretary-general," said Mia Farrow, the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) goodwill ambassador and Darfur activist.

But some believe Annan did not do enough during his time in office. Criticised for not doing more to stop the 1994 Rwandan genocide when he was head of U.N. peacekeeping, those who say Darfur is a 'genocide in slow motion' say Annan has failed again, this time as U.N. secretary-general.

"Kofi Annan's public voice fell silent for what seemed an eternity," said Farrow. "I wrote to him to urge him to abandon cautious language. It is his political, diplomatic and moral obligation to be loud and clear about what should be done."

U.S. activists vow to keep Darfur at least on Washington's agenda, saying not since anti-apartheid campaigns in South Africa has the U.S. public been so passionate about Africa.

U.S. special envoy, Andrew Natsios, has threatened unspecified actions against Khartoum if no progress is made by the end of 2006. But some feel a desire to take real action is lacking in the U.S. administration.

"It was a naked bluff, reflecting the impetuousness of Natsios and the lack of real commitment on the part of the administration generally," said Eric Reeves, a U.S. academic.

But Reeves warns if Darfur does drop off the world agenda, it would set a horrific precedent for future conflicts.

"If Darfur is allowed to wither amidst a relentless genocide by attrition, then the whole notion of a 'responsibility to protect' will be another victim of the genocide," he said.

Chad: UN Snubs Calls to Protect Refugees

From the Financial Times - via POTOP

The United Nations peacekeeping department has rebuffed calls by the Security Council for a force to protect refugees in Chad and shore up its border with Sudan, warning that any UN presence there would face big risks.

In a report seen by the FT but not yet officially re-leased, the UN says: "Conditions for an effective UN peacekeeping operation do not seem to be in place at this time."

Its conclusion marks a rare challenge to the Security Council, the UN's supreme decision-making body. But it reflects growing concern among peacekeepers that they are being asked to do too much amid a record-breaking surge in operations across the planet.

In August, in a resolution dealing with Darfur and its regional consequences, the Security Council called for "the establishment of a multidimensional presence consisting of political, humanitarian, military and civilian police liaison officers in key locations in Chad . . . and, if necessary, in the Central African Republic".

But active fighting has prevented a UN assessment team's travelling to the regions where a force would be deployed and the lack of a political process led the team to conclude there was no peace to keep.

The report warned: "Un-less all the parties were to agree to a ceasefire and engage in dialogue . . . a UN force would be operating in the midst of continuing hostilities and have no clear exit strategy." UN officials are haunted by the failures of the 1990s when a string of unprepared missions re-sulted in disaster in Africa and the Balkans. But the UN is also nervous of rejecting Security Council orders.

Kofi Annan, the outgoing secretary-general, suggested this was one controversy he would leave to his successor, Ban Ki-moon. "I wouldn't want to box him in," he said.

The issue could provide an early test of Mr Ban's willingness to stand up to the Security Council's permanent members. The UN report did, however, offer a get-out clause.

"Should the Security Council decide to pursue the idea of establishing a UN presence in eastern Chad and north-eastern CAR . . . it should consider authorising the deployment of a robust monitoring and protection mission," it said.

Officials say this would, in effect, mean sending a division of well-equipped troops, as opposed to a smaller monitoring mission. "A smaller mission . . . would not be able to protect civilians under imminent threat and stabilise the border area," the report said. "Its deployment would be fraught with unacceptable risk." But even a larger force "should be contingent on a cessation of hostilities".

The recommendation deals a new blow to resolution 1706, which also called for a UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur. After Sudan rejected that idea, the UN proposed an African-UN hybrid force instead. Khartoum accepted that formulation but details remain unclear and its success is far from assured.

Darfur: If Sudan Reneges on UN force, It Could Face Punitive Measures

From the AP

The Bush administration, while cautiously welcoming Sudan's acceptance of a United Nations peace plan for the Darfur region, has an array of economic and military sanctions available for consideration if the Islamic government reneges on its commitment.

At issue is a three-stage plan to send some 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers and police to Darfur to provide protection to the 2.5 million Darfurians who have been uprooted from their homes since early 2003 as a result of sectarian conflict. Fatalities number in excess of 200,000, victims of violence as well as malnutrition and disease.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir indicated last Tuesday — just days ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline — a willingness to go along with the plan. Bashir said the proposed creation of a hybrid U.N.-African Union force to bring stability to Darfur "constitutes a viable framework for peaceful settlement."

For months, Bashir had said that a U.N. deployment in Darfur would signify recolonization of his country.

But, as U.N. diplomats point out, al-Bashir remains opposed to any large-scale dispatch of U.N. troops. His U.N. ambassador raised eyebrows when he contradicted the spirit of al-Bashir's letter by flatly ruling out any U.N. peacekeeping operation in Darfur. The State Department took note of the envoy's remarks but said it should not be given the same weight as the presidential letter.

But given al-Bashir's track record, including years of support for local militia attacks on innocent civilians in Darfur, there is broad skepticism here about his willingness to cooperate.

Andrew Natsios, special envoy to Sudan, said he told the Sudanese in early December that full compliance with the U.N. plan is essential, warning that, "If you starting cherry picking you will essentially collapse the whole plan."

That could lead, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other officials, to the imposition of punitive measures against Sudan that have been approved by the U.N. Security Council but not yet implemented.

One such measure is the establishment of a no-fly zone over Darfur to spare its residents further attacks by Sudanese military aircraft. The idea is backed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mark Schneider, a vice president of the International Crisis Group, which monitors global hotspots, said the plan has merit but carries risks.

He said that if a Sudanese plane violated the zone and were shot down, the Khartoum government could retaliate by attacking camps that now teem with Darfur's displaced. To avoid a massacre at the camps, Schneider recommends deployment of a rapid reaction force across the border in Eastern Chad.

Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat., has backed a no-fly zone as well as "placing economic sanctions on perpetrators of the violence."

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol, urging that Sudan be left alone, says "threats and blockades, and no-fly zones, would not solve the problem, but would increase suffering in Darfur."

Other possible punitive options against Sudan include the banning of international travel by Sudanese officials responsible for atrocities; the freezing of their overseas assets; and imposing sanctions against certain commercial entities, including the petroleum sector, a major foreign exchange earner.

[edit]

Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat and the incoming chairman of the House International Relations Committee, is a strong advocate of military action in Darfur and said the United States, after taking on Iraq, should not worry about the "p.r. ramifications" of using force against another Muslim country.

"We would not be taking action against a Muslim country. We would be saving people who are in desperate need of outside help," he said.

Darfur: Sudan Rejects UN Peacekeepers

Three related article - the first puts a positive spin on developments, the others less so:

From the UN News Center

President Omar el-Bashir of Sudan has accepted a three-phased approach leading to the deployment of a hybrid United Nations-African Union (AU) force in the strife-torn Darfur region, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today.

Sudan's response followed intensive diplomatic activity involving Mr. Annan and his envoy, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who recently travelled to Khartoum for talks with Mr. el-Bashir and other senior Sudanese government ministers on how to end the widespread suffering in Darfur.

“The President has accepted the three-phased approach as a package, and we will have to move ahead and implement it, push it and? test it,” Mr. Annan said today following a closed-door meeting of the Security Council.

Following consultations, Council President Mutlaq Majed al-Qahtani of Qatar welcomed President el-Bashir's letter, which reconfirmed his commitment to previous agreements, “in particular to bring about cessation of hostilities, to revitalize the political process and to allow the immediate implementation of the United Nations three-phased support plan to the African Union, culminating in the deployment of a hybrid UN-AU force in Darfur.”

In a press statement, the President said Council members “underlined their willingness to continue their close cooperation with the African Union and to continue to give priority to this issue.”

Mr. Annan told reporters that the UN is in the process of carrying out the first phase, which involves deploying UN police advisers and military officers to Darfur. “We are going to move very quickly on that,” he said, calling this “a way of testing the Government's willingness to cooperate.”

By a “light support package,” 24 police advisers and 43 staff officers will start to be deployed in the next few days. Under an initial $21 million support package to the AU, agreed upon last month, the UN peacekeeping operation in southern Sudan (UNMIS) will provide 105 military advisers, 33 police officers and 48 civilian staff, as well as equipment.

The overall aim is to deploy a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force in Darfur, made up of 17,000 troops and 3,000 police officers, compared to AMIS' current strength of just 7,000 to monitor an area roughly the size of France.

The Secretary-General said the UN would work expeditiously with the Chairman of the AU to name a joint special representative and the commander “who hopefully will bring some fresh ideas” to the operation.

Asked about his level of confidence in President Bashir, Mr. Annan said, “For now, the letter is positive.”

He added that in a situation “when there have been so many disappointments, it is only natural that there will be some doubts and hesitations, and this is a challenge for the Sudanese Government to prove to the international community that it means business.”

Pledging to press ahead, he said: “I hope this time there will not be disappointments.”

From VOA

Sudanese U.N. Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Wednesday poured cold water on Secretary General Annan's hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough in his last days in office.

Earlier, Mr. Annan briefed the council on a letter he received from Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accepting a three-phase approach for ending the violence in Darfur. The secretary-general said he was encouraged that the three-phase plan would end with deployment of a hybrid U.N. / African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.

The Security Council has authorized a 22,000-strong blue-helmeted force to replace a badly understaffed 7,000 troops in the A.U. mission.

But Ambassador Abdalhaleem flatly said Sudan would not accept U.N. peacekeepers.

He said "There is no blue helmet peacekeepers in Darfur. There is support, logistical support staff by the United Nations, wearing their own helmets. But they are not going to engage in peacekeeping activities."

He said Sudan envisions a hybrid force as being staffed by African Union troops under African command, with U.N. personnel involved only in logistical and technical duties, not peacekeeping.

"It is not a joint force. Let there be no confusion about it. We are not talking about any joint force by the United Nations and the African Union," he said.

Despite the apparent rejection, Secretary-General Annan remains hopeful. He told reporters he is encouraged by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's response to his three-phase proposal.

Emerging from his final appearance before the council as secretary-general, Mr. Annan admitted most members had been skeptical in light of past disappointments. He said he has advised them to keep up the pressure on Khartoum.

"Obviously, when there have been so many disappointments, it is only natural that there will be some doubts and hesitations," Annad said. "And, this is a challenge for the Sudanese government to prove to the international community that it means business; it stands by the letter it has written to me."

As part of phase one of Mr. Annan's proposal, Sudan has agreed to allow about 100 U.N. military and police advisers into Darfur, possibly within weeks. The United Nations will also provide $21 million worth of equipment to African Union peacekeepers.

From the AP

Sudan raised new questions Wednesday about its commitment to a U.N. peace effort in the violence-wracked Darfur region as its ambassador ruled out any U.N. peacekeeping troops - an element of the world body's proposal.

The surprise statement came just minutes after the U.N. Security Council announced that it welcomed the Sudanese president's acceptance of the U.N. plan to help end the escalating conflict - a plan that includes deployment of a "hybrid" African Union-United Nations force.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan had told Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in a letter earlier this month that every effort would be made to find African troops for a hybrid force of 17,300 military personnel and 5,300 police, but if that proved impossible the U.N. would use "a broader pool of troop contributing countries."

But Sudan Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem told reporters on Wednesday evening that the hybrid force must be smaller and have no U.N. peacekeepers, only U.N. technical and logistical experts supporting African troops.

"The force is African, the leader is an African," he said. "There is support and logistical support staff by the U.N., wearing their own helmets, but they are not going to engage in peacekeeping activities."

[edit]

The envoy's comments came as a surprise because al-Bashir said in a letter to Annan released Tuesday and discussed by the council on Wednesday that Sudan is ready "to start immediately" to implement two recent agreements that endorsed the three-step U.N. plan to beef up the beleaguered 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur.

Annan emerged from Wednesday's council meeting telling reporters that "the president has accepted the three-phased approach as a package," and that council members "are encouraged by the positive tone" of al-Bashir's letter.

In a press statement later, the council welcomed al-Bashir's letter in which he reconfirmed his commitment to peace efforts approved in recent international meetings in Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Annan told reporters the first phase of the U.N. package was already being implemented "and we're going to accelerate that - and, of course, that's a way of testing the government's willingness to cooperate."

It would add 105 military officers, 33 U.N. police, 48 international staffers, 36 armored personnel carriers to the African Union force, according to a U.N. report last month.

A second, larger support package would include the deployment of several hundred U.N. military, police and civilian personnel to the African Union mission. The third phase is the deployment of the hybrid force.

Abdalhaleem said that under the Darfur Peace Agreement the government and one rebel group signed in May, a 20,000-strong force from the government and former rebels will be created. That force plus 7,000 troops from the AU will provide "an overwhelming number" that can ensure security, he said.

In Khartoum, the Sudanese government confirmed it was permitting the first U.N. experts to head to Darfur. But the numbers it gave were lower than those mentioned by the U.N.

Sadeq Al-Magli, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said 18 military experts and 20 policemen would soon head to Al Fasher, capital of North Darfur.

ICC: Four Years Later, U.S. Sees Court in Better Light

From the AP

After years of criticizing and rejecting the International Criminal Court, the U.S. is showing signs of warming to the U.N.-mandated court.

The ICC is the first permanent institution authorized to try individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.

The U.S. was concerned that American servicemen hunting down terrorists abroad might not be safe from politically-motivated ICC prosecutions. That concern remains, but the administration is indicating a somewhat more benevolent overall view of the ICC these days.

At the time of its founding in 2002, the court presented a fat target for many in the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration.

Then Senator Jesse Helms thundered that the ICC was "an international kangaroo court." Former Congressman Tom DeLay called it "a shady amalgam of every bad idea ever cooked up for world government."

However, defenders of the court see it as sorely needed to rein in tyrants.

When the Bush administration formally rejected U.S. participation in the ICC in May 2002, Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper said, "We've washed our hands (of the ICC process); it's over."

Well, not quite. While standing by its core opposition to ICC's claimed jurisdiction over Americans, the administration has noted with satisfaction that the court has swatted aside efforts by some groups to encourage ICC prosecutions of Americans in Iraq and elsewhere.

It also has relaxed sanctions imposed on ICC member countries that have refused to sign agreements with the United States to forbid ICC prosecutions of Americans on their territory. U.S. military training programs in many countries that had been suspended were restored because the Pentagon concluded that the restrictions were undermining efforts to combat terrorist threats.

The most obvious example of an American climbdown on the ICC concerns Sudan. In 2005, the administration dropped a long-running effort to create a "hybrid" U.N.-African Union court to try Sudanese war criminals, deciding instead to accept ICC jurisdiction in the country.

"At least as a matter of policy, not only do we not oppose the ICC's investigation and prosecutions in Sudan but we support its investigation and prosecution of those atrocities," said John Bellinger, the State Department's top legal adviser.

In February, the ICC's prosecutor plans to submit evidence of crimes against humanity in Sudan to the court's judges, who must review the evidence and decide whether the case should proceed. The administration may even cooperate directly with the ICC on Sudan in appropriate cases.

The State Department also strongly supports ICC indictments in 2005 of five Ugandans (one has since died) accused of war crimes in the country's two-decade old civil conflict. "The ICC indictments (are) extremely important and it is part of the process of accountability, and ending impunity," said Jendayi Frazer, the department's top African affairs official, speaking in Northern Uganda last June. All four indictees are members of the Lord's Resistance Army, derided by President George W. Bush this past March as a "barbaric rebel cult."

The verbal attacks by U.S. critics on the ICC were particularly virulent in early 2002 at the outset of U.S. struggle against terrorism. Thousands of U.S. troops were deployed in Afghanistan as part of that effort. As of three years ago, there were more than 350,000 U.S. troops serving abroad.

There was a strong feeling here that these troops did not need ICC prosecutors looking over their shoulders, on the alert for misdeeds. To the extent that U.S. troops engage in excesses, the critics argued, the United States has national judicial processes to deal with them. They cite the prosecutions of soldiers linked to the Abu Ghraib scandal in Iraq.

To some, it was particularly galling that the ICC claimed jurisdiction over Americans even though the United States was not a member of the court.

On this point, the administration has been unbending in its opposition to the ICC. "Our policy toward the ICC has not changed," Bellinger says. "We are strongly opposed to the ICC's covering us. In that regard, our policy is crystal clear."

Somalia: Opponents of Islamists Seize Capital

From the New York Times

Just hours after the Islamist forces abandoned Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, militias loyal to the transitional government seized the city today in a stunning reversal of fortunes.

According to residents, troops from the transitional government, along with Ethiopian soldiers who had been backing them up, poured into the capital from the outskirts of the city while militiamen within Mogadishu occupied key positions, like the port, airport and dilapidated presidential palace.

“The government has taken over Mogadishu,” a transitional government leader, Jama Fuuruh, told Reuters by telephone from Mogadishu’s port.

“ We are now in charge."

Mogadishu’s new powers immediately had to deal with a rising level of chaos, as armed bandits swept the city and fragmented clan militia began to battle each other for the spoils of war. Witnesses said an intense gun battle raged around a former Islamist ammunition dump and that clan warlords had instantly reverted back to setting up roadside checkpoints and shaking down motorists for money. Many terrified residents stayed in their homes behind bolted doors and the few that ventured into the streets carried guns.

“No one is really in command,” said one adviser to Western diplomats who has close contacts with both the Islamists and the transitional government. “Chaos is in command.”

People inside Mogadishu and out are stunned. The Islamist forces, just a few weeks ago the most powerful force in the country and considered a regional menace, had disintegrated after just four days of counter-attacks by the Ethiopian-led troops. There were reports that the Islamist leaders had gone underground, fleeing deep into the Somali bush. There were also worries that they had simply changed tactics and could be planning to employ guerilla warfare and terrorist attacks, as they had threatened to do. Today, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed , a top Islamist leader, said his forces had surrendered the city to avoid a bloodbath.

“We don’t want to see Mogadishu destroyed," he told Al-Jazeera television today by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The Islamist forces hastily collapsed on Wednesday afternoon when clan elders pulled their troops and firepower out of the movement after a string of back-to-back military losses in which more than 1,000 Islamist fighters, most of them adolescent boys, were killed by Ethiopian-backed forces.

“Our children were getting annihilated,” said Abdi Hulow, an elder with the powerful Hawiye clan. “We couldn’t sustain it.”

As the transitional government’s troops marched into the city, political negotiations began. Mr. Hulow and other clan elders said they wanted to negotiate with the transitional government to get good positions for fellow clan members in exchange for support. Today, Ali Mohammed Gedi, the prime minister of the transitional government, was meeting with elders from Mogadishu’s power clans on the outskirts of the city.

The Islamists started out as a grass-roots movement of clan elders and religious leaders who banded together earlier this year to rid Mogadishu of its notorious warlords, earning them a lot of public support.

But much of that good will seems to have been sapped by their decision to go to war against the transitional government and the Ethiopian forces protecting it.

The Islamists attacked Baidoa, the seat of the transitional government, on Dec. 20; a few days later, they announced that Somalia was open to Muslim fighters around the world who wanted to wage a holy war against Christian-led Ethiopia.

That provoked a crushing counter-attack by the Ethiopians, who command the strongest military in East Africa. For the past week, the Islamists have lost one battle after another, their adolescent soldiers no match for a professional army.

DRC: 19 Killed as Dissidents Attack Troops

From the AP

Fighting broke out Wednesday in the eastern Congo between government troops and forces loyal to a dissident general, killing at least 19 people, a U.N. official said.

The largely ungoverned region has been the site of sporadic fighting for years, and clashes between forces allied with general-turned-warlord Laurent Nkunda battled government troops for days in late November and early December. But the area had been relatively calm in recent weeks.

The clashes broke out before dawn around the village of Jomba, about five miles north of the regional capital of Goma, said Lt. Col. Didier Rancher, spokesman for the U.N. force in the sprawling Central African country.

The fighting started when Nkunda’s forces attacked army positions in the area, he said.

Rancher said at least 18 Nkunda fighters and one civilian were killed and five government soldiers were wounded.

Military and government officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

He said the fighting appeared to have stopped after U.N. peacekeepers set up patrols on a road in the area. The U.N. forces were not involved in the combat, he said.

Rancher said hundreds of villagers could be seen fleeing toward the Ugandan border.

Darfur: U.N. to Support AU, Joint Force Unsure

From Reuters

Sudan agreed on Wednesday to allow a small number of U.N. troops to support a struggling African Union force in Darfur, with 105 soldiers and police due there by the end of January, an A.U.-U.N. statement said.

But it was still unclear if Khartoum had agreed to a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in the violent region of western Sudan, where 200,000 have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in the last four years.

"It was agreed that U.N. military and police officers will wear their national uniforms with a blue U.N. beret. In addition, they will wear an A.U. armband," the joint U.N.-A.U. statement said.

This paves the way for 38 U.N. observers to deploy by the end of the year and the rest of the 105 during January, the statement said. The United Nations will also provide $21 million to the African Union, including computers, communications equipment and water tankers.

The Sudanese government had previously refused to allow any U.N. forces in Darfur. A separate U.N. statement said on Wednesday the government had also accepted a joint U.N.-A.U. force, but Khartoum remained unclear on this point.

Government officials spoke instead of a heavier support package to the A.U. from the United Nations, denying there had been agreement on a joint force.

"We have agreed on three phases of support from the United Nations to the African Union ... financial, technical and personnel," foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig told a news conference in Khartoum.

Asked if there was agreement on a joint force, three government ministers at the news conference said: "No."

Al-Sadig said there was agreement on "a joint operation", making it clear any U.N. personnel in Darfur would be working on computers or advising rather than peace enforcing soldiers.

But after launching an intense media campaign against U.N. troops being deployed to Darfur, the government is now believed to be trying to save face domestically by not giving in directly to international pressure to accept a joint force.

"After all this it is not easy for the government to say outright that it has agreed to this," said a Sudanese observer who declined to be named. A senior European diplomat said he expected U.N. forces to be on the ground in "significant numbers" by mid-2007.

In a letter made public on Tuesday, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told the United Nations he endorsed a plan for a joint A.U.-U.N. force, but made clear he wanted a veto over its implementation.

Darfur: Violence Displaces More Civilians

From IRIN

Thousands of people have gone into hiding in hills near the North Darfur village of Abu Sakin after Arab militias continued their destructive rampage across parts of the western Sudanese region, aid workers said.

A United Nations assessment mission on Saturday found the village of Abu Sakin completely deserted and looted. More than 50 houses had been burnt to the ground to discourage the villagers from returning there.

Meanwhile, government security forces have increased the number of roadblocks in the North Darfur capital of El Fasher following Saturday's shooting of a police officer and an increase in car-jackings.

The violence has continued elsewhere, after 10 Janjaweed militia are alleged to have attacked two trucks carrying food aid in Habila Kanari, West Darfur. The driver of one of the vehicles was injured in the ambush.

In Jebel Marra, fresh fighting has forced people to abandon their homes in Zalingei, with Hamadia camp receiving 200 more people over the weekend, UN News reported on Tuesday.

Darfur: Al-Bashir Backs UN Plan But Concerns Remain

From Reuters

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has told the United Nations he endorses a plan for a joint African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force to help quell violence and protect civilians in Darfur.

But in a Dec. 23 letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made public on Tuesday, Bashir also said the plan should be carried out through a special panel on which Khartoum has a seat, a move diplomats said would effectively give Sudan veto power over all aspects of its implementation.

Diplomats who have seen the letter, distributed to members of the 15-nation U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, said that while Bashir's message contained positive elements, it was not clear whether it represented a real step forward in putting the plan into effect.

To help sort out the situation, the council is expected to invite Annan to brief it on the letter later this week, U.N. officials said.

The question of whether Bashir was now standing aside and eliminating obstacles to the plan, or clinging to ambiguities in an effort to further stall its implementation, was crucial as Annan is preparing to leave office this Sunday to make way for new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of South Korea.

[edit]

Under the hybrid plan, which has already been endorsed by the African Union, the force would be under AU command.

But the commander would report to a special envoy who would be jointly appointed by the African Union and the United Nations and who would be in charge of the overall political direction of the international mission in Darfur.

In his letter, Bashir said he agreed that the AU-U.N. plan, which leaves the size and composition of the force up to the AU and the United Nations, would "constitute a viable framework for peaceful settlement to the conflict in Darfur."

He also said an existing agreement between the United Nations and Khartoum on the legal status of an existing U.N. mission in southern Sudan "would be applicable" to the situation in Darfur as well.

U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, welcomed that statement, which they said appeared to provide a legal basis for U.N. troops in Darfur.

But they expressed concern about Bashir's statement that deployment of the hybrid force would be carried out through the Tripartite Committee, a body on which Sudan served alongside the United Nations and the AU.

U.N. officials have in the past warned that empowering the Tripartite Committee in this way appeared to give the Khartoum government veto power over AU-U.N. moves.

From the AP

Sudan's president said he accepts a U.N. package to help end escalating violence in Darfur and is ready for urgent discussions on a ceasefire, according to a letter circulated.

President Omar al-Bashir said in the letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Sudan is ready "to start immediately" to implement two recent agreements that endorsed the three-step U.N. plan to beef up the beleaguered 7,000-strong African Union force on the ground in the vast conflict-wracked western region.

Council diplomats said Tuesday the letter sounded promising, but cautioned that al-Bashir remains opposed to any large-scale U.N. deployment and has back-tracked on agreements regarding Darfur in the past. The letter also leaves the size and command of a hybrid African Union-United Nations force that would be deployed as the third step unresolved.

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He said the conclusions of a Nov. 16 meeting of key Sudanese and international diplomats in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the Nov. 30 summit of the African Union's Peace and Security Council in Abuja, Nigeria, which endorsed the three-step U.N. plan, "constitute a viable framework for peaceful settlement to the conflict in Darfur."

Al-Bashir said Sudan agrees that implementation of the first two phases of the U.N. support package for Darfur should start "as scheduled."

The first phase would add 105 military officers, 33 U.N. police, 48 international staffers, 36 armored personnel carriers, night-vision goggles, and Global Positioning equipment to the African Union force, according to a U.N. report last month.

A second, larger support package would include the deployment of several hundred U.N. military, police and civilian personnel to the African Union mission along with substantial aviation and logistical assets.

"The government will render all required assistance to facilitate the successful completion of these phases," al-Bashir said.

Under the heading "Finalization of Plans for the Hybrid Operation," al-Bashir said the size of the AU-U.N. force should be determined by both organizations as stipulated in the Abuja communique, "taking into account all relevant factors and the situation on the ground as well as the requirements for it to effectively discharge its mandate."

Annan said in his letter that the Sudanese leader's support was essential if the United Nations is to fund and strengthen the African Union force. He also said a cease-fire in Darfur is "imperative" because of the significant increase in violence in the war-torn region over the last few weeks, including an upsurge in attacks on civilians by militias.

To achieve a cease-fire, Annan said, efforts to get all rebel groups and militias to join the Darfur Peace Agreement, which the government and one rebel group signed on May 5, must be immediately reactivated.

[edit]

Al-Bashir blamed rebels who have not signed the peace agreement, backed by massive military support from neighboring Chad, for continued attempts to undermine the peace agreement and overthrow the Sudanese government.

"We are ready to engage in urgent and serious discussions with all factions under the auspices of the U.N. and AU to bring about immediate arrangements for cessation of hostilities which in turn will create conducive atmosphere for the start of the political process," he said.

Al-Bashir also said peace talks aimed at a political settlement "should be expedited at the earliest possible" time, and he called on "those who have influence" on rebel groups outside the agreement to "use it for the sake of peace and stability in Darfur."

The Sudanese president told Annan that the next step should be a Security Council resolution endorsing the Addis Ababa and Abuja agreements "and authorizing immediate financial support for peacekeeping in Darfur" since all parties are now "in full agreement on the phased-approach support package."

Darfur: Humanitarian Operations Now in "Meltdown" Phase

The latest from Eric Reeves

The security crisis confronting humanitarian operations in Darfur and eastern Chad has deepened dangerously in the past several weeks. A new level of violence and brazen attacks on aid workers has produced large-scale evacuations of many hundreds of personnel, both Sudanese and expatriate. Complete lawlessness is rampant. Perhaps only half of Darfur has any humanitarian access, and much of this is highly compromised by the difficulty of overland transport. Virtually the same conditions of extreme insecurity prevail in eastern Chad, where some 500,000 conflict-affected persons also face a severe attenuation of humanitarian access. A conflict-affected population of some 4.5 million human beings in the greater humanitarian theater has now been reduced to watching helplessly as aid operations---even the most critical---are suspended or halted altogether. A series of extended confidential conversations with senior officials, representing a range of humanitarian organizations on the ground in Darfur, makes clear that despite the courage and commitment that presently sustain relief efforts, the possibility of wholesale evacuations is perilously close.

If humanitarian organizations do withdraw entirely, or are continually more restricted in their movements, there will be no witnesses to the next act of genocidal destruction: the assault upon or bulldozing of Darfur’s camps for the displaced. More than 2 million people are concentrated in camps that are often awash in weapons, that have become more violent, angrier, even as they are more completely exposed to annihilation. Further, under the guise of “voluntary returns,” Khartoum is prepared in the absence of international witnesses to accelerate a campaign of forcing civilians to “return” to their villages. But these are people who in most cases have lost everything. And they will be returning in the main not to villages, but to the burned out remains of villages; and in far too many cases, they will be able to make no claim to land that has been occupied during their stays in the camps, in some cases for almost four years.

Humanitarian withdrawals will also endanger the lives of the millions of people who after more than three years of genocidal counter-insurgency warfare are increasingly dependent upon humanitarian assistance, especially food and water. But primary medical care, shelter, and other forms of assistance are also critically endangered, posing grave threats to human welfare throughout all three Darfur states.

The signals of desperation about humanitarian conditions come in the form of a wide range of statistics from many sources (too often lacking collation), reports of specific attacks, the growing brutality of assaults on humanitarian workers, access restrictions, and personnel evacuations. A growing number of organizations have withdrawn entirely, either to Khartoum or out of Sudan altogether. In short, for lack of anything approaching meaningful security, the world’s largest humanitarian operation is crumbling. So, too, is the African Union force which Khartoum seeks to maintain as the only source of security for humanitarians.

Darfur: First Group of UN Advisers to be Deployed ‘In the Next Few Days’

From the UN News Center

The first group of United Nations police advisers and military officers will be deployed in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region over the next few days, the UN said today, after agreement was reached in talks with the Sudanese Government and African Union (AU) that paves the way for the eventual deployment of thousands of peacekeepers.

“Under the light support package, 24 police advisers and 43 staff officers will start to be deployed in the next few days. The balance of military and police officers will be deployed in the coming weeks,” the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said in a press release.

“It was agreed that UN military and police officers will wear their national uniforms with a blue UN beret. In addition, they will wear an AU armband,” it added. Under an initial $21 million support package to the AU, agreed upon last month, UNMIS will provide 105 military advisers, 33 police officers and 48 civilian staff, as well as equipment.

Today’s meeting, which was held in Khartoum, was the third of the so-called tripartite mechanism, involving the UN, AU and Sudanese Government, and all three representatives will now gather every 15 days to follow up on the deployment of support to the AU force, which is known as AMIS.

This initial package is the first part of a three-phase process that is expected to culminate in a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force in Darfur, made up of 17,000 troops and 3,000 police officers, compared to AMIS’ current strength of just 7,000 to monitor an area roughly the size of France.

On the ground in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2 million others forced to flee their homes over the past three years, Government security forces have increased the number of road blocks in the North Darfur state capital of El Fasher following Saturday’s shooting of a police officer and increasing carjackings, UNMIS said.

Also in North Darfur, a UN assessment mission on Saturday found the village of Abu Sakin completely deserted and looted, with more than 50 houses burned to the ground, amid reports of Arab militia continuing to loot and patrol the area to deter villagers from returning and several thousand villagers hiding in nearby hills.

The situation also remains grim in West Darfur, where two commercial trucks carrying UN agency food were attacked in Habila Kanari. Ten armed attackers, believed to be Janjaweed militia, shot at the vehicles that drove through the ambush, hitting one driver who is currently being treated in Khartoum.

Fighting in Jebel Marra has also led to a new influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Zalingei, with Hamadia camp receiving 200 more people on Saturday.

Somalia: Pro-Govt Troops to Besiege Mogadishu/UN Warns of Humanitarian Crisis

From Reuters

Ethiopian-backed government troops will lay siege to Somalia's capital Mogadishu until rival Islamist forces surrender, Somalia's envoy to Ethiopia said on Wednesday.

A joint force of Ethiopian soldiers and pro-goverment fighters had taken control of Balad, a town 30 km (18 miles) north of the capital, Ambassador Abdikarin Farah said.

"We are not going to fight for Mogadishu to avoid civilian casualties...Our troops will surround Mogadishu until they surrender," he told reporters in Addis Ababa.

The government had offered amnesty to any Somalia Islamic Courts Council fighters who laid down their arms, he said.

A week of artillery and mortar duels between the two sides has spiralled into open war that both say has killed hundreds.

From IRIN

A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Somalia where fighting has forced the suspension of relief air food operations for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday.

"Close to half a million flood-affected people needed urgent humanitarian assistance and the current insecurity will further complicate the humanitarian situation in Southern Somalia," WFP deputy Country Director for Somalia, Leo van der Velden, said.

An estimated 1.4 million Somalis need humanitarian assistance and "for the past one week, significant numbers of internal displacements have been reported," Van der Velden said. "There is a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Somalia," he warned.

The agency is continuing limited ground operations, but has suspended some planned relief operations in regions where the fighting is taking place.

The fighting, between Ethiopian-backed forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), entered its second week on Wednesday.

WFP, which has been airlifting humanitarian aid to communities cut off by recent flooding since November, dropped aid in Afmadow district in Lower Juba region last week. But, Van der Velden warned, "it became impossible to continue relief air operations" as a result of the armed conflic.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the floodwaters have receded slightly in most affected areas in southern Somalia, but the situation in Hiran, Lower and Middle Shebele, Lower and Middle Juba, and Gedo remains extremely serious. "Over 800 war wounded have arrived at the various medical structures around [the towns of] Baidoa and Mogadishu in the last few days," said Antonella Notari, ICRC spokesperson.

Neighbouring Kenya, which is bracing for an influx of refugees from the fighting, has called on Ethiopia to stop military operations in Somalia, and operate within the procedures of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority of Development (IGAD).

[edit]

Sources said the Ethiopian-backed Somali government forces continued their advance on Wednesday, capturing the key town of Jowhar, 90 km north of the capital Mogadishu. "They are in Jowhar now. They entered the town after UIC forces withdrew at around 10:00 am local time," a resident, who requested anonymity, said.

Meanwhile, the UIC chairman, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, told Somalis on Tuesday "to brace for a long war". Addressing a news conference in Mogadishu - for the first time since the fighting began - Ahmed said his forces had adopted new tactics.

"Since we do not possess heavy weapons, we have decided to change our military tactics and war plan for the fighting to continue for a very long time," he said.

Chad: President, Rebel Leader Sign Cease-Fire/Peace Accord Dismissed By Some Rebel Factions

From the AP

Chad's president and a rebel leader pledged during a meeting in Libya to end the fighting in their country and urged other rebel groups to lay down their weapons.

President Idriss Deby and Mahamed Nour, the leader of the rebels who attacked Chad's capital in April, pledged Sunday to make peace during a meeting hosted by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Libyan state television showed footage of the politicians gathered round a fire in a tent draped with green fabric.

"We thank God for enabling us to reach this agreement," Nour told journalists. Nour leads the Chadian United Front for Democratic Change, which launched a failed assault on N'djamena in April.

Competition for power in Chad has intensified since 2004 when it began exporting oil.

Deby also declared his support for the cease-fire.

"I vow in front of Gadhafi and everybody that we will be committed to our obligations," Deby said. "I call on those who believe that weapons are the solution to join this agreement."

Gadhafi has acted as a mediator in several African conflicts in recent years.

"I am against any rebelliousness in Africa and carrying weapons should only be done against occupation, which has ended in Africa," he said.

"I hope that the raging fire in the African Horn will be extinguished," the Libyan leader added. "Goodwill must be stronger than the will to destroy."

A Libyan official close to the talks said the agreement includes an amnesty for members of the rebel group, the integration of former fighters into the military and provisions for the return of refugees.

The pact is scheduled to be implemented over three months, and other rebel groups have a month to sign on, the Libyan official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

From VOA

Chad's president Idriss Deby signed a peace accord with rebel faction leader Mahamat Nour in Libya on Sunday.

Nour's forces raided the capital, N'Djamena, in April. The deal calls for them to be integrated into the national army.

The government and the rebel groups involved in the accord say they will end military and media campaigns against each other. They say they will also release each other's prisoners and grant amnesty to fighters on both sides.

Members of other rebel groups have rejected calls to join the agreement.

Makaila Nguebla, a Dakar-based spokesman for a rebel group known as the UFDD, says he is not interested in dealing with Mr. Deby's government because he does not consider it legitimate.

He says any negotiations with Mr. Deby should involve international groups such as the United Nations and the African Union.

On Monday two rebel groups known as the UFDD and the RAFD formed a coalition to unite their forces under a central command. The two groups have stepped up their attacks on government troops in recent months. Rebels say they have taken up arms because there is no room for political opposition.

Darfur: Sudan Agrees to U.N. Peacekeeping Plan

From the AP

The Sudanese government has accepted the U.N. package for Darfur, including the deployment of what is called a "hybrid" peacekeeping operation of U.N. and African Union troops, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday.

Spokesman Sadeq al-Magli said the number of troops in the hybrid force "would be decided by the commander and his committee, and we have to state clearly that the entire command would be from the African Union."

The comment reflected his government's long-standing opposition to the deployment of 20,000 U.N. troops in Darfur, as proposed by the U.N. Security Council.

In deference to Khartoum's opposition, the U.N. scaled back its plans to replace the African Union force of 7,000 troops in Darfur with the much bigger U.N. operation and, since early November, has been pushing to reinforce the existing peacekeepers with smaller numbers of U.N. personnel as well as technical and financial assistance.

Speaking Thursday -- before the government's assent was announced -- al-Magli said a Darfur peacekeeping mission would be "a hybrid operation and not international or joint forces."

He said Friday that the peacekeeping troops would come mainly from African Union countries, but the U.N. would provide technical assistance, consultants and military and police experts.

Earlier Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he believed the Sudan government had also agreed to make renewed efforts to enforce a cease-fire and negotiate peace with those Darfur rebels who rejected the peace agreement of May. Annan said he had heard that President Omar al-Bashir would approve "a full cease-fire, a renewed effort to bring all parties into (the) political process, and deployment of the proposed African Union-United Nations hybrid force."

Al-Magli said his government had not yet seen Annan's statement, but it was true that "Sudan has confirmed to the [U.N.] envoy that it would sit down for peace talks with the rebel factions any time, any where."

"In fact, a government delegation went to Asmara, Eritrea, on Thursday to look into the possibility of talking to those groups that did not sign the Abuja peace agreement," al-Magli said, referring to the May accord between the government and one Darfur rebel group.

The world "should pressurize the other factions which are attacking the government, humanitarian and civilian communities, to come to cease-fire talks and to stop attacking. But for us in the government, yes, we have confirmed our commitment to the cease-fire," al-Magli said.

Darfur: Some Progress, But Little Joy

From CBS

It may be a joyous season in much of the world but there is precious little to celebrate for the people of Darfur.

On his way out of office as Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan sent Sudan’s President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a letter asking for approval which would lead to a so-called hybrid African Union- U N peacekeeping force. Bashir has been resisting the U N leader’s efforts, so far without serious penalty from the international community.

What passes for diplomatic success these days is Bashir’s agreement to make it easier for humanitarian aid workers to get in and out of Darfur as they go about the business of tending to the daily needs of hundreds of thousands of refugees who’ve been driven from their villages in the past three years by government-backed militias.

Andrew Natsios, President George W. Bush’s Special Envoy for Sudan, met with Bashir for two hours during a week long trip to Sudan, requesting the Sudanese government’s help to ease the movement in and out of Sudan for international aid workers. The next step, Natsios told reporters this week, is to see if authorities allow 60 U.N. troops and civilians now stuck in Khartoum to bring badly needed help to Darfur.

Another step to placate Bashir has come in the form a statement from the president of the U.N. Security Council reaffirming an agreement reached in November for the hybrid peacekeeping force. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared Natsios’ efforts as having “moved…the ball forward” and she expressed “hope that there’d be a positive response (from Khartoum) and we will see.”

This incremental diplomatic movement in a seemingly forward direction is less than sufficient for some. Eric Reeves, a researcher and analyst at Smith College, told CBS News “there is no stomach anywhere to confront this regime.” Reeves, no fan of the administration’s recent efforts, is critical not only of Natsios’ efforts but also of the U.N.'s lack of action. He also criticizes what he sees as a lack of will on the part of China (oil interests in Sudan) and Egypt (Sudan’s neighbor), two key power brokers on this issue.

“The world’s hamstrung only if it allows itself to be hamstrung,” Reeves said. “The U.S. has a fundamental choice: are we going to use what political and diplomatic capital we have with China on Darfur or on North Korea and Taiwan and other issues?” The Arab League, taking its cues from Cairo, Reeves says, has been “completely unhelpful.” Washington, Reeves claims, is more interested in Egypt’s help on issues like counter-terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and therefore doesn’t press the Mubarek regime very hard on alleviating the suffering in Darfur.

As the Bush administration awaits Sudan’s response to international calls for help, Natsios says to look for a new direction in the coming year if Bashir is not more cooperative. “I think making threats is not very useful, but we are going to take a different approach to this in January,” Natsios said. “And there’s a plan to do that, but I am not going to go into details.”

Secretary Rice says the Bush administration deserves credit for helping to end the civil war between North and South Sudan which went on for more than 20 years. And Natsios points to an improving economic situation for the people living in South Sudan because of the peace agreement the administration brokered. Will it take another twenty years for a resolution of the increasingly desperate plight of those in Darfur, Sudan’s Western province?

More than three years into this crisis, Reeves says “Let’s be honest. The people in Darfur are poor, black, Muslim, remote and they don’t sit on any resources. You can’t get any lower on the geo-strategic pecking order.”

No one would seriously argue with that description, but Natsios defends Washington’s efforts: “The only interests the United States has in Darfur are around human rights and humanitarian issues. We have no geo-strategic interests there. We have no economic interests there. We have no diplomatic interests there; simply human rights issues.”

How bad are things in Darfur now? Well, Natsios has visited the region many times and was supposed to go on this last trip. But he didn’t because, by his own admission, “the province is in such trouble now in terms of violence, instability, and chaos, I couldn’t get into the airports. Most of the airports were closed because there’s so much fighting.”

Darfur: The Activist

National Geographic has a video profile of Mark Hanis of the Genocide Intervention Network

"Never again." After the carnage of the Holocaust, world leaders invoked this phrase as their vow to eliminate the specter of genocide.

Now that commitment is being put to the test in Sudan's Darfur region. While the U.S. has declared the crisis a genocide, the United Nations has yet to do so.

So Mark Hanis, the grandson of four Holocaust survivors, has decided to take things into his own hands. Haunted by memories of growing up in a small Jewish community where many bore concentration camp numbers on their arms, Hanis founded the Genocide Intervention Network, which supports the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

"The fact that [my grandparents] were able to make it out alive and that I'm able to be here today," Hanis says, "shows that there is hope, that there can be change, and we can make it a commitment that whenever we say, Never again, that we're serious about it."

Darfur: Refugees Beg U.N. to Move or Protect Them

From Reuters

Thousands of people who fled to Chad from Sudan's Darfur region pleaded with the U.N.'s top refugee official on Friday to either move them or protect them against cross-border raids which have killed hundreds.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres visited the Goz Amer refugee camp near Koukou Angarana, close to the border with Darfur, where Arab raiders attacked two villages last weekend, killing Sudanese refugees and Chadian civilians.

"When we see these villages, burned last week with 40 people killed and now 90,000 Chadians displaced, one can understand the huge security problem," Guterres said, referring to the total number of people uprooted over the past year.

"The international community has a great responsibility to create a humanitarian space so we can keep working. To do nothing would be unacceptable," he said.

[edit]

Terrified of more attacks, refugees lining the road leading to the Goz Amer camp, which houses some 18,000 civilians from Darfur, chanted "security or relocation" as Guterres arrived. "Please remove us quickly from here," read one placard.

Guterres also met displaced Chadians at Habile, a makeshift camp housing around 9,000 people, more than half of them displaced over the past two months.

"If you can't give us security, you have to move us from here," one displaced village chief was quoted as telling Guterres in a UNHCR communique. "We are poor people and we don't have the means to defend ourselves."

The U.N. refugee chief met Chad's President Idriss Deby on Thursday and has been looking at a proposal by the authorities in the former French colony to move the refugee camps some 500 km (310 miles) further from the Sudan border.

"Relocating refugees further away from the border could improve security, but such a move also requires a suitable environment and infrastructure for hosting more than 200,000 people," UNHCR said in its statement.

It said U.N. and government experts were preparing a report on the proposal. The refugee agency also said it was supporting calls for strengthened security in eastern Chad for refugees and local civilians.

Darfur: Annan Expects Sudan's Consent on Joint Force

From Reuters

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday he expected Sudan's consent for a joint force of United Nations and African Union peacekeepers to help quell violence in the Darfur region.

Annan said he had received encouraging reports from his envoy in Khartoum, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who had spoken to Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. But said he took nothing for granted after "so many disappointments."

"The reports I have received from my envoy in Khartoum, Mr. Oud-Abdallah, encourage me to think we may tomorrow (Saturday) receive a green light from President Bashir for a full cease-fire, a renewed effort to bring all parties into the political process, and deployment of the proposed hybrid African Union-United Nations force to protect the population," Annan told the U.N. Security Council.

Darfur: Rebels Say They Shot Down Helicopters

From AFP

Rebels in Sudan's western Darfur region said on Friday they had downed two helicopters and killed 13 Sudanese officers, and denied that 200 members of their movement had died in a government attack.

"The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and its allies categorically deny information put out by the the Sudanese army on Thursday," the rebel movement said in a statement received by AFP in Cairo.

The group said that in fact "government forces and Janjaweed militiamen suffered heavy losses and fled towards the town of Kutum, leaving several dead behind them - including 13 officers of different ranks".

On Thursday the Sudanese army said it had killed 200 rebels in repulsing a massive attack by rebels on Kutum in northern Darfur a day earlier, and said four of its soldiers had been killed and 20 wounded in the action.

Friday's rebel statement also said the SLM/A had "shot down two military helicopters, destroyed seven military vehicles and seized 13 cars containing military equipment".

The group said that in making its claims, Khartoum wanted to "disguise the series of defeats suffered recently by government forces and the Janjaweed" proxy militia.

The SLM/A said that six of its members had been killed in the Kutum operation and 17 were wounded.

Darfur: Refugees Reject UN Bid to Relocate

From The Christian Science Monitor

As concerns mount that Sudan's Darfur conflict could draw neighboring countries into a regional war, the United Nations (UN) is taking the first steps to relocate thousands of refugees from Chad's volatile border with Sudan.

After a top Chadian official urged the UN to move the refugees, a delegation - consisting of officials from the UN High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme, and CNAR, the Chadian refugee agency - visited several locations in central Chad two weeks ago to evaluate their viability as potential replacement sites for the camps closest to the Sudanese border.

Kurt Tjossem, the east African deputy regional director for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), estimates the price tag for moving the most vulnerable camp - Oure Cassoni, located in northern Chad, just four miles from Sudan - to be between $900,000 and $1.8 million. But the colossal logistical challenges inherent in such a move, which comes at a time when the country is roiled by violence and the majority of its aid workers have left, will not be the hard part, he says.

"There's nothing too complicated in moving people from A to B if they actually want it," Mr. Tjossem wrote in an e-mail. "The major difficulty lies in the refugees' refusal to move."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres was expected to discuss that difficulty with government officials and aid workers during his two-day visit to Chad, which concludes Friday.

In interviews with Darfur refugees inside Oure Cassoni one thing seems clear: They don't want to go anywhere.

"I want to stay here because Sudan, Chad, and CAR are problem countries," says Amadallha Daihiy Hakar, a father speaking outside a tent where aid workers, government officials, and refugee leaders met last week to discuss the relocation issue, among others. "If anything happens in Chad, it's better for me and my family to go into Sudan. There are mountains and valleys we can hide in there."

UNHCR officials are especially concerned about Oure Cassoni, where more than 26,000 refugees are currently living, because they believe it has to close to areas of fighting and has been infiltrated by members of a Sudanese rebel group. The fear is that the Sudanese government might begin to view the camp as a safe haven for rebels and will consider it a legitimate military target.

At a press conference in N'djamena held at the end of November, Chad's Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-mi said that moving the refugees would help dispel allegations by Sudan that rebels are utilizing the camps along the border as bases.

He called it "essential" for all 12 camps to be relocated in order to protect the refugees and help improve security in the region.

Also to improve security, the US is pushing Sudan to agree by year's end to having an international force in the area - and Wednesday threatened unspecified consequences if Sudan refuses. Options from travel bans on Sudanese officials and an assets freeze to imposing a no-fly zone in Darfur are reportedly under consideration.

On its recently concluded trip, the team of relief officials and government representatives evaluated a total of 12 sites around the towns of Moussoro, Salal, Kouba-Oulanga, and Koro-Toro, all of which are more than 300 miles from the border with Sudan and likely to be much safer.

A site can only be suitable to support a refugee camp if it satisfies a number of conditions, such as having an available water supply and the infrastructure necessary to establish a hospital. Equally important is finding a location where the ethnic makeup of the population will allow for peaceful coexistence with the refugees.

UN officials said the team identified four sites as having potential, with another round of evaluations to follow.

Relief officials acknowledge that a substantial number of refugees currently oppose moving further into Chad's interior, but they are optimistic that the Darfurians' views will shift.

"Once you get those first movements, others will follow," said Helene Caux, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR.

Ms. Caux noted that after bloody clashes broke out in October near Oure Cassoni, the sentiment among the refugees was far different than it is now. "In the days after the (fighting), they all wanted to move," she said.

Still, refugee leaders inside Oure Cassoni appear, at least for the time being, to be intransigent.

"The refugees here refuse to move [further] inside Chad," says Fatiya Yussuf, a young mother of three from northern Darfur. "If the government tries to move this camp, we'll move back to Darfur."

Chad: Guterres Hears Refugee Plea For Strengthened Security

From UNHCR

Thousands of desperate Darfur refugees and displaced locals in strife-torn south-eastern Chad pleaded with UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on Friday for better protection against mounting violence that has killed hundreds in the area in recent weeks.

Chanting "security or relocation," refugees lined both sides of a 1-kilometre stretch of dusty road leading into the Goz Amer refugee camp near the south-eastern town of Koukou Angarana as Guterres arrived Friday morning. "Please remove us quickly from here," read a placard waved by one man outside the camp, which houses some 18,000 Darfur refugees. Goz Amer is southernmost in a string of 12 remote camps in eastern Chad that house a total of more than 200,000 Darfur refugees.

Since early November, some 70 villages in south-eastern Chad have been attacked by armed horsemen using tactics identical to those of the notorious Janjaweed militia just across the border in Sudan's Darfur region. The latest series of attacks in the south-east left some 300 Chadians dead and displaced an estimated 15,000 people, bringing to more than 90,000 the total number of Chadians displaced throughout the east over the past year.

Last weekend, more than 40 people died in brutal attacks on several villages in the Koukou Angarana area visited Friday by Guterres. The dead included 10 Darfur refugees from Goz Amer camp and 13 Chadians who had already been displaced from their villages in earlier attacks. The Chadian military has since taken up positions in the area.

Guterres, who has been advocating a strengthened "multi-dimensional" international presence in eastern Chad, visited several of the recently burned and looted villages to speak with local officials and traumatised residents and refugees.

"When we see these villages – burned last week with 40 people killed, and now 90,000 Chadians displaced – one can understand the huge security problem," Guterres said. "The international community has a great responsibility to create a humanitarian space so we can keep working. To do nothing would be unacceptable."

Those lining the road to plead with Guterres included women carrying baskets, cooking pots and sleeping mats and men waving placards and shouting for better protection or relocation elsewhere in Chad where it was safer.

"We don't want to stay, we want to go to another area," one refugee shouted. "We don't want to stay in this prison. Every day the janjaweed are killing us."

After 'Rwanda,' Drawn to Darfur

From the Los Angeles Times

The call came shortly after Don Cheadle caught the attention of the world with his Oscar-nominated performance in the 2004 movie "Hotel Rwanda." U.S. Rep. Ed Royce, an Orange County Republican who serves on the House's Africa Subcommittee, saw the movie about the Rwandan genocide and wanted to tell the actor that something similar was happening in the Darfur region of Sudan.

"He said that he believed the film had similar echoes and resonance to what was happening in Darfur," recalled Cheadle, in a recent interview at the United Nations, where he and fellow actor George Clooney were lobbying on behalf of the war-torn country. "They had been unable to generate any sort of attention in the press about it. He said, 'Perhaps you can come with us in an effort to shine light on the area.' "

Stars' interest in issues can be fleeting, but for Cheadle that call was the start of a long-term commitment to Darfur.

Cheadle — one of Hollywood's most respected actors — wasn't looking for a cause at the time. He was busy with work (executive producing the Oscar-winning "Crash," co-starring in "Ocean's Thirteen"). But he agreed to take the trip with Royce and his congressional delegation. What he saw in Darfur — where perhaps 200,000 people or more have been killed and another 2.5 million displaced since 2003 — left him "outraged."

"Whether you want to argue if it's a genocide or not, we know that if things go unchecked it will be," said the actor, who along with Clooney has become one of Hollywood's most vocal advocates for the region. "We were there and saw it and smelled it and touched it and felt it."

Cheadle and Royce visited Tine, where they saw children whose limbs had been chopped off with machetes and people who had lost their hearing in bombings. What was once a vibrant city of 400,000 had become a ghost town. Civilians fled to refugee camps, where they were left vulnerable to more attacks.

"Once you've seen with your own eyes what's happening, it's very difficult to do anything but what we're doing, continue to advocate for some peace and security for the citizens there," Cheadle said.

The situation in Darfur, located in the western region of Sudan, is complex: The ethnic war began in July 2003 when fighting broke out mainly between the janjaweed, an Islamic fundamentalist militia group formed by the Abbala (camel-herding Arabs), and the non-Baggara people (mostly black Muslim farmers). Under pressure, the U.N. in August approved a 17,300-member peacekeeping force for the region, but the Sudanese government — which supports the janjaweed — said it would consider U.N. troops "foreign invaders."

Clooney and Cheadle, along with Olympians Joey Cheek and Tegla Loroupe, recently traveled to China and Egypt to ask that the governments use their ties with the Sudanese to help end the conflict.

Cheadle said he learned recently that their group was the highest level of delegation to travel to China and Egypt to bring awareness to the situation, a fact he found appalling.

"It's, like, really? That's the highest importance that this thing has held?" the actor told reporters last week.

Darfur: Egypt Denies Proposing No-Fly Zone

From the Sudan Tribune

Egypt’s consul-general in Khartoum, Ayman Abdelbadi dismissed as groundless statements by US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer in which she said that the proposal on enforcing a non-fly zone on Darfur was made by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Abdelbadi said that President Mubarak did not make any statements about the matter regionally, internationally or even domestically, the egyptian MENA reported.

Egypt’s consul-general in Khartoum said that Egypt’s stance on Darfur crisis is clear, adding that Egypt backed UN Security Council Resolution 1706 on the importance of Sudan’s approval of any decision to dispatch UN troops to Darfur.

The Egyptian diplomat denied that US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer had discussed the issue of enforcing a no-fly zone on Darfur with President Husni Mubarak.

The US embassy in Khartoum issued a press release in which it said that Frazer recently visit Egypt and Sudan and that President Mubarak had proposed the idea of enforcing a no-fly zone over Darfur.

Darfur: Displaced Civilians Seek Protection

From the Luteran World Federation

The heart sinks as the brain tries to make sense of the scene presented by the eyes. This is a strange field-bamboo canes and sticks covered with an amalgamation of pieces of plastic sheeting, matting, sacks and cloth. These semi-circular and square mounds, just big enough for a few people to shelter inside, are refuge for thousands of people. Over the past two months, more than 10,000 people have arrived in Otash camp, fleeing attacks on their homes in the Tulus and Buram localities in Sudan's South Darfur province.

"At 6 o'clock on the morning of [30 August], 100 uniformed, armed men, riding camels and horses and some driving cars with big guns in the back, attacked our village," says Sherif*, recounting a sequence of events that is all too familiar in the Darfur conflict.

"The attackers stole all the assets in our houses," he continues. "And if they found any man, they would shoot him directly," adds his cousin, Adam*.

For three days, there was a sustained attack on the villages of El Amoud el Akhdar, Buram. All 49 villages were burnt, 47 people were killed, including 15 children, and nearly 2,000 people were injured in the attacks.

"We have lost many of our relatives, particularly our elders and children, and we don't know what has happened to them," explains Sherif. Four hundred people are missing.

Those who were able to flee took their sheep, cows and donkeys with them, but they were attacked again on the way to safety and lost everything. "Even our clothes and shoes were taken," says Sherif. "We arrived in Otash camp carrying nothing in our hands."

Urgent Humanitarian Needs

The existing services in the camp cannot support such a large influx of people. There is a desperate need for humanitarian assistance. Hundreds of recent arrivals spent several days under the shelter of large baobab trees before they were able to rustle together enough materials to make the tiny shelters now covering the dusty landscape. Some of the people who arrived last month have now received more robust shelters, but they are not adequate.

There are no latrines for the new arrivals, people are sick with diarrhea and malaria, and children's noses run more constantly than the water sources, which run dry by 7 p.m. Basic household items such as cooking pots and soap are also in short supply.

Agencies are now looking into the humanitarian needs and the anticipated response. The global alliance of churches and their related agencies, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International and Caritas Internationalis (CI) are working together in a joint response to the Darfur crisis. ACT-Caritas and its local partner, Sudanaid, which runs a primary school in the camp, have taken part in a joint assessment. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a founding member of ACT International.

Humanitarian aid is not the only thing the people in Otash need. "We want to feel safe," states Sherif. "We decided to come to Otash camp because we are looking for protection."

Otash is situated a few kilometers from the town of Nyala, where there are police, military and African Union (AU) forces, but this is not complete protection.

"If women go outside the camp to get firewood, they can face trouble," says Sherif, "but it is better here than in the villages."

"What is the role of the role of the African Union? Is it here to protect or just to watch?" asks Sherif. "If I am not fully protected by the Government of Sudan, then the AU should take up this responsibility of protection."

Everyone is worried that the people who attack women outside the camp will dare to enter the camp and attack them. There is no physical barrier around the camp. In addition, the men who attacked their homes are still armed.

Darfur: The Arab Lion Bares Its Head

An op-ed by Julie Flint in The Daily Star

This month, as Janjaweed violence raged uncontrolled, the lion bared its teeth - at the government. Seven months after the government and Minni Minawi's Zaghawa-led faction of the SLA signed a peace agreement that all other factions rejected, Darfur's first Arab rebel group announced itself with an attack on a government garrison in South Darfur state, the only one of Darfur's three states that has an Arab majority. The new group, the Popular Forces Army, said it would liaise with the rebels still fighting the government "until all demands of Darfur and other marginalized parts of the Sudan are fully realized." It denounced the Janjaweed as "a minority of mercenaries and hired individuals" who "do not represent Darfur Arabs and do not embody their heritage, courage and sacrifice for peace and justice."

Arabs constitute approximately a third of Darfur's population of 7 million and are no less neglected and marginalized than the non-Arab tribes who form the backbone of the rebel movements. Although the conflict in Darfur is popularly depicted as a war between "Arabs" and "Africans," it is estimated that no more than 20,000 Darfurian Arabs have joined forces with the government, motivated as much by the promise of a salary and loot as by any fuddled notions of Arab supremacy. Despite strong identification with the rebels' demands, most Arab tribes have attempted to toe a middle line, dissuaded from joining the rebels by their descent into tribalism and by a noxious government propaganda campaign that accused Minawi's Zaghawa of plotting to establish a "Greater Zaghawa State" on the more fertile lands of others.

The Popular Forces Army is led by two members of the Rizeigat tribe, Darfur's largest Arab tribe, who have opened a channel of communication to the third SLA faction - known both as the Group of Nineteen and SLA Unity. In the months since the Abuja peace process ended, SLA Unity has dealt the government a series of stunning battlefield defeats and is suddenly the single strongest rebel force on the ground in Darfur. Its success has undoubtedly been one the factors that has propelled some Arabs off the fence. Another has been conflict within the Rizeigat tribe itself, with attacks on the Baggara cattle herders of South Darfur by the Abbala camel nomads of North Darfur. The landless Abbala are the most neglected and impoverished of all Darfurians and were the first to join the government war under their paramount chief Musa Hilal.

Early reports suggest that the Popular Forces Army has been able to draw support from the tribal militias of three of Darfur's most important Arab tribes - the Rizeigat, Habaniya and Beni Halba. Its two most prominent figures are both university graduates: Salah Mohammad Abdul Rahman, "Abu Sura," a Rizeigat from South Darfur, who studied at the Khartoum branch of Cairo University; and Yassin Yousif, a Rizeigat from North Darfur, who studied at Juba University. Both the Rizeigat and the Habaniya have suffered years of largely unreported abuse at the hands of Minawi's Zaghawa forces, who have been active hundreds of kilometers outside their own tribal homeland in North Darfur and who are now the government's partner in the Darfur Peace Agreement.

In September this year, Popular Forces Army leaders met SLA Unity commanders in North Darfur and received from them a promise - and soon after a delivery - of weapons. Because of the parlous state of the SLA, fragmented and fractious, they decided not to declare for SLA Unity for the moment but rather to operate as an independent group which, although launched by Arabs, would be "non-ethnic and open to all marginalized people in Darfur in particular and Sudan in general."

The Popular Forces Army has echoes of an earlier group - the National Movement for the Elimination of Marginalization - which attacked the Abu Gabra oilfield on Darfur's southern border in December 2004. Unlike the Popular Forces Army, the National Movement did not describe itself as an Arab group although it, too, was commanded by Arabs: Ali Abdul Rahim Shendi of the Shaygiyya tribe, one of three Arab tribes which control power in Sudan, and Abdul Gader Hamid Mendi al-Sharif, of Darfur's own Taaisha tribe. Like the Popular Forces Army, the National Movement coordinated with the SLA - less divided then than it is now. But it fizzled after Ali Abdul Rahim died in a car crash and the SLA, hopelessly disunited, lost its way.

The resilience of the new rebel group, and the direction taken by the hitherto silent majority of Dafurian Arabs, will depend on a number of factors - among them, the ability of SLA Unity to forge a cohesive armed opposition to the government-Janjaweed alliance; the stand of the Umma Party, the main northern opposition party; and the position taken by the Arab chiefs of Darfur, who still wield considerable influence over their tribes. They know their power, and the power of their tribes, and will not use it lightly.

As Mohammad Issa said back in April: "If the Rizeigat move, this Darfur will be destroyed." Khartoum would do well to ponder that as it continues to seek a military, rather than a political, solution to the rebellion on its western border.

Darfur: Annan Seeks Formal Consent for Force

From Reuters

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has written Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir seeking his formal assent to a series of U.N. requirements for a hybrid African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur.

In a letter delivered to Bashir on Thursday by his special envoy in Khartoum, Annan said he planned "to proceed expeditiously" in bolstering the African Union force now in Darfur with U.N. troops and resources.

"I therefore look forward to your early and positive response, which will ensure a common understanding among all stakeholders on the way forward in resolving the crisis in Darfur," Annan wrote Bashir in the letter made public at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The special envoy, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, would wait in Khartoum for Bashir's response, which was expected within a day or two, U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The United Nations has been trying without much success to persuade Bashir to accept deployment of a hybrid, or mixed, United Nations-African Union force in Darfur, building on the ill-equipped 7,000 African Union troops already there.

While Annan insists the Khartoum government has agreed to a joint U.N.-AU force in Darfur, Bashir and other officials repeatedly deny this.

Annan is also battling the clock as his term as secretary-general runs out at the end of the month, when he is to be replaced by South Korean Ban Ki-moon.

The hybrid force was proposed after Sudan rejected outright a purely U.N. force called for in a U.N. Security Council resolution passed on Aug. 31.

Annan's letter said the size and composition of the hybrid force would be based on a June 2006 assessment by a joint AU-U.N. team, which said at least 22,600 troops and police would be needed.

African troops would be used to the extent possible, at which point other countries would be asked to help, he said.

The overall mission in Darfur would be led by a special representative appointed jointly by the United Nations and the African Union, Annan said. The force commander, who would exercise operational control over the military aspects of the mission, would report to that special representative.

All military and police personnel deployed by the United Nations to strengthen peacekeeping in Darfur would wear blue berets and standard U.N. uniforms, rather than the green berets and uniforms of the African Union, Annan said.

U.N. officials say the question of uniforms is key to a U.N. decision on financial support for the mission, which could end up costing $1 billion a year.

"Through the combined efforts of all concerned, we will be able to bring to an end the enormous suffering of the people of Darfur and restore the long-awaited peace and stability in the region," Annan wrote.

Darfur: AU Vehicles Confined to Base, SUDO Banned

From Reuters

The United Nations' top refugee official said on Thursday an international peacekeeping force in Darfur was essential to prevent the whole of central Africa plunging into conflict.

"If the security situation deteriorates, we will have a very serious problem," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told a news conference in neighbouring Chad.

"That is why a solution to the Darfur problem is necessary for the stability of the whole region," the former Portuguese prime minister said.

[edit]

Annan's personal envoy to Khartoum, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, met President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday to seek middle ground between the world body and the government.

Sudan's state news agency SUNA quoted Foreign Ministry official al-Sadig al-Magli as saying Khartoum welcomed U.N. support for the AU force. But he stopped short of saying Sudan had agreed to allow a joint U.N.-AU force in Darfur.

Violence in Darfur has increased since a peace deal was signed with only one of three rebel negotiating factions in May. The rebels who rejected the agreement formed a new alliance and renewed hostilities with the government in June.

In December, attacks and clashes in Darfur forced 400 aid workers to be evacuated and paralysed humanitarian operations.

A U.N. bulletin on Thursday said the AU command had instructed that AU vehicles should not leave their bases in many locations for fear of banditry. One AU source confirmed this in specific areas where attacks were common.

On Thursday, the United Nations said an international aid agency convoy was ambushed near el-Geneina town in West Darfur this week. One aid worker was shot in the leg and a policeman escorting the convoy killed.

Sudanese rights group SUDO was banned from working in North Darfur, a SUDO official said on Thursday, after trying to implement a human rights workshop in five schools.

"They think we are using this project as a cover for intelligence and that we are working with the international community and United Nations," Khalil Toukas, SUDO's manager in North Darfur, told Reuters by telephone. "We received a letter ... saying we had to stop work."

Darfur: Podcast With Luis Moreno-Ocampo

The latest podcast from the Committee on Conscience with Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

JERRY FOWLER: What is it that you will do step-by-step? You present evidence to the judges and they have the power to issue arrest warrants?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: It is one possibility. The laws also say that I can request from Sudan a summons to appear before the Court to the individuals named, so it is not just another warrant. It is early to know what will be the outcome; the issue is that it is the beginning of the process. After we present the evidence, we identify the incidents and the individual has to be investigated in particular.

JERRY FOWLER: One technique that was used with actually great affect by the ad hoc tribunal for Yugoslavia was secret arrest warrants where arrest warrants were issued but it was kept secret and the individuals who were the subject of them did not know that they were subject to the warrant until they were apprehended. Do you have the ability to do that?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: Yes, in fact we did in Congo and Uganda, but maybe we are not doing this in this case because this case is a different case. It is early to mention, but probably we are not doing it this way.

JERRY FOWLER: I see. One question many people have when you talk about making out this case for the people who are most responsible is how far up the chain of command you think you will be able to go.

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: That is important in this case. I believe we can prove the system and we can show how these crimes were committed and how the system was organized, so that is why I think it is a very important case.

JERRY FOWLER: What are some of the challenges as a prosecutor to establishing the system, to establishing the structure that committed the crimes?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: The first challenge was that we had to investigate Darfur without going to Darfur. That was the most difficult part of our work in this case because in addition to this ongoing violence, there is an ongoing conflict, but this happened in Congo and Uganda, but even in Congo and Uganda, with limitation, we could go to the ground. In this case, basically the problem is that we cannot protect the witness in Darfur. When we interview a person, we have different steps. We have to first assess the security of the person; we have to assess if it is a victim if we can do some study to be sure not to re-traumatize this person. Then when we interview them, it is a protocol to explain what we are doing, record in different ways what the person is saying, and after that, we have to establish a system to protect the persons because we basically have to call this witness again, and the law says that we have to protect these peoples. We cannot do all of this in Darfur. From the beginning we decided how we could prove these crimes from outside. Then we developed a strategy, and basically we screened witnesses of the war. We screened more than 600 witnesses, and finally we took more like 100 statements; most of them eye-witnesses. In this way, we could reach the victims without going to Darfur. That was a huge challenge, but in addition, then the other issue was that the conflict in Darfur is very complicated—it has different faces, different actors—so it was very important not to discriminate the different groups that intervened in there. The laws say that we have to keep impartiality and we have to investigate incriminating circumstances, so what we did was we sent a request to the government of Sudan to interview some people, and finally in August, the government of Sudan authorized that and we could be in Khartoum interviewing two high officials from the civilian and military side who were involved in these facts and because of their positions, they could give us important information about what happened there. Basically, we could organize a very comprehensive investigation—of course what was very important, we received the information collected by the International Commission of Inquiry—but also, we received a report from the National Commission of Inquiry, and then we can check the information from many sources. Finally, I believe we have a very impartial investigation and a very thorough one.

JERRY FOWLER: These government officials that you interviewed in August, were they all the people that you requested to interview?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: No, we requested more, and we have outstanding requests, but we received two important interviews.

JERRY FOWLER: Do you think that you will the opportunity to go back and interview additional government officials, or have you basically moved on from that aspect of the investigation?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: Interestingly, in November, we sent a letter to the government saying that we are doing the final assessment on the case. That means that we want to check if they are doing a case against the same individual that we are investigating, and then the government sent to us a list of 14 new names that they are investigating, and our case is still admissible, but we request to the government of Sudan to interview these people, to understand what they do.

JERRY FOWLER: To interview the 14 people they say that they are investigating?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: Yes, so we are requesting to go in January to Khartoum to interview these people. The government in principle agreed, so we are planning this second part.

JERRY FOWLER: When you talk about admissibility, that is the principle that if a national government is conducting a good faith investigation, that then the ICC would stand back, right?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: Yes, we have to respect any genuine national proceedings. The first thing we had to check when we did the admissibility test is that if they are doing the same case, we have to check if it is a genuine case. That is the law.

JERRY FOWLER: When you say the same case, you are talking about involving the same individuals?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: Basically, the same individuals and the same behavior. It could be a slightly different incidence because there are many, but basically the same behavior, the same attributions. That is what we are trying to find. That is why we believe our case is still admissible.

JERRY FOWLER: I see. I don’t believe I asked you this before; about how many defendants do you anticipate being involved in this?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: No, we are not saying that; we present these names and numbers and evidence to the judges in February.

JERRY FOWLER: You refer to this as the first case in Darfur and it is dealing with the years 2003-2004. Do you anticipate that there will be additional cases?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: Yes, we always say that because the conflict is so complicated, we are planning to do a sequence of cases, and probably we are now discussing the second investigation while we are still in the middle of finishing the first one, but as soon as we are ready, we are planning to start the second investigation focusing on the current crimes, and we are worried because there is a spillover of violence. We now have cases in Chad that could be connected with our crimes. What we are planning to do is try to monitor all these new crimes, and interestingly, in this case we do not need a new referral from the Security Council because the Central African Republic is a state party, and in fact, they gave to us a referral like more than one year ago; and Chad is now, just joined the International Criminal Court system, so from January we can open a case in Chad because they are a state party. Now we can basically, in a combination of the referral from the Security Council and these states who are a member of the Court, we can do, as needed, a comprehensive investigation of the region. We are worried about these crimes across the borders.

JERRY FOWLER: In terms of your jurisdiction in Chad, does it only take affect in January or does it cover crimes that would have been committed before January?

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO: No, it would cover before also.

Darfur: 200 Rebels Killed in Fresh Attack, Says Army

From AFP

The Sudanese army has said it has killed 200 rebels and lost four of its own men while repelling an attack in the war-torn western region of Darfur.

In a statement quoted by the state-run SUNA news agency Thursday, the army also said that 20 of its troops were wounded during the fighting, which took place in northern Darfur on Wednesday.

The army charged that rebels from the National Redemption Front (NRF) attempted to launched an assault on the town of Kutum.

Government troops repelled the attack 12 kilometres (8 miles) south of the town and "killed 200 rebels, including two commanders, destroyed six canons and 18 vehicles and seizing eight others," the statement said.

If the casualty toll is confirmed, Wednesday's fighting would be one of the deadliest single incidents reported this year in the troubled region.

[edit]

The latest deaths come as diplomats are involved in last-ditch efforts to convince Khartoum to accept UN peacekeepers who would replace the embattled 7,000-strong African contingent struggling to contain the violence.

The United States has been spearheading efforts to deploy a robust UN force in Darfur but Beshir has consistently rejected such an option, accusing the West of seeking to invade his country and plunder its resources.

Outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan dispatched an envoy -- Mauritanian under secretary Ahmadou Ould Abdallah -- to Khartoum on Wednesday in a bid to clinch Beshir's approval for a 'hybrid' AU-UN force.

Abdallah said Thursday after meeting Beshir that the president had promised to provide a written response to the three-phase UN proposal aimed at bolstering the AU troops.

Sudan has agreed to the first two phases of the package which offer the world body's technical and logistical assistance but it has yet to give its green light on the more contentious third phase which provides for the deployment of UN forces.

Chad: Our Tenuous Lifeline is Under Threat

An op-ed by Antonio Guterres in The Independent

For the past three years, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has operated a dozen remote camps for hundreds of thousands of Darfur refugees scattered along a vast, 600km stretch of the Chad-Sudan border. The logistics of maintaining these isolated camps in one of the world's harshest and most desolate environments is difficult enough.

But now, as the violence in Darfur spills over into eastern Chad itself, the tenuous humanitarian lifeline we and our partners have struggled to maintain is under severe threat. This is endangering some 232,000 Darfurian refugees and more than 90,000 Chadians who have been driven from their homes over the past year by armed marauders using tactics identical to those of the notorious Janjaweed just across the border in Darfur. Further complicating this already complex and insecure operational environment is an ongoing armed rebellion against the Chadian government.

Today, I begin a two-day mission to Chad to see what more can be done to ensure that our vital aid lifeline continues to flow amid this increasing insecurity. Tens of thousands of lives depend on it.

We have warned for months that the violence in Darfur threatens to engulf the entire region. Over the past month alone, some 300 people in eastern Chad were killed in attacks on more than 70 villages, most of which were looted, burned and emptied. Last weekend, attacks on villages in the Koukou Angarana area close to UNHCR's Goz Amer refugee camp in south-eastern Chad left dozens of people dead, including local villagers, refugees and people already internally displaced in earlier fighting. In late November, UNHCR lost more than £500,000 in vital aid supplies looted from our main warehouse in the eastern town of Abeche following clashes between government and rebel forces.

All of this violence has forced UNHCR and other aid agencies working in the region to temporarily relocate non-essential staff from insecure areas, further weakening the humanitarian lifeline. Over the weekend, some 50 aid workers were temporarily relocated from Koukou Angarana because of the violence there. Currently, only skeleton crews are able to work in six of the 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad because of continuing insecurity.

While in Chad, I expect to meet President Idriss Deby and other senior government officials, as well as to travel to the strife-torn east to spend time with my staff, other humanitarian groups, refugees and displaced Chadians. All are struggling to cope with a growing humanitarian crisis in an increasingly difficult and dangerous environment and deserve all the support they can get.

UNHCR supports calls for the international community to mobilise a multi-dimensional presence in Chad to help protect Chadian civilians and Darfur refugees, as well as the aid workers trying to help them. This is essential. In August, UN Security Council Resolution 1706 called for such a UN presence in Chad and the neighbouring Central African Republic.

Last week, the UN Security Council expressed its deep concern at the worsening security situation in Sudan and the spillover into Chad and the Central African Republic. A council statement strongly condemned attempts by armed groups in eastern Chad to destabilise the country, calling them "blatant violations" of the African Union's principles. It also expressed concern that the increased military activity in Chad threatened civilians, humanitarian workers, and refugees from Darfur in UNHCR camps in eastern Chad, and called on the Chadian government "to do all it can to protect its civilian population".

The Security Council also noted it was awaiting recommendations from the UN Secretary-General on improving security in eastern Chad. Those recommendations are expected soon. I sincerely hope the Security Council decides on the rapid deployment of the kind of presence we need to protect refugee camps, displaced Chadians and UNHCR's humanitarian operations.

In today's world, we are seeing an increasing number of extremely complex security situations involving a combination of armed rebellion, inter-ethnic conflict, and general lawlessness and banditry. To address these challenges, the traditional concept of peacekeeping needs reflection and re-evaluation.

If lives are to be saved, international support for improved security and serious political efforts by all parties toward a solution are essential. Humanitarians working in such difficult and dangerous situations must not be left on their own as a substitute for the lack of any real effort toward a solution.

Darfur: Genocide "Waiting to Explode"

From the Vancouver Sun

The genocide in Darfur is "just waiting to explode" across its international border with neighbouring Chad, so the world should do more to at least contain the crisis, says Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire.

The retired general and head of an all-party committee of MPs and senators on genocide prevention also urged the Harper government to take an active international role in pressuring Sudan to accept a UN-sanctioned protection force, and called on the government to contribute hundreds of millions more dollars in aid.

But Dallaire stopped short of advocating Canada contribute troops to the UN force, saying he didn't want to ruin the credibility of himself and his new group of parliamentarians by pushing for thousands of Canadian soldiers.

The United Nations approved the 20,000-strong military mission in August to assist the badly outgunned African Union protection force of 7,000 that has so far been ineffective in stemming the rising tide of carnage, something Dallaire called "genocide in slow motion."

Dallaire called on the Conservative government to lead an international diplomatic push to persuade the Sudanese government to support the deployment of a UN force. Khartoum has refused to allow UN troops on its soil, essentially creating a stalemate in resolving the three-year old crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions in area of western Sudan that is the size of France.

Now the violence has spilled across Darfur's western border into Chad, as well as into the neighbouring Central African Republic to the south.

The Janjaweed rebels that have terrorized Darfurians for three years on their own soil have attacked refugee camps that have become home to more than 350,000.

"I think we're into a very serious problem with the instability in Chad. There is no doubt that the Janjaweed are going on both sides. That border is just waiting to explode," Dallaire said.

"We know that the French are in Chad. Could we do a deal with the French to try to at least stabilize the border with Chad, and at least have that side of the house sorted out?"

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, left for Chad this week to assess the displacement of people there. According to the UN refugee agency, 22 Chadians were killed in a weekend raid that destroyed 93 homes.

Since November, more than 70 villages have been attacked, burned or emptied, the UNHCR says, including the looting of $1 million in supplies from its warehouses. The UNHCR has reduced its operations to skeleton staff in Chad.

``There is no such thing any more of a purely imploding nation where it's all locked in," said Dallaire, who was the commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda that was unable to prevent the 1994 genocide there.

"In the Sudan problem, in the Darfur problem, Chad is a significant element that's got to be monitored and assisted in order to stabilize that region."

So far, Canada has contributed about $200 million in humanitarian and military aid, including 100 armoured personnel carriers and about 25 helicopters to assist the African Union force.

Dallaire said that contribution was made under former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, and so far, all the Stephen Harper Conservatives have done is maintain the status quo. But Dallaire said it is time to do more, given that Canada championed the "responsibility to protect" doctrine that was adopted last year by the UN.

Dallaire said he hopes to speak to Harper soon about the subject.

Darfur: Sudan Given Jan 1 Deadline to Accept Pacekeepers

From AFP

A senior US official warned that Sudan faces a January 1 deadline to accept the deployment of UN peacekeepers to Darfur or face coercive international action to halt violence in the region.

US Presidential envoy Andrew Natsios said he told Sudanese leaders in Khartoum last week they must allow an initial group of 60 UN peacekeeping staff currently "marooned" in the Sudanese capital to deploy to Darfur by year's end.

The also must "accept in writing" a plan put forward last month by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to place 20,000 UN-led troops in Darfur to halt violence which has left more than 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced over the past four years.

"I have said publicly that I think making threats is not very useful, but we are going to take a different approach to this in January and there is a plan to do that," Natsios said.

"For us to continue on the process of quiet diplomacy, negotiation and a process to resolve Darfur, then we need progress that's operational, on the ground, in Darfur ... by the end of the year," he said.

Natsios refused to provide details of what he described as "Plan B" if Sudan persists in rejecting the UN deployment, saying it was classified.

But US officials confirmed last week that enforcing a no-fly zone over Darfur, imposing sanctions on Sudan and backing prosecution of some Khartoum officials for crimes against humanity were among available options.

Natsios said the "Plan B" had been discussed with key partners dealing with the crisis, which include the European Union, China and the Arab League.

"We have a consensus that action is going to be taken," he said.

The international community is also seeking to obtain a "humanitarian ceasefire" in fighting between government forces and Darfur rebels over the next 10 days to allow a resumption of aid shipments to camps housing tens of thousands of displaced people, he said.

Natsios spoke to reporters after meeting Wednesday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a half-dozen of her top policy advisors on the Darfur crisis.

Rice expressed her "deep concern" with the ongoing violence in Darfur, where government forces recently launched a new offensive against ethnic African rebels seeking greater autonomy from the Arab-led administration in Khartoum.

[edit]

Natsios said Wednesday that in order to avoid tougher international action, Khartoum had to let the 60 UN staff and their equipment into Darfur over the next 10 days and definitively accept the rest of the Annan plan.

A senior UN envoy, Ahmadou Ould Abdallah, arrived in Khartoum Wednesday with a letter from Annan laying out the world body's demands and will remain in Sudan until he obtains Beshir's written reply, he said.

During his week of talks in Khartoum, Natsios said the only assurance he received from the Sudanese was that they would "try very hard" to change their policy on rejecting UN troops.

Natsios also said China, which buys most of Sudan's oil and has resisted pressuring Khartoum in the past, was playing a "very helpful role" in the effort to resolve the Darfur crisis.

Darfur: Britain Donates 40 Million Pounds in Aid

From Reuters

Britain will donate a further 40 million pounds to aid efforts in Darfur to help the world's largest aid operation suffering from daily attacks and government restrictions in Sudan's remote west.

Britain is the second largest donor to Darfur, where almost four years of conflict has forced 2.5 million to flee their homes and killed an estimated 200,000 in violence Washington calls genocide. Khartoum denies genocide.

"As we head towards the new year, it is of critical importance that the international community provides early and adequate finance to sustain the massive humanitarian response needed in Darfur," said Hilary Benn, the international development minister, in a statement on Thursday.

Africa: Pentagon Plans New Command to Cover Continent

From the The Boston Globe

President Bush is expected to create a new military command for Africa, for the first time establishing an independent operations headquarters that will focus on anti terrorist operations and humanitarian aid, according to administration officials.

The US Africa Command, or AFRICOM, would oversee strategic developments and military operations across the entire continent, where a combination of problems -- natural disasters, civil wars, chronic disease, and the growing presence of Islamic radicals -- has destabilized some countries and created an increasing threat to global security, White House and Defense Department aides said.

The Pentagon proposal, which the White House is expected to approve in coming days, is overdue, according to Africa specialists. They cite two examples: the failed state of Somalia, which has become a haven for Islamic militants allied with Al Qaeda terrorists, and the crisis in Sudan, where United Nations figures estimate that more than 400,000 people have died from ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region.

Creating a distinct Africa command "increases the potential that greater attention will be given to issues like Darfur," said Susan Rice, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"This is a timely move," added Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican and vice chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees Africa policy. "Africa's growing strategic importance is clear."

Currently, the Pentagon has five worldwide command posts; Africa has been the shared responsibility of the Europe, Middle East, and Asian commands, but only as a secondary task. Each post's primary mission is in another geographic area, and those responsibilities garner far more day-to-day attention and resources.

The Pentagon, which crafted the proposal with the aid of the State Department and other government agencies, envisions the new command to be unique among its global combat headquarters. Because African nations do not pose a direct military threat to the United States, Defense officials said, the AFRICOM operation would focus far less on preparing troops for major combat in the area.

Instead, it would stress military training programs to help local governments secure their borders and take steps to guard against crises such as Darfur as well as contain outbreaks of deadly diseases such as AIDS and malaria .

Unlike in other traditional command posts, the four-star general who would be in charge of AFRICOM would probably have a civilian counterpart from the State Department to coordinate nonmilitary functions of the US government. The expectation is that diplomacy and economic and political aid will often prove more critical to achieving US goals in Africa than relying on military solutions.

Uganda: LRA Ready to Face Justice, Not ICC

From Reuters

Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony is willing to face justice at home as an alternative to the International Criminal Court, officials said on Wednesday, in a move that may boost efforts to end a two-decade conflict.

Government officials back from visiting Kony in his hideout also said they had succeeded in opening up a direct phone line between Kony and President Yoweri Museveni -- a development they hoped would speed up peace talks under way in south Sudan.

Peace talks between the two sides resumed last week, nearly a month after the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) walked out, accusing the army of violating an August truce by attacking their fighters in southern Sudan.

But the LRA's top commanders leaders -- who remain at large in jungle hideouts on the Sudan/Congo border -- have said repeatedly they will never sign a final peace deal until the Hague-based ICC drops its indictments against them.

Government district commissioner for Gulu, which was at the epicentre of Uganda's 20-year war, Walter Ochora, told reporters in Kampala that Kony had said he would be willing to face justice for war crimes in Uganda.

"We are ready for accountability in Uganda where we can put our case and the government put their case," Ochora quoted Kony as saying. "We shall talk freely and disclose all."

LRA officials were not immediately available for comment.

Local politicians in the war-torn north have advocated traditional "Mato Oput" justice for the LRA leaders, who are accused of killing civilians, rape, torture, mutilation and abducting children to swell their ranks.

"According to Kony, the ICC has been prejudiced and has not given him a hearing because he is not in power," Ochora said. "It is the weak facing justice while the powerful are left unmolested."

But a government-appointed lawyer who joined the delegation to consult Kony on the implications of the ICC indictments said he noticed a shift in tone, with the LRA leaders relaxing earlier demands that the indictments be scrapped.

"This time round I could see they had come to terms with the fact that they could not wish the ICC away," lawyer Owiny-Dollo said. "The debate has shifted from 'you must withdraw the charges'. ... We have moved the issue sideways."

Also from Reuters

At an emotional reunion in a jungle clearing, an 83-year-old woman told the guerrilla son she had not seen for 20 years to abandon war, raising hopes of an end to one of Africa's most brutal insurgencies.

As talks between the government and Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels adjourned in south Sudan on Thursday, there was optimism that Nora Anek could succeed where others had failed and persuade her son, feared LRA leader Joseph Kony, to lay down his arms.

"The meeting was spectacular, emotional and...brought closure to the pain of neither seeing nor hearing from one another in 20 full years," said Walter Ochora, a Ugandan official who flew by helicopter with Anek deep into the bush for the reunion with her son earlier this week.

Kony -- a reclusive rebel leader wanted for war crimes -- had repeatedly called for his mother to be brought to his forest hideout in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Ochora said "Mama Nora" told her son to "abandon war", and that Kony's Acholi tribal culture gave her words huge weight.

"Nobody in his or her right mind can go against the advice or instruction of the mother," Ochora told reporters in Kampala.

Darfur: U.S. Warns Sudan of Possible Action

This is either an extremely misleading headline or, more likely, evidence of just how confused the US strategy is for dealing with the crisis in Darfur, because Natsios is clearly threatening Sudan while simultaneously saying "It's not useful to make threats."

From the AP

Sudan must open a path toward ending the Darfur crisis before the end of the year or the international community will take coercive action against the Islamic government, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.

Andrew Natsios, special White House envoy to Sudan, said international patience is running out on Sudan almost four years deep into Darfur's humanitarian disaster.

But he declined to say what options are being considered. "It's not useful to make threats," said Natsios, briefing reporters. British officials have said that creation of a no-fly zone over Darfur is one option being considered.

Natsios said there have been so many threats against the Sudanese government to bring peace to Darfur that it no longer takes them seriously.

"None of the threats have been carried out. I think we should stop making threats," said Natsios, who met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum last week.

Hundreds of thousands of Darfurians have died and an estimated 2.5 million driven from their homes since early 2003.

A 7,000-member African Union force has not brought stability to Darfur. That has prompted proposals for a hybrid mission totaling some 20,000 troops from the African Union and the U.N. Sudan has been unwilling to go along.

To avoid a crisis with the international community, Natsios said, Bashir must allow 60 U.N. troops and civilians stationed in Khartoum to be transported with their equipment to Darfur by the end of the year. Until now, he has forbidden a U.N. military presence in the area.

Another requirement, he said, is Bashir's approval of the combined U.N.-African Union peacekeeping proposal, which would be carried out over three phases. The proposal is spelled out in a letter U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has sent to Bashir. A top aide to Annan will remain in Khartoum until Bashir responds, Natsios said.

Earlier Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Natsios and said afterward she expects the Sudanese government to respond positively to the proposal for a hybrid force.

It is "extremely important that a robust security force, a robust peacekeeping force" be created," Rice said.

Darfur: US Deeply Concerned Following Natsios' Visit

From AFP

The crisis in Sudan's Darfur region remains an issue of "deep concern" to the United States following a visit to Khartoum last week by a top US envoy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday.

Rice called again on Sudan to drop its objections to deployment of a hybrid African-UN peacekeeping force to halt resurgent violence against civilians in the war-torn region.

"It is extremely important (to deploy) a robust peacekeeping force that can actually help to end the violence and bring relief to the many innocent men, women and children who are suffering in Sudan," Rice said.

"This is an issue of deep concern to the United States and deep concern to the president of the United States," Rice said following a meeting with Andrew Natsios, President George W. Bush's personal envoy to Sudan.

Natsios met with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and other leaders in Khartoum last week but failed to gain their agreement to comply with a deal brokered last month by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to deploy some 20,000 UN-led peacekeepers to Darfur.

With violence against civilians again on the rise in Darfur, largely blamed on Arab militia allied to Beshir's government, US officials last week warned that tougher measures -- including enforcement of a no-fly zone over the region -- could be taken.

Rice said Natsios had "moved the ball forward" by reassuring Khartoum, via a statement issued Tuesday by the current president of the UN Security Council, that Washington and its partners remained committed to the peacekeeping plan rather than coercive options.

"Now we expect the government of Khartoum to respond positively to that action in the UN," Rice said.

Darfur: Genocide Without Borders

From the Independent

The village is still smouldering. A girl combs through the remains of a burnt-down hut with her bare hands, trying to salvage knife blades and rakes that were not consumed by the fire. Two women, with tears in their eyes, have broken down in front of a pile of ash, wailing violently.

A band of youths is patrolling the ruins near Koukou-Angarana, bows and arrows slung over their shoulders, boomerangs and knives at the ready. But their decision to form a self-defence group has come too late. The Arab horsemen who swept through the village on their bloody rampage have long since vanished.

It is a tragically familiar scene in Darfur, the province of western Sudan where more than 200,000 people have been killed and at least two million brutally forced from their homes - a genocide unleashed and sustained by the Islamist government in Khartoum - but this man-made inferno now sweeping across the plains is taking place across the Sudanese border in Chad. The pattern is identical to events in Darfur, where the well-armed Arab raiders allied to the Sudanese government set villages ablaze, rape the women, and leave a trail of dead black Africans in their wake. Just as in Darfur, the Sudanese government is being accused of being behind the violence in Chad, an accusation which is rejected by Khartoum.

Mahamat Abdurasset surveys the steaming rubble of Aradipe, a remote Chadian village close to the Sudanese border. His village was attacked by a force of 500 Arab militiamen. "We knew most of them. They are from this village," said Mr Abdurasset, the leader of the self-defence group, pointing to a cluster of huts right next to Aradipe.

About 90,000 Chadians have fled their villages to find shelter in nearby towns, with many of them arriving in camps already crowded with 232,000 refugees who fled the violence in Darfur.

The wave of ethnic cleansing began in eastern Chad at the end of last month. But the most recent attacks around the small town of Koukou-Angarana have raised the stakes. For the first time, the Arab militia have targeted camps for refugees and internally displaced people. And for the first time the Chadian army, which until last week was engaged in a campaign against several rebel groups in the Abeche region, 250 miles north of here, took on the militia.

In the latest violence yesterday, the houses of local aid workers living in Koukou-Angarana were burnt down.

Over the weekend, several villages around Koukou-Angarana, and the outskirts of the town, were raided. The Chadian Communications Minister, Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, said 40 people were killed in the raids on the settlements of Aradipe and Habile. He said eight Chadian soldiers had their eyes gouged out and one civilian was burnt to death. The claims of mutilations could not be independently verified. The United Nations refugee agency said that during heavy fighting around Habile, 22 villagers and internally displaced Chadians were killed, and 93 homes were burnt.

According to Mr Abdurasset, whose village is four miles east of Koukou-Angarana, two columns of Arabs made their first attack on Aradipe on Friday morning. "They were armed with automatic rifles and bazookas and rode on horses and camels," he said. "Some of them were in Sudanese uniforms. They shot at everything that moved, and then drove our cattle away."

On Friday evening, he said, the Arabs evacuated their women and children and packed up their belongings from the neighbouring village, which, a day later, stood untouched and eerily quiet. The next morning, the Arabs attacked Aradipe again and burnt it down.

Most of the villagers had fled on Friday to the Goz Amer refugee camp, which already houses more than 18,000 Darfur refugees. The camp was attacked and partially burnt. Eight Sudanese were killed, said Chadian officials.

"We had very good relations with the Arabs in the nearby village. There were even a few inter-marriages," Mr Abdurasset said, as other young men nodded in agreement. "The trouble started at the end of November, when the Arabs prevented us from going to our fields and threatened attacks on our village."

As he spoke, thick white plumes of smoke were billowing on the horizon. Mr Abdurasset said the smoke was rising from the next village, five miles away. "We have reports that is being attacked right now," he said.

Koukou-Angarana has taken in 8,000 displaced Chadians in recent weeks. At army headquarters in the town, Bourdami Abdurahman, the mayor, echoed his government's accusation that the Sudanese government wants to annex eastern Chad. "The Sudanese government has forged a coalition of 21 Chadian ethnic groups who consider themselves Arabs. Khartoum wants to transform Chad into a fundamentalist Islamic country," he said.

The Communications Minister, said yesterday that the Chadian army took four prisoners, while the mayor said that soldiers had captured new weapons from the militia. They say this bolsters their claim that the Sudanese government is arming the Janjaweed militia and the Chadian rebels, who are fighting to end the 16-year rule of President Idriss Déby. Chadian officials, however, have produced no proof of their claims. So the Arab militia remain strangely faceless, since the attackers carry their injured from the battlefield and retrieve their dead in the night.

Darfur: Three Years Into The Crisis, The Killing Goes On

From the Independent

Almost half a million people have been affected by the Darfur conflict since 2003, when it was described as the one of the world's worst humanitarian conflicts.

To the 232,000 Darfurians displaced from their homes in western Sudan, we must now add 90,000 Chadians and 48,000 from the Central African Republic. Not to mention the 200,000 who have been slaughtered by the Janjaweed Arab militia allied to the Islamist government in Khartoum.

That is a lot of people, and plenty of time for the world to have mobilised to stop the killing. Yet three years into the crisis, the killing goes on, and Sudan's government continues to lead the rest of the world on a merry dance.

Khartoum, strong in the knowledge that the Iraq invasion has diminished its chances of having an international force imposed against its will, has shut out international envoys and ruled out a UN force. President Omar al-Bashir has been deaf to the personal appeals of other leaders.

Only yesterday, the United Nations was forced to evacuate more than 70 aid workers from the biggest refugee camp in Darfur, its largest such evacuation since the UN launched its humanitarian campaign in 2004. In Darfur, an under-equipped African Union force has been struggling to enforce an inadequate mandate.

Diplomats say the Security Council has not given up hope that Sudan's leader will eventually accept a proposal for a "hybrid" force of UN and African Union peacekeepers. There are no signs that President Bashir will change his mind. On Friday, the council expressed "grave concern" about the fighting in Chad, and is awaiting proposals from the UN peacekeeping department for a force to be deployed on the Chadian border.

Frustrated with the lack of progress, 15 former foreign ministers have suggested that Sudan should be given until the end of the year to agree to an international force or face sanctions. These would include travel bans and the freezing of assets directed at military and civilian leaders. Second, they argued, measures should target Sudan's oil industry. Third, the International Criminal Court should "up its investigations into those who order or commit crimes against humanity in Darfur".

But in the Security Council, Russia and China have blocked the imposition of harsh sanctions against their ally Sudan. Maybe it is only more indictments from the criminal court that will bring about a change in policy by Khartoum.

Darfur: Largest Monthly Relocation of Aid Workers

From IRIN

More aid workers have been relocated in western Sudanese region of Darfur following Monday’s attack on Gereida, South Darfur State, bringing the numbers of humanitarian staff moved in December to a record 400, the United Nations said.

The relocations are the highest in one month since a large-scale humanitarian operation in Darfur began in 2004.

Gereida has the largest number of displaced people – 130,000 - in the region. About 20 armed men attacked several NGO compounds, harassing staff and stealing vehicles, communication equipment and money, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair (OCHA) said on Tuesday.

Two agencies, Oxfam and Action Contre le Faim, stopped operations entirely after they lost 12 vehicles. "We had six vehicles there and five were stolen," Oxfam spokesman, Alun McDonald, said. "We can’t get in and out of the camp. Our operations have been suspended entirely."

In London, the British International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, condemned the attacks.

"The attacks are the culmination of a series of incidents directed at agencies working in Darfur over the last few weeks, and there is now a very real danger of the humanitarian situation deteriorating rapidly if agencies have to suspend or reduce their operations because of continuing security concerns," Benn said.

"The armed attacks were clearly well planned, being launched on the compounds of Oxfam and Action Contre la Faim simultaneously."

Describing the attack as "crippling", the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Manuel Aranda da Silva, told reporters in the capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday: "It is a big blow. Oxfam is critical there for water [supplies]. And ACF delivers food. So it is a very serious incident. Humanitarian access has been deteriorating since last year, but it has been much worse in the last month."

After the attack, 71 aid workers were moved from Gereida to Nyala, OCHA stated. "How can we expect them to carry out humanitarian work without vehicles to get to camps, phones to communicate, and the constant threat to their own physical safety? This is preventing humanitarian organisations from providing life-saving assistance," Da Silva warned.

The attack occurred in a region that is a stronghold of one faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Minni Minnawi. The faction was the only one that signed the 5 May Darfur Peace Agreement with the government of Sudan. But violence in the region has escalated, despite the DPA, as Sudanese forces, supported by Arab Janjawid militias, attack civilians and aid workers in their battles with rebels.

A spokesman for Minnawi denied any involvement in the Gereida incident. "It is not reasonable that we would attack an area that is under our control," Saif Haroun told IRIN on Wednesday.

Last week, several leading aid agencies warned that recent attacks by armed militias in North, South and West Darfur States had destabilised the region further and forced aid agencies to evacuate staff, in a move that could have a devastating impact on displaced civilians. According to the agencies, more than 480,000 people have been affected by renewed clashes.

Darfur: Attacks Force 71 Aid Staff to Evacuate

From Reuters

Attacks on Darfur aid workers' compounds in Gereida town have forced the evacuation of 71 staff and severely restricted humanitarian aid reaching the region's largest population of war victims, officials said on Wednesday.

Around 20 armed men launched a coordinated attack in the South Darfur town on Monday night, seizing a dozen vehicles and communications equipment and almost paralysing aid operations.

It was the biggest single attack on the Darfur aid operation, the world's largest, since it began helping 3 million victims of the conflict in remote western Sudan in early 2004.

"It's massive and hugely destructive and has severely disrupted aid operations," said Alun McDonald, spokesman for the British aid organisation Oxfam, which had five vehicles stolen and whose compound was fired on during the attack.

The 71 aid workers were evacuated on Tuesday.

[edit]

More than 400 aid staff have been evacuated in Darfur so far in December because of violence that has severely disrupted aid.

"(Violence) is completely unpredictable, it's pretty much everywhere in Darfur at the moment," said McDonald. Oxfam provides water in Gereida.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent personal envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah to Khartoum on Wednesday to meet with government officials and clarify U.N. support to a struggling African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

Khartoum has rejected a U.N. force for Darfur. Critics say the government fears the troops may arrest any officials likely to be indicted by the ICC. Annan denied this.

"The U.N. troops are not going to Darfur to arrest Sudanese leaders," he said.

"Their responsibility and mandate will be to help create a secure environment in Darfur that will allow us to protect the internally displaced (and) allow access to the needy by the humanitarian workers," he said late on Tuesday in New York.

More than a dozen aid workers, mostly Sudanese, have been killed in Darfur. In addition to physical dangers, they complain of obstruction by authorities with travel restrictions and other bureaucratic hindrances.

On Wednesday Humanitarian Affairs Minister Kosti Manyebi told Reuters an agreement with aid agencies and the United Nations on freedom of movement to and within Darfur had been renewed for a third year.

To ensure its implementation he said a joint U.N., government and aid group committee was created to ensure aid workers get all visas, travel permits and other papers easily.

"There have been problems," he said. "But that is why we have this working group ... to tell exactly what the nature of problems are and what needs to be improved," he added.

Darfur: U.N. Security Council Backs Hybrid Force

From the AP

The U.N. Security Council gave its unanimous backing to a hybrid U.N.-African Union force for conflict-wracked Darfur and urged all parties to quickly beef up the beleaguered African force on the ground.
Expressing deep concern at "the worsening security situation in Darfur," the council said Tuesday that a three-step U.N. proposal to strengthen the African Union's 7,000 peacekeeping mission should start immediately.

After a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Nov. 16, Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced an agreement in principle with Sudanese officials to conduct a "hybrid mission" with the African Union force, which is ill-equipped and has been unable to stop the growing violence.

[edit]

The presidential statement adopted Tuesday by the Security Council endorses the outcome of both the Addis Ababa and the Abuja meetings and "welcomes the stated commitment" of the Sudanese government to the conclusions.

Annan announced Monday he is sending a special envoy to Sudan to try to clarify the status of the hybrid force. Ahmedou Ould Abdallah is leaving for Khartoum on Wednesday on "a one-off mission" to deliver a message from Annan to al-Bashir following up on phone calls between the two over the weekend on the standoff over U.N. participation in Darfur.

Annan told the Security Council on Monday that former General Assembly president Jan Eliasson, who was also Sweden's foreign minister, will take up a separate role and help in diplomatic efforts to speed up the solution to the Darfur crisis, particularly through diplomatic works with influential capitals.

He will help provide a transition between Annan and his successor, Ban Ki-moon, who takes over on Jan. 1, on the issue.

Annan told reporters at a farewell news conference Tuesday that at Monday's closed council meeting one member said "we must be careful and not use African Union troops as an alibi for inaction by the international community — and he was quite right."

"I am still hopeful that we shall be able to clarify the remaining issues with the Sudanese government and that in the new year there will be a force on the ground to bring effective protection and security to the suffering people of Darfur, while the effort to bring all parties into political agreement is stepped up," Annan said.

The first step in the three-step proposal would add 105 military officers, 33 U.N. police, 48 international staffers, 36 armored personnel carriers, night-vision goggles, and Global Positioning equipment to the African Union force, according to a U.N. report last month.

A second, larger support package would include the deployment of several hundred U.N. military, police and civilian personnel to the African Union mission along with substantial aviation and logistical assets.

The third step would be the AU-U.N. hybrid operation, with the two organizations jointly appointing a special envoy to lead it and the military commanders, and substantial U.N. involvement in its command and control structure — though al-Bashir had questions about the size and the command issues.

Darfur: Violence Threatens to Spread Beyond Sudan

From VOA

The conflict is no longer confined to Darfur.

Fighting has spread to neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic, raising fears that the entire region might become embroiled in the conflict.

The violence has hindered the world's largest humanitarian operation, serving some four million people. And clashes this month forced the United Nations and non-governmental organizations to evacuate 250 staff across the region.

Sudan also is charged with restricting aid workers' movements.

The European Union's special envoy to Sudan, Pekka Haavisto, told reporters in Khartoum last week that aid access must improve.

He said, "This has been one of our key concerns. The Norwegian Refugee Council had to leave Darfur because the government denied their visa. We are very concerned if the government is dealing in this kind of way with those organizations that are helping the humanitarian situation on the ground."

"And a second issue is that the access [to] humanitarian aid has been limited throughout this autumn because of fighting and military movements," he added.

Chad: Guterres to Visit Attacked Zone

From Reuters

The U.N.'s top refugee official will try to reassure civilians and refugees in east Chad on Friday that they will not be abandoned to face murderous raids from gunmen on horseback who are terrorising the zone.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres will visit the area not far from the Sudan border where mounted Arab raiders attacked two villages near a UNHCR refugee camp at the weekend, killing both Sudanese refugees and Chadian civilians.

The east of Chad borders with Sudan's Darfur region, where a political and ethnic conflict since 2003 has killed tens of thousands of people and spilled over into neighbouring states.

"He wants to support the people who have been attacked recently, the refugees and the staff," UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Caux told Reuters on Wednesday by phone from eastern Chad.

She said Guterres would hold talks with President Idriss Deby in N'Djamena on Thursday.

Uganda: Will The ICC Be Buried?

From the Mew Vision

HE has not got it yet, but many in Gulu believe London School of Economics researcher Tim Allen, deserves the title of most unpopular foreigner in town for his new book: Trial Justice, The International Criminal Court and the Lord's Resistance Army".

It is a compelling book about why indicted Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel commanders should be brought to justice at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in spite of determined opposition from the Acholi community in Gulu that has borne the brunt of Kony brutality.

In a foretaste of reactions to his book, when Allen was in Gulu in June 2005, he was rudely confronted by a European expatriate (a draft circulated in February 2005 under the title: War and Justice in Northern Uganda). The expatriate felt "it was not useful".

Many Acholi are also questioning why a European should tell them how to resolve their problems.

Significantly, Allen shows that there is nothing new about the Acholi and others attempting to oppose international justice. He has seen it in many places.

Allen is also a respected scholar of the northern Uganda region. He has been associated with the area for over 20 years, has lived there, and speaks a smattering of Acholi and Madi.

It is impossible to discount his views even when he writes that the so-called mato oput is not the genuine product but a hollow ritual scoffed at by former LRA rebels like Brig. Sam Kolo even as they perform it. Controversially, Allen suggests that the Acholi are living a lie. That many of them not only want justice but they also want vengeance. Allen suggests that fear of the government's wrath might protect former rebels for now, but a time will come when scores will be settled.

The Acholi's main argument is that for 20 years, the international community has looked on indifferently as marauding gangs of Joseph Kony's LRA terrorised the northern Uganda sub-region.

In the process, the people at the epicentre of the wanton brutality have devised an ingenious ploy with roots in their history and culture to appease their tormentors for the sake of peace. The device they employ is called mato oput, a traditional Acholi ritual performed to reconcile communities after a case of killing.

The motive is to show that Kony's victims are ready to reconcile with their tormentors for the sake of peace. It appeared to work, especially when piggy-backing on a government sponsored amnesty for LRA rebels who surrender.

Then in January 2004, President Yoweri Museveni who was not a great admirer of the reconciliation-without-retribution overtures announced that he had referred the case of Kony and his commander to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The President may have sought to regain the political initiative around the northern rebellion as the US Congress passed the "Northern Uganda Crisis Response Act" in the same month. But to the ICC, his referral was a golden opportunity to test its new and untried international legal jurisprudence.

Not surprisingly, President Museveni and the ICC's Chief Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo were together in London when the former announced the referral.

That was mistake Number One for the ICC, according to Tim Allen.

From that point on, Allen says; the ICC lost its mantle of neutrality. It had squandered its credibility. The sense of ICC bias was compounded by its failure or refusal to investigate and indict anyone for crimes allegedly committed by officials of Museveni's government and army.

Darfur: Aid Workers Evacuated, Minawi Commanders Defecting to Rejoin Rebellion

From the AP

The United Nations evacuated more than 70 aid workers from the largest refugee camp in Darfur on Tuesday after gunmen looted their compounds, leaving some 130,000 refugees virtually without humanitarian help.

It was the largest single instance of an aid worker evacuation since the U.N. launched its large-scale humanitarian campaign in war-torn Darfur in 2004. Over the past year, worsening violence has made delivering vital aid to hundreds of thousands of residents difficult or impossible.

A group of over 20 gunmen raided several humanitarian compounds in the South Darfur refugee camp of Gereida late Monday, harassing staff and stealing vehicles, communication equipment and money, the U.N. office for coordination of humanitarian affairs said in a statement.

Though no humanitarian worker was hurt in the attacks, the situation was considered too unsafe and the U.N. said it airlifted 71 aid workers on Tuesday.

The U.N. said it was the eighth evacuation of endangered aid workers it has had to carry out so far this month in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

"More than 400 (workers) have been evacuated this month, the situation is getting worse and worse," said OCHA spokeswoman Dawn Blalock on the telephone from Sudan.

A handful of aid workers chose to remain in Gereida, but the "the vast majority" left the camp, Darfur's largest with some 130,000 refugees, she said.

The attacks were "preventing humanitarian organizations from providing life-saving assistance" to refugees, said UN humanitarian coordinator Manuel Aranda da Silva in the statement.

[edit]

The U.N. said it could not identify the gunmen behind the attack in Gereida, but pointed out that the camp was under the control of men who follow Minni Minawi, the rebel leader who signed the Darfur Peace Agreement with Khartoum.

With radio equipment and twelve vehicles stolen, Blalock said the incident was the single biggest attack on aid workers in Darfur.

Several high ranking commanders from Minawi's rebel group have recently defected to rejoin the rebellion, saying that their leader has become powerless to protect civilians since he agreed to a cease-fire and was named presidential adviser.

A U.N. official in Darfur said Minawi defectors seeking new equipment to resume their fight against the government were suspected in the looting of the U.N. gear. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

[edit]

Jan Pronk, who was expelled from Sudan in October for saying government troops had twice been beaten by rebels, said the U.N. Security Council had done little to defend him when he was expelled.

As a result, "the U.N. (staff) are being marginalized and harassed by the government" in Sudan, Pronk told the Al-Jazeera English TV channel.

"Darfur is in chaos," he said, worrying that the number of evacuated U.N. and aid group staff would further deprive civilians of humanitarian assistance.

Darfur: New UN Envoy Named, NGO Attacked

From the UN News Center

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced that the former General Assembly president and Swedish foreign minister Jan Eliasson has been appointed as a special envoy to deal with the spiralling humanitarian and security crisis in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.

Speaking to reporters in New York at his year-end press conference, Mr. Annan said that he and Secretary-General-designate Ban Ki-moon had agreed to ask Mr. Eliasson – who served as Assembly president during its 60th session in 2005-06 – to serve in the new post.

“I expect him to [assume] his activities [on Sudan] at the beginning of the year,” Mr. Annan said.

Responding to a question, the Secretary-General said Mr. Eliasson’s main task would be to “the work the diplomatic channels,” especially outside Sudan, to encourage governments in their home capitals to remain engaged on the issue.

A new Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan will be designated shortly to replace Jan Pronk of the Netherlands, he added.

[edit]

Tomorrow another UN special envoy, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, will start his diplomatic mission in Khartoum, holding talks with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir to clarify details of recent agreements on ending the fighting in Darfur, including on the role of the UN.

Mr. Ould-Abdallah and Mr. el-Bashir will discuss the deal reached at last month’s High-Level meeting on Darfur, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the UN, the African Union (AU) and Sudan agreed that the UN would provide extra support to the current AU peacekeeping mission – known as AMIS – as part of a three-phase process culminating in AMIS becoming a hybrid UN-AU mission.

The hybrid force is expected to have about 17,000 troops and 3,000 police officers, compared to the current AMIS strength of around 7,000.

Mr. Ould-Abdallah and Mr. el-Bashir will also discuss the outcome of a subsequent AU Peace and Security Council meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, which endorsed the conclusions reached in Addis Ababa.

Under the first phase of enhanced UN support, the UN is giving AMIS a $21 million “light support package,” which includes the provision of some equipment as well as 105 military advisers, 33 police officers and 48 civilian staff from the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) – a separate peacekeeping operation mandated to oversee a peace pact that ended the 21-year war in the country’s south.

The latest UN initiatives to bring peace come as UNMIS reports that on Monday night a group of about 20 unidentified armed men attacked the compounds of two international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the South Darfur town of Gereida, about 90 kilometres south of the state capital, Nyala.

The men stole 12 vehicles and a number of computers from the compounds, although there were no reports of injuries, according to the Mission. Some 71 aid workers have since been temporarily relocated to Nyala for their safety.

The Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative and UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Manuel Aranda da Silva, said the NGOs affected carry out critical work in Gereida, ensuring that about 130,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have access to drinking water, food and basic health care.

“That is why this sort of incident is a huge blow,” he said, adding that aid workers have become increasingly targeted in recent months.

“How can we expect them to carry out humanitarian work without vehicles to get to camps, phones to communicate, and the constant threat to their own physical safety? This is preventing humanitarian organizations from providing lifesaving assistance.”

Chad: Janjaweed Kill, Mutilate Civilians

From AFP

Marauding fighters have killed and mutilated 20 civilians in eastern Chad, the central African country's government said, blaming the atrocities on militias backed by neighbouring Sudan.

"A woman was burned and a man disembowelled" by fighters who killed a total of five Sudanese refugees and 15 Chadian civilians at a refugee camp at the weekend, Communications Minister Moussa Doumgor said in a statement Tuesday.

He blamed the attacks on so-called Janjaweed militias, the horseback raiders allegedly backed by the Sudanese government who are also accused of devastating atrocities against civilians in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Government forces who battled the attackers after their raids on the refugee camp and two other nearby villages also saw eight of their soldiers killed and the victims' eyes gouged out, Doumgor said.

The army killed nine fighters in return and took four prisoners, he added, bringing to 37 the overall civilian and military death toll for the weekend's unrest. Eight Chadian army troops were also injured in the battles, he said.

The raiders targeted the refugee camp at Koukou Arangana, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Chad's eastern border with Sudan, as well as setting fire to two other nearby villages, Aradibe and Habile.

These attacks followed similar raids last month in which Arab horsemen raided and torched villages whose inhabitants are mostly of black African descent. UN and other relief workers likened these attacks to the scorched-earth tactics used by the Janjaweed in Darfur.

Chad's government declared a state of emergency over much of the country after these raids and clashes between members of Arab and non-Arab communities which accompanied them. The violence reportedly killed more than 400 people.

Global human rights group Amnesty International earlier this month said its research on the ground showed that the Darfur conflict had become "deeply entrenched" in eastern Chad, with Janjaweed carrying out attacks on civilians.

From Reuters

Nearly 40 people were killed in clashes between Chad's security forces and Arab raiders on horseback who attacked two eastern villages, burning homes and mutilating their victims, the government said on Tuesday.

It said the attackers, who struck at the weekend, gouged out and carried off the eyes of eight government soldiers they killed and disembowelled one of 15 Chadian civilians also slain.

Five Sudanese refugees from a nearby U.N.-run refugee camp were also killed during the raids on the villages of Aradibe and Habile, which escalated into clashes with the Chadian army on Dec. 16 and 17, the government added.

"The two villages were partially burned down," Communications Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said in a statement, adding that nine of the attackers were killed and four taken prisoner.

He identified the raiders as Janjaweed, a term which loosely signifies "devils on horseback" in Arabic. It is used to designate Arab militiamen who have killed and raped civilians and plundered villages on both sides of Chad's eastern border with Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region.

Foreign humanitarian workers said the attacks took place close to a refugee camp, Goz Amer, run by the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. Civilians displaced by the fighting sought refuge in the camp, which mostly houses Sudanese refugees from Darfur.

The aid workers said the attacks appeared to repeat the pattern of a wave of violence that has swept eastern Chad in recent weeks, in which armed Arabs turned on non-Arab communities. This mirrors the ethnic conflict that has killed tens of thousands in Sudan's Darfur since 2003.

"The witnesses said it was their Arab neighbours who attacked on horseback," one relief worker, who asked not to be identified, said of the weekend raids in east Chad.

"The government response was pretty strong and there are a lot of Chadian army troops in the zone."

Chadian President Idriss Deby has accused neighbouring Sudan of backing and arming both Arab Janjaweed militia raiders striking over the frontier and Chadian rebels fighting a military campaign to end his 16-year rule. Khartoum denies this.

Aid workers said dozens of homes were razed by fire in the weekend raids. The government said a woman was burned to death.

[edit]

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres is due to visit eastern Chad on Friday to see some of the refugee camps along the border which house more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur, as well as displaced Chadians.

Darfur: Annan Sends Emissary, Names Interim Special Envoy

From AFP

Outgoing UN chief Kofi Annan decided to send a senior adviser to Khartoum to clarify Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir's stance on a proposed Darfur peace plan and appointed a new interim special envoy to Sudan.

The Ghanaian secretary general, who is relinquishing his post in two weeks' time, met informally with members of the UN Security Council to inform them that he was sending Ahmadou Ould Abdallah, a UN under secretary general from Mauritania, to deliver a letter to Beshir.

Abdallah is to try to get "as much clarity as possible" on Khartoum's position regarding plans to turn the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in strife-torn Darfur into a "hybrid" AU-UN force, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The Mauritanian troubleshooter is to begin his "one-off" mission Wednesday following a telephone conversation Sunday between Annan and Beshir, the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said after the meeting with Annan that Swedish former foreign minister Jan Eliasson was named interim special representative to Sudan.

The appointment of Eliasson, a popular former president of the UN General Assembly, "was supported by everyone (on the council)," de La Sabliere said.

"Eliasson will give diplomatic diplomatic support to efforts under way to speed up a solution to the (Darfur) crisis" until the appointment of a permanent special representative," Marie Okabe, the deputy UN spokeswoman said.

Eliasson will work in Khartoum until the appointment of a successor to special envoy Jan Pronk, an outspoken Dutch diplomat who was expelled by Khartoum in October for criticizing the performance of the Sudanese army in Darfur and repeatedly pushing for the deployment of UN peacekeepers there.

"We need now some concrete decisions (by Khartoum)," de La Sabliere said. "We hope this letter from the secretary general to President Beshir will help us move forward."

Sudan: Agencies Seek $1.8 Billion for Projects

From IRIN

Humanitarian, recovery and development projects in Sudan will require at least US $1.8 billion in 2007, according to a work plan unveiled by the United Nations, NGOs and the Sudanese government on Tuesday.

Most of the funds – $1.26 billion – are for humanitarian activities for large numbers of people still in considerable need, with nearly half the amount dedicated to the war-torn western region of Darfur.

"The investment we are calling for is critical for Sudan’s transition from a conflict-afflicted nation dependant upon the provision of humanitarian assistance to a nation increasingly capable of providing for the needs of its population," said Manuel Aranda da Silva, Deputy Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General and Humanitarian/Resident Coordinator in Sudan.

Sudan’s humanitarian operation represents the largest slice of the $3.7 billion appeal by the UN Secretary-General for humanitarian assistance worldwide in 2007.

According to the UN, the amount requested for recovery and development has more than doubled, reflecting the commitment to continue rebuilding infrastructure, especially in the south where, for the first time, recovery and development operations have exceeded humanitarian activities.

The ongoing humanitarian programme in Darfur will require more than $650 million, while humanitarian and recovery operations in the south will require $627 million, the work plan noted.

Nearly four million people have been affected by conflict in the country and most of the two million internally displaced (IDPs) in Darfur are expected to remain dependant upon direct food aid.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned on Tuesday that the recent upsurge in fighting in Darfur had scattered thousands of people into remote areas and distant villages.

Since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement last May, violence against civilians and aid workers has increased in the region. According to agencies, more than 480,000 people have been affected by the renewed clashes.

"One of the most serious consequences of the upsurge in fighting in all three Darfur states since the end of the rainy season has been the increase in the number of people displaced from villages that have been attacked or lie close to front lines," the ICRC said.

Unexploded ordnance in and around Darfur villages, it warned, was also a threat to people and animals. "Anyone who touches an UXO [unexploded ordnance] is likely to be killed, or at best maimed, if it explodes," the ICRC said, noting, however, that clearance was ongoing.

Last week, Concern Worldwide, Goal, International Rescue Committee, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam International and World Vision warned that recent attacks by armed militias in North and West Darfur States had destabilised the region further, forcing aid agencies to evacuate 250 international staff members in December.

"If the deterioration is allowed to continue, the impact on civilians could be devastating. With new displacements and attacks, the presence of aid agencies is more important than ever. Yet every day brings one huge blow after another to aid efforts," said Paul Smith-Lomas, Regional Director for Oxfam.

One agency evacuated staff manning an operation in Shaeria, South Darfur, which was supporting 130,000 people, after armed men assaulted them and stole three vehicles. About 20,000 IDPs had just arrived in El Daein to join another 30,000. In North Darfur, more than 100,000 IDPs were without support after agencies pulled staff out of Kutum.

"There is a general decline in security right across Darfur," said Oxfam spokeswoman Caroline Nursey, adding that the North Darfur capital of El Fasher, with a sprawling refugee camp of 100,000 people, was at particular risk.

DRC: Security Crucial to Kabila’s Success

From IRIN

Joseph Kabila won Congo's first democratic presidential elections in decades, but now the 35-year-old former guerrilla leader faces the daunting task of rebuilding from scratch a country almost the size of western Europe.

Apart from resettling internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees in neighbouring countries, he needs to address widespread insecurity and human-rights abuses, including sexual violence committed by government troops and different militias, and reintegrate ex-combatants into society.

There is also a lack of basic medical facilities in a country where an estimated 1,200 people die every day and 80 percent of the population is considered food insecure.

"The population is fed up with war," Ross Mountain, United Nations Deputy Special Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator for the DRC, said in New York recently. "That is the bottom line."

The UN and partner agencies estimate they require US$687 million next year to deliver essential relief aid and humanitarian support to affected communities across the country.

"We hope that 2007 will be a year for the return of the most of the refugees and IDPs," said Jens Hesman, external relations officer at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kinshasa.

"But there is still some concern because conditions for return have not been met, with human-rights violations in the east," he added. "For example, it is difficult for returnees to come back to North Kivu province while there is fighting."

According to the UNCHR, there are an estimated 1.2 million IDPs in the DRC and 410,000 refugees in neighbouring countries - excluding 35,000 who came back in 2006 to Katanga and South Kivu provinces.

Darfur: It Is Best to Stay Out

An op-ed by Christopher Caldwell in The Finanical Times

Those urging military action in Darfur have in recent days been joined by influential US and UK policymakers. The Islamist government of Sudan has not only encouraged so-called Janjaweed militias to run riot in the rebellious province, where roughly 200,000 have died. It is also refusing to admit 20,000 United Nations peacekeepers, who would supplement 7,000 overburdened African Union soldiers already there. The west is showing signs that it has had enough. This week, Tony Blair, prime minister, urged a no-fly zone over Darfur. There have been hints of a US "Plan B" to be implemented in the new year, and this newspaper reported on Wednesday that the US had drawn up plans for a naval blockade.

There is a hitch, though, to any international intervention. China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil and has invested $7bn (£3.6bn) there. Hence Khartoum's double-digit growth, its stock exchange, its new office buildings. China - like Russia before the Kosovo war or France before the Iraq one - might exercise its veto on the UN Security Council. Therefore, some Nato "coalition of the willing" might have to "go it alone" in Darfur. Prominent former officials from the Clinton administration have urged just such a course. But Darfur is a problem the west should touch only with a very long stick.

Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudanese leader, says there are fewer than 9,000 dead and that all this talk of mass killings is only the pretext for invading a Muslim country. He is either lying or mistaken, but that does not matter. Much of the Muslim world believes the US attacked Afghanistan for its natural gas reserves, not because of 9/11. Anti-Americanism is such a powerful force that whenever the US involves itself in anything, US power becomes the issue. American public opinion, sensing this, has grown isolationist. A common strandof thought in the wake of November's elections is that the world - not just the Muslim world but an important part of Europe, too - has pronounced its verdict on US influence; now let the world see how it likes the consequences. Americans may have enough patience to unravel the misadventure in Iraq, but they are not calling for an encore. Only 7 per cent of Americans consider Darfur a top foreign policy priority, according to an NBC News poll in October.

George W. Bush, US president, tried to raise the temperatureby describing Darfur as a "genocide" at the UN in September. This was a mistake. Genocide, as most people understand it, means trying to exterminate a race. But under the 1948 convention that the UN uses, it means a variety of acts, including non-lethal ones such as "causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group", that are "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". The words "in part" mean that almost any indiscriminate killing of civilians can constitute genocide. Meanwhile, International Criminal Court prosecutors announced on Thursday that they were preparing the first Darfur-related arrest warrants, another mistake. Threatening leaders with life sentences in the Hague turns a situation that might conceivably be resolved by diplomacy into a fight to the death.

One can argue about whether this is a genocide, but the pictures being evoked in western minds are oversimplifications. Darfur is not just sadists on one hand and victims on the other. It is a war. We have only the vaguest picture of what kind of war it is. Is it a race war, pitting the Arabs of Khartoum against the blacks of Darfur? Is it a civil war over money and natural resources? (The rebels, too,have looted aid convoys and clashed with African Union peacekeepers.) Is Khartoum running a classic, Guatemalan-style, dry-up-the-fishpond counter-insurgency? Or is this just one front in a brewing east Africa-wide war of Islamist expansion, of which the guerrilla war in Chad and the threats of Somalia's new fundamentalist leaders against Ethiopia are all a part?

Which of these wars do we think we are joining? On whose side? The aftermath of toppling Saddam Hussein shows this question to be nearly unanswerable. But it would be hard to intervene without making enemies. The one action with the best chance of changing the mind of Khartoum - destroying or blockading its oil industry - would greatly impoverish the 35m Sudanese who are not Darfuri.

The decision about which war to fight would be taken out of western hands the moment troops started landing. The number of troops necessary to pacify Darfur is often placed at 20,000, with only 5,000 elite western troops necessary to do the "heavy lifting", as The New Republic puts it.

These numbers may be wild underestimates. What if Khartoum attacked the Christian south again, confronting Nato - much as Slobodan Milosevic did when he began razing Kosovar villages after air attacks - with a choice between exposure of its hypocrisy or a massive commitment of ground troops?

Some people seem to be nostalgic for the pre-September 11 days when the west could fight symbolic wars against marginal countries in the name of human rights. Others see a chance to restore the west's humanitarian credentials, after the political quagmire in Iraq. This betrays a short memory and mistakes the war's outcome for the war's rationale. Iraq, too, was once a humanitarian cause.

But the lesson - not just of Iraq but also of the debacles in Somalia and Kosovo that made it possible - is that there is no such thing as a humanitarian invasion. The west can destroy the Sudanese government and punish its leaders, as in Iraq. It can support one group of brigands over another, as in Kosovo. It can feed people for a while, as in Somalia. However, humanitarian their motivations, though, military operations turn political the moment they are launched, with consequences that are wildly unpredictable.

Darfur: Richardson Asked to Travel to Sudan

From the AP

Governor Richardson has been asked to travel to Sudan to help persuade the country's government to accept a peacekeeping force in the war-torn Darfur region.

The request comes from a Washington, DC-based group, the Save Darfur Coalition.

A Richardson spokesman, Pahl Shipley, says the governor is honored by the request and would like to help. Shipley says Richardson is consulting with the State Department, the Sudanese government and the United Nations.

Darfur: More Relief Workers Leave

From AFP

Some 124 nongovernmental and United Nations employees have left Darfur in the latest evacuation of relief workers from Sudan's turmoil-torn region, the Swiss humanitarian group Terre des Hommes (TDH) said.

"It's a decision that's been pushed back for some time and carries heavy consequences for populations enduring the planet's most serious humanitarian crisis," the group's relief director Ignacio Packer said in a statement about the relief workers flown out of Darfur Sunday.

Violent incidents have been on the rise lately in Darfur, a vast western region of Sudan where the humanitarian situation has steadily deteriorated. At least 200,000 people have died of the combined effect of war and famine since fighting there erupted almost four years ago, the UN says, although others offer far higher tolls.

TDH, which evacuated 5 employees Sunday, has suspended its Darfur operations until January, although it retains a skeleton staff in the region.

"The violence is peaking," the group warned, as it denounced attacks by government-backed Arab militias in Darfur. "Incidents and attacks are multiplying against displaced people and humanitarian personnel."

The evacuations follow the exodus from Darfur of 250 employees of international non-governmental organisations, announced Friday by the relief agency Oxfam International.

Chad: War Goes on Despite Conciliation Move

Two related articles:

From Reuters

Chad rebel groups waging war against President Idriss Deby on Monday dismissed reconciliation talks between one insurgent leader and the government as a "non-event" and vowed to launch further attacks.

Deby on Sunday received Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim, a rebel military chief whose forces raided the capital N'Djamena in April in a daring attack that brought the anti-Deby insurgency to the attention of the international community.

Chadian presidency officials told Reuters the two men, who met in the eastern Chadian town of Guereda near the Sudan border, discussed the possibility of Nour, an ex-army captain, returning to the government side.

But while the government sought to portray the meeting as the fruit of an "open arms" reconciliation policy, other rebel groups united in an anti-Deby alliance said it would mean no let-up in their recently intensified military campaign.

"For us, it's a non-event. It will have no impact on the military front," Makaida Nguebla, a spokesman in Dakar for the National Rally for Democracy (RND), one of the groups in the alliance, told Reuters.

Nguebla and other rebel spokesmen said Nour had become isolated since April from other Chadian insurgent groups, whose ranks had been swelled by fighters abandoning his United Front for Democratic Change (FUC), which was split by factional feuds.

"As far as the political-military opposition (against Deby) is concerned, he (Nour) represents almost nothing," said Yaya Dillo Djerou, another spokesman for the unified rebel command.

"The rebellion is continuing, until there is a change of regime," Djerou, speaking by satellite phone, said.

From VOA

Chad rebels are dismissing an effort by President Idriss Deby to reach out to one of the many rebel movements operating near the border with Sudan. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from our regional bureau in Dakar that there has been a recent lull in rebel operations, but intercommunal violence is being reported again.

A Dakar-based Chadian rebel spokesman says Mahamat Nour, who met Sunday with Mr. Deby in eastern Chad, is already being discounted by other rebels.

Makaila Nguebla says Nour, a former Chadian army captain, was a bad leader, with no vision and dwindling support.

Chadian forces rebuffed Nour's fighters in April after they made it all the way to the capital Ndjamena. Since then, rebels have split into many movements, sometimes even firing at each other.

The rebels have adopted a strategy of briefly occupying different towns, before retreating after fighting government soldiers.

The Dakar-based rebel spokesman says Nour should watch out before making any deals with President Deby.

He says any serious negotiation should involve officials from the United Nations and the African Union.

Government officials have said negotiations with Nour are ongoing. They have also said other rebel movements were crushed during recent fighting in the east.

But Nguebla who keeps constant contact with rebel commanders says they organized what he calls a tactical retreat.

He says they are in an area near Biltine, a town which has been the scene of heavy fighting.

During the past few days, there were also reports of what Chad's government calls janjaweed-style attacks near a refugee camp for civilians from Sudan's Darfur province.

[edit]

London-based analyst Adrien Feniou for the Global Insight group says the link between Chad's rebels and janjaweed movements is possible, even if confusing.

"It seems that there could be coordination between these intercommunal attacks and the rebel attacks, so when the rebels are quiet these janjaweed sort of appear out of the blue," Feniou said. "I am not sure where they come from, who they represent, and why they are attacking who they are attacking."

Chad: Horrific Trip Into a Massacre

From the New York Daily News

Once we arrived in Kerfi, we ran into a member of Chad's military police. His face was contorted in desperation.

Two of his officers had been killed in recent Janjaweed attacks, he told us, and he had no way of getting in touch with his superiors in Goz Beida, the town where we were heading.

He begged to use our satellite phone to call in reinforcements. We refused. This is no place for journalists to get caught up in military affairs.

But then we were confronted with a different, more dire request. A man had been shot by the Janjaweed a day before. Could we take him with us to the hospital in Goz Beida, his friends asked.

Moments later, Khamis Mahamat, 37, was lifted into the back of our vehicle. The weapons that his friends placed beside him - a bow and arrows and spears - had to be removed, we told them. They would only make us targets.

Mahamat groaned every time our vehicle jostled, which meant that he was moaning in pain throughout the two-hour journey to Goz Beida. But at least he made it there alive.

It was only after we arrived at the hospital that we heard Mahamat's story.

He was returning home from the market with a group of his fellow villagers when they spotted six camels in the road - an unusual sight that should have tipped them off that the Janjaweed were nearby.

A shot rang out from the trees where the nomads were hiding. The bullet went astray, but within moments, an Arab on horseback had reached the group of villagers.

"You are dogs and slaves," the Kalashnikov-carrying Arab barked, according to Ahamat Idriss, 25. "Get down from your donkeys."

Mahamat and the others obeyed, Idriss said. Without warning, the militiaman whipped out his rifle and shot Mahamat.

The bullet tore through his right kidney, splitting it in two. Dr. Sangalli Ambrogio, the only doctor at the Goz Beida hospital, operated on Mahamat for nearly two hours.

Ambrogio left the operating room with good news: The wounded man would live. If we had not brought him to the hospital, the doctor told us, "he would have surely died."

Our feeling of pride didn't last, however.

Mahamat appeared to be paralyzed, Ambrogio told us. The bullet that split his kidney also severed a nerve in his back, the doctor suspected.

In this region of the world that has become synonymous with genocide, such news wasn't completely devastating. Though paralyzed, Mahamat was still one of the lucky ones.

He was alive.

Darfur: Crisis Takes Another Turn for the Worse

From the Financial Times

Aid workers have been beaten up and shot at and had their vehicles stolen at gunpoint as escalating violence has forced some 250 staff to be evacuated from Darfur - a move thought to be unprecedented even in that crisis-ridden region's recent history. Over the same period, angry crowds attacked African Union peacekeepers while they investigated the deaths of more than 30 civilians, forcing them to take refuge in a police station.

The catalogue of incidents over the past 10 days shows how the already dire situation in Darfur has taken another turn for the worse. It also reiterates the ineffectiveness of the 7,000-strong AU force at a time when Khartoum is under mounting pressure to accept international peacekeepers or face tough new action from western powers.

The crisis, combined with Khartoum's refusal to accept the deployment of a hybrid United Nations-AU force, has caused Tony Blair, the UK prime minister, to back the possible implementation of a no-fly zone over Darfur and for Washington to consider other military options.

Writing in today's FT, 15 former foreign ministers urge the implementation of sanctions and other measures against Khartoum if it continues to resist the creation of the hybrid force.

However, Ghazi Salaheddin, an adviser to Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, told the FT yesterday that the government was receiving mixed signals and had had no official indications that new measures were planned.

He said a meeting last week between Mr Bashir and Andrew Natsios, the US special envoy, had been productive and that the government received "positive" signs over the issue of UN Security Council resolution 1706, which authorised the deployment of an international force.

Still, much of the blame for the upsurge in violence is being heaped on the government, which is accused of re-mobilising notorious Arab militias. The militiamen are responsible for some of the worst atrocities in a conflict that has caused the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people and forced another 2m from their homes.

The UN plan to bolster the AU force has three phases. The government has accepted the first, which includes the deployment of advisers, and also broadly the second phase, although details are still being worked out. But it has refused the final element, which calls for a 17,000-strong force supported by 3,000 police, because of disagreements over its size and whether the UN should have a function in its command. Sudan insists it be led by the AU, with the UN in only a supporting role.

Even if Khartoum did do an about-face and agree, it would take at least six months for the hybrid force to take shape.

Aid workers, analysts and diplomats say there are now so many armed groups in Darfur it is difficult to tell who is fighting whom or who is allied with whom.

Security has been on a downward spiral since one rebel faction signed an ineffective agreement with the government in May.

Since then other rebel groups have splintered and an alliance of factions opposed to the agreement, calling itself the National Redemption Force, has emerged and launched offensives against the government.

A Sudanese analyst believes that the situation is being exacerbated by the west's preoccupation with an international force.

He said: "Darfur is a very complex thing. There are so many elements, which you cannot deal with at one and the same time. You need a lot of people to work on the different levels."

The conflict, which erupted in 2003, was fuelled by many factors: the struggle for resources in an impoverished, marginalised region, tribal issues, clashes between farmers and nomads, and a regional "conflict system" involving neigh-bouring countries, the analyst said.

Darfur: Fresh Violence Erupts

From AFP

Sudanese troops killed seven Darfur rebels when fresh fighting erupted in the war-torn western region, a government official told the state-run news agency SUNA.

"The army inflicted heavy losses on the attackers from the National Redemption Front (NRF)," Idriss Abdallah, interim minister of North Darfur state, was quoted as saying.

"Seven rebels were killed, others were captured, four of their vehicles were destroyed and two others seized" during the fighting, which took place Saturday, he added.

The NRF groups rebel factions in Darfur that did not sign a peace agreement in May between Khartoum and the Sudan Liberation Movement that aimed to end four years of unrest.

Abdallah said the rebels had attacked the village of Sabah, but withdrew when the army launched a counter-offensive.

Darfur: UN to Send Envoy to Discuss 'Hybrid' Force

From AFP

The United Nations is to send a special envoy to Sudan to coordinate assistance to the embattled African Union force deployed in war-torn Darfur, state media have reported.

Outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan "said he wanted to dispatch a UN under secretary, Ahmadou Ould Abdallah, to discuss with the government means of providing the support decided in Abuja," the Akhbar Al-Yom daily said Monday.

Annan made the offer to send the Mauritanian UN official in a phone call Sunday to Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, it added.

Sudan accepted a three-phase plan in Abuja late last month whereby the UN would offer assistance to the under-funded 7,000-strong AU contingent currently struggling to contain the four-year-old violence in Darfur.

The UN support package's first two stages consist of technical and logistical assistance but the third aims at turning the African contingent into a "hybrid" AU-UN force and has yet to be approved by Beshir.

Sudanese, UN and AU officials met Monday to discuss the package, African Mission in Sudan spokesman Nureddin Mezni told AFP.

He said the talks had been positive, but added they had been suspended until the arrival of the new envoy.

Darfur: Sudan to Allow UN Rights Team

From AFP

Sudan's justice minister said he was ready to cooperate with a UN fact-finding team due to investigate human rights abuses in war-torn Darfur, newspapers have reported.

State-run dailies quoted Mohammed Ali al-Mardhi as saying Monday that Sudan had agreed to "remove all obstacles" in order to allow the team of experts to probe cases of rights violations in the western region.

The mission is expected to hold talks with all parties involved in the four-year-old conflict that has left at least 200,000 people dead and two million displaced, according to the UN.

Mardhi stressed that "the authorities have nothing to hide" and urged the fact-finding team to produce a "balanced report".

Darfur: Sanctions Would Force Change of Policy

An op-ed from 15 former foreign ministers in the Financial Times

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has demonstrated he will act only in what he perceives to be his own best interests. If the international community is to protect the people of Darfur, it must therefore convince Mr Bashir that his best interests are served by allowing deployment of an effective international peacekeeping force. For several years, skilled diplomats have attempted, in vain, to persuade him that this is the case. Obviously more effort is needed; it is time to increase the pressure on Khartoum.

The surest way to save lives in Darfur would be through a fully observed ceasefire leading to a sustained political settlement that allows refugees and the displaced to return to their homes. In the interim, the under-manned and under-equipped African Union peacekeeping force must be enlarged and strengthened. In meetings in Addis Ababa and Abuja last month, a broad diplomatic coalition recommended a hybrid force that would combine AU personnel with financial, logistics and other support from the United Nations. In the past, President Bashir has claimed that outside efforts to save lives in Darfur were a ploy to mask western interference in Sudan’s internal affairs. The Addis-Abuja proposal clearly negates that claim, coming as it does with support from the AU, Arab League and UN Security Council (including China). This is an African and Arab-supported plan to save Sudanese lives. Mr Bashir has no more excuses.

As former diplomats, we support one last effort to persuade Khartoum to accept the proposal for a hybrid force. If by the year’s end Mr Bashir still refuses or, more likely, continues pretending to agree one day and saying no the next, he should pay a stiff price. That price should include, first, targeted multilateral sanctions (such as travel bans and asset freezes) directed at military and civilian leaders who are responsible for the violence; second, measures to target revenue from Sudan’s oil sales, coupled with an embargo on the sale of equipment to that country’s petroleum industry; and third, steps to close offshore accounts affiliated with the government-majority party, including militias. The price should also include intensified investigations by the International Criminal Court into those who order or commit crimes against humanity in Darfur. Will such sanctions suffice to change Mr Bashir’s mind and Sudan’s policy? We believe the answer is yes, provided the sanctions are sufficiently comprehensive and multilateral.

If tough new measures are to be applied against Khartoum, they must be as broad-based as possible, at least extending beyond the US and UK to the whole European Union, and with maximum support from the Security Council. It would help if a broad coalition, such as the actors at Addis Ababa last month, led the diplomacy. A standing contact group might foster co-ordinated efforts of the international community.

Determined international action in Darfur is essential for humanitarian reasons and is fully consistent with the “responsibility to protect” principle unanimously endorsed by world leaders last year. Under this principle, the rights of sovereignty – though otherwise unimpaired – do not include a license to kill (or allow to be killed) masses of unarmed human beings. Urgent action is required also because Darfur demonstrates the reality that conflict is contagious. The widening strife requires an international diplomatic effort to put in place a protective UN peacekeeping mission in Chad and the Central African Republic, Sudan’s troubled neighbours. Diplomacy is also required to find a permanent political solution to the Darfur conflict. To this end, there should be a renewed effort to unite the splintered rebel groups there into an effective negotiating body; dialogue among local leaders should be encouraged; and representatives of all sides in Darfur should be included in future talks.

The Darfur conflict is more complex than often characterised. It does not simply reflect but rather cuts across tribal, Arab v African, and farmer v herder stereotypes. It is coloured by local grievances and aggravated by greed, which takes the form of banditry and competition for scarce resources. The primary cause of the ongoing crisis, however, remains the callousness of the governing elite, intent on preserving its own privileges and indifferent to its population.

President Bashir must be convinced that his best interests will be served by allowing a hybrid international force to deploy in Darfur – not for the purpose of occupation but for humanitarian goals. He must be convinced it is in his interest to participate constructively in a diplomatic process that will guarantee security for the region and enable a lasting settlement. It appears unlikely at this point that he will come to these realisations based on efforts to convince him through persuasion alone. Well-chosen words must be reinforced by carefully-designed and rigorously-enforced sanctions. Sudan has a responsibility to protect its people. The world has a responsibility to see that it does.


Madeleine Albright (US); Lloyd Axworthy (Canada); Ismail Cem (Turkey); Erik Derycke (Belgium); Lamberto Dini (Italy); Gareth Evans (Australia); Joschka Fischer (Germany); Bronislaw Geremek (Poland); Rosario Green (Mexico); Niels Helveg Petersen (Denmark); Surin Pitsuwan (Thailand); Hubert Védrine (France); Ana Palacio (Spain); Lydie Polfer (Luxembourg); Jozias van Aartsen (The Netherlands)

Darfur: The Cold Wind of Death

From the Independent

A heavy yellow-brown fog hung over Gereida in the remote western reaches of Darfur yesterday, a place that a year ago was empty desert scrub and which is today the largest refugee camp in the world. It was cold, somewhere about 5C. The air was charged with particles of choking sand.

This is not what you expect in Sudan, where most of the year the baking heat of a relentless sun turns the hard, unyielding plain into a giant griddle.

The 120,000 people who have fled to this barren place from the fighting between rebel groups and the Sudanese army with its Janjaweed militia, today huddle together for warmth beneath a cold cloudy sky. The weather has been this cold for weeks.

There is something else which comes as a shock. To reach the camp, any visitor must traverse a vast moonscape whose unending horizon is broken only by the occasional scrubby thorn bush. All around, for hundreds of miles, the landscape is marked by empty villages, some burnt-out, others abandoned to the dust devils that whip across the bare soil.

But when you arrive in Gereida you find it is not the guns and bombs of the constant fighting in Darfur that are the greatest evil. Few here perish from wounds of war. "Some 95 or 96 per cent of people die from infection, pneumonia or malaria are the big killers," says Joanna Kotcher, the medical co-ordinator of the health centre set up four months ago in the camp by the medical agency Merlin, one of the three charities being supported by The Independent Christmas Appeal this year. "The biggest killer is the environment. The camp is a place of refuge but also a place of infection."

[edit]

The diseases they treat change with the weather. In the heat, malaria was the big killer, particularly cerebral malaria which can progress from first symptoms to death can take just 15 hours. Now, with the cold and extreme levels of dust in the air it is pneumonia.

But the underlying problem is that nearly every child in the camp is under-nourished. They are living off cereals and a little oil. With no fruit or vegetables, they suffer vitamin deficiencies which Merlin tries to rectify with supplements. But when children become severely malnourished they can die from ailments as simple as diarrhoea.

Such illnesses thrive in camp environments where clean water and sanitation are poor. International agencies are doing their best to address the problem. Oxfam has sunk deep wells which are providing good-quality water.

Each family has been asked to dig a latrine and agencies have supplied plastic or concrete covers for them. "That way, we can try to avoid the use of open land for defecation which causes diseases," says Ms Kotcher, a health worker for 13 years in hotspots including Kosovo and Afghan-istan. "And Merlin does health education to make sure families understand the importance of latrines and washing."

It is an uphill task. Camp life is arduous. Women spend five hours a day collecting firewood to cook. Children queue for four hours a day for water which they collect in five- or 10-litre cans and struggle back to their flimsy shelters

"If you look at the sheer numbers you can feel overwhelmed," Ms Kotcher says. "But the patients we see every day very much appreciate our presence. We can't help everybody but every child with malaria that we do help is someone saved from needless death. I feel we're making a big difference."

What is needed now, she says, is more personnel. "It's difficult to recruit people for Darfur. With such a very harsh environment, there's a high turnover in aid workers. And from the international community we need money, food and medicines. "The situation is very critical. Day-to-day life is so stark and the needs so great. We need not let these people fall between the cracks."

The greatest need now, she says, is for more blankets. "Children lose body heat rapidly. There are no hills, trees or barriers to the wind, no shelter, no proper buildings or tents, just structures of branches, cloth and bits of blue plastic. There is no warm place to put the children in thin clothing."

Aid agencies have distributed one blanket per family. Most families have five children. "The aim now," Joanna Kotcher says, "is to get two blankets per family." In a world of plenty, it seems a modest aspiration.

A heavy yellow-brown fog hung over Gereida in the remote western reaches of Darfur yesterday, a place that a year ago was empty desert scrub and which is today the largest refugee camp in the world. It was cold, somewhere about 5C. The air was charged with particles of choking sand.

This is not what you expect in Sudan, where most of the year the baking heat of a relentless sun turns the hard, unyielding plain into a giant griddle.

The 120,000 people who have fled to this barren place from the fighting between rebel groups and the Sudanese army with its Janjaweed militia, today huddle together for warmth beneath a cold cloudy sky. The weather has been this cold for weeks.

There is something else which comes as a shock. To reach the camp, any visitor must traverse a vast moonscape whose unending horizon is broken only by the occasional scrubby thorn bush. All around, for hundreds of miles, the landscape is marked by empty villages, some burnt-out, others abandoned to the dust devils that whip across the bare soil.

But when you arrive in Gereida you find it is not the guns and bombs of the constant fighting in Darfur that are the greatest evil. Few here perish from wounds of war. "Some 95 or 96 per cent of people die from infection, pneumonia or malaria are the big killers," says Joanna Kotcher, the medical co-ordinator of the health centre set up four months ago in the camp by the medical agency Merlin, one of the three charities being supported by The Independent Christmas Appeal this year. "The biggest killer is the environment. The camp is a place of refuge but also a place of infection."

Merlin has been working in Darfur since 2004, running 15 health centres and mobile clinics in a region where Sudan's Ministry of Health has ceased to function. This year, Merlin's teams, funded by the EU and US government, have provided medical care to approximately 150,000 people. But it was only in September that they were able to set up in Gereida.

It is a delicate operation. Many aid agencies have pulled out of the region because of the deteriorating security. Just weeks after setting up in Gereida, the Merlin team had to be airlifted to safety by UN helicopters when rebels seized the camp. The medics returned a few weeks later.

Merlin's clinics provide primary health care services, such as vaccinations, pre- and post-natal care, and screening for malnutrition. Pregnant mothers are given food supplements, mosquito nets and anti-malarials. "At present, we can treat about 400 patients a day," says Ms Kotcher. "But we're about to start a programme to go out to the edge of the camp which will reach a further 4,000 people."

The charity meets only a fraction of the need in a camp so large it takes two hours to walk from the furthest edges of the camps to the Merlin clinic, a lot longer for a woman carrying a sick child.
The diseases they treat change with the weather. In the heat, malaria was the big killer, particularly cerebral malaria which can progress from first symptoms to death can take just 15 hours. Now, with the cold and extreme levels of dust in the air it is pneumonia.

But the underlying problem is that nearly every child in the camp is under-nourished. They are living off cereals and a little oil. With no fruit or vegetables, they suffer vitamin deficiencies which Merlin tries to rectify with supplements. But when children become severely malnourished they can die from ailments as simple as diarrhoea.

Such illnesses thrive in camp environments where clean water and sanitation are poor. International agencies are doing their best to address the problem. Oxfam has sunk deep wells which are providing good-quality water.

Each family has been asked to dig a latrine and agencies have supplied plastic or concrete covers for them. "That way, we can try to avoid the use of open land for defecation which causes diseases," says Ms Kotcher, a health worker for 13 years in hotspots including Kosovo and Afghan-istan. "And Merlin does health education to make sure families understand the importance of latrines and washing."

It is an uphill task. Camp life is arduous. Women spend five hours a day collecting firewood to cook. Children queue for four hours a day for water which they collect in five- or 10-litre cans and struggle back to their flimsy shelters

"If you look at the sheer numbers you can feel overwhelmed," Ms Kotcher says. "But the patients we see every day very much appreciate our presence. We can't help everybody but every child with malaria that we do help is someone saved from needless death. I feel we're making a big difference."

What is needed now, she says, is more personnel. "It's difficult to recruit people for Darfur. With such a very harsh environment, there's a high turnover in aid workers. And from the international community we need money, food and medicines. "The situation is very critical. Day-to-day life is so stark and the needs so great. We need not let these people fall between the cracks."

The greatest need now, she says, is for more blankets. "Children lose body heat rapidly. There are no hills, trees or barriers to the wind, no shelter, no proper buildings or tents, just structures of branches, cloth and bits of blue plastic. There is no warm place to put the children in thin clothing."

Aid agencies have distributed one blanket per family. Most families have five children. "The aim now," Joanna Kotcher says, "is to get two blankets per family." In a world of plenty, it seems a modest aspiration.

Darfur: UN to Deploy 183 Servicemen, Experts

From Kuna

Some 183 UN servicemen and experts are to be deployed in Sudan's Darfur region next week as part of UN technical, logistic and consultative support for African forces there, a Sudanese official said here Sunday.

A trilateral meeting is expected to be held on Monday between representatives from the Sudanese government, the UN and the African Union (AU) on the starting of the UN logistic mission, said Al-Sadek Al-Moqli, an official of the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The first stage of the mission provides for deploying 105 servicemen, 33 policemen and 45 civilian experts, in addition to logistic and technical communication equipment, he said, noting that they will be under the AU's control.

The second stage of the mission will be put in place early next year.

Darfur: Push China

An op-ed from Eric Reeves in The Boston Globe

Despite the public hand-wringing and disingenuous bluster, the United States and its allies have acquiesced before Khartoum's defiance, and in China's determination to protect its biggest investment in Africa. Over the past decade, $10 billion in capital and commercial investments have bought China a dominant position in Sudan's burgeoning oil industry, which now produces 400,000 barrels a day. Indeed, Sudan is China's largest source of off-shore oil production.

In a sense, Western -- and chiefly American -- advocacy efforts have enjoyed remarkable success: Darfur has a visibility that is astonishing, given the remoteness and inaccessibility of the region. But these efforts must become more globally effective: European civil society is woefully inactive responding to Darfur. Even more critically, however, China must feel the pressure.

This is a tall order, given China's imperviousness to foreign criticism of its increasingly rapacious behavior abroad. But the 2008 Olympic Games provide precisely the political platform that Beijing so ruthlessly suppresses domestically. The games represent for China a "coming out" event -- a chance to show itself anew to a world whose memories of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre have largely faded. Despite continuing gross human rights abuses throughout China, and the brutal repression of Tibet, Beijing feels the moment is ripe.

Darfur advocacy needs to change this -- needs to link "Darfur" indissolubly in the world's consciousness with "2008 Olympic Games in China." China is already rolling out the welcome carpet. These ruthless men must be convinced that their failure to persuade Khartoum to allow UN troops and civilian police into Darfur will make of the Olympics a gigantic protest venue. The Chinese leadership must be forced to make a choice: work now to halt genocide in Darfur, or see the Olympic Games used, at every turn, as a means of highlighting the Chinese role in sustaining the ultimate human crime.

This sort of advocacy will be difficult. But then nothing else can save Darfur.

Chad: President Meets Rebel Leader

From the AP

Chadian President Idriss Deby met Sunday with the leader of a rebel group that attacked the capital in April, a meeting that could signal a break in a recent surge of violence.

Deby's one-hour meeting with rebel chief Mahamed Nour came a week after a bloody battle near Biltine, 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the Sudanese border. Both men discussed policy and the "possibilities of a return home" for Nour, according to a presidential press statement.

Nour was once a supporter of Deby but has since tried to topple his administration. The competition for power has become more intense since Chad began exporting oil in 2004.

Deby and Nour met Sunday in the eastern town of Guereda.

The violence in eastern Chad has raised fears that Sudan's Darfur conflict is spilling across the border. The rebels launched a failed attack on the capital, N'djamena, in April and have established bases in Darfur. They also briefly seized the city of Abeche last month.

Uganda: LRA Tells Pesident to Watch His Words

From Reuters

Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels said on Monday President Yoweri Museveni should "control his tongue" after he denounced the shadowy guerrillas as "Satan's Resistance Army" at a summit of regional leaders.

The two sides are holding stop-start talks in neighbouring southern Sudan to try to end 20 years of war that have forced nearly 2 million people from their homes in northern Uganda.

Speaking by satellite phone from southern Sudan's capital Juba, LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny said Museveni's remarks last week were disappointing but would not derail the negotiations.

"For the president to make this statement at a time of peace talks is really inappropriate. He should learn to control his tongue," Olweny told Reuters.

Hours before discussions resumed in Juba on Thursday, the frank-speaking Museveni launched his verbal attack during a meeting in Kenya of leaders from Africa's Great Lakes region.

"They normally call it Lord's Resistance Army," Museveni said of the notoriously brutal group, which has said it wants to rule Uganda according to the Biblical Ten Commandments.

"In fact, it is Satan's Resistance Army," Museveni said.

Uganda: Government and LRA Extend Landmark Truce

From Reuters

The Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels extended a landmark truce until the end of February, the rebels said on Saturday.

Peace talks between the two sides resumed in the southern Sudanese capital Juba on Thursday, three weeks after the LRA walked out, accusing the Ugandan army of ambushing their fighters in violation of an August truce.

Despite mistrust and accusations of violations on both sides, the ceasefire has largely held, raising hopes for an end to 20 years of civil war which could allow 1.4 million refugees to return home.

"This is an extension of the agreement we already made," LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny said by satellite phone from Juba.

"It's a sign of progress because it shows the peace talks are still in force." Negotiators for the government were not immediately available for comment.

The ceasefire requires LRA forces to assemble in two places in southern Sudan while talks continue.

The rebels missed two earlier deadlines for gathering in the agreed areas. They said the Ugandan army was deploying aggressively around them every time they tried.

Independent monitors found both sides had violated the truce, the army by opening fire on the LRA, the LRA by wandering hundreds of miles from the agreed assembly areas.

The latest renewal gives the LRA a further month to gather from the date of signing. But neither side expects to make substantial progress towards a final deal anytime soon.

"The cessation of hostilities is just the start. The sticking points are the other substantive issues still in the agenda," Olweny said.

Darfur: AU Blames Khartoum for Worsening Situation

From Reuters

The African Union (AU) on Saturday said the situation in Sudan's troubled Darfur region was worsening due to the return of re-armed Janjaweed militia and Khartoum's resolve to use military force.

Sudan faces possible sanctions by the United States and its allies if it does not allow international peacekeepers in to support AU forces in Darfur where nearly four years of fighting have killed more than 200,000 people.

"The security situation in Darfur is fast deteriorating mainly because of the re-emergence of Janjaweed militias," said an AU communique issued at the end of a meeting on Darfur.

"(They) seem to have been supplied and rearmed and have been carrying out nefarious activities with impunity in parts of Darfur, particularly in areas controlled by the government of Sudan."

The statement added that another cause for the decline was Khartoum's insistence on a military option to quell the conflict.

[edit]

The AU also condemned attacks by the National Redemption Front (NRF) in Darfur. The rebel faction is comprised of groups that rejected a peace deal with the government signed in May.

"The meeting expressed deep concern on the prevailing situation in El Fasher, El Geneina, Kutum and Merllit characterised by harassment, attacks and killings of innocent civilians including IDPs (internally displace people)," the AU communique said.

It deplored attacks on AU personnel including the abduction of a military officer on Dec. 10 in El Fasher.

Darfur: Rice Says Sudan Will be Held Accountable

From Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday Sudan would be held accountable if it did not accept international troops into Darfur and she dangled the threat of sanctions against Khartoum.

In an interview with Reuters, Rice voiced growing U.S. frustration at Sudan's refusal to allow international troops to go to Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed in three years of fighting that the United States says is genocide.

"The Sudanese need to be convinced that if they are not willing to accept that help from the international system, then they're going to be held accountable for anything that happens," said Rice.

The United States and others are considering a range of options against Sudan, from travel bans on Sudanese officials and an assets freeze to imposing a no-fly zone in Darfur.

"There are already standing sanctions resolutions in the Security Council. There are -- there is the possibility of designations. I mean, there are lots of tools and I think we'll be exploring those options," said Rice.

Earlier this year, the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on four Sudanese accused of abuses in the Darfur conflict. Those included a travel ban and a freeze on assets abroad.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he would support a no-fly zone as part of a sanctions package if Sudan continued to refuse to allow in a hybrid force consisting of U.N. and African Union troops.

The hybrid force was proposed as a compromise after Sudan rejected outright a U.N. force. There are about 7,000 struggling African Union troops already in Darfur.

"I can't really comment at this point on the no-fly zone. It's an idea that's been out there, but I don't think we know enough about it at this point," Rice said when asked if the United States wanted a no-fly zone too.

"But the thing right now is to try and get the Sudanese to agree," she added.

The U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, was in Khartoum this week where he met President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Natsios came away with an assurance that U.N. logistics teams would be granted visas to go to Darfur, which have thus far been refused, but he did not appear to make any other breakthroughs.

Last month, Natsios said the United States would resort to an unspecified "Plan B" if Khartoum continued to balk at the offer of an international force.

Asked whether Natsios had laid out a deadline to Bashir, Rice said: "He certainly told them that it was urgent. We don't generally work with hard deadlines.

CAR: Army Accused of Burning Villages

From the AP

Scores of villages have been burned down in remote northwestern areas of Central African Republic during a government campaign to rout rebels, local officials and aid groups said.

An Associated Press reporter saw hundreds of burned huts in empty villages while accompanying a U.N. mission to the region this week, visiting dozens of damaged communities around the provincial capital of Kaga-Bandoro.

"Our village was burned down by the army, who accused people living here of collaborating with the rebels," said Jonas Andjeligaza, the deputy chief of Zoumbeti, about 30 miles south of Kaga-Bandoro. He said two elderly men were burned to death in their homes last week.

A man in another village, Ngoulekpa III, said huts there were burned down a few weeks earlier.

"Houses were set on fire after the army looted them, carrying away our food," 28-year-old Arnold Ngoumale said. He said uniformed soldiers took corn, groundnuts and cassava that villagers had stored from the harvest.

Government officials, who accused residents of sheltering rebels, have said some homes caught fire in crossfire between army and rebel fighters, but said they were not intentionally set ablaze.

"The rebels are living together with villagers who refuse to collaborate with the national army to restore order in the region," said Col. Jean Christophe Bureau, Kaga-Bandoro's top official.

Local Archbishop Albert Vambuel said more than 2,000 homes have been set on fire, displacing about 12,000 people around Kaga-Bandoro. Last week, the U.N.'s World Food Program said about 150,000 people had fled homes in the northwest because of fighting.

Central African Republic, an impoverished nation of 3.6 million people in the heart of Africa, has suffered decades of army revolts, coups and rebellions since it gained independence from France in 1960.

In a few villages, people emerged slowly from surrounding forests after an AP reporter appeared along with a U.N. vehicle. Many said they were afraid to return to their homes and had remained nearby because they heard an aid group was scheduled to deliver food.

Some villagers said they were now homeless, with only trees to shelter them.

Others said they were rebels. Dressed in worn T-shirts and sandals, they carried single-shot hunting rifles and a few AK47s. One 14-year-old in boots and a red beret held a rifle ready at his side.

Many fear the increasing violence in Central African Republic is result of instability in neighboring Chad and Sudan's Darfur region.

The northwestern rebels call themselves the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy and the Republic. Officials say they have been active in the area since last year but little is known about them.

The group has said it is fighting because President Francois Bozize has misruled the country and demanded he step down. Rebels in the northeast have issued similar complaints.

Chad/Sudan: Army Chases Rebels Across Border

From the AP

Chadian troops entered Sudan's war-torn Darfur region and fought Chadian rebels Friday as the U.N. and humanitarian aid groups prepared to pull some workers out of a key border town, fearing an imminent battle there.

The Chadian incursion threatened a new escalation of violence in the vast Darfur region of western Sudan, which lies on the border with Chad.

Sudanese army and police were barricading the town of El Geneina, near the border, to prevent any attack by Chadian troops, and there were concerns a column of the feared government-allied janjaweed moving toward the town as reinforcements, a U.N. official said.

The Chadian military was fighting Chadian rebels in the Darfur area of Tendolte, south of El Geneina, an international organization worker said. The worker and the U.N. official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Chad confirmed that it had send troops into Sudan to pursue rebels who fled fighting with the military earlier in the week in eastern Chad.

"Government forces have used their right of pursuit to cross the border into Sudan," the Chadian government said in a statement.

The communications minister met with Sudan's ambassador Friday and demanded Khartoum hand over the rebels. "Chad has not declared war to Sudan and has no intention of doing so," the government statement quoted Chadian minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor as saying.

The fighting reflected the complicated nature of the Darfur crisis, which has threatened to spill over into a regional conflict.

[edit]

The U.N. official said between 1,000 and 2,000 Chadian rebels had fled to their bases in Darfur, near El Geneina, after a bloody battle a week ago near Biltine, 150 kilometers (90 miles) across the border in Chad.

He did not know how many Chadian troops had entered Darfur to pursue them but said the number was "significant." It was not clear when the troops crossed the border, which is badly defined in many parts of the barren area.

The U.N. official said that "all nonessential staff" had been asked to leave El Geneina.

However, no full evacuation had been activated in the town. Most of the U.N. and aid workers were being asked to leave on end-of-the-year holidays as a precaution, the U.N. and aid groups said.

"It's just a preventive measure, because there's a lot of tension," said Dawn Blalock, the spokeswoman at the U.N.'s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The exact number of people leaving was not known Friday. While some aid groups said they were relocating their entire staff, Blalock said she expected some 200 U.N. and aid workers to remain in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur province.

About 140 U.N. staff, diplomats and aid workers have recently pulled out of the North Darfur capital of El Fasher.

Darfur: West Ups Calls on Sudan to Accept Troops

From Reuters

The United States and the European Union stepped up calls on Friday for Sudan to let international troops in to support African Union forces in Darfur amid growing talk of sanctions on Khartoum.

The calls followed warnings from London and Washington that Sudan could face measures such as imposition of a no-fly zone over its vast west if it did not agree to such a force soon.

"Time is of the essence in a dire humanitarian situation," EU leaders said in a joint communique issued after talks on Darfur at a European summit in Brussels.

"(The EU) strongly urges the government of Sudan to give its unequivocal consent to the implementation of the U.N. support package for the AU mission in Sudan in its entirety."

The U.N. support package is due to gradually turn the AU mission into a hybrid U.N.-AU operation. Sudan has so far refused to allow an international force to go to Darfur to end three years of fighting that has killed over 200,000 people.

After talks in Brussels with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, U.S. special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios also urged Sudan to unblock the U.N. proposals.

"If we cannot get that resolved then we have a big problem," he told reporters of Sudan's continued resistance, declining to spell out what consequences it would face if it persisted.

Both NATO and the EU have provided logistical support for AU forces there, for example with training and air transport for troop rotations. But there is wariness within both bodies about any direct combat role for Western troops.

NATO decided on Thursday to extend for another six months to mid-2007 its logistical support for the AU, but stressed its limited mandate -- which, for example, does not allow any major troop presence -- would remain the same.

"The situation is grave and we'll give it our full attention. But we are not the lead player in the process," said a NATO official after meetings with Natsios, stressing the lead role of the African Union backed by the United Nations.

Darfur: ICC Prosecutor Ready with Evidence Against War Criminals

From the International Criminal Court - The report is available here [PDF]

Today, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo informed the United Nations Security Council that he has nearly completed an investigation into some of the worst crimes committed in Darfur. He is preparing to submit evidence to the ICC judges no later than February 2007 and is putting measures in place to protect victims and witnesses.

The evidence in this emerging first case points to specific individuals who appear to bear the greatest responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity including persecution, torture, murder, and rape. The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the Prosecutor in March 2005.

This progress occurs within the context of continued violence in Darfur and an apparent spill over of crime and violence into Chad and the Central African Republic. “This Council has recognized that justice for victims will contribute to enhancing security and will send an important warning – beyond the borders of Darfur – to those individuals who might otherwise resort to violence and the commission of crimes to achieve their aims,” Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said.

The Prosecutor’s first case focuses on a series of incidents in 2003 and 2004, when the most serious crimes occurred in large numbers. Perhaps most significant, the evidence reveals the underlying operational system that enabled the commission of these massive crimes.

The evidence comes from a wide range of sources and reflects a thorough, independent, and impartial review of incriminating and exonerating circumstances. Sources include statements from victims as well as Sudanese officials, documents provided by the Government of the Sudan and the National Commission of Inquiry, thousands of documents collected by the International Commission of Inquiry, and materials generated by the Security Council, states, and international organisations.

The Prosecutor described four previous visits by his staff to the Sudan, mentioning, in particular, interviews in August 2006 with two senior Government officials who by virtue of their positions could provide information about the activities of the security forces in Darfur and other parties to the conflict. However, the Prosecutor noted “a number of outstanding requests for documents and interviews which remain an important feature of the fact-finding process.”

Reaching the victims and assessing their interests has been a priority for the Prosecutor. Since the start of the investigation, his Office has conducted more than 70 missions to 17 different countries, screening hundreds of potential witnesses and taking more than 100 formal witness statements, many of which were from victims.

The Prosecutor described his efforts to assess the admissibility of the case by requesting information about genuine national judicial proceedings from the Government of the Sudan and other sources. The ICC is designed to be a court of last resort and under the Rome Statute can intervene only if national governments are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute.

In November, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo requested an update from the Government of the Sudan about national judicial proceedings. In a formal reply, the Government reported that 14 individuals have been arrested for violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses. This reported activity does not, however, appear to render the Prosecutor’s case inadmissible. The Prosecutor reported that he would request the cooperation of the Government of the Sudan to facilitate a visit by his Office to the Sudan in January 2007 to interview the individuals in custody.

As the Prosecutor prepares to present the evidence to the judges, he is closely following allegations of current crimes reported to exacerbate the suffering of the vulnerable population in Darfur, including more than two million already displaced by the violence. Despite the Darfur Peace Agreement, there continue to be reports, almost daily, of grave criminal acts, including sexual assaults of women and children and attacks on villages, in addition to reports of attacks against humanitarian aid workers and African Union peacekeepers. “The perpetrators are standing in the way of peace and security,” Mr. Moreno-Ocampo told the Council.

From the Security Council

The lead Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, which is currently completing its investigation into those who bear the greatest responsibility for the worst crimes in Darfur, Sudan, informed the Security Council today that the evidence provided “reasonable grounds to believe” that the individuals had committed crimes against humanity, such as murder, wilful killings and rape; and war crimes, such as torture and intentional attacks against civilians.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, briefing the Council on latest developments in that investigation and laying out next steps, said that, by referring the situation in Darfur to the “Court of last resort”, the Council had reaffirmed that peace and security required justice, not only for past, but also for current crimes that were protracting the suffering of millions and threatening stability beyond Darfur’s borders. As he moved towards completing the investigation and presenting evidence, it sent a signal to those who were considering committing further crime that they could not do so with impunity. The strength of that signal depended on the cooperation of both the Council and the Sudanese Government.

Noting that his Office could not investigate the “hundreds of alleged criminal incidents” and prosecute all of the alleged perpetrators of crimes in Darfur, he said he had focused on the most serious incidents and the individuals with the greatest responsibility for those incidents. Following an analysis of the “universe of crimes” alleged to have been committed in Darfur in 2003 and 2004, his Office had collected evidence from a wide range of sources, thoroughly investigating incriminating and exonerating facts in an equal, independent and impartial manner.

Sharing the Council’s grave concerns about the on-going violence in Darfur and reports of a spillover to neighbouring countries, he said he was closely following the situation in Chad and the Central African Republic, as well as possible links to the situation in Darfur. The perpetrators of those crimes were standing in the way of progress towards peace and security in Darfur, as well as in neighbouring States. Attacks on humanitarian and peacekeeping personnel were another prominent feature of the current situation in Darfur.

The admissibility assessment, he added, was not a judgement on the Sudanese justice system as whole, but an assessment as to whether or not its Government had undertaken genuine proceedings in relation to the cases selected by his Office for prosecution. Indications did not appear to render the current case inadmissible. The participation of the Sudanese Government in the process was important for ensuring an impartial investigation and a balanced view of the events in Darfur.

By making advances in the investigation he was fulfilling his responsibilities under the Rome Statue and Council resolution 1593 (2005), he said. Since that resolution’s adoption, the violence and suffering in Darfur had continued. The Council had recognized that justice for the victims would send an important warning -– beyond Darfur’s border -– to those individuals who might otherwise resort to violence and the commission of crimes to achieve their aims.

Darfur: Aid Workers Pull Out

From Sapa-AFP

Aid agencies have pulled more than 250 workers out of Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region due to security fears, threatening humanitarian supplies to 500,000 people, the groups warned.

Oxfam International, Norwegian Refugee Council, Goal and other agencies have "temporarily evacuated" the workers a result of increasing military activity, banditry and direct violence against aid workers, they said in a statement.

"Aid workers are facing unprecedented difficulties at a time when humanitarian needs are rising fast," according to the group that also includes Concern Worldwide, International Rescue Committee (IRC) and World Vision.

It called on the Sudanese government and rebel groups to urgently agree a ceasefire with immediate effect.

"If the deterioration is allowed to continue, the impact on civilians could be devastating," said Paul Smith-Lomas, regional director for Oxfam, which distributed the statement.

"With new displacements and attacks, the presence of aid agencies is more important than ever. Yet every day brings one huge blow after another to aid efforts," he said.

In the first week of December alone, aid agencies said they withdrew significant numbers of staff from five major areas: El Fasher and Kutum in North Darfur; El Daein and Shearia in South Darfur; and Kulbus in West Darfur.

"Although hopefully temporary, such evacuations are becoming more and more frequent," the statement said.

It said nearly four million people are now dependent on aid agencies for essential services such as food, water and healthcare. Humanitarian agencies in eastern Chad are also finding it increasingly difficult to operate.

"While we all remain fully committed to helping the people of Darfur, frequent evacuations of programmes are making it incredibly difficult to deliver aid effectively," said Patty Swahn, the IRC’s regional director.

Darfur: Book Details Investigation of Atrocities

From The Morning News

Two years have passed since then-Secretary of State Colin Powell reported to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that genocide was being committed in Darfur, Sudan. Samuel Totten awakes in the middle of the night sometimes and remembers the accounts of rape, torture and slayings he documented while spending two weeks in 2004 at refugee camps in neighboring Chad.

Despite Powell's assessment, the international community has done little to stop the killing and brutalization or help the people of Darfur, Totten said. Government of Sudan troops and Arab militia known as Janjaweed attacked village after village of black Africans in retaliation for rebel attacks on government installations, but the soldiers and militia killed and raped innocent men, women and children. About 2.5 million black Africans have been forcibly displaced from their homes, and at least 300,000 have been killed or died as a result of the violence or of malnutrition and disease since 2003.

"If I wake up at night, the first thing I think about is their current situation. I think of it frequently throughout the day. Nothing is being done," Totten said.

Between trips to countries such as Rwanda, the site of genocide in 1994, and Australia, where he spoke about the plight of Darfur, the genocide scholar and University of Arkansas professor enjoys a comfortable life on Beaver Lake.

"Then I think, 'Those people are still out there,'" he said. "Not only are they suffering physically with no hope of the comforts we enjoy, psychologically they live with the horror of what happened to them and what they saw done to others. They live with the hopelessness."

Refugees and internally displaced people continue to die as a result of hardship caused by the conflict, and killings and rapes also continue, including attacks on many refugee camps, according to Totten.

Totten, the editor of several books on genocide, Darfur and the Holocaust, and Eric Markusen, senior researcher in the department of Holocaust and genocide studies at the Danish Institute for International Studies, continued their collaboration in the editing of a new book, "Genocide in Darfur: Investigating the Atrocities in the Sudan" (Routledge, 2006, $27.95). Totten teaches secondary education in the UA College of Education and Health Professions, and Markusen teaches sociology at Southwest Minnesota State University.

The book describes the U.S. State Department's atrocities documentation project undertaken in 2004. Totten and Markusen, along with other investigators on the 24-person team, write about the methods they used and the challenges they faced interviewing the Darfur refugees. The book is not easy to read.

Women told the investigators of being brutalized, racial epithets flung at them as they were gang raped. People watched family members being beaten and killed and saw soldiers kill babies with bayonets and by beating the mothers with their babies' bodies.

One investigator asked a local sheik to tell women to come to her outside the village to recount the sexual assaults they suffered. The investigator, Jan Pfundheller, expected eight or 10 women, but wave after wave of women came over a hill until hundreds were gathered around her. Some of her words to the women illustrate the agonizing limitations the investigators faced.

"I cannot promise you more food distributions or more medicine for the children. I cannot tell you that you will return to your homes. I can only promise that what has happened to you will be told to my government, and then perhaps the world," Pfundheller said.

At the end of Powell's address to Congress two years ago, he said the United States had done all it could for Darfur and that it was time for the United Nations to step up its efforts to help the people. Although Totten is bitterly discouraged by the subsequent lack of action from the international community, he believes the documentation of atrocities was extremely valuable, a precedent that could prevent genocide in the future.

"It is pretty incredible that the United States did this," Totten said. "This was the first investigation by a nation into an ongoing situation to determine whether genocide was being committed, the first time one sovereign nation accused another nation of genocide during an ongoing situation."

Totten urges anyone interested in helping the people of Darfur to send letters or e-mails to President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the United Nations, specifically Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Advisor on Genocide Juan Mendez and the U.N. Security Council. For two years, he has maintained an online petition, through which he has collected signatures asking for increased international attention to the region -- coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/2005/12/darfur-petition.html.

"People either find this incomprehensible or think there is nothing an individual can do about another horrific event on the other side of the world," Totten said. "But, more people are becoming involved from national organizations and student organizations on campuses -- including the University of Arkansas -- to actors such as George Clooney. Getting the word out is absolutely critical.

"But even more critical is prodding, cajoling, pushing the U.N. to act now to stop the horrific carnage."

Darfur: EU Steps Up Call for Sudan to Accept Troops

From Reuters

European Union leaders stepped up calls on Friday for Sudan to allow international troops in to support African Union forces in Darfur, citing a "dire" humanitarian crisis amid fresh violence there.

The call followed warnings from London and Washington that Sudan could face sanctions, including a no-fly zone over its vast west, if it did not agree to such a force soon.

"(The EU) strongly urges the government of Sudan to give its unequivocal consent to the implementation of the U.N. support package for the AU mission in Sudan in its entirety," leaders said according to a draft communique from talks in Brussels.

"Time is of the essence in a dire humanitarian situation," it added.

The U.N. support package is due to gradually turn the AU mission into a hybrid U.N.-AU operation. Sudan has so far refused to allow an international force to go to Darfur to end three years of fighting that has killed over 200,000 people.

U.S. special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios was en route to Brussels to discuss Darfur later with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Both NATO and the EU have provided logistical support for AU forces there, for example with training and air transport for troop rotations. But there is wariness within both bodies about any direct combat role for Western troops.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said his country would support a no-fly zone in Darfur as part of a sanctions package against Sudan if it continues to resist allowing an international force into Darfur.

The United States is also considering such options if Sudan does not agree to a force by Jan. 1.

Asked whether Natsios would ask NATO to enforce a no-fly zone in Darfur, a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Thursday: "Not that I am aware of."

An alliance source said de Hoop Scheffer would be "in listening mode" in his conversations with Natsios, who was in Sudan this past week.

Darfur: Natsios Heads to Brussels for Talks

From Reuters

The U.S. special envoy to Sudan was en route to Brussels to discuss the crisis in Darfur with top European Union and NATO officials, the State Department said on Thursday.

Andrew Natsios, who was in Sudan this week, earlier canceled a trip to Chad amid fighting between the government and rebel groups. He had hoped to go to camps housing Darfur refugees there.

He had been expected to go to London after visiting Chad, but State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Natsios would now go to Brussels to see European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

NATO plays a logistical role in Darfur, supporting African Union troops there.

Asked whether Natsios would ask NATO to enforce a no-fly zone in Darfur, McCormack said: "Not that I am aware of."

Britain's Tony Blair has said his country would support a no-fly zone in Darfur as part of a sanctions package against Sudan if it continues to resist allowing an international force into Darfur.

The United States is also considering a range of options, including a no-fly zone, if Sudan does not agree to a force by January 1.

An EU summit in Brussels was due on Friday to voice backing for a U.N. mission to Darfur to probe allegations of worsening abuses against civilians but EU officials did not see any early consensus on Blair's suggestion on a no-fly zone.

"This has been floating around since 2005 but the first thing that needs to be done on it is a U.N. Security Council resolution. I don't think this issue can be addressed now," said an EU official.

Darfur: Women Facing Mental-Health Problems

From IRIN

A significant number of displaced women in South Darfur, western Sudan, suffer from depression and experience suicidal thoughts because of largely unaddressed mental-health problems, according to a study by the International Medical Corps (IMC).

Solomon Kebede, IMC country director in Darfur, told IRIN on Friday the study was conducted in the field two years ago, but the situation had since deteriorated further. "We are looking for funds to update [the study] because the situation is now worse than it was at that time," he added.

The study of 1,283 women found that one-third met the criteria for major depressive disorder and double that number reported symptoms of depression. One in every 20 respondents reported suicidal thoughts and two percent said they had attempted suicide. Both statistics represent rates much higher than global norms, the study noted.

"Humanitarian aid has met some of their basic needs [but] women's health and mental health remain largely unaddressed," the IMC said. "While suicide-related figures were actually lower than in other conflict-affected populations, they are still alarmingly high compared to general rates globally, and indicate a serious shortage of access to mental-illness treatment in South Darfur."

According to the IMC, no mental-health services are available for displaced people in Darfur, apart from those offered by a few international NGOs. "The prevalence of depression and suicide is a considerable mental-health burden worldwide and a challenge for humanitarian agencies in Sudan," the study noted.

The IMC study also found that women's health issues had suffered from general neglect, with high pregnancy rates, minimal family planning and prenatal services and high rates of childbirth with no skilled attendants. Yet, women head between 65 and 84 percent of all households among those internally displaced by the conflict in Darfur.

Chad: Rebel Chiefs Reportedly Killed, Tension Remains High

From Reuters

Chad's army said on Friday it killed two rebel military chiefs as it swept their fighters back into neighbouring Sudan this week, but at least one group of insurgents said they remained on Chadian soil.

Chad's army was on high alert in the desolate east of the landlocked central African state even though Communications Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said the heavy clashes three days ago had routed the rebels and ended fighting in the region.

Burned-out pick-up trucks littered with charred munitions and guns were still strewn across the battlefield at Hadjer Marfaine, a mountainous area close to the Sudanese border.

President Idriss Deby's government said it had killed 700 rebels, including the military heads of the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) and the Platform for Change, National Unity and Democracy (SCUD), which it says are backed by Khartoum.

However, hundreds of heavily armed Chadian soldiers -- wearing red ribbons to distinguish them from rebels who wear the similar uniforms -- produced only one corpse for journalists. The remaining bodies, they said, were in Sudanese territory.

The deputy chief of Chad's army, Kalimi Mahamat, identified the corpse as Seby Aguid, a former senior army general related to Deby who defected in February to join the SCUD rebels.

The corpse's face was veiled with a blanket as it had been shot in the head, but the body was identifiable by a missing hand, which Aguid was said to have lost long ago in combat.

Several other rebel groups published statements lamenting Aguid's death in combat and claiming heavy government casualties. A SCUD spokesman denied its troops had been routed or the the group's military leader killed.

"This is just a tactic by the government to try to raise the morale of their troops," Yaya Dillo Djerou told Reuters by satellite telephone, saying SCUD troops had attacked government forces from the rear as they chased the UFDD into Sudan.

"We are still in the Chadian military zone ... our troops are on Chadian soil."

Great Lakes: Security Pact Signed

From the BBC

African leaders from the Great Lakes have signed a $2bn security and development pact aimed at preventing further bloodshed in the region.

It is not clear if a key section was changed to allow countries to pursue rebels based in neighbouring states, after a request from Uganda's leader.

Yoweri Museveni has said the roots of the bloodshed are rebel groups based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Uganda has been battling rebels with camps in DR Congo for two decades.

Tens of thousands of people have died and more than one-and-a-half million displaced because of Lord's Resistance Army attacks in northern Uganda and southern Sudan.

The leaders signed the treaty at the Great Lakes summit taking place in the Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

Congolese President Joseph Kabila is expected to deliver his first international speech since winning the presidential election three months ago.

The BBC's Josphat Makori at the summit says many will be watching to see if Mr Kabila will respond to accusations by Mr Museveni that his country was contributing to instability in the region.

A five-year conflict in DR Congo, which officially ended in 2002, pitted government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.

The conflicts in DR Congo and Burundi and the 1994 Rwandan genocide were closely linked.

The treaty covers issues such as security, governance and economic development.

It also includes measures to disarm remaining rebel groups, prevent arms trafficking and help millions of refugees.

The BBC's Adam Mynott in Nairobi says the proposals will be backed by an undertaking to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a whole raft of different projects.

Leaders also pointed to a peace deal and successful elections in Burundi, which has had more than a decade of conflict.

On Thursday, Mr Museveni said that 50% of the region's problems were the "myriad of negative terrorist groups" based mainly in the eastern DR Congo.

Violence has continued involving small militia groups in the east who do not accept control from Kinshasa, the capital, which lies some 1,500km to the west away across vast tracts of forest.

Rebel groups from Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda have also been based in the area.

Uganda: Talks Restart, But Still Have Long Way to Go

From Reuters

Peace talks between Uganda's government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels to end a 20-year war have resumed after stalling last month, but positions remain miles apart and neither side expects a quick breakthrough.

Talks chaired by the chief mediator, South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar, started late on Thursday. Negotiations broke down last month when the rebels walked out, accusing the army of attacking their fighters while they tried to assemble at two points in south Sudan as agreed under a landmark truce.

"There's nothing going to be achieved before Christmas, then we're taking a break. There won't be meaningful progress until next year," Martin Ojul, head of the team representing the LRA at peace talks in south Sudan's capital Juba, told Reuters.

Despite the truce -- signed in August and renewed last month -- raising hopes of an end to the war in Uganda's north that has killed tens of thousands, diplomats say a comprehensive peace deal could be months away and is still far from certain.

"The negotiations could take weeks or months without any progress," said a western diplomat in Juba who is closely following the talks.

But the diplomat was not discouraged. "These have only been going five months -- They've achieved a lot in that time."

The truce gave the rebels until this month to assemble in two places in southern Sudan, while talks continue.

Independent monitors found both sides had violated the agreement -- the army by opening fire on the LRA, the LRA by wandering hundreds of miles from the agreed assembly area.

Ojul said the LRA would now demand a review of the truce and push for a deal which would also force the Ugandan army to gather its forces in strict locations in southern Sudan.

"Why should the LRA assemble but the UPDF (Uganda People's Defense Forces) not assemble? The violations (of the truce) always come because the UPDF are trailing us," Ojul said.

Uganda is unlikely to agree to this new demand, arguing its presence in Sudan is needed to neutralise the LRA threat to northern Uganda, where 1.4 million are displaced by the war.

Other rebel demands include compensation for cows allegedly looted from northerners by President Yoweri Museveni's fighters when he seized power in a 1986 coup.

"Lord's Resistance Army has been demanding many things. They are entitled to their wishes. We have agreed on many things," the head of the government peace team, Ruhakana Rugunda, said.

But the biggest sticking point remains the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for the LRA leadership.

Darfur: Gov't Minister Says 'A Million Soldiers' Could Not Pacify Region

From AFP

An international force could not bring peace to the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur even if it comprised one million soldiers, as long as rebel groups refuse to sign a peace agreement with the government, a Sudanese minister has warned in Geneva.

"Even if you sent a million soldiers to Darfur, that would not solve the problem," Sudan's minister for international cooperation, Al Tigani Salih Fedail, told journalists Thursday.

"That's not the issue. You only have to look at the examples of Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.

On May 5 the Sudanese government signed a peace deal in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, with one of the rebel groups fighting in Darfur. The two other rebel groups declined to sign, saying the agreement did not meet all their demands.

"The problem is political. We have to totally respect the agreement and stop those who seek to sabotage it," the minister said.

Sudan has come under heavy international criticism for allegedly supporting the Arab Janjaweed militia, who are accused of genocidal attacks on civilians, targeting people of black African origin.

The minister insisted the government was seeking to disarm the Janjaweed but said it was a difficult task.

"Without the implementation of the (peace) agreement, it is very difficult to disarm people," he said.

The minister was in Geneva for the launch of the UN Work Plan for Sudan for 2007, which is targeting 1.8 billion dollars (1.4 billion euros) to fund humanitarian, recovery and development projects in the country.

This represents nearly half of the total 3.7 billion dollars requested by the Secretary General for humanitarian assistance worldwide in 2007, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

The Secretary General's deputy special representative, Manuel Aranda da Silva, said it was vital that the UN remained committed to bringing peace and stability to the region.

"The alternative of continuing to fight for peace in Sudan is so dramatic that it would be a total disaster for the Sudanese but also for the region and Africa as a whole," da Silva said.

He noted that the worsening security situation in the region, and particularly an increase in banditism, had curtailed the effectiveness of aid deliveries.

International aid only reached 62 percent of the nearly 4 million people who depend on it in November 2006, down from 80 percent for the whole of 2005, he said.

Most armed attacks on aid convoys were carried out by rebels, but it was unacceptable that such attacks were also committed by men in uniform in government-controlled areas, the UN official said.

"We cannot operate like that forever," he warned.

Darfur: Ban Ki-moon Calls Situation "Unacceptable"

From AFP

Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, who was sworn in as the next UN chief, described the tragedy in Sudan's Darfur region as "unacceptable" and pledged to be personally engaged in efforts to end the bloodshed there.

"The suffering of the people of Darfur is simply unacceptable," the 62-year-old former foreign minister told his first press conference since he took the oath office earlier Thursday to succeed Kofi Annan on January 1.

Ban said he planned to "make himself directly and personally engaged" in the search for a Darfur settlement.

He said he would consult with outgoing UN chief Kofi Annan who has been leading efforts to persuade Khartoum to accept the deployment of a robust UN force to takeover peacekeeping from ill-equipped African Union troops in Darfur.

Reiterating that there was "no military solution" to the crisis, Ban said the United Nations needed to work closely with the AU, the Sudanese government and other stakeholders to address all aspects of the issue.

Darfur: Lack of Security Hampers U.N. Aid Effort

From Reuters

Mounting violence in Sudan's Darfur, much of it banditry, is stopping aid agencies getting help to hundreds of thousands of people, a top U.N. official said on Thursday.

Manuel Aranda da Silva, humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, said that in November relief agencies had managed to reach only 62 percent of the 4 million or so people who needed food and other aid to survive.

"It is a very difficult environment and we cannot operate like that for ever," he told a news conference called to detail the U.N.'s appeal for Sudan in 2007, where it is asking for $1.8 billion, 20 percent up from this year.

He said there was no immediate risk to the populations because aid agencies had been delivering two months' worth of supplies to some areas in anticipation of problems.

"The security needs to improve. We cannot operate in the areas that we need to ... (but) this does not mean that people are going to die tomorrow," he said.

Darfur: Gov't Says Janjaweed Are Border Guards

From Reuters

Sudan dismissed on Thursday British Prime Minister Tony Blair's threats of sanctions and a "no-fly zone" over Darfur and said it welcomed a U.N. mission in the region "as long as it reflects the reality on the ground."

Blair's spokesman quoted the prime minister as saying during a visit to Washington last week that the option of a no-fly zone in Darfur should be considered as part of possible sanctions against Sudan if it did not agree to a U.N. peace plan.

"Statements like this ... do not enhance peace," said Al-Samani al-Wasiyla, the Sudanese state minister for foreign relations. "They prolong the crisis," he told Reuters.

The United States is also growing increasingly frustrated with Sudan's refusal to accept an international force in Darfur and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said while diplomacy was the focus, other options were being explored.

Al-Wasiyla, however, said his government does not need threats to cooperate with the international community.

"We do not deal with media statements ... and our dealings with the international community can only be done through consultation and dialogue," he said.

[edit]

The violence prompted the U.N.'s 47-state Human Rights Council to agree on Wednesday to send a high-level mission to Darfur to investigate allegations of worsening abuses against civilians.

Al-Wasiyla said his government would welcome the commission as long as it came in good faith.

"We have never closed our door in the face of any committee as long as it wants to help us. We will deal with it and want it to reflect what it sees on the ground," he said.

"People talk about the situation in Darfur and they forget that most areas in Darfur are calm ... that the aftermath of war cannot be solved within 24 hours."

Rights group, rebels and a former rebel group that signed a peace deal with the government say Khartoum has armed a proxy militia accused of war crimes in Darfur.

The government denies supporting the militias, locally known as the Janjaweed.

The militias have been accused of triggering deadly clashes in El Fasher, the main town in Darfur, last week that killed at least six people.

Pekka Haavisto, the European Union special envoy to Sudan, said he complained about the Janjaweed activities in El Fasher to the government on Thursday.

"The government response was: they are not Janjaweed, we are not calling them Janjaweed, because they are government border guards," he said.

"And my response was that if you recognize (them) as being part of the government, you have even more responsibility for their behavior."

There was no comment from the government, but state-run media has referred to one of the groups involved in the clashes as the "Border Intelligence Forces."

Somalia: Coming Storm in Threatens Regional War

From the Guardian

Watching Somalia right now is like standing on a beach, waiting for a category five hurricane to hit. The storm is approaching fast, there seems little that can be done, and the ensuing destruction will be terrible - and far-reaching. The looming Somali cataclysm threatens to spark a regional war, suck in east African and Arab actors, and create a dangerous new theatre in the polarising, global contest between western power and Islamist jihadism. Somalia has the potential to make Darfur look like a little local difficulty.

The cocked trigger for all-out conflict is a deadline set by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), a movement of growing military and popular strength that controls the capital, Mogadishu, and most of southern Somalia. If Ethiopia does not abandon the rump, western-backed government that holds the central town of Baidoa and withdraw its troops by Tuesday, the Islamists say they will attack. Several thousand Ethiopian soldiers have entered the country in recent months with tacit US backing. Their presence is officially denied. Addis Ababa has rejected the ultimatum.

“After months of preparations and posturing, both sides are now poised for a decisive battle," said Matt Bryden, former Horn of Africa director for the International Crisis Group, writing in Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper. After decades of border conflicts, clan rivalries, warlordism, dictatorship, famine and, most recently, the worst floods in living memory, Somalia now faced “an even greater calamity: war on unprecedented scale".

The implications reach far beyond Somalia’s largely disputed borders, Mr Bryden said. “Both sides paint their confrontation in ideological terms. The transitional federal government and Ethiopia have cast Somalia as an emerging front in the ‘global war on terror’ in order to attract support from western capitals, notably Washington and London. Likewise, the Courts have attracted sympathy from across the Islamic world by portraying themselves as victims of Ethiopian aggression and western Islamophobia."

If fighting erupts, rapid escalation may follow. Jihadis from Afghanistan to Chechnya have flocked to the UIC banner. Al-Qaida, to which hardline UIC elements are linked, is exploiting the situation. Saudi Wahhabi charity funds are reportedly flowing in. And a recent statement attributed to Osama bin Laden called for resistance to all foreign troops.

According to the UIC, that includes the African protection force authorised by the UN on December 6. But this force has yet to materialise and possibly never will. Immediate neighbours are barred from participation, for fear their presence would make matters worse. Elsewhere, only Uganda has shown any willingness to risk the cauldron. And Eritrea, Ethiopia’s old sparring partner, is reportedly arming the UIC. “They are going to find it very difficult to get troops for the protection force," a western source said.

The rise of the UIC has revived old ideas of a “greater Somalia" that fuelled the Ogaden war and other post-independence conflicts. These sentiments potentially threaten autonomous Puntland in north-east Somalia and the self-declared republic of Somaliland.

The UIC also has links to Ethiopian rebel groups such as the Ogaden National Liberation Front and Oromo Liberation Front which the Ethiopian government blames for recent violence in the south-east of the country. The Islamists could thus potentially take the fight to Ethiopia. “They [the Ethiopian government] are opening themselves up to a lot of trouble," said Patrick Smith, editor of Africa Confidential. “The situation is bloody serious."

Three outcomes were possible at this juncture, the western source said. One was that UN-backed, on-off talks between the UIC and Baidoa government resumed, the African protection force deployed, and a “proper political process" got underway. Another, less improbable scenario was that Ethiopia used its military superiority to secure Baidoa and “clobber" some UIC training camps, enabling the government to negotiate from a stronger position.

But a third, nightmare outcome was that “the Ethiopians do the full monty, go in in strength, and get stuck", the source said. That could lead to spreading, al-Qaida-fuelled guerrilla warfare akin to Iraq, Sudanese-style Arab-African conflict, and ultimately, pressure for direct western intervention.

It has been long been brewing. Now this hurricane may take years to blow out.

Darfur: Sudan Dismisses 'Threats'

From the BBC

Sudan has dismissed warnings of tough action by the US and the UK if it continues to block the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force.

Foreign Minister Lam Akol told the BBC that "threats, blockades and no-fly zones... would not solve the problem" but would increase suffering in Darfur.

The US says it might take up "other options" in Darfur, while the UK has mentioned a no-fly zone.

Some 200,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003, the UN says.

The violence has intensified in recent months despite the presence of some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers.

But Sudan rejects plans for the United Nations to take control and increase the number of peacekeepers to 20,000.

[edit]

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said the UK would agree to a UN-sanctioned "plan B" to impose a no-fly zone in the region.

A UN resolution was passed last year banning military flights over Darfur but this has not been enforced.

The issue was raised at a meeting between US President George W Bush and Mr Blair in Washington last week.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We have to start thinking of other ideas on how to protect the people" from the violence in Darfur.

Referring to the no-fly zone, he said, "Prime Minister Blair talked about it as an idea," but Mr McCormack refused to give further details.

The BBC State Department correspondent says other options could include a naval blockade or targeted air strikes against Sudan, but that these would need the backing of the UN Security Council.

Our correspondent says until now some council members, such as China, have shown little enthusiasm for increasing pressure on Sudan over Darfur.

Meanwhile, President Bush's special envoy to Darfur, Andrew Natsios, has just visited Khartoum for talks with Sudan President Omar al-Bashir.

However, the BBC's correspondent says that, while Mr Natsios said the talks had been productive, there is still no sign that Sudan's government will agree to a UN force.

There is a growing sense of frustration and urgency in Washington over the situation in Darfur, he says.

Darfur: France Unready to Support No-Fly Zone

From Kuna

France said on Thursday it was not, "at this stage, " eager to support a US-British idea to impose an air exclusion zone in Sudan to prevent aviation attacks against civilians in Darfur.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei remarked that his government had learned of the proposal through the press and that France was not approached by Britain on this subject.

US and British authorities have expressed increasing exasperation at Sudans refusal to accept a 20,000-man UN force to help protect civilians in Darfur, where close to 300,000 people were killed in three years of fighting between rebels and government forces.

Major atrocities have also been committed by both sides, but observers say government-backed militias have been particularly involved in murder, rape and torture of civilians.

Concerning the air exclusion proposal, Mattei said this "brings up questions of principle and difficulties of a technical nature." However, "at this stage, we want to stay with pertinent resolutions" of the UN Security Council, which call for the deployment of ground troops, Mattei affirmed.

Darfur: Natsios Reports Progress in Sudan Meetings

From the AP

A White House special envoy reported progress in a meeting with Sudan's president Wednesday, saying the two agreed on certain steps to improve the situation in Darfur.

Andrew Natsios met President Omar al-Bashir at the end of a four-day visit to push Sudan to accept some measure of U.N. intervention in the western region where more than 200,000 have died in almost four years of conflict. Al-Bashir had refused to meet with Natsios during a previous trip in October.

"We agreed to disagree on the history (of the violence) but we have agreed to there are some steps we can take in the next weeks to make some progress," Natsios told reporters after the two-hour meeting, which he described as "constructive."

Natsios did not elaborate on the steps. The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that Natsios emphasized it was important for Sudan to accept a U.N. support package for a beleaguered African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.

[edit]

Al-Bashir told Natsios that Sudan would accept U.N. technical assistance for the African peacekeepers, said Ali Karti, the Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs.

The U.N. mission in Sudan said it was ready to send 105 military advisers, 33 police officers and 48 civilian staff.

AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said he hoped that deployment would come quickly.

"The U.N. support is urgent, both financially and in personnel," he said.

The ill-equipped and underfunded AU peacekeepers have come under increased pressure in Darfur.

Karti said Natsios and al-Bashir did not dwell on the state of relations between their countries.

CAR/Chad: AU Warns of Unfolding Tragedy

From AFP

The African Union has warned of a "tragedy unfolding" in Chad and Central African Republic, where governments have been fighting with rebels groups seeking to seize power.

AU Commission Chairman Alpha Omar Konare told African leaders Thursday there was need to discourage attempts by insurgents to seize power with the use of force.

"In Central African Republican (and) Chad, with a heavy heart, we are just spectators of a tragedy unfolding there," Konare told the second International Conference on the Great Lakes Region in Nairobi.

"We need to implement our principles so we do not encourage the assumption of power by force," he added.

AU has been advocating the rejection of governments that come to power by force instead of through democratic elections.

In Chad, government troops have taken the offensive against movements fighting President Idriss Deby Itno, but the rebels Wednesday denied N'Djamena's claim that they have been "totally annihilated."

While in Central African Republic, a loose coalition of rebels has been fighting since October to topple current president General Francois Bozize.

Last week, with military support from France, the army retook Ouadda Djalle, the last town that fell into rebel hands, but there are still fears of more insurgency.

Chad and Central African Republic have jointly accused Sudan of backing rebel forces in their countries, but Khartoum has denied the accusations and instead accused the two nations of supporting rebels in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

Chad: Rebel Force Set for 'Decisive Battle'

From AFP

Chad's army has driven the rebel Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) back to its base in Sudan, where a rebel leader has said the movement was awaiting the "decisive battle".

"Government forces on Tuesday attacked our forces in two columns," UFDD vice president Acheikh Ibn Oumar told AFP Thursday, adding that one army column "pushed right up to our headquarters about a dozen kilometres (seven miles) inside Sudan."

With the other offensive at Am Zoer in Chad, "these attacks have forced us to regroup our forces to defend our headquarters, which we have done," Ibn Oumar said, reached by satellite telephone.

"This morning, the forces of President (Idriss) Deby have pulled back, but he is regrouping his troops on the border," the rebel leader said. "He is determined to eliminate us. The next battle will be decisive."

The Chadian government claimed on Wednesday that the UFDD, led by former defence minister General Mahamat Nouri, and a separate rebel coalition, the Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD) had been "totally annihilated".

The rebels denied this and also gave different casualty figures, but it was clear that the government army had gone on to the offensive, apparently led by President Idriss Deby Itno himself, who was said by military sources to have set up base in the border town of Adre.

In N'Djamena, Communications Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said that 700 rebels had been killed and "a very large number" wounded in fierce fighting since Saturday, when there was a battle round the eastern Chad town of Biltine.

Ibn Oumar said Thursday that in fighting on Tuesday, about 100 government soldiers had been killed, while the UFDD lost 15 men and "at least 35 were wounded".

"The fighting was very heavy, but we didn't back off," he said.

"We recovered the personal vehicle of the defence minister, along with some documents belonging to him, and those of three other army generals. In all, we destroyed 30 enemy vehicles and captured about 10," he added.

The rebel leader said Deby was so determined to crush the insurgency that "he is recruiting gendarmes, customs officers, even forest rangers."

Darfur: Civilian Destruction Accelerates, International Failure Keeps Pace

The latest from Eric Reeves

Full-scale humanitarian collapse in Darfur looms ever closer, even as the violence that will occasion this collapse relentlessly increases. Hundreds of humanitarian workers have been evacuated in recent weeks from North Darfur and eastern Chad. In turn, violence will continue to accelerate as long as the Khartoum regime succeeds in preserving the demoralized and ineffectual African Union force in Darfur as the only source of security for more than 4 million civilians, as well as the vast humanitarian operations upon which they now increasingly depend.

This is the ghastly, inescapable syllogism of genocidal destruction in Darfur. Nothing will change until a force of the sort authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 1706 (August 31, 2006) deploys to Darfur, with or without Khartoum’s consent. Non-consensual deployment would be exceedingly difficult, and it certainly could not be tasked with stopping all the fighting. But such a force could provide protection to the more than 2 million displaced civilians concentrated in many scores of widely dispersed and extremely vulnerable camps---camps that have increasingly become the target of Janjaweed assaults, and that may become the target of wholesale slaughter. Humanitarian corridors could be secured, convoys accepting escort could be protected, and serious pre-emptive actions could be taken against any combatants targeting civilians or humanitarians in rural areas. Critically, safe diplomatic space for indigenous Darfuri negotiations and reconciliation efforts could be assured by such deployment. Finally, non-consensual deployment of adequate force would bring tremendous pressure on Khartoum to negotiate a meaningful peace agreement as a means of ending international military presence in Darfur.

That there is no international willingness to support and commit resources to even the consensual military force contemplated in Resolution 1706 tells us all we need to know about the likelihood of a much more challenging, larger, and riskier non-consensual deployment. But this does nothing to change the genocidal syllogism easily derived from current and readily discernible realities. For more than three years the international community has indulged the expedient fiction that the crisis in Darfur can be addressed in purely humanitarian terms. This has been accompanied for more than two and a half years by the equally expedient fiction that the fledgling African Union Peace and Security Council can address in any meaningful way the security crisis that has brought humanitarian relief to the point of collapse.

And yet the African Union’s essentially stand-alone role in Darfur was recently reaffirmed in the “Conclusions” document of the November 16, 2006 “high level consultation on the situation in Darfur” in Addis Ababa (and subsequently ratified at a meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council in Abuja; November 30, 2006). Despite disingenuous celebration of the November 16 “Conclusions” document (the US State Department declared, “the United States welcomes the successful outcome of this historic meeting," November 16, 2006), there is not a shred of evidence that Khartoum has moved beyond defiant rejection of direct UN participation in a Darfur security force. National Islamic Front President Omar al-Bashir spoke bluntly after the Abuja AU meeting:

“Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, speaking after a closed-door AU summit, rebuffed African leaders advocating a compromise proposal for an expanded peacekeeping mission that would include blue-helmeted UN soldiers in Darfur. ‘We can take technical, advisory and financial support from the UN, but no UN force,’ al-Bashir said. ‘We want an Africa force.’” (Associated Press [dateline: Abuja, Nigeria], December 1, 2006)

“Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said he would accept UN ‘political, financial, logistics and technical’ support for an African peace force in Darfur. Asked what kind of support he would like, he replied: ‘Political, financial, logistics and technical.... Not the command but advising the command.’” (Reuters [dateline: Abuja, Nigeria], November 30, 2006)

The international community seems relentlessly determined not to hear these fully explicit words of al-Bashir, and equally determined not to understand their implications for security in Darfur. But they continue nonetheless to stand as the position governing all actions by the Khartoum regime.

At the same time, the Addis “Conclusions” document handed Khartoum a major diplomatic victory in the form of an unstinting re-affirmation of the fatally flawed Darfur Peace Agreement (Abuja, Nigeria, May 5, 2006). Paragraph 2 of the document declares: “The Darfur Peace Agreement is the only basis for [the political process to resolve the Darfur conflict], and should not be re-negotiated.” But as events have subsequently made clear, Khartoum signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) primarily because it provided for no meaningful international guarantors of the elaborate and challenging security provisions of the agreement. This remains the case, and the DPA now serves as a highly effective means for Khartoum to stiff-arm any international efforts to re-start more effective and inclusive peace negotiations.

Darfur: ICC to Seek Prosecutions

From the AP

The International Criminal Court expects to finalize by February its first case against suspects who bear the greatest responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's Darfur conflict, the chief prosecutor said in a report Wednesday.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo gave few details of the investigation except to say that it focuses on "a series of incidents that occurred in 2003 and 2004, during a period and in a location where the highest number of crimes were recorded."

As a result of the investigation, the prosecutor's office "has been able to identify some of the gravest criminal incidents and some of those individuals who could be considered to bear the greatest responsibility," he said.

"The evidence provides reasonable grounds to believe that the individuals identified have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, including the crimes of persecution, torture, murder and rape," Ocampo said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.

The court based in The Hague, Netherlands, is the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal and acts as a court of last resort. Under the Rome statute which created the court, the prosecutor must first assess whether the government - in this case Sudan - is building the same case. If not, the prosecutor would then present his case to a pre-trial judge who would review the evidence and decide whether the case should go forward.

Ocampo said his office asked the Sudanese government for an update on its national proceedings in November and had not yet received a reply. However, he said there were indications of developments including the arrest of 14 individuals suspected of serious violations of humanitarian law and human rights abuses.

"These indications do not appear to render the current case inadmissible, therefore the (prosecutor's) office is seeking to finalize the preparation of the submission to the judges by February 2007," he said.

Ocampo said he will, nonetheless, seek to visit Sudan in January to gather further information and seek access to those arrested and relevant documents.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and about 2.5 million people displaced in nearly four years of fighting in Darfur between African rebels and government troops allied with Arab militia known as janjaweed. The conflict has spread into neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic and is now in "free fall," with the prospect of six million people without food or protection, outgoing U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said last week.

Ocampo said that since the Central African Republic is a party to the court and Chad will become a party on Jan. 1, his office is gathering information on crimes in both countries.

Reports of the spillover of the Darfur conflict "throw into stark focus the need for a concerted effort by all parties to restore security to Darfur and to tackle the pervasive sense of lawlessness that is casting a shadow over the region," he said.

Darfur: Interview With Donald Payne

An excerpt from the lengthy interview with Rep. Donald Payne from the blog Lassiter Space

We still have to get the Bush Administration to act.

You know, we find ourselves in this unfortunate situation. If this crisis was pre-Iraq, really I think we would have been able to really I think organize the world community and send some of our troops in -- we would only need a limited number -- to do support and so forth. But because of the Iraq situation, and following Somalia, there has been some timidity about Africa anyway. But I think the proportions to which is has risen it would have been some affirmative action by now had it now been for the debacle in Iraq. Many of us can support Afghanistan, that is where Osama bin Laden was. We should have committed ourselves to go after him, but as you know we went to Iraq instead. So it's been very difficult to get anyone in the administration to talk about any kind of real action on the part of our military.

I still believe that a UN force should be gathered, that we should have the UN and NATO prepare to assist, that we should provide armored vehicles, which we do not have in Darfur now, and that the biggest weapon, that would be the drones. I say we should have a no fly zone. And you can make your messages known very clearly without putting one single American troop in harm's way. I am not a military guy, so I don't know exactly how they work, but I know that unmanned drones are able to detect and destroy. And if this (genocide) continues, I think we have an obligation to do something to stop it.

I think the first step should actually be the deploying of some reconnaissance-type planes to get a lay of the land, deploy some drone to identify aggressive troops from the government of Sudan who are perusing innocent people and we should destroy them with the technology we have at our disposal. I think if a couple of those (drone missions) were to occur, you might see a change of opinion of the part of the government of Sudan. Umm, it seems kind of far-reaching, but someone has to stop this genocide and we have to do something to show them enough is enough. At some point, enough will have to be enough.

I strongly support taking on....We could destroy some of those (janjaweed) battalions which could be done simply by pushing a button. It's just that simple.

Sudan: Isolated Tribe Seeks New Safe Pastures

From Reuters

The government of southern Sudan has trucked 200 women, children and elderly members of a nomadic tribe to the outskirts of the southern capital Juba as part of a plan to move them 1,000 km (600 miles) north.

Sudan has asked the United Nations to help fly the group to their new home, possibly in Blue Nile province, but the men of the tribe, along with thousands of cattle, will have to make the epic trek on foot along the Nile, officials said on Thursday.

The nomads are from the Ambororo, a small fragment of a large cattle-herding tribe spread across West and Central Africa. They migrated to north and west Sudan several generations ago but never assimilated. Few speak Arabic or any of the local languages of non-Arab southern Sudan.

They have been living most recently in the Rokon area about 85 km (50 miles) west of Juba but have recently been in serious conflict with the original inhabitants.

The vice president in the south Sudan government, Riek Machar, arranged the evacuation from Rokon because tensions between the Ambororo and the host community had reached explosive levels in the past fortnight, officials said.

The women and children arrived safely at the Jebel Kujur Way Station near Juba, but some of the men were attacked on their way to the town, where they planned to sell cows and buy food for the journey north. Some of their cattle were scattered.

The course of the community's wanderings over the last few years is unclear. An international team which did interviews in September learnt that they came from Tulus in North Darfur, more than 1,000 km (600 miles) from Rokon, and started their movement to the south in 2002.

Sudan: Economy Booms as Darfur Crumbles

From the AP

New office blocks are popping up across the capital and the country‘s first shopping mall is packed. Nearby, cell phone and computer stores line city streets that just a few years ago were dusty lanes.

Sudan only began exporting crude oil in 1999, but this year it is expected to earn between $4 billion and $5 billion in oil revenue, said Abdul Rahim Hamdi, a former finance minister who still advises the government on economic matters.

The economy grew by 12 percent in 2006, the International Monetary Fund says — up from 8 percent the year before — and over $2.3 billion in direct foreign investment poured in last year, a nearly 50 percent rise from 2004.

But some fear this sudden affluence may allow Sudan‘s government to ignore the threat of sanctions from the West, which so far has not been able to persuade Khartoum to allow U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur.

U.S. and European companies are generally steering clear of investment here, but countries in Asia and the Mideast — including China, Saudi Arabia and Libya — are pouring money into the country.

Sudan sends more than two-thirds of its oil exports to China. China relies on Sudan for about 5 percent of the oil it uses. Because of this economic relationship, China — which has a veto in the U.N. Security Council U.N. Security Council — seems unlikely to permit the adoption of sanctions against Sudan that would cut off that strategic resource.

"A better economy benefits everybody," said Hamdi, the former finance minister, who created the country‘s booming stock exchange. "I hope the U.S. understands that, rather than penalize all the Sudanese people."

The country‘s gross domestic product has soared from $3 billion in 1994 to an estimated $34 billion this year, while inflation dropped from 130 to 7 percent in the same period, Hamdi said.

But in the midst of prosperity, many Sudanese feel left behind.

Resentment over the way oil revenues are divided up has, in fact, exacerbated the nation‘s ethnic and regional divisions.

In answer to its critics and foes, the government denies the money goes only to the elite.

Chad: Gov't Calls on Angola for Aid to Stop Sudanese Aggression

From the Sudan Tribune

Chadian president, Idriss Deby, appealed to Angolan head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, for "all possible assistance" for his government to put an end to the military aggression from Sudan, backed by seven Arab countries.

According to a statement by the Angolan government, the information is contained in a message delivered Wednesday in Luanda to José Eduardo dos Santos, by an Idriss Deby`s envoy, Chadian minister of State responsible for Administration of Territory, Urbanisation and Housing, Nouradine Coumakoye.

The message, he told journalists at the end of the 20-minute audience, reports on aspects linked to the political and military situation prevailing in Chad, currently being attacked by Sudan, backed by seven Arab countries.

Uganda: Peace Talks Set to Resume

From Reuters

Peace talks between the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels are due to resume on Thursday in Sudan, three weeks after the rebels walked out saying the army attacked them.

Talks stalled at the end of November after the LRA accused the Ugandan army of killing three of their fighters in a clash in southern Sudan, threatening to derail a landmark truce aiming to end Uganda's brutal 20-year war.

The LRA delegation said on Wednesday it was now ready to resume talks, despite earlier claims the Ugandan army would first have to withdraw completely from southern Sudan.

"The plan is for talking to begin again tomorrow at 5 p.m.," Martin Ojul, head of the delegation, told Reuters.

The government negotiating team confirmed it was flying to the south Sudanese capital, Juba, to restart talks.

"We are going tomorrow ... Our view is the talks are on course," head of the government delegation, Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, told journalists in Kampala.

Rwanda: New Controversy Over Genocide

From IWPR

French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière has stirred a hornet's nest of controversy with his call for the prosecution of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda for actions alleged to have triggered his country's 1994 genocide.

Bruguière said in November that Kagame, whose Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front, RPF, took control of the country after the 100-day genocide that saw the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, should stand trial at the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, ICTR.

Bruguière wants Kagame charged with bringing down the plane of former Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana with ground-to-air missiles on April 6, 1994. Bruguière is acting for the three French crew who died with Habyarimana aboard his Falcon jet, a present from former French president Francois Mitterrand, together with the then new president of neighbouring Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamire, and seven senior Rwandan government members.

Within minutes of the crash at the airport in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, Hutu extremists blamed Kagame and the RPF for the murder of Habyarimana. The RPF blamed Hutu extremists.

News of Habyarimana's death was broadcast by Radio Mille Collines, the Hutu-controlled station that described Tutsis as “inyenzi” (cockroaches). The killing began, and Mille Collines agitated for mass murder, urging Hutus to wipe out their fellow Tutsi countrymen. "Let's exterminate them all," exhorted the radio station. "The graves are not yet quite full."

Kagame swiftly reacted to Bruguière's call for him to be put on trial by accusing France of complicity in the genocide. He severed diplomatic ties with Paris and ordered the closure of all French institutions in the country, including the French lycée, and stopped all French humanitarian activities in the central African country. The French ambassador to Rwanda and all embassy personnel had to leave in a hurry. Radio France Internationale was instructed to stop its FM broadcasts in Rwanda.

"The French know who shot down the plane," said the Rwandan president. "It must be them who are responsible."

The Bruguière-Kagame confrontation leaves the world little nearer the truth of who brought down Habyarimana's personal jet more than twelve years ago, with devastating consequences.

Somalia/Ethiopia: Girding for a War

From the New York Times

The stadium was packed, the guns were cocked and even the drenching rain could not douse the jihadist fire.

Thousands of Somalis, from fully veiled, machine-gun-toting women to little boys in baggy fatigues, gathered Friday to rally against what they called foreign aggression. As a squall blew in, they punched wet fists into the air and yelled, “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great.”

“I am ready to die,” said Osama Abdi Rahim, dressed head to toe in camouflage and marching around with a loaded rifle. He is 7 years old.

The inevitability of war hangs over Mogadishu, Somalia’s bullet-pocked seaside capital. But unlike the internal anarchy that has consumed the country for 15 years, the looming battle is now with Ethiopia, threatening to further destabilize the troubled Horn of Africa.

In the past week the increasingly militant Islamists in control of Mogadishu and much of the rest of the country have begun a food drive, a money drive and an AK-47 assault rifle drive, and have sent doctors and nurses, along with countless young soldiers, to the front lines.

For its part, Ethiopia, with tacit approval from the United States, has been steadily slipping soldiers across the border, trying to hold off the Islamists and shore up Somalia’s weak, unpopular and divided transitional government.

Though that government has been recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate authority in Somalia, its power barely extends to the municipal limits of Baidoa, the inland town where it is based.

The Islamist forces, on the other hand, seem to be very popular here, having defeated Mogadishu’s warlords earlier this year to pacify one of the world’s most murderous cities.

Their troops, which United Nations officials say are secretly getting weapons from several Arab countries and Eritrea, have encircled Baidoa and are vowing to wage war against the Ethiopian forces unless they leave. Ethiopian convoys have been attacked, and the Islamists recently skirmished with soldiers from Baidoa, with dozens reported killed. That taste of war seems to have whetted the appetite for more.

“We wait for the Ethiopians like dry land waits for rain,” said Mustafa Ali Mohammed, an Islamic leader in Burhakaba, a town near the dividing line between the Islamists and Baidoa.

Analysts are unanimous that a full-scale conflict between the Islamists and Ethiopia, a country with a strong Christian identity, would be disastrous for Somalia, which is already suffering from severe flooding and years of neglect, and for the region as a whole, because neighboring countries may jump in.

Gen. John P. Abizaid of the United States Central Command — or Centcom — which has responsibility for American military interests in the region, recently flew to Ethiopia to meet with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who had told American officials that he could cripple the Islamist forces “in one to two weeks.”

Walking a careful line, General Abizaid made it clear that a broad military invasion of Somalia could create a humanitarian crisis across the Horn of Africa, Centcom officials said, but did not tell Ethiopian officials to pull their troops out.

Indeed, some American officials say the United States supports Ethiopia’s military buildup because it is the only way to protect the weak Baidoa government from being overrun, force the Islamists to the negotiating table and contain what they call a growing regional threat.

Darfur: US Will Seek Other Options If Sudan Blocks UN Peacekeepers

From the AP

The U.S. will have to consider "other options" to relieve the suffering in Darfur if the Sudanese government continues to block the dispatch of a U.N. peacekeeping force, the State Department said Wednesday.

There is a growing sense of urgency in Washington over Darfur because of a deteriorating situation facing the region's displaced throngs and the Dec. 31 expiration date on the mandate for more than 7,000 African Union peacekeepers in the region now.

The U.N. wants to augment the A.U. force with 13,000 U.N. peacekeepers. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir says a U.N. force would amount to neocolonialism in the former British colony. He suggests more African peacekeepers.

While State Department spokesman Sean McCormack made no reference to the possibility of military action, London's Financial Times newspaper reported Wednesday that the U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair supports creation of a "no-fly zone" over Darfur should the U.N. Security Council agree.

Victims of the violence in the vast western Sudan region have described attacks by Sudan Air Force aircraft in conjunction with raids by government- supported Arab militia, the janjaweed. More than 200,000 African Muslims have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in almost four years of turmoil.

He apparently had in mind the sort of arrangement that U.S. Navy and Air Force warplanes patrolled for years over southern and northern Iraq during the 1990s to prevent former President Saddam Hussein from harassing restive Shiites in the south and autonomous Kurds, mostly Sunni Muslims, in the north.

The Financial Times said other options to protect the Darfurians include a naval blockade along Sudan's Red Sea coast and targeted air strikes.

Although McCormack wouldn't discuss options, he said, "The violence has to stop, and the humanitarian situation needs to be addressed. ... We have to start thinking of other ideas on how to protect the people."

Darfur: Violence Driving Out Help

From the Christian Post

At a time when it would be hard to imagine a more deteriorated Darfur – the situation has indeed worsened, forcing many relief groups and individuals to finally relent and flee the human-caused wasteland.

“It is unbelievable for any human being to imagine that the entire Darfur right now is unsafe even in the cities,” said Motasim Adam, a Darfurian refugee residing in the United States and president of the Darfur People’s Association of New York, to The Christian Post.

“Forget about the camps. One week ago they were safe because the human rights organizations and humanitarian organizations. Now, everything is screwed up,” he added.

Darfur, which is comparable in size to Texas or France, is one of the largest regions in Sudan. According to Darfurian refugees at this past weekend’s Darfur rally in Washington, the Arab militia janjaweed has begun attacking the three large Darfurian cities – El Fashir, Nyala, and Elgeniena – since Dec. 3 where most of the humanitarian and refugee camps are located.

Mission Aviation Fellowship, although it does not have a base in Sudan, has reported that it is helping to evacuate some of the Christian workers in south Sudan because of the escalation in violence.

“The military clash has escalated to the point where it’s been dangerous for civilians and dangerous for foreign workers as well,” said MAF president Kevin Swanson to Mission Network News on Monday. “Some of the people that we serve there – that depend on MAF for their transportation services – have made the decision to evacuate.”

Caritas Internationalis media officer Nancy McNally recently visited Sudan in early November and had spent over a week in Darfur. She noted that the violence has forced some humanitarian groups to leave the region due to insecurity threats.

However, the NGO (non-governmental organization) workers that remain are taking extra precautions to preserve their ability to stay in Darfur.

“[What struck me] is the amount of things that everyone (NGO workers) on the ground know are going on but are not allowed and don’t want to speak out about,” said McNally on Wednesday from the Caritas headquarter in Vatican City. “They are caught in a difficult position where their main priority is helping people and the survival of their operation is important to the people they are helping,” she explained.

McNally noted that the NGO workers have to maintain a fine balance between silence to appease the Sudanese government and remain in Darfur while informing the world of the desperate situation in the region.

“The government isn’t going to blatantly come in and wipe out a whole bunch of people so long as there are a lot of witnesses,” added McNally. “Once you don’t have witnesses then you don’t know what will happen.”

Besides Caritas, World Vision confirmed on Tuesday that they are still working in Darfur despite the heightened dangers, although they could not provide updates on the situation.

Caritas, an Action by Churches Together member, is working with local partners Sudan Council of Churches, Sudo (Sudan Social Development Organization), and SudanAid in Darfur.

“Now they (janjaweed militia) burn all the villages in Darfur. There is no single village left in Darfur,” lamented the Darfurian refugee Motasim Adam. “They burn the entire rural area of Darfur…there is no village left to burn so they come into the cities and begin horrifying the people, raping women, confiscating money, shooting them on the streets…Now as I’m talking to you, there is no safe any place in Darfur.”

As example, Motasim Adam said that his cousin was shot by a janjaweed militiaman on Saturday night in front of his store.

“I don’t know what the international community can do to save the life of the people of Darfur.”

Darfur: Natsios Says Next Week is Critical

From Reuters

The U.S. special envoy to Sudan said next week may see progress in the troubled west and south of the African country after he had what he called a productive meeting with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Wednesday.

Envoy Andrew Natsios said that during the two-hour meeting with Bashir: "(We) agreed to disagree on history, but we have agreed that there are some steps that we can take in the next week that may make some progress."

He said the meeting tackled the situation in the war-torn Darfur region in western Sudan and in the southern town of Malakal, where at least 150 people were killed in recent clashes between former rebels and the central government's armed forces.

He said Washington hoped the Sudanese government would do its part with respect to the first two phases of U.N. support for the African Union (AU) force in Darfur.

"So the next week will be critically important for all of us to make this progress," Natsios told reporters.

The first two phases refer to light and heavy U.N. support packages which Sudan has publicly agreed to accept. The Sudanese government says they include logistical and financial support.

Khartoum, however, has had strong reservations on the third and final phase, which refers to a "hybrid" U.N.-AU operation. The AU has conceded some ground to Sudan by saying the joint operation only involves U.N. logistical and financial support.

The Sudanese government has repeatedly rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution authorising the deployment of 22,500 U.N. troops and police to replace the underfunded 7,000-strong AU force, which has failed to stop the violence in Darfur.

Experts say around 200,000 people have been killed in the vast and remote region since rebels took up arms against the government in early 2003, charging it with neglect.

The United States describes the situation in Darfur as "genocide." Khartoum rejects that and says only 9,000 have died.

Natsios said Bashir had also agreed to accelerate dealing with militias in southern Sudan, which have emerged as a threat to last year's peace deal between the northern government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

A pro-government militia was blamed for instigating the clashes in Malakal but the armed forces later said the militia commander had become an army general after the peace agreement.

The U.S. envoy, who arrived in Khartoum on Saturday, said the United States would only take note of the actions, not the words of the Sudanese government.

"Making agreements is good but the only thing that is important to our government on the ground is actual actions ... to change the situation," he said.

After his meeting with Bashir, a Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman said Natsios has cancelled his planned visit to Darfur because of the security situation in the region.

"There are no problems preventing him from going. It is just the security situation there," Ali al-Sadig told Reuters.

"This is the main and only reason for him not going. It was his decision," he said.

Darfur: U.N. Rights Body to Send Mission of Inquiry

From Reuters

The United Nations new human rights watchdog agreed on Wednesday to send a high-level mission to Sudan's Darfur to probe allegations of worsening abuses against the civilian population.

The 47-state Human Rights Council, which is holding its first special session on Darfur, approved a consensus proposal leaving the naming of the five "highly qualified" team members up to the council chairman.

The Council, launched in June as part of U.N. reform, was under pressure to show it can act effectively on Darfur where aid officials say more than 200,000 have died in violence over the past three years.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the opening session on Tuesday the Council must help end the "nightmare" of violence by sending a "clear and united message ... that the current situation is simply unacceptable."

After two days of tough haggling over membership of the mission, it was agreed that Council chairman, Mexican ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, should name the team and that it would be accompanied by the U.N. special investigator for Sudan, Sima Samar of Afghanistan.

Darfur: ICC Plans Indictments by February

From Reuters

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court plans to indict suspects for atrocities in Darfur by February, nearly two years after the U.N. Security Council asked him to probe the Sudan region.

In a report ahead of his address on Thursday to the council, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said his office was preparing submissions for arrest warrants to judges of the ICC's pretrial chamber.

"We are planning to complete this work no later than February," Moreno-Ocampo, an Argentine, said in the report, obtained by Reuters.

Arrest warrants are equivalent to indictments at the ICC, the world's first permanent criminal court based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Moreno-Ocampo said that since the start of the investigation, his team has carried out more than 70 missions to 17 different countries and conducted more than 100 interviews, many of which were with victims of crimes in Darfur.

But he said that due to the violence in Darfur, he interviewed witnesses outside of Sudan, an arduous task.

Evidence, the report said, included rape, torture, willful murder, sexual violence and torture in Darfur, where at least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced in fighting among rebels and government forces since 2003.

The ICC can only prosecute suspects when national courts have failed to do so. Moreno-Ocampo said Sudan so far had not conducted trials for the most serious crimes "and those who bear the greatest responsibility for those crimes."

But he said he was traveling to Sudan again in January to get information on the arrest of 14 people accused of crimes in Darfur and hoped Khartoum would let him talk to the suspects.

Darfur: Food, Other Relief Not Reaching Thousands of Displaced

From the AP

Food and other basic relief is not reaching thousands in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan, despite what the United Nations calls the world’s biggest humanitarian effort.

Over a dozen aid workers have also been slain in recent months, and spiraling violence has forced many to pull out. Seventy-four World Food Program vehicles have been attacked and one driver has been killed since a peace treaty was signed in May between Khartoum and one of several rebel factions in Darfur. Other rebels rejected the deal.

Violence has been increasing and last month, in the worst looting yet, Arab tribal fighters known as janjaweed ripped apart a WFP warehouse and took 800 tons of food in the rebel stronghold of Bir Maza as government forces assaulted the town.

Over 200 U.N. and aid workers have had to leave remote outposts and refugee camps and some of the region’s main towns - like the North Darfur capital of El Fasher, which last week was also looted by janjaweed.

Meanwhile, some 200 World Food Program trucks are being blocked by the government from reaching Darfur, said Kenro Oshidari, the Sudan director for the U.N. agency.

Janjaweed are not the only dangers. Three water engineers working with the U.N. Children’s Fund were killed in June by refugees who thought they came to poison a well rather than fix it. Nine others were abducted in October and five are still being held, said UNICEF spokesman Edward Carwardine.

“Security is our most serious impediment throughout Darfur,” he said.

The U.N. has called the Darfur conflict the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. More than 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million driven from their homes in the three-year fight between the government and ethnic African rebels. The government is accused of unleashing the janjaweed to help put down the revolt, and the militia is accused of widespread atrocities against civilians.

The U.N. Human Rights Council held an emergency meeting Tuesday in Geneva to assess just how bad the crisis has become in Darfur.

“Food security is one of the most basic human rights, and it’s constantly being challenged in Darfur,” said Oshidari.

The WFP is the sole source of food for some 1.8 million people in Darfur, who without the U.N.’s help would starve because they fear marauding militias will kill or rape them if they leave the refugee camps to cultivate their fields. The WFP provides part of the dietary needs for nearly a million more people.

But it now cannot reach some 100,000 others - a number that fluctuates widely as lines of combat change - who are in desperate need, leaving them to rely on their own resources to find food. A few months ago, as many as 470,000 people were out of reach.

Nearly 1 million tons of food have been delivered to Darfur, at a cost of more than $1 billion dollars since April 2004. Some 15,000 Sudanese and international aid workers have been mobilized for the effort, which has created the longest supply line in Africa, with trucks going 1,800 miles - a third on unpaved roads - from a Red Sea port to the West Darfur town of El Geneina near the Chadian border.

WFP officials say they have brought the malnutrition rate below emergency levels in Darfur since 2005.

But two years ago, the WFP could freely access all of Darfur, a vast, landlocked region of western Sudan that is nearly the size of Texas.

“Now we have to fly by helicopter” to many locations because of dangerous roads, Oshidari said.

The magnitude of the relief can be measured at the WFP’s transit warehouse, a set of industrial-sized buildings on the outskirts of Khartoum.

Early Tuesday morning, workers busily unloaded 100 pound bags of rice from massive trailer trucks, each of which can carry more than 80 tons of food. The supplies were to be put on smaller trucks that can navigate the unpaved roads out to Darfur.

“Today isn’t a busy day, we only have 1,000 tons to handle,” said Lemma Bayissa, a WFP logistician. “At times, we’ve had to work until midnight to get all the bags through,” he said, pointing at the sacks from the US Agency for International Development - which provides half of the food for Darfur.

Aid agencies warn yet another peril could be looming: donor fatigue.

The WFP had to reduce food rations this year because it was lacking cash. Though Oshidari is confident international donors will provide most of the $685 million needed for 2007, he wonders what will come next.

He fears the crisis could just drag on, with aid workers in Darfur barely helping people survive.

“A political solution has to be found,” he said. “Or donors will tire.”

Darfur: Blair Backs No-Fly Zone/Iraq Casts Doubt Over Options

Two articles from the Financial Times - both via POTP

Blair Backs No-Fly Zone

Tony Blair has backed imposing a no-fly zone over Sudan’s Darfur region, calling for “tougher action” if the government in Khartoum does not halt violence there and allow in a UN-led peacekeeping force.

The Bush administration is also working on other military options should the crisis continue to deteriorate, including air strikes and a naval blockade, US officials said.

Mr Blair declared his support for a no-fly zone for the first time during his visit last week to Washington. He told President George W. Bush that they had to deal with Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, in the next two to three months.

“If rapid progress is not made, we will need to consider alternative approaches, with international partners,” Mr Blair warned on returning to London.

Planning has moved ahead, according to one official, who added: “The Americans mean business.”

Military action in another oil-rich Muslim country almost four years after the Iraq invasion would be risky. But some officials in Washington and London suggest that it might be the only way to deal with the situation in the western Sudanese region. Between 100,000 and 400,000 people have died there through famine and slaughter and 2.5m more have fled their homes since 2003.

A no-fly zone would be designed to prevent the Sudanese government using its air force or helicopter gunships in attacks against villages in Darfur. Such attacks have been alleged by UN monitors and human rights organisations.

No decisions over possible military action over Darfur have been reached and such a course would be considered only if Mr Bashir resists UN demands for the deployment of a “hybrid” force of UN and African Union peacekeepers.

Opposition from the US military is said to be strong. Analysts and diplomats are also sceptical the US and UK will conclude that military intervention against Khartoum’s wishes would rescue a complex situation.

Armed action would also risk destroying a separate North-South agreement that ended decades of civil war last year.

China, which