Darfur: Justice Minister Says ICC Has No Jurisdiction, Denies Ties to Janjaweed

From the AP

The Sudanese can do a better job prosecuting crimes in Darfur than anyone else, Sudan's justice minister said Wednesday, asserting that international courts have no valid reason to investigate suspects in the area.

Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi made the assertions as a team from the International Criminal Court was in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, to pursue investigations into what the United Nations and others describe as war crimes and crimes against humanity in the vast area of western Sudan.

"We as a government are willing and able to try all perpetrators of offenses in Darfur, and for this reason the ICC has absolutely no right to assume any jurisdiction," Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi said in an Associated Press interview.

Al-Mardi declined to comment on specifics of the ICC mission in Khartoum, the fifth visit by a delegation from the court.

Some top Sudanese officials are believed to be on the list of suspects that the United Nations Security Council handed to the ICC in 2005 for it to investigate. Many observers believe that Khartoum's fierce rejection of a planned U.N. peacekeeping force to deploy in Darfur is linked to the government's fears these peacekeepers would help chase down war crime suspects.

In The Hague, where the court is based, officials said they would not comment on the investigation. But they confirmed that ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo intended to present his first cases to judges in February.

Sudan is not a party to the Rome statute that governs the ICC, and the international court could only intervene if Khartoum was refusing to investigate the allegations itself, al-Mardi said. The minister pointed to the three special courts created by the Sudanese government in Darfur to prosecute crimes.

"Our judges are qualified, experienced and impartial," he said. "They've passed sentences of imprisonment and of capital punishment against civilians, and even against the military, for crimes committed in Darfur."

Al-Mardi did not specify how many suspects the courts had tried in connection with the ongoing violence, and said Sudanese judges would not discuss this issue with the media.

Human Rights Watch and other international rights watchdogs say Sudan does little more than "pay lip service" to prosecuting perpetrators of atrocities in the region.

The wide gap between what aid groups report in Darfur and what Sudanese courts have achieved illustrates this.

The Sudanese judiciary, for instance, says it received complaints for about 36 rapes in the whole of Darfur for 2006. Eight perpetrators were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to five years, and each received 100 lashes, the judiciary says. Whippings are stipulated under Sudan's interpretation of the punishment for rapists under Islamic law.

Meanwhile, aid groups working in Darfur say rape is a daily occurrence and that cases last year number in the thousands.

The United Nations says more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million made refugees by four years of fighting, rape and plunder in Darfur.

The U.N. and others accuse the government of having countered local rebel groups by unleashing militias of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed who are accused of atrocities against farmers from the region's ethnic African tribes.

Washington and others have labeled the counterinsurgency campaign of violence as genocide.

"Allegations that the government has been arming or masterminding militias known as the janjaweed are absolutely false," al-Mardi said.

He said armed groups of mostly Arab tribesmen in the region were part of regular army forces, not militia, but conceded that "maybe other people misrepresent themselves by wearing police or army uniforms to commit crimes."

"This is human weakness, it happens everywhere, not just Darfur or Sudan," he said.

Like other high-ranking government officials, al-Mardi says the violence plaguing Darfur is not ethnic strife, but stems from rebels exploiting the traditional clashes between mostly nomadic cattle herders and sedentary farmers who compete for the region's scarce resources.

The minister says only local courts made of tribal elders and village leaders can make rulings legitimate in the eyes of the people using traditional means such as blood money paid by perpetrators to a family's victim in compensation of crime.

"The native administration knows the customs and traditions, we rely heavily on them to solve problems," al-Mardi said.

Suleiman Baldo, a Sudan expert at the International Center for Transitional Justice, a New York-based rights group, says this system is far gone.

Like many other observers, Baldo says the government massively armed the Arab tribes in Darfur, creating the conditions for an ethnic cleansing that has displaced millions but also destroyed the balance of power between tribes — and hence the legitimacy of traditional courts.

"It is criminally disingenuous of the government to say it relies on traditional justice, because its policies have destroyed that system," Baldo said in a phone interview.

He said the Sudanese judiciary was only going after "the foot soldiers" of the violence in Darfur, and had shown no sign of investigating the "highest circles of power" where the campaign was planned.

"The ICC, by its mandate, will prosecute only at the high levels, it will remain complimentary to what Sudan's judiciary achieves," he said.

Some 50 names of suspects were handed over to the ICC by the U.N. Though all the names remain secret, the U.N. has separately imposed sanctions on four individuals suspected of war crimes: a high-ranking government official, a general, a militia chief and one rebel leader.

While many activists await the ICC prosecution's finding, Baldo said only justice handed down at the local level will pacify Darfur, because the absence of any form of accountability is at the root of the violence.

Despite the presence of African Union peacekeepers in the region and U.N. efforts to also deploy, intertribal fighting is increasing even beyond Khartoum's control, he said.

"The entire region is on the verge of collapse," Baldo said. "The government has a historical responsibility to fix what it created before it is too late."

Chad: "Are We Citizens of This Country?"

From Amnesty International

Homes ablaze. Villagers slaughtered. Women and girls raped. Survivors scattered in terror. Civilians in eastern Chad are sharing the cruel fate of their neighbours in Darfur, hostages to Sudan’s ruthless solution to rebel attacks in the region. The Janjawid militias who in recent years have laid to waste vast areas of western Sudan, form the backbone of the armed groups who are killing, tormenting and displacing civilians from targeted ethnic groups such as the Dajo and the Masalit in eastern Chad. The aim of the attacks appears to be to clear vast areas of communities primarily identified by the Janjawid as "African" rather than "Arab", and to drive them further from the border with Sudan.(1)

In Darfur, since 2003, the Sudanese government continues to use its proxy militia, the Janjawid to terrorize, kill and forcibly displace civilians perceived to be the support base of the armed opposition movements. The government funds and arms the Janjawid, who are notorious for their cruelty and ferocity. Janjawid operations, in coordination with the Sudanese army and air force, deliberately target and attack particular ethnic groups and drive them from their villages. These attacks continue notwithstanding the presence of African Union peacekeeping troops. The result, there are over 2 million internally displaced people (IDP) in Darfur and 218,000 Darfuris live wretched existences as refugees in camps in eastern Chad.

Now, in eastern Chad too, a similar dynamic is evolving. Sudanese Janjawid and their local Chadian allies are plundering and killing with impunity. There are over 90 000 internally displaced people sheltering in settlements in eastern Chad and at least 15,000 who have fled Chad for the fragile safety of refugee camps in Darfur. Amnesty International found on two visits to the Dar Silah region in May and in November/December 2006 that targeted ethnic groups have been dispersed by repeated cross-border attacks since 2005. Attacks on Chadian civilians have increased as relations between Chad and Sudan worsen, armed Chadian opposition groups become more active, and Darfuri armed opposition groups increase their presence in Chad. Both the Sudan and Chad governments are taking advantage of conflict between different ethnic Chadian communities over access to land, water, livestock and other resources by arming them and using them to attack targeted civilian groups. However, generally groups perceived as "African" remain disproportionately affected by the violence.

This report documents evidence of the deliberate and targeted killing of communities, the rape and other crimes of violence against women, and the destruction of homes and civilian property in eastern Chad. Amnesty International’s research focused on the Dar Silah region but Amnesty International is concerned that such human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law have been committed throughout eastern Chad. Amnesty International’s research strongly suggests that killings, rape and forced displacement have been committed in a systematic and widespread manner and that crimes against humanity have been committed. In some cases such acts have constituted war crimes.

The government of Chad, in the face of such atrocities committed on its soil, has failed to protect the civilian population from Janjawid attacks. Officials have admitted as much to Amnesty International. By withdrawing and withholding troops from the Chad/Sudan border to fortify its positions against attacks from Chadian rebels, the Chad government left the civilian population unprotected from Janjawid and Chadian rebel attacks. The security vacuum created is leading to increased militarization as communities arm and form community defence militias. Amnesty International understands that urgent pleas by local authorities for the deployment of government forces to protect civilians under attack have often been rebuffed by army commanders whose forces are often only a short distance away.

Chad has ratified virtually every international human rights treaty.(2) Its constitution and domestic laws guarantee basic human rights, including the right to life, health and security of the person. The government must urgently confront the human rights crisis in Dar Silah region and other parts of eastern Chad, by deploying forces or requesting international assistance.

The international community has a crucial role to play. The UN Security Council must work with the government of Chad to protect the civilian population in Eastern Chad, including through the deployment of an international force along the border. The international community must ensure that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in eastern Chad.

Darfur: Ban Urges Patience

From AFP

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged patience to end the bloodshed in Darfur and voiced hope that Sudan would keep a pledge to allow a joint African Union-United Nations force in the war-torn region.

In an exclusive interview with AFP, Ban also said that his current four-nation African tour had been a "very useful" learning experience that enabled him to take the full measure of the continent's immense challenges.

"We need to be patient in following up this political process as well as the peacekeeping process," Ban said in reference to Darfur.

"Both tracks are moving well at this time, it may take a little longer to have a detailed agreement," the former South Korean foreign minister said Wednesday.

Earlier this week in Addis Ababa, where he attended an AU summit, the UN secretary general announced that Sudan had agreed to accept a joint visit by UN special envoy Jan Eliasson and AU envoy Salim Ahmed Salim to Khartoum and Darfur in early February to support peacemaking efforts.

In a 90-minute meeting with President Omar al-Beshir on Monday, Ban said the Sudanese leader renewed his commitment to accept the UN's three-phase Darfur settlement plan that culminates in the deployment of a robust joint AU-UN force.

"I hope that he will keep his promise. I hope I will be able to trust him but I'll have to see," he said.

Ban also stressed the need to consolidate a shaky peace agreement reached by Khartoum and the main Darfur rebel group by getting holdout insurgents to sign up.

He added that the peacekeeping force was a critical element in restoring peace to Darfur where the UN estimates that three years of conflict has left 200,000 people dead and nearly 2.5 million people displaced.

"I have sent a letter to President Beshir a few days ago detailing the conditions on force generation (who will contribute to the force), command and control and funding," Ban said.

"If we can agree on the third phase, then this should be the highlight of AU-UN cooperation."

Darfur: Sudan Reiterates Rejection of International Forces

From the Sudan Tribune

Presidential adviser Nafie Ali Nafie yesterday reiterated Sudan’s rejection of any international peacekeeping forces in the war-torn Darfur region.

Addressing a crowd on Monday 29 November in al-Fasher, the Sudanese official warned the international community of what he called attempts to circumvent and bypass the communique between UN and Sudan signed in Addis Ababa on the support package. Nafi brushed aside any efforts to deploy foreign troops in Darfur as part of phase 3 of the UN plan.

The African Union, Sudan and the United Nations agreed on 16 November to deploy a hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur. Nonetheless, Khartoum insists on the African character of this force and didn’t give its consent on the number of the peacekeepers.

Nafie also blasted neighboring countries, which he did not identify, and warned them to refrain from being a gate for new colonialism. Sudan’s relationship with Libya has sharply deteriorated over the last few months and reached its peak when Tripoli asked Khartoum not run for African Union presidency.

Darfur: Hopes High China Will Rein in Khartoum

From AFP

Expectations were high ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Sudan amid signs the Asian giant is ready to flex its diplomatic muscle, with observers arguing it could succeed where months of Western pressure has failed to curb the violence in Darfur.

China is by far the biggest foreign economic player in Sudan and has for the first time shown willingness to use its trade ties with Khartoum to push for a cessation of hostilities in the war-ravaged western region.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected in Khartoum on Friday for a two-day visit as part of an eight-nation tour of Africa.

"I believe this visit will not only boost bilateral ties, but also peace and stability in this region," assistant foreign minister Zhai Jun told journalists before Hu set off on his tour.

Chinese officials visiting Sudan had until recently said Beijing would pursue its economic interests on the continent without delving into politics, drawing accusations it was fueling Africa's conflicts.

But analysts say Hu's visit could herald a new attitude as China appears increasingly concerned with its image and seeks to assert itself on the international diplomatic stage.

"If the Chinese put some pressure on Khartoum, it might have some potential," said Larry Rossin of the Save Darfur coalition, who recently travelled to Khartoum with US envoy Bill Richardson.

"I hope they can use their influence... to press President Omar al-Beshir to implement in good faith the hybrid peacekeeping agreement," Rossin told AFP.

"They've told us they were engaged in quiet diplomacy. The way they've announced the visit is significant in itself," he added.

After Western powers failed to obtain Khartoum's approval for a UN troop deployment in Darfur, a deal was reached for a three-phase plan which is meant to culminate with the establishment of a "hybrid" UN-African force.

Khartoum has yet to formally endorse the plan and has so far only accepted aspects of the package providing for UN technical and logistical support to the existing 7,000-strong force of African Union monitors.

"I think China is interested in playing a role, as requested by the US," said Suliman Baldo, a Sudanese jurist with the International Centre for Transitional Justice. "It sees an opportunity to assert its authority in the world."

US special envoy for Sudan Andrew Natsios visited Beijing during the first half of January and predicted China would be helpful in finding a solution to the four-year-old crisis in Darfur.

"China has its economic interests in Sudan but it has also established diplomatic relations with (neighbouring) Chad and invested in the oil sector there, so stability is also in its own interest," Baldo told AFP.

Speaking in Cairo on his way back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, prominent Chinese economist and MP Cheng Siwei spoke about Beijing's new foreign policy focus on "the rule of virtue" and "safeguarding world peace".

"Five years ago, everybody talked about the Chinese threat... Now I am very glad to see that everybody is talking about China's responsibility," he said.

"China is very sensitive to its image," said Baldo, who remained sceptical about the chances of Hu's visit yielding a major breakthrough in efforts to stop bloodshed which has left at least 200,000 people dead and displaced millions.

"What is needed is multilateral diplomacy, but I don't think it's going to come around. There's little clear leadership from anyone and Darfur still isn't the world's priority," he said.

Darfur: UN, African Union Take Humanitarian and Political Steps to Solve Crisis

From VOA

Yesterday’s UN appeal for an additional 19-point-seven million dollars to help protect displaced people in Sudan’s Darfur region underscores the volatile security situation that international and non-governmental organizations continue to face. Paul Williams is visiting Associate Professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He explains that only when the warring sides reach a political understanding to end the ongoing violence can the money set aside for refugees and dislodged citizens be put to good use.

“Any use of aid that actually goes to the victims who are suffering as a result of being displaced in this conflict is useful. But I think we really need to make sure that that aid is going into an environment where there is a political agreement between the warring parties, which there just doesn’t seem to be at the moment,” he said.

In Professor Williams’ view, world attention on pressuring the Khartoum government to accept a strengthened international peacekeeping force in Darfur was diverted somewhat by December’s fall of the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia.

“I think at least in the media we receive here in Washington, a lot of the time, there’s only room for one particular crisis, and I think that the Ethiopian invasion in Somalia has definitely taken the news spotlight off Darfur to some extent,” he said. “I think the bigger problem, however, is that the African Union’s capabilities are really limited in its ability to set up the peace operations previously in Burundi and in Darfur, and now the idea that we can try and assemble through the African Union eight thousand or so troops for a peacekeeping force in Somalia, I think, is really quite unrealistic.”

To step up the pressure on Khartoum to accept an international oversight presence, Professor Williams argues, will require the African Union to assert coercive powers outlined in the AU Charter. He says that so far, African member states have been reluctant to make use of such demands.

“I think the African Union, like the rest of the international community, has been really loathe to apply coercive measures against the government in Khartoum, and it’s only under invoking Article 4-H that the Union is allowed to use interventionary measures in that regards. So without some form of coercion used against the government in Khartoum, it’s largely going to carry on with its plan,” he said.

At meetings this week in Addis Ababa, the African Union defeated a bid by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to serve as the organization’s new Chairman and selected President John Kufuor of Ghana. The AU vote followed a speech by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who said the cost of the Darfur crisis “remains unacceptable.” Professor Williams notes that the African Union delegates took a positive step by denying Sudan the AU Chairmanship for the second consecutive year.

“What it does is to send a powerful message, not just to African governments, but also to international society, that the Sudanese government wanted, again for symbolic and political reasons, to obtain the Chair of the African Union. And the fact that there’s now been a consensus vote within the African Union that Sudan wouldn’t be allowed to this position, then I think that’s an important symbol in itself,” he said.

Darfur: Former Heads of State, Ministers Want Stronger Force

From the Vanguard

Former Heads of State and former Ministers of Foreign Affairs of seventeen countries, have called for an effective peacekeeping force with a strong protection mandate to be allowed into Darfur.

According to them, “this call has become very urgent, as we are convinced that for hundreds of thousands of civilians in Darfur, time is running out.
''The conflict in Darfur has led to the deaths of almost 300,000 people from conflict, disease and hunger and the forced displacement of more than two million. Attacks on civilians continue unabated despite a peace agreement signed in May last year.”

They stated further in a statement compiled by Amnesty International that, “we believe that the international community has a responsibility to protect those at risk. Regional and international leaders of the African Union and United Nations have worked hard to find solutions. The soldiers of the African Union have attempted to provide protection on the ground, but they have been unable to halt killings and displacement.

''An effective peacekeeping force requires sufficient human and material resources and a strong mandate to protect civilians by all necessary means.”
“The protection and human rights of the civilians must be at the centre of any peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

On November 30, 2006, the AU Peace and Security Council agreed to extend the AMIS mandate for six months and endorsed the establishment of a hybrid operation of United Nations (UN) and AU peacekeepers in Darfur.”

According to them, “the peacekeeping force should have the resources, logistical support and personnel to protect the population and eventually support and protect displaced and refugees to return voluntarily and in safety to their homes.

The statement is signed by Jozias Van Aartsen, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands, General Abdulsalami Abubakar former Head of State of Nigeria, Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Secretary General of the United Nations, Ingvar Carlsson, former Prime Minister of Sweden, Jean-Luc Dehaene, former Prime Minister of Belgium, Mamadou Dia, former Prime Minister of Senegal, Abdou Diouf, former President of Senegal and Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denmark.

Others are Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, former President of The Gambia, Modibo Keita, former Prime Minister of Mali, Milan Kucan, former President of Slovenia, Aleksander Kwas Niewski, former President of Poland Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Abdoulaye Sékou Sow, former Prime Minister of Mali, YounoussI Toure, former Prime Minister of Mali, Lech Walesa, Nobel Peace Laureate and former President of Poland.

Darfur: A Political Victory and Looming Humanitarian Disaster

From Refugees International

With violence in Darfur worsening, African leaders rebuked President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan for his refusal to end the fighting in Sudan's Western province.

Leaders of the African Union, meeting in Addis Ababa, refused to elect Al Bashir president of the 53 country organization. This is a victory for Refugees International, Save Darfur and many other groups that worked to prevent al-Bashir from assuming the presidency while the war in Darfur continues. Thanks to all who urged President Bush to use all diplomatic means to convince African leaders not to elevate al-Bashir to the AU post he has sought for the last two years.

Sadly, the political victory has done nothing to stop the fighting in Darfur, where violence is getting worse. Government-backed forces are continuing to attack rebel groups and innocent civilians, rebel groups are fighting among themselves, and banditry is rising. The best description of Darfur today is chaos.

Earlier this week the French agency, Doctors of the World, pulled out of Darfur, saying it was too dangerous to work there. On the eve of the AU summit, six major aid agencies warned that the enormous humanitarian infrastructure in Darfur, where nearly three million people are dependent on international relief, may soon be paralyzed unless the fighting ends. UN agencies issued a similar warning earlier in the month.

On Jan 10, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, after meeting with al-Bashir and representative rebel leaders, issued a joint statement with the government of Sudan in which the government agreed to a 60-day ceasefire designed to pave the way for political talks. The government's commitment to the ceasefire is contingent on acceptance by the rebel groups as well. In their meetings Richardson and al-Bashir agreed that the war in Darfur can only be settled politically. A military victory doesn't seem possible for any party now.

Unfortunately, neither the Khartoum government nor the rebel leaders have done anything to produce a ceasefire since the Richardson meeting. However, in meetings with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon this week, al-Bashir said he welcomed a joint UN-AU peace initiative. A pair of high level UN-AU envoys is supposed to arrive in Khartoum to start talks early next month.

In the meantime, more people are dead and more people are displaced in Darfur, and the world watches and waits, either unable or unwilling to find the approach that will force the government of Sudan to stop the killing and enable international forces to restore order to Darfur.

Darfur: Aid Groups Pushed Toward Breaking Point

From the AP

The U.N. refugee agency appealed Tuesday for additional money to help millions displaced by violence in Darfur as Sudanese, African and U.N. officials negotiate a peacekeeping deal for the troubled region.

Despite a peace agreement signed last May between the Sudanese government and a single rebel group, fighting has only worsened in Darfur, a vast region of western Sudan where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million chased from their home since 2003.

“With constant fighting between government troops and rebels opposed to the (peace agreement), as well as regular attacks by Arab militia on African tribes, there is no prospect of return” for the millions of people living in camps, said the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees in a statement appealing for funds Tuesday.

Darfur is the world's largest ongoing humanitarian effort, with some 15,000 aid workers, including 1,000 from abroad, according to the U.N.

But 12 humanitarian workers have been killed in the past six months and several aid groups have warned the increasing violence is pushing them to the “breaking point.” A major French aid group announced earlier this week it was pulling out of Darfur, while several others say they may do the same if warring factions continue denying them access to civilians and targeting humanitarian workers.

But the UNHCR, which has over 100 staff working in most of Darfur's refugee camps, said it had no intention of leaving the region. Its appeal Tuesday for $19.7-million (U.S.) would cover most of its costs for 2007 in Darfur, said Annette Rehrl, UNHCR's spokeswoman for Sudan.

“We are determined to stay in Darfur; we provide the basic protection and if we go, everything goes,” Ms. Rehrl said by telephone.

The U.N. and others accuse Sudan's government of arming and directing the janjaweed militias of Arab nomads as part of its counterinsurgency tactics. The UNCHR said in its appeal Tuesday that Arab militias burnt to the ground at least 25 villages in neighbouring Chad in recent weeks, and observers in Darfur blame the janjaweed for widespread atrocities against tribes of ethnic African farmers.

The government denies controlling the janjaweed, and in turn accuses Chad of backing the rebel groups that refused a peace agreement.

Khartoum also denies accusations its air force indiscriminately bombs civilians villages.

“We bomb the people who are sabotaging the peace agreement, or rebel factions who attack the army and civilians,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq. The U.N. says a series of air raids earlier this month killed several villagers and breached cease-fire agreements.

On Monday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and urged him to “cease hostilities as an essential foundation for a successful peace process and humanitarian access” in Darfur.

Mr. al-Bashir has opposed a Security Council resolution for some 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace the 7,000-strong AU force deployed in Darfur, but his government appears to be edging toward a comprise deal for U.N. troops to join African ones in a common mission.

“We agreed to accelerate the joint U.N.-AU efforts for the political process and the preparation for a peacekeeping mission,” Mr. Ban told reporters Monday after meeting with al-Bashir.

Mr. al-Bashir has sent mixed signals for months on the size of any U.N. presence he is willing to allow in Darfur.

Jan Pronk, a former U.N. envoy to Darfur, said Tuesday the world body should rethink its global peacekeeping operations and finance more missions by local or regional peace troops.

Mr. Pronk said in a lecture at the Netherlands' Institute of Social Studies that the U.N. could use the money it would spend on its own peacekeeping operation to finance another military force to carry out the task, such as the African Union in Darfur.

“They have good troops,” he said, many of them with experience in U.N. peace missions to Bosnia or elsewhere. “I'm very positive about the African Union in Darfur.”

Darfur: SPLM, NRF to Hold Common Ground Meeting

From the Sudan Tribune

The Sudan people’s Liberation Movement and the National Redemption Front have agreed to hold a meeting in southern Sudan in a bid to find a common ground between Darfur forces to negotiate with Khartoum.

In a meeting held in London between the SPLM Acting Deputy Secretary General, Yasir Arman, and the NRF spokesperson, Ahmed Hussein Adam, it was agreed to accelerate preparations for the hold of a meeting in Southern Sudan Yei town with the participation of the SPLM chairman Salva Kiir Mayadrit in the near future.

The objective of Finding Common Ground meeting is to demonstrate that Darfur rebel groups can reach agreement on common political objectives and elaborate on the topics that need attention during the coming talks with Khartoum.

The proposed Yei meeting comes in the context of SPLM efforts to support peace realization in Darfur. Salva Kiir more than once expressed his intention to play an important role in the resolution of the 4 years conflict. Yasir Arman is in charge of Darfur file since 2005.

On 25 November 2006, A NRF delegation led by Khalil Ibrahim met with the Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir during a visit to Cairo where they discussed the Darfur crisis and the efforts to resolve it peacefully.

The NRF spokesperson told Sudan Tribune that the two parties agreed to work jointly in order to boost chances for peace deal with Khartoum. Also, they agreed to promote dialogue between the different groups and to realize comprehensive unity in Darfur.

The two political formations agreed to work together in order to strengthen the strategic relations with other political forces of the marginalized regions and other political forces. “The rebuilding of a national consensus in the country and the transition towards a democratic Sudan remain the ultimate objective for the SPLM and NRF,” said Ahmed Hussein.

Darfur: Sudan Waived AU Presidency to Block Attempts to Disunite the Continent

Spin from the Sudanese Media Center

The President of the Republic Field Marshal Omar Al Bashir and his accompanying delegation returned home yesterday from Addis Ababa after participating in the eighth African Union Summit during which Sudan has waived the AU presidency to Ghana.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Lam Akol told reporters that the African summit has discussed the reports submitted by the ministerial council which were presented by the Chairman of African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare. The reports according to the minister had discussed the situation in Darfur and the implementation of Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA.). Dr. Lam Akol described the reports as positive and discussed the issue in impartiality and in transparency.

He stated that Konare's report highlighted the results of Addis Ababa consultancy meeting that took place in November besides the resolution of the African Peace and Security Council meeting in Abuja that approved the United Nations three packages of support to the African Union mission in Darfur.

Regarding the election of Ghana as president of the African Union for 2007, Dr. Lam Akol confirmed that Sudan has voluntarily waived its candidacy because Sudan has felt that some countries were working to convince some African countries not to fulfill their promises of last year's summit to give Sudan the AU presidency for 2007. Dr. Lam Akol added that President Al Bashir felt that some countries were trying to create spilt and differences among the African Union and therefore Sudan waived its candidacy to foil these plots. The Minister of Foreign Affairs revealed that Sudan has supported the nomination of Ghana because it's celebrating its 50th independence anniversary.

Regarding the meeting of United Nations Secretary General Ki-Moon with Al Bashir, Dr. Lam Akol said that the President of the Republic confirmed to the UNSG that Sudan was committed to all the resolutions that aim at solving the Darfur problem. Dr. Lam Akol revealed that Sudan has called on the United Nations to issue a new resolution from the Security Council to finance the African Union mission in Darfur.

On his part, the Presidential Advisor Dr. Magzoub Al Khalifa told reporters that Sudan has waived its candidacy to AU Presidency to keep the unity of the African Union and to gain the popular support. Concerning the UNSG Ki-Moon meeting with President Al Bashir, Dr. Al Khalifa stated that the meeting has discussed the United Nations packages of support to the African Union mission in Darfur.

He added that the newly elected United Nations Secretary General Ki-Moon will need more time to understand the Darfur issue.

ICC: Pressure to Perform

From Reuters

The world's first permanent warcrimes court is under heavy pressure to deliver a first conviction, establishing its authority and helping to break resistance of both governments and rebel groups to its activity.

The International Criminal Court, still lacking U.S. support four years after it was set up, announced on Monday it was opening its first trial, against a Congolese militiaman accused of recruiting children for conflict. For many it is an acid test of the court's ability to gather evidence and to act on it.

"The ICC is not going to be effective until it has some convictions under its belt and sends the fear of God into people," said Nicholas Grono of the International Crisis Group, the Brussels-based think tank. "This is the big year. We're now at the stage where results need to be happening."

The ICC says it has enough evidence against militia leader Thomas Lubanga to go to trial, probably later in 2007.

"They'll be relieved to be getting this trial under way. It has been quite slow moving but then it is a new institution with difficult cases. It's a momentous task," said Anne McMillan of the International Bar Association that represents lawyers.

The ICC is now supported by 104 nations and has grown to employ more than 600 people who are already facing space constraints in temporary premises on the outskirts of The Hague.

Militiaman Thomas Lubanga is the only suspect in the court's custody. Along with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the ICC is also investigating crimes in Uganda and Sudan's Darfur, but has so far only indicted rebels -- Lubanga and five leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army, behind a 20-year insurgency in Uganda.

Observers say its next real challenge will be to go after those in power. Almost two years after the U.N. Security Council asked him to investigate atrocities in Darfur, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has promised charges in February.

Goran Sluiter, international law expert at Amsterdam University, said Moreno-Ocampo needs to raise pressure on Sudan over Darfur, where at least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced in fighting since 2003.

"The prosecutor must be more severe and order Sudan to cooperate," Sluiter said.

Grono of the International Crisis Group said a muscular approach on Sudan could help win over more U.S. critics.

"It's very much up to the ICC to prove itself," he said. "We hope they proceed against one or two relatively senior government figures."

The United States opposed the founding of the ICC, fearing it would be used for what it saw as politically motivated prosecutions; but Darfur marked a turning point. Washington, which calls the violence there genocide, refrained from blocking a Security Council referral in March 2005.

Since then, Washington has quietly ended a policy of aid sanctions against ICC member states, perhaps encouraged by the court's decision not to pursue allegations of U.S. crimes in Iraq, noting national proceedings had already been initiated.

Although the U.S. Senate is unlikely to sign up any time soon, Washington could give its tacit support to investigations. While China and Russia remain outside the court, Japan could help rally Asian support if it joins as expected this year.

"The prosecutor at the ICC has tried to bend over backwards to make the court look innocuous to the United States," said Gary Bass, associate politics professor at Princeton University. "The court hasn't functioned in a politicised way."

By concentrating on Africa, Bass said the ICC has avoided antagonising the big powers. That, however, might change it if indicts senior figures in the Sudanese government, a close ally of China. But it will have to expand its remit soon.

"I've heard it jokingly called the European Court for Africa. There is a risk with this entire focus on Africa. What about Columbia? They should expand their horizon," Sluiter said.

While the court has sought to learn the lessons of other ad-hoc war crimes tribunals and limit the scope of indictments -- ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died in jail four years into his marathon trial -- it is under pressure to expand charges against Lubanga beyond recruitment of child soldiers.

"Our major concern in the Lubanga arrest warrant is that it doesn't reflect any of the killing, or the torture, or the sexual violence," said Geraldine Mattioli of Human Rights Watch.

Prosecutors have said they will defer investigation of other charges until after Lubanga's first trial, but plan more arrest warrants against another militia group in Congo soon. They are also considering opening an investigation into a fourth country.

CAR/Darfur: U.N. Team Evaluates Appeal for Peacekeepers

From Reuters

U.N. security experts on Tuesday began evaluating an appeal from Central African Republic for U.N. peacekeepers to protect its borders, days after the country's president held peace talks with some rebel leaders.

The United Nations Security Council is considering whether to deploy U.N. blue-helmets to Chad and Central African Republic to secure their frontiers against rebels and armed raiders spilling over from Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region.

An assessment mission sent by the Council, the second since November, visited Chad last week and arrived in Central African Republic on Tuesday to tour northern areas hit by rebel attacks last year and earlier this month.

"This second mission will go to the affected zones so we can make contact with the reality on the ground, collect information and recommend to the Security Council what measures to take," mission leader Francois Dureau told reporters.

Central African President Francois Bozize, who seized power in the impoverished former French colony in a 2003 military coup, has appealed for the U.N. peacekeepers to counter the rebels striking over the northern border with Chad and Sudan.

"We are expecting a positive report and the deployment of U.N. troops to prevent the return of the rebels to our territory," Acting Foreign Minister Marie Reine Hassen said after meeting the U.N. mission.

Late last year, French Mirage fighters, helicopter gunships and special forces helped Central African Republic's army to recapture a string of northeastern towns seized by rebels whom Bangui said were backed by Sudan. Khartoum denied this.

In the northwest, in what aid workers call one of Africa's forgotten humanitarian crises, tens of thousands of civilians have been driven from their homes by fighting between the army and rebels or bandits who loot and burn towns and villages.

Some U.N. officials have expressed reservations about deploying U.N. troops to Chad and Central African Republic, saying political solutions to their rebellions should be worked out first to create a "peace to keep".

In an apparent move in this direction, Bozize last week met rebel leaders opposed to his rule on the sidelines of a gathering of African leaders hosted by Libya in advance of this week's African Union summit.

Confirming the meeting in Libya, Bozize said he held talks with Abdoulaye Miskine and Ringui Le Gaillard about ways of achieving peace in Central African Republic.

Darfur: No Prospect for Refugees to Return Home

From Reuters

Constant fighting in Sudan's Darfur region has erased the prospects for 2 million Sudanese people uprooted by the conflict to return home, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

Launching a new appeal for $19.7 million, meant to cover assistance programmes in West Darfur this year, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said regular attacks between Sudanese government troops, rebels and Arab militias had threatened aid workers.

"There is no prospect of return for internally displaced people in Darfur, nor for the more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees hosted in eastern Chad," UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told journalists in Geneva.

Funds will be used to provide protection, shelter and other basic needs to uprooted persons in Darfur, where there is a high incidence of sexual-based crimes, the UNHCR said.

The 200,000 Chadians who fled to Darfur to escape Arab militia raids in their own country also need assistance, the agency said, noting the "extremely precarious security conditions" in the remote part of western Sudan.

"The region is characterised by a continuing state of emergency," it said, noting that 12 aid workers have been killed in Darfur in past months.

In eastern Chad, where UNHCR runs 12 refugee camps for about 230,000 Sudanese refugees, the agency said it was "deeply concerned" about security prospects.

"Chadians still live in daily fear of attacks, and some who had returned to their villages following pledges of increased security have reportedly returned to (internally displaced persons') sites because of continuing violence," it said.

Chad: Govt Pins Hope for East on Food Aid

From IRIN

Local officials in eastern Chad have appealed to the government for protection of civilians there, and the government has elaborated plans to improve its efforts to send food aid, but national plans to provide security remain vague, observers say.

Almost daily attacks on remote, desert villages in eastern Chad have driven more than 100,000 people from their homes over the last year, with more than half fleeing during the last six months of 2006, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR estimates.

One of the only local officials to speak out about what is happening in the region, Abdoulaye Affadine, representative of the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) in Goz Beida, on Saturday called the situation a “tragedy without precedent” in Chad.

Thousands of displaced people are sheltering in and around Goz Beida and some of the biggest attacks by rebels have taken place there.

Chad’s President Idriss Deby has pledged that the central government will provide four billion CFA (US$8 million) to buy food and other aid for 150,000 displaced people in the isolated region.

Deby, who is also facing an armed rebellion led by former army loyalists dissatisfied with his rule, has nonetheless remained vague about plans to provide a credible armed security force to defend the unmarked 900km desert border between Chad and Darfur.

Speaking to Radio France Internationale at the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa on Tuesday morning, Deby said he blamed Sudan for all the violence. He said he is still waiting for the AU and the international community to step in to provide security.

“Bashir carried out a genocide in Darfur and now he is taking the genocide to Chad while the international community remains silent,” Deby said.

Conflict analysts and human rights watchdogs point to a much more complex local dynamic of violence between the mosaic of ethnic groups in the region, many of which straddle the border with Sudan.

“For the Chadian government, the most important thing they could do would be to provide security,” said Theo Murphy, a Chad researcher with the London-based human rights group Amnesty International (UK). It released a report this week calling for more attention by the government to violent attacks in eastern Chad.

“The first thing people ask for [in eastern Chad] is security. They also ask for food and medicine, but they wouldn’t need those things if they had security. The failure to do something about this has reached unacceptable levels,” Murphy said.

Marian Ali Moussa, the head of the government committee charged with assisting displaced people, confirmed that people in the east are an “object of attention” for the government, but like Deby blamed cross-border attacks by the Janjawid - an Arab militia from Sudan - for the displacement.

“These compatriots who count in the thousands were thrown into this situation by the brutal actions of the Janjawids and the mercenaries of the regime in Khartoum. They know cruelty,” Moussa said.

Darfur: Chad Says World Still Has "Head in Sand"

From Reuters

Chad President Idriss Deby accused Sudan on Tuesday of waging a genocidal "racial war" in Darfur and complained that African and international leaders were shying away from confronting Khartoum squarely on the issue.

In an interview with RFI French radio, Deby criticised what he called the world's "head in the sand" attitude over Sudan's actions in its Darfur region, where tens of thousands of people have been killed in ethnic and political conflict since 2003.

He welcomed the decision by African Union leaders on Monday to withhold the AU chairmanship from Sudan because of the international outcry over the Darfur bloodshed, which Chad says is spilling over the border into its territory.

"I think (the decision) could be seen as a relief for the whole continent," Deby told Radio France Internationale (RFI).

Ghanaian President John Kufuor was given the AU chairmanship in a consensus move that overruled Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's bid for the post for the second year running.

But while Deby praised the AU decision as wise, he chided his African colleagues at the summit in Addis Ababa for failing to take Bashir to task directly for his stance on Darfur.

"Nobody is capable of telling him, Mr. Bashir, you are wrong," Deby said in the RFI interview, monitored in Dakar.

"Sudan is continuing to play this macabre game of a racial war, which others refuse to talk about ... people simply look to a policy of putting their heads in the sand," he added.

Chad, which had threatened to withdraw from the AU if Sudan was given the chairmanship, accuses the Sudanese government of using Arab militias known as Janjaweed to fight non-Arab rebels in Darfur.

N'Djamena also blames Khartoum for an upsurge of Janjaweed cross-border raids from Darfur and ethnic clashes pitting Arabs against non-Arabs which have killed hundreds of people in eastern Chad in recent months.

"Bashir is transporting this genocide to Chad, without the international community saying a word," Deby said.

Sudan denies these accusations.

In N'Djamena, Chadian human rights groups said they had filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court accusing Bashir of "crimes against humanity".

The groups filed a similar complaint in December against the Janjaweed militia allied with Sudanese government forces.

"We request the support of the national and international community for this case so that justice can be done," Chad's Human Rights Associations Network said in a statement posted on the Chad government's Web site.

It was not immediately clear whether the ICC had accepted these filings. The court is already investigating alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Deby made public his complaints as the leader of one of Sudan's major international backers, Chinese President Hu Jintao, embarked on his latest visit to Africa to woo the continent with aid and business.

Hu's eight-nation trip will include a visit to Sudan, where China has major oil investments.

Despite the Chadian leader's grievances, international pressure against Bashir over Darfur has increased.

Darfur: Ban Says Delays on Force Unacceptable

From Reuters

U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon said on Tuesday unacceptable delays were preventing help reaching millions of victims of Darfur's bloodshed, but negotiations on deploying U.N. peacekeepers were making only slow progress.

"No more time can be lost. The people of Darfur have waited far too long," Ban said. "This is just unacceptable."

Ban met Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on the sidelines of an African summit on Monday but failed to get approval for details of the deployment of 3,000 U.N. personnel to support a struggling African Union mission in Darfur.

"I hope and look forward to a positive response from President Bashir," Ban told reporters on Tuesday. "While the progress may be slow we are moving on two tracks, a political process track as well as a peacekeeping process track."

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno said the Sudanese had not yet agreed to the U.N. support package for the 7,500-strong AU mission, let alone the joint force former U.N. chief Kofi Annan proposed last year.

"The Sudanese government didn't baulk at the proposal but there was no agreement," he said. "The devil is in the details."

Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven into miserable camps in Darfur in four years of rape, pillage and murder which Washington calls genocide.

Khartoum denies that description but the International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating alleged war crimes in the region.

Ban gave Bashir a letter on Jan. 24 detailing a U.N. support package, called the second phase, which would include more than 2,200 soldiers, 75 civilians, 300 security forces and 600-700 police as well as six light tactical helicopters to move troops quickly when attacks are reported, Guehenno said.

"It's very important to have military helicopters which fly come high or hell water," he said, adding any force in Darfur -- the size of France -- had to be mobile to respond to attacks.

Two sources in the Sudanese delegation to the summit said there were "serious reservations" about the package. Sudan rejects deploying significant numbers of U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur.

Darfur: The 'Protection Crisis'

A new paper from the Humanitarian Policy Group

This paper is part of a study on ‘protection in practice’ which aims to examine current practice in humanitarian protection and explore strategies, programmes and initiatives undertaken in different contexts to support the protection of civilians. Focusing on roles, outcomes and the internal and external limitations of humanitarian actors, the purpose of the research is to draw lessons and elicit best practice, rather than evaluate specific programmes or agencies. This Discussion Paper on Darfur will inform a comprehensive HPG report on field-based strategies for humanitarian protection due for publication in mid-2007. This work forms part of a wider body of research by HPG on the subject of civilian security and humanitarian protection, which includes separate studies aimed at understanding different concepts of protection (political, human rights and humanitarian) as well as the relevance and application of protective status (refugee, IDP, civilian) for people’s security.

Darfur/Chad: UNHCR Launches $19.7 Million Appeal

From UNHCR

UNHCR is launching a $US19.7 million appeal to fund our protection and assistance activities in 2007 for tens of thousands of internally displaced Sudanese as well as Chadian refugees in West Darfur.

The appeal (here) notes that despite the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) in May 2006 and UN Security Council Resolution 1706 in August, the security situation in the region remains extremely volatile.

With constant fighting between government troops and rebels opposed to the DPA, as well as regular attacks by Arab militia on African tribes, there is no prospect of return for internally displaced people in Darfur, nor for the more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees hosted in eastern Chad. There are presently an estimated 2 million displaced persons in north, south and west Darfur, including 250,000 who have fled fighting in the past six months. In West Darfur alone, where UNHCR's teams are mainly based, there are an estimated 700,000 displaced.

Darfur: Sudan Agrees to Cooperate with "Hybrid Force"

From the AP

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, had opened the summit meeting with a call on African leaders to end the deadlock created by Sudan's refusal to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur, in western Sudan.

Ban later said he and President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan agreed "to accelerate joint African Union-United Nations efforts for the political process and the preparation for a peacekeeping mission."

Late Monday in Khartoum, a Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ali Sadiq, said his country had agreed to cooperate on a "hybrid force" for Darfur, including UN troops, although final figures were not set.

[edit]

Ban, on his first visit to Africa since taking over from Kofi Annan on Jan. 1, held talks later Monday with Bashir for about 90 minutes that were "useful and constructive," according to a statement released at the United Nations.

"We agreed to accelerate joint African Union-United Nations efforts for the political process and the preparation for a peacekeeping mission, based on the Abuja and Addis Ababa agreements.

Bashir "reiterated his government's commitment to implement these agreements," the statement added.

Sadiq, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "What has come to be known as the hybrid force has been agreed on by all parties, including Sudan."

He said no final agreement on the troop numbers had been reached, although AU and UN officials say the UN could be sending as many as 10,000 to 15,000. Sadiq said UN troops could begin deploying in July.

Sudan has in the past reneged on agreements to allow the UN in, and al- Bashir — who has the final say on such matters — was not immediately available for comment.

Ban's statement also said he expressed his "deep concerns over the continuing violence and deteriorating human right situation in Darfur, which afflicts millions of people."

"I urged President al-Bashir, as I urge all parties, to cease hostilities, as an essential foundation for a successful peace process, and humanitarian access," Ban said.

Bashir agreed "to facilitate such access, and expressed willingness to cooperate with international efforts toward that end," the UN chief said.

Ban also said he would send his special envoy, Jan Eliasson, and an AU envoy, Salim Salim, to the region in February.

Darfur: AU Chief Urges Sudan to Halt Bombings

From AFP

African Union commission president Alpha Oumar Konare has urged the Sudanese government to stop aerial bombing in the strife-torn Darfur region as he opened a summit of the 53-member organisation.

The Sudanese government "should stop the bombardments and massacres" in Darfur, Konare told African heads of state gathered at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.

His remarks come ahead of a vote by AU leaders on Khartoum’s bid to assume the presidency of the organisation which rights groups say should be blocked given the situation in Darfur.

Konare said that there had been signs of progress in ongoing negotiations to send a joint AU-UN force to Sudan but he added that we have to "apply these moves this without delay."

CAR: Rebel Leader Welcomes 'Step Towards Reconciliation'

From AFP

A rebel leader in the Central African Republic welcomed moves towards national reconciliation after he last week held talks for the first time with President Francois Bozize.

Abdoulaye Miskine, who met Bozize on January 25 in Libya, said in a statement sent from Tripoli that the talks had been "a step towards national reconciliation" and urged Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to go on "working for the happy outcome of a peace accord".

Bozize on Sunday said his talks with Miskine and former government minister Andre Ringui Le Gaillard left "some details to reconcile points of view and allow our country to recover peace and focus on our development".

Miskine, who had been a top military aide to toppled president Ange-Felix Patasse who was ousted by Bozize in a March 2003 coup, presented himself as the head of general staff of a rebel coalition including the Union of Democratic Forces for the Rally (UFDR).

The UFDR in November took a series of towns in attacks launched from the northeast of the desperately poor and landlocked country, before being beaten back in an offensive in which France provided military and logistic help to the Central African army.

Miskine comes from neighbouring Chad to the north and led an army special forces unit under Patasse, who was overthrown while on a foreign trip after a decade of rule marked by military unrest, political turbulence, strikes and economic woes.

According to Miskine's statement, the talks in the Libyan port town of Sirte on the sidelines of a summit of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (Cen-Sad) took place "in the presence of Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno."

Both the CAR and Chad saw renewed outbreaks of rebel insurgency by shifting alliances of movements from late October and the two heads of state blamed this activity on Sudan, whose strife-wracked Darfur region has a joint border with their two countries.

After putting down the UFDR attacks, Bozize's troops have been up against the People's Army for the Restoration of the Republic and Democracy (APRD), a movement that claimed responsibility for several attacks on towns in northwest CAR between late 2005 and early 2006.

The APRD was blamed for a January 15 attack repelled by government troops in the northwestern town of Paoua, a year after the last such raid.

Ringui is reputedly close to the APRD, while Miskine's name has come up each time there has been insurgency under Bozize, who oversaw a political transition period then won elections in 2005, but faces an uphill task dealing with armed movements, bandit groups and highwaymen in northern parts of the CAR.

Bozize gave few details of his talks with the rebel leaders, but said Sunday that they had been held with a view to "recovering peace".

"Thanks to the support of the Libyan authorities, the Cen-Sad leaders and (Chadian) President Idriss Deby Itno we have had discussions with the rebels, and more importantly with Abdoulaye Miskine and the former minister Ringui," the president said in a national radio broadcast.

CAR: Police Shoot at Irate Street Vendors/IRC Launches Emergency Relief Effort

From the AP

Police fired into a crowd of rioting street vendors in the capital of Central African Republic on Tuesday, killing at least one, according to witnesses and hospital workers.

An Associated Press reporter saw police shoot into a crowd of about 60 people who were facing off against the officers in the streets of a commercial area of Bangui.

One of those involved, a vendor named Jean-Marie Guerekonzi, said the violence started after a storeowner asked police to disperse about two dozen vendors who had set up tables around his shop.

Guerekonzi said they refused to move and some people started throwing stones at police, who then started shooting.

The vendors offer items like cloth, shoes and notebooks to passers-by.

Maurice Moidamse, a police official in Bangui, confirmed that one person died, but said he had no information on how the death happened or who was at fault. He said police were planning an investigation.

A hospital worker who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give information to the press said that five people were brought in with serious injuries from the clash, and one died of a bullet injury soon after arriving. The worker said the four others were in critical condition.

From the IRC

Violence, disease and malnutrition are threatening the lives of tens of thousands of uprooted people in northwestern Central African Republic, prompting the International Rescue Committee to launch an emergency relief effort to address their most critical needs.

"An already dire situation is getting worse every day," says Bob Kitchen, who is leading the IRC mission. "This has reached the level of a humanitarian disaster."

Civilians are caught in the middle of a conflict that pits soldiers against a rebel group trying to overthrow the government. People in the northwest say they have no one to trust and nowhere to turn for help. Villages are being raided, looted and burned, civilians are being slaughtered and survivors are fleeing into the bush for safety. There, they are living out in the open without shelter or protection and next to no food, clean water, health services and basic supplies. Farming in this breadbasket region has become too risky, so food production has ground to a halt. Malnutrition rates are soaring and people are succumbing to preventable and treatable diseases. For those who remain in villages in this already destitute area, the violence only worsens their poverty.

Some 150,000 people are said to be internally displaced by the crisis and tens of thousands of others have fled to neighboring Chad and Cameroon.

An IRC emergency team is on the ground in the Central African Republic and is set to begin a humanitarian aid operation in and around the town of Kaga Bandoro in violence-torn Nana-Gribizi Prefecture. A recent assessment there found 54 charred and emptied villages along a 42 kilometer stretch of road. The inhabitants of the ruined villages, approximately 20,000 people, were hiding out in nearby forest.

"They all had to flee quickly, so they've lost everything," says Kitchen. "Most of them are drinking dirty water and are sick, but all clinics along the route were looted and shut down."

Darfur: Ban Fails to Win Sudan Over on Troops

From Reuters

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon failed on Monday to secure commitments from Sudan to allow the deployment of U.N peacekeepers in Darfur, despite lengthy talks at an African summit.

Ban said before the summit that Sudan must make concrete commitments to allow U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur to end years of violence in the vast Western province and that he would push for this at talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

After the talks on Monday, Sudanese presidential adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa said there was consensus on the first two stages of U.N. support for a 7,500-strong African Union mission in Darfur, but there was no agreement to deploy a hybrid force.

"We are in full agreement on the first and second stages. We began discussions on the third stage," Khalifa told Reuters after 1-1/2 hours of talks which made Bashir late for a meeting of African leaders to decide the chair of the pan-African body.

The violence in Darfur generated strong opposition to Sudan taking over the AU chairmanship in Addis, as promised a year ago. Sudan said it eventually withdrew to avoid dividing the continent.

Khalifa said: "We have agreed on a hybrid operation not a hybrid force." Sudan opposes the deployment of thousands of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur, but has agreed to allow up to 1,000 U.N. support personnel to bolster the struggling AU mission.

The U.N. envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, told Reuters substantial numbers of troops were needed to halt the bloodshed, in which experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes.

A gap remains between the Sudanese and U.N. positions on the U.N. role in peacekeeping in Darfur. Sudan says it should be limited to increased support and rejects any U.N. combat troops on the ground.

The United Nations wants a joint U.N.-AU force.

"We need a sizable presence," Eliasson said after the meeting with Bashir. "Even if we get...a (peace) agreement and effective ceasefire we need monitoring and with this size of country we'll need a sizeable number."

He said he would try to revive the peace process by going to Sudan in early February with AU mediator Salim Ahmed Salim to meet Darfur rebels who reject a peace deal reached in May 2006.

Since the agreement, Darfur's rebels have splintered into more than a dozen factions.

"This is...a problem and I would hope that we would see greater cooperation between the non-signatories," Eliasson said. "They have much to gain from that....because we aim in the end to have talks with the government."

Rebels who reject last year's accord say they want to start talks from scratch. Khartoum refuses to change the deal, signed by only one of three negotiating rebel factions.

"I have also heard from the government that they will take into account the legitimate grievances expressed (by the rebels)," Eliasson said.

Darfur: Sudan Loses AU Leadership Post

From Reuters

The African Union agreed on Monday that Ghana would lead the organisation for the next year after widespread opposition to Sudan emerged because of the Darfur crisis, the AU's top diplomat said.

AU commission head Alpha Oumar Konare told reporters that Ghanaian President John Kufuor would be the AU's chair for the next year. "By consensus it is President Kufuor," he said.

"Sudan supported the decision," he added.

The chairmanship was promised to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir a year ago but he was passed over for the post because of the violence in Darfur, which experts estimate has killed 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

Critics, including rights groups and Western governments, said there had been no improvement since then and Sudan must again be barred from leading the organisation whose peacekeepers are trying to stem the violence in its vast western region.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters: "Sudan attended this meeting and the presidency went to Ghana. Sudan withdrew."

Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande said the decision did not mean it would necessarily go to Sudan next time.

From the AP

The African Union chose Ghana to head the 53-member bloc Monday, turning aside Sudan's bid for the second year in a row because of the worsening violence in Darfur.

Sudanese leaders were adamant that they deserved the rotating chairmanship, but international organizations opposed giving the position to the Sudanese government, which they accuse of taking part in the conflict in Darfur. Rebel leaders in the Sudanese region have said they would stop considering the current AU peacekeeping mission as an honest broker there if Sudan was selected.

``By consensus vote President (John) Kufuor of Ghana has been elected to the presidency of the African Union,'' Alpha Oumar Konare, the A.U.'s chief executive, told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Sudan had pushed to obtain the chairmanship during last year's summit, which it hosted, but African leaders selected Republic of Congo's president in a compromise deal for him to chair for one year and then hand over to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. But the deal hinged on Sudan demonstrating progress in bringing peace to Darfur, a violence-wracked western Sudan region. Instead of calming, Darfur's violence in recent months has spilled into neighboring Chad and Central African Republic.

``African heads of states will have to stick to their word,'' Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said Sunday, insisting that al-Bashir should have the post.

Darfur: French Aid Group Withdrawing/Six Aid Agencies Warn Operations Near Breaking Point

From the AP

A leading French aid group said Monday it was pulling out of Darfur because the violence in the western Sudan region posed too high a risk to its workers.

Medecins du Monde, or Doctors of the World, has "suspended its activities in Darfur for an undetermined period of time," said the group's director of international missions, Eric Chevallier, in a phone interview.

"The balance between the help we were able to provide and the risks our staff were taking had reached breaking point," Chevallier said.

Several other aid groups have reduced their staff in Darfur because of the violence, and warned that they might be forced to withdraw completely. But Doctors of the World is the first major aid group to pull out.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and about 2,5 million forced to flee their homes during the past four years.

The French aid group has begun pulling out more than a dozen international aid workers and some 200 Sudanese nationals working in the region, it's international director said.

"It's a very difficult decision, and we hope we will be able to go back in when security improves," said Chevallier.

The aid group had been assisting some 90,000 refugees in the Kalma refugee camp of South Darfur, and had operated a mobile clinic treating about 30,000 people in remote villages in the Jebel Marra mountains where there was an outbreak of cholera last year.

He blamed the spiraling violence on all parties in Darfur, where multiple rebel groups fight the Sudanese army and the janjaweed paramilitary groups.

Chevallier said vehicle hijacking was making it impossible for the aid group to reach the remote villages where their aid is most needed, and that increased violence made it dangerous for staff to remain even in Darfur major towns. He pointed to a raid of four refugee compounds in the Gereida refugee camp on Dec. 18 during which a female aid worker was raped and several others endured mock executions while their vehicles and possessions were stolen.

"We decided it was better to leave before facing a serious problem than afterward," Chevallier said.

On Sunday, six other aid groups warned in a statement that they were reaching the "breaking point" in Darfur and called on the 7,000 African Union peacekeepers deployed in the region to try harder to protect refugees.

"Aid workers are facing violence on a scale not seen before in Darfur, leaving access to people in need at the conflict's lowest point," said the joint statement issued by Care International, the British Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and three other groups.

Attacks against civilians increased this month, killing 350 people and chasing tens of thousand more people from their home in January alone, the statement said.

From Oxfam

Aid agencies today warned the enormous humanitarian response in Darfur will soon be paralysed unless African and global leaders at the AU Summit take urgent action to end rising violence against civilians and aid workers. They said African Heads of States and new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will fail the people of Darfur if they do not take concrete steps to herald the start of a new chapter in the region and ensure an immediate ceasefire is both agreed and adhered to.

The six agencies, Action Against Hunger, CARE International, Oxfam International, Norwegian Refugee Council, World Vision and Save the Children, said aid workers are facing violence on a scale not seen before in Darfur, leaving access to people in need at the conflict's lowest point at a time when the humanitarian need is greater than ever. Attacks on civilians are again rising and forcing even more people to flee their homes, and a breakdown of the aid response will leave millions in even greater danger. The worsening four-year-old crisis must not be allowed to deteriorate any further.

"The conflict has dragged on far too long and is now worse than it's ever been. To wait any longer puts hundreds of thousands of lives in danger and risks a total breakdown of the entire humanitarian response. Today must be the time the African Union, the UN and the international community says enough is enough," said Irungu Houghton, Pan Africa Policy Advisor for Oxfam in Addis for the Summit.

Fresh fighting in January has left more than 350 people dead* and forced tens of thousands more from their homes. Splits in the rebel movements and a widespread lack of accountability have left Darfur increasingly lawless, leading to the direct targeting of aid workers. The violence has spread throughout Darfur and crossed the border into Chad. Even major towns and cities are now plagued with violence and have seen fighting and hijackings on the streets.

More than a month after an attack on aid workers in Gereida, the most violent of the conflict so far, which saw staff raped, beaten and subjected to mock executions, it is still far too dangerous for agencies to return to the camp, the world's largest for displaced people, where 130,000 have sought refuge from attacks on their villages. Temporary evacuations of staff from other locations across Darfur have continued, with nearly 500 aid workers withdrawn since the start of December. In early January, the UN warned that malnutrition rates are again rising close to emergency levels. Progress made in stabilising conditions over the past four years is in serious danger of being reversed.

Darfur: Tutu Urges Tough Sanctions

From Sapa

Sudan's government needs to face tough and effective sanctions until the suffering the Darfur region ends, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said on Monday.

Speaking ahead of the eighth African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa this week, he said that Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir longed to be given the AU's presidency.

"The AU cannot allow itself to comfort the oppressor. I appeal to those leaders meeting at the AU summit to stand up to tyranny and stand by the people of Darfur."

Tutu warned the AU that the Sudanese government, and other parties to the conflict, treated AU peace monitors with contempt.

"And time and again they fail to comply with the promises they make to stop the killing."

He added that an immediate ceasefire in Sudan's Darfur region was essential, along with a strengthened peacekeeping force with United Nations troops. A robust mandate was urgently needed to protect the innocent.

"While discussions drag on, people are dying."

Tutu pointed out that the AU was at a crossroads over how to deal with the Darfur crisis in Sudan.

He called on the continental body to "be bold and stand by the people of Africa or be weak and stand by the politicians who are making that corner of Africa a graveyard".

"If the AU allows this to continue and the aid effort breaks down then there will soon be no help for the hundred of thousands who have fled their homes."

Tutu called the Darfur crisis "a matter of utmost urgency".

"The people of Darfur need action in weeks not months. They have suffered terribly, and they cannot wait any longer."

He said Africa could not turn its back on the people of Darfur.

"The government of Sudan continues to act with impunity and must now be subjected to tough and effective sanctions until the suffering ends.

Darfur: African Leaders Urged to Back UN Force

From the AP

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on African leaders Monday to help end worsening violence in Darfur by backing the urgent deployment of a joint U.N. and African peacekeeping force.

Ban also called for aid workers to be allowed to operate in Darfur as humanitarian agencies warned their operations are on the brink of collapse.

"We must work to end the violence and scorched earth policies adopted by various parties, including militias, as well as the bombings which are still a terrifying feature of life in Darfur," Ban told African leaders including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. "The toll of the crisis remains unacceptable."

Darfur rebel leaders warned they would stop considering the current AU peacekeeping mission as an honest peace-broker in Darfur if al-Bashir was selected.

The U.N. chief, on his first visit to Africa since taking over from Kofi Annan on Jan. 1, is expected to hold talks later Monday with al-Bashir.

Sudan is coming under increasing pressure to allow in the U.N. force.

"Peace in Sudan means peace in Chad," he told delegates who included African leaders, foreign ministers and diplomats in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

ICC: Global Court to Rule on Charges For First Trial

From Reuters

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was due to rule on Monday whether there was enough evidence against a Congolese militiaman for recruiting child soldiers to launch the new court's first trial.

Confirming charges against Thomas Lubanga is eagerly anticipated as it would trigger the first trial at the ICC, set up as the first permanent global war crimes court in 2002.

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court, a network of organisations supporting the work of the ICC, said moving towards a trial would be an "historic decision" for the court that is now supported by 104 nations.

The court could also throw out the charges, request further evidence and investigations, or ask prosecutors to consider amending a charge. Some victims' groups want the charges expanded to include crimes such as killings, rape and torture.

The Democratic Republic of Congo -- rich in gold, diamonds and timber -- was the battleground for rebels, local factions, tribes and several neighbouring countries in a 1998-2003 war in which 4 million people died, mainly from hunger and disease.

Prosecutors say Lubanga, the founder and leader of one of the most dangerous militia in Congo's Ituri district, trained children to kill, made them kill and let them be killed.

The 46-year-old, who holds a degree in psychology, has denied the charges. His lawyer has accused the prosecution of withholding information he needs to prepare the defence.

Lubanga is the only suspect to be delivered so far to the court that issued its first arrest warrants in 2005 for leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who have led a 20-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also plans to charge suspects soon for atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, which the U.N. Security Council asked him to investigate in 2005.

The United States has fiercely opposed the ICC, fearing it would be used for politically-motivated prosecutions of its soldiers and citizens, but its hostility to the court is waning and it abstained when the Security Council voted on Darfur.

Lubanga, leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an ethnic militia now registered as a political party, is accused of using children to kill members of the Lendu ethnic group.

Ethnic violence in the Ituri region between the Hema and Lendu and clashes between militia groups vying for control of mines and taxation have killed 60,000 people since 1999.

Up to 30,000 children were associated with Congo's armed groups during the height of the war, according to estimates.

The ICC prosecutors' indictment said the children, who often joined the militia because of their desperate need for food or desire to avenge their murdered families, were subject to systematic military training and severe discipline.

A Choice for Darfur

The latest from Nick Kristof

Over the next two days, African leaders will convene in Ethiopia and choose a new head of the African Union. Incredibly, that job may go to Sudan’s blood-drenched president, Omar al-Bashir, architect of the genocide in Darfur.

The outcome is still uncertain, with Sudan campaigning furiously for the job, but it’s mind-boggling that African countries would even consider selecting as their leader a man who has systematically dispatched militias that pick out babies on the basis of tribe and skin color and throw them into bonfires.

At a time when Africa is enjoying solid economic growth and improved leadership, this self-inflicted wound would sully Africa’s image and make it far more difficult for African Union peacekeepers to save lives in Darfur.

Mr. Bashir hasn’t confined himself to killing his own people, but has also sent his janjaweed militias to invade Chad and the Central African Republic. The janjaweed have beaten mothers with their own babies, until the infants are dead, and lately they have diversified into gouging out people’s eyes with bayonets. For anyone who wants the best for Africa, it is repulsive to think of President Bashir as the duly elected spokesman for the continent.

One reason Mr. Bashir has continued to engage in such behavior is that the world doesn’t seriously object. Almost all North African countries are backing his bid to chair the African Union. China, which supplies nearly all the AK-47s that are used to kill children in Darfur, has underwritten the genocide. Lately, it has encouraged Sudan to be more responsible, but President Hu Jintao is visiting Sudan shortly — let’s see whether he publicly expresses concern about Chinese-supported atrocities in Africa that far exceed the Rape of Nanjing.

Sudan promised a cease-fire, but instead it has been attacking aid workers. As Newsweek reported, at least four female aid workers have been beaten and sexually abused recently — raped in the case of two French women.

In addition, an aid worker in Sudan tells me that on Jan. 22 the police raided a party in the city of Nyala and arrested 22 employees of aid groups. Several were beaten and one woman was sexually abused but managed to fend off an attempted rape.

Broader security is also collapsing. On a road near Bulbul that used to be safe, gunmen stopped a public bus in the middle of the day and brutally beat the men and gang-raped the women for hours. In the face of all this, aid workers are jittery and some are pulling out.

Yet Europe is oblivious (the Davos conference here has great sessions on Africa but nothing on Darfur). President Bush has been better than most world leaders, but still pathetic: he mustered half a sentence in his State of the Union address. Perhaps this is because Mr. Bush regards the situation as tragic but hopeless, but in fact there is plenty he could do.

He could speak out forcefully about Darfur. He could bring victims to the White House for a photo op. He could help the U.N. send a force to protect Chad and the Central African Republic — while continuing to push for U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur itself. He could visit Darfur or Chad and invite European or Chinese officials to join him. He could invite African leaders to Washington for a summit meeting that would include discussion of Darfur. He could impose a no-fly zone. He could develop targeted sanctions against Sudanese leaders. He could begin forensic accounting to find assets of those leaders in Western countries. He could call on NATO and the Pentagon to prepare contingency plans in case the janjaweed start massacring the hundreds of thousands of Darfuris in camps.

And this weekend he could telephone a few African presidents to tell them what a catastrophe it would be if Africa chose Mr. Bashir as its leader.

Serious negotiations between the government and Darfur’s rebels are crucial for a lasting peace deal in Darfur, and new discussions are expected soon (that may be why President Hu dares visit Khartoum). But Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, a Sudanese human rights leader, says the new talks will fail unless the Darfur rebels have a chance to consult first. And when they try to meet, the Sudanese government bombs them.

There are countless other practical ideas for Darfur, and I’d like to hear yours. Send your suggestions to me at DarfurSuggestions@gmail.com. I’ll post some on my blog at www.nytimes.com/ontheground and discuss them in a future column.

Darfur: Aid Workers Tell of Brutal Attack by Police

From The Telegraph

Aid workers have described how they watched helplessly as Sudanese police officers dragged a female United Nations worker from an aid agency compound in Darfur and subjected her to a vicious sexual attack.

Staff say they feared for their lives when armed police raided their compound in Nyala, dragging one European woman out into the street by her hair and savagely beating several other international staff before arresting a total of 20 UN, aid agency and African Union staff.

[edit]

"We were terrified," one aid worker who witnessed the assault told The Sunday Telegraph. "The police were armed and threatening us at gunpoint. A few of the guys were beaten to the floor as they tried to calm the situation. The police were being really aggressive, laying into us with sticks and kicking us."

At this point, he said, one of the female UN workers was pulled aside. "They forced her into a back alley where she was sexually assaulted by police officers. There was nothing we could do to stop them separating her, they were shoving rifles in our faces and pounding us with batons.

"They pushed us out on to the street dragging one of the girls along the floor by her hair. They forced us to the ground again, loading others into police cars. Locals started attacking us, throwing punches, and the police did nothing to stop them. I seriously feared for my life because the situation had got so out of control."

The UN said it planned to make a formal protest over the incident. In a statement it said it was "deeply concerned at the treatment of the detained staff".

Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, said he expected those involved to be brought to justice.

The attack comes amid growing concern over the level of violence directed at aid workers.

In December, an international staff member working for a French aid agency was raped, others were beaten and one was subjected to a mock execution in the town of Gereida in south Darfur. Another international worker suffered a serious sexual assault in September.

Sudanese government-backed militias have used rape as a weapon against women in Darfur since the start of their campaign of ethnic cleansing in 2003. In December, The Sunday Telegraph revealed how a doctor had been gang-raped for protesting about the rape of more than 40 schoolgirls.

Now aid agencies say the deteriorating security situation for the remaining international relief workers could force their withdrawal.

A UN official in Darfur said: "If the people responsible for beating and molesting the aid workers and UN staff are not punished, others will think they can get away with such crimes and it will happen again.

Should the security situation for international aid workers not improve and the overall safety of our staff be assured, we will be forced to withdraw from Darfur."

The latest incident came when police and national security staff stormed an impromptu party at the aid agency compound in Nyala. The UN said police beat staff with batons, with UN and aid agency personnel sustaining serious injuries.

Workers at the party said the attacks were part of a campaign of harassment.

"It seemed as if they had been waiting for an excuse to get stuck into some foreign aid workers, and this was their chance," said one.

"Some of the UN guys were seriously injured. I saw a police officer repeatedly hitting one person in the face and then kicking him on the back of the head as he lay on the ground."

Another said: "It has become clear to many of us here that the police and national security have been stirring up trouble in the local community by spreading rumours about aid workers and agencies. They are trying to make our work here as difficult as they can and by getting locals to resent us they can make aid operations almost impossible to run."

A UN spokesman said the world body's Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, was "extremely concerned" and "expects a swift investigation of the incident".

Chad to Withdraw from AU if Sudan Gets Chair

From Reuters

Chad will withdraw from the African Union if Sudan takes the chairmanship of the body next week, Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi said on Saturday.

A diplomatic deadlock is expected at an AU summit next week as Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir hopes to secure the chair of the pan-African body after a promise made a year ago.

But spiralling violence in Sudan's Darfur region has fuelled strong opposition to his bid. As host last year, Sudan wanted the leadership but Congo's President Dennis Sassou Nguesso took over in a compromise.

"If (Sudan) gets it, Chad will withdraw from the African Union until Bashir is replaced," Allam-Mi told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers in the Ethiopian capital before the summit.

"We will go. It's ridiculous. There is the same situation there was last year at the Khartoum summit and the situation in Darfur is worse. Relations between Chad and Sudan are deteriorating. I do not see why Mr. Bashir should get the mandate."

Event: The Answer to Darfur

From ENOUGH - a new project from the Center for American Progress and the International Crisis Group

February 1, 2007, 2:30pm – 4:30pm

Moderated by:
Gayle Smith, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Featured Speakers:
John Prendergast, Senior Adviser, the International Crisis Group
Colin Thomas-Jensen, Africa Advocacy and Research Manager, the International Crisis Group

As the ruling National Congress Party in Sudan pursues a military solution in Darfur and expands its support for armed groups committing atrocities in Chad and the Central African Republic, the international response to the crisis in Darfur lacks coordination, focus, and a clear vision for the way forward. Occasional rhetorical condemnations and unenforced or unenforceable Security Council resolutions have resulted in a collective failure to negotiate a durable peace deal, protect civilians, and hold the perpetrators of atrocities responsible for their crimes. This policy inertia can only be overcome if the international community adopts a coherent and synchronized strategy.

The Center for American Progress and the International Crisis Group invite you to a presentation of a comprehensive plan to bring about lasting peace to Darfur.

The Answer to Darfur is the first in a series of events sponsored by the newly created ENOUGH: the Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities. The mission of ENOUGH is to end crimes against humanity in Darfur, northern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and to prevent future mass atrocities through a "3P" strategy which protects the vulnerable, punishes the perpetrators, and promotes peace. ENOUGH, a joint initiative of the International Crisis Group and the Center for American Progress, will utilize field research, sophisticated analysis and recommendations, and targeted messaging to end this scourge on humanity once and for all.

Location
Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW
Washington, DC 20005
Map & Directions

Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center

RSVP for this Event

Sudan: One Peacekeeper Killed, Two Wounded in South

From Reuters

An Indian U.N. peacekeeper in southern Sudan was killed and two wounded by unidentified attackers on Friday as they helped clear land mines, the United Nations said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack and demanded a swift investigation, spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. Ban called on all Sudanese parties to cooperate fully with the inquiry, he said.

The peacekeepers, part of the U.N. Mission in Sudan, were escorting a mine clearance team near the southern town of Magwe when they were attacked, the United Nations said.

The U.N. mission, with about 10,300 troops and police, was sent into southern Sudan in March 2005.

It monitors a peace agreement ending a 21-year civil war in the south that is separate from the conflict still raging in Sudan's western Darfur region.

The mission also helps train police and human rights workers and provides other services, including mine clearance assistance.

India had 2,606 soldiers, 28 police officers and 21 military observers in the Sudan mission as of the end of last year, according to the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping.

Ban also extended his condolences to the government of India and the family of the dead soldier, wishing the two wounded men a speedy recovery, Haq said.

Darfur: Rebels to Fight AU if Sudan Becomes Chair

From Reuters

Darfur rebels said on Friday they would refuse peace talks and would fight African Union peacekeepers on the ground if Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir became chairman of the pan-African body.

Last year wrangling over whether Sudan would become chairman dominated an African Union summit, and a compromise was reached that Bashir would take over in 2007 in the hope the situation would have improved in Sudan's west.

But security has deteriorated despite an AU-mediated peace deal in May and diplomats warn another battle over the year-long chairmanship will emerge as African leaders prepare to meet on Monday and Tuesday in Ethiopia.

"If Sudan becomes head of the African Union then the AU mission working in Darfur will become party to the conflict on the side of the government," said Esam el-Din al-Hajj, from a faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).

Jar el-Neby, a commander from a rival SLA faction which cooperates with the roughly 7,500 AU peacekeepers in Darfur, agreed, adding the AU would not be able to mediate talks with Sudan as its head.

"Definitely if the government of Sudan becomes president of the AU we will fight with the AU," he said.

"There is no solution to the conflict in Darfur if Sudan becomes head of the AU. We refuse this and there will be no talks," he told Reuters from Darfur.

Leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim also said peace talks would be out of the question with Bashir heading the AU.

But Sudan is not backing down. "There was a decision made last year and nobody has the right to change that," said Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol.

Nonetheless, diplomats say that last year's deal was only in principle, and it will be discussed again.

Darfur: AU Calls on United Nations to Fund Mission

From

The United Nations should take over full financing of a struggling African Union peacekeeping operation in Sudan's violent Darfur region, where security is deteriorating, the AU's top diplomat said on Friday.

Alpha Oumar Konare's report to African foreign ministers meeting in Addis Ababa blamed the renewed insecurity on the re-emergence of pro-government militia known as Janjaweed plus a lack of commitment to a truce by all parties to the conflict.

"It is crucial that the issue of funding (of the AU mission) by the United Nations through assessed contributions be pursued expeditiously," the report said.

It added agreement had been reached that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should recommend to the General Assembly that "the United Nations provide full financing to the mission".

The 7,500-some AU soldiers and police in Darfur have failed to stem the violence, which experts estimate has killed 200,000 people and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes during the four-year conflict.

It costs $40 million a month for the AU operation. AU diplomats say that any U.N. mission would cost three times the amount of the AU operation.

Konare blamed weak logistics and a lack of cash for the AU mission's failings. Experts say at least 20,000 troops are needed in Darfur, an arid region the size of France.

Arab League representative Samir Hosni said his group had transferred $15 million to the AU and hoped for more funds. But he said it was up to the United Nations to take over.

Ban will meet Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir during a summit of African leaders in Addis Ababa on Monday and Tuesday, Sudan's Foreign Minister Lam Akol said.

Akol said there would be no further discussions on U.N. troops in Darfur, because he said agreement that the U.N. would support the mission was clear.

The United Nations says a support package and joint force was agreed in November, but Khartoum has since rejected a substantial U.N. peacekeeping presence on the ground.

Konare said the details of the U.N. support package had been finalised and included "substantial air assets," as well as significant military and logistical help. It would be presented to Sudan for discussion, he added.

The Arab League's Hosni said no agreement was made in November to deploy thousands of U.N. peacekeeping troops, just that the majority of troops should be African.

"The other forces should be a few units from the United Nations working in the chain of command, logistical and communications and this should be hundreds, no more than 1,000-2,000," he said.

Darfur: Aid Chief Warns of Catastrophe

From Guardian

The forced withdrawal of aid organisations from Darfur could leave more than two million civilians facing catastrophe, vulnerable to militia attacks, starvation and disease, a leading human rights activist has warned.

Lawrence Rossin, a former US ambassador now acting as international coordinator of the Save Darfur Coalition, said that even after the deaths of an estimated 400,000 people in the region, most at the hands of the government-backed Janjaweed militia, the situation could still get worse. "The genocide may not be done," he said. "There are still plenty of people to kill."


The warning came as more evidence emerged of Sudanese government harassment of aid organisations.
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki Moon, called on the government to investigate a police assault on 20 UN staff and humanitarian workers in the South Darfur capital of Nyala, in which several UN staff were seriously injured. Action Against Hunger, a French agency, said that one of its staff was raped in Darfur, one was subjected to a mock execution, and others were sexually assaulted at its compound in Gereida, a town that was comprehensively looted in December. Several aid officials said they believed that a faction under a former rebel leader, Minni Minnawi, now collaborating with the Khartoum government, was behind the Gereida attack.

The raid is the latest in a string of attacks on humanitarian organisations by Janjaweed militiamen and rebel groups, in which a dozen aid workers have died. The onslaught prompted an unprecedented joint statement this month by UN agencies in the western Sudanese province, saying that the aid operation there, the world's largest, was under threat. Aid officials say the government of Omar al-Bashir is also holding up visas and customs clearance for their supplies.

All but a handful of aid workers have been withdrawn from the most vulnerable refugee camps. One agency, the Norwegian Refugee Council, has been forced out, and others may follow.

"It's at breaking point, and we can't continue much longer in this environment," an aid official said.

If the aid workers left, Mr Rossin said: "You'd have a terrible, catastrophic situation, in several different ways". The provision of food, water and medical aid would be cut off and the 2.5 million civilians in the camps could disperse, which might be Khartoum's intention, he said. The departure of western witnesses to the crisis would also make Darfur civilians more vulnerable to attack.

Darfur: Urgent Political Action Needed

From IRIN

The humanitarian crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur will deteriorate this year unless key political decisions involving the government, the Darfurian rebel groups and the international community are urgently taken, an international nongovernmental organisation working in the war-torn region warned on Friday.

"Unless there is increased recognition, within Sudan and internationally, of the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, we will be faced with a huge, long-term human tragedy," Tom Arnold, Chief Executive of a key international NGO, Concern Worldwide, said. "The only way to prevent this is for urgent political action to improve security in the short term and to start a meaningful longer-term peace process."

Such action would require a meaningful peace process between the Sudanese government and the non-signatories to the Darfur Peace Agreement. Adherence by all sides to the recently announced 60-day ceasefire and the early deployment of the proposed African Union/United Nations hybrid force to increase security and improve the protection of the civilian population would be important first steps.

"I left Darfur with a real sense of pessimism that there is little prospect of improvement in the short term," Arnold, who had just returned from his third visit to Darfur, said in an interview with IRIN in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "Unless there is serious willingness to engage in the political process, it can only get worse and create conditions for disaster in the long run."

Displaced people in Darfur, he explained, had told him they were afraid to leave the camps, because of militia attacks. "My overall impression was of a growing sense of hopelessness," he explained. "One local leader said they were living in an open prison. I met no-one who said they were willing to return to their villages without a major improvement in security."

The situation had made it increasingly difficult for humanitarian workers to help vulnerable populations. Concern International, which targets 250,000 people in the region, had found it difficult to deliver aid overland to Kulbus or Solei in West Darfur and to civilians in Mornai camp south of El Geneina because of the fragile security along the roads. Mornai, which hosts 80,000-90,000 people, is the biggest in West Darfur.

"We can only access these places by helicopter - which introduces a major constraint in our effectiveness," Arnold said. "You cannot bring cement or 18,000 blankets by helicopter. The lack of security is having a direct knock-on effect on our operations."

Calling for dialogue between the Sudanese government and rebel groups, alongside international pressure, Arnold said: "If you could get some kind of reduction in violence that could provide some opportunity. A large onus rests with the Sudanese government, but even if they wanted an agreement, they can’t make it on their own. There are two sides to every conflict."

He hailed aid workers for doing a good job in the region, but added: "The crisis in Darfur is a much wider one. Too many people have been in camps now for between two and three years. In the past six months, an extra quarter of a million people have been displaced. When you add all this together, the situation is definitely getting worse."

Aid workers, he acknowledged, were facing an increasingly risky working environment: "Quite clearly the statistics are there. Since July, 12 aid workers have been killed, five are missing. The growing insecurity means it is more difficult for aid agencies to access the population."

According to the UN, violence in Darfur is increasingly targeting aid workers. Over the past six months, 30 NGO and UN compounds were attacked by armed groups while more than 400 staff were relocated 31 times from different locations throughout Darfur. Last week, police officers attacked staff from the UN, the African Union Mission in Sudan and seven NGOs in South Darfur. The attack and subsequent arrests of some staff in the state capital of Nyala occurred while they were attending a social gathering.

"The increasingly worsening humanitarian situation had created a moral dilemma for aid workers," Arnold said. "Many of the people in the camps see the importance of a humanitarian presence as a form of protection for them. But the only way to square the moral pressure is to keep up the political pressure."

Darfur: Nobel Laureate to Head UN Rights Investigation

From Reuters

Nobel peace laureate Jody Williams will lead a six-strong international mission to Sudan's Darfur region to investigate rights abuses against civilians, the head of the U.N. human rights watchdog announced on Friday.

The mission was agreed to by the Geneva-based United Nation's Human Rights Council in December after a heated debate, but agreeing on the names took several weeks.

Council chairman Luis Alfonso de Alba said Williams, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her campaigning to ban landmines, would lead the team, which will travel to Darfur in early February.

She will be joined by former deputy U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, Estonian parliamentarian and racism expert Mart Nutt, Indonesia's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Makarim Wibisono and Patrice Tonda, Gabon's ambassador to the U.N.

The U.N.'s special investigator on human rights in Sudan, Sima Samar, who has made several visits to the country, will also take part. The mission will report back to the Council at its March 12-April 5 session.

Darfur: AU Presidency Contradicts Peacekeeping

From the AP

The State Department acknowledged on Thursday there was a contradiction between the election of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir as chairman of the 53-nation African Union at a time when AU peacekeepers were in Sudan to protect Darfur’s citizens from their own government

Under the AU’s rotating chairmanship, it is Sudan’s turn to fill that position when the issue is formally decided at a summit meeting in Ethiopia at the end of the month.

Despite the contradiction, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States is not opposing al-Bashir’s candidacy.

It is up to the AU members to deal with it, he said.

Al-Bashir was to have been elected last year but, under a compromise, he stepped aside, allowing Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso to assume the chairmanship.

The compromise calls for al-Bashir to assume those duties after this year’s election.

Darfur: Genocide Lost in the Shuffle of Daily Life

An op-ed by Samuel Totten in The Arkansas Traveler - via POTP

More than one million U.S. citizens have sent letters to the White House demanding that the U.S. prod the U.N. to take action. No one except the White House knows for sure whether the aforementioned letters sparked the recent call by the White House for action by the international community to halt the killing in Darfur. What one can say is that the letters certainly didn't hurt the cause to halt the genocide.

What is critically needed now is for even more U.S. citizens to write to both the White House and the U.N. calling for immediate, effective action to stanch the killing in Darfur. Time is of essence.

For the past two years I have written one guest commentary after another on the Darfurian crisis. In each, I've beseeched readers to (a) write letters to their Congressional representatives and the White House; (b) sign one of the many petitions now available calling on the U.N. to take action to halt the killing; and (c) submit letters to their local newspapers calling on their fellow citizens to stand up and be counted vis-a-vis this issue. And yet, little has come from such attempts to move the average citizen to action. I now find myself asking, "Why is that the case?"

I mean, just how difficult is it to write a single letter to an U.S. official (preferably President Bush or Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice) asking him/her to apply relentless pressure on the United Nations to act to stanch the ongoing killing? A letter that certainly would take less time to write than watching a half hour situation comedy (e.g., "Scrubs," "The Office," "Two and a Half Men") or a reality show ("Flavor of Love," "The Hills," "The Girls Next Door"). Less time than it takes most to drive to his/her church, synagogue or mosque. And certainly less time than it takes to do the week's shopping, go to a movie, browse in shops at a local mall or attend a football game.

Maybe I was naive to think that my guest commentaries calling on congregations of Christians in the area to speak out about the genocide in Darfur would result in something more than passivity. I am beginning to think that many Christians may only care about and look out for their own kind. The reason I say that is that when black African Christians were being attacked in southern Sudan by the very same government that is now behind the killing of the Black Africans of Darfur, large numbers of the Christian community (especially the evangelicals) not only expressed their outrage but placed implacable pressure on the White House to stop the atrocities. But, today, Christian action on the behalf of the Black African Muslims of Darfur is, in comparison, negligible.

Maybe I was equally naive to think that scores of students on this campus would begin speaking out about the genocide once they were cognizant of it. A handful, have stood up and spoken out - 20 or 30 at most out of some 17,000 plus students.

Granted, students lead busy lives - going to classes, studying, working, partying, and going to the football games. But even if only half of those attending the football games on Saturday would write a single letter, it could make a difference.

And maybe I was also naive to think that those who read the editorial pages of the papers in Arkansas and write letters to the editor would deluge state and local papers with letters to the editor demanding that their Congressional representatives do something to halt the slaughter Darfur. I've seen two such letters mixed in with letters about the coaching of UA football coach Houston Nutt, the fate of the Hogs at the hands of USC, the hope placed on the shoulders of UA quarterback Mitch Mustain, and so on and so forth.

Thank goodness there are a few good souls in Arkansas who have been moved to action. Certainly the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, in its editorials and news articles, has played a significant role in getting the word out about the genocide in Darfur. And a good number of folks in northwest Arkansas have stood up to be counted: George Arnold in his editorials in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette; UA students Katie Fourmy, Thomas Vo and John Terry who organized the STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) chapter at the UA; Reverend Lowell Grisham, who dedicated a morning to availing his congregation at St. Paul's Episcopal Church about Darfur; and the various groups (the Fayetteville Rotary Club, former Peace Corps Volunteers, the local Quakers, the UA Law School, among others) that have requested speakers on Darfur and then graciously provided time for their members to sign petitions calling on the U.N. to act now to halt the killing.

I realize and appreciate that people are very busy with families, jobs and dealing with all of the vagaries of life, but I also believe that most people have good hearts and will act in good conscience when they perceive others to be in dire need. Ample evidence of that as of late was the outpouring of concern for the victims of hurricane-devastated New Orleans and the victims of the tsunami in Asia. What I can't figure out, though, is why so few are moved to action about genocide. I mean, it didn't happen in during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, and it certainly has not happened the past three years as hundreds of thousands have been killed and young girls as young as eight have been subjected to brutal rape by the perpetrators of the genocide.

Darfur: First Test for New UN Chief

From the Christian Science Monitor

The new United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki Moon, lists Darfur among his top priorities.

Putting an end to the violence there, which the United States calls "genocide," is also turning into the UN leader's first major test – of his credibility as a global moral force and of his ability to cajole the international community, and in this case Sudan, beyond words to action.

Mr. Ban is underscoring his commitment to resolving the conflict in Darfur by making the African Union summit, to be held in Ethiopia Monday, the focus of his first international trip. There he plans to meet Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and to press him to accept deployment of a "hybrid" African Union-UN force of 20,000 peacekeepers for the war-ravaged province.

UN officials say Ban, who has been in his job since Jan. 2, does not want to lose the "momentum" that was thought to have been made at the end of last year, when Mr. Bashir sent a letter to outgoing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in which he seemed to accept the idea of a hybrid force.

"The problem is that the Sudanese agree to things, but then they backtrack and dawdle. So the worry here is that they made a gesture but then saw they could use the change from Annan to Ban to stall," says one UN official close to the thinking in the secretary-general's office. "The idea will be to move ahead with what has already been approved," says the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ban's meeting with Bashir is a good first step, some analysts of conflict diplomacy say, but they add that he can do much more.

"The most important thing is to get countries to make significant pledges of troops for a Darfur force, so that it is something more than an idea approved last year by the Security Council," says Lee Feinstein, an expert in international institutions at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. "That's something Ban can do that would send a particularly stern message of determination to the Sudanese."

Mr. Feinstein says that Ban, whose candidacy to the secretary-general's post was backed by both Washington and Beijing, should turn to China now for a troop commitment to a peacekeeping force in Darfur. Given Beijing's significant economic partnership with Khartoum, no other power could equal the message that would send, he adds.

Increasingly sensitive to its international image, China is openly discussing its growing involvement in Africa in general and in Sudan in particular. But it is also emphasizing that its cooperation toward a resolution of the Darfur conflict will be diplomatic and not military in nature.

Chinese President Hu Jintao announced this week his plans to visit Sudan next month for talks that will include the Darfur crisis.

Wang Guangya, the Chinese ambassador to the UN, who met with Ban this week in New York, says he made clear China's support for a diplomatic solution in Darfur.

"I told [Ban] we support him in setting his priority on Darfur, and that we will work with him for progress on that issue," Mr. Wang says. Referring to Sudan's recent hints of openness to outside involvement, he adds, "We have seen some important signals over the past few weeks, and I think we are seeing indications that we can expect more."

Ban also met this week with a Sudanese foreign-ministry official, registering his concern over continued aerial bombardments by the government of Sudan in north Darfur. He also brought up increasing harassment of and attacks on UN staff members in Darfur.

But pressure for more robust international action is mounting in other quarters. Several rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the Save Darfur Coalition, are calling on the African Union to reject Sudan's candidacy for the presidency of the 53-member organization. In letters to AU countries, the groups said the AU's effectiveness and role in a Darfur resolution would be undermined with a Sudanese presidency.

At the same time, a bipartisan group of US senators is calling on President Bush to divulge any plans the administration has to strengthen its measures addressing the Darfur conflict. Andrew Natsios, presidential envoy for Darfur, had warned the Sudanese government in a Khartoum meeting last month that the US would move on to a new plan of more aggressive measures if Sudan did not begin opening up to a larger international force than the 7,000 soldiers the AU has in the vast western region.

Feinstein, who has authored a new paper on international responsibilities in internal conflicts like that in Darfur, says Ban must also start looking to changes that can help prevent future Darfurs. "Ban should use the advantage he has of the 'fresh start' to move ahead more long term on developing the means to prevent conflicts from becoming international tragedies, as Darfur has," he says.

Among other things, he says Ban should build on the UN General Assembly's adoption in 2005 of the so-called "responsibility to protect" doctrine, which calls on the international community to protect civilians in countries where the government is unable or unwilling to do so.

Uganda: LRA 'Lose Faith' in Mediator

From VOA

Ugandan rebels say they have lost faith in the mediator of the group's peace talks with the Ugandan government.

A spokesman for the rebel Lord's Resistance Army said Thursday that the government of southern Sudan has declared "hostile action" against the group.

On Monday, the president of southern Sudan's semi-autonomous government, Salva Kiir, accused the LRA of terrorizing his region's population. He said everybody with a gun should help the army hunt the rebels down.

The rebel spokesman said Thursday that the LRA has not attacked anyone in southern Sudan.

He also accused southern Sudan of planning to arrest the rebel group's leaders, and hand them over to the International Criminal Court to face war crimes charges.

Uganda: New Venue Key to Peace Talks

From Reutersenvoy

Uganda's stop-start peace talks will resume only if the government agrees to negotiate with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels at a different venue, the U.N. envoy for the conflict said on Thursday.

The LRA, a northern Ugandan rebel movement fighting for two decades with no clear aim, said earlier this month it would not return to talks in south Sudan's capital Juba because it was worried about the security of its fighters in Sudan.

It asked that another country be chosen instead.

"The way forward now is to concentrate on finding the solution to the problem of the venue," Joaquim Chissano, Mozambique's former president, said after returning to Maputo following a 10-day mission to break the impasse.

"I think this (venue change) can ... reignite the dialogue," said Chissano, who agreed last year to become the U.N.'s point man on the Ugandan conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 1.7 million others into refugee camps.

He, however, has made little progress in forging a political settlement that would end the violence that has at times spilled over into southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Darfur: AU Set for Diplomatic Deadlock

From Reuters

A diplomatic deadlock is expected at a meeting of African leaders in Ethiopia over whether Sudan, accused of war crimes in its Darfur region, will become the African Union chair as promised a year ago.

With around 7,000 AU troops struggling to stem the violence in remote Darfur and AU mediation of peace talks, hosts Sudan were denied the chairmanship in wrangling which dominated the 2006 summit.

In the hope Darfur's crisis would be over, a compromise was struck that would give Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir the chair in 2007.

But rights groups and AU diplomats say little has changed in Darfur in a year.

"African states should reject Sudan's bid to become the chair of the African Union on the grounds that Khartoum's attacks on civilians, support for militias and impunity for war crimes in Darfur remain unchanged," said New York-based Human Rights Watch in a statement.

"Awarding Sudan the chairmanship would not only reward the sponsors of crimes against humanity in Darfur, it would irreparably discredit the AU," said Peter Takirambudde, the rights group's Africa director.

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Khartoum denies genocide and says Western media exaggerate the conflict. Officials say a May 2006 peace deal, signed by only one of three negotiating rebel factions, has improved security.

Sudan's state media say Khartoum is preparing to take over the AU chairmanship in Addis Ababa when the summit opens on Jan. 29.

"This question has been discussed last year and they have taken a decision," said Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol. But he said the decision would be made by the leaders at the summit.

Sudan's position that security has improved in Darfur is not shared by others.

"Conditions in Darfur have deteriorated very badly over the past year, despite the signing of the poorly conceived peace agreement," said Eric Reeves, a U.S. academic and Darfur expert.

One senior source in the AU who declined to be named said: "The same conditions that applied to the decision last year still apply this year. But it will be difficult to find a solution to this."

Last year the summit decided the chairmanship would rotate between regions and that in 2007, it would be the turn of east Africa, of which Sudan is a member. But some diplomats said the promise that Bashir would take the chairmanship was not binding.

"This was a declaration, not a decision," said a senior member of the Chadian delegation. "The Darfur issue is still not resolved, on the contrary it has spread and affects Chad and the Central African Republic."

Chadian-Sudanese relations are strained as the two countries accuse each other of supporting rebels trying to topple their governments.

While no other candidate has been announced as yet, diplomats said Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete may be asked to represent east Africa as an alternative to Bashir.

Last year, the decision took most of the two-day summit to resolve and diplomats said they expect the same this time.

Darfur: Congress Steps on Bush's Applause Line

From Salon

One of the least noticed lines in President Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday caused perhaps the most enthusiastic bipartisan standing ovation. "We will continue to speak out for the cause of freedom in places like Cuba, Belarus and Burma," Bush announced, "and continue to awaken the conscience of the world to save the people of Darfur."

But 13 hours later, Congress was raising questions about the president's strategy to end the Darfurian genocide. A senior Republican House member and a former Bush administration diplomat appeared before a key House subcommittee Wednesday to criticize both Congress and the White House for their handling of the Sudanese government, which is actively facilitating a genocide that has taken as many as 400,000 lives while displacing an estimated 2.5 million people since 2003.

"There is a fundamental flaw in the way the United States has been approaching Sudan in recent years," said Roger P. Winter, a Bush appointee who served last year as the State Department's special representative for Sudan. He compared some of the administration's diplomatic efforts to the folly of trying to work out difficulties with the Third Reich. Sudan was not a responsible government, he said, and "does not have the best interests of the people of all of Sudan at heart."

At the same hearing, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., a longtime human rights leader, raised his voice before the committee as he condemned America's refusal to confront the nations and companies that are funding the genocidal Sudanese regime. "Chinese and Malaysian oil companies are aggressively developing these oil fields with virtually no accountability," Wolf nearly shouted, as his voice began to crack. "The members of this body and this administration will not deal with the Chinese issue. This Congress and this administration just will not confront this issue."

The event marked the first of several planned hearings by Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate to pressure the Bush administration to take more aggressive steps to deal with Sudan. In the Senate, Russ Feingold, D-Wis., the returning head of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, has promised to hold hearings in the coming weeks. "We have to hold both the administration and the international community accountable for a more effective strategy," Feingold said. He recently signed on to a letter to President Bush from 16 Democratic and six Republican senators requesting more involvement in developing the U.S. policy toward Sudan. "We believe the time has come to begin implementing more assertive measures," the letter said, without spelling out specific proposals.

Similarly, Rep. Don Payne, D-N.J., who now chairs the House Committee on International Relations' Africa and Global Health subcommittee, which conducted Wednesday's hearing, has promised a renewed effort, including another hearing with Bush's current envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios. "We need to try to get a unified effort," Payne said. "I guarantee you in the House that it will certainly be stepped up."

To date, there is no clear consensus among congressional leaders about what actions Congress should take to push for a strengthened policy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Payne, Wolf and others have endorsed legislation by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., that would blacklist foreign companies that do business with Sudan from federal contracts; disclose federal pension investments in those companies; and require the Securities and Exchange Commission to publish a list of the companies, in hopes of discouraging private investors. Senators and representatives have discussed other initiatives, including putting aerial drones on patrol in the skies over Darfur, increasing the funding for peacekeepers, and passing resolutions to further condemn those responsible for the atrocities.

Feingold has yet to commit to any specific proposals for addressing the situation in this Congress, though he said he was not satisfied with the Bush administration's current approach, which focuses on a plan to dispatch United Nations and African Union peacekeepers to the region. The Sudanese government has repeatedly flouted deadlines for allowing those forces to deploy, even as reports from the Darfur region detail a rise in murderous raids on civilians by the government-backed janjaweed militias. "The current steps that are being taken to promote a joint African Union and United Nations force are not a substitute for what is necessary," Feingold said.

He said the Bush administration should begin to look at what he called "the big options," a list that may include a no-fly zone over Darfur, steeper criminal sanctions against leaders of the Sudanese government, and more aggressive sanctions against the companies that do business with Sudan. But Feingold declined to describe the details of the plan he will endorse, because he said he is still studying the issue. "I do think it's possible that the president would respond to any strong bipartisan action," he added.

The situation in Darfur, an arid region of western Sudan the size of France, is complicated by the tenuous state of a 2005 U.S.-brokered peace agreement to end a separate civil war in the southern part of Sudan. Over 21 years, that conflict killed a reported 2 million people and displaced 4 million more. The former envoy Winter, who helped broker the peace deal, said Wednesday that the Bush administration cannot ignore the Sudanese government's apparent refusal to abide by key portions of the peace deal. He says he believes that the situation in the south is unraveling and expects horrible consequences if circumstances do not change. "It will lead to violence," he said. "And it will be violence of the nature that we see in Darfur."

Leaders from both political parties long ago committed themselves to stopping the violence in Darfur, to little effect. "We will call genocide by its rightful name and we will stand up for the innocent until the peace of Darfur is secured," Bush announced last May. Prominent conservatives, like Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, a GOP White House hopeful, have led fact-finding missions to Darfur. Three Democrats in the House have been arrested for protesting in front of the Sudanese embassy. Upon her election as House Speaker, Pelosi attended a Mass commemorating Darfur's fallen children.

Outside observers say that what the nation now needs is a Congress that can force a radical reconsideration of the U.S. approach to Sudan. "The name of the game for Congress is to change the terms of the discussion," says Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, who now works at the Brookings Institution. "By a series of hearings, opened and closed, Congress should demand that the administration put forward concrete plans."

John Prendergast, who worked on Africa policy for the Clinton White House, says he does not foresee a realistic military solution to the problems in Sudan, given the politics of the region and the American aversion to large-scale military incursions in Africa. Instead, he has been advocating a renewed effort to place serious international criminal penalties on anyone in the Sudanese government who is complicit in genocide. "Until there is the threat of punitive action, nothing will change," Prendergast said. "Ultimately we have to go after this regime and go after them hard."

As it stands, many Sudanese leaders who have been tied to atrocities are free to travel the world at will. At Wednesday's hearing, Payne said that one Sudanese official who has been directly tied by human rights groups to the genocide, Ali Ahmed Karti, is scheduled to travel to the United States next month to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, a private event sponsored by a Christian nonprofit group. "The sponsors of a prayer breakfast should not invite a man who has blood on his hands to pray with those same hands," Payne said. "It's wrong." Karti, a former general who serves as Sudan's deputy foreign minister, traveled to the United States last year as well, when he reportedly attended a similar prayer breakfast.

Sudan: Officials Say North-South Agreement Threatened

From VOA

Representatives from southern Sudan have appeared before a U.S. congressional committee on Capitol Hill to detail what they say are deliberate efforts by the National Congress Party government in Khartoum to undermine the two-year-old Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the north and south. VOA's Dan Robinson reports on testimony on Capitol Hill.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the main partner in the regional Government of Southern Sudan, became part of a unity government with the Islamic Congress Party in Khartoum under a 2005 peace agreement negotiated with help from the United States.

But the former rebel group has accused Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, of deliberately undermining the accord.

Luka Biong Deng, minister for presidential affairs for the government of South Sudan, told the House (of Representatives) Africa Subcommittee these efforts threaten to tear apart the Comprehensive Peace Agreement - the CPA.

"When we concluded the peace [agreement] we thought [it] would give a chance for the [National Congress Party], especially the extremists, [to] reform and smoothly [join] the normal democratic transformation in Sudan," said Luka Biong Deng. "But the anti-CPA members of the NCP are now in control of affairs, and I can attribute most of the delay to the deliberate strategy of derailing the implementation of the CPA."

He says Khartoum's resistance can be seen in under-resourcing of special committees including one on the North-South Border, the Assessment and Evaluation Commission, as well as oil resources and disarming of militias.

Barnaba Benjamin, minister for regional cooperation for the government of South Sudan, accuses Khartoum of deliberately trying to destroy the CPA by attempting to reduce its attractiveness for people in the south.

Khartoum's tactics, he adds, could result in the collapse of the agreement and a return to conflict.

"There is little attempt [by] the National Congress Party to realize that that country can break up unless the CPA is implemented in spirit and in letter," said Barnaba Benjamin.

The two southern representatives say it is now up to the United States, which had a dominant role in the negotiation of the CPA, to help prevent its collapse.

Roger Winter, former U.S. special representative for Sudan, agrees, saying unless the Bush administration works to prevent the collapse of the agreement, there could be a return to violence:

"If it is undermined through any of a number of possibilities, like the postponement of elections for example, it will lead to violence, it will be violence of the nature we now see in Darfur, and that would be terrible both for humanitarian reasons, and to our shame because it would be the end of a very stellar peace-making that we precipitated," said Roger Winter.

Winter calls the important concept in the CPA that all parties would help make the idea of unity attractive is now, in his words, a policy fiction.

The United States, Winter asserts, must correct an imbalance that was created by focusing primarily on events in Darfur while the Khartoum government pursued its agenda in the south.

No representatives of the Khartoum government were present at the hearing on Capitol Hill. Congressman Donald Payne, chairman of the House Africa subcommittee, explained that was a deliberate move on his part because of Khartoum government policies.

"As long as I am chairman of this committee, the government of Sudan is not welcome until they show they are a government of their people and for their people," said Donald Payne.

Darfur: Will Khartoum’s Omar al-Bashir Assume the Chair of the AU

From Eric Reeves

In a matter of days, the African Union (AU) makes a decision that will do much to determine the future of the fledgling organization. At the Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) summit of January 29-30, it will either elect the President of Khartoum’s National Islamic Front (NIF) regime to chairmanship of the AU---or it will elect the head of another African country, one not responsible for massive, ongoing genocidal destruction. To be sure, the world outside Africa has been scandalously unresponsive to the four-year counter-insurgency war that Khartoum has waged against the non-Arab or African populations of Darfur, a campaign that has now claimed half a million lives and produced a conflict-affected population of some 5 million civilians in Darfur itself and neighboring eastern Chad. But the AU itself has in many ways been just as unresponsive, both politically and diplomatically. Militarily, the under-equipped and under-manned AU force on the ground in Darfur has performed poorly, without an appropriate civilian protection mandate, and is now badly demoralized. The AU recognizes that it desperately needs augmentation by non-African forces---something Khartoum adamantly refuses to accept.

But it is the issue of the AU chairmanship that is on the immediate horizon, and it will tell us a great deal about whether the AU is any better than its corrupt predecessor, the Organization of African Unity. This impending determination will also give us an important clue about whether the AU is finally prepared to stand up to Khartoum and make the appropriate demand for deployment of protection forces to Darfur. The world outside Africa has been hamstrung responding to Darfur in large measure because the AU itself has for so long refused to acknowledge its current limitations, even as the organization certainly represents the future of peacekeeping and inter-state security in Africa.

Certainly nothing entitles the NIF génocidaires, or Omar al-Bashir in particular, to the AU chairmanship, despite the implicit deal struck last year when the AU summit was held in Khartoum. In return for waiting a year, and presuming things improved in Darfur, the NIF would be given the AU chair, so the arrangement went. This was in one sense modestly encouraging: for the first time, the symbolically important role of AU chairman was not given to the government of the host country. Instead, Congolese President Dennis Sassou Nguesso was elected. Nguesso was hardly an ideal candidate, but at least he was not orchestrating genocide.

Darfur: al-Bashir Admits Bombings

From the BBC - via POTP

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has confirmed that government forces have been bombing northern areas of the troubled Darfur region.

In an interview with the BBC Arabic Service, Mr Bashir said the action did not breach a UN-brokered ceasefire signed earlier this month.

He said the government had no option but to use its armed forces in response to attacks by rebel groups.

[edit]

Rebel commanders in northern Darfur said on Monday that government aircraft had hit three villages over the weekend - claims the Sudanese government strongly denied.

But in an exclusive BBC interview broadcast on Wednesday, President Bashir confirmed his troops had carried out the bombardments.

He said the government had no option but to strike as 80% of attacks on civilians in the region were carried out by rebels groups, undermining security.

"They are not supported by the government. The government is fighting them," he said.

After the signing of a peace agreement with a leading rebel group in May, rival rebels formed a new alliance called the National Salvation Front, he told the BBC.

President Bashir said the group had received "massive military support in full view of the international community" and set out to target those who had signed the peace deal.

Militias have since carried out large-scale attacks on Sudan Liberation Movement positions in northern Darfur, controlling its movements, the president said.

"We heard no condemnation of this movement or the countries supporting it.

"But as soon as we were forced to send armed troops to deal with it we heard talk of violations and a ceasefire breach," he said.

The announcement of the 60-day ceasefire came earlier this month but it is not clear exactly which rebel groups have agreed to it.

President Bashir has said he is fully committed to a UN plan to send a hybrid UN and African peacekeeping force to Darfur.

Some 7,000 African Union troops already on the ground have not been able to stop the violence - mostly blamed on pro-government Arab militias.

Darfur: Sudan Must Not Chair the African Union

From Human Rights First

Electing Sudan to chair the African Union would be like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.

Tell Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that it is urgent that she does all she can to urge African leaders not to elect Sudan the chair of the African Union (the organization of African States) next week.

On January 29-30 the African Union (A.U.) will elect a new chairperson at the organization’s summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Last year Sudan was passed over, but they’re pushing hard to be elected to the position this year. If President Omar-al-Bashir is elected chair of the A.U., he will control the A.U. peacekeeping forces, the only security that currently exists for many Darfuris.

About 7000 A.U. peacekeepers are all that protect innocent civilians from brutal attacks carried out predominantly by government forces and their militias. President Bashir has to date refused to allow United Nations peacekeeping forces to replace the A.U. forces, and has consistently dodged attempts by the international community to resolve the impasse through the deployment of a hybrid joint A.U. and U.N. force.

Electing President Bashir African Union chair would call the legitimacy of the African Union into question and be a direct challenge to the organization’s stated goals to promote peace, security and stability on the continent.

Please write to Secretary Rice now.

Darfur: Stories of Survival

An excerpt from "Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival" on AlterNet

"The owner of this house was killed here and so were his wife and kids," Abdullah told us in Arabic. He bent down, slid his stick under a piece of shrapnel and lifted it up high for us to see and for the camera to record.

"This was part of the bomb that hit this home. It exploded on everything all around." The piece of shrapnel dropped to the sand, clanging against another bomb fragment. They were all around.

Abdullah strode out of the burnt house, barely giving us time to refocus the camera on him and follow. He pointed out the carcass of a donkey we passed, telling us that it died from eating the plants that had been covered with a powder from the exploded bombs.

Last time we had been in Muzbat, we had only encountered rebels from the SLA. Now, there were a handful of old men, women, and children walking around. One little boy, wearing a brown galabiya, kicked a tattered soccer ball made of rags to us. We passed it back and forth with him, careful not to accidentally kick it into the small bomb-crater directly next to us.

Musa answered our questions about the civilians. "They are from Muzbat, but they no longer live in the village itself. Their homes are destroyed and they are too afraid to return. They are living in the wadi and under trees, in caves. But the well is the only water source for dozens of kilometers, so they must come to take water."

That explained why we hadn't seen them on our last visit. We had arrived right before sunset and the villagers had already returned from the well to their trees or caves.

"What exactly are they afraid of?" we asked. Muzbat was firmly behind rebel lines; it was not likely that the janjaweed or Sudanese army could come storming through. The damage here had already been done.

"The airplanes. They could still bomb us from above," Abdullah's companion answered.

"When did an airplane last bomb here?"

Musa, Abdullah, and his friend gave conflicting answers; one month, two months, four months. In any case, it hadn't happened recently. So, why were people still living so far from their village and only water source? Wouldn't it be much easier and more practical for them to return, rebuild and resume their lives?

He led us to the wracked and twisted frame of a bed that Sheikh Zachariah Madebo had been sleeping in when he was killed by a bomb. The tapping of Abdullah's stick on the burnt metal initially drowned out a low humming noise in the distance. As the humming grew louder and more insistent, Abdullah abruptly stopped speaking. His hand fell to his side. We looked around in confusion.

"Now I am hearing the sounds of an Antonov plane," Abdullah told us, a trace of fear in his voice. "You hear?" He turned on his heels and motioned for us to follow him quickly.

It took a half-minute of squinting into the sun to spot the Antonov, now flying almost directly overhead. "Sit down!" we heard Abdullah shout to villagers as we scanned the sky. "Not over there! Here!" We tracked the plane moving above the village until Abdullah called out urgently, "Aisha! Sit!"

We looked back down. The village appeared to be entirely deserted; everyone seemed to have disappeared into thin air. My eyes adjusted to the scene much as they do when moving from light into darkness. I spotted five children crouched under a tree, an older sister trying to shield her younger brother with her hands. Another tree a few meters away revealed the same. A mother flattened herself against the scarce shadow of a mud-brick wall, restraining her little ones.

We stood in the broad daylight. The drone of the Antonov was the only sound that could be heard. Adam shifted from filming the plane to the people holding each other tightly, trying to find protection under leaves or any other bit of available cover. One of the villagers motioned to us.

"Come, get out of the sun, quickly!" Musa urged us. "You are a target if you continue to stand there."

Adam, Aisha, and I moved under the nearest tree, where the huddled children and their parents made room for us. Children continued to mutely hold onto their mothers and each other, long after the plane was out of sight and its droning barely audible. Just five minutes earlier, I had asked myself why people still felt too insecure to return to the village. The question felt ridiculously naïve now.

Darfur: U.N. Leader Protests Arrests and Beatings of Aid Workers

From Reuters

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon protested the arrests and beatings of workers for the United Nations and other relief organizations, a spokesman said on Wednesday, days before talks with Sudan on a beefed-up peacekeeping force.

Mr. Ban was critical of the arrests, as well as of the recent Sudanese bombardment of towns in Darfur, in a conversation with Mutrif Siddig, Sudan’s visiting under secretary in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, on Tuesday. They spoke before Mr. Ban left for Europe and an African Union meeting on a long-delayed United Nations peacekeeping mission for Darfur.

It was Mr. Ban’s first public comment since security officials and the police in Darfur arrested 20 aid workers from the United Nations, the African Union and other agencies at a social event in Nyala on Friday.

Five United Nations staff members were beaten with rifles, and one accused the police of sexually assaulting her.

“The secretary general is extremely concerned about the arrest” of the 20 relief workers, the spokesman, Farhan Haq, said, and “expects a swift investigation of this incident, particularly as several of the staff were assaulted and seriously injured before they were released.”

Mr. Ban also was “deeply disturbed” by aerial bombardments in northern Darfur and “alarmed by reports of many civilian casualties,” Mr. Haq said. The African Union, which has some 7,000 soldiers and monitors in Darfur, has confirmed rebel reports that the government bombarded their positions in Anka and Korma on Jan. 16 and 19.

[edit]

Mr. Ban is headed to Ethiopia for an African Union meeting on Monday and Tuesday. There he will also meet the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is wavering on how many troops could be included in a “hybrid” African Union-United Nations operation in Darfur.

But the United Nations has problems in finding enough troops. The world body has gone ahead with the first phase of an agreed package that provides the underequipped African Union with about 140 military officers and police officers, 36 armored personnel carriers and night goggles.

But a second, larger support package that could include several hundred United Nations military, police and civilian personnel and aircraft, has drawn volunteers only from Bangladesh.

The third phase is to be the hybrid force, which the United Nations hopes will have about 17,000 soldiers.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, who is in charge of United Nations peacekeeping, said the African Union and the United Nations were working on a common position they would present to Sudan so that details would not be referred to another study group in Addis Ababa.

“Hopefully then we would get good push from A.U. leaders,” he said.

Among the issues that have to be decided are troop numbers for the hybrid operation; its commander; to where the commander reports; the mandate of the force; and who assembles the force, diplomats said.

Without that information, United Nations officials, who are also looking at a smaller operation in neighboring Chad, cannot ask the General Assembly for financing.

From the AP

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on Sudanese officials to investigate the arrest and assault of 20 U.N. staff members and humanitarian workers by police in Darfur last week, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

The aid workers were detained when Sudanese police and security officials raided their compound Friday in the South Darfur capital of Nyala, according to the U.N. mission in Sudan. Some in the group, which included workers for the U.N., African Union and aid groups, were subjected to physical assault and verbal abuse, the mission said.

Several of the U.N. staff members were "seriously injured" in the raid, U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday.

A U.N. representative in Sudan who signed for the release of the staff members was then arrested on Monday, Haq said. The official was released the same day.

The U.N. mission in Sudan has opened an investigation into the incident, but Haq said Ban also wants Sudan's government to establish an inquiry. The U.N. said in a statement Monday it would officially protest to the government over the incident, which it called a "violation of basic principles of rule of law and due process."

Sudan's U.N. ambassador did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

[edit]

Sudanese media said the humanitarian workers were arrested for drinking alcohol, which is prohibited under the strict Muslim law enforced by the regime.

Darfur: Chinese President Urged to Take Tough Line During Visit

From the AP

China should not allow the Sudanese president to say 'no' to U.N. peacekeepers for Darfur, a human rights activist said, after officials in Beijing outlined Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to Sudan.

Lawrence Rossin, international coordinator of the private U.S.-based Save Darfur Coalition, said in an interview in London on Wednesday that Chinese officials have assured him they were using their status as a major trading partner with Sudan and working behind the scenes to try to persuade the country to bow to international will.

But Rossin, a former U.S. diplomat, said he has seen little evidence Chinese efforts were having an effect on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has rejected U.N., U.S., European and African Union calls to replace an AU peacekeeping force of about 7,000 in Darfur with a more powerful U.N. force of 22,000.

The AU force has been unable to quell fighting in the war-torn western region of Sudan, where some of the worst violence is blamed on the government and militias said to be backed by the government.

The Chinese are "going to have to make a decision about this," Rossin said. "Either their quiet diplomacy is working ... or they're going to have to realize that (al-Bashir is) stiffing them, too. And I don't think a country like China should take 'no' for an answer."

Earlier Wednesday, Assistant Chinese Foreign Minister Zhai Jun said Hu would discuss Darfur with al-Bashir, but offered no specifics. China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and one of Sudan's biggest customers for oil, has resisted attempts to use U.N. sanctions to force the Sudanese government to accept U.N. peacekeepers.

[edit]

Rossin's Save Darfur Coalition has used tactics reminiscent of a U.S.-style election campaign — petition drives, rallies, celebrity lobbyists like George Clooney and Don Cheadle — to raise public awareness about the violence in Darfur and pressure governments to act. In December, Rossin accompanied Clooney to China, where they discussed Darfur with Foreign Ministry officials.

More recently, Rossin went to Sudan with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who brokered a truce between the government and Darfur rebels. The African Union confirmed Monday that Sudan's air force bombed Darfur villages last week, breaking the truce.

Rossin said repeated truce violations — committed by both sides — and al-Bashir's refusal to allow in U.N. peacekeepers meant the world should take "tough action": sanctions, the imposition of a no-fly zone, or the deployment of peacekeepers without Sudan's approval. Rossin was critical not only of China, but of Europe and the United States, who he says could take action outside the U.N., where China has opposed sanctions.

The new U.N. secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has made Darfur a priority. European and U.S. officials have spoken out repeatedly on Darfur. U.S. President George W. Bush included Darfur among a number of U.S. foreign policy preoccupations during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, saying his administration would "continue to awaken the conscience of the world to save the people of Darfur."

Rossin, while acknowledging Iraq, Afghanistan and other international crises were competing for attention, was unimpressed with Bush's mention of Darfur.

"My reaction to that is: 'We raise consciousness. Your job is to do something.'"

Darfur: U.S. Urges Sudan to Agree Fully to UN Plan

From Reuters

The United States on Wednesday urged Sudan to publicly agree to the last phase of a plan to get international peacekeepers into Darfur and prodded reluctant U.N. members to contribute troops to such a mission.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Khartoum had promised cooperation with the first two phases of a U.N./African Union plan for Darfur. But it was balking at agreeing to the final phase, when the bulk of the international peacekeepers would move into war-torn western Sudan.

"There is of course a much larger phase three program that is out there on the horizon that the Sudanese have yet to agree to. And we would urge them to agree to that," McCormack told reporters.

The first phase involves allowing a small force of U.N. and military and civilian forces into Darfur, which McCormack said Sudan seemed to be complying with. This would be followed by a larger contingent of about 2,500 troops, but so far only Bangladesh has put forward volunteers for the second phase.

Under the third phase, about 10,000 more troops would go into Darfur to form a hybrid force with African Union troops. The United Nations hopes this force will total about 17,000 soldiers.

Sudan's agreement on the final phase of the plan was even more urgent given the recent spike in violence in Darfur and mounting concern over attacks on aid workers, said McCormack.

"I think that what is required of the international community is constant, consistent pressure -- diplomatic pressure -- as well as constant review of whether or not the Sudanese are living up to the commitments that they said that they were going to perform on," he said.

The United States has strongly protested what it called the "appalling" recent attacks on aid workers and told Sudan's government it has an obligation to protect those trying to help people suffering in Darfur.

McCormack urged the United Nations to come up with the resources and logistical support for Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in four years of violence.

"It's incumbent upon them to do it," he said. "Certainly we are encouraging countries to make whatever contributions they can to make sure that phase one and phase two proceed."

Darfur: Ban to Press Sudan

From the AP

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will pressure Sudan‘s president next week to speed up the peace process in Darfur, which has been delayed by months of wrangling over the makeup of a larger peacekeeping force, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

Al-Bashir has refused to allow U.N. peacekeeping troops to replace the beleaguered African force in Darfur. Last month, he appeared to endorse the new U.N. plan that culminates with the deployment of a 22,000-strong "hybrid" AU-U.N. force, but Sudanese officials have since wavered on that support.

Another U.N. official put it more bluntly: "We want unambiguous commitment on the schedule of the deployment. ... (The Sudanese) need to give us firm dates." The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

Uganda: LRA Condemns Kiir

From Reuters

Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels on Thursday accused south Sudanese President Salva Kiir of inciting violence against them after a newspaper reported him vowing to "hunt them down".

The LRA have been engaged in peace talks with the Ugandan government under south Sudanese mediation since July but this month quit talks in the capital, Juba, saying they feared south Sudanese forces would attack them.

The Ugandan Daily Monitor reported on Tuesday that Kiir made a belligerent speech in Arabic on a tour of south Sudan.

"The LRA are a threat to the civil population," the Monitor quoted him as saying. "This is not the responsibility of Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA) alone -- everybody with a gun should join hands ... and hunt them down."

His remarks followed comments from Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in which he vowed to "get rid of the LRA from Sudan," prompting the LRA delegates to quit talks in Juba.

"LRA/M protest and condemn in the strongest terms, (Salva Kiir's) statements ... that amount to incitement of the people of south Sudan," LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny told journalists.

South Sudanese officials were not immediately available to confirm or clarify Kiir's reported remarks.

Olweny reiterated the LRA's demand for an alternative venue for peace talks in either Kenya or South Africa. The Ugandan government has refused to change the venue.

Chad: Army Bombs Rebels, Aid Workers Flee

From Reuters

Chad's air force bombed rebel positions on the eastern border with Sudan, killing at least two insurgents, as violence forced foreign aid workers to leave a refugee camp further north on Wednesday.

Chadian rebels of the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), a coalition grouping several warring factions, said a government helicopter pounded their positions in the border town of Ade on Tuesday morning.

"Just before the helicopter bombed us, French planes passed overhead. I think there were Mirage planes," UFDD leader Mahamat Nouri told Reuters. "They marked our positions and then the helicopter came."

He said two people were killed and four were injured in the attack. French planes had flown over their positions again on Wednesday but there had been no further bombings, he said.

France has signed a military cooperation agreement with Chadian President Idriss Deby's government, under which it provides intelligence and logistical support.

French armed forces spokesman Christophe Prazuck said its troops had remained firmly within this mandate and had not bombed anything in Chad.

Chadian military sources claimed its aircraft had been bombing the rebels since Monday, killing 20 of their fighters and wounding 30 more, including a senior commander.

"These bombings will continue until we drive out all the rebels between Amdjarame and Goz Beida, in eastern Chad," said a military source.

Some 200 km (125 miles) further north, foreign aid workers evacuated the Kounoungou refugee camp near the town of Guereda after a military policeman and a rebel fighter were killed in gun battle, U.N. officials said.

"There was a violent incident," said an official with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. "We have asked our staff to leave the camp until we know more."

A group of observers from the African Union who were inspecting the camp were evacuated by helicopter to major eastern town of Abeche, said another U.N. source.

He said the rebel killed was a member of the United Front for Democratic Change (FUC), whose leader Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim held a reconciliation meeting with Deby last month in Guereda.

It was not clear whether the firefight was an official action by the FUC, which has splintered into many separate factions since launching a lightning attack on N'Djamena in April that was defeated at the cost of hundreds of lives.

From VOA

Rebels in Chad say their positions near the border with Sudan are being bombarded, and the attacks could derail talks aimed at ending the low-level conflict which threatens to engulf Central Africa in a wider war. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from our regional bureau in Dakar.

A Chadian rebel spokesman says positions near the towns of Ade and Adre have been bombed in recent days, causing heavy casualties.

Makaila Nguebla says these attacks show the government's bad faith in talks that were recently begun outside Chad to end the low-level conflict.

The government did not immediately comment on their new offensive. It follows new rebel activity in a region bordering both Sudan and Libya.

The rebel spokesman adds the international community should make sure Chadians can resolve their differences internally.

He warns current conflicts could spread from Sudan's Darfur region, through the Central African Republic and Chad, and farther south to the two Congos.

U.N. officials are studying a possible peacekeeping mission in region's bordering Sudan's warring Darfur region.

British-based Global Insight analyst Adrien Feniou says the government's tactic has been to try to crush the rebels before engaging in serious dialogue.

He said, "I do not think the Chadian government is going to be willing to discuss with rebels in a position of weakness, hence the whole point of the counter-offensives."

Another British-based analyst, Alex Vines, with the Royal Institute of International Affairs, says the rebels are trying to weaken Chad's army, with persistent and repeated attacks, including possible movement toward the capital.

"I think it is to try to speed the government of Chad's response so as to kind of weaken it," he said. "I would imagine that they will at some point make another attempt so they may try another launch close to N'Djamena at some point. This is all part of a longer term strategy to get regime change in Chad."

Vines says even though there is new rebel activity near Libya, he does not believe Libya's government is becoming involved in Chad's conflict.

"I would be surprised given Libya's current policy of rapprochement with the West that it might want to be involved with the rebels. There is clearly more evidence about Sudanese support for them, but it is a worried situation in Chad," said Vines.

Darfur: Plane Hijacker Demands Peace

From Reuters

A young man demanding an end to conflict in Darfur hijacked a Sudanese plane on Wednesday and tried to force it to fly to Europe, but it diverted to Chad where he was arrested and the passengers released unharmed.

Mahamat Abdelatif Mahamat, who was armed with several knives and a pistol, said he was trying to escape "degrading and humiliating treatment" at home in Darfur. The 24-year-old said he was neither a terrorist nor a rebel.

The Sudanese Air West Boeing 737 with 103 passengers and crew on board was on a domestic flight from Khartoum to el-Fasher in Sudan's conflict-torn western Darfur region when Mahamat hijacked it 20 minutes after takeoff, the pilot said.

"I call on the international community to put pressure on Sudan to find a definitive solution to the crisis in Darfur," Mahamat, handcuffed and wearing a light-coloured casual jacket, told reporters after his arrest in Chad's capital N'Djamena.

"It was the only way to get out. ... I asked the crew to take me to Rome so I could go on to Britain. But they told me the fuel wouldn't get us there," he said. "I asked them to divert to Bangui or N'Djamena and they said N'Djamena was closer."

Chad's Infrastructure Minister Adoum Younousmi said Mahamat had first demanded to be flown all the way to Britain.

"He has been arrested and will answer for his actions. ... Chad is not a sanctuary for terrorists," he said.

[edit]

Chadian soldiers and two armoured cars surrounded the hijacked plane after it landed at N'Djamena airport.

Mahamat was escorted from the plane by soldiers. He appeared calm and shook hands with Chadian minister Younousmi before being driven away, witnesses at the airport said.

"He's so quiet, and so desperate," said the airline's pilot, Captain Ali Asir. He said Mahamat had about five knives and a pistol and had threatened the crew, but had not been violent.

The 95 passengers and eight crew aboard, who were believed to be mostly Sudanese but included a Finnish woman and an Italian man, were taken by bus to the airport terminal, airport officials said. They were due to be returned to Sudan.

An Air West official had said earlier in Khartoum that the hijacker had requested asylum from the French embassy in Chad.

The French government denied any asylum request had been received. French military officials were at the airport.

Darfur: Thousands Flee Attacks

From IRIN

Recent attacks on villages in the Sudanese state of West Darfur have forced up to 5,000 people to flee their homes and seek refuge in two camps around El Geneina, a nongovernmental organisation working in the volatile area said.

Medair-Switzerland said about 500 households were reported to have arrived in Ardamatta Camp, and another 300 in Durti Camp, having fled their homes with very little during the peak of the cold season. Many of the displaced civilians, it added, had spent nights huddled inside rough shelters made of leaves and grass, without even blankets to protect them from the elements. Some suffered injuries while fleeing their villages.

"There has been an influx of newly displaced people arriving in [the] two camps," Medair noted in a statement, saying its technicians were extending water to the newcomers while its health workers had opened another temporary clinic in Ardamatta to focus on the specific health needs of the newly displaced.

Another agency, Terre des Hommes, was registering the new arrivals and distributing essential non-food items while Save the Children USA and Catholic Relief Services were providing food rations, assisting in repairing hand-pumps and providing temporary shelters. The new arrivals, Medair reported, said some of them had been beaten and others had walked for two days to reach the camps.

Meanwhile, several violent incidents were reported in Darfur over the weekend. According to the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), an Antonov plane bombed Ein Siro, near Kutum, killing two civilians and livestock on Saturday. The same day a UN contractor and an international NGO staff-member were abducted near Kutum.

Earlier on Friday, Sudanese government police officers had attacked staff from UNMIS, the African Union Mission in Sudan and seven NGOs in South Darfur. The attack on 20 staff and subsequent arrests of some of them occurred in the state capital of Nyala. According to the African Union, the staff were attending a social gathering.

"The Sudanese government has an obligation to protect humanitarian aid workers and others providing life-saving assistance to Sudan's citizens," the United States government said in a statement. "We call on all the parties in Darfur to demonstrate their commitment to peace and to serving the needs of all the Sudanese people."

UNMIS said it would officially protest to the Sudanese government over the incident, adding that it was "deeply concerned at the treatment of the detained staff … in violation of basic principles of rule of law and due process". Some of the injuries sustained by the staff members were so serious they required treatment at the UN clinic in Nyala.

Sudan/Chad: Plane Hijacker Surrenders

From the AP

A hijacker seized a Sudanese passenger plane carrying 103 people on Wednesday and forced the pilot at gunpoint to fly to the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, where he surrendered, officials said.

Saif Omer, Air West airline's managing director, said the man walked out of the Boeing 737 after it landed in Chad and said he wanted asylum in Britain. No one was injured, Omer said.

"The passengers were unaware that the plane had been hijacked," Omer told The Associated Press.

The hijacker entered the cockpit a half-hour after takeoff and put a pistol to the pilot's head, demanding to go to London, said Chad's infrastructure minister, Adoum Younousmi. When the captain told him there was not enough fuel, the hijacker agreed to land in Chad, where he surrendered.

He made no threats against the passengers, who were Sudanese except for a Briton and an Italian military attache.

Omer identified the hijacker as Mohamed Abdu Altif, 26, of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur state and headquarters for the African Union force trying to pacify Darfur.

Air West flight 612 had been headed from Khartoum to the western city of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur state and headquarters for the African Union force trying to pacify Darfur.

"We don't know where the security breach occurred," said an Air West official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Khartoum-based Air West is one of 95 airlines barred from landing at European airports because of its safety record. It is a privately owned company operating domestic passenger services and international cargo charters.

The hijacking is likely to further complicate strained relations between Chad and Sudan. The neighboring countries trade accusations of supporting each other's rebels, who have mounted increasingly daring attacks on each side of the border.

Chad's infrastructure minister, Younousmi, said the hijacker would be brought to trial: "He is a terrorist and we will take him to court."

Darfur: International Aid Worker Raped

From Reuters

An international aid worker was raped in Darfur, a French aid agency said on Wednesday of the first such reported assault in Sudan's west and the latest in a wave of attacks against the world's largest humanitarian operation.

Action Contre La Faim, which fights malnutrition in the vast region, said one employee was raped, others were sexually assaulted and there was a mock execution during an attack on their compound in December in rebel-controlled Gereida town.

"There were sexual assaults including one rape," an ACF spokeswoman said in Paris.

"They ... looted everything, stole vehicles, communication equipment, beat employees, local and international staff," she added.

Armed men simultaneously attacked all aid agencies working in Gereida in December. Some 71 humanitarian workers were evacuated and tens of thousands of dollars of equipment and all vehicles were stolen.

Gereida town houses the largest number of refugees in Darfur, with 130,000 encamped in miserable conditions having fled attacks on their villages in the desert region.

It was not clear who attacked the aid agencies there. Sources in the aid community in Khartoum said they suspected a breakaway faction from Darfur rebel leader Minni Arcua Minnawi.

[edit]

Aid agencies in Darfur are under intense scrutiny from governmental authorities, who often obstruct their work with bureaucratic requirements and travel permits.

Those who speak out about the violence in Darfur have been punished, threatened with expulsion or even expelled entirely, as the Norwegian Refugee Council was last year.

This fear of retribution has created what aid workers call a "code of silence" among humanitarian agencies and much information on attacks and clashes in Darfur remain unknown to the public.

It took more than a month for ACF to announce the rape attack.

The Khartoum government denies rape is widespread in Darfur, despite medical evidence documenting hundreds of sexual assaults against women provided by health centres run by international aid agencies.

But the rape of an international in Darfur is rare, though there is a growing trend of such assaults in the remote region.

In September, at least one international from Medecins Sans Frontieres was seriously sexually assaulted in Darfur. The United Nations said on Wednesday one of its international workers in Nyala town, South Darfur, was sexually assaulted by police.

Darfur: Critics Call for EU Action

From the EUobserver - via POTP

NGO the International Crisis Group has called on the EU to move beyond ritual condemnations of human rights abuses in Darfur and take action against Africa's largest country, but EU states are unwilling to wade in for now.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday (22 January) said in a joint statement that Europe remained "greatly concerned about the security, humanitarian and human rights situation in Darfur, which is clearly intolerable."

They also condemned the latest ceasefire violations and bombings of villages in Northern Darfur by the Sudanese Air Force, while pledging to work with the UN to get Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir to accept an increase in African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces and to continue logistical support for the AU mission.

But EU ministers stopped short of boosting the budget of the cash-strapped, 7,000-man strong AU effort, which has been unable to stem the violence or protect aid workers, failing to fulfill the major part of its mandate.

The European Commission has up until now given €242 million to the AU's Darfur peace mission and €360 million for humanitarian aid, EU aid commissioner Louis Michel said on Monday.

"The European Commission has no more money," he stated, according to Reuters.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the press conference after the meeting that the EU countries may make a decision on further financial aid to a possible joint AU-UN force in Sudan at the next gathering of EU leaders this spring.

"The EU has to move beyond its pattern of public condemnation, which is pretty easy to do," Gareth Evans, the head of leading NGO the International Crisis Group (ICG) and former foreign affairs minister of Australia, said.

"The suffering of the people in Darfur goes on and on...The situation cries out, as it has from the beginning, for intense international engagement – not least from the EU and it's key member states - to help reach a solution."

Mr Evans pointed out that the EU could push for the UN to go from words to deeds through the five EU member states currently in the UN security council.

"The UK and France as permanent members as well as Belgium, Italy and Slovakia as current non-permanent members – really do have to take the lead together with the US," he stated.

"This isn't a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing…but a man-made disaster of catastrophic dimensions of which the international community knows all too much," Mr Evans explained.

Darfur: President Al-Bashir Speaks to BBC

From the Sudanese Media Center [I'll post this BBC piece once it is made available]

President of the Republic Field Marshal Omer Al-Bashir has affirmed Sudan's rejection to deployment of international troops in Darfur. In an interview to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) at the Friendship Hall here Tuesday, President Al-Bashir pointed that the UN plan, which was approved by Sudan, is based on the African troops with an African command and logistic support from the international organization. President Al-Bashir reaffirmed his confidence in the peace process in the country, pointing out that differences that occur from time to time will not affect the essence of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with Sudan People's Liberation Movement. President Al-Bashir affirmed keenness of the Government of National Unity on implementation of all the peace agreements in a view to boosting stability and development in the country.

Darfur: Ban to Press Sudan on UN Force

From the AP

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will press Sudan's president on his first overseas trip as head of the world body to speed up the peace process in Darfur after months of wrangling over the deployment of a hybrid peacekeeping force, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

Ban's meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on the sidelines of an African Union summit next week in Ethiopia could be crucial to pushing through a three-phase U.N. plan to beef up the 7,000-member AU force that is struggling to maintain peace in the vast desert region, U.N. officials said.

Al-Bashir has refused to allow U.N. peacekeeping troops to replace the beleaguered AU force in Darfur. Last month, he appeared to endorse the new U.N. plan that culminates with the deployment of a 22,000-strong "hybrid" AU-U.N. force, but Sudanese officials have since wavered on that support.

"The secretary-general is hoping to make the whole issue of Darfur move forward," his spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said at a news briefing Tuesday. "The U.N. plan for the AU force is still on the table and being discussed. What we will see is how fast the different stages can be implemented."

Another U.N. official put it more bluntly: "We want unambiguous commitment on the schedule of the deployment. ... (The Sudanese) need to give us firm dates." The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

Sudan's U.N. mission did not return several phone calls Tuesday seeking comment on the discussions.

[edit]

In Ethiopia, Ban will seek to bolster support for the U.N. security plan by asking African countries to pressure Sudan to allow the hybrid peacekeeping force into Darfur, said the U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Al-Bashir agreed to the force in a letter to former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan last month, but his country's U.N. ambassador has since said the force must be smaller and have no U.N. peacekeepers in traditional blue helmets, only African troops supported by U.N. technical and logistical experts.

"Sudan has jumped at every opportunity to distance itself from the agreement," the U.N. official said.

The official said several African countries have expressed interest in providing troops to the force. Ban wants to move quickly on Darfur to avoid losing momentum with the recent calls for an African peacekeeping mission to deploy to Somalia, the official said.

Ban has also reached out to China, meeting Tuesday with U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya. The U.N. official declined to offer details of their discussions, but said, "(Wang) is the one person who could put pressure on Sudan. ... Once we have a Chinese agreement, things will move a lot faster."

China, which is one of Sudan's biggest oil customers, has resisted U.N. attempts to force Khartoum to accept peacekeepers. China's U.N. mission declined to comment on Wang's meeting with Ban.

Darfur: Arab League to Hand Over AU Funds

From Reuters

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has promised to hand over $15 million for the struggling African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region at an AU summit next Monday, an EU official said.

"He also said he would try to have more money in coming months," a spokesman for EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said after talks between Michel and Moussa in Brussels.

Michel has vowed to put pressure on donors to make good on pledges to the AU operation after announcing this week that the EU Commission had no more money available for it.

The EU executive has so far given 242 million euros ($313 million) to the AU's Darfur peace mission and 360 million euros for humanitarian aid. EU foreign ministers this week also urged other donors to make good on pledges.

[edit]

Both Michel and Moussa plan to meet Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir at the AU summit and urge him to follow up on remarks in December in which he appeared to accept the principle of a coordinated AU-UN presence in Darfur.

Uganda: LRA to Send Delegates to the ICC

From VOA

The Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) says it is planning to send emissaries to the International Criminal Court in the Hague (ICC) to explain its position on the court’s arrest warrant against its leaders. LRA second-in-command Vincent Otti says the rebels are not responsible for abductions and various other atrocities blamed on them. He also accused President Yoweri Museveni and the Ugandan army for breaching the current peace talks in Juba, Sudan. Otti said the LRA doesn’t understand why the ICC is punishing its leaders while at the same time Ugandan army commanders have been let off the hook.

He tells the Voice of America that the LRA believes the Ugandan government spearheaded the indictment of the LRA leadership.

“What I want to assure the world of is that the Museveni government indicted the LRA leadership and some of its top commanders. We were indicted without being questioned. We were not even investigated. That is why we decided to at least first of all send some of our delegates to go and find it properly from the Hague and from the court prosecutor to explain to them or we would like the prosecutor to send his staff to come here and hear from us whether we have really committed crimes,” he said.

Otti rejected suggestions by the Ugandan government of crimes committed by his rebel group members.

“We know for sure that we have never done anything wrong which can make us indicted in the Hague or in what has been happening in Uganda. That is between the LRA and the UPDF (Uganda People’s Defense Force). And why have we been indicted, leaving the commanders of the UPDF? This is what we would like to find out,” he said.

Otti said the LRA should not be the scapegoat for those who suffered as a result of its fight with the Ugandan army.

“For sure you know what really happens between wars. You are firing from here and they are also firing from there and in between are civilians. Who knows this bullet comes from the LRA or that of the Army, who knows?” he asked.

Otti blamed President Museveni for the atrocities committed against civilians in the northern part of the country.

“Museveni is the one who went in the villages, burning houses of the civilians and collecting the civilians to the camps. He is the one who bombed the civilian population and gave the people twenty-four hours to leave the villages and go to the camps. It was not the LRA that did it,” Otti noted.

He said the LRA rebels are fighting for the rights of the deprived in northern Uganda.

“We are fighting for our rights, we are fighting for salvation for our people and the northerners who are really enslaved in Uganda. I mean slavery action in Uganda and this is what we have been fighting for. Do you think we would bring such bad things to civilians? No, we are fighting to protect the civilians. But Museveni is the one who is using a fifty-year plan against the northerners,” he said.

Otti said the LRA would like the stalled peace talks to resume, after which they would send a delegation to the International Criminals Court in the Hague.

“First of all, we would like to resume peace talks again as they’ve now collapsed in Juba, and the peace talks are going to be transferred from Juba to somewhere. After that, then at least one or two of our delegates can go to the Hague,” he said.

Uganda: Displaced Civilians Still Scared to Return

From IRIN

Most civilians forced out of their homes in northern Uganda by two decades of conflict have stayed in camps for years for fear of possible attacks by rebels, the Ugandan government said.

Refugees and Disaster Preparedness Minister, Tarsis Kabwegyere, told reporters in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that nearly a million internally displaced persons had responded to calls to return home, but fears that they would be killed or abducted had stopped them from doing so.

"I am not happy with the return progress because not everybody has gone back home and whatever you give the people, as long as they fear for their lives, they will not go home," Kabwegyere said on Tuesday.

According to aid agencies, an estimated 230,000 internally displaced people in the region returned to their villages in 2006 thanks to improved security following the start of talks between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). However, up to 1.2 million more remain in camps, while some have moved to satellite camps nearer their villages to gain access to their farms.

"These people ran away from a problem but they fear the problem … is still there," Kabwegyere, whose ministry deals with the resettlement of displaced people, said, adding that guidelines for the implementation of a US$300 million resettlement programme had been developed.

According to the minister, uncertainty over the peace talks being mediated by the southern Sudanese government in Juba was a major concern to the IDPs.

"If you heard that a peace agreement had been signed in Juba, you would not see anybody in the camps, because they would all go home," he added. "When [LRA deputy leader Vincent] Otti rang me recently, I told him that the people are scared of the rebels and that is why they are not going home."

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the war and almost two million driven out of their homes to live in squalid conditions in camps dotted across northern Uganda.

The talks to end the fighting started in Juba in July 2006. A month later the two sides agreed a truce under which the rebels were asked to leave northern Uganda and assemble in two places in southern Sudan. They also agreed a cessation of hostilities agreement.

Since then, the talks have hit several snags, with both sides accusing each other of violating the agreement or planning attacks. Last week, the LRA announced it was pulling out of the talks completely unless a new mediation team and venue are found. The Ugandan government rejected the demand.

Darfur and Beyond: What is Needed to Prevent Mass Atrocities

From the Council on Foreign Relations - the PDF file is here

A lot has been said about the need to take action to stop and prevent mass atrocities. But less has been done. States continue to engage in mass atrocities, in part because they believe it will be tolerated by the rest of the world. Other states tend to acquiesce because they do not perceive their national interests are at stake. Finding a workable way out of this cycle is not simply a matter of scruples; it is also a matter of security. State failure and genocide can lead to destabilizing refugee flows and create openings for terrorism to take root.

Recent history is, in fact, somewhat mixed. NATO’s intervention in Kosovo was an example where a number of governments chose to stop ethnic cleansing and genocide. By contrast, the mass killing in Rwanda a decade ago and now in Darfur, Sudan, demonstrate the high price of judging sovereignty to be supreme and thus doing little to prevent the slaughter of innocents.

Senior Fellow Lee Feinstein points to the UN’s acceptance of the notion that sovereignty may need to be compromised when a government is unable or unwilling to provide for the basic needs of those within its state borders. The challenge for the United States and the international community is to translate this principle into practice. To that end, this report recommends that the new UN secretary-general take genocide prevention as a mission statement and mandate, and place it at the center of his and his organization’s agenda. The report also makes a number of recommendations for the United States and others to build a sustainable capacity for genocide prevention that is substantial enough to deal with inevitable crises, but sustainable given other national security demands. Feinstein makes a strong case that this is doable—that is, if the international community is prepared to do it.

Darfur: AU Confirms Government Bombings

From the AP

The African Union confirmed Monday that Sudan's air force bombed Darfur villages last week, attacks that violated a cease-fire.

Rebel leaders in Darfur had reported that the government carried out air raids in northern Darfur, but the Sudanese military had denied the claim.

"Preliminary investigations by (the African Union) have confirmed that the aerial bombings indeed took place" against the village of Anka and in the region of Wadi Korma last week, said the African Union, which has peacekeepers in the war-ravaged zone.

The AU did not mention any casualties. But U.N. officials said it had reports of two dead.

The bombings, which breach U.N. Security Council resolutions and a peace agreement, came after the Sudanese government vowed to adhere to a new truce brokered by visiting New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson earlier this month.

The AU complained that the government bombed North Darfur "when efforts are being made to reenergize the peace process" by broadening support among rebels for the Darfur peace accord signed last May.

From Reuters

The African Union has confirmed Sudan's army bombed two villages in North Darfur, violating ceasefire agreements and jeopardising efforts to revive a stalled peace process.

Separately, the United Nations reported an assault on aid workers, saying 20 AU, U.N. and aid agency staff were arrested at a social gathering and five were beaten by police in Darfur, with some sustaining serious injuries.

In the first independent confirmation of rebel reports that the government bombarded their positions in Anka and Korma on Jan. 16 and 19, the AU condemned the attacks.

"The (AU) ceasefire commission is once again calling on all parties to refrain from any activities that will jeopardize the peace process," the statement sent late on Monday said.

Rebels are trying to hold a conference in Darfur to unify their position ahead of a renewed push for peace talks. They want government guarantees that the conference will not be attacked, but the army has three times bombed rebel positions in the past two months, the AU says.

Sudan's armed forces spokesman denied all reports of bombing in the past two months.

[edit]

Rebels also accused the government of bombing their positions in Ein Sirro on Jan. 20, killing 17.

The AU has not confirmed yet that bombing but a U.N. bulletin seen by Reuters on Tuesday said it also had reports of bombing at Ein Sirro, which killed two civilians and a large number of cattle.

The U.N. bulletin also said it was investigating the arrest and assault on five of its staff and 15 others by police in South Darfur's state capital Nyala on Jan. 19.

"The U.N. staff were beaten both with hands and with rifles," Edward Carwardine, a spokesman for the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, said on Tuesday. The staff were international, he added.

"Several of the detained staff sustained serious injuries, some of which required treatment at the U.N. clinic in Nyala," the U.N. statement said.

All were subsequently released.

"The United Nations will also officially protest to the government of Sudan the assault of the staff by local police, in violation of basic principles of rule of law and due process," it said.

Darfur: Rebel Faction Protests AU Presidency for Sudan

From AFP - via POTP

A Sudanese rebel faction in war-torn Darfur said Monday it was opposed to Khartoum taking over the African Union (AU) presidency and warned that such a move would endanger the organisation's impartiality.

"The Greater Sudanese Liberation Movement rejects the Sudanese assumption of the presidency of the AU as this would accelerate the expiration of the organisation's mission in Darfur," said GSLM leader Mahjub Hussein.

About 7,000 AU military observers are stationed in the Darfur region of western Sudan to try to ensure the implementation of a 2004 ceasefire signed by a main rebel faction and the government.

The under-equipped and cash-strapped African contingent has failed to stem the bloodshed, which the United Nations says has left at least 200,000 dead in four years.

"If the Sudanese president becomes the president of the AU, the organisation will become an antagonist and an enemy of Darfur," Hussein warned in a statement.

The GSLM split off on January 12 from the main Sudanese Liberation Army (SLM) of Minni Minawi that signed the peace agreement with the Khartoum government in May 2006.

Hussein was once Minawi's spokesman but left the SLM in December because of what he described as the failure of the peace agreement.

"The AU forces will all become vassals of the Sudanese army which will totally destroy their legitimacy," he added, calling on Congo to retain the organisation's rotating presidency.

Darfur: Don't Let Sudan Take Over the African Union

From the Genocide Intervention Network

Sudan may soon be appointed head of the African Union. We must stop the genocidal government of Sudan and its brutal dictator Omar al-Bashir from taking control of Africa’s most important political organization. If Sudan is allowed to chair the African Union, it will endanger the peacekeeping mission in Darfur and the negotiation process required to establish a viable ceasefire.

Last year, activists like you were able to help prevent Sudan from heading the African Union. We need to take action this year to block a Sudanese presidency — but we only have a few days. The decision on the AU leadership will be made at the African Union summit, which will be held from January 23–30. As of last week, the United States declined to oppose Sudan's bid for the AU presidency. Tell Condoleezza Rice that Sudan cannot be allowed to head the African Union. Please act now.

From the Darfur Consortium

As preparations for the African Union (AU) summit get underway in Addis Ababa this week, a coalition of African non-governmental organisations (NGOs), has issued an urgent appeal to African Heads of State to consider the dire situation of millions of war affected civilians in Darfur before making a decision on the Presidency of the AU.

Further to the postponement of its appointment as President of the AU last year, the Government of Sudan is believed to be once again pressing heavily for its accession to the Presidency of the 53 member body.

In letters sent to African Heads of State this weekend, the Darfur Consortium, a coalition of over 40 African and Africa-focused NGOs, expressed “deep concern with respect to plans agreed last year by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Khartoum, Sudan, to confer the AU Presidency for 2007-2008 on the Government of Sudan”. Such a decision, the group stated, had the potential to “seriously undermine the AU’s credibility and compromise the authority of its institutions”.

“We urge that African Heads of State examine carefully the role and function of the AU Presidency – both with respect to the vital responsibilities with which the AU is tasked in Darfur but also in order to maintain the credibility and effectiveness of the AU institution as a whole as guardian of peace and security on the continent,” said Dismas Nkunda, a spokesperson for the Consortium.
The Consortium’s letter, sent Saturday, pointed out that the situation for civilians in Darfur had significantly worsened since last year, particularly since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA). Not only have attacks by Government forces on civilian areas increased, but credible reports also indicate that the Janjaweed militia are being rearmed rather than disbanded as required by numerous agreements. The splintering of the opposition and the proliferation of new armed groups has also contributed to an upsurge in violence.

Darfur: No End in Sight For Humanitarian Crisis

From UNICEF

The violence in the Darfur region of western Sudan continues unabated amidst reports over the weekend of villages being heavily bombed in the north. Meanwhile, a joint statement issued on 17 January by a group of United Nations relief agencies, including UNICEF, has put the humanitarian crisis back in the spotlight.

UNICEF’s Deputy Director for Emergencies, Pierrette Vu Thi, just returned from northern Darfur, where she witnessed firsthand the deterioration of conditions for children and women.

During her four-day trip last week, Ms. Vu Thi visited – among other sites – the Al Salam Camp for people displaced by violence. The camp is located near El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State.

Al Salam Camp is operating far over capacity, presently housing 45,000 people – including 20,000 who have arrived in the last six months. During her visit, Ms. Vu Thi spoke to camp residents, many from surrounding rural areas, about their ordeal and their needs.

“Most of the concerns that they expressed were the need for protection and security, and their desire to go home – which the situation at present does not allow,” she said. “They also mentioned the breakdown of traditional social norms in the camps and the lack of sources of livelihood for themselves.”

Ms. Vu Thi met with women’s groups as well. “Their foremost concern is protection against violence – particularly when they have to go out of the camps to fetch wood and they get attacked. There have been many cases of rape,” she noted.

Rape, pillage and killings remain a daily fixture of life in Darfur, terrorizing the local population. Now in its fourth year, the crisis has claimed more than 200,000 lives and driven more than 2 million people from their homes.

Darfur has one of the world’s largest aid operations, but violence and insecurity have severely impaired relief efforts. The UN agencies’ joint statement on Darfur indicated that humanitarian access to people in need is more difficult than at any time since April 2004.

After her visit to the Al Salam Camp, Ms. Vu Thi visited Sag el Naam village. Located 45 km east of El Fasher, the community lives under the control of a rebel group that has signed the Darfur peace agreement. The camp became accessible to UNICEF six months ago.

“UNICEF works directly with community leaders to provide humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable populations of the village in the areas of health, water and basic education,” Ms. Vu Thi says, adding that aid programmes in the village constitute a success story.

“Working with this community,” she continues, “does give a sense of hope that the people of Darfur will be able to recover and take back their lives into their own hands when the present conflict ends – and when the internally displaced people are able to return home.”

Darfur: Crisis a Focus of Chinese President's Africa Tour

From AFP

Chinese President Hu Jintao will discuss the Darfur crisis with Sudanese leaders during an upcoming eight-nation state visit to Africa, the foreign ministry has said.

Hu will visit eight African countries: Cameroon, Liberia, Sudan, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and Seychelles from January 30 to February 10, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

At least 200,000 people have died as a result of fighting, famine and disease in Darfur in the west of Sudan. More than two million people have fled their homes since rebels launched an uprising in early 2003, prompting a scorched earth response from the military and its Janjaweed militia allies.

"I believe President Hu Jintao will exchange opinions with Sudanese leaders on this issue. I hope both sides could gain an understanding on each other's position," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

China could play an important role in diplomatic negotiations with the Sudanese government because it is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, although it has been accused of exerting too little pressure on the regime.

On a visit to Khartoum last week to prepare for Hu's visit, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun urged a quick resolution to the Darfur crisis but denied any US pressure on China.

"Any solution to the Darfur problem should be made with the consent of the Sudanese government," he said last week.

Zhai suggested that the problem be resolved "politically and as soon as possible with the support of the international community."

But Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadek said the two sides "stressed that imposition of sanctions on the Sudan would only complicate the problem and would not be conducive to resolving it."

Chad: UN Force Would Protect, Not Intervene

From Reuters

A U.N. peacekeeping force being considered for Chad would be used to protect refugees and civilians and not intervene in the conflict between the Chadian government and rebels, a U.N. official said on Monday.

The United Nations, blocked by Sudan from sending U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur, is weighing how to send a smaller force into neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic.

A U.N. assessment team, which will study how the force could be deployed, began a visit to Chad on Sunday. It will also visit Central African Republic to consider a similar deployment there.

"The multi-dimensional presence we are envisaging will be charged with the ... protection of refugee and displaced populations, and eventually the local population," the team leader Francois Dureau told reporters in N'Djamena.

But he ruled out the idea of U.N. peacekeepers trying to keep apart Chad government forces and rebels opposed to President Idriss Deby who have waged a hit-and-run war from the east of the landlocked central African country for months.

In no circumstances would the U.N. mission to Chad be an "intervention force", Dureau said after talks with Chad's Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi.

Allam-Mi agreed: "It's not a force to intervene. It's an international force to protect refugee camps, IDP (internally displaced persons) camps and monitor the border. In order to intervene, you need to have a peace deal".

[edit]

Without mentioning costs, Dureau said in N'Djamena: "It's evident that considering the environment and dimensions of the area, we cannot assure complete security for all areas of such a vast territory."

Allam-Mi said Chad did not see the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force affecting its national sovereignty.

"In this global world, you must sometimes abandon a bit of sovereignty in order to cooperate with the international community, to deal with difficult and catastrophic situations," he said.

Darfur: Police 'Assault UN Staff'

From the BBC

The United Nations says five of its staff have been assaulted by police in Sudan's Darfur region.

The UN workers were among 20 aid workers and African Union peacekeepers arrested by Sudanese authorities after a raid on a party at the weekend.

A statement from the UN said that some of their staff had suffered serious injuries and that it would protest officially to the Khartoum government.

UN workers are providing vital aid in the conflict-hit region.

The Sudanese government has not intervened to protect Darfur's battered population from the brutal Janjaweed militia. But when aid workers, African Union peacekeepers and UN staff held a Friday night party in Nyala - Darfur's biggest town - it felt it had to step in.

Sudanese police and security officers stormed the aid compound where the event was being held.

According to the UN, the 20 arrested people were physically and verbally assaulted with some seriously injured and needing medical treatment.

A report on Sudan's state-owned television said the UN and African Union workers had been detained for misconduct, comparing it to allegations of sexual abuse which face peacekeepers in southern Sudan.

A statement from the United Nations said all the detainees had now been released, but it also said it was deeply concerned about the treatment of its staff and that the basic principles of rule of law had been violated.

Northern Sudan is governed by Islamic Sharia law which outlaws the drinking of alcohol.

Its consumption by foreigners, within the privacy of their own homes, is usually tolerated.

Darfur: ICC Team Heading to Khartoum

From the AP

A team of investigators from the International Criminal Court will head to the Sudanese capital within days, the court's prosecutor said Monday, as he prepares to present his first Darfur war crimes case to judges.

"We have our first case ready. We are checking a few things but we are planning to file a document to judges in February," Luis Moreno-Ocampo added in an interview with The Associated Press.

Moreno-Ocampo did not give further details of the mission to Sudan, which was being organized in consultation with Sudanese authorities.

Under ICC rules, Moreno-Ocampo must present an outline of his case and supporting evidence to judges at the Hague-based court. They can then issue arrest warrants for suspects or a summons ordering them to appear in The Hague.

He also must establish that suspects he wants to charge are not already being prosecuted in their own country. Sudan has rejected ICC intervention, saying it would try human rights suspects itself. Sudan's own Darfur war crimes court has announced sentences, but few other details about its workings.

How or whether any arrest warrants would be executed if suspects are in Sudan is unclear. The government in Khartoum does not recognize the ICC and has long resisted efforts to station U.N. troops in Darfur.

Speaking to reporters late last year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said the ICC, "will never intervene in Darfur."

"We are not part of the Rome convention, so we do not take part in this court," he added, referring to the treaty that set up the court.

Despite Sudan's opposition to the court it allowed ICC investigators to visit Khartoum last year and interview two senior government officials.

In March 2005, the U.N. Security Council asked Moreno-Ocampo to open an investigation into alleged atrocities committed in Darfur during 2003 and 2004.

His investigators have visited 17 countries to interview witnesses and victims but have not traveled to Darfur itself.

Darfur/CAR/Chad: UN Assesses Need for Peacekeepers

From VOA

A U.N. team has arrived in Chad to start its two-week peacekeeping assessment in Chad and the Central African Republic. The mission follows calls for increased security for the hundreds of thousands of refugees and civilians affected by fighting from Sudan's Darfur region and national rebel movements. Phuong Tran reports from VOA's Central and West African bureau in Dakar.

Two months after U.N. officials said that the border along Sudan's Darfur region was too risky for U.N. peacekeepers, a second assessment team is reconsidering peacekeeping operations in the region.

Adrien Feniou, regional analyst with London-based Global Insight, is not optimistic that this assessment will lead to a peacekeeping troop deployment, and says he is surprised by the mission's timing.

"There are no new developments since the last tactical mission," he said. "The rebels are still operating in the area, there are still 300,000 refugees in Chad, and the security conditions are still as bad as they [were] then."

Renewed rebel activity last week in both the Central African Republic, or CAR, and Chad followed a month lull in both countries.

Given the continued hostilities, Feniou says the U.N.'s assessment is more an exercise in diplomacy than in laying the groundwork for a peacekeeping mission.

He said, "I think it is a mission being sent by the new U.N. Secretary-General [Ban Ki -moon] to bolster his position and commitment on the situation in Darfur and resolving regional stability."

A U.N. Security Council statement preceding the team's visit said it would seriously consider plans for deployment.

Relief workers say that security and health conditions are worsening in the often lawless border area prone to inter-ethnic conflicts, looting, and cross-border attacks from militia known as Janjaweed fighters.

A spokeswoman with the U.N. refugee agency, U.N.H.C.R., Helene Caux, says that the very fact the region is unstable should not discourage peacekeeping, but rather justify it.

"The presence should come sooner than later," she said. "There will never be a perfect situation to deploy an international presence. It is better to do it now than [when it becomes] too late."

Due to security concerns, international humanitarian agencies have scaled back operations, pulling out most staff. Caux says refugees have been trained to run their own camps because of the cutback in U.N. staff.

"The situation is getting worse and worse, and there is no sign at this point that it is going to improve, so such a presence would be quite crucial for the security of the refugees, of the displaced persons and of the humanitarian workers," said Caux.

Government officials in Sudan say they do not object if the U.N. sends peacekeepers to Chad, provided none enter Sudan.

The governments of Chad and Sudan accuse one another of supporting each other's rebels, though both sides deny the charges.

The peacekeeping assessment team is expected to present its findings mid-February to the new U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Darfur: The Ordeal of Suleiman Jamous

A piece by Jen Marlowe, one of the authors of "Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival" - via Counter Punch

This time last year, Suleiman Jamous was busy ensuring that hundreds of thousands of civilians in rebel-held areas of Darfur received the basic foodstuffs they needed to survive. As the humanitarian coordinator of the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M), a rebel group fighting the Sudanese government, Jamous was in charge of working out the logistics of aid deliveries to far-flung villages all across Darfur. It was his job to try to alleviate the dire humanitarian consequences of the Sudanese government's scorched-earth campaign in Darfur.

A tall, gaunt man with a trimmed grey beard, Jamous is one of the few elder statesmen in what is otherwise a very young, politically-inexperienced rebel movement. Fluent in English, and with a historical perspective and political acumen that are rare among the rebels, he was a valued contact for journalists and NGO representatives visiting the region. Slovenian human rights envoy Tomo Kriznar, who traveled through Darfur last year, said that Jamous "inspired me more then any other Darfurian."

Jamous is now caught in a strange sort of indefinite detention. For the past six months he's lived in a UN hospital in Kadugli -- a town in Kordofan, western Sudan -- where he's both a guest of the United Nations and a hostage of the Sudanese government.

A UN helicopter brought Jamous to the hospital last June, after UN officials helped extract him from another difficult situation. Darfur rebel leader Minni Minawi, who met with President Bush last summer, had detained Jamous in May after Jamous opposed the peace agreement that Minawi had signed. (Because the agreement contained little in the way of enforcement guarantees, most rebel commanders opposed it; it is now considered a dead letter.)

After negotiating Jamous' release UN officials wanted to bring him to the UN hospital in the neighboring state of Kordofan. Jamous was more than a little reluctant to leave Darfur, but the officials assured him that he would stay at the hospital for only a few days, to rest and recover.

The UN's plans went drastically wrong. When the government of Sudan discovered that the UN had transported Jamous in a UN helicopter, it retaliated by partially suspending the UN's operations in Darfur for several days. The trip was a "flagrant violation" of Sudan's sovereignty, a government spokesman declared.

So Jamous now finds that his brief stay in the hospital has stretched out for many months. The UN cannot move Jamous without the Sudanese government's permission, and the government has no interest at all in granting that permission.

Though his air-conditioned hospital room does not look like a cell, it functions as one. "I must be very dangerous," Jamous told me sardonically, "they keep an armed guard posted outside my room."

[edit]

The Sudanese government is happy to have Jamous out of the action, and it is not clear what the United Nations is doing to get him released. But as the months drag on, his situation at the UN hospital in Kadugli is becoming increasingly untenable.

On September 19, Jamous learned from a retired Sudanese official that the government of Sudan is considering trying to capture him. In mid-November, another informed source told Jamous that the government had asked the Egyptians, which have troops in Kadugli, to arrest him and hand him over.

On December 2, Jamous was examined by Egyptian doctors in the hospital in Kadugli because of pain in his abdomen. The doctors believe that there is something abnormal in his digestive system, but they do not have the necessary equipment in Kadugli to conduct the tests that he needs.

It will take strong outside pressure to get Jamous released, so that he can receive the necessary medical tests and seek asylum abroad. His first preference is to relocate to the United States, but he is willing to go anywhere that is safe.

When asked what his first priorities would be if he left Kadugli for the United States, Jamous was silent for a moment, considering the possibilities. "I'd like to spend time with my family -- my daughter, and my granddaughter who I've never seen," he finally said. "But I have a lot of work to do."

Darfur: EU Threatens Sanctions

From Reuters

The European Union threatened Sudan with sanctions on Monday if it refused to allow U.N. peacekeepers into war-torn Darfur, but rights groups and analysts said the warning was not enough to stop the killings.

Raising strong concerns about the "intolerable" situation in Sudan's remote west, EU foreign ministers urged other donors to provide funding for the struggling African Union mission there, while the EU executive said it had no more cash to support it.

Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes during the 4-year-old conflict Washington calls genocide, a charge Sudan denies.

An ill-equipped African Union force has failed to stem the violence and protect aid workers. EU foreign ministers said Khartoum should accept a U.N. plan for a hybrid African Union-United Nations force in Darfur.

"The (EU) Council expresses its readiness to consider further measures notably in the U.N. framework against any party which obstructs its implementation," the ministers said in a joint statement diplomats said was a reference to sanctions.

Aid groups and analysts said the statement would not be sufficient to stop the killing and the EU should threaten Khartoum with a specific list of sanctions.

"They need to be much stronger," Nick Grono, of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said, adding that the EU should say if Khartoum does not allow the hybrid force, the bloc would target Sudan's oil revenue and impose travel bans on key officials.

"If the EU wants to move forward it needs to draw up a list of sanctions and then do it," Lawrence Rossin, of the Save Darfur Coalition of non-governmental organizations, told reporters.

[edit]

The European Commission has up until now given 242 million euros ($313 million) to the AU's Darfur peace mission and 360 million euros for humanitarian aid, EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said on Monday.

"The European Commission has no more money," he said.

EU foreign ministers urged other donors to step in.

"The (EU) Council remains greatly concerned about the security, humanitarian and human rights situation in Darfur, which is clearly intolerable," they said in their statement.

Michel said he would press Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa when he meets him on Tuesday to deliver on aid pledges.

Darfur: Janjaweed Now Killing Each Other

A post by Jonathan Erasmus on Reuters

With an estimated 200 people killed in vicious clashes at the beginning of January, locals in South Darfur believe infighting between Janjaweed militia factions is largely to blame.

Gun battles recently broke out near the south Darfur capital, Nyala, but in what appears to be a new development, people believe they were sparked by internal problems between the Arab militia.

When police and army officials brought the bodies of 21 people into the town, they were forced to move them to an army compound on the suburbs after locals bombarded them with rocks and stones.

The Janjaweed is believed to have split into various factions following tribal tensions and leadership disputes. The fighting is said to have erupted in a row over territory. The two groups involved opened fire on each other just 10 kilometres from Nyala and as a result tensions in the town are now running high.

"I have not heard of the Janjaweed attacking each other before," said one Sudanese aid worker. "They have attacked many villages and killed thousands of people but not each other. They usually only target black Africans, not other Arabs."

"When the police brought the bodies into the town, senior officials came out of their offices to view them. I think the locals must have recognised some of the bodies as Janjaweed so they started throwing stones at them."

[edit]

Khartoum denies any links to the militiamen and rejects claims that any Janjaweed are being integrated into the army.

Many people in Darfur say otherwise.

Khalid, a trader who witnessed the dead bodies being brought into the town, told me: "The government gave them weapons and told them to attack our villages. Now they are using the weapons to kill each other. The government has lost control."

Locals in Nyala said tensions had been rising within the group for some time.

"They are fighters and only want what is best for themselves," said Osoman, a medic. "When they split some factions started seeing others as enemies, just like they do the rebels. Because they have guns, violence and killings were inevitable."

Many media reports have claimed the fighting is a tribal issue between Arab nomads and black African farmers, but Darfuris say this is a naïve understanding of the situation.

They say that in reality there are few problems between Arabs and black Africans and that the government is spotlighting clashes in order to divert attention from its own misdeeds.

"Many Arabs and black Africans live together peacefully in Darfur," a senior Sudanese aid official told me. "There are occasional problems with fighting between tribes but by no means are these fights the problem in Darfur like the government would have you believe.

"The big problems stem from the government wanting power and control. It is a region rich in resources and they want to exploit Darfur for their own gain," added the aid worker who did not want to be named.

"The government is aware the international community is watching closely and it is for this reason it has made sure the problems in Darfur appear to be founded on tribal clashes. The reality is, officials in Khartoum are behind these battles. They are the instigators and financers."

The aid worker said the government was creating tribal conflicts to cover up the fact they have been bombing and attacking not just rebel groups but civilians.

"The government's problem now is that with all of its game-playing and meddling it has lost control of certain groups. For example there are factions of the Janjaweed no longer obeying orders from Khartoum. Instead they are now biting the hand that once fed them," he said.

Darfur: Aid Groups Pull Out of Camp After Rape

From the Independent

Aid groups have suspended operations in Darfur and may pull out of the Sudanese province after a French relief worker was raped, another sexually assaulted and an Oxfam employee was severely beaten at the world's largest refugee camp.

Details of the attack, which took place on 18 December at Gereida refugee camp, South Darfur, are only beginning to emerge. It marks the first time a Western aid worker has been the target of rape - a weapon of war in Darfur, where 3.5 million people depend on aid.

"We have suspended our operations and we may not go back," said Thomas Gonnet, the director of operations for Action Contre La Faim (ACF), whose colleague was raped and another was molested.

"The attack lasted about half an hour and was well planned and violent. Up to 40 armed men broke into the compound. Apart from the rape, our team was forced at gunpoint to lie on the floor. One person was rifle-butted, many shots were fired and there was a mock execution," he said.

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In the capital, Khartoum, Oxfam's spokesman, Alun McDonald, said two male expat workers and seven Sudanese employees were at the Oxfam compound, adjacent to the ACF buildings, when the attack took place at night. "They knew we had six Toyota Landcruisers but only five of them were at the compound. They beat our Sudanese guard to try to find out where the sixth one was."

Oxfam says that £150,000 of equipment was taken in the attack. ACF lost seven vehicles, as well as radios, satellite and mobile phones, cameras and computers.

Mr Gonnet said the four expats who were at Gereida at the time of the attack, including the two women who were sexually assaulted, had been flown back to France. ACF's remaining 19 local staff had been redeployed to Nyala. Oxfam's seven local staff are also now in Nyala.

A further 39 aid workers, including several from the British group Merlin, have been evacuated, leaving the 130,000 people in Gereida dependent on the Red Cross. One evacuated relief worker said : "The security risks are at a high point. We simply cannot work if our lives are at risk."

Gereida is controlled by the majority faction of the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army commanded by Minni Minnawi. Since he signed a peace agreement with the government last year, his movement has become fragmented.

Mr Gonnet said ACF had received an apology from Mr Minnawi but that he may no longer be in control of those who carried out the attack. He added that the ACF had not yet decided whether to report the attack to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which is investigating war crimes in Darfur.

Rwanda: Killings Threaten Justice for Genocide

From Human Rights Watch

Rwandan police and judicial authorities must ensure prompt and effective law enforcement to deal with recent killings of participants in the justice system for genocide known as gacaca, Human Rights Watch said in a report published today.

The 20-page report, “Killings in Eastern Rwanda,” documents two incidents in late November 2006 in which 13 persons were killed. On November 19, genocide survivor Frederic Murasira was killed in the commercial center of Mugatwa in eastern Rwanda. Within hours, residents of a nearby village inhabited by genocide survivors killed eight Mugatwa residents who apparently had played no part in the murder. The victims included children aged three, six, eight and 13, as well as two women and a 70-year-old man. One suspect has surrendered to police and has been arrested for the killing of Murasira, and several others have been detained for the reprisal killings.

“Killings of genocide survivors cost human lives and threaten the delivery of justice,” said Alison Des Forges, senior Africa advisor to Human Rights Watch. “Prompt and effective law enforcement is the way to deal with this threat, not reprisal killings. Reprisal killings have been rare in the past, but if they become more frequent, they could spur a new cycle of violence.”

Gacaca jurisdictions, established to prosecute crimes committed during the 1994 genocide, have been trying suspects throughout Rwanda since July. Since that time, survivor groups have expressed alarm at attacks on survivors and witnesses.

Darfur: Libya to Host Mini Arab Summit

From AFP

The leaders of five Arab states will gather in Libya Tuesday to review the situation in the Middle East and Africa, an Egyptian official said.

"The leaders of the five countries will hold a meeting Tuesday in Sirte," Egypt's ambassador to Libya Mohammed al-Tahtawi told the state-owned Al-Ahram daily Monday.

Besides Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Moamer Kadhafi, the summit will also include the leaders of Tunisia, Sudan and Algeria.

The meeting, which comes days before an African Union summit in Addis Ababa and weeks ahead of a March Arab summit in Riyadh, is also expected to discuss the latest developments in Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur.

Fighting between Sudanese government forces and holdout rebel groups has escalated in recent months and threatened to spill over into neighbouring countries.

"The leaders will focus on the Darfur problem and seek a common Arab-African position to resist pressures," the newspaper quoted Tahtawi as saying.

Darfur: Rebels Accuse Government of Large-Scale Bombing

From the AP

Government aircraft have bombed wide areas of northern Darfur in breach of a cease-fire brokered by U.S. Gov. Bill Richardson, Sudanese rebel leaders said Sunday.

The reports, which could not be independently confirmed, came days after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed to adhere to a cease-fire brokered by Richardson and others this month.

A rebel field commander, Abdallah Banda, said the bombing began Friday across a large stretch of North Darfur near the communities of Hashaba and Ein Sirro and were continuing Sunday.

"We've been hearing the (aircraft) circling all morning, and explosions are going off in the distance," Banda from the Justice and Equality Movement said by satellite telephone from North Darfur.

JEM is among the several rebel groups who refuse a peace agreement signed last May by the government and one movement leader.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment but have previously denied breaching any truce, saying recent military action was "purely defensive" and only targeted rebel groups who refuse a cease-fire.

Sudan has been repeatedly accused of bombing civilians in rebel-controlled zones with crews on Antonov cargo planes dropping crude explosives onto villages, with little military effect but causing damage.

The current air raids are preventing much movement or communication among rebels, said Banda.

He could not confirm reports of more than a dozen casualties.

"It's too early to count the dead," he said, "but there are probably many."

The African Union force in Darfur said it was looking into the incidents, which are difficult to investigate because they are reported in northern rebel strongholds which are "no-go zones" for the peacekeepers.

The AU confirmed, however, it had sent investigators to two separate locations where government planes are also accused of having bombed villages earlier this week.

From Reuters

Darfur rebels accused the Sudanese government on Sunday of bombing its areas for two days, killing at least 17 civilians, in an attempt to delay a conference of rebel leaders.

A Sudanese army spokesman was not immediately available to comment. The government regularly denies bombing in Darfur which would be a violation of ceasefire agreements and U.N. Security Council resolutions.

"The government on Saturday and Friday bombed our areas in Ein Sirro, and in Kurmuk," said Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Both areas are in North Darfur and controlled by the rebels.

"Until now we have counted at least 17 civilians killed."

Rebel commander from the rival Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Jar el-Neby also accused the government of bombing.

"They bombed for about five hours (on Saturday)," he said. "I think they are trying to stop our commanders' conference."

Rebel commanders want to hold a conference in Darfur to unite their positions ahead of peace talks. There are more than a dozen rebel factions.

Rebels say they want guarantees the army will not attack or bomb their meeting.

Darfur: Aid Workers Are the New Targets

From Newsweek

Last Sept. 11 was a momentous day in Darfur, too. After unidentified militiamen attacked aid workers from the Nobel Prize-winning Médecins sans Frontières at a roadblock on that date, most of the international aid groups ministering to Darfur's 6 million people stopped using the roads. On Dec. 18, in the southern town of Gereida, unrelated gunmen attacked the compounds of Oxfam and Action Contre la Faim. More than 70 aid workers subsequently pulled out of the refugee camp there—Darfur's largest, with 130,000 people—leaving only 10 Red Cross employees behind. Yet at the time no one revealed what had really sparked the dramatic pullbacks. In both cases, international staff, including three French aid workers, were either raped or sexually assaulted in territory controlled by the Sudanese government and its allies.

Rape as a weapon has become depressingly commonplace in Darfur, where 200,000 Africans have been killed and a third of the population have been sent fleeing into camps in three years of war. But the attacks on international aid workers herald a dramatic and dangerous new trend—the deliberate targeting of those helping to keep Darfur's millions of refugees alive. A dozen staffers from foreign NGOs have been killed in just the past six months, more than in the previous two years. There are an estimated 14,000 aid workers in Darfur now, the majority of them Sudanese, working for foreign NGOs and U.N. agencies and delivering $1 billion a year in aid. Just a few more horrific attacks could throw that massive operation into jeopardy. Last week 14 U.N. agencies working in Darfur issued a stark warning that "the humanitarian community cannot indefinitely assure the survival of the population in Darfur if insecurity continues."

Médecins sans Frontières country director Jean Vataux confirms that two MSF staffers, a Sudanese and a European, were subjected to a serious sexual assault on Sept. 11 after being forced out of their vehicle near Zalingei, in an area under government control. While the women were not raped, Vataux says, "there was a clear desire to hurt and humiliate." The women were badly beaten as well. Vataux says MSF reported the incident to Sudanese authorities, who promised to investigate but so far have not reported any outcome. Action Contre la Faim's country director Philippe Conraud confirms that two Frenchwomen working for ACF in Gereida were raped by armed men, but would not provide details. In the Gereida attack, aid agencies' compounds were systematically looted, numerous vehicles stolen and staff terrorized at gunpoint for six hours.


The two incidents add to a pattern of increased violence since a peace agreement was signed last May between the government and some rebels. After that, rebel factions splintered further. In some areas, the government is working with rebel signatories; in others, it's fighting them, and in some places the rebels are fighting one another. The version of the conflict that has seized the imagination of the world—and that prompted former secretary of State Colin Powell to describe the killing there as "genocide"—involved marauding Arab militiamen known as Janjaweed, often backed up by Sudanese military forces, laying waste to scattered villages. Now as many as 12 different groups are at each other's throats, tussling over control of huge refugee camps or angling for their share of promised government compensation. On Jan. 10, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson announced he had brokered a 60-day ceasefire; so far, it has yet to start. "The ceasefire?" says a senior officer with the African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of offending Sudanese authorities. "That's like the peace. We haven't seen either."

Assaults on aid organizations have wide repercussions. After a Dec. 8 attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross compound in Kutum, in northern Darfur, all but three of the international staff pulled out. Villagers driven from their homes by Janjaweed have since dispersed rather than seek refuge in the camp there. "We don't know where 30,000 people are," says Rebecca Dale of the International Rescue Committee. "Only about two or three thousand have shown up."

Khartoum has pledged to give aid agencies unfettered access to Darfur, and has frequently boasted of its cooperation with the international community. Yet the NGOs say their workers, especially those from Western countries, are frequently denied visas and travel permits, while key equipment and supplies are held up in Sudanese Customs. And they cannot complain too loudly. "We can't afford to be kicked out," says Dawn Blalock, spokesman for the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The stakes are too high: Blalock points out that the aid groups have managed to lower the overall malnutrition rate in Darfur below the emergency level of 15 percent. Without them, no one knows how bad it could get.

Those who speak out have paid a price. The Norwegian Refugee Council, serving 250,000 displaced Darfurians, was expelled in November to hardly a murmur from the United Nations. Late last year the U.N. secretary-general's representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk, the highest U.N. mission official there, was thrown out by Khartoum after he complained publicly about continued Janjaweed attacks. He has yet to be replaced, leaving the U.N. mission leaderless. "The international community have been taken for a ride," says Pronk. And yet again, the ones suffering most are the people of Darfur.

Darfur: Stoking "Quiet War" Between Sudan and Chad

From Reuters

Violence in Sudan's Darfur region is stoking a "quiet war" between Sudan and Chad which will only end if both governments stop supporting each other's rebels, Washington's special envoy to Sudan said on Saturday.

Andrew Natsios, speaking after meetings with two Darfur rebel groups in neighbouring Chad, said the different factions of the insurgency needed to adopt a unified position to bring an end to the four-year Darfur conflict which has killed 200,000 people.

He called on Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to implement the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in the Nigerian capital Abuja in May with some rebel groups.

This deal could serve as the basis for a broader agreement with the remaining rebel factions, Natsios said.

Asked about his talks this week with Chad's President Idriss Deby, Natsios said: "I've asked President Bashir to stop support for Chadian rebels that are destabilising Chad and I asked the Chadian government to stop supporting the rebellion in Darfur."

"There is in fact a quiet war going on between the two countries, which is related in my view to the instability in Darfur," he told a news conference. "I think if we deal with the conflict in Darfur those tensions will diminish."

[edit]

Natsios met a leader of the NRF in the eastern Chadian town of Abeche on Friday, and also held talks with a representative of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).

Sudan has rejected U.N. Security Council Resolution 1706 authorising some 22,500 U.N. peacekeepers and police to take over a struggling African Union mission in Darfur.

In December, Bashir softened his position by agreeing to a "hybrid operation" in a letter to outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Natsios said that, while U.N. peacekeeping troops were a necessary component of resolving the Darfur crisis, the only long-term solution was a voluntary peace agreement between the Sudanese government and rebels.

"The purpose of these troops is to stabilise the situation in the interim and protect innocent civilians, and then to help the peace agreement which is finally signed," he said.

Darfur: Returned Asylum-Seekers Face Torture And Death

From the Independent

In two days time, Alnour Yousif Fasher will be deported to Sudan, sent back to the people he says were responsible for the murders of his parents and two brothers in Darfur.

"Of course I am frightened by what can happen to me," said Mr Fasher. "I remember what happened to my family. I was a member of what they call a 'rebel' group. I am afraid they will make me disappear, I will be killed."

The British Government publicly protests about the human rights abuse in Darfur by the Sudanese government and their client Janjaweed militia, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Gutteres, recently said: "Hundreds are still dying amid ongoing violence, and thousands are still being forcibly displaced. If things don't improve, we are heading for a major catastrophe".

But dozens of refugees from the region are having their asylum applications rejected by the Home Office, and face being returned.

Mr Fasher will be one of the first to be sent back. The Home Office, according to him and his supporters, maintains there is not enough evidence to prove that he is from Darfur. In any case, they add, it is now safe for people to be returned to Sudan because of a peace deal between the Khartoum government and some rebel groups.

In fact, Mr Fasher is a grandson of the Sultan of Zaghawa, a prominent Darfur tribe once allied with the British, and the family has connections to the town of el-Fasher in north Darfur. Three years ago, Jack Straw, then Foreign Secretary, visited a refugee camp nearbyon a fact-finding mission on the Darfur conflict.

Mr Fasher was a member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Darfur which, unlike another group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), has refused to sign the peace deal, and continues to clash with government forces and the Janjaweed.

Home Office figures show that there are 136 Darfuris in Britain whose asylum applications have been rejected and who await deportation to Khartoum. A further 152 have had their initial applications turned down and are in the process of appealing against removal.

According to the Darfur Union, the umbrella body for exiled Darfuris, and the Aegis Trust, the human rights pressure group, the Home office insists on providing people from the region with interpreters who speak Arabic rather than Darfuri languages like Zaghawa. Many of the asylum seekers complain that they cannot convey their case properly in Arabic, which is perceived in large parts of Darfur as the language of the "oppressive" Arab Khartoum regime. Some say that Arabic interpreters acting for them have sometimes been hostile, accusing them of betraying Islam and Arab fellowship by being "stooges of foreigners".

Speaking at the Dungavel House removal centre in South Lanarkshire, where he is being held prior to deportation, Mr Fasher said: "I came here because the British Government was speaking up for Darfur. We thought this was a country where they helped people who are trying to escape from persecution.

"I do not understand why they can say I am not from Darfur, my people are from there and my family were killed there. But there are others, friends, other people in the community who have been killed and driven out. It is going on even now."

Mr Fasher's father, Abdulrahman, 66, and his 55-year-old mother Abaqala were, he said, killed in a raid by government troops and Janjaweed militia four years ago on the town of Tina near the Chad border. His two brothers, Aymann and Mahmud, died in another attack two years later. His wife Halima, 23, is in a refugee camp in neighbouring Chad.

"My mother and father were killed when they were looking after the cattle, they were shot. They were old people and they were killed for nothing. My brothers were killed fighting for JEM. After that I thought about getting away.

"I came here through Libya in August last year and asked for asylum. I did not think it will end like this. I was hoping to bring my wife over here. Now I do not know if I shall see her again."

Dr James Smith, executive director of the Aegis Trust, said: "The sending back of Darfuris to Sudan is dangerous, misguided and morally reprehensible. The Aegis Trust has documented cases of torture, unlawful imprisonment and disappearances for those that are forcibly returned to Sudan.

"Alnour is at particular risk, as he is a member of a prominent Darfuri family and has been involved with the rebel movement. With Khartoum International Airport the only legal entry route, the British Government is effectively handing him over to the infamous Sudanese National Security and Intelligence Service for questioning and in all likelihood much worse treatment. We will be lucky if we ever hear from him again."

The Home Office said it could not comment on individual cases.

Darfur: U.S. Will Not Oppose Sudanese Leadership of AU

From the AP - via POTP

The United States declined on Friday to oppose the candidacy of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to become chairman of African Union despite his government's alleged role perpetrating violence in Sudan's Darfur region.

It is up to AU members to decide on a new chairman, deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.

Bashir was to have become chairman a year ago but, under a compromise, he withdrew his candidacy after being assured that the job would be his in 2007.

An AU summit meeting will be held in Ethiopia on Jan. 29-30 to decide on a replacement for the current chairman, Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso. The Darfur situation will be high on the summit agenda.

The United States has charged Bashir's government with genocidal behavior in Darfur. The administration opposed Bashir's candidacy a year ago on grounds that it was a contradiction for a Sudanese to be AU president at a time when AU peacekeepers were in Sudan to protect Darfur's citizens from their own government. The peacekeepers remain in Darfur.

In defending the hands-off position of the U.S. in the upcoming election, Casey said, "The AU is an organization of sovereign states, just like the European Union, just like others. It's for them to make these decisions."

He added: "I think our views on the situation in Sudan and on what the issues are that we have with the government of Sudan are abundantly clear."

He noted that other African leaders are preparing to contest al-Bashir for the chairmanship.

Darfur: Delegation Questions Real Progress of Agreement

From the Christian Post

Members of the delegation accompanying New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to Darfur have questioned the real impact of its recent agreement with the Sudanese president.

The agreement, reached by Gov. Richardson and Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, was applauded for moving Darfur towards lasting peace; al-Bashir and rebel groups had agreed to a 60-day cessation of hostilities among other promises.

However, delegation members say recent events in the war-torn region raise doubts that Khartoum will actually follow through on its pledges.

“The early indication is not that positive,” stated Save Darfur senior international coordinator ambassador (ret.) Lawrence Rossin in a phone conference on Thursday.

“We have seen no change in the policies on access of journalists to Darfur, the humanitarian groups have seen no changes, and there is an unconfirmed report of a bombing raid on the rebel.”

Rossin was part of the Save Darfur delegation that visited Sudan Jan. 8-11.

[edit]

Rossin gave as example al-Bashir’s recent permission for the U.N. three-phase plan to deploy up to 17,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops on the grounds in Darfur. The president since the first phase of the U.N. deployment has continuously gone back and forth on his agreement about U.N. troops in Darfur.

“If we want to call his (President al-bashir) bluff on a number of these issues we have to ante up to what he has accepted at least on paper and get to the point where he isn’t fulfilling what he agreed to,” Amjad Atallah, senior attorney with the Public International Law and Policy Group and advisor to the Coalition, commented during the conference.

Rossin noted that it is “so absurd and bizarre yet so potentially disastrous” that President al-Bashir might be chosen as the next president of the African Union, the underfunded peacekeeping troops currently in Darfur that the United Nation hopes to supplement with its own force.

“This would put the person who is carrying out the war in Darfur in the weird position of being the political commander of the African Union peacekeeping force and our partner in stopping the genocide that the government has been carrying out,” exclaimed Rossin. “It is too bizarre for words.”

Rossin called for an “end to talking about details,” which he said has been done for the last two years, and insisted on delivering a “clear message” to president al-Bashir, the Sudanese government, and in some cases the rebel groups that “they need to do it and they are expected to do it.”

“These people do not want to do these things. They are being made to do these things,” said Rossin, who said degrees of coercion and pressure are necessary. “Too long it has been as if we are dealing with interlocutors who really wanted to do these things but couldn’t find their way to do these things… And that is not the case.”

Darfur: U.N. Confirms at Least 150 Killed, New Refugees Have Leprosy

From the AP

Clashes between tribes of Arab nomads and ethnic African farmers competing for Darfur's resources have killed 150 people in the last two weeks, according to the United Nations mission to Sudan.

The U.N. mission also said that 64 people among the latest wave of refugees chased by separate pro-government janjaweed militia raids have been diagnosed with leprosy.

A joint team of U.N. and Sudanese officials, sent to investigate the tribal fighting, reported that 101 Targem farmers were dead or missing around the South Darfur locality of Bulbul, as well as 40 Rezeigat nomads.

Some 12 villages belonging to the Targem were also burnt to the ground, and refugees have started pouring into the South Darfur camps, the U.N. said in a statement issued late Thursday.

"The government deployed a joint military and police force with patrols" to pacify the area, the statement said.

[edit]

To the west of the region, "consistent attacks from Arab militias" against villages near the border with Chad chased more civilians into refugees camps, the U.N. said.

At least 64 of these new refugees were found to suffer from leprosy, the U.N. said.

While there have been "a few pockets of leprosy" endemic in Darfur, the new refugees who arrived in the Zaleingi refugee camp are one of the largest group case diagnosed, World Health Organization workers said.

"They have been settled separately from the rest of the camp and are receiving medication," WHO's doctor Mohammed Abdi said on the telephone from West Darfur.

U.N. agencies and aid groups said earlier this week they feared worsening violence would "irreversibly" jeopardize efforts to improve the health of some 4 million vulnerable people in Darfur, many of whom live in inaccessible areas such as the border villages recently attacked by janjaweed.

Darfur: Advocates Urge U.S. Congress to Press For U.N. Military Force

From the AP

Leaders of Darfur advocacy groups urged Congress on Thursday to hold hearings on whether the United States should use military force to protect citizens of the western Sudan region after four years of what the Bush administration calls genocide.

They also said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir seems to be backing away from a commitment he made to former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in December to allow the United Nations to deploy of 22,000 peacekeepers in Darfur.

They suggested al-Bashir may be responding to what they said was an easing of U.S. pressure on Sudan in recent weeks.

The experts, who spoke during a conference call with reporters, were Lawrence Rossin of the Save Darfur Coalition; Amjad Attalah, a coalition adviser; and Kenneth Bacon of Refugees International.

The coalition sponsored a recent trip to Sudan by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who negotiated a 60-day cease-fire in Darfur.

Bacon said one success in Darfur has been that a massive humanitarian response by donor countries and private relief groups over the years has prevented outbreaks of disease and helped reduce infant mortality rates.

He said the Bush administration has been reluctant to impose sanctions against Sudan but urged that Congress take the lead by adopting measures that could stifle an oil-fueled economic upturn in Sudan, which possibly could induce the al-Bashir government to be more pliable on Darfur.

Overall, Bacon said, "The government of Sudan has not shown the ability to protect its own people." He recommended that Congress consider the use of force in Darfur, acknowledging that any such step would be "extremely controversial." Among advocates of such a policy are two Democratic members of the House of Representatives, Tom Lantos and Donald Payne. Lantos is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Bacon said the establishment of a no-fly zone over Darfur, despite risks, should be considered. He said the Sudanese have painted military aircraft used in Darfur hostilities the same color as planes used for humanitarian relief flights.

Rossin, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, said the humanitarian situation in Darfur has deteriorated further. "The government has been carrying out unabated hostilities," he said.

Rossin said deployment of the full complement of U.N. peacekeepers advocated by the U.N. Security Council is essential "because the African Union is not capable of providing the type of force needed in Sudan." The AU already has an ineffectual 7,000-strong force in the region.

Attalah cited a lessening of protection for women at camps housing some of the 2.5 million Darfurians displaced from their homes since 2003. African Union forces cannot ensure safety for women because the force is overstretched, he said.

He added that "gender-based violence and rape are used as weapons of war" in Darfur.

Darfur/Chad/CAR: UN Weighs Peacekeepers Across Border

From Reuters

The United Nations, blocked by Sudan from sending U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur, is weighing how to send a smaller force into neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic, U.N. officials said on Thursday.

An assessment team of about 30 U.N. staff is leaving for the unstable region on Friday and will spend two weeks studying how many troops would be needed to protect and aid civilians caught up in the fighting there, how to get them into the remote area, and how to supply them once they were in place.

One possible approach is to send battalions of about 700 to 800 soldiers to each of Chad's three eastern provinces -- Salamat, Ouaddai and Biltine -- and a fourth battalion to the Central African Republic's northern Vakaga province, officials said.

Because the area along the two countries' border with Darfur is isolated and landlocked, the force could end up costing as much as $1 billion a year, said a senior U.N official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity.

That was the price tag of the significantly larger peacekeeping mission the world body hoped to send into Darfur last year before it was blocked by the Sudan government.

[edit]

Both nations have requested U.N. help, and the Security Council in June asked the peacekeeping department to explore how to protect the camps and provide humanitarian aid.

The council this month pressed the peacekeeping department to step up its efforts after an assessment mission sent in late November recommended against deploying a U.N. mission there until all parties agreed to stop fighting and begin negotiating a political solution.

"We have to find a way to stop the fighting and begin a political process," the senior official said. "For peacekeeping, there must be a peace to keep."

The official said some of the rebels operating in the area, whether fighting to topple the Chad government, the Central African Republic authorities or the Sudanese government, were clearly being financed by outsiders.

U.N. staff had seen fighters in new uniforms, driving new pickup trucks and equipped with "serious weaponry," he said.

The assessment mission is due to submit its recommendations to the 15-nation Security Council by mid-February.

In anticipation of dispatching peacekeepers to the region, the next step would be to send an advance team of perhaps a few hundred staff to prepare for an eventual deployment, the official said.

Darfur: EU to Express Strong Concern

From Reuters

European Union foreign ministers are to express strong concern about the "intolerable" situation in Darfur at a meeting on Monday and denounce air strikes on civilians by Khartoum, a draft text shows.

Ministers are to discuss whether and how to mention the possibility of sanctions if Khartoum refrains from cooperating with the United Nations, diplomats said, after EU envoys failed to agree on that point in preparatory talks this week.

Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes during the four-year-old conflict in Sudan's remote west which Washington calls genocide.

"The (EU) Council remains greatly concerned about the security, humanitarian and human rights situation in Darfur, which is clearly intolerable," the draft said.

"It condemns the continuing ceasefire violations by the parties to the conflict and denounces in particular air strikes against civilian targets carried out by the Sudanese Air Force, such as the bombing of villages in North Darfur on 29 December and on 5 January."

EU envoys failed to agree this week whether and how to mention the EU's readiness "to consider further measures against any party" that blocks the United Nations from helping the struggling African Union force to restore peace in Darfur.

EU ministers might mention the possibility of sanctions while saying such steps would be carried out only in the U.N. framework, diplomats said.

[edit]

The EU is also set to agree on Monday to extend for another six months its support to the African Union mission, but without pledging a specific amount of money.

"We need to find money but we don't know yet where to take it from," a diplomat from the EU's current German presidency said.

The African Union will need some $343 million until the summer to finance its mission, the diplomat said.

Darfur: Sudan’s Chairmanship Would Discredit AU

From Human Rights Watch

African states should reject Sudan’s bid to become the chair of the African Union on the grounds that Khartoum’s attacks on civilians, support for militias and impunity for war crimes in Darfur remain unchanged, Human Rights Watch said today. At its summit in Addis Ababa on January 29-30, the African Union will decide which country will hold the chair for 2007.

“In the past year, Khartoum has refused to make any genuine efforts to reverse its abusive policies in Darfur,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Awarding Sudan the chairmanship would not only reward the sponsors of crimes against humanity in Darfur, it would irreparably discredit the AU.”

African governments’ concern over Khartoum’s continuing role in abuses in the western Sudanese region of Darfur has led the African Union to defer Sudan’s chairmanship twice, first in 2005 and again in January 2006. In January 2006, AU states nominated Congo-Brazzaville as chair for one year, with Sudan nominally slated to assume the position in 2007.

No criteria exist for assuming the AU chairmanship aside from the principle of rotation among Africa’s sub-regions. Sudan’s abysmal human rights record and responsibility for massive crimes in Darfur have been implicit reasons for the AU’s deferral of a Sudanese presidency. The AU’s role in mediating peace negotiations in Darfur has also been a critical factor, with many observers citing a conflict of interest if one of the warring parties in Darfur were to hold the AU chair.

“Nothing has improved in Darfur over the past year, and in fact the situation has gotten worse,” said Takirambudde. “Sudanese officials may pledge progress, but their promises will remain meaningless until they start implementing them on the ground.”

[edit]

“Sudan has failed on every commitment in Darfur: civilian protection, humanitarian access and accountability for grave crimes,” said Takirambudde. “If the AU considers Sudan’s policies on Darfur as key criteria for Khartoum to qualify as AU chair, then Khartoum has failed on every measure.”

Sudan: Blackwater Seeks Role in Training Security Forces

From The Virginian-Pilot

Always on the lookout for new markets, Blackwater USA may be close to getting a toehold in one of Africa’s most strife-torn spots.

The Moyock, N.C.-based private military company is angling for a role training security forces in southern Sudan, where a fragile peace agreement has been threatened recently by sporadic flare-ups of a decades-long civil war.

Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, head of mission in Washington for southern Sudan’s regional government, said he expects Blackwater to begin training the south’s security forces within the next few weeks.

He said Blackwater representatives have been in Juba, the regional capital, in recent weeks assessing conditions there and hope to begin the training by early February.

Blackwater, typically tight-lipped about its contracts, had little to say about Sudan. Anne Tyrrell, a company spokeswoman, issued a one-sentence e-mail comment: "We have no contracts with the government of southern Sudan." She would not confirm or deny that talks are underway.

The company has trained thousands of military and law enforcement personnel at its 7,000-acre Moyock compound.

It also provides security services around the world for a variety of clients. One of the biggest is the U.S. State Department, which has awarded the company more than $300 million in no-bid contracts to guard its diplomatic personnel in Iraq.

Providing security services overseas requires a license from the State Department. The department does not comment publicly on pending license applications.

Nancy Beck, a State Department spokeswoman, said the department is aware of Blackwater’s training proposal for southern Sudan but had no comment on it.

Until last fall, such an operation would have been illegal. In 1997, the United States imposed a trade embargo against Sudan, accusing it of supporting international terrorism, destabilizing its neighbors and committing human rights violations including slavery and denial of religious freedom. The embargo covered contracts for services.

In October, President Bush signed an executive order lifting those sanctions from certain areas of the country, including the south.

[edit]

Last year, Blackwater vice-chairman Cofer Black proposed dispatching a brigade-size force of private soldiers to Darfur as part of U.N. peacekeeping efforts there, but so far the company has not been able to sell the idea.

Darfur: 'I Go Home, and I Cry'

From the Sun Journal

In the desert camps of Darfur, Dr. Stephen Sokol has bandaged the burns of children tossed alive onto fires.

"I've seen kids with burns all over their bodies," said Sokol, who spent a year in the Sudanese region with the International Rescue Committee.

He treated refugees who had been beaten and raped as they sought fuel to cook the bland grains and beans given to them by charities. And at 69, the thin, gray-haired doctor who has helped people all over the world is planning to return to the Sudan this summer.

"Things in Darfur are not getting better," Sokol told a Great Falls Forum audience Thursday at the Lewiston Public Library. "They are getting worse in spite of what our government is saying. My gut feeling is that the Sudanese government wants everyone in Darfur dead."

As in the past, he plans to work for three months before taking two weeks off. The breaks help him cope with a blistering emotional toll.

"I go home, and I cry," Sokol said.

Chad: Aid Agencies Still on War Footing

From IRIN

Aid agencies in eastern Chad that had scaled down during heavy fighting in mid-November are still operating at minimum levels, despite a lull in hostilities because of lingering fears of hijackings and armed attacks.

A rebel attack on the region’s aid hub, Abeche, from where United Nations agencies and NGOs run operations for some 330,000 Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians, forced a hasty evacuation of staff in late November.

Fighting from Darfur had spilled over the border earlier that month, and there had been combat close to several of the 12 refugee camps the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) runs in eastern Chad.

Although there have not been major skirmishes between the army and rebels in Chad for at least six weeks or repeats of the spillover, Nick Ireland, Oxfam’s regional humanitarian coordinator, said access is still “really tough”, especially in the north where the heaviest fighting took place in November, and the south of the region where inter-communal violence has forced some 100,000 people to flee their homes, including 50,000 in the last six months.

“It’s difficult to know who is responsible for the insecurity of the displaced, whether or not we are being targeted, and that complicates delivering aid,” he said, adding that Oxfam’s country representative was recently held up in a carjacking near the southeastern town Goz Beida.

Oxfam has been maintaining minimum services with 10 international staff for the last six weeks, compared to 25 previously.

Likewise, UNHCR is still operating at minimum levels since evacuating some 30 percent of its staff in November.

“The biggest problem it presents is the difficulty of maintaining the humanitarian and civilian character of the refugee camps,” said Matthew Conway, UNHCR spokesman in Abeche. “The simple fact of having an international humanitarian presence does provide a dissuasive element.”

Earlier this month, a refugee camp at Goz Amer in the southeast was surrounded by Arab tribesmen, but the standoff ended without violence. Also in January, two refugees were killed in Guereda camp, in the north. Rebel fighters from Sudan regularly enter the refugee camps to visit their families and rest, aid agencies say.

“All along the concern has been that Sudan will decide that the camps are so militarised that they constitute a legitimate military target, which we want to avoid at all costs, and most refugees too,” Conway said.

The Chadian government has proposed moving the refugee camps further west, away from the border, but surveying of the proposed new sites in December found only one of six zones in the arid and remote desert region had sufficient underground water reserves.

UNHCR has also been unable to reach displaced Chadians who have congregated around Ade, 260 km southeast of Abeche, close to the Sudan border.

Chadian President Idriss Deby spent a week based in Goz Beida in early January where he “oversaw” military operations and pledged to allocate 4 billion CFA (US $8 million) to provide security and assistance to the displaced Chadians.

An official in Deby’s office confirmed on Thursday that a regiment of soldiers has been sent to the Goz Beida area to distribute food, patrol the villages, and disarm locals. “The situation is calm now,” said the official, who asked for anonymity.

International aid agency staff confirmed that distributions of food, medicines and shelter equipment have started near Goz Beida and another southeastern town, Am Timan, but expressed concern about the quality and targeting of the aid.

Chadian soldiers last year were blamed for several violent attacks on relief workers and the hijacking of several aid agency vehicles.

While aid agencies have slimmed down, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which traditionally steps in during times of conflict, confirmed it has increased operations in eastern Chad since hostilities commenced. It is providing assistance to war wounded and prisoners, and helping some 40,000 displaced Chadians.

Darfur: Natsios to Meet Rebels in Chad

From Reuters

The U.S. special envoy to Sudan said on Thursday he would travel to eastern Chad for talks with rebels from the Sudanese region of Darfur, with the aim of ending a four-year conflict that has killed 200,000 people.

Andrew Natsios sought permission for the talks from President Idriss Deby at a meeting in the Chadian capital N'Djamena, amid international concerns that spiralling violence in Darfur could destabilise central Africa.

Fighting erupted in Darfur in February 2003 when rebels took up arms against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accusing him of discriminating against the western region.

The government responded by arming Arab militias to counter the rebellion. Some 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes in a conflict that Washington has termed "genocide".

"I promised the Sudanese president I would meet the Chadian leader so he could authorise a meeting with the Darfur rebels in eastern Chad," Natsios told reporters after the meeting.

The purpose of the talks with the divided rebel groups would be to "try to convince them to adopt a common position to find a solution to the Darfur crisis," Natsios said.

A Chadian government spokesman said the president had given the talks his blessing. Chad has repeatedly denied Sudanese accusations that it supports Darfur insurgents and it has accused Khartoum in turn of backing an uprising in eastern Chad.

Darfur: NRF To Treat AU Peacekeepers as Partisan Forces

A statement from the NRF posted on the Sudan Tribune

The African Union will hold its 9th Summit of Heads of States and Governments in Addis Ababa, January 22-30, 2007. The Summit will transfer AU Chairmanship to Albashir, the current President of Sudan. Baring an unlikely coup, the transfer is automatic given last year’s AU Chairmanship decision “Sudan shall assume Chairmanship of the African Union for the year 2007”. The transfer will have a catastrophic impact on the AU role in Darfur.

If allowed to proceed, the new portfolio will give Albashir immense influence in AU decisions and performance in its role in Darfur. Albashir will have power over all major AU policies, appointment of AU key players and down to the financing of AU peacekeepers in Darfur.

Since Albashir is party to the Darfur conflict, it will be unrealistic to expect the institution he chairs to act as a neutral arbitrator in the same conflict. It is self evident that accession of Albashir to AU Chairmanship will strip the AU of its neutrality in Darfur which is already at stake and is diminishing at a formidable pace. As non-signatory to the DPA, the NRF will be forced into one choice: to cease cooperation with the AU in all matters related to peace in Darfur and to treat the AU peacekeepers as partisan forces.

It is unreasonable to expect the NRF to take any other course of action and the international community must take note of that.

Darfur: Gov't Vagueness Deliberate

From Reuters

Khartoum is employing a deliberate policy of vagueness on the deployment of U.N. troops to its Darfur region to mitigate internal divisions and avoid confrontation with the international community, analysts say.

Sudan rejected U.N. Security Council Resolution 1706 authorising some 22,500 U.N. peacekeepers and police to take over a struggling African Union mission in Darfur. It also rejected a compromise on a hybrid U.N.-AU force.

In December, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir softened his position agreeing to a "hybrid operation" in a letter to outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, adding Sudan was in "full agreement" with the world body.

But Bashir has declined to elaborate publicly on the details of the hybrid operation while still denying any agreement on U.N. deployment to a domestic audience.

"We do not want to get into a media discussion over this," Presidential Advisor Mustafa Osman Ismail said in January, declining to specify whether Bashir's letter meant Sudan would allow U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur.

Analysts call this tactic survival and subversion -- it allows Bashir to avoid critics at home, who equate foreign intervention in Darfur with invasion, and dodge criticism internationally that he is obstructing efforts to bring peace to war-torn western Sudan.

"It allows the international community to point to the positive statements emanating out of Khartoum as evidence of progress, conveniently ignoring the contrary statements by (Khartoum) officials, the ongoing government offensive and bombing campaigns in Darfur," said Sudan expert Dave Mozersky of the International Crisis Group think tank.

U.S. academic Eric Reeves said the debate over whether Sudan had accepted a "hybrid force" detracted from the fact that Khartoum had managed to shelve Resolution 1706 in defiance of the world body.

"The regime well understands the value of creating whatever ambiguity the international community needs as a fig-leaf for inaction," he said, describing Resolution 1706 as "dead in the water."

Discussions over a peacekeeping force have been ongoing since early 2004, about a year after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government charging neglect.

Since then experts estimate some 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in a campaign of rape, pillage and murder in Darfur which Washington calls genocide.

Khartoum denies genocide. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the region, where the world's largest humanitarian operation is operating.

Some said the Khartoum government's ambiguous position was aimed at buying time to resolve internal divisions between those who wanted to work with the international community and hard-liners in Khartoum who viewed the United Nations as a colonial force.

"There are different islands within the government. You could say the government has two faces," said Sudanese human rights activist Faysal el-Bagir.

"They don't want people to see them accepting what they refused to accept previously," he added.

Bashir is under domestic pressure to take a more hardline stance in the face of international pressure. Stonewalling the United Nations has appeased those elements in his government.

Khartoum led an intense media campaign against a U.N. presence in Darfur last year, calling it a Western plot to recolonise Sudan. The propaganda turned some parts of Sudanese society against the world body with thousands of angry young Sudanese chanting "down, down, U.N." in regular marches last year in the streets of the capital.

Any compromise to allow U.N. troops into Darfur has become even more difficult for Khartoum in the wake of recent allegations of sexual abuse of children by U.N. soldiers monitoring a separate peace accord in Sudan's south.

Some analysts say the international community has allowed the government in Khartoum to defy U.N. resolutions.

"The lack of strong and determined international leadership on Darfur that is willing to hold (Khartoum) accountable for its actions and to its past commitments has created a space for ... Sudan to play diplomatic and bureaucratic games with the U.N. and the international community," Mozersky said.

Retired U.S. ambassador Lawrence Rossin, senior international coordinator of the advocacy group Save Darfur Coalition, said the time had come to stop debating the details and ensure Khartoum implemented what it appeared had been agreed.

"What there needs to be is commitment and determination to devote unrelenting and concentrated diplomatic effort from the international community on the government of Sudan to spur action and implementation on the terms in Annan's letter," he said.

Suffering Binds Iraq and Darfur

An op-ed by David Bosco in the Los Angeles Times

POLLS TELL US that Americans want to be less involved in Iraq and more involved in Darfur. It's not hard to understand why. For the American public, and many of its leaders, Iraq is a tainted war without good guys. Darfur, by contrast, is a chance to save the helpless. In our minds, Iraq and Darfur seem to fit into neat categories: One is a botched war, the other is a humanitarian crisis.

[edit]

The victims in Darfur, by contrast, remain comfortable abstractions.

The advocacy campaign to "Save Darfur" tells us of a ceaseless campaign of ethnic cleansing by armed marauders — the notorious janjaweed — against peaceful and defenseless villagers. As it must, this narrative glosses over a few details. The region's rebels, who have committed some abuses of their own, rarely get a mention.

It's no wonder that Darfur's advocates have chosen to present that conflict as starkly as possible. Recent humanitarian interventions have had identifiable and sympathetic victim groups (think of the besieged Bosnian Muslims and the oppressed Kosovars). For all its suffering, Iraq lacks an identifiable victim group. Neither the Sunnis nor the Shiites have much claim on the American conscience at this point. The Sunnis are erstwhile oppressors, while the Shiites appear to be extremist fellow travelers with Iran. The Kurds have been victimized many times before but, mercifully, they have largely skirted the current bloodshed.

Distaste for the major Iraqi factions is only one reason we don't often think of that conflict in humanitarian terms. Another is the more than 3,000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq and the tens of thousands wounded, many grievously. In the context of that loss, we have little compassion left for the Iraqis. It's a phenomenon we've seen before.

Americans who supported saving Somalis from famine in the early 1990s recoiled when it became clear that there was no escaping that country's confused factional battles. The deaths of 18 American soldiers in Mogadishu in 1993 wiped out our commitment to the people we so boldly went to save.

The national exhaustion with Iraq is evident in today's Los Angeles Times poll. Although 30% of those surveyed wanted to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for as long as it takes to win the war, 19% want troops out right now, and 46% want to begin bringing them home within the next year. There are plenty of reasons why Americans are throwing up their hands. The war will forever be tainted by the faulty intelligence that launched it. The Bush administration botched the initial occupation badly. And some sensible people argue that by acting as a magnet for jihadists, American forces are actually perpetuating rather than staving off ethnic conflict.

But if there is a decent prospect that U.S. forces are restraining the violence — however imperfectly — the moral case for staying is compelling. We set in motion the chain of events Iraqis are now living, and we have encouraged thousands of Iraqis to bet their lives on a fragile new government. And the United States offers the only force that can help stop the country's descent into all-out warfare.

It's natural that Americans would yearn for a simpler and clearer conflict than Iraq to showcase their humanitarian impulses. But our concern for Darfur must not become a moral salve that allows us to abandon Iraq to its spasm of violence. There may be no blameless factions in Iraq, but there are thousands of ordinary victims. Unless it is clear that we are doing no good, we owe them more.

Sudan: China's President to Make 8-Nation Africa Trip

From the AP

Chinese President Hu Jintao will visit Sudan and South Africa in the near future as part of an eight-nation trip to Africa, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday, the latest signal of China's growing power and influence on the continent.

Hu's visit will be closely watched to see whether he increases pressure on Sudan to resolve its bloody Darfur conflict.

Spokesman Liu Jianchao said dates and detailed arrangements for the trip were still being negotiated and that the other six countries on the itinerary would be announced soon.

Over the past decade, China has nurtured its growing ties with Africa, pushing bilateral trade up tenfold to US$40 billion in 2005. Chinese investment has funded roads and been poured into copper mines and oil fields, helping to boost African economies and, for some, standards of living.

In exchange, China has picked up natural resources — oil, precious minerals — to feed its expanding economy and new markets for its burgeoning enterprises.

During a visit to Africa last year, Hu signed a series of major business deals with Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, as well as an oil exploration contract with Kenya.

But China's headway into the continent has generated some criticism. Unlike Western countries also interested in Africa's markets and resources, China steers away from pressuring nations on their human and political rights records.

Critics say China's arms exports to some war-torn African nations have helped fuel conflicts, including the one in Darfur, Sudan, which has claimed at least 180,000 lives and forced more than 2 million people from their homes over the past three years.

Beijing says it is developing normal trade ties with African nations and is willing to offer humanitarian help to its African partners where needed but that it chooses not to interfere in their domestic affairs.

Darfur: Bipartisan Group Calls for Action

A press release from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton joined a bipartisan group of Senators in sending a letter to President Bush underscoring the growing need for action in Darfur. The letter also addresses the need for the Administration to share with Congress details of its "Plan B" for Darfur as the Sudanese government continues to resist full deployment of United Nations peacekeepers to the region.

“Despite efforts by the Bush Administration and its Special Envoy for Sudan, the violence in Darfur rages on and progress has been too slow in getting UN peacekeepers to the region. We must continue to press Sudan to help stop the violence and restore peace," said Senator Clinton.

The letter to the President outlines the need for continued peacekeeping efforts in Darfur and urges the use of all resources to stop the violence. The letter also asks that Congress be informed of preparations, benchmarks and possible results of future plans to help bring about a more stable government in the Sudanese region.

For over two years, Senator Clinton has called repeatedly for action in Darfur. Most recently, a resolution she co-sponsored to press for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur unanimously passed the Senate. Senator Clinton has also encouraged the Arab League and African leaders to continue their efforts to increase engagement in Darfur.

The full text of the letter to President Bush follows:

Mr. George W. Bush
The President
The White House
Washington DC, 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We write to express our continuing concerns about the deteriorating situation in Darfur. As escalating violence exacerbates an already extreme humanitarian crisis, you are no doubt acutely aware that time is of the essence in saving thousands of lives. We welcomed the November 20th announcement by your Special Envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, that the Sudanese Government must accept a joint United Nations-African Union force in Darfur by January 1 or face a tougher line from the United States and the international community. This built upon a powerful warning from your Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, in September that Khartoum faces "a choice between cooperation and confrontation."

We appreciate your Administration’s efforts at aggressive diplomacy and negotiation, but it seems clear that the Sudanese are not responding to such tactics. Ambassador Natsios was right to insist upon progress on the ground in Darfur by the end of 2006, but we are now more than a week into 2007 and the people of Darfur appear to be no better off. On the contrary, recent developments suggest that security in Darfur continues to deteriorate, and aid workers under attack are being compelled to pull out just as the humanitarian crisis is worsening.

Ambassador Natsios has been understandably reluctant to publicize the details of a more aggressive, “Plan B,” but we believe that the time has come to begin implementing more assertive measures. We would like to be informed of the preparations that have been made for the implementation of this contingency plan, as well as the timing, benchmarks to measure the impact of such a plan, and the results you hope to obtain. Additionally, we are anxious to know more about the U.S. strategy for addressing growing regional instability as violence and refugees from Darfur continue to spill into Chad and the Central African Republic.

As you know, we are willing to support your Administration in leading the international community by taking proactive steps to end the violence in Darfur. Simply condemning the worsening violence is not enough; we believe it is past time to use all resources at our disposal to stop this humanitarian tragedy.

We look forward to hearing how you plan to proceed on this difficult matter.

Uganda: LRA 'Welcome in Sudan'

From the BBC

South Sudan's Vice-President Riek Machar has told the BBC Ugandan rebels have not been asked to leave his country, the venue for peace talks.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) want him to be sacked as chief mediator after comments by Sudan's president saying they were no longer welcome.

Mr Machar said he felt the venue should not change - another rebel request - even if he is replaced as mediator.

[edit]

Mr Machar said he expected the talks to resume next Monday.

"We have not asked the LRA to leave Sudan. The mediation of the government of southern Sudan is still holding," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

He said that as far as he was concerned his government was doing a good job running the negotiations.

President Omar al-Bashir's comment, which prompted the latest row, was a retort to accusations that the Sudanese army was still backing the LRA, he said.

"I still see the Juba mediation process as the only mediation process open to both parties."

The LRA has asked for Kenya or South Africa to be considered as venues and new mediators.

But Mr Machar this would put the process back 16 months, as it was "not easy starting the process anew".

"When we started the initiative in September 2005 it did not materialise properly until 15 July - so it took a long line for the process to mature."

As part of a cessation of hostilities pact, rebels are supposed to assemble in two areas by 28 February.

But LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny said LRA fighters were unable to assembly at points to eventually disarm because of insecurity and because they were under attack by the Ugandan army.

"Fighting has been going on practically every day," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

Ugandan army spokesperson Maj Felix Kulaijye, however, blamed the rebels for the violence and refusing to go to assembly points.

He confirmed the military's threat to shoot rebel fighters if they try to re-enter Uganda.

Uganda: Lakwena Dies in Camp

From the AP

Alice Lakwena, a Ugandan warrior priestess who led an insurgency in the 1980s and claimed to have spiritual powers to protect her fighters from bullets by anointing them with oil, has died at a Kenyan refugee camp, a government official said Thursday.

Lakwena, who was in her 40s, died Wednesday after being sick for about a week with an unknown illness at the Ifo refugee camp in the eastern Garrisa district, said Dennis Ogola, a local administrator.

The daughter of a clergyman from the small Acholi tribe in northern Uganda, she mesmerized her followers with claims that spirits spoke through her.

Lakwena led the Holy Spirit Movement, which combined Christianity with traditional beliefs of her Acholi people, in a yearlong insurgency aimed at toppling Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Army troops defeated the movement in late 1987.

Her cousin, Joseph Kony, is the messianic leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. His rebellion in northern Uganda continues today and has seen as many as 1.8 million people displaced, tens of thousands killed and an estimated 20,000 children abducted.

Lakwena became a major embarrassment to the Ugandan government because the foreign media had reported so extensively on her bizarre exploits.

Her rebellion -- one of about a half-dozen in Uganda at the time -- began soon after Museveni, a southerner, overthrew a military government led by a northerner.

Known as "Mama Alice," she raised a battalion of followers numbering as many as 15,000, armed with only sticks and stones. She inspired them to go into battle singing hymns, their chests smeared with oil that they believed would repel bullets. She told them the sticks could turn bees into bullets and the stones would explode like grenades.

Thousands of her followers died before Museveni's army crushed her campaign.

Lakwena, who called herself a prophet and a medium of God, fled to Kenya in December 1987, where she was promptly jailed for three months for illegally entering the country.

Lakwena's followers released the news of her death Thursday.

Darfur: Three Villages Fear for Safety

From Amnesty International

The government-backed Janjawid militia have threatened to attack three villages in West Darfur which they apparently believe are supporting anti-government forces. On 15 January, Janjawid gunmen reportedly warned villagers out searching for firewood that if they did not leave their village within 72 hours they would be attacked. As they fled to neighbouring villages, carrying their valuables, the Janjawid robbed some of them. The Janjawid are now reportedly also planning to attack two other nearby villages, and have been gathering near each village. An attack will likely result in civilian deaths.

Although the African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Darfur have a mandate to protect civilians, they have frequently failed to do so even when informed of impending attacks on civilians.

The villagers under threat belong to the Erenga ethnic group. In the past three months they have been repeatedly attacked by the Janjawid, seemingly because the government believe most people in the area support the armed opposition groups that have rejected the Darfur Peace Agreement.

Over the past year Amnesty International has reported on a series of attacks in this area of West Darfur. On 14 December 2005 the Janjawid attacked three villages, killing 11 people. On 29 October 2006, and again on 11 and 12 November, they attacked another village, killing a total of 67 people, both adults and children.

At least 37 people were killed and 10 injured on 9 December 2006 during a Janjawid attack on a truck carrying passengers as well as medical supplies. The truck was travelling from the capital of West Darfur, Al-Geneina, to the village of Sirba. A group of Janjawid militia on horseback ambushed the ruck, and shot the driver dead. They then fired a rocket propelled grenade at the truck and set fire to the fuel barrels inside. Many of the deaths came when the Janjawid opened fire on people as they fled.

Darfur/Chad/CAR: 2nd Peacekeeping Assessment Team Heading to Region

From Reuters

A second U.N. peacekeeping assessment team heads to Chad and the Central African Republic this weekend after an initial assessment found the area along the border with Sudan's Darfur region too risky for U.N. troops.

The team is paying a two-week return visit to the troubled region bordering on Darfur at the request of the U.N. Security Council, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said on Wednesday.

Its goal is to lay the groundwork for an expected peacekeeping mission there, despite the doubts expressed earlier by the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

U.N. diplomats say the council demand is straining its relationship with the peacekeeping department and governments that are frequent contributors to U.N. peacekeeping missions but are hesitant to send their troops into an area under fire.

A four-year civil war in Darfur spilled over into neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic last year, forcing civilians near the border to flee their homes for camps already crowded with hundreds of thousands of refugees that had earlier fled Darfur.

Both countries called for U.N. help, and the Security Council in June asked the peacekeeping department to explore how to protect the camps.

But an assessment mission sent in late November recommended against deploying a U.N. mission there until all parties agreed to stop fighting and begin negotiating a political solution.

Its report said peacekeepers could be attacked by rebel groups if they tried to stop cross-border activities and that a U.N. force "would be operating in the midst of continuing hostilities and would have no clear exit strategy."

But the Security Council insisted on a new assessment after its members complained during a recent closed-door session that the international community was doing too little to protect suffering civilians there, diplomats said.

The council reinforced its message with a statement adopted unanimously on Tuesday that called for the reassessment to be conducted immediately and for "updated and finalized" recommendations to be submitted by mid-February.

The statement also called for an advance team to be dispatched to the area "as soon as possible" to speed preparations for an expected U.N. mission.

Darfur: U.N. Agencies Warn Aid Operations Could Collapse

A joint statement from 13 UN agencies in Sudan

Over the last two years the efforts of humanitarian agencies in Darfur have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the region's conflict. During this time mortality rates were brought below emergency levels, global malnutrition was halved from the height of the crisis in mid-2004 and nearly three-quarters of all Darfurians now have access to safe drinking water. In 2006 alone, 400,000 metric tons of food were delivered. In the face of growing insecurity and danger to communities and aid workers, the UN and its humanitarian partners have effectively been holding the line for the survival and protection of millions.

That line cannot be held much longer. Access to people in need in December 2006 was the worst since April 2004. The repeated military attacks, shifting frontlines, and fragmentation of armed groups compromise safe humanitarian access and further victimize civilians who have borne the brunt of this protracted conflict. In the last six months alone, more than 250,000 people have been displaced by fighting, many of them fleeing for the second or third time. Villages have been burnt, looted and arbitrarily bombed and crops and livestock destroyed. Sexual violence against women is occurring at alarming rates. This situation is unacceptable.

Nor can we accept the violence increasingly directed against humanitarian workers. Twelve relief workers have been killed in the past six months – more than in the previous two years combined. Their loss has had direct consequences on the Darfur humanitarian operations. The killing of three government water engineers in West Darfur in July 2006 led to a temporary suspension of water and sanitation activities in camps for IDPs. Nine workers from the same Government department were abducted in South Darfur in November 2006 – five are still missing.

In the last six months, 30 NGO and UN compounds were directly attacked by armed groups. More than 400 humanitarian workers have been forced to relocate 31 times from different locations throughout the three Darfur states, including from the capitals El Fasher and El Geneina and from rebel-controlled areas. Assets have been looted and staff threatened and physically harassed. In the town of Gereida (South Darfur), targeted attacks against six humanitarian compounds on 18 December forced the NGO staff to withdraw, seriously compromising the delivery of vital assistance such as food, clean water and health care for 130,000 displaced persons, the largest IDP gathering in all Darfur. Ten days earlier, in the town of Kutum (North Darfur), the staff of four NGOs and WFP were forced to withdraw to El Fasher, after an attack on a clearly marked humanitarian compound. These are but two examples of the types of incidents which have taken place throughout Darfur.

If this situation continues, the humanitarian operation and welfare of the population it aims to support will be irreversibly jeopardised. Ongoing insecurity negatively affects access to health care for the population of Darfur, as many NGOs providing primary health care have had to suspend or minimize their activities. This reduction in services is leading to a deterioration of the hygiene in IDP camps, reflected by the cholera outbreak that struck 2,768 and killed 147 people during 2006. Global malnutrition rates are edging perilously close to the emergency threshold, while some 60 percent of households in need of food aid cite insecurity as the main barrier to cultivating their land, raising livestock and taking part in other income-generating activities.

The humanitarian community cannot indefinitely assure the survival of the population in Darfur if insecurity continues. The undersigned members of the United Nations Country Team in Sudan welcome concrete steps from both the signatories, including the Government, and the non-signatories to the Darfur Peace Agreement towards a peaceful settlement in Darfur and the respect of international humanitarian law and principles.

However, such progress must be sustained. Solid guarantees for the safety of civilians and humanitarian workers is urgently needed. At the same time, those who have committed attacks, harassment, abduction, intimidation, robbery and injury to civilians, including IDPs, humanitarian workers and other non-combatants, must be held accountable. If not, the UN humanitarian agencies and NGOs will not be able to hold the fragile line that to date has provided relief and a measure of protection to some four million people in Darfur affected by this tragic conflict.

This statement has been endorsed by the following members of the UN Country Team in Sudan:

- International Organisation for Migration (IOM)

- Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

- United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

- United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

- United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS)

- United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

- United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

- World Food Programme (WFP)

- World Health Organisation (WHO)

Press coverage from Reuters

U.N. agencies on Wednesday said the world's largest aid operation in Darfur was under threat because of attacks and insecurity and urged concrete steps be taken to stem the violence.

The joint statement said in the past six months, some 250,000 people had been forced to flee violence, many for the second or third time, and a dozen aid workers were killed, more than at any other time during the four-year-old conflict in Sudan's remote west.

"The humanitarian community cannot indefinitely assure the survival of the population in Darfur if insecurity continues," said the joint statement from 14 U.N. agencies working in Sudan.

Experts estimate some 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes to miserable makeshift camps during the rape, pillage and murder in Darfur, which Washington calls genocide.

Khartoum denies genocide and says the Western media has exaggerated the conflict. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the region.

British aid agency Oxfam added its voice to the U.N. statement.

"Increasingly violent attacks against aid workers are crippling the massive humanitarian response in Darfur, leaving hundreds of thousands of people vulnerable and under threat," said Paul Smith-Lomas, Oxfam's regional director.

"It is completely unacceptable for our staff to have to risk their lives while helping the people of Darfur," he added.

The U.N. statement said the Darfur humanitarian operation, employing almost 14,000 aid workers and costing more than $1 billion, had saved hundreds of thousands of lives since it began in mid-2004. But it said that work was being undone as staff are evacuated because of attacks.

"This reduction of services is leading to a deterioration of hygiene in ...camps reflected by the cholera outbreak that struck 2,768 and killed 147 people during 2006," it said.

"Global malnutrition rates are edging perilously close to the emergency threshold," it added.

Mortality rates among war victims in Darfur at the height of the conflict resulted in an estimated 10,000 people dying a month. The U.N. agencies warned the good work to reduce that rate could be reversed if insecurity continued.

From AFP

The United Nations will not be able to pursue humanitarian operations in Darfur if security continues to deteriorate in the war-torn western Sudanese region, according to a statement that was issued and signed by more than a dozen UN agencies.

"In the face of growing insecurity and danger to communities and aid workers, the UN and its humanitarian partners have effectively been holding the line for the survival and protection of millions," the statement said Wednesday.

"That line cannot be held much longer," it warned.

"The humanitarian community cannot indefinitely assure the survival of the population in Darfur if insecurity continues."

Among the signatories to the statement are the World Health Organisation, World Food Programme as well as the UN's children fund and development programme.

They warned that a recent surge in attacks on civilians and aid workers risked cancelling UN achievements in reducing malnutrition levels and caring for the thousands of displaced Darfuris since the height of the crisis in mid-2004.

"Malnutrition rates are edging perilously close to the emergency threshold," the statement warned.

The UN said that in the past six months alone more than 250,000 people have been displaced in Darfur and 12 relief workers were killed -- more than in the previous two years combined.

The aid agencies listed scores of attacks against their workers, abductions and staff evacuations that have hampered relief work in recent months.

"Solid guarantees for the safety of civilians and humanitarian workers are urgently needed," the statement said, demanding that violators be held accountable.

"If not, the UN humanitarian agencies and NGOs will not be able to hold the fragile line that to date has provided relief and a measure of protection to some four million people in Darfur affected by this tragic conflict."

Darfur: UN Force Sought Along Border

From AFP

The UN Security Council made a fresh push for heightened preparations to send a UN force along Sudan's borders with Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) to protect civilians caught in the Darfur conflict.

In a statement read by its president for the month, Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin, the council "reiterates its concern about the persistent instability along the borders between the Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic and about the threat this poses to the safety of the civilian population and the conduct of humanitarian operations."

It expressed "readiness to consider the possible establishment of a mission intended to contribute to improve security on the Chad and Central African side of the border with the Sudan and to foster regional peace and stability through the monitoring of cross-border activities" between the three countries.

It asked UN chief Ban Ki-moon to submit, by the middle of next month, a new set of updated and finalized recommendations on the force's size, structure and mandate.

The council also asked Ban "to deploy as soon as possible an advance team to Chad and the Central African Republic" and welcomed his intention to authorize "the immediate return of the technical assessment mission to the region in order to complete its observations that were curtailed on security grounds."

Last November, the United Nations sent a team to the area to assess how to protect refugees and displaced people in Chad and CAR from a spillover of fighting in Darfur.

But because of the fighting and political turmoil, the team was unable to get to many areas it had planned to visit.

Darfur: China Urges Quick Solution Ahead of President Visit

From AFP

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun urged a quick resolution to the Darfur crisis and denied any US pressure on China ahead of a presidential visit next month.

Zhai told reporters that he had discussed with State Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Kerti on Monday a visit planned by President Hu Jin Tao to the Sudan "in the beginning of February," the Darfur issue and the mutual relations.

"Any solution to the Darfur problem should be made with the consent of the Sudanese government," said the Chinese official, suggesting that the problem be resolved "politically and as soon as possible with the support of the international community."

He denied any pressures being exercised by the United States on China to persuade Sudan to accept the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

"There are no pressures on China," he said, adding: "Our relations with America are not at the expense of our relationship with other countries and do not contradict our ties with the Sudan."

Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadek said Zhai's visit was to discuss preparations for the Chinese president's visit, a recent visit to China by US envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios, and bilateral relations.

"The two sides agreed that the Darfur problem should be resolved politically, bearing in mind respect for the Sudan's independence and territorial integrity, and that any settlement to the conflict should be approved by the government," said Sadek.

He added that the two sides "stressed that imposition of sanctions on the Sudan would only complicate the problem and would not be conducive to resolving it."

The UN's special envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, who was expelled from the country for comments he made on Darfur, has said that China could play "an important role" in international diplomatic negotiations with the Sudanese government.

"Some members of the (United Nations) Security Council have some leverage, " Pronk told the BBC in November, adding that debt relief and the lifting of trade sanctions could also help ease the situation.

"If there is any country which could play an important role, it is China ... China never put a lot of pressure (on Sudan). The pressure came in particular from the other members of the Security Council."

Darfur: UN, US Join Forces

From the Sunday Times

US President George W. Bush and United Nations (UN) chief Ban Ki-moon have worked to push past any lingering US-UN ill will and vowed to work together on issues like Middle East peace and violence in Darfur.

[edit]

During their joint public appearance in the Oval Office, Ban and Bush struck a cordial tone, noting their past cooperation on the North Korean nuclear crisis when the UN chief was South Korea’s foreign minister, and vowed to work closely on other issues like Iran’s atomic ambitions and violence in Darfur.

"The United States wants to work with the United Nations to achieve peace through the spread of freedom," said Bush. "I admired the way you handled your previous job, and I’m confident you’ll do a fine job now."

"I want to thank you for your commitment to help the suffering people of Darfur. I wish you all the best as you work hard to convince the president of the Sudan that it’s in his interests and in the world’s interest that he allow enhanced African Union (AU) peacekeepers in," said Bush.

Darfur: U.N., AU Prep for Hybrid Force

From United Press International

The United Nations and the African Union have intensified preparations for deployment of a hybrid peacekeeping force to Sudan's Darfur region.

The U.N. Mission in Sudan said Tuesday the two organizations are expected to hold a final round of consultations this weekend before submitting details of the second phase, known as the "heavy support package."

Under the ongoing first phase, a $21 million "light support package," UNMIS has provided staff -- including military advisers, police officers and civilian officials -- as well as equipment to the existing and under-staffed AU monitoring mission in Darfur, known as AMIS.

The second phase will include the provision of additional personnel and equipment.

Darfur: Al-Nur Calls on Europe and NATO to Intervene

From the Sudan Tribune

A Darfur rebel leader launched an appeal urging European leaders and the NATO members to send troops in the troubled western Sudan region, saying that they have a moral and legal obligation to protect Darfur civilians.

In a press conference held in Paris, the leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdelwahid Al-Nur, urged the European heads of States and governments, and the EU leadership, the NATO to deploy troops in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Al-Nur said there is no hope to see UN troops in Darfur as far as the international organisation subject the deployment of the bleu helmets to Sudan’s government consent. “It is evident that al-Bashir who is killing innocent people, rejects deployment of UN forces and if we wait his consent this means you authorize him to implement fully his genocide against Darfur people”

With Sudanese government allies— Chinese and Russia — the UN Security Council can not adopt any resolution to send an international force with a clear mandate to protect Darfur civilians under the authority of Chapter Seven, he told the French press.

In his “Appeal of Paris” al-Nur said "to not rescue the crime victim, is a crime". European leaders could not witness the ongoing genocide without sending troops to stop this heinous crime. “They have to act as they did in Bosnia”; the rebel leader said.

He told the French press that one can not speak about civil war in Darfur, because the attacks are carried by the Sudanese army and the militias “it is one side war against Darfur innocent people”. He reminded that his movement is fully committed to 2004 ceasefire and they only reply in self-defense if government troops or Janjaweed militia attack them.

Abdelwahid who visits Paris for the second time since his departure from Asmara, met French civil society and humanitarians ONGs..

On the peace talks with the Sudanese government the rebel leader said that he refuses to negotiate with Khartoum unless it fulfils four conditions: to stop the daily killing of Darfur civilians particularly women, children., the return of the displaced and refugees to their villages, to protect Darfur civilians by international peacekeepers; Sudanese government has to create favourable conditions for talks and to prove its good faith.

Al-Nur said he is astonished to see UN and international community speaking about negotiations while Khartoum committing daily attacks in Darfur against civilians and aid workers. He urged the international community to mobilize efforts for the protection of the civilians in Darfur before seeking to organize talks with Sudanese government.

Earlier this month the rebel leader told Sudan Tribune he refuses to negotiate with the Sudanese government. Al-Nur explained he can not negotiate with a regime that “committing genocide against Darfur people”. He also said that the lack of credibility of the ruling National Congress Party undermines any serious efforts for a negotiated settlement.

Asked about divisions within the SLM, Al-Nur accused the government of disseminating false reports about internal divisions in his group. He said that Khartoum advertises for some people that have no presence on the ground and sign accords with them.

Al-Nur was speaking about Ibrahim Madibo and Abdelrahman Musa Abakr who signed the Declaration of Commitment to the Darfur Peace Agreement on 8 June 2006.

He explained that Minni Minawi who split in November 2005 has signed Abuja deal and lost his credibility among Darfurians. However, he said that he has contacts with his former secretary general. Adding that he is expecting to see him

On the faction of G19, Abdelwahid said that all of them have reintegrated the group. He explained that commander Jarelnabi Abdulkarim Younis becomes the Secretary General of the movement and The commander of the north sector Suleiman Ibrahim Marjan is the SLM Financial Secretary.

“They left the movement at the end of 2005 because they sought that we had secret deal with the Sudanese government during Abuja talks. But as you know we rejected the accord and they understood they were wrong. So, they reintegrated the movement because we share Darfur cause and SLM door is open to any one” he said.

Al-Nur also disclosed that Ahmed Abdelshafi may soon rejoin the movement.