Darfur: UN OKs 26,000 Peacekeepers

From the AP

The U.N. Security Council approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur on Tuesday to try to help end four years of fighting that has killed more than 200,000 people in the conflict-wracked Sudanese region.

The force—the first joint peacekeeping mission by the African Union and the United Nations—will replace the beleaguered 7,000-strong AU force now on the ground in Darfur no later than Dec. 31. The council urged that the AU-U.N. "hybrid" force achieve "full operational capability and force strength as soon as possible thereafter."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a "historic and unprecedented resolution" that will send "a clear and powerful signal" of the U.N.'s commitment to help to the people of Darfur and the surrounding region "and close this tragic chapter in Sudan's history."

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry called it "an unprecedented undertaking in scale, complexity and importance."

The conflict in Darfur began in February 2003 when ethnic African tribes rebelled against what they consider decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed—a charge it denies.

The poorly equipped and underfunded African Union force has been unable to stop the fighting, and neither has the Darfur Peace Agreement, signed a year ago by the government and one rebel group. Other rebel factions called the deal insufficient, and fighting has continued.

The U.N. and Western governments have pressed Sudan since November to accept a U.N. plan for a joint force. After stalling for months, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed in April to a "heavy support package" to strengthen the AU force, including 3,000 U.N. troops, police and civilian personnel along with aircraft and other equipment.

The resolution lays the groundwork for the deployment of the much larger 26,000-strong hybrid force, which will be called UNAMID. The force will have up to 19,555 military personnel, including 360 military observers and liaison officers, a civilian component including up to 3,772 international police, and 19 special police units with up to 2,660 officers.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, reacted harshly to earlier versions of the resolution, calling one circulated last week "ugly" and "awful." Britain and France, the key sponsors of the resolution, stripped harsh language in an attempt to win approval.

The final draft has one section under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which deals with threats to peace and security and can be militarily enforced.

It authorizes UNAMID to take "the necessary action" to protect and ensure freedom of movement for its own personnel and humanitarian workers.

It also authorizes the hybrid force to take action to "support early and effective implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement, and prevent the disruption of its implementation and armed attacks, and thus to protect civilians, without prejudice to the responsibility of the government of Sudan."

But the final resolution dropped Chapter 7 authorization to monitor the presence of arms in Darfur in violation of U.N. resolutions and the peace agreement, which Sudan strongly objected to.

Darfur: Violence Cuts Aid to 500,000

From Reuters

Attacks and banditry has left some 500,000 needy Darfuris out of reach of the world's largest aid operation in Sudan's remote west, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.

More than 12,000 humanitarian staff in Darfur assist 4.2 million people whose lives have been disrupted by four years of revolt. International experts estimate 200,000 have died in the fighting and from famine and disease.

"We are under attack every day: We have areas where we can't go to, we have hijacks every day, we have aid workers attacked every day," Mike McDonagh, north Sudan manager for the U.N. Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said.

"In May 2006, the humanitarian community had access to almost everybody. Now we do not have access to about half a million people," McDonagh told Reuters.

In the past, aid workers blamed government restrictions for lack of access to the needy in Darfur, but according to McDonagh, banditry and lawlessness are now primarily to blame.

"There is a lot of banditry. Some of these people may be former rebels or may be former pro-government militia," he said, adding there was at least a serious incident every day.

Earlier, however, the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters in Geneva it had had better access to the region over the past three or four months although general lawlessness still threatened civilians.

Affected communities have seen "a high level of criminality and banditry", Yasmine Dessimoz, the outgoing head of ICRC Darfur operations, said.

McDonagh said bandits had hijacked 80 vehicles belonging to the humanitarian community since the beginning of the year.

"Very many humanitarian staff were held at gun point which is a shocking thing for many people and, in many cases, they were detained for hours and sometimes overnight and very often they were dumped in the desert," he said.

These incidents and others, said McDonagh, means humanitarian officials now have only limited access to large areas and no access to certain areas.

"We are starting to see the effect of the lack of access. There is an increase in malnutrition. There are also more diseases that prey on children," he said.

Darfur: U.N. Poised to Approve New Force

From Reuters

The U.N. Security Council was set to authorize up to 26,000 troops and police for Sudan's Darfur region on Tuesday in an effort to quell violence in the vast arid region.

Britain and France, sponsors of the resolution, formally introduced their draft resolution late on Monday to the 15 council members, stripping the text of harsh language. A vote was expected Tuesday afternoon on a combined or "hybrid" United Nations-African Union force.

Visiting Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in a speech on development, warned Khartoum and rebels that if killings continued, "I and others will redouble out efforts to impose further sanctions."

"The message for Darfur is that it is time for change," Brown told U.N. diplomats. The threat of sanctions, however, has been deleted from the resolution's text.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died over the last four years.

Parts of the resolution are under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory. This includes taking "necessary action," a euphemism for the use of force, in self-defense of UN-AU personnel, to ensure freedom of movement of humanitarian workers as well as to protect civilians "under threat of violence without prejudice to the government's responsibilities."

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, who had qualms about the use of force in Chapter 7, said now this provision was needed but "we have to be precise and very careful where it is applied." He said Beijing generally approved the new text.

Deleted from earlier texts was the right to "seizure and disposal" of illegal arms in violation of earlier agreements. Now the new force is to "monitor" such weapons.

Specifically, the text would authorize no more than 19,555 military personnel and 6,432 civilian police.

The resolution calls on member states to finalize their contributions to the new force, called UNAMID or the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, within 90 days. UNAMID would incorporate the under-equipped and under-financed 7,000 Africa Union troops now in Darfur.

Sudan, after months of hesitation, has agreed to the troop numbers but U.N. officials expect it will take a year to get the force in place. Khartoum also has to agree to allow units from individual countries into Sudan.

Infantry soldiers will be drawn mainly from African nations unless not enough Africans can be recruited. Personnel from elsewhere in the world are expected to be used for specialized engineering and in command headquarters. The United States is restricting its contribution to transporting troops to Darfur and helping to pay for the operation.

The new headquarters should be running by October 31, so U.N. members could cover costs for the African Union, as the United States had proposed.

The timetable is then staggered so the combined force will be in charge of all operations by December 31.

The new text also eliminates a specific reference to the Janjaweed, a brutal pro-Khartoum militia, blamed for rape, murder and burning villages.

The draft resolution asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the council every 30 days on implementation of the resolution and progress on a political settlement. The United Nations and the AU are attempting to organize a peace conference among a myriad of rebel groups and the government.

Darfur: UN Resolution Nears Vote

From Reuters

The U.N. Security Council reached broad agreement on a draft resolution to authorize up to 26,000 troops and police for Sudan's Darfur region, with a vote anticipated this week.

Britain and France distributed a fourth revised text late on Monday to be sent to governments of the 15 council members. A vote could be held as early as Tuesday or Wednesday on a combined or "hybrid" United Nations-African Union force, diplomats said.

In remarks prepared for a Tuesday morning speech at the United Nations, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he hoped the resolution would be adopted later in the day.

"We will work hard to deploy this force quickly ... but we must be clear: if any party blocks progress and the killings continue, I and others will redouble our efforts to impose further sanctions," Brown said.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died over the last four years.

Parts of the resolution are under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory. This includes taking "necessary action," a euphemism for the use of force, in self-defense of UN-AU personnel, to ensure freedom of movement of humanitarian workers as well as to protect civilians "under threat of violence without prejudice to the government's responsibilities."

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, who had qualms about the use of force in Chapter 7, said now this provision was needed but "we have to be precise and very careful where it is applied." He said Beijing generally approved the new text.

Sponsors of the draft, Britain and France, spoke to Sudanese diplomats about the draft to get agreement from Khartoum. Deleted from earlier texts was the right to "seizure and disposal" of illegal arms in violation of earlier agreements. Now the new force is to "monitor" such weapons.

Specifically, the text would authorize no more than 19,555 military personnel and 6,432 civilian police.

The resolution calls on member states to finalize their contributions to the new force, called UNAMID or the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, within 90 days. UNAMID would incorporate the under-equipped and under-financed 7,000 Africa Union troops now in Darfur.

Sudan, after months of hesitation, has agreed to the troop numbers but U.N. officials expect it will take a year to get the force in place. Khartoum also has to agree to allow individual units into the country.

Infantry soldiers will be drawn mainly from African nations unless not enough Africans can be recruited. Personnel from elsewhere in the world are expected to be used for specialized engineering and in command headquarters. The United States is restricting its contribution to transporting troops to Darfur and helping to pay for the operation.

The initial operational capability for the new headquarters is now Oct. 31, so that U.N. members could cover costs for the African Union, as the United States had proposed.

The timetable is then staggered so that the combined force, will be in charge of all operations by Dec. 31.

The new text also eliminates a specific reference to the Janjaweed, a brutal pro-Khartoum militia, blamed for rape, murder and burning villages.

The draft resolution asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the council every 30 days on implementation of the resolution and progress on a political settlement. The United Nations and the AU are attempting to organize a peace conference among a myriad of rebel groups and the government.

From the AP

Britain and France have stripped more harsh language from a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would authorize a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur in an attempt to win passage for the proposal this week.

The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, is the third revision of the proposal by the co-sponsors this month.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Security Council members were working to finalize the document so it could be brought to a vote in the next couple of days.

"We are very close and our expectation is to finalize the resolution in the next 24 hours," he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The draft calls for the deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union force to try to stop the fighting between ethnic African rebels and pro-government janjaweed militia in the Sudanese region. The violence has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since 2003.

The "hybrid" force would replace the poorly equipped AU force of 7,000 now in Darfur.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, reacted harshly to a version of the draft that circulated at U.N. headquarters last week, calling it "ugly" and "awful."

On Monday, however, Abdalhaleem declined to comment on the latest revised proposal, which was circulated to Security Council members over the weekend. "The consultations are at a sensitive stage," he said.

The latest draft removes a specific mention of ongoing attacks by government forces and janjaweed militiamen against civilians and humanitarian workers in Darfur and drops a strongly worded condemnation of "continued violations" of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

It also scales back the peacekeeping force's mandate slightly, removing a section permitting the troops to "take all necessary action" to monitor arms violations in the desert region under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 deals with threats to peace and security and can be enforced through measures ranging from breaking diplomatic and trade relations to military intervention.

The resolution still allows the force to take action under Chapter 7 to protect its personnel, humanitarian workers and civilians from attacks _ a core element that Khalilzad said last week the co-sponsors were not willing to compromise on.

The conflict in Darfur began in February 2003 when ethnic African tribes rebelled against what they consider decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government. In May 2006, the government signed the Darfur Peace Agreement with one of the rebel groups, but the U.N. and international observers say violence has continued.

The U.N. and Western governments have pressed Sudan since November to accept a U.N. plan for a joint force. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed in April to a "heavy support package" to strengthen the AU force, including 3,000 U.N. troops, police and civilian personnel along with aircraft and other equipment.

The new draft lays the groundwork for the deployment of the much larger 26,000-strong hybrid force, which will be called UNAMID.

The force will have up to 19,555 military personnel, including 360 military observers and liaison officers, a civilian component including up to 3,772 international police, and 19 special police units with up to 2,660 officers.

The draft calls on UNAMID to start taking over command of the joint U.N.-AU forces in Darfur by October, with complete control to be shifted by December.

China, which imports two-thirds of Sudan's oil and has opposed sanctions against the country in the past, praised the revised proposal Monday. It is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council that can veto resolutions.

"There have been a lot of improvements on the original draft," Chinese U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said. "We all want to work on this resolution to make it a good resolution."

Darfur: Dozens Killed in Clash

From AFP

At least 34 people have been killed in latest clashes between rival Arab tribes in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur, a tribal chief said on today.

"These clashes, coming just after the ones from last week, killed 34 and wounded 38 of our people," Mohammed Hammad Jalabi, chief of the Torjum tribe, told AFP by telephone from the provincial capital of Nyala.

He said that the rival Rzigat Aballa tribe, with which the Torjam have been clashing for months, attacked his tribal lands west of Nyala from four directions and fighting lasted much of the day before the army intervened.

There were no estimates to the number of Aballa dead.

On July 25, Sudanese papers reported that another 16 people died in clashes between the two tribes when Aballa men fell on a band of Torjum, killing nine.

The tribes, at odds over grazing rights and livestock raiding, have violated a February truce seven times, most dramatically in April when Rzigat tribesmen killed 62 Torjam in their villages.

Darfur: Activists Ask Bashir to Release Suleiman Jamous

From Reuters

Eleven prominent international activists have sent an open letter to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir requesting the release of Darfur rebel Suleiman Jamous, who some see as critical to Darfur peace efforts.

Jamous, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) humanitarian coordinator, has been virtually imprisoned for 13 months and is in urgent need of medical attention.

Jamous was the main liaison between the world's largest aid operation in Darfur and rebels, keeping looting of aid convoys down and humanitarian workers safe.

Khartoum has called Jamous a "terrorist" and said he should be arrested.

Last year the United Nations removed the elderly Jamous from Darfur to a U.N. hospital in neighbouring South Kordofan, without informing the government. Jamous needs a stomach biopsy which he cannot be performed in South Kordofan.

The letter to Bashir requesting his freedom be guaranteed without fear of arrest was dated July 30.

Among the 11 signatories were South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, International Centre for Transitional Justice President Juan Mendez, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams.

"In our different capacities, we have come to know and respect Suleiman for his humanitarian work in Darfur and his commitment to the well-being of the people of Sudan," the letter said.

"He exemplified the best tradition of civic activism in Sudan including personal piety and self-sacrifice in the cause of providing essential assistance to those in need."

Banditry and attacks have forced some aid agencies to leave parts of Darfur and others to reduce their operations.

A senior SLA Darfur rebel commander, Abdallah Yehia, has listed Jamous as a member of his delegation to attend a meeting in Tanzania this week organised by the United Nations and the African Union to prepare for peace talks with the Sudanese government.

Only one of three rebel negotiating groups signed a peace deal in Nigeria last year. Since the deal the non-signatories have split into more than a dozen factions.

"Suleiman Jamous is critical to the success of these talks and to rebel unity," U.S.-based Sudan expert and activist Eric Reeves told Reuters last week.

U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim hope to at least get a unified position from the fractured rebels in a Aug. 3-5 meeting in Arusha, Tanzania.

Darfur: US Lawmakers to Step Up Economic Pressure on Sudan

From VOA

The House of Representatives is poised to approve legislation aimed at stepping up economic pressure on the government of Sudan because of the situation in Darfur. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill that the vote is expected Tuesday.

House lawmakers designed the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act to support the widening grassroots movement in the United States for states, cities and universities and mutual and pension funds to divest from or restrict investments in companies doing business in Sudan.

California Democrat Barbara Lee is the bill's main sponsor and notes that, so far, 19 U.S. states, nine cities, and 54 universities have approved divestment measures.

"Throughout our country, our constituents are standing up and demanding that their hard-earned money not be used to support a pariah government that is killing its own people," she said.

Under the legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission would compile a list of companies lon the New York Stock Exchange with ties to Khartoum, prohibit them from receiving federal contracts, and make it legal to divest from such companies, removing the threat of lawsuits in the case of pension and other fund managers.

House financial services committee chairman Congressman Barney Frank says the Darfur measure, and a similar one for Iran, does not compel divestment.

"What these bills do is to make it clear, as I think they will once they become law, that the opposition to the genocide in Sudan, to the nuclearization, the weapons nuclearization in Iran, are widespread throughout this country," he said.

Among provisions, companies involved in Sudan would disclose the nature of their operations. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), an arm of Congress, would investigate any Sudan investments by the Thrift Investment Board, which oversees the federal employee retirement fund.

Companies would have to disclose activities with Sudan government or government-controlled entities, investments in military equipment sales or oil-related activities.

Geographic exceptions are made for southern Sudan, providing humanitarian relief for people in Darfur, implementing the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement, and providing military and other equipment for African Union peacekeepers or the United Nations and non-government organizations.

Republicans usually skeptical about the effectiveness of sanctions supported the measure.

"Closing our financial markets to those who particularly directly or indirectly engage in the slaughter of innocent human beings is well within our ability and ought to be the bedrock of our principles," said Congressman Scott Garrett.

Congressman Frank Wolf has been the most outspoken House Republican on Darfur.

"Many states have been reluctant, they have looked for excuses," he said. "Now, this legislation takes away all the excuses."

Republicans insisted on language calling for other governments to adopt similar measures.

The bill gives the U.S. president power to waive provisions on a case by case basis in the interest of U.S. national security.

Bipartisan divestment legislation regarding Darfur is also pending in the Senate, where a measure proposes to identify securities companies with more than one million dollars invested in Sudan's petroleum industry.

So far this year, House lawmakers have also approved other measures urging China, and the Arab League, to use their influence with the Khartoum government to help stop genocide and violence in Darfur, and providing funds to help Darfur refugees living in camps in Chad.

Darfur: U.S. Congressman Calls for China Olympics Boycott Over Weapons

From VOA

Visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that he and President Bush will step up pressure to end violence in Sudan's Darfur province. Brown, who and President Bush wrapped up two days of talks Monday in the United States, said they agreed to expedite the UN resolution for a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur.

Congressman Donald Payne is chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. He told VOA he hopes the new breed of European leaders would force the United States to do more about Darfur.

“I hope that the new prime minister of Great Britain and the new president in France have both taken a very strong interest, and this is a good sign, if we could get the Europeans more engaged to put pressure on and push our government. The members of Congress want to go further, but we’ve seen the administration sort of slow down once again because Sudan is supposed to be assisting us against al-Qaeda, they claim,” he said.

Congressman Payne said the United States was once again looking the other way while thousands continue to die in Darfur.

“Once again, we are looking the other way as people die because one issue is supposed to be paramount to this so-called war on terror. We cannot compromise all the principles for people we consider to be our allies because they say they support the war on terror,” Payne said

Congressman Payne called for a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics if China does not stop selling what he called illegal arms to Sudan.

“We must keep the pressure on China. I’d like to even see, if they continue to sell illegal arms to the government, that we should have a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing in ’08. It would be the blood Olympics, and we can’t let them have it both ways,” Payne said.

Darfur: Child Malnutrition Above Emergency Levels

From Reuters

Malnutrition rates for young children have risen above emergency levels in West Darfur's capital el-Geneina and the surrounding camps, a preliminary survey by Irish aid agency Concern said.

The emergency threshold for Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) is 15 percent but the Concern survey in the el-Geneina area of western Sudan found the rate among children under 5-years old to be more than two percentage points above that.

Concern Country Director Janu Rao told Reuters on Tuesday immediate action was needed to prevent a worsening of the Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).

"The results reveal an increase in moderate malnutrition amongst the under-5 population with a GAM of 17.4 percent and SAM of 1.4 percent," the preliminary report said.

In 2006, 12.3 percent of children under 5 were moderately malnourished, it added.

"This result is alarming as this survey comes at the start of the traditional 'hunger gap', with harvests not due until October/November," the report said.

About 94,000 Darfuris live in camps surrounding el-Geneina town. They fled the rape, pillage and murder that began when Sudan's government countered a rebel uprising in early 2003.

While 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes to miserable camps, the world's largest aid operation helps some 4.2 million overall, including those who remained in remote villages but are cut off from normal life and their livelihoods.

Almost 13,000 humanitarian workers providing relief in difficult and dangerous conditions have brought the crisis under control and below emergency levels.

Rao, whose aid agency Concern has worked in Darfur since 2002, said the rise in the malnutrition rate is due in part to a World Food Programme policy focusing food aid on camp residents, while people in towns who cannot afford to buy supplies at the market go without.

"It's very hard to determine who is a host and who is an IDP (internally displaced person)," Rao told Reuters. "Geneina is a big town."

He also blamed increasingly dirty drinking water which has caused diarrhoea for the rise in malnutrition.

Experts estimate 200,000 have died of violence and disease in Darfur since the conflict began. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000 and almost daily state-owned media is reporting that 30 or even 40 percent of Darfuris in camps are going back home.

The government has said refugee numbers in Darfur are inflated because people are attracted to free aid in the camps.

Darfur: UK and France Modify U.N. Resolution

From Reuters

Britain and France have modified a U.N. resolution authorizing up to 26,000 troops and police in Darfur by narrowing the scope of where force can be used and dropping some language offensive to Sudan.

The draft, the third one this month, obtained by Reuters on Monday and distributed to U.N. Security Council members over the weekend, is expected to be adopted this week, but further changes are possible.

"We are very close and our expectation is to finalize the text in the next 24 hours," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said after council consultations. But he said some discussions were still needed before a vote could be called.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion (988.2 million pounds) in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died.

The draft leaves intact a tough mandate, Sudan's biggest complaint, that would allow the use of force to ensure the security and movement of the mission's personnel and humanitarian workers and "to protect civilians under threat of physical violence."

Parts of the resolution are under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory. It would allow the mission "to use necessary means," a euphemism for a use of force, "as it deems within its capabilities." The previous draft had called for "all necessary means," but the meaning remains the same, diplomats said.

Deleted from the Chapter 7 section and put elsewhere in the text is the monitoring of arms in Sudan in violation of the peace agreement, which indicates force cannot be used.

China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya, whose country has oil investments in Sudan, said that "under certain circumstances Chapter 7 is needed" but "we have to be precise and very careful where it is applied." He said there were improvements in the draft but others were still necessary.

Unlike earlier comments from Sudan, Wang, however, did not call for the elimination of Chapter 7 in the text.

The new draft text also sets a series of target dates for a transfer of authority from the African Union to a combined AU-UN force that would operate in Sudan's Darfur region, although full deployment is expected to take a year.

Most of the infantry troops are expected to be from Africa, absorbing the 7,000 AU contingent now in Darfur.

The initial operational capability for the new headquarters is now October 31, so that U.N. members could cover costs for the African Union, as the United States had proposed.

The timetable is then staggered so that the combined force, called UNAMID, the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, will be in charge of all operations by December 31.

The new text also deletes the word "condemns," such as in continued violations of peace accords. It eliminates a specific reference to the Janjaweed, a brutal pro-Khartoum militia, blamed for rape, murder and burning villages.

An earlier text deleted a provision on a threat of "further measures," a code word for sanctions, against rebels or the government if they obstruct a peace process.

Specifically, the text would authorize up to 19,555 military personnel and 6,400 civilian police. It calls on member states to "finalize" their contributions within 90 days of adoption. Sudan has agreed to the troop numbers.

Darfur: Sudan Sought Al-Qaeda’s Help to Fight Peacekeepers

From the Sudan Tribune

The Sudanese government decided to lift restrictions on Al-Qaeda members in the country in return for their help in fighting peacekeepers in Darfur.

The classified document sent to Sudan Tribune by a group named Kosh Liberation Movement (KLM) was dated April 27, 2004 and signed by senior members of Sudan’s presidency, ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the army.

One of the signatories was Sudan’s presidential adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa who was killed in a car accident last month signing on behalf of the NCP.

The authenticity of the document could not be independently verified.

Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan for several years in the early 1990s.

The document requests all government agencies to allow “foreign Jihadis who came to Sudan with Osama Bin Laden in 1994 to resume their political activities in Sudan given the circumstances surrounding foreign intervention in Darfur to support armed forces and the people of Sudan to fight Zionist enemies”.

The decision outlines certain steps to be taken to allow Al-Qaeda to operate in Sudan such as unfreezing their bank accounts and returning all properties confiscated in 1996.

A copy of the order was sent to President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, Head of Security Services and a representative of Al-Qaeda in Sudan.

Last year Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims in a video released on Friday to launch a holy war against proposed U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The Los Angeles Times revealed last month that Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an example of how the U.S. has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its suspected role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.

The U.S.-Sudan relationship goes beyond Iraq. Sudan has helped the United States track the turmoil in Somalia. Sudanese intelligence service has helped the US to attack the Islamic Courts positions in Somalia and to locate Al Qaeda suspects hiding there.

Darfur: Rebel Group JEM Splits Again

From Reuters

Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement has split again, a spokesman said on Monday, ahead of a United Nations and African Union meeting to unite the insurgents before peace talks with the Sudanese government.

Nourein Adam Abdel Gaffa, spokesman for JEM's armed wing, said the group was removing Khalil Ibrahim from his leadership position and wanted members of JEM's army to represent the group at the rebel meeting in Tanzania beginning on Aug. 3.

"We are announcing the removal of Khalil Ibrahim as the leader of the movement," he said.

Abdel Gaffa said Ibrahim had breached the laws governing JEM but did not offer details.

However, Abdel Gaffa is allied with JEM chief of staff Abdallah Abanda Abakr who Ibrahim removed from his position earlier this month, a move Abakr and other commanders rejected.

JEM spokesman Ahmed Adam told Reuters from London that Ibrahim had not been removed and would represent JEM in the Arusha talks in August.

"This is not true. Still Khalil is the chairman of JEM," he said, adding that JEM was trying to resolve any outstanding problems, including confusion over Abakr's role.

The split announced by JEM's armed wing is a blow to the Aug. 3-5 Arusha meeting ahead of peace talks planned by U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim.

One of the biggest obstacles to restarting Darfur peace talks to end the fighting is rebel divisions.

Since a peace deal last year signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions, the non-signatory factions split into more than a dozen groups.

JEM, which along with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), was involved in the 2006 Nigeria talks that produced the peace agreement, is often considered a smaller rebel group.

Sudan expert Eric Reeves said, although JEM had few troops on the ground, they could act as a spoiler to any peace agreement if not represented at the talks.

Abdel Gaffa said on Monday his group was "not committed to any ceasefire agreement".

U.S. envoy Andrew Natsios told reporters in New York that Salim and Eliasson hoped to begin Darfur peace talks in September, although the envoys themselves have been careful not to set a start date.

"By the end of August Jan Eliasson said, and Salim Salim, that they will issue invitations to a formal conference that they expect will begin in September," Natsios said.

He added that broader society in Darfur needed to be included in the talks process to ensure whatever is agreed receives support on the ground.

Last year's unpopular peace deal is rejected by the 2.5 million Darfuris who fled their homes to camps in Darfur and in neighbouring Chad. The African Union, which mediated the deal, was criticised for not publicising it quickly enough.

Darfur: SPLM Secretary General Accuses Khartoum of Genocide

From the Sudan Tribune

A senior official with Sudan’s former southern rebels has accused Khartoum of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the troubled region of Darfur, local press reported on Saturday.

Pagan Amun of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which joined a national unity government after a 2005 peace deal, was speaking on the second anniversary of the death of SPLM leader John Garang, who died in a helicopter crash in Uganda two years ago.

"The government has committed crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and armed tribes against each other in Darfur," Amun said in comments reported in several papers, including the Al-Sahafa independent daily.

His remarks come a day after the UN’s Human Rights Committee (HRC) officially condemned "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur and sharply rebuked Sudan’s government for failing to prosecute militias involved in the killings.

In a report, it said that "widespread and systematic serious human rights violations, including murder, rape, forced displacement and attacks against the civil population, have been and continue to be committed with total impunity throughout Sudan and particularly in Darfur."

Darfur: Brown to Lead Fight

From The Mirror

Gordon Brown will today urge George Bush to back a UN resolution to move troops into Sudan's war-torn Darfur.

He hopes his initiative, to be set out at a White House meeting, will help stop the slaughter which has left up to 250,000 dead, two million homeless and four million on food aid.

Mr Brown also hopes that in the wake of the Iraq fiasco it will show how the US-UK relationship can be a force for international good.

Under the UN plan a 19,000-strong force of African and troops from other UN countries will try to stop Arab Janjaweed militia launching brutal raids on the people of Darfur.

A separate EU force will go to neighbouring Chad to stop the conflict spilling over.

The resolution will also authorize sanctions against Sudan, believed to be sponsoring the conflict. But the UN will offer vital cash aid if Sudan plays ball. Few troops are likely to come from Britain because of commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the UK could supply back-up.

Mr Brown arrived in the US yesterday and promptly travelled to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, where Mr Bush treated him to a ride in a golf buggy.

But as the two men smiled together there was speculation over Britain's future dealings with the US.

Mr Brown is expected to hit Mr Bush with uncomfortable truths. Americans are braced to hear Britain will pull its 5,000 troops out of Iraq by Christmas.

There are White House fears that the friendship will cool.

But Mr Brown insisted: "It is in the British interest to have a strong relationship with the US."

CAR: Caught in Deadly Crossfire

From BBC

In the village of Nanabaria not a single house has been spared. Seven hundred people lived here until October last year.

That was before their mud and brick homes were burnt to the ground, when members of the elite Presidential Guard arrived one morning with guns and mortars.

The soldiers were on a mission to hunt down rebels from the APRD, the insurgents in the north-west who have laid siege to the main town of Paoua at least twice in the past 18 months.

The military claimed civilians in Nanabaria were giving the rebels refuge. Many villagers deny this.

"My house was the first to be burnt down," explained Janvier Zolo, a minister at the village church, which is now little more than a charred shell.

He says only a quarter of the population in this part of the country voted for President Francois Bozize in the 2005 elections, but insists: "It doesn't mean we are rebels - we respect the choice of President Bozize."

Since the attack, human rights organisations have slated the military for using excessive force and perpetuating human rights violations in a country where acts of violence have gone largely unreported.

An estimated 212,000 people have been displaced by fighting in a country that has seen four coups in the past decade.

A further 70,000 have crossed the border to seek refuge in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.

The same size as France but with a population of just four million, CAR is in many ways still a French colony. It also increasingly finds itself entangled in the troubles in neighbouring Chad and Sudan.

The French supported President Bozize when he seized power in 2003 and then again when he was elected leader two years later.

"Nothing happens here without the approval of Paris," claimed one individual who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

The recent intervention of French troops to quell insurgent attacks on Birao, near the Sudanese border, appears to bear this out.

Uganda: Rebels Want $2m For Talks

From BBC

Uganda's rebels are demanding $2m from donors, or they say they will not return to peace talks in South Sudan.

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) technical adviser David Nyekorach told the BBC the money was needed for consultations with its various groups.

Talks between the Ugandan government and the LRA rebels were expected to resume this week.

Some 2m people have fled their homes and thousands of children have been abducted during the 20-year conflict

In January, the LRA refused to resume talks after Sudan's president accused them of committing atrocities in South Sudan and threatened to evict them.

They however returned following a meeting between UN peace envoy Joachim Chissano and LRA leader Joseph Kony.

Mr Nyekorach said their technical team has been unable to travel to the affected areas to solicit the views of its people due to lack of funding.

"The talks are on course but we cannot return to the table without suggestions from the people, so this money is important," Mr Nyekorach told the BBC.

He said donors had failed to pay the money they had promised.

Uganda's government has also indicated that it is not ready to resume talks aimed at achieving peace in the north of the country.

Mr Nyekorach said they hope that the funding would be released to enable the peace talks to resume at the end of August.

LRA leader Joseph Kony and three of his top commanders are wanted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court and have indicated that no deal will be signed while the warrants for their arrest are still in place.

But last month, the two sides agreed to use Ugandan justice to address human rights abuses.

Darfur: Sudan Officially Rejects Revised UN Resolution

From the Sudan Tribune - thanks to Start Loving for the head's up

The Sudanese government officially informed members of the UN Security Council that it rejected any reference to Chapter Seven in a resolution for the Darfur peacekeeping force.

An unidentified Sudanese official speaking to Al-Hayat newspaper published in London said that his government rejects any mandate for the peacekeepers enabling it to use force in the areas they are deployed.

The U.K. and France dropped a threat of sanctions against Sudan in the revised U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution that would authorize an expanded peacekeeping force in Darfur.

The Sudanese government main objection is the mandate allowing the force to “use all necessary means” to protect civilians. Khartoum also rejects any resolution under Chapter VII of the UN charter

Earlier Sudan’s presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail told BBC Arabic service that the revised UN text is a replication of resolution 1706 issued last year and was rejected by Khartoum.

Ismail said that Sudan wants to limit the mandate of the peacekeeping force to protect its own members. He accused US and Britain of attempting to escalate the Darfur issue to cover up for their mistakes in Iraq.

Diplomats told AFP China, Qatar and Indonesia were pushing for softer language on the use of Chapter Seven.

However the African bloc support the inclusion of Chapter Seven to protect their troops should they decide to send forces to Darfur.

Darfur: On the Resolution Currently Before the UN Security Council

The latest from Eric Reeves - Reeves was also the guest on a recent Committee on Conscience podcast that I had forgotten to link to

A chronology of international responses to the Darfur genocide over the past year provides a deeply dispiriting time-line, and suggests how unlikely it is that security for civilians and humanitarians will improve any time soon. Despite current debate in the UN Security Council over a resolution that would authorize, under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, deployment of the so-called UN/African Union “hybrid force,” there are few reasons to believe that Khartoum will actually allow this force to deploy in effective form, or in any remotely appropriate time-frame. The backdrop for current debate continues to be massive human suffering, destruction, displacement, and insecurity on the ground in Darfur (an overview the most recent reports appears below). Despite upticks in international sound and fury, there is too much evidence that they signify nothing.

The critical voice at this juncture, dismayingly, belongs to China---a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, and longtime enabling partner of the Khartoum regime. Last August, in a highly significant and revealing moment, Beijing ordered its UN ambassador to abstain on the crucial vote for UN Security Council Resolution 1706; and even this abstention (as opposed to a veto) was secured from China only by including language in the Resolution that “invited the consent” of Khartoum’s génocidaires for the UN-authorized force. The “invitation” was resolutely refused and no movement was made toward deploying the 22,500 civilian police and troops authorized by Security Council Resolution 1706 under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which confers enforcement authority. The mandate of the force was to have been civilian protection, protection of humanitarian personnel and operations, and to staunch the flow of genocidal violence from Darfur into eastern Chad and Central African Republic, countries now experiencing a tremendous increase in ethnic violence and displacement.

In recent months pressure has mounted on the Chinese government over its relationship with Khartoum, as advocacy efforts have linked ever more forcefully Beijing’s complicity in the Darfur genocide and China’s hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The key question, however, is whether this pressure is now great enough to secure from the Chinese government support for Chapter 7 authority in the current resolution, which is critical to the effectiveness of the deploying “hybrid force” of African Union and UN personnel, some 26,000 troops and civilian police. Again, Chapter 7 would confer enforcement authority, and is essential for both self-protection and the protection of civilians and humanitarians in violence-wracked Darfur. Potential troop- and police-contributing nations will not send their personnel into such an extremely dangerous environment without Chapter 7 authority and robust rules of engagement.

Public support from China on this linchpin issue of force mandate would have been a welcome sign that Beijing is beginning to understand the obligations that come with hosting the Olympics. Conversely, Beijing’s reported efforts to strip Chapter 7 authority from the draft resolution suggest that what we have seen to date is merely an ambitious diplomatic public relations effort around Darfur. China’s ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, declared yesterday (July 26, 2007) that even the revised draft of the resolution still presents problems. Agence France-Presse reports from the UN (New York):

“Wang stressed that some members still had problems with the draft, particularly the reference to Chapter 7 of the UN charter, used in cases of threats to international peace and security and to reinforce the mandatory nature of the text. [ ] ‘It is the view of many members that there is no need to bring other unnecessary elements into this resolution which might in a way delay the process, Wang said, stressing the need to keep the focus on authorizing the deployment of a 26,000-strong AU-UN force to be known as UNAMID in strife-torn Darfur. ‘Chapter 7 is a sensitive element in the current draft resolution and we have to be very careful how to handle that particular portion of the text which is under Chapter 7,’ Wang said, taking note of objections raised by Sudan, a close ally and energy supplier of Beijing.” (AFP, July 26, 2007)

More bluntly, Reuters reports from Beijing (July 27, 2007), citing “a Western official familiar with negotiations,” “that China had objected to having Chapter 7 in the resolution.”

But Chapter 7 authority for a Darfur peace support operation is the opposite of what Ambassador Wang suggests is an “unnecessary element”; on the contrary, such authority is of fundamental importance to the viability of the mission. China’s language concerning Chapter 7 authority would seem to be laying the groundwork for an abstention, even a possible veto of the resolution that formalizes a force to which Khartoum nominally gave “unconditional” acceptance on June 17, 2007.

This has become the defining moment for Beijing, particularly given China’s past record at the UN and its harsh words about Chapter 7 authority on the occasion of other Darfur-related resolutions. There is little that does more to explain Khartoum’s obdurate defiance of international efforts in the past, or to explain the recent history of human suffering and destruction in Darfur. China’s refusal to accept Chapter 7 authority for the proposed “hybrid force” to Darfur could mark the demise of any meaningful effort to improve security in the region.

Darfur: AU Shaken by Rebel Threats

From AFP - via POTP

The African Union said Friday it had received unspecified threats from a rebel faction against its peacekeeping mission in Sudan's powderkeg region of Darfur.

The AU said Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement representatives working with the peacekeepers had threatened the mission after a slash of rebel allowances due to cash shortfalls.

It said it "regrets that at a time when efforts are being made to re-energize the political process, elements within the SLA/M are making threats against those charged with maintaining peace in Darfur."

"The AU takes the threat seriously and wishes to stress that it would hold accountable any of the movements for any such action being contemplated now or taken at any time in the future," it said in a statement.

Rebels have killed several AU peacekeepers in Darfur, a western region the size of France that has been a theatre of a conflict that has destabilised the region.

Darfur: Britain, France Demand 'Full Ceasefire'

From AFX

Britain and France today jointly demanded that both the Sudanese government and rebels in Darfur hold a 'full ceasefire' to show their commitment to a political solution.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner reconfirmed their full support for the African Union and United Nations-led political process for Darfur, the troubled western region of Sudan.

'We join other members of the international community in calling on all invited participants to attend the meeting in Arusha (Tanzania) called by the AU and UN special envoys on August 3-5,' the pair said in a communique issued in London and Paris.

'Non-attendance would signal an unwillingness to resolve the suffering in Darfur and would impede the political process.

'Both our governments are working hard in New York to achieve rapid endorsement of the AU-UN hybrid peacekeeping force to ensure its early deployment.

'We appeal to the government of Sudan and rebels to show their commitment to the political process by ceasing all hostilities and committing to a full ceasefire.

'We call on all parties to honour the commitments they made in Tripoli' on July 16, when efforts to end the four-year conlict by paving the way for new talks between Khartoum and fragmented rebel groups took a step forward.

'The UK and France look forward to a sustained and inclusive peace deal that brings lasting benefits to the people of Darfur, and those in surrounding regions, who have suffered for too long,' the statement added.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged at their Paris meeting last week to join forces on Darfur in their attempts to resolve the unrest.

The UN's Human Rights Committee issued a sharp rebuke to Sudan's government today, saying it had failed to prosecute 'militias that engage in ethnic cleansing' in Darfur.

Chad/Darfur: 'No Hopes for Us'

An op-ed by Mia Farrow in the Wall Street Journal

If we hear of eastern Chad at all, it is as a spillover of the genocidal slaughter in Darfur. But this swath of land along Darfur's border has become a full-scale catastrophe in its own right, and it is without the immense and effective humanitarian infrastructure which is sustaining millions of lives in Darfur.

When I first came here in November 2006, I met Abdullah Idris Zaid, who was lying in the tiny Goz Beida hospital. It was a terrible month in eastern Chad. The Janjaweed, Darfur's government-backed Arab militias, joined with Chadian Arab tribes on a rampage of destruction; 60 villages were burned and scores of people were killed, raped, and mutilated. Mr. Zaid's eyes were gouged out by Janjaweed knives.

This month I found him in the Gouroukoum camp for displaced people. He is 27 years old, a husband and a father. His 4-year-old daughter Boushra led him to the mat outside his hut and gently placed a cup of water in his hands. He told me that this is the third place they have sought refuge, and still he does not feel safe.

"They will come again," said Mr. Zaid. "They said, 'we do not want you black people here.' The Janjaweed come from Sudan. If the United Nations does not send troops into Sudan and stop them, then they will return."

Eastern Chad has been plunged into chaos and lawlessness. In border towns, pick-up trucks outfitted with machine guns and loaded with armed, uniformed men careen through the dusty streets. No one knows who they are: the army, Chadian rebels, bandits? It makes little difference to the victims of the escalating violence. For about $5 (U.S.), anyone can get a uniform in the marketplace. As I passed through the town of Abeche, a U.N. refugee agency guard was murdered and two staffers severely wounded. About 100 humanitarian vehicles have been highjacked in the last year; aid workers have been robbed, beaten, abducted and killed.

Eight months ago, 40,000 Chadians had been displaced by Janjaweed attacks. Today the number is 175,000 and rising. People have fled from their burning villages and the fields that sustained them to squalid camps across eastern Chad. "Mortality rates of children under five are double what is accepted as the threshold for an emergency," says Johanne Sekkenes, a Doctors Without Borders program director. "The situation here is massively deteriorating. The needs are huge. Assistance has been too little, and it comes too late."

There have been years of debate as to how the tide of violence engulfing the region can be stemmed. Until recently, the excuse for inaction was the steadfast resistance of the Sudanese government to U.N. peacekeeping presence. Sudan's recent consent to a limited force under African Union command comes in the wake of countless broken promises and falls far short of what is needed. Nonetheless, it leaves the onus squarely on other countries that have the power to contribute troops, but lack the political will to do so.

And so the cacophony of voices continues, deliberating as to whether and how a force should be dispatched, and who should contribute the resources and troops. No one seems to be listening to the most important voice of all -- that of the people of Darfur and eastern Chad, ringing loud and clear from refugee camps across the region.

Oumda al Fatih, is the leader of 20,000 Darfurians at Goz Amir refugee camp. Between the camp and the Darfur border there is nothing but the ashes of destroyed villages. "Twice, Janjaweed from Sudan came here and attacked us," he told me. The refugees had fled these attackers before, but now they were far from home. With no idea where to find water in the unfamiliar desert, they did not even try to run. "We sat on the ground and we held our children and waited for two days. And we were thinking, 'No hopes for us. No hopes for us.'

"We are the ones being killed, tortured and raped. We are the ones who have lost everything. We are refugees with no freedom, no rights, not enough food, no fields; we are living in terror. We accept the U.N. troops. We are asking for help."

This is the voice of the people of Darfur and eastern Chad. It calls urgently for an international force with the resources and mandate necessary to protect defenseless civilians and the aid workers who are struggling to sustain them. These desperate pleas are what we should be hearing and responding to -- urgently.

Darfur: UN Condemns 'Ethnic Cleansing'

From AFP

The UN's Human Rights Committee (HRC) condemned Friday the "militias that engage in ethnic cleansing" in Darfur with impunity from prosecution by Khartoum.

In a report, it said that "widespread and systematic serious human rights violations, including murder, rape, forced displacement and attacks against the civil population, have been and continue to be committed with total impunity throughout Sudan and particularly in Darfur".

The HRC called on the Khartoum government to "ensure that no financial support or materiel is channelled to militias that engage in ethnic cleansing or the deliberate targeting of civilians".

The committee is made up of 18 independent experts and is charged with overseeing implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a key element of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

It is different from the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is made up of representatives of member states.

[edit]

The committee, which interviewed Sudanese representatives, noted the lack of prosecutions by the Sudanese government.

"It is particularly concerned at the immunity provided for in Sudanese law and untransparent procedure for waiving immunity in the event of criminal proceedings against State agents".

"It also notes that the state party has provided few examples of serious crimes that have been prosecuted and punished, whether by criminal courts or courts set up to investigate violations in Darfur".

It said it "remains concerned with respect to the state party’s ability to prosecute and punish war crimes or crimes against humanity committed in Darfur".

Rafael Rivas-Posada, the committee’s president, told reporters co-operation with international investigations was lacking.

"Some topics are alarming: the cases of certain individuals that have been accused before the international tribunals and up to now Sudan has not accepted to comply with that request," he said.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council sought to iron out remaining sticking points in order to reach consensus on a draft resolution authorising a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping in Darfur.

Meanwhile, the African Union has urged Darfur’s disparate rebel factions to attend an upcoming meeting in Tanzania to find a common position and prepare for peace talks with Sudan’s government.

Key mediators and rebel groups are due to meet in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha for three days starting on August 3 to pave the way for widened peace talks with the Sudanese government.

From Reuters

The United Nations Human Rights Committee called on Sudan on Friday to prosecute war crimes committed in Darfur and to ensure that no support is given to militias that engage in "ethnic cleansing".

The body of 18 independent experts voiced concern that Sudan had not carried out any thorough and independent probe into serious human rights violations in the country, especially in the western region of Darfur.

Its conclusions on the records of three countries including Sudan were issued after a three-week meeting in Geneva.

Darfur: Frantic Efforts to Iron Out Differences on UN Resolution

From AFP - via POTP

The UN Security Council sought Thursday to iron out remaining sticking points in order to reach consensus on a draft resolution authorizing joint African Union-UN peacekeeping in Darfur.

China's UN envoy Wang Guangya, the 15-member council chair this month, said input from South Africa, Ghana and Congo had led to an improved draft put forward by France and Britain with US backing Tuesday.

At the urging of the three African council members and to make the text more acceptable to Khartoum, the sponsors of the text dropped an earlier threat of unspecified sanctions against Sudanese parties that fail to fulfill their commitments or cooperate fully with the resolution.

But Wang stressed that some members still had problems with the draft, particularly the reference to Chapter Seven of the UN charter, used in cases of threats to international peace and security and to reinforce the mandatory nature of the text.

Council experts were working frantically to smooth over remaining hurdles and in parallel, the sponsors were also having bilateral discussions with Sudan's UN envoy Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohammad, diplomats said.

"It is the view of many members that there is no need to bring other unnecessary elements into this resolution which might in a way delay the process," Wang said, stressing the need to keep the focus on authorizing the deployment of a 26,000-strong AU-UN force to be known as UNAMID in strife-torn Darfur.

"Chapter Seven is a sensitive element in the current draft resolution and we have to be very careful how to handle that particular portion of the text which is under Chapter Seven," Wang said, taking note of objections raised by Sudan, a close ally and energy supplier of Beijing.

One paragraph of the draft invokes Chapter Seven to state that UNAMID "is authorized to use all necessary means, in the areas of deployment of its forces ... (to) prevent attacks and threats against civilians."

UNAMID would also be able to use force to protect its personnel, ensure security and freedom of movement for humanitarian workers and "monitor whether any arms or related material are present in Darfur" in violation of UN resolutions.

"There's an understanding on the need for Chapter Seven," said an African diplomat on condition of anonymity. "We (African council members) are pushing for it. Our troops are currently in Darfur, our troops have died. We would like a robust mandate for them to protect themselves."

Diplomats said China, Qatar and Indonesia were pushing for softer language on the use of Chapter Seven.

"The idea is to get everybody on board so we can get the Sudanese on board and we can have a smooth deployment," the African diplomat said. "We are very, very close. I am confident that we are going to have something soon, but not this week."

Last June, Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir gave his unconditional approval for the deployment of the joint AU-UN force.

UNAMID would take over peacekeeping, probably early next year, from 7,000 underfunded and ill-equipped AU troops that have failed to stem four years of bloodshed in the western Sudanese region.

From VOA - also via POTP

Britain and France, the co-sponsors of the resolution, say they changed the tone and language of the draft after consultations with the three African members of the Security Council - South Africa, Ghana, and the Republic of Congo.

Those countries, as well as China, opposed a provision that said the Council could take "further measures," a reference to sanctions, if Sudan refuses to comply with an expanded peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

The resolution calls for the deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union force of up to 26,000 troops to stop fighting between African rebels and the pro-government janjaweed militia. More than 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and more than 2 million more have been displaced.

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, said the new draft has greater acceptance in the Council, but negotiations are continuing.

"I understand the experts are still working," he said. "I'm sure that you are aware that when the first draft was introduced, China and a number of others and the Africans were not happy with it. We thought that draft was out of balance. Still, with the help of the Africans, there's a draft that's been improved. But I still think in a number of areas, that members still have difficulties, including China."

China, which has veto power in the Council, imports two-thirds of Sudan's oil and has opposed harsh economic sanctions.

Meantime, the Sudanese government has blasted the revised resolution as "ugly" and "awful."

The United Nations and Western governments have been pressing Sudan since November to accept an expanded U.N. force in Darfur to help bolster the undermanned 7,000 strong African Union force currently in the region.

The United States and western countries have accused Sudan's government of stalling on accepting a resolution, thereby allowing the bloodshed to continue.

Britain and France say they hope to have a vote on the resolution by the end of this month.

Darfur: China Defends Stance as Pressure Grows

From Reuters

China defended its stance on Darfur on Friday and urged patience as Western critics warned that Beijing's reluctance to back stronger action in the troubled Sudanese region could blight Olympic Games goodwill.

China has pressed Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers alongside African Union forces struggling to quell bloodshed in Darfur. Experts estimate that 200,000 people have died and 2.1 million been displaced there by violence involving pro-government Arab militia fighting other ethnic groups.

Western powers have proposed that a draft Security Council resolution endorsing the 26,000-strong "hybrid" force invoke Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which would give authority to use force irrespective of Sudan's views.

After months of negotiations, Sudan agreed to the joint force but has objected to using Chapter 7.

Beijing has been generally reluctant to back U.N. action that would override Sudanese objections, and its envoy on Darfur said coercion "will lead us nowhere".

"China insists on using influence without inferference, and we know respect for all parties is vital to finding a solution," envoy Liu Guijin told the official China Daily.

His words came as a convergence of looming dates threw fresh attention on China's role in Sudan, where it is the biggest foreign investor and buys much of the oil.

He did not comment on the draft resolution, but his comments suggested China was still looking for a compromise that Sudan can accept.

Liu said other parties must "learn to deal with the Sudanese government" as a "legitimate government that deserves respect".

On Aug. 8, Beijing celebrates the one-year countdown to its Olympic Games, which foreign activists have warned they could brand as the "genocide" games unless China uses more leverage to help bring peace to Darfur.

As a permanent member of the Security Council, China has the power to veto resolutions, and this month is also president of the body.

U.S. critics warned China that blocking tougher U.N. provisions could bring a backlash just as country wants a friendly glow on Olympic preparations.

"The moment of truth is at hand," said Eric Reeves of Dream for Darfur, a U.S. group that has often criticised China's stance, in an emailed statement.

"Beijing's actions going forward must be judged in the context of a present decision about Chapter 7 authority."

A Western official familiar with negotiations told Reuters that China had objected to having Chapter 7 in the resolution, as well as a passage saying Sudan had allowed illicit arms to flow to Darfur and not punished killers there.

"I think they would like a very short resolution that authorises the hybrid force and nothing more," said the official by telephone. He requested anonymity citing the sensitivity of negotiations.

"They've wanted to delete Chapter 7 authority for the force, but if it doesn't have that authority it goes in naked."

China's final position remained to be seen, but it had also objected to other proposals of Western powers, including a "unified chain of command" under the United Nations for the joint force, the official said.

"That risks making it difficult to operate. It invites confusion and would give Khartoum much more leverage to pressure the forces," he said.

Film director Steven Spielberg may quit his position as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics if China does not take a harder line over Darfur, ABC News reported, citing his spokesman.

Envoy Liu said critics linking Darfur to the Olympics were ignorant of China's efforts to bring peace.

Darfur: Sudan Accuses CIA of Smuggling Weapons

From the Sudan Tribune

Sudan’s interior minister accused Central Intelligence Agency of smuggling weapons into the troubled region of Darfur.

Interior Minister Zubair Bashir Taha addressing a crowd consisting of youth organizations said that the CIA is seeking to “disrupt the demographics of Darfur”.

The US special envoy to Darfur Andrew Natsios told reporters in Khartoum last week that Arab groups from neighboring countries were resettling in West Darfur and other lands traditionally belonging to local African tribes.

Taha accused the US of being responsible for “prolonging the war in Darfur and the death of thousands of people after the Abuja peace agreement just like they did in Iraq”.

The Los Angeles Times revealed last month that Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an example of how the U.S. has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its suspected role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.

The U.S.-Sudan relationship goes beyond Iraq. Sudan has helped the United States track the turmoil in Somalia. Sudanese intelligence service has helped the US to attack the Islamic Courts positions in Somalia and to locate Al Qaeda suspects hiding there.

Chad: Plea for Displaced Goes Unanswered

From Save the Children

As international donors visit Eastern Chad this week, Save the Children UK is calling on them to deliver vital aid money to the region, where over a quarter of a million children are affected by the current crisis.

In May, the UN appealed for $23 million to meet the needs of an influx of displaced children and their families who had been forced to flee from the conflict that has spilled over into Chad from Darfur. Three months later, only 10% of this money has been delivered.

Representatives from the US-based OFDA, the EC and the French and Dutch governments are currently in Chad and Save the Children UK is urging them to use the visit as an opportunity to make a real difference to the deteriorating situation in the country.

Dominique Porteaud, Emergencies Advisor, said: "Despite increasing needs in Chad, donors have been slow to provide funds for this situation. They must act now and respond to the plea made in May. We need money now to help thousands of children whose lives have been turned upside down by the conflict and who are now living in waterlogged refugee camps, with little shelter or food, poor sanitation and limited access to school."

Save the Children UK is particularly concerned at the lack of money to fund education activities in the camps for displaced people. In a conflict zone education can greatly increase a child's chances of survival. School can give children a safe place to be, teaches them skills to protect themselves and can help them recover from trauma. Education is seen as vital by children and parents living in conflict-affected countries who know that it offers a route out of conflict and poverty. Around 35,000 displaced children are living in camps in Koukou and Dogdore and the vast majority are out of school, in a country where 3 in 4 adults are illiterate. People in displaced communities say that education is one of their top priorities.

Across Eastern Chad, Save the Children is currently reaching 42,000 children but it's own funding needs of £3.2 million are only one third met - and none of this funding has come from institutional donors.

Genocide: How K Street Cashes In

An important article by Michael Crowley in The New Republic [if you want a copy of the full article, just send me an email]

As a rising St. Louis politician in the mid-1970s, Richard Gephardt was among a dynamic group of aldermen dubbed "The Young Turks." So perhaps it's not surprising that, 30 years later, the former Democratic minority leader of the House of Representatives has aged into an Old Turk. This spring, Gephardt has been busy promoting his new favorite cause--not universal health care or Iraq, but the Republic of Turkey, which now pays his lobbying firm, DLA Piper, $100,000 per month for his services. Thus far, Gephardt's achievements have included arranging high-level meetings for Turkish dignitaries, among them one between members of the Turkish parliament and House Democratic leaders James Clyburn and Rahm Emanuel; helping Turkey's U.S. ambassador win an audience with a skeptical Nancy Pelosi; and, finally, circulating a slim paperback volume, titled "An Appeal to Reason," that denies the existence of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

Few people would place the Armenian genocide on their top ten--or even top 1,000--list of the day's pressing issues. In fact, many Americans would likely be at a loss to explain who or what the Armenians are, much less what happened to them 90 years ago. Not so in Washington. For the past several years, U.S. representatives, lobbyists, and foreign emissaries have been locked in a vicious struggle over a resolution in Congress that would officially deem as genocide the massacre of up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish government has fought this effort with the zeal of Ataturk--enlisting a multimillion-dollar brigade of former congressmen and slick flacks, as well as a coterie of American Jews surprisingly willing to downplay talk of genocide. But the Armenian-American community has impressive political clout--enough that a majority of House members have now co-sponsored the resolution. And that means a ferocious final showdown is looming, one so charged that this arcane historical dispute could even interfere with the war in Iraq.

Even more striking than the historic Turkish-Armenian hatred festering in the halls of Congress, however, is the way Washington's political elites are cashing in on it. Take Gephardt. While the Turks and Armenians have a long historical memory, Gephardt has an exceedingly short one. A few years ago, he was a working-class populist who cast himself as a tribune of the underdog--including the Armenians. Back in 1998, Gephardt attended a memorial event hosted by the Armenian National Committee of America at which, according to a spokeswoman for the group, "he spoke about the importance of recognizing the genocide." Two years later, Gephardt was one of three House Democrats who co-signed a letter to thenHouse Speaker Dennis Hastert urging Hastert to schedule an immediate vote on a genocide resolution. "We implore you," the letter read, arguing that Armenian-Americans "have waited long enough for Congress to recognize the horrible genocide." Today, few people are doing more than Gephardt to ensure that the genocide bill goes nowhere.

It's one thing to flip-flop on, say, tax cuts or asbestos reform. But, when it comes to genocide, you would hope for high principle to carry the day. In Washington, however, the Armenian genocide industry is in full bloom. And Dick Gephardt's shilling isn't even the half of it.

Darfur: Spielberg Mulls Quitting Olympics To Pressure Chinese

From ABC News

Steven Spielberg, under pressure from Darfur activists, may quit his post as artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, unless China takes a harder line against Sudan, a representative of the film director tells ABC News.

China, Sudan's largest oil customer and perennial defender, has come under renewed scrutiny in the lead up to the Olympics, as the country juggles its need for cheap energy with its desire to host a trouble-free games.

As celebrities-cum-activists increasingly link the ongoing genocide with China's patronage, some - most notably and vocally, the actress Mia Farrow - have accused Spielberg of complicity, by not using his prominence and position to pressure the Chinese government to change course.

"Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?" Farrow and her son Ronan wrote in a March Wall Street Journal editorial.

In that same piece, "The Genocide Olympics," Farrow compared Spielberg to the Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl whose film "Olympia" was a paean to the 1936 Berlin Games.

"Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games," Farrow wrote.

Days after Farrow's editorial, Spielberg wrote an open letter to Hu Jintao, president of China. "I am writing this letter to you, not as one of the overseas artistic advisors to the Olympic Ceremonies, but as a private citizen who has made a personal commitment to do all I can to oppose genocide. & Accordingly, I add my voice to those who ask that China change its policy toward Sudan and pressure the Sudanese government to accept the entrance of United Nations peacekeepers to protect the victims of genocide in Darfur," Spielberg wrote.

Excluding that letter, Spielberg and his representatives have, until now, been tight-lipped on what additional action the director might take.

"Steven will make a determination in the next few weeks regarding his work with the Chinese. Our main interest is ending the genocide. No one is clear on the best way to do this," Spielberg's spokesman Andy Spahn told ABCNEWS.com.

Spahn said "all options were on the table," including quitting, but much would depend on an anticipated statement on Sudan by the Chinese government expected in the coming days.

"We expect to hear something from the Chinese government sometime soon, very soon. We're pretty far down the road in discussions and then we'll decide if the path is productive or not and then consider other options," Spahn said.

"Steven is one [of] many advisers to the Beijing Games and he is trying to use the games to engage the Chinese on this issue. & We are in the midst of that right now. We're engaged in a little bit of a back-and-forth private dialogue," Spahn said.

Spahn said Spielberg has contributed $1 million to aid groups working in Darfur and was helping to plan the games' opening ceremonies and was not being paid.

Farrow is in France filming a movie and was unavailable for comment.

Recently, however, she told National Public Radio: "From looking so intensely at this it was apparent that there was one thing that China holds more dear than its unfettered access to Sudanese oil and that is its successful staging on the 2008 Olympic Games."

"My intention was never to hurt Steven Spielberg," Farrow told NPR, about her comparing the director of "Schindler's List" with Nazi filmmaker Riefenstahl. "My intention was to move things. Something had to move. He couldn't do that without knowing."

Experts agree that China has put incredible stock in the success of the Olympics and wants nothing to tarnish the games' success.

"It is something of a coming-out party for China as a world power," Nayan Chaya, director of publications at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, told ABCNEWS.com.

"The Olympics is very important to China. They are spending $30 [billion] to $40 billion on the games. It is a major event, necessary for China to claim its role as a world power. Economic reform has been going on since 1985, but the country has been stained by the Tiananmen massacre since '89," Chaya said. "Since then it was banned from certain contact and activities and it hasn't recovered fully its position in the world. China wants to finally put Tiananmen behind it."

Any Chinese policy, Chaya said, will be dictated by three factors: dependence on cheap energy, desire for a trouble-free games and the need to maintain face in the developing world without looking like it is bowing to Western pressure.

"It is a tough choice for the Chinese. On one hand they want it [the Olympics] to be trouble free and they see trouble on the horizon. On the other hand they see the importance of energy security. Thirdly, they're worried about the impact of abandoning Sudan, affecting China's position in developing world."

Several celebrities-turned-activists have pointed their fingers directly at China. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Jerry Weintraub are in the process of creating the foundation Not on Our Watch and have donated $5.5 million raised at premieres of their film "Ocean's 13" to several development agencies working in Darfur.

Though little came from the meeting, Clooney, Cheadle and two U.S. Olympians met with Chinese authorities in December to discuss a shift in Chinese policy on Darfur.

Experts say the actions of individual activists, regardless of their celebrity power, will do little to sway the Chinese.

"Celebrities get attention and those who get attention will be listened to, but individual celebrities can do very little," said William Kirby, a China expert and professor of history at Harvard University.

Pointing to the 1980 Moscow Games and the 1984 Los Angeles Games, Kirby said the Olympics often become a flash point for controversy, but host nations rarely change their foreign policies as a result.

Even if China releases a statement as Spielberg predicts, and even if it does not announce a significant shift in policy, Kirby remains optimistic that the country's policy toward Sudan could change.

"Often the Chinese say one thing and do another. They are more likely to be judgeable by their acts rather than their pronouncements. If you look at their handling of North Korea, despite the rhetoric, their actions spoke louder than their words."

Darfur: Mediators Must Not Forget Rebels in Field

From Reuters

U.N. and African Union Darfur envoys should unite rebel field commanders to avoid infighting and chaos before any peace deal is signed to end the bloodshed, a senior rebel member said on Thursday.

Suleiman Jamous, the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) humanitarian coordinator, added rebel political leaders who lived outside Sudan's war-torn west should hurry to achieve peace and not forget the millions of civilians suffering because of the revolt.

U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim hope to unite rebel factions and agree on a negotiating position and venue in a meeting in Tanzania in August. But Jamous said any deal would be worthless if field commanders were not on board.

"It is better to work towards unity for the SLA at least before ending the peace talks with any sort of agreement," he told Reuters by telephone from a U.N. hospital in South Kordofan, a region that neighbours Darfur.

"It can work simultaneously with the efforts towards the negotiating table but the unification should end before a peace deal is signed."

Dozens of field commanders control the ground in Darfur and have often expressed differences with their political leadership outside the region, who they say do not consult them enough.

During previous talks, the disconnect between the political leaders negotiating and the commanders on the ground hindered discussions on security arrangements because clashes continued.

After a peace deal signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions last year, the rebels fragmented with infighting between signatories and non-signatories.

Jamous warned this would repeat itself if there was no field unity conference.

Jar el-Neby, a senior SLA field commander, also wants U.N. and AU support for unity talks before the meeting in Tanzania.

Previous unity meetings have been spoiled as political leaders outside the region did not attend.

"We should neglect our personal agendas for the agenda of the conflict and how to solve it for the sake of the civilians suffering for our years," Jamous added.

"They need to think of the future of Darfur after the peace -- how we can keep our community together with the killing we created."

Jamous has been virtually imprisoned in the U.N. hospital for 13 months after he was rescued from Darfur in need of urgent medical treatment. Khartoum calls him a "terrorist" and says he will be arrested if he leaves the hospital.

However, he is still in telephone contact with commanders and said if were released he could help unite the field.

Jamous said any new peace talks needed to address the weaknesses of last year's deal, which included the disarmament and reintegration of the Janjaweed militias, mobilised by the government and accused of rape, murder and looting.

"Any kind of presence of armed men in undisciplined ranks is the cause of this conflict and the failure of any peace deal," he said.

He said the international community needed to guarantee the implementation of any agreement, especially dismantling the militias. A U.N.-AU joint force under discussion could play that role.

Jamous coordinated access for the world's largest humanitarian operation to hundreds of thousands in need of aid during the conflict. His work earned him the respect of many groups and kept rebel looting of aid convoys to a minimum.

Darfur: US Wants Earlier Transfer of Force

From Reuters

The United States wants a combined U.N.-African Union force to function in Darfur from October 1, three months earlier than proposed in a draft U.N. resolution, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

"People are dying, there is no reason to wait until December 31st," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Fraser said in an interview with Reuters.

A revised U.N. Security Council resolution drawn up by France and Britain and circulated this week sets a target date of no later than December 31 to transfer authority from the African Union to a combined AU-UN force.

The aim of the hybrid force is to quell violence in Sudan's western region, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died.

Fraser said about 7,000 African troops in Darfur should transfer to the joint force by Oct 1 rather than the target date in the draft resolution, which may be voted on in the coming days.

"They are fully qualified to be the first element of the hybrid force," Fraser said. "We have the forces on the ground, why don't we get started with this?"

She said African capabilities were consistently underestimated and the United Nations did not need to wait for Asian troops to sign on before the handover began.

"Essentially they are saying these African forces are not good enough and that is a huge problem. It is just not correct. I don't know where that prejudice is coming from. These are U.N. qualified troops."

The December 31 date was chosen by the resolution's sponsors after talks with U.N. peacekeeping officials and African Union military commanders and gives a timeline for management structures to be established.

The plan, which Sudan resisted for months, authorizes up to 26,000 troops and police in Darfur, with the bulk of the infantry soldiers coming from Africa but others from Asian nations such as Indonesia and Pakistan.

Fraser said the AU forces currently in Darfur were not being paid and were poorly equipped, problems that could quickly be rectified once the U.N. was on board.

"They are basically sitting ducks in Darfur and I think it is irresponsible not to bring them in early as the first phase of the hybrid."

She said the U.N. could provide planning, support and assistance and basic equipment such as satellite phones that have so far been lacking.

The United States would be the primary financier of the forces. Beyond that, the United States would work with the U.N. to pick up contracts providing housing for forces, she said.

Fraser denied any suggestion that the rush was driven by the U.S. domestic political timetable. U.S. elections take place in 2008 and pressure is mounting on the White House from Evangelicals and other key Republican supporters for whom the violence in Darfur is a major issue.

Fraser said Sudan's government was holding up about $34 million in equipment from reaching AU forces and the government was deeply divided, another reason to push fash on transferring authority.

"It is necessary to move rapidly before the dynamic changes in Sudan," she said.

Darfur: AU Calls All Rebels to Tanzania Talks

From Reuters

An African Union (AU) envoy on Thursday urged all Darfur's rebels to attend a meeting in Tanzania next week aimed at ending chaos in their region.

Salim Ahmed Salim, the AU's special envoy for Darfur, said the Aug. 3-5 conference in Arusha would discuss when and where the rebel groups might hold talks with the Khartoum government, and how to forge a common negotiating position between them.

"We would like everybody big or small to be part of it. We want the agreement to be accepted by all stakeholders," Salim told reporters in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

"The Arusha meeting will be the last before the commencement of the final talks toward resolving the Darfur conflicts."

The meeting, which is also being organised with the help of the United Nations, will be co-chaired by Salim and the U.N. special envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson. Salim said the Sudanese government would not be represented in Arusha.

Violence flared in Sudan's western Darfur region after mostly non-Arab guerrillas took up arms in 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglecting their remote, arid homeland.

Since then, Darfur's rebels have fractured into more than a dozen armed groups following an unpopular peace deal last year with the government that only one faction signed.

From The Guardian

Darfur's numerous rebel groups will meet next week in what diplomats described as the best opportunity for working towards peace in the war-torn region of western Sudan for more than a year.

A conference in Arusha, Tanzania, will be hosted by a combined team from the African Union and the United Nations, which has been shuttling across the vast semi-desert region for several weeks trying to persuade rival rebel leaders to co-ordinate their demands and prepare for full-scale peace talks with the Sudanese government in September.

The meeting comes amid a sharp deterioration in food supplies for the 2 million people who live in remote villages cut off by fighting or have fled to UN-aided camps. The World Food Programme reported this week that nine food convoys were attacked by gunmen across Darfur in the last two weeks, as many as in the first five months of the year.

"WFP was not able to reach 170,000 people in June, a sizable increase from the lowest point last March when 60,000 could not be reached", Kenro Oshidari, the WFP's Sudan representative, said. WFP officials refused to point the finger at any particular group, saying the motive was often banditry and the raiders wore a variety of uniforms.

Some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers are deployed in Darfur, but do not have the capacity to escort food convoys in what is currently the world's largest humanitarian effort.

A peace deal, negotiated in Nigeria last May between the Khartoum government and the three rebel groups, failed to end the fighting after two of the three refused to sign. The rebels, who mainly represent different tribes in Darfur's complex social structure, have since split into a dozen factions.

Jan Eliasson, a former Swedish foreign minister who is the UN special envoy for Sudan, and Salim Salim, a former Tanzanian prime minister, have managed to convince at least six of the main rebel leaders to come to Arusha. Diplomats said the groups had similar demands but needed to prepare a "co-ordinated negotiating position". If the Arusha meeting succeeds, the UN and AU will send out invitations next month for talks with the government in September.

More people in Darfur were being killed today in tribal clashes, often over productive land made scarce by desertification, than in fighting between the rebels and the government and its allied militias, Mr Eliasson said recently. Combined with the splintering of the rebel groups, this made the conflict increasingly hard to solve. "The cultural, social and economic fabric of Darfur is gone," he said.

Abdul Wahid al Nur, who represents the Fur tribe, was the only senior leader refusing to go to Arusha. Described by diplomats as "the iconic figure whom the people in the camps see as their representative", his absence would be damaging, although he has no military forces. Abdul Shafi, a top Fur field commander who broke with Mr Wahid last year, was expected to attend.

In New York, arguments were raging over a British and French draft for a security council resolution for a hybrid UN/AU force of 19,555 troops and 6,400 police to enter Darfur.

An explicit reference to new sanctions in the case of non-compliance has been dropped but the text would allow the troops to use force "to protect civilians under threat" and "to prevent attacks against civilians". The Sudanese government was objecting on the grounds that the peacekeepers would be war-fighters.

Unlike last year when the US was vague about joining the force, Andrew Natsios, the US special envoy for Sudan, said this week he opposed any US units in Darfur "because politically right now it would create the wrong impression and would be used in terms of the Sudanese government". Khartoum has said Washington was preparing "another Iraq".

Darfur: Aid Convoys Under Attack

From the AP

A dramatic increase in attacks on aid convoys in Darfur is hampering the world's largest humanitarian operation, and some 170,000 people are now out of reach of food aid because of the violence, the United Nations' World Food Programme said Wednesday.

Nine food convoys have been ambushed by gunmen across the war-torn region of western Sudan over the last two weeks alone, the WFP said in a statement.

The U.N. food agency condemned the "dramatic escalation in attacks on humanitarian staff and food convoys." It said the violence was endangering the WFP's ability to deliver assistance to millions of hungry people.

"WFP was not able to reach 170,000 people in June, a sizable increase from the lowest point last March when 60,000 could not be reached," the WFP said.

Darfur rebel groups have been battling the Sudanese government since 2003 and the government blames the ongoing bloodshed on factions who refused to sign a peace treaty with the government last year. But the U.N. and other international observers say pro-government forces are also responsible for much of the violence.

Some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers are currently deployed in Darfur, but WFP says they do not have the capacity to escort food convoys.

The WFP's food distribution in Darfur is the largest ongoing humanitarian effort in the world, employing nearly 800 people and more than 700 trucks to feed more than two million people every month.

The U.N. agency says it plans to distribute up to 500 tons of food in Darfur at a cost of about half a billion dollars this year.

The U.N.'s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that 76 vehicles from the U.N. or other aid groups have been stolen in Darfur so far this year and 77 humanitarian convoys were attacked.

The WFP said 18 of its food convoys have been attacked this year, and 10 staff, including contractors, have been either detained or abducted.

The attacks are carried out by several of Darfur's various warring parties, and the WFP believes the motive is banditry, said Emilia Casella, the WFP spokeswoman in Sudan.

"The people who are doing this are wearing different kinds of uniforms," she said, calling on all parties in Darfur to cease attacks and respect humanitarian workers.

The latest attack occurred Friday when 16 armed men fired at a convoy and then ransomed the drivers, she said by telephone from Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

It took place near the town of Tawila, some 40 miles from the North Darfur capital of El Fasher where Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said Sunday that Darfur was now largely pacified.

Large amounts of food have also been looted during ambushes, Casella said.

There were five attacks last week in southern Darfur, she said, and gunmen looted seven trucks, stealing approximately 11 tons of food.

Sudan: A Strategy for Comprehensive Peace

A new report from the International Crisis Group

Lasting peace in Sudan requires a new strategy, one which tackles its multiple conflicts and potential conflicts in a consistent manner. The overwhelming international concentration on Darfur has come at the expense of the broader quest for peace in the country. Unless a more balanced approach is developed, Darfur will continue to suffer, and new wars are likely. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended Africa’s longest-running civil war, contains the detailed provisions and schedule for governmental reforms and a democratisation process leading to national elections in 2009 which can be the building blocks for peacemaking in Darfur and elsewhere. It is in danger of collapse, however, due to government sabotage and international neglect, the latter a cruel irony in that preoccupation to conclude the CPA negotiations led to initial reluctance to address the developing Darfur crisis in 2003-2004. Urgent efforts are needed to build consensus among the main international players on a strategy for obtaining implementation of key CPA benchmarks.

While Darfur is Sudan’s most pressing regional issue, additional attention is also needed in Kordofan, where armed groups unhappy with CPA implementation threaten new conflict and may link up with insurgents in Darfur; in the far North, where the construction of dams has displaced and angered several communities, and the risk of major conflict is increasing; and in the East, where the 2006 peace agreement has only just begun to be implemented and could easily still fall apart.

If implemented, the CPA would help transform the oppressive governmental system that is at the root of all these conflicts into a more open, transparent, inclusive and democratic one. The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) resists this because it views full implementation as a threat to regime survival. It is undermining the reforms critical to democratisation, as well as the ones that would allow for the promised self-determination referendum in the South in 2011. If the CPA fails – which is increasingly likely – Sudan can be expected to return to full-scale war, with dire implications not only for its own people but for all its neighbours as well.

International efforts over the last three years have lacked consistent leadership and been weakened by disagreements, particularly between Western donor countries and China, Russia and the Arab world. An informal contact group of these major actors, and including the European Union (EU), France, the African Union (AU), the UN and regional countries, is slowly beginning to cooperate more effectively on Darfur, however, and has made some progress over the past four months towards renewing negotiations for a political settlement.

This cooperation needs to be expanded to prioritise core elements of the CPA but growing problems with that agreement are receiving little attention, even though peace in Darfur and elsewhere can only be built on its foundation. The first major implementation deadline – withdrawal of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) from the South by 9 July – was missed without an international response. Much of the implementation that has taken place is on paper only; many commissions and other bodies still do not function. The former rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), were expected to be an agent of change in Khartoum but have focused most of their energy on internal southern issues, at the expense of the national agenda.

Consistent international engagement and vigilance is needed. Monitoring the CPA is the primary mandate of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) but it has been without a chief for more than half a year. The Secretary-General must immediately correct this, and UNMIS should refocus on overseeing CPA implementation. The enlarged contact group on Darfur is to meet again in September. It should agree on holding the parties, especially Khartoum, to key CPA benchmarks. The Secretary-General should work with the AU to organise a broad-based international conference at which a comprehensive roadmap for peace in Sudan would be laid out, including those benchmarks, the AU/UN plan for reviving the Darfur political process, and consensus on the diplomatic and economic rewards and punitive measures to be taken with respect to the parties in proportion to action on that roadmap.

Darfur: A Dangerous Position

An op-ed by Ted Galen Carpenter and Christopher Preble in The News Observer

In the Democratic presidential debate Monday night, the candidates were united on the need for the United States to withdraw from Iraq. But most were equally convinced about the need to intervene in Darfur. Sen. Joseph Biden was out front on this issue, arguing that the United States should take military action wherever it can make a difference in humanitarian crises. We should intervene in Darfur, Biden intoned, "because we can."

Such an attitude suggests that the Democrats have learned little from the Iraq debacle. They are not against elective wars -- interventions that have little or no connection to the security and well being of the United States -- as a matter of principle. Instead, they appear merely to be against Republican elective wars that go badly.

Even worse, they seem unwilling or unable, or both, to think through the medium- to long-term ramifications of military action, generally. This is worrisome when it involves people aspiring to be the commander in chief of our military.

The suffering in Darfur cries out for action, but it is not clear that it calls for military action, much less that U.S. troops should lead the effort. There are dozens of countries that have far greater tangible interests at stake in Darfur than does America, and many of these countries also possess the capacity to deploy forces there. If there is a serious military intervention, they should be expected to step forward long before the United States does.

[edit]

In short, it is reckless to launch military action without some understanding of the anticipated costs. It is irresponsible to unleash the military without a clear objective. It is short-sighted to assign this objective in the first place without an honest assessment of the likelihood that the military can achieve it. It is unconscionable to launch a war of choice without some reasonable expectation that the post-conflict situation will be a dramatic improvement over that which came before. That is what Colin Powell was talking about when he told President Bush in August 2002, "You break it, you own it."

Another prominent military leader had similar concerns. As he led the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq in March 2003, Gen. David Petraeus could have been forgiven a bit of triumphalism. Yet Petraeus was haunted by one nagging question: "Tell me how this ends?"

Petraeus understood that it is easy to start wars but extremely difficult to end them. This principle applies to wars started by Democrats, as well as to those started by Republicans. Can the candidates on the stage Monday night answer Petraeus' "tell me how this ends" question with respect to Darfur? Can they answer it with respect to war with Iran, or other potential conflicts?

We have wasted blood and treasure in Iraq, and that is a great tragedy. It will be an even greater tragedy if we blunder into another well-meaning intervention without carefully thinking through the possible consequences.

Darfur: The Devil Came on Horseback

From Newsday

"If these photographs were released to the public," Brian Steidle wrote during his six months as an African Union observer in brutalized Darfur, "there would be troops here in a matter of days." Steidle's photographs were released. The troops never came. And the failure of world conscience haunts "The Devil Came on Horseback."

Filmmakers Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern use Steidle as an conduit into the convoluted, damnable situation in Darfur, a region of Sudan whose people have been systematically starved, tortured, raped and killed in a campaign that has seen more than 400,000 murdered and 2.5 million displaced. It's the smart move for the two directors: Steidle is an appealing hero, one whose sense of outrage and dismay will be easily understood by western audiences -- western audiences being the ones who might pressure their governments into action against what Steidle (and any other observer without a vested economic interest) has long understood to be genocide

The Arab Janjaweed -- "devils on horseback" -- have, with tactical support from Khartoum, attempted to eradicate every black African face from the westernmost area of Sudan. Steidle, originally hired to help monitor a north-south ceasefire between Khartoum and rebel groups, eventually went west, where he found unspeakable atrocities, and a mission. Stern and Sundberg capture the sense of this, and have a great sense of dramatic momentum and of what constitutes engaging cinema. They aren't quite as good in letting the viewer know what's what, or where we are in time. Although it's not entirely clear, re-enactments seem to abound and what the filmmakers shot and what Steidle shot is all intermingled to a confusing extent. The narration, too, seems to be a re-enactment -- none of what would seem to be news reports are identified as such, so the entire movie lacks a certain grounding in time and specific journalism.

But Steidle is a valiant sort, and there's nothing vague about his feelings for the Janjaweed ("If every one of them was gone, the world would be a better place") or his contempt for Condoleezza Rice. Or his melancholy over the fact that the people of Darfur look with such hope toward the United States, which has thus far barely looked back.

Darfur: i-ACT and the Ten-Day Challenge

From the latest Genocide Intervention Network Newsletter

Darfur: ENOUGH Strategy Briefing - How to Confront Aerial Attacks

A new report from ENOUGH

As part of its continuing effort to crush Darfur's rebellion by attacking civilian populations purported to be supportive of the rebels, the Sudanese regime has again stepped up its aerial bombing campaign, the most definitive tactical advantage the government possesses. Because the regime continues to bomb indiscriminately and because frustrations deepen around glacial forward movement in the peace process and in deploying the proposed A.U.-U.N. hybrid force, voices from across the political spectrum are clamoring for some kind of action. President George W. Bush, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. presidential candidates, members of parliament and Congress in Europe and the United States, and advocacy organizations on both sides of the Atlantic have considered or called for the military enforcement of a no-fly zone.

This well-intentioned debate over the merits of militarily enforcing a stand-alone no-fly zone underscores the complexity involved in combining political, economic, and military tools to end the Darfur crisis and shines a light on the equally legitimate but sometimes differing perspectives of humanitarian agencies, advocates, and policy-makers.

What is necessary is to avoid debates that are colored by absolutes. The full range of tools available to the international community must be evaluated according to their effectiveness in halting atrocities, bringing about a lasting peace settlement, and alleviating human suffering pending that resolution.

The best means to influence Khartoum to end its pursuit of a military solution in Darfur (and to fully implement the peace deal it signed with southern Sudan) is through much greater international pressure, principally in the form of U.N. Security Council sanctions and robust diplomacy. The question this paper addresses is what form of pressure would most effectively influence the regime to stop using aerial bombardment as a part of its offensive military operations in Darfur. Ultimately, while the reasons so many advocate military enforcement of a stand-alone no-fly zone are understandable, and while the bombing problem is urgent, we conclude that military enforcement of a stand-alone no-fly zone is not the right approach, for the following reasons:

* The implementation of a no-fly zone would likely trigger the regime to ground all humanitarian aid flights and embolden rebel factions to increase attacks, the latter wrongly believing the international community would be intervening to support their war objectives. This could create a severe humanitarian crisis, to which the international community is ill-prepared to respond.

* With no credible planning for a no-fly zone having been conducted anywhere, and a lack of political will to implement it, calls in support of a no-fly zone give Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir another propaganda tool to rally support for his regime in the Arab and Muslim worlds, while not bringing nearer genuine measures to suppress Sudanese bombing.

* With most attacks taking place on the ground by government-sponsored militia, former rebels under Minni Minawi that have joined the government, and a growing number of rebel factions, a no-fly zone would do little to deter the increasingly complex drivers of violence, an anarchic situation that is precisely the outcome Khartoum sought since 2003 with its divide-and-destroy Darfur strategy.

* Other non-military policy options that we believe would work in changing the government's calculations and thus improve the situation on the ground have not yet been meaningfully pursued (see ENOUGH Strategy Paper #2, "A Plan B With Teeth for Darfur").

However, the Sudanese bombing problem is a real one that demands a response. There are non-military options that could give traction to the Security Council's authorized but as of yet un-enforced ban on offensive military flights in Darfur: an initiative that would monitor, name, shame, and sanction violations of the ban.

Darfur: Showing the Unspeakable

From The New York Times

Brutal, urgent, devastating — the documentary “The Devil Came on Horseback” demands to be seen as soon as possible and by as many viewers as possible. An up-close, acutely painful call to action, the movie pivots on a young American, a former Marine captain named Brian Steidle, who for six months beginning in the fall of 2004 worked for the African Union as an unarmed monitor in Darfur. What he saw in Darfur was unspeakable. And then he returned home, his arms, heart and head filled with the images of the dead.

You see a lot of those images in “The Devil Came on Horseback,” which, in brute form, serves as a catalog of human barbarism. The title refers to the Arab militias known as the janjaweed, which, sponsored by Sudan’s Arab government, have been instrumental in waging a campaign of violence and terror against the inhabitants of Darfur, many of them black. At least 200,000 civilians have died, and millions have been displaced. The atrocities — rape, torture, mutilation, murder — seem endless. So too does Mr. Steidle’s storehouse of graphic photographs and his documentation, which he took with him when he returned to the United States and began sharing with anyone who would pay attention, including Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, who wrote about him in a March 2, 2005, column titled “The American Witness.”

Directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern, “The Devil Came on Horseback” is a heartfelt account of what this particular American witness saw and, just as important, what he did afterward. It’s necessary, often agonizing viewing, but it’s also something of a frustrating mess, marred by overly flashy, obtrusive editing and sloppy use of unattributed news sources. Mr. Steidle is an intensely empathetic figure, but sunny images of him from his own childhood threaten to take the documentary perilously off course. His humanity and humility are inspiring, transparent; not once do you feel as if he’s playing to the camera to show just how bad he feels. He doesn’t sell his pain, so there’s no reason for the documentary to either.

The news about “the crisis in Darfur,” “the conflict in Darfur” and “the violence in Darfur” continues apace. Recently the stars of “Ocean’s Thirteen,” led by George Clooney, donated $5.5 million for aid relief; other American citizens have organized car washes to raise money. In early May, 15 House Republicans sent President Bush a letter urging action in Sudan: “The time is at hand to reassert the resolve of the United States that the atrocities taking place in Darfur cannot stand.” In late June, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio put the issue in stark terms during a Democratic presidential debate: “Let’s face it, if Darfur had a large supply of oil, this administration would be occupying it right now.”

There’s really nothing more to say — and there’s everything else to say — but because I cannot improve on Mr. Kristof’s passionate words on Darfur, I will repeat the final lines of his 2005 column about Mr. Steidle, which are worth repeating again and again until peace at last makes them irrelevant.

“But if our leaders are acquiescing in genocide, that’s because we citizens are passive, too. If American voters cared about Darfur’s genocide as much as about, say, the Michael Jackson trial, then our political system would respond,” he wrote. “As Martin Luther King Jr. put it: ‘Man’s inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.’ ”

Darfur: Lake is a 'Mirage'

From Nature [if you want the full version of this article, send me an email]

"Water find may end Darfur war," proclaimed headlines last week, describing a claim by researchers at Boston University in Massachusetts to have identified the site of an ancient lake in northern Darfur that could imply extensive groundwater reserves. But geologists speaking to Nature dismissed the hype, pointing out that the lake dried up thousands of years ago and that it will not necessarily be surrounded by aquifers holding ancient water. Furthermore, they say that the lake was identified in the 1800s, and that its size and shape were detailed over a decade ago.

The press release from Boston University — entitled 'Mapping of ancient mega-lake by Boston University scientists catalyst for global humanitarian outreach' — announced a '1,000 Wells for Darfur' initiative to drill around the lake "to create new groundwater resources to help establish peace and economic security in the region."

The initiative was launched by the government of Sudan after a meeting between President Omar al-Bashir and geologist Farouk El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing. El-Baz had announced the discovery of the 30,750 square kilometre lake — which would have contained around 2,500 cubic kilometres of water — in April, after scouring Landsat satellite images and sand-penetrating radar data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.

The media's portrayal of a lake that actually contains water now stems from the way the Boston group presented its claims, says Mohamed Abubuker, an official at the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources in Khartoum. "The general public in Sudan, and even some very high-ranking officials, came to believe that what has been discovered is literally a lake — perhaps even with fish in it," he says. "The way El-Baz presented his efforts helped consolidate this misconception. It was like a political rally for a presidency run-up rather than a scientific portrayal of facts."

El-Baz contests this allegation. "It is incomprehensible for anyone to think it is a physical lake," he says, adding that he consistently made it clear that his argument was that the lake's water would have seeped through the sandstone substrate to accumulate as groundwater, and that drilling the sandstone under and around the ancient lake could yield fresh water.

Darfur: Rebel Unity Just First Step for Peace

From Reuters

Uniting deeply fractured Darfur rebels and bringing their leaders to the bargaining table are just the first hurdles mediators face in the long road to new peace talks to end four years of conflict in western Sudan.

Persuading Khartoum to reopen parts of the peace deal signed with one rebel faction last year will be vital to the success of any talks, as will disarming militias and releasing a respected Darfur rebel who has been virtually imprisoned for more than a year, analysts said.

"The political process ... must be one that can bring durable peace and a just future to the people of Darfur," said former U.S. ambassador and senior member of the Save Darfur coalition Lawrence Rossin.

"Difficult talks over every key issue can be expected ... power and resource sharing ... boundaries, representations in central and Darfur-level institutions, compensation and disarmament," he added.

U.N. officials negotiating for the deployment of joint U.N.-African Union peacekeepers by the end of the year warn there must be a peace for the force to keep.

Rape, looting and murder has driven some 2.5 million people from their homes in Darfur and an estimated 200,000 have died since the conflict broke out in early 2003 over rebel charges the government was neglecting its western region.

The United Nations said in a report this week, thousands of people continue to flee their homes and access to those in need has shrunk by 10 percent compared with last year.

After the May 2006 peace deal with the government, signed by only one of three rebel factions, the rebels disintegrated into more than a dozen groups and sub-groups, increasing the violence in Darfur and complicating peace efforts.

U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim say they hope to decide who will be invited to talks by the end of August.

But some analysts say all relevant groups should be represented to avoid spoilers for the peace process, as occurred after the 2006 deal when riots erupted in camps within days of the signing.

"Every rebel group that represents a real segment of the Darfur population should be invited. The talks cannot achieve a durable settlement if significant representative movements are excluded," Rossin said.

The unification of smaller groups like the umbrella United Front for Liberation and Development recently formed in Eritrea will make the decision on who attends easier.

Eliasson and Salim hope to address divisions, form a united negotiating platform, and get consensus on a venue in a meeting in Tanzania in early August.

Analysts say while that is important, it is just a first step. The contentious issue of what will be up for discussion during future peace talks has not yet been broached. Rebels want to reopen last year's deal, which most of them rejected.

"All SLA (rebel Sudan Liberation Army) factions (agree) in the line of refusing the Darfur peace agreement (DPA) completely," said Esam al-Hajj, a leader of one rebel faction at unity talks in Libya.

Khartoum has agreed to attend talks but left little room for negotiations, insisting that the deal not be reopened.

"Khartoum's pretension that the DPA must be considered as immutable in all but details cannot be accepted," said Rossin. "The DPA's inadequacies are legion."

Among the most contentious issues in the DPA is the clause that leaves disarmament of militia accused of war crimes to Khartoum, supported by a struggling AU force which has been unable to defend itself against attacks.

Rebels argue Khartoum armed the militia, locally known as Janjaweed, so cannot be trusted to disarm them.

"The rebels will not sign on to a document that requires for example trusting Khartoum to disarm the Janjaweed," said Eric Reeves, a U.S. academic and Darfur activist.

Analysts also agreed the guaranteed free movement of SLA Humanitarian Coordinator Suleiman Jamous was imperative to the peace process.

Jamous was the link between the world's largest aid operation and the rebels. One of the oldest and best educated members of the insurgency, he was respected by most commanders and kept rebel looting of aid convoys under control.

He was arrested by DPA signatory Minni Arcua Minnawi for opposing him, and was in need of urgent medical treatment.

Thirteen months ago the United Nations moved him to a U.N. hospital in South Kordofan state, infuriating Khartoum which was not informed of the flight.

Khartoum calls Jamous a "terrorist" and says if he leaves the hospital he will be arrested.

"Suleiman Jamous is critical to the success of these talks and to rebel unity," said Reeves.

"It is shameful and incomprehensible that precisely the person who has been and could continue to be useful in promoting a real and sustainable solution ... has been taken out of action and abandoned in this way," said actress Mia Farrow, goodwill ambassador for the U.N. children's fund (UNICEF).

Jamous told Reuters by telephone he would attend the talks if released. He urged both rebels and the government not to forget the civilians suffering as they inched towards talks.

"The best thing is to hurry for a sustainable and durable peace on the ground, he said.

Darfur: Violence Impedes Relief Effort

From the UN News Center

Condemning a sharp escalation in attacks on humanitarian staff and relief convoys in Sudan's Darfur region, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that violence is hampering its ability to deliver assistance to millions of hungry people there.

“In the last two weeks, nine food convoys have been attacked by gunmen across Darfur,” said Kenro Oshidari, WFP Sudan Representative. “WFP staff and contractors are being stopped at gunpoint, dragged out of their vehicles and robbed with alarming frequency.”

Mr. Oshidari called on all parties to the conflict in Darfur to guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers so that the UN food agency and other aid organizations can continue helping Sudanese who rely on outside assistance for survival.

“These abhorrent attacks, which target the very people who are trying to help the most vulnerable in Darfur, must be brought under control,” he added.

So far this year, 18 WFP food convoys have been attacked by gunmen and four of WFP's light vehicles carjacked. Six WFP vehicles, including trucks and light vehicles, have been stolen and 10 staff, including contractors, have been either detained or abducted.

The Darfur operation is the agency's biggest, employing some 790 staff who feed more than two million people every month. WFP, which also contracts commercial truck companies to haul food into the region, plans to distribute up to 450,000 metric tons of food in Darfur this year at a cost of about half a billion dollars.

A lack of security has prevented WFP from reaching 170,000 people in June in what the agency termed in a news release a “sizeable increase from the lowest point last March when 60,000 could not be reached.”

As a result of convoy attacks in recent weeks, the road between Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, and the town of Kass, has been declared a “no-go” area for UN staff, while in North Darfur, food dispatches to the town of Kabkabiya have been affected.

UN security personnel say attacks on vehicles are now the number one security concern for the aid community in Darfur, according to WFP, which cited a “recent and deeply troubling trend is that staff are being abducted when their vehicles are stolen, giving robbers time to get away before the alarm is raised.”

To date, all WFP staff have been released, although some were injured and hospitalized.

From Reuters

Attacks on humanitarian staff and food convoys in Sudan's Darfur region have seen a "dramatic escalation", obstructing food aid to millions of hungry people, the U.N. food agency said on Wednesday.

"In the last two weeks, nine food convoys have been attacked by gunmen across Darfur," said Kenro Oshidari, the World Food Programme's (WFP) Sudan representative, in a statement sent to Reuters.

"WFP staff and contractors are being stopped at gunpoint, dragged out of their vehicles and robbed with alarming frequency," he added.

"These abhorrent attacks, which target the very people who are trying to help the most vulnerable in Darfur, must be brought under control," he added.

WFP said since the beginning of the year, gunmen had attacked 18 of its food convoys in Darfur. Four WFP vehicles were also carjacked.

The agency added that over the same period, six vehicles were stolen and 10 staffers, including contractors, were either detained or abducted temporarily.

A U.N. spokeswoman said on Wednesday that similar attacks were reported by other U.N. agencies and international aid groups operating in different parts of Darfur.

"The number of humanitarian vehicles hijacked this year reaches 76 and the number of convoys attacked and looted 77," Radhia Achouri told reporters.

Darfur: Stopping Murder in Darfur

From The Economist

APPARENTLY, according to Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir, everyone has been getting all steamed-up about nothing in Darfur. In fact most of Sudan’s western region is “secure and enjoying real peace”, he announced after a rare visit to Darfur last weekend. “People are living normal lives”, he said.

That will come as a surprise to more than 2m desperately poor, vulnerable and hungry internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur itself, and to the 200,000 or so refugees who have fled over the border to camps in neighbouring Chad. Their misery comes on top of an estimated 200,000—400,000 people who have died since 2003 when fighting erupted in Darfur; many of the deaths have been caused by forces controlled by the Sudanese government.

But then Mr Bashir and his ministers have spent much of the past year leading a concerted campaign to downplay the severity and significance of what the UN calls the “worst humanitarian disaster” anywhere. Instead, Sudan’s rulers have been trying to get outsiders to focus on the investment opportunities in the oil and financial-services sectors in the booming capital of Khartoum. As one Sudanese official has been quoted as saying, Darfur’s “negative image” bears no relation to all that peace and happiness on the ground—it is solely because to “black propaganda” spread by America and Britain.

So, as ever, the Sudanese government has been trying to weaken foreign efforts to intervene in Darfur to protect the IDPs and the humanitarian workers who largely keep them alive. They have faced what is widely reported to be a rising tide of violence and lawlessness since a failed peace agreement of just over a year ago. Having finally agreed in principle last month, after over a year’s worth of unremitting diplomatic pressure, to let in a “hybrid” African Union-UN force of 26,000 troops and police, the Sudanese government and its allies at the UN have been softening the new resolution that would actually allow the deployment of such a force. At issue is how much leeway the Sudanese will have in vetoing the make-up of the force and the robustness of its mandate in Darfur.

However, there is also evidence of a greater firmness in the West’s dealings with Sudan. America passed a round of sanctions against the country in May, and the new governments in France and Britain are also making a difference. In particular, the hyperactive administration of Nicolas Sarkozy has injected some extra energy into the West’s dealings with Sudan. France is an important player because it is the only Western country with any military capacity in the area, a legacy of its colonial rule in Chad.

France’s new foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, is a former humanitarian worker himself (he co-founded Médecins Sans Frontières) with a longstanding interest in Sudan; within days of taking office he had convened a summit in Paris on the situation in Darfur.

Now, pushed mainly by France, the European Union has taken the first steps towards sending a military force into eastern Chad and the Central African Republic. This should at least protect the Darfurian refugees in those two countries, and seal the borders against Sudanese-backed militias which raid across. Such a force should also arrive months, perhaps years, before any UN deployment in Darfur takes place—thus applying some immediate pressure on the Sudanese government.

Britain’s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, has also backed this plan. At his first prime ministerial meeting with Mr Sarkozy, last week, the two leaders put Darfur at the top of their agenda and vowed to visit the region as soon as they could. Early signs are that the moral force and political whirlwind that is Mr Brown and Mr Sarkozy could be of more practical help to the desperate people of Darfur than all the prestige and words of their predecessors.

Chad: Gov't Says Sudan Behind Talks’ Deadlock With Rebels

From the Sudan Tribune

Chad has blamed Sudan for the failure of peace talks with its opposition saying Khartoum interference in the reconciliation talks obstructs the conclusion of an accord.

Chadian president said talks with the Chadian opposition are deadlocked because Sudan is backing the rebels in their position. "The Sudanese authorities are preventing us from reaching a compromise to solve the crisis." Idriss Deby told the Paris based Africa No 1 radio.

Libya is brokering the talks in Tripoli to try to end an insurgency by a coalition of Chadian rebels fighting a hit-and-run guerrilla war against President Idriss Deby’s forces in eastern Chad. The area has also been hit by a spillover of the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The rebel Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) wants Deby to agree to a national political dialogue that would lead to early free elections. They also ask for the formation of a new cabinet led by a rebel leader.

President Idriss Deby Itno rejected the rebels’ demand, and blamed Sudan for the failure of the talks since the end of last June.

The Chadian president, who had sent a special envoy to Riyadh to inform the Saudi authorities, was in Tripoli on July 23 to hold talks with the Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi.

The negotiations between the Chadian Government and various rebel movements hidden away in eastern Chad which were taking place in Tripoli, Libya, have failed. The rebels asked for the formation of a new cabinet led by a rebel leader. President Idriss Deby Itno rejected the rebels’ demand, and blamed Sudan for the failure of the talks. Let us listen to Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno speaking to Jules Adjikomlan.

[Begin Deby recording] The negotiations started a month ago, but we are not making any progress simply because the Sudanese authorities are behind these rebel movements as you call them. The Sudanese authorities are preventing us from reaching a compromise to solve the crisis.

The Sudanese involvement in these negotiations considerably hinders the reaching of a solution.

Idris Deby postponed a visit to Khartoum scheduled to begin Wednesday June 27.

Chad has repeatedly accused Sudan of backing rebels in Chad and of supporting attacks in Chad by Janjaweed militia based in Darfur, where the United Nations says 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in ethnic and political conflict that flared in 2003.

The two countries signed a reconciliation deal brokered by Libya on February 6, 2006. Also they signed another agreement sponsored by the Saudi King on My 3, 2007.

The Chadian president demands that Sudan fulfils its obligations since the signing of the two reconciliation agreements. "We hope that they will live up to their commitments". Deby said.

Uganda: Rebels Say Lack of Funds Delays Peace Talks

From Reuters

A failure by Ugandan rebels to raise $2 million to fund foreign travel and reach commanders in their forest hideouts will delay the planned resumption of peace talks next week, participants said on Wednesday.

Discussions between representatives of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas and Ugandan government officials had been due to resume in Juba, southern Sudan, next Monday.

But Martin Ojul, head of the LRA delegation at the talks, said his group had been unable to raise enough money from donors to organise a visit by 500 people to meet rebel leaders.

LRA boss Joseph Kony and his top deputies are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and have yet to be seen in Juba. Instead, they are camped somewhere in Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless Garamba forest.

"We are still stuck," Ojul told Reuters by telephone from southern Sudan. "We want funds to ferry people from northern Uganda to Garamba, and to send people abroad to do research so that we can build a strong case of justice and reconciliation."

The Ugandan government has agreed to use a national process of accountability for atrocities committed during two decades of war between its military and the LRA -- implicitly rejecting ICC demands the wanted men be handed over for trial in The Hague.

The aim of the planned Garamba trip, Ojul said, was to discuss with Kony how to achieve accountability without the ICC.

LRA representatives are also hoping to visit South Africa, Sierra Leone and Argentina. "Travelling to these countries will help us learn how people there dealt with situations of conflict, justice and reconciliation," Ojul said.

Northern Uganda's war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted nearly 2 million more. LRA fighters are notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping children to serve as soldiers, porters and sex slaves.

The head of the Ugandan government team in Juba, Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, told Reuters the resumption of the talks would be delayed, but gave no other details.

"Consultations on the government side are in advanced stages," he said. "We are supposed to resume on July 30 but we cannot due to some issues. A new date will be communicated."

Uganda: Looking for Justice

From Time

Dorine Akuma does not remember the exact year she came to Unyama Camp in northern Uganda, but she remembers the reason why. Sitting on the floor of her dimly lit stone hut as chickens and small children wander outside the door, Akuma describes the day when rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) came to her home to murder two of her sons and abduct her daughter to be a sex slave. Since then, the years have been a blur to the 60-year-old widow. And many who have suffered like her through the 20-year civil war just want to go home. Even if the cost is justice.

The price they have been paying has been high enough. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians, primarily from the Acholi ethnic group, have died as a result of the brutal rebellion waged by the LRA in the north of this small east African nation; 1.7 million were uprooted to camps for displaced persons. The rebels have spread terror throughout northern Uganda by massacring and disfiguring civilians, regularly cutting off the noses and ears, cheeks and lips and eyelids of their victims. The group has also abducted an estimated 25,000 children to serve as soldiers, porters and sex slaves. In March of last year, the violent death rate in northern Uganda was three times higher than in Iraq, according to an NGO coalition report.

"They should be punished for what they did," Akuma says. But punishment may be a fungible term. For Akuma, like other suffering Acholi people, wants a quiet conclusion to the rebellion so that she and thousands of other northern Ugandans who took refuge in filthy, desolate camps for displaced people during the 20-year war, can return home. Says Akuma, "[the rebels] should also come back peacefully so that we can finally leave these camps." Many of the displaced believe that their tormentors should be put through the traditional justice of the Acholi people — a ritual called mato oput that requires a murderer to face relatives of the victim and admit his crime, leading to both parties drinking a bitter brew as an act of reconciliation.

Unsurprisingly, human rights groups say the process is not harsh enough punishment. For the victims, the reasoning, however, is not just based on tradition but practicality. Agnes Adokorach, a 25-year-old relegated to the camps when her brothers were abducted, thinks it is of "no use" to punish the rebels, many of whom are relatives of the displaced civilians. Her neighbors say that punishment will only worsen the situation when the LRA disbands and its members return to live side-by-side with their victims.

The accused rebels, of course, are all for mato oput. LRA leader Joseph Kony was indicted, along with three other commanders, by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kony and his co-defendants say that they want the government to scrap the multiple-count indictment. If not, the rebels warn that they will not sign a peace agreement that is being hammered out in Juba, in southern Sudan, between the Ugandan government and the LRA.

The Ugandan government may indeed be moving to shield the LRA from the international court. It recently announced that it will set up a special tribunal to handle internally the war crimes of the LRA. Uganda's Foreign Affairs Minister Oryem Okello says that the tribunal will be comparable to that used in neighboring Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. (To complicate matters, Uganda's displaced have also accused government soldiers of atrocities during their time in the camps. But Uganda's proposed national tribunal will not handle cases of abuse by the army. Instead, the soldiers will be tried by preexisting courts-martial.)

"We need a national truth and reconciliation process," says Norbert Mao, chairman of Gulu district, one of the Ugandan towns hardest hit by the conflict. In Gulu, over 70% of displaced people still have not been able to leave the camps due to fears of safety and lack of land — though many are in settlements within 20 km of their home. "It's a situation where many feel that they are in limbo... and there are mixed feelings about whether the LRA leadership should be tried by traditional justice," says Harry Leefe, head of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR's office in Gulu. Because of this unique situation, Mao says: "Our focus is not on punishment, our focus is on restoring social harmony." Perhaps, without justice for all.

Uganda: The Price Of Peace

A column by Michael Gerson in The Washington Post

Across Sudan, northern Uganda and eastern Congo, many have lived in the shadow of violence for decades. A brutal few are loyal to the darkness.

Two years ago, I visited a squatter's camp of mud houses and open sewers on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, where thousands have sought refuge from the Lord's Resistance Army -- a cultish rebel group that has caused perhaps 100,000 deaths and displaced more than 1.5 million people. A young woman I met had been abducted by the LRA along with other members of her village. She calmly described their first night's "welcoming meal," in which one of the villagers was killed and the rest forced to eat him, to instill a proper fear.

Many of the boys in the settlement had been kidnapped by the LRA and trained as soldiers -- forced, I was told, to do "terrible things" such as murdering neighbors in their home villages so the boys could never return. One of the former child soldiers I met was about 16. When the leader of the LRA, a messianic madman named Joseph Kony, visited his prisoners, all were forced to prostrate themselves -- but this young man looked up in curiosity, and one of his eyes was gouged out.

The man he briefly glimpsed is a cunning thug with a touch of insanity -- a man, in Joseph Conrad's phrase, of "gratified and monstrous passions." Kony takes kidnapped sex slaves for wives, is prone to trances and visions, and claims he can turn bullets into water. His proven skill is turning children into killers, who intimidate villagers by cutting off lips, ears and noses.

But Kony's forces, under military pressure, have retreated to the remoteness of the Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Northern Uganda has experienced a year of relative peace, and many displaced villagers are returning to their homes. With African mediation, Uganda and the LRA are engaged in peace talks that have reported incremental progress. Kony has a history of sabotaging talks with unreasonable demands, but there is hope that a cornered LRA might eventually take a deal and lay down its arms.

Some in Congress are calling for the appointment of an American special envoy to push for a final agreement. Such appointments have been useful in other cases. Here, African mediators from Mozambique, southern Sudan and the African Union want to take the lead -- and they have more urgent needs than getting an envoy.

First, a peace settlement will require resources. Demobilized LRA soldiers will need medical and psychiatric assistance, employment, and education -- a new life to replace old habits of plunder. Ugandan "nightwalkers" -- children who avoid capture by trekking to town each evening to sleep in basements and storm sewers -- will need assistance as well. For Congress and the Bush administration to prove their seriousness about a peace agreement will require more than the pay of a new diplomat.

Second, the military pressure must continue. Garamba Park may sound like a destination for adventure tourism. It is actually a haven for some of the worst killers on Earth -- first the Hutu authors of the Rwandan genocide and now the LRA. LRA forces are planting crops and digging for resources. There are rumors that they may be rearming, with supplies coming by air from Eritrea or their traditional allies in Khartoum. And the more secure and confident the LRA becomes, the less likely it is to disband.

The United Nations has more than 18,000 peacekeepers in Congo, with a mandate to oppose destabilizing forces. They should act aggressively to prevent the LRA from putting down roots in Garamba Park. And the United States should support them by sharing intelligence, perhaps providing radar to track suspicious flights into the region and paying what we owe for U.N. peacekeeping.

The final obstacle to a peace treaty is likely to be the treatment of Kony himself, who fears the justice he deserves. Kony is under indictment by the International Criminal Court, and he particularly dreads judgment in The Hague. Securing his surrender may involve a Ugandan promise of house arrest or exile to a country not party to the ICC -- the traditional tyrant's bribe.

Like Idi Amin in his Saudi exile, Kony may live for many years and die in comfort. This would not be justice. But many of his victims seem to prefer peace to a grand reckoning. And at least Kony's immense darkness would finally be confined to his own heart.

Darfur: UK, France Soften UN Text On New Force

From Reuters

Britain and France softened a U.N. resolution on Tuesday that would authorize up to 26,000 troops and police in Darfur by dropping a threat of "further measures" against Sudanese obstructing peace efforts.

But Sudan's ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, still objected to the revised U.N. Security Council draft.

"It's very ugly. It's worse than the first one," he said, prompting Andrew Natsios, the visiting U.S. special envoy for Sudan, to say that Khartoum "should not have veto power."

No date is set for a vote although the sponsors hope for adoption this week.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died.

The new text, obtained by Reuters, also sets a target date of Dec. 31 to transfer authority from the African Union to a combined AU-UN force that would operate in Sudan's Darfur region, although full deployment is expected to take a year.

But the draft leaves intact a tough mandate, Sudan's biggest complaint, that would allow the use of force to ensure the security of the mission's personnel and humanitarian workers and "to protect civilians under threat of physical violence" as well as to seize or collect arms.

The resolution is under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory. It would allow the mission "to use all necessary means," a euphemism for a use of force, "as it deems within its capabilities."

Sudan's Abdalhaleem said, "The way they put this resolution will make the force fight the Sudanese army," adding the draft retained "the same inflammatory language, the same condemnation."

"They want to transport the Iraqi scenario to us."

Among the changes in the text is deleting a provision on a threat of "further measures," a code word for sanctions, against rebels or the government if they obstruct a peace process.

The draft also drops a call for an interim report by a panel of experts, who have reported on violations of U.N. resolutions and made proposals for sanctions.

Specifically, the text would authorize up to 19,555 military personnel and 6,400 civilian police. It calls on member states to "finalize" their contributions within 90 days of adoption. Sudan has agreed to the troop numbers.

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, said the language of the resolution was more conciliatory towards Sudan. He said that African members of the council -- South Africa, Ghana and Congo Republic -- supported the draft.

But a unanimous vote is far from assured. Qatar, the only Arab member of the council, reflected Khartoum's position. Its ambassador, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, said that without Khartoum's agreement the resolution could not be implemented.

Indonesia's ambassador, Rezlan Jenie, agreed, saying, "We would like to have the cooperation from Sudan, and cooperation only comes when they give the consent of the deployment."

Natsios said he opposed any U.S. units in Darfur "because politically right now in Darfur it would create the wrong impression (and) would be used in terms of the Sudanese government. But he said Washington would contribute to air transport to get troops to Darfur.

Infantry troops are expected to be drawn mainly from African nations. The new operation, called the United Nations-African Union mission in Darfur, or UNAMID, will absorb the 7,000 African Union troops currently in Darfur.

Engineers and headquarters personnel are expected to be drawn from other nations.

Darfur: UN Draft Resolution Drops Sanctions Threat

From Reuters

Britain and France softened a U.N. resolution on Tuesday that would authorize up to 26,000 troops and police in Darfur by dropping a threat of "further measures" against Sudanese obstructing peace efforts.

But Sudan's ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, still objected to the revised U.N. Security Council draft.

"It's very ugly. It's worse than the first one," he said, prompting Andrew Natsios, the visiting U.S. special envoy for Sudan, to say that Khartoum "should not have veto power."

The new text, obtained by Reuters, also sets a target date of Dec. 31 to transfer authority from the African Union to a joint or "hybrid" AU-UN force that would operate in Sudan's Darfur region, although full deployment is expected to take another year.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died.

But it leaves intact a tough mandate, Sudan's biggest complaint, that would allow the use of force to ensure the security of the mission's personnel and humanitarian workers and to protect civilians under threat of physical violence" as well as to seize or collect arms.

Darfur: 25,000 More Flee Homes

From Reuters

Violence and insecurity in Darfur has forced 25,000 more people from their homes and is straining the capacity of camps swollen with refugees fleeing conflict in western Sudan, the U.N. said in a report on Tuesday.

"Aerial bombings by the military continued to be reported in North Darfur up to late June while clashes between the military and rebel factions continued to be reported ... in various locations," the United Nations said in a statement.

The report said in May and June a further 25,000 people fled their homes, bringing the number of camp residents in Darfur to 2.2 million.

The United Nations said there are more than 200,000 Darfuri refugees in neighbouring Chad and 140,000 Chadians displaced by the Darfur conflict, which has bled across the border.

"A very visible consequence of the increasing pace of displacement is the increasing population of IDP camps -- many of which can no longer absorb new arrivals," the report said.

The report said one aid agency was asked to leave Kutum in North Darfur and that the number of aid workers in Darfur had fallen to 12,300, down 2,400 from a year ago. Access to those affected fell to 68 percent from 78 percent last year.

"At the same time the caseload of conflict-affected populations has increased by more than half a million, to 4.2 million, it said.

The report was issued on the same day U.N. and African Union Darfur envoys issued invitations to rebel factions to meet in Tanzania and negotiate a unified position ahead of peace talks with the government.

In a joint statement U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim said the August 3-5 meeting in Arusha will focus on "ensuring a speedy, negotiated and sustainable settlement of the Darfur conflict, including the format and venue of and participation in the negotiations."

The envoys did not say which of the more than dozen rebel factions had been sent invitations, describing them only as "leading personalities of the non-signatory movements to the Darfur Peace Agreement."

Only one of three negotiating factions signed a peace deal in the Nigerian capital Abuja in May 2006. The rebels further factionalized following the deal. Under Libyan and Eritrean mediation the groups have been trying to unite.

CAR: Humanitarian Situation Dire

From Reuters

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday voiced concern at the dire humanitarian situation in parts of Central African Republic, where it is distributing aid to 100,000 villagers who have fled fighting.

Most of the displaced are in the strife-torn northwest, staying in a forest near agricultural fields after their homes were burned down, according to an ICRC spokeswoman Jessica Barry who returned from a three-week visit.

The agency aimed to complete its distribution of the shelter items and agricultural tools by the end of August as the rainy season has already set in, she said.

Barry, describing the 13-hour drive from the capital Bangui to Paoua, an area where rebel and army troops have been fighting for the last year, told a briefing: "There are whole villages that are empty. There are houses that are burned down and people have fled into the bush".

The displaced are living in "extremely poor conditions", many in straw shelters, and lack basic medical care, she said.

The ICRC is one of the only aid agencies still operating in northwest CAR, where the United Nations suspended its operations after a French aid worker was shot dead in her car last June.

Barry's remarks came a day after the European Union (EU) took the first step towards sending forces to Chad and the Central African Republic to help the United Nations protect refugees trapped in the violent region bordering Darfur.

A possible deployment of a 1,500- to 3,000-strong force is to be sent at the earliest at the end of October, according to Brussels-based diplomats.

Eastern Chad and northern Central African Republic have seen a spillover from the 4-year-old conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, with cross border raids by Sudanese militias and the influx of tens of thousands of refugees.

But civilians are also victims of fighting between local rebels and government troops and heavily armed bandits.

"Although there is a lot of interest in refugees crossing the border from Darfur (Sudan) and the situation along the border with Chad and Sudan, the ICRC feels there is a situation in Central African Republic itself which is really preoccupying and needs our attention," Barry said.

Ranked as the sixth poorest country on earth, Central African Republic has been riven by decades of conflict and military uprisings since independence from France in 1960.

President Francois Bozize, who seized power in a 2003 coup, is battling separate rebellions in the northeast and northwest. The fighting has displaced more than 200,000 people in the north of the country, from a total population of 4 million.

Darfur: UN Resolution Has Force Timeline

From the AP

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Monday that Security Council members were finalizing a new draft resolution on Darfur that he hopes will speed up the deployment of a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force to the troubled region.

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the U.S., Britain and France had met with African nations and military planners to discuss a timeline for how quickly the 26,000-strong "hybrid" force could replace the undermanned and poorly equipped AU force currently in the region.

"The planners are here looking at the timeline issue and whether things could happen at a faster pace because it's in our interest to have an effective force on the ground as soon as possible," he told reporters at U.N. headquarters.

He said the U.S., Britain and France hope to have a draft resolution ready to circulate to Security Council members this week, although they are still making changes to alleviate the concerns of some countries on the 15-member council and Sudan.

A previous draft resolution by Britain, France and Ghana earlier this month ran into stiff opposition from South Africa, whose ambassador called it "totally unacceptable."

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, told The Associated Press in an interview that Khartoum still has "some problems regarding the mandate" of the force. He said Sudan wants to guarantee there will be an African commander of the force and an exit strategy for the troops to ensure "they do not stay forever."

The beleaguered 7,000-member AU force currently in Darfur has been unable to stop fighting between ethnic African rebels and pro-government janjaweed militia that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million in the last four years.

The U.N. and Western governments have pressed Sudan since November to accept a U.N. plan for the hybrid force to replace the AU troops, but Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir delayed action for months. In April, Sudan agreed to a "heavy support package" to strengthen the AU force, including 3,000 U.N. troops, police and civilian personnel along with aircraft and other equipment.

In Khartoum, al-Bashir ended a tour of Darfur on Monday and described the region as largely peaceful.

"If one talks of lack of security, then it is not in Darfur. What they are talking about is Iraq, Palestine or Afghanistan, and I challenge them all to come here," the president said in a statement carried by the official media in West Darfur state capital of El Geneina.

Sudanese officials have repeatedly stated that Darfur is pacified since a May 2006 peace deal signed by the government and one rebel group. But the U.N. and international observers say violence has only worsened in the region since the agreement was signed.

Khalilzad said that while the U.S., Britain and France were willing to negotiate on minor issues in the draft, the countries were adamant about maintaining three core elements: that a single commander controls the force, a timeline be set for deploying the force as expediently as possible, and the resolution be mandated under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 deals with threats to peace and security and can be enforced through a range of measures, from breaking diplomatic and trade relations to military intervention.

Asked whether Sudan would agree to referring to Chapter 7 in the draft, Abdalhaleem said: "We are still discussing that with them. We would love to see the limits of the mandate."

Meanwhile, a congressional delegation led by U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Khalilzad in New York to urge them to move quickly on the Darfur crisis.

Hoyer said the group also consulted with the Chinese and Egyptian ambassadors to the U.N. on using their influence with Sudan to push the country to allow the hybrid force to enter Darfur.

China, which imports two-thirds of Sudan's oil, has opposed harsh measures against Sudan over the Darfur conflict. It is one of the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council.

Darfur: UN Reports New Displacement

From the UN News Center

The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) today reported new population displacements in West Darfur, where it says an estimated 12,000 households were on the move.

The newly displaced people said that they were fleeing prevailing insecurity in their areas and in anticipation of a rumored attack by Government forces, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York.

The Mission also reported that over the weekend, a non-governmental organization (NGO) vehicle was carjacked in South Darfur, the latest attack on humanitarian workers in the country’s strife-torn region.

Last week, an unknown armed man shot at a vehicle in South Darfur hired by an international NGO, while in West Darfur, two men stopped an international NGO convoy comprising two vehicles carrying five staff members and robbed them of personal effects and communication equipment.

In addition, harassment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) was reported during a UN assessment visit to an IDP camp near Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur.

Darfur: Meeting on Conflict Planned for Early August

From the UN News Center

Pushing ahead with efforts to find a political solution to the conflict that has engulfed the Darfur region of Sudan, envoys from the United Nations and the African Union today invited leaders of movements that have not signed the main peace accord to 'pre-negotiation' talks scheduled for early August in Arusha, Tanzania.

In a statement released in Khartoum, the AU and UN Special Envoys for Darfur, Salim Ahmed Salim and Jan Eliasson, said partners who presented initiatives in support of the political process will also be invited to the 3-5 August Meeting with Leading Personalities of the Non-Signatory Movements to the Darfur Peace Agreement.

“The objective of the Arusha meeting is to take stock of the progress made in the Road-map and for the Special Envoys to consult with the movements on the preparations for the upcoming final negotiations,” according to the statement.

Discussions are to focus on “the key role to be played by the Sudanese parties concerned in ensuring a speedy, negotiated and sustainable settlement of the Darfur conflict, including the format and venue of and participation in the negotiations.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week pledged to push for action on Darfur, where more than 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed and another 2 million displaced since fighting broke out in 2003 between the government, allied militia and rebel groups.

“Our intention is to step up the pace of political negotiations involving all parties – rebel leaders, tribal leaders, Government leaders. The goal is to get them around a table by early September,” Mr. Ban told a news conference in New York on 16 July.

The planned talks were endorsed by the Second International Meeting on Darfur in Tripoli on 15-16 July convened by the two envoys.

Uganda: Release Children, UN Body Tells LRA

From The Monitor

THE United Nations has called on the Lord's Resistance Army to unconditionally release all the children in their ranks.

According to the UN News Service, the issue came up on Friday during the adoption of recommendations regarding children in armed conflict in Uganda and Somalia by the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy (right) said despite calls against the practice, the LRA has stubbornly continued to use child soldiers.

"The LRA has ignored the repeated calls from the international community and we hope that they will now immediately undertake actions for the sake of these children," she said.

"Children continue to be recruited and subjected to sexual violence. Those who commit grave violations against the civilian population must be held accountable."

The Joseph Kony-led LRA rebel movement has for over 20 years been operating in northern Uganda, where among other heinous practices, they abduct children and forcefully recruit them as combatants.

In October 2005, Uganda gave a report on the situation of children in the country to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in Geneva, Switzerland. Experts on CRC urged President Yoweri Museveni's government to step up efforts to protect the youth from abduction by the rebels and rescue child soldiers and slaves already in the rebels’brutal hands.

A Unicef Report indicated in 2005 that nearly 25,000 boys and girls were in the hands of the LRA rebels.

The UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict monitors countries' compliance with the 1991 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that guarantees basic freedoms and commits states to take measures to abolish traditional practices prejudicial to children's health.

Darfur: China Gathering Intelligence on Activists Ahead of 2008 Olympics

From the AP

China's intelligence services are gearing up for next year's Beijing Olympics, gathering information on foreigners who might mount protests and spoil the nation's moment in the spotlight.

Government spy agencies and think tanks are compiling lists of potentially troublesome foreign organizations, looking beyond the human rights groups long critical of Beijing, security experts and a consultant familiar with the effort said.

They include evangelical Christians eager to end China's religious restrictions, activists wanting Beijing to use its oil-buying leverage with Sudan to end the strife in Darfur, and environmental campaigners angry about global warming.

The effort is among the broadest intelligence-collection drives Beijing has taken against foreign activist groups, often known as non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. It aims to head off protests and other political acts during an Olympics the communist leadership hopes will boost its popularity at home and China's image abroad.

"Demonstrations of all kinds are a concern, including anti-American demonstrations," said the consultant, who works for Beijing's Olympic organizers and asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The government, he said, was "trying to find out what kinds of NGOs will come. What are their plans?"

While foreign governments often monitor potentially disruptive groups ahead of big events, Beijing this time is ranging farther afield, targeting groups whose activities would be considered legal in most countries.

As such, the move carries risks for Beijing. Evidence that the communist government is withholding visas or engaged in heavy-handed policing to suppress protests would likely draw negative press and could unnerve the International Olympic Committee and corporate sponsors.

Scott Kronick, the president of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide's China operations, said he raised concerns about the way protests might be handled when an official with the Beijing Olympic organizing committee asked him about the possibility of activists disrupting the torch relay.

"I said, 'People will understand that. That's the way different groups act. What you need to worry about is what your response is going to be and how you will act,'" said Kronick, whose clients include Adidas, an Olympic sponsor.

The Ministry of Public Security, the national police agency which runs some domestic spying networks, declined to comment as did the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. Phone numbers for the main spying agency, the Ministry of State Security, are not published, and the Cabinet's main information office would not provide them.

Concerns about foreign protesters are a reminder of how the Beijing games differ from most previous Olympics. Aside from the hefty US$40 billion (€29 billion) price tag and the government's outsized political ambitions, security poses a different challenge, complicated by Chinese leaders' repressive policies at home and growing profile abroad.

"They are worried about a larger number of things and they are worried about keeping the lid on," said Arnold Howitt, who runs crisis-management training programs for Beijing officials at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Like all Olympic hosts since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, China's security services are concerned about terrorism. Attacks by militant Islamic groups, some of them homegrown, top the list of scenarios the police and the military are preparing for, Chinese and foreign security experts said.

Yet China also faces a plethora of disaffected domestic groups — Tibetans eager to cast off Chinese rule, farmers upset at land confiscations and Falun Gong, a once-popular spiritual movement the government suppressed as a cult. A research institute involved in crisis-planning for the Olympics has looked into possible unrest by unemployed workers, analysts at the think tank said.

China has long been wary of NGOs, fearing they might be acting as agents for foreign governments or encouraging defiance of the Communist Party.

Those worries grew in recent months as a multiplying number of foreign groups mounted public campaigns to tie causes as varied as promoting labor rights and protecting sharks to the Beijing games.

The Darfur campaigners, who threatened to re-brand the games the "Genocide Olympics" if China does not pressure Sudan to stop the conflict, particularly alarmed Beijing.

"As far as the Chinese side is concerned, NGOs are a destabilizing factor," said the security consultant.

Though Chinese leaders believe a boycott is unlikely, successful protests by foreigners would not only tarnish the games but could also embolden domestic critics, Chinese foreign policy experts and activists said.

After four Americans unfurled a banner calling for Tibetan independence on the Chinese-controlled side of Mount Everest in April, China tightened access to Tibet for foreigners, especially Americans, Western diplomats in Beijing said.

In trying to neutralize foreign NGOs, Beijing is in part building on methods used to quash Falun Gong. After declaring the spiritual movement illegal in 1999, Beijing infiltrated the group and identified many among its millions of followers, both within China and overseas.

As with Falun Gong, the security consultant said government agencies were compiling lists of foreign NGOs and their members. He declined to specify whether electronic surveillance or infiltration, a textbook tactic for China's police and spying agencies, were being used.

Part of the research into NGOs, including into Darfur groups, was being conducted by the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security that also has an Olympic security task force, the two analysts said.

Officials in China's overseas diplomatic missions are also being tasked to gather information on groups, the consultant said.

When The Associated Press reported in May on plans by U.S. and other Christian groups to proselytize at the Olympics, the press officer at China's U.N. mission contacted the AP seeking more information.

"Africa, global warming, Darfur," said the security consultant, "without the Olympic Games, Beijing would not be paying attention to these things."

Chad: EU Ministers Back Peacekeepers

From the AP

European Union nations agreed Monday to start planning for a possible 3,000-member peacekeeping mission to Chad to help provide security and aid to tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in neighboring Darfur.

A meeting of EU foreign ministers said any mission had to be backed by the United Nations "with a clearly defined exit strategy" and in cooperation with the African Union, neighboring countries and humanitarian aid groups.

Monday's green-light will allow EU experts to gather information and data on what countries could provide forces for the mission and allow the United Nations in New York to start drafting a resolution for it.

Amnesty International appealed to the EU nations to act fast. The London-based rights group said 170,000 refugees from Darfur have fled into Chad because of violence and abuse "carried out by janjaweed militia and rebel movements."

The four-year conflict between Sudan's ethnic African rebels and its pro-government janjaweed militia has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million in Darfur.

Several EU nations, led by Germany and including the Netherlands, Estonia and Greece, have expressed reservations about sending troops to Chad, said diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, supported by Britain and Sweden, is eager to push ahead with planning, which could lead to a final EU decision on sending troops before the end of the year.

Chadian President Idriss Deby last week said he supported an interim EU peacekeeping force.

Darfur: Crisis Devolves Into ‘Anarchy’

From McClatchy

As far as Osman Ahmed could tell, the clashes that forced his family from their home were no different from the attacks that have devastated Darfur for four years.

“The village was totally burned and looted. It was the janjaweed,” said Ahmed, a tired-looking man in a long white gown, invoking the name of the government-sponsored Arab militias responsible for most of the recent carnage in western Sudan.

But Ahmed, who fled immediately with his family to safety in a refugee camp at Nertiti, about seven miles away, wasn’t around to see what happened the following day. Darfur rebels retaliated by striking a nearby government security station, and their allies in the attack were also Arab janjaweed.

The account of the clashes around Songa village on June 9 and 10, given by African Union peacekeepers manning a small mountain outpost here in central Darfur, illustrates part of an increasingly upside-down security picture in Darfur. With some janjaweed now fighting alongside rebels they once tried to kill — and with the rebels riven by disputes and attacking peacekeepers and aid workers — this is hardly the same conflict of four years ago.

As desperate as life has become in Darfur, the new complications could make things worse.

At least 200,000 people — and perhaps as many as 400,000 — have been killed in Darfur since 2003, when Sudan’s Arab-led, government-armed janjaweed tried to quell an uprising by non-Arab tribes demanding more political autonomy. The government’s proxy war — labeled by the Bush administration as genocide — has emptied Darfur’s countryside into refugee camps and unleashed what aid workers describe as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

Now there is a new set of problems: Few people know who is attacking or why. Armed groups are breaking off and recombining according to the tactical advantage that day. Aid agencies and peacekeepers are at greater risk than ever.

“One of the problems with the security situation at this point: It is not two sides fighting against each other,” Andrew Natsios, President Bush’s special envoy to Sudan, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April. “It’s anarchy.”

The U.N. said that since the start of the year, 140,000 more people have fled their homes, pushing the number of people displaced in Darfur past 2.2 million, a new high. An additional 236,000 are refugees in neighboring Chad.

Analysts say the reordering of the war has greatly complicated diplomatic efforts to rescue a moribund peace agreement signed 14 months ago by Sudan’s government and one rebel faction. The accord — negotiated by then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and other high-powered diplomats — was rejected by two rival rebel groups because it offered too little compensation to war victims and few guarantees of political power.

Sudan’s government has failed to implement its end of the peace deal, which requires it to disarm the janjaweed. Instead, the government continues to arm multiple groups, according to U.N., African Union and academic experts. A U.N. report in April documented extensive air shipments of heavy weaponry into Darfur by the government, in violation of an arms embargo.

But the biggest obstacle to peace — and the gravest threat to Darfur’s people — is the rebels themselves, who have split from three groups into as many as 16. Few articulate any clear political demands, but their young, undisciplined fighters increasingly act as bandits, targeting Darfur’s 12,500 aid workers and 7,000 African Union peacekeepers.

Now, analysts say, coaxing the rebels back to the negotiating table is a major challenge.

The biggest task for international mediators is to reunite the rebel movements, said David Mozersky, a Sudan expert with the International Crisis Group think tank.

“The rebels have definitely complicated things. But it’s not impossible,” he said.

That may be an optimistic reading. Various rebel groups have been blamed for assaults this year that have left nine peacekeepers dead and for hijacking more than 70 vehicles from the African Union and aid agencies — mostly new SUVs outfitted with expensive communications systems. Aid workers say they cannot reach about one-quarter of displaced people — more than a half-million people — because of the threat of carjacking and kidnapping in rebel-controlled areas.

“The various armed groups are using the international community as a resource to equip themselves,” said Simon Crittle, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program in Khartoum, the capital. “Now it just seems like everyone’s got a gun and everyone is dangerous. It’s terrifying for the (humanitarian) staff.”

In mid-June, the aid agency Oxfam announced that it was ending operations in Darfur’s largest camp, Gereida, which shelters 130,000 people. The decision came after armed men raided Oxfam compounds in December, stole 12 cars, raped one aid worker and subjected others to mock executions.

Oxfam officials blamed the rebel group controlling the area — the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army led by Minni Minnawi of the minority Zaghawa tribe, the only rebel leader to sign the peace deal — for not improving security since the attack, and some suspected Minnawi’s people were responsible.

Over the past year, the SLA has devolved from two rival groups — one led by Minnawi, the other by Abdol Wahid al Nur of the larger Fur tribe — into at least a half-dozen.

To the war-weary people of Darfur, nothing seems to symbolize the international community’s inability to end the four-year-old conflict more than the 7,000 African Union peacekeepers stationed here.

Tasked with monitoring a cease-fire that the Sudanese government and rebel groups have never taken seriously, the peacekeepers find themselves the targets of growing hostility from civilians — and, more worryingly, the armed factions.

In April, unidentified gunmen killed seven peacekeepers in three attacks in two weeks. In the most brazen assault, a Ghanaian peacekeeper was murdered in a carjacking just a few hundred yards from the mission’s Darfur headquarters in El Fasher, within sight of fellow peacekeepers. The guards, from Gambia, allowed the assailants to get away, and no pursuit was ordered.

Since then, commanders have sharply curtailed patrols in much of Darfur, leaving most refugee camps without a peacekeeper presence and contributing to the perception that the mission is ineffectual.

“They are useless,” said Mohammed Ismail, 31, who lives in a camp for displaced people in Nertiti, in central Darfur. “We still have security problems. We need the United Nations — maybe they will do something.”

Darfur/Chad: EU Takes First Step Toward Refugee Force

From Reuters

The European Union took the first step on Monday towards sending forces to Chad and the Central African Republican to help the United Nations protect refugees trapped in the violent region bordering Darfur.

Eastern Chad and northern Central African Republic have seen a spillover from the 4-year-old conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, with cross border raids by Sudanese militias and the influx of tens of thousands of refugees.

But refugees and villagers in the remote areas have also been victims of fighting by local rebel and government troops, as well as bandits who have turned the Chad-Sudan-CAR triangle into one of the most dangerous and desperate regions on earth.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels issued a statement saying they had asked the bloc's military staff to plan a possible operation "in support of the multidimensional U.N. presence in Eastern Chad and North-Eastern Central African Republic with a view to improving security in those areas".

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno urged the EU last week to deploy highly mobile troops by the end of 2007, for about a year, to help protect a zone in Chad 900 km (560 miles) long by 200-400 km (125-250 miles) wide and a small part of the Central African Republic.

The United Nations would train and support Chadian police while the European Union would protect civilians, humanitarian workers and the U.N. mission, Guehenno said.

France, a former colonial power in Chad, is expected to provide the bulk of the EU troops.

However, EU foreign ministers said they needed a U.N. Security Council resolution, with a clearly defined exit strategy, before sending troops.

Darfur: Bashir Takes a New Tack

From the Los Angeles Times

On the second day of a rare visit to Darfur, President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir unveiled several development projects meant to bolster the war-torn region, but he did not visit any of the camps filled with people displaced by years of systematic violence blamed on militias linked to his government.

Instead he met with leaders from the refugee camps who said that 1,000 families were ready to return to their villages, even as officials from the United Nations complained about fresh attacks on civilians near El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur province, where Bashir will wind up his tour today.

Darfur's conflict began in 2003 here in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur province, when rebels attacked government troops and demanded that Khartoum share more wealth and power with the long-neglected region. The government is accused of unleashing Arab militias to clear the areas where rebel movements were based, and of promising the so-called janjaweed that they could use the vacated land and keep the livestock.

Since then, more than 200,000 people have died in the conflict and more than 2 million have been displaced, according to estimates by international experts. Khartoum says 9,000 people have died, and it denies any link to the armed groups that have terrorized the area.

But now, as the U.N. Security Council prepares to authorize 26,000 peacekeepers and police to stabilize the region and talk of sanctions gains momentum, the government is taking a new tack.

"We have lost the media war so far," said Interior Minister Zubeir Bashir Taha. "But we are not going to lose it forever."

Taha said the government had greatly increased spending in Darfur in the last year.

"Of course the government has responsibility for the people displaced, and we are spending a lot of money to show our responsibility," he said.

The tour by Bashir and his Cabinet has been dominated by health clinic openings, rallies and visits to newly built wells. At the compound of the governor of North Darfur, tiny deer wandered the grassy grounds while tribal leaders lounged under shade trees. In an air-conditioned hall, the Cabinet assessed government projects in the area.

"During our visit we confirmed that most of Darfur is now secure and enjoying real peace," Bashir said during the open meeting. "People are living normal lives."

But in camps nearby where villagers have sought refuge after militias plundered their villages, residents said their lives had been anything but normal. They pleaded for better facilities during the July rainy season, saying their makeshift homes and tarps could not keep them dry.

The refugees asked in an open letter to the government and the U.N. for a strong U.N. presence to protect them in the camps and when they go home. They also want the militias that attacked them disarmed.

The camps have become a breeding ground of frustration and despair, and of new leaders in the fight with the government for better treatment.

In the meantime, the government has lodged formal objections to plans for new peacekeepers, saying it won't allow troops to use force to protect civilians and aid workers from attackers. French and British leaders said Friday that they would send their foreign ministers to New York to push for U.N. action "with the greatest speed," and they threatened to push sanctions for anyone who worked against the peace process.

In El Fasher, Bashir contended that peace was finally on its way to Darfur. The government has agreed to talk to rebels who previously refused to come to the bargaining table, and more rebel groups will probably sign on in a few days.

The government hopes to begin peace negotiations as early as next month, Bashir said.

"That confirms that the Darfur crisis is on the way to be solved finally, and this conference is confirmation of the unity," he said.

Darfur: Bashir Slams Bush and Brown

From AFP

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has accused US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of exaggerating Darfur’s problems in order to hide their "failure" in Iraq.

"Bush and Brown exaggerate what’s happening in Darfur to hide... their two countries’ failure to contain the situation (in Iraq)," Beshir said during a rare visit to the war-torn western region.

During a speech in Darfur’s main city of Al-Fasher to representatives of the thousands displaced by fighting, Beshir challenged Bush and Brown, two of his strongest critics, to address large crowds of Iraqis in Baghdad as he did to Darfuris.

"No American or British official dares announce a visit to Iraq until it’s already over," he said, and also criticised unnamed humanitarian organisations working in Darfur.

"Some of these organisations collect money in the name of Darfur without spending it on the displaced and use the crisis for mercantile purposes," he charged.

"We will not accept the camps for the displaced being turned into museums exhibiting human distress to the eyes of the world," he said.

Darfur: Rebels Call for Equal Representation

From Reuters

A newly formed Darfur rebel group on Monday said a meeting of rebel leaders in Tanzania next month must give "equal representation" to all insurgents in Sudan's conflict-torn western region.

The United Front for Liberation and Development (UFLD) -- formed in the Eritrean capital this month -- said it was prepared to attend the meeting in Tanzania aimed at starting peace talks to end the four-year conflict.

"In an attempt to redefine the crisis and depart from the limited focus on individual leaders with their narrow self-interest, the UFLD insists on equal representation for all resistance movements," it said in a statement on Monday.

"The Front is opposed to preconditions that exclude other forces and thereby create unnecessary complications; and, also condemns the wasteful tactics of showmanship and grandstanding."

Darfur rebels fractured into more than a dozen armed groups after an unpopular peace deal last year with Khartoum that only one faction signed.

The United Nations and the African Union called a meeting in Tanzania, to be held from Aug. 3-5, to consult rebels on when and where they might hold peace talks with Khartoum, and to get them to agree on a common negotiating platform.

The group's statement came after a weekend meeting between a joint U.N.-AU delegation and the group in the Eritrean capital.

Darfur: China's Delicate Role

An op-ed by Jason Qian and Anne Wu in The Boston Globe

SOME IN the West have recently begun referring to the 2008 Beijing Olympics as the "Genocide Olympics" because of China's continued business ties with Sudan and its reluctance to intervene decisively in the Darfur conflict. Is China really turning a cold shoulder to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, or has the explosive charge of complicity in genocide blinded observers to China's aid and quiet diplomacy in Sudan?

Global outrage is growing over the massacre in Darfur; Beijing is not exempt from this feeling. But there is a significant difference between China and the West in approaching the issue.

China's strategy is one of humanitarian and development aid plus influence without interference, in contrast to the West's coercive approach of sanctions plus military intervention. Through high-level diplomacy -- such as Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Sudan in February and the dispatch of special envoys -- and multilateral platforms such as the United Nations and the China-Africa summit, China has been making tactical moves to press the Sudanese government to comply with the international community's requests. China deserves credit for securing Khartoum's agreement on allowing UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

China's approach toward the Darfur crisis takes the long view. It perceives the root causes of the turmoil as poverty and a lack of resources, which have led to decades of fighting between local tribes and ethnic groups over basic necessities, such as water resources, land, and infrastructure. Therefore, China's approach to solve the long-lasting conflict in the Darfur region has been to provide comprehensive development assistance in addition to humanitarian aid.

Beijing has agreed to offer $10.4 million of humanitarian aid to Darfur and delivered half of the aid during its special envoy's trip to Sudan in May. Beijing also has invested $30 million in a dam project in the northern part of Darfur, as well as provided goods and materials for building more than 120 schools, facilities for transportation and electric generation, and other necessities for economic development. China also plans to send 275 military engineers to a UN force this month to implement initial stages of the Kofi Annan peace plan, which bolsters African Union peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

The lack of progress in stopping the massacre and the slow effect of the development aid has left China in an awkward position. On the one hand, due to its foreign policy principle of non interference, as well as its investment in Sudan, Beijing traditionally has been reluctant to put strong pressure on Khartoum, believing that wielding sticks would only prove counterproductive. On the other hand, outsiders assume that China's substantial interest in Sudanese oil gives it persuasive power over Khartoum.

However, China's political influence in Darfur should not be overvalued. At the same time that Beijing's investment in Sudan provides economic leverage, it also makes Beijing a hostage. Consistent with its non interference foreign policy, China does not attach political conditions to its economic relationship with Khartoum, thus making it a more credible partner to Sudan.

When Western leaders press Beijing to flex its economic muscles in the Darfur crisis, they often underestimate the tendency of African countries -- including Sudan -- to resist influence from external forces. Beijing will lose its credibility and de facto influence if it overreaches its will politically. The effective influence that Beijing can exert over the Darfur crisis lies in its delicate balance between practicing an influence-without-interference strategy and maintaining the hard-won trust of the Sudanese government.

Frankly, it seems more convenient for Western leaders to blame China than to face their own responsibilities for a humanitarian crisis that they could do far more to stop. Given Washington's oil-centered foreign policy throughout the past whole century and its previous record of violating the UN-sponsored sanctions against South Africa's apartheid government under the "Constructive Engagement" argument, it seems the current outcry against China is at least partially a tactic to divert public attention.

Darfur: A Godsend or a Curse?

From the New York Times

THE announcement by researchers at Boston University last week that a vast underground lake the size of Lake Erie had been discovered beneath the barren soil of northern Darfur, a blood-soaked but otherwise parched land racked by war for the past four years, was greeted by rapturous hopes. Could this, at last, bring deliverance from a cataclysmic conflict that has killed at least 200,000 people and pushed more than 2.5 million from their homes?

That hope is built upon an argument, advanced by a United Nations report released last month and an opinion article in The Washington Post by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, that environmental degradation and the symptoms of a warming planet are at the root of the Darfur crisis.

“There is a very strong link between land degradation, desertification and conflict in Darfur,” said the United Nations Environmental Program report, which noted that rainfall in northern Darfur has decreased by a third over the last 80 years. “Exponential population growth and related environmental stress have created the conditions for conflicts to be triggered and sustained by political, tribal or ethnic differences,” the report said, adding that Darfur “can be considered a tragic example of the social breakdown that can result from ecological collapse.”

The idea that more water — unearthed through a thousand wells sunk into the underground lake — could neatly defuse the crisis is seductive. Messy African conflicts, from Congo to Liberia, from northern Uganda to Angola, have a way of defying all efforts to solve them. Instead, they seem to become hopelessly more complex as they drag on, year after agonizing year. A scientific explanation for the problem (environmental degradation) along with a tidy technological solution (irrigation) gratifies the modern humanitarian impulse.

But the history of Sudan, a grim chronicle of civil war, famine, coups and despotism, gives ample reason to be skeptical.

“Like all resources water can be used for good or ill,” said Alex de Waal, a scholar who has studied the impact of climate variation in Sudan and who witnessed the 1984-85 famine that is often cited as the beginning of the ecological crisis gripping Darfur. “It can be a blessing or also a curse. If the government acts true to form and tries to create some sort of oasis in the desert and control who settles there, that would simply be an extension of the crisis, not a solution.”

The droughts that gripped Sudan in the 1980s, and the migrations and other social changes they forced, have doubtless played a role in the conflict by increasing competition for water and land between farmers, who tend to be non-Arab, and herders, many of whom are Arabs. But an environmental catastrophe cannot become a violent cataclysm without a powerful human hand to guide it in that direction.

“These wider environmental factors don’t have impact in and of themselves” in terms of fomenting conflict, Mr. de Waal said. “The question is how they are managed.”

In fact, while different regions and social groups suffer severely, Sudan as a whole has riches to spare, in oil, fertile soil, and even water. Indeed, history suggests that this newly discovered lake is just as likely to become a source of conflict as a solution to the bloodshed.

[edit]

In this analysis, the heart of the Darfur conflict, as in all conflicts in Sudan, is the battle for control of resources and riches, but not between farmers and herders, northerners and southerners, Christians and Muslims, or Arabs and non-Arabs.

It is a conflict between those at the center of the country, the elites who have controlled Sudan and its wealth for the past century and a half, and the desperately poor people who beg for scraps from the periphery.

Until that equation changes, many analysts argue, nothing else will.

Zimbabwe: Annan Calls Downward Spiral Intolerable

From the AP

Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan described the situation in Zimbabwe as intolerable, and criticized African leaders who cling to power.

He also made a veiled reference Sunday to the crisis in western Sudan, saying "national sovereignty can no longer be used as a shield by governments that massacre their own people."

Annan was delivering the fifth annual Nelson Mandela lecture — one of a number events marking the 89th birthday on July 18 of the anti-apartheid hero and former South African president.

Even though some African countries had made progress toward democracy and good governance, the continent still retains its reputation for poverty, war and corruption. The violence in Sudan's Darfur region and the economic downturn in Zimbabwe are seen as two of the most pressing crises.

"The ever downward spiral of Zimbabwe is both intolerable and unsustainable; we all have a stake in resolving the crisis," Annan said.

Uganda: We Won't Lift Kony Arrest Yet , Says Museveni

From New Vision

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has ruled out asking the International Criminal Court (ICC) to lift the arrest warrants against the Lord's Resistance Army rebels before a peace deal is reached.

Addressing journalists at State House Nakasero yesterday, Museveni stated that the rebels must sign the comprehensive peace agreement in Juba, South Sudan before any action is taken.

"We are not going to ask ICC to lift the arrest warrants. You must leave the warrants alone. If they don't conclude the peace talks they could be arrested and taken to the ICC or get killed. There is no shortcut.

"If they conclude the peace deal, that is when the government can write to the ICC to say we have found an alternative solution," the President stressed.

He warned that even if the ICC lifted the arrest warrants, the government could still hunt down the rebels using the national laws.

"Those fellows are still on treason charges. Even if the ICC was to lift it, we shall hunt them down and our punishment is much harsher than that of the ICC. You know ICC doesn't sentence you to death. But here, you know how things move."

In 2005, the ICC issued five arrest warrants for top LRA commanders over war crimes and crimes against humanity. But since the negotiations started, the LRA has requested that the ICC drop the charges as a condition for the conclusion of any peace agreement.

ICC prosecutor Moreno Ocampo told the New Vision recently that the arrest warrants would not be lifted unless there was a legal challenge from the government or the LRA to the ICC judges.

Museveni said ICC must be supported because it was created to stop impunity in the world.

"One of the international bodies I support is this ICC. It is good because for people to do terrible things and get away with it because the world is not coordinated, is really bad. This court coordinates the world. We should all give it support."

The international involvement through the ICC, the President explained, is a soft-landing for the rebels.

"Because even if Kony was to go to the ICC, he would not be hanged. He would be sentenced to a life imprisonment. It is much better for him."

He, however, said the traditional justice system of Mato Oput, a form of social accountability for crimes committed, could be pursued as an alternative.

Darfur: Sudan Rejects Use of Force by UN/AU Mission

From Reuters

Sudan on Sunday said it rejected part of a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would give joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping troops the right to use force in their Darfur mission.

The draft resolution introduced by Britain and France is aimed at sending 26,000 troops to Sudan's arid western region in a deal pressed on Khartoum after months of talks, threats and negotiations.

Interior Minister Zubeir Bashir Taha said Western governments appeared to have misinterpreted Khartoum's acceptance of the mission that would allow foreign troops into Sudan.

The draft resolution for the mission includes the U.N.'s Chapter VII mandate which authorises "all necessary means in the areas of deployment of its forces" to protect its troops, secure a peace agreement and seize arms.

"We have reservations regarding interpretations made by other parties... regarding the hybrid operation," Taha told Reuters.

Asked if he rejected the U.N.'s Chapter VII mandate, Taha said: "Yes of course. That is a problem. There's no way they can enforce anything on us. This is a free state."

Last year, Khartoum flatly rejected a different resolution, numbered 1706, which authorised around 22,000 U.N. troops with a strong mandate to take over from around 7,000 struggling African Union troops and police.

Khartoum agreed to a compromise for the joint AU-U.N. force.

More than four years since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against central government accusing it of neglecting the region, international experts estimate 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes.

While Khartoum's consent is not needed for the resolution, member states fear the government could hinder deployment if they disagreed with the mandate.

Sudan's foreign ministry spokesman had said earlier that a compromise could be reached on the language of the mandate, declining to give details.

But diplomats say the United States will not back down on the Chapter VII mandate. Washington calls the violence genocide, a term Khartoum rejects and European governments are reluctant to use.

The 26,000-strong joint force aims to deploy by next year, but finding land to build their barracks is not easy.

Darfur: Two Rebel Groups Set Conditions for Peace Meeting

From Reuters

The leaders of two important Darfur rebel factions have set difficult conditions for attending a U.N.-African Union meeting in August in Tanzania to plan for future peace talks.

The Arusha meeting on Aug. 3-5 hopes to get the movements to agree to a venue for future peace talks, a unified platform for negotiations and to stem the factionalism that has plagued previous peace talks and fed violence in Darfur.

U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim stepped up efforts in recent weeks to push talks to the table, after criticism of an initial slow pace.

Most Darfur rebel groups, including a new rebel umbrella of five groups formed last week under Eritrean mediation, said they would attend.

But founder and chairman of the Sudan Liberation Movement Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur said his group would not go to Arusha or peace talks until demands were met, including compensation for victims and a no-fly zone over all of Darfur.

"We will not be a part of Arusha until an oil-for-food programme is in place with money going to humanitarian aid," Nur said in a statement sent to Reuters.

Nur has few loyal troops left but he is from Darfur's largest Fur tribe and enjoys huge popular support, especially in the camps.

Another key group with a large contingent of troops said it would not go to Arusha until an SLM unity meeting took place.

"Before we go to Arusha or talks, there has to be a unity meeting to decide who from the SLM is going," said Jar el-Neby, a commander whose group controls large swathes of North Darfur and is one of the few whose leadership is in the field.

But he added that the AU and United Nations were moving in the right direction.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million forced from their homes in more than four years of revolt in Darfur. Washington calls the violence genocide and blames the government and its allied militias.

Khartoum rejects the term and puts the death toll at 9,000, blaming Western media for exaggerating the conflict.

In the early years of the conflict the rebels were largely seen as fighting for the rights of their people, who they say are marginalised by central authorities.

But infighting, factionalism and increasing violence by rebel commanders against the world's largest aid operation and AU peacekeepers has turned international opinion against them.

Only one of three negotiating factions signed a May 2006 peace deal in Abuja and since then groups have split into more than a dozen factions, creating lawlessness in large areas of West and South Darfur.

While Libyan and Eritrean initiatives seem to be uniting some, deep rifts remain and not all have agreed to go to Arusha.

"We will go and listen to what is there; if it helps unify the people then we will follow it up. We have done our bit to unify. We hope the others also make that move," Sherif Harir, a senior member of the newly formed United Front for Liberation and Development, told Reuters.

The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Khalil Ibrahim also said it would attend the meeting.

JEM was hard line in talks in 2005-2006 in Nigeria. But since Ibrahim was named on a U.S. sanctions list this year, he has moved back to Darfur and adopted a more compliant position.

Other smaller factions of the SLM are negotiating to unite in Tripoli under Libyan mediation and agreed to go to Arusha.

Observers say Harir's group in Asmara contains senior and respected SLM figures but it is unclear how many troops are still under their control in Darfur. JEM and the Tripoli grouping have few soldiers and the leadership has been criticised for remaining outside the region.

Eliasson said they hoped to issue invitations to the negotiating table to specific rebel groups by the end of August. Envoys had earlier set an August deadline for talks to begin.

"We want to avoid the deadline diplomacy which created the problems of Abuja," said one senior Western diplomat in Khartoum. "But there still has to be a sense of urgency."

Darfur: Bashir Visits, Calls for Peace

From AFP

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir launched a call for peace during a rare visit to war-torn Darfur intended to show Khartoum’s desire to develop the arid desert region.

Speaking to a gathering in Nyala, capital of the south Darfur state, Beshir called on rebels who did not sign a May 2006 peace deal to join the political process.

"The citizens just want a comprehensive peace followed by development," Beshir said.

"That is why I call on the armed rebels to join the political process so that together we can reconstruct Darfur."

During his three-day visit Beshir is due to inaugurate several projects including new roads and hospitals.

On Sunday, he will chair an extraordinary cabinet meeting in Al-Fasher, the capital of north Darfur, to discuss developing the region which is devoid of infrastructure.

Darfur: Village 'Abandoned'

From AFP

The Sudanese government has abandoned a village in the strife torn region of Darfur to attacks by men in military uniform despite UN appeals for protection, the United Nations human rights office said on Friday.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour urged Khartoum to restore police presence to protect the 4 500 people in Bir Dagig from beatings, abductions and sexual abuse by the armed group, spokesperson Jose Diaz said.

"A number of human rights abuses are said to have been committed in the village of Bir Dagig mostly by armed men in military uniform since July 1," Diaz told journalists.

"We're worried this case is symptomatic of either the inability or the unwillingness of the authorities to protect the civilian population in Darfur," he added.

UN human rights monitors were forced to leave the village 30km from Geneina in west Darfur on Wednesday, after it was surrounded by the armed men on horseback or camels.

The men were sent by a neighbouring "Arab" community, which claims residents of Bir Dagig stole its livestock, according to the United Nations.

Diaz said the villagers have denied the claim and complaints of abuse, especially against women and girls, dated back to January.

"The government initially deployed extra police to the village only to withdraw them completely in April, so there's no police presence in this village now," he added.

Khartoum's pledges to redeploy police and investigate both the allegations of thefts and of violence, had failed to materialise, Diaz said.

"These things have not been done so far and the human rights abuses persist."

"The High Commissioner is urging the government to act immediately on its pledges," Diaz added. There were no reports of killings.

Darfur: Biden and Lugar Introduce Resolution Calling for Immediate Deployment of UN Peacekeepers

A press release from Sen. Joe Biden

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) and Ranking Member Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) have introduced a bipartisan Senate resolution which calls for the immediate deployment of a peacekeeping mission to Darfur and lays out benchmarks for that mission.

“We have a moral obligation here, and it's very simple: stop the genocide in Darfur—now,” said Senator Biden. “The U.S. and the international community must deploy a multilateral peacekeeping force as soon as possible. This force must be sufficient in size and equipment and have the mandate – and the means – to protect the people of Darfur. Peace in Darfur requires a global response. The U.S. can and will play a major role, but so must the United Nations and the African Union.”

Four years of genocide in Darfur and the surrounding region has left hundreds of thousands of people dead and driven millions more into camps. Last month the Sudanese government agreed, as it has previously, to the deployment of a full-scale, joint peacekeeping operation by the United Nations and the African Union. But in the weeks since then, President al-Bashir has continued his long pattern of backpedaling away from his commitments and at times seemed to recant his promise to allow peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

The Biden-Lugar resolution specifically calls for the United States and the international community to raise the forces and contribute the air and ground vehicles and equipment that will be needed to deploy an immediate peacekeeping mission to Darfur. Additionally, the resolution underscores the need for a sustained, high-level diplomatic effort to forge a comprehensive peace settlement. In the event that Khartoum does not abide by its commitments, the resolution calls for the imposition of meaningful measures including multilateral sanctions and a no fly zone. The resolution also makes clear the responsibility of all parties – including the Khartoum government, its militia and rebel groups – to guarantee humanitarian groups access to those in need and security.

Members of the United Nations Security Council are currently considering a new resolution authorizing the hybrid peacekeeping mission.

“Over the past four years, as many as 400,000 people have died in the 21st century's first genocide. Millions more remain in grave danger, trapped in camps on both sides of the Chadian border. The world stands at a critical moment: we must collectively assume our responsibility to protect the people of Darfur,” said Senator Biden. “And if Khartoum does not fulfill its part of the agreement and allow the full deployment of the peacekeeping mission, then the international community must impose multilateral sanctions, an expanded arms embargo, and a no fly zone over Darfur.”

The Biden-Lugar resolution has the following cosponsors: Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Russ Feingold (D- WI), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).

Darfur: France and Britain to Press for UN Action

From the AP

The leaders of France and Britain said Friday that they would be prepared to go to Darfur to press for peace and would together lobby the UN Security Council to act.

"People are dying, and people are suffering, and it must stop," said President Nicolas Sarkozy of France at a news conference with Gordon Brown, the new British prime minister, following their first meeting since both took office.

Brown said that France and Britain would press for a UN resolution to dispatch African Union and United Nations peacekeepers to the area. Brown added that he and Sarkozy would send their foreign ministers to New York to press for UN action "with the greatest speed."

"We hope that that resolution will pass quickly," he said. "Once the United Nations resolution is passed, we are prepared to go together to Darfur to make sure that the peace process is moving forward," said Brown.

He called the situation in the western Sudanese region a "great humanitarian disaster."

Brown also said Britain and France would attempt to secure an immediate cease-fire in Darfur and were prepared to provide "substantial" economic aid "as soon as a cease-fire makes it possible."

If no action is taken, however, "we will be prepared to consider as individual countries a toughening up of sanctions" against the Sudanese regime, he added.

The United Nations human rights chief on Friday called on Sudan to protect a village of 4,500 people in western Darfur where armed men in military uniform have carried out abductions and sexual violence, Reuters reported from Geneva.

Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged the Khartoum government to fulfill its pledge to set up a permanent police presence in the village of Bir Dagig and also to investigate the abuses.

"A number of human rights abuses are said to have been committed in the village of Bir Dagig, mostly by armed men in military uniform since the first of July," said José-Luis Diaz, a UN human rights spokesman.

UN human rights officers on July 1 had "documented forced abductions, beatings and acts of gender-based violence." During a second visit Wednesday, they witnessed armed men surrounding the village center and demanding money in compensation for the alleged theft of livestock, Diaz said. A neighboring Arab community has accused the residents of Bir Dagig of stealing livestock, a charge they deny, he added.

Experts estimate that violence in Darfur since 2003 has killed 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes. Diaz, asked whether the armed men were members of the Janjaweed militia, replied: "It is said to be men coming from or on behalf of this neighboring Arab community. They are said to be in uniforms and armed and to be coming on camels or horseback."

The Khartoum government initially deployed extra police to the village but withdrew them completely in April, he said. It had also sent senior officials to attempt to resolve the dispute, pledging to investigate human rights abuses.

From Reuters

Britain and France said on Friday they would push for the U.N. Security Council to quickly authorise thousands of troops and police for Darfur and told Khartoum to act fast on the crisis or face more sanctions.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a news conference they would dispatch their foreign ministers to U.N. headquarters in New York to pressure the council's disputing members into reaching an agreement fast.

"We cannot wait another month before the resolution is passed by the United Nations and we cannot wait more months before we see action on the ground that makes the situation better today than it has been for the last few years," Brown told reporters after their first meeting since taking office.

The council is considering a five-page draft resolution sponsored by Britain, France and Ghana that Sudan and several council members say contains too many references to humanitarian and other issues, including a threat of "further measures" if any of the parties "fail to fulfil their commitments or cooperate fully".

Without the resolution, which would authorise up to 26,000 troops and police from the African Union and United Nations, U.N. member states will not commit personnel to Sudan's violent Darfur region.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in the western Sudanese region where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died.

The violence flared after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in 2003, accusing Sudan's government of neglecting the remote, arid western region. Khartoum mobilized brutal Janjaweed militias to quell the revolt. Khartoum denies supporting them, and puts the death toll at 9,000.

Brown and Sarkozy said they were prepared to go to Darfur after the resolution was passed to speak to the people involved and to monitor progress in the peace process. Brown added that Paris and London would work for an immediate ceasefire.

"We are even ready, if the resolution were voted, to go to Darfur, Chad and Sudan together," Sarkozy said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said there was a "successful" first round of talks with international envoys in Tripoli, Libya, on Sunday in an effort to get a dozen splintered rebel groups to come to peace talks with the government.

"We will be prepared to contribute substantial sums in economic support as soon as a ceasefire makes it possible for us to make possible economic development in that area," Brown said.

He added that he and Sarkozy would keep a close eye on Khartoum to ensure it was taking the steps necessary to ease the suffering of Darfur's people.

"We will be strong in saying that unless action is taken we will be prepared to consider as individual countries a toughening up of sanctions that will put pressure on the regime to make the changes that are necessary," Brown said.

Sarkozy said the pair would lobby other key players, such as Sudan's ally China, to ensure action was taken quickly.

"That is what we are trying to do -- mobilise energies as far as the Chinese to obtain results. We cannot guarantee success. But what Gordon and I guarantee is that we are determined to shake up the system," the French president said.

Darfur: U.N.'s Arbour Tells Sudan to Protect Village

From Reuters

The United Nations human rights chief on Friday called on Sudan to protect a village of 4,500 people in West Darfur where armed men in military uniform have carried out abductions and sexual violence.

Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged the Khartoum government to fulfil its pledge to set up a permanent police presence in the village of Bir Dagig, 30 kms north of el-Geneina, and also investigate the abuses.

"A number of human rights abuses are said to have been committed in the village of Bir Dagig, mostly by armed men in military uniform since the first of July," U.N. human rights spokesman Jose-Luis Diaz told a news briefing.

U.N. human rights officers sent to the village on July 1 following months of complaints had "documented forced abductions, beatings and acts of gender-based violence."

During a second visit on Wednesday, they witnessed armed men surrounding the village centre and demanding money in compensation for the alleged theft of livestock, Diaz said.

A neighbouring Arab community has accused the residents of Bir Dagig of stealing livestock, a charge they deny, he added.

Experts estimate that violence in Darfur since 2003 has killed 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes. Khartoum, which mobilised militias called Janjaweed to quell the revolt, puts the death toll at 9,000.

Diaz, asked whether the armed men were Janjaweed, replied: "It is said to be men coming from or on behalf of this neighbouring Arab community. They are said to be in uniforms and armed and to be coming on camels or horseback."

The Khartoum government initially deployed extra police to the village but withdrew them completely in April, he said. It had also sent senior officials to attempt to resolve the row, pledging to probe both livestock theft and human rights abuses.

"These things have not been done so far ... We're worried that the case is symptomatic of either the inability or the unwillingness of the authorities to protect the civilian population in Darfur," Diaz said.

Further violence in the village was also feared, he said.

From the AP

Villagers in western Darfur told U.N. staff they were beaten, abducted and sexually assaulted by armed men in military uniforms, a U.N. human rights official said Friday.

Jose Diaz, spokesman for U.N. human rights chief Louise Arbour, said the alleged abuses occurred earlier this month in Bir Dagig, near Sudan's border with Chad. They were committed by armed men in military uniforms riding on camels and horses, he said.

"A number of human rights abuses are said to have been committed," he told reporters at the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva. "The problem in the area appears to have been sparked by accusations from a neighboring Arab community that the villagers had stolen their livestock - a charge the residents of Bir Dagig deny."

U.N. staff have visited the village twice this month and collected accounts from villagers of abuses. There were no reports of deaths. During their second visit, on Wednesday, U.N. officials were forced to leave the village.

"They personally witnessed the arrival of armed men who surrounded the village center and demanded money in compensation for the alleged theft of the livestock," Diaz said.

An estimated 200,000 people have been killed and around 2.5 million displaced in the four-year conflict in Darfur that began when rebels from ethnic African tribes rose up against the central government. Khartoum is accused of having responded with indiscriminate killings by unleashing the janjaweed militias of Arab nomads - blamed for the worst atrocities in Darfur. The government denies these charges.

Diaz said the Sudanese government initially deployed extra police to the village, but withdrew them completely in April.

"There's no police presence in this village now," he said.

The government has promised the U.N. that it would investigate the dispute and the alleged rights abuses. It also has pledged to deploy a permanent police presence to Bir Dagig, but "these things have not been done so far and human rights abuses and intimidation persist," Diaz said.

Diaz said Arbour, the U.N. rights chief, is demanding that Sudan step up protection for the citizens of Darfur.

"We are concerned now about possible further violence given the presence of the armed men," he said.

Darfur: Lake 'Is Dried Up'

From BBC

A vast underground lake that scientists hoped could help to end violence in Sudan's Darfur region probably dried up thousands of years ago, an expert says.

Alain Gachet, who used satellite images and radar in his research, said the area received too little rain and had the wrong rock types for water storage.

But the French geologist said there was enough water elsewhere in Darfur to end the fighting and rebuild the economy.

Analysts say competition for resources such as water is behind the unrest.

More than 200,000 Darfuris have died and two million fled their homes since 2003.

On Wednesday, Boston University's Farouk El-Baz said he had received the backing of Sudan's government to begin drilling for water in the newly-discovered lake, in North Darfur.

He said radar studies had revealed a depression the size of Lake Erie in North America - the 10th largest lake in the world.

But Mr Gachet, who has worked on mineral and water exploitation in Africa for 20 years, said the depression identified by the Boston researchers was probably full of water 5,000 to 25,000 years ago.

"This lake was at the bottom of a broad watershed feeding the Nile above Khartoum," he said.

"This watershed is completely dry today on the southern border of Egypt, Libya and north-western border of Sudan - one of the worst areas in the world."

He accepted that the Boston researchers had a slim chance of being right, but he said he was not optimistic.

Further south, in the rebel-controlled Jebel Mara area of Darfur, Mr Gachet said he was helping a UN-backed project to drill for water.

"There is enough water within these aquifers to bring peace in Darfur... and even more - enough to reconstruct the economy of Darfur."

Earlier in the week Hafiz Muhamad, from the lobby group Justice Africa, told the BBC the "root cause" of the conflict was lack of resources.

He said "drought and desertification" in North Darfur had led the Arab nomads to move south, where they came into conflict with black African farmers.

Last month, the UN Environmental Programme (Unep) said there was little prospect of peace in Darfur unless the issues of environmental destruction were addressed.

Darfur: US Won't Send Troops Alone, Says Bush

From Reuters

President George W. Bush, who has been pushing for the United Nations to take stronger action in Darfur, on Thursday said he would not unilaterally send U.S. troops to that region of Sudan.

The United States, which calls the situation in Darfur "genocide," in May tightened sanctions against Sudan to press the Sudanese government to end the bloodshed.

"I made the decision not to send U.S. troops unilaterally into Darfur," Bush said in Tennessee where he made a speech and responded to an audience question on Sudan.

"I made the decision in consultation with allies as well as consultations with members of Congress and activists and I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't the right decision," he said.

"Therefore, what do you do? And if one is unwilling to take on actions individually, it requires international collaboration and so we're now at the United Nations," Bush said.

The U.N. Security Council is considering a resolution on the deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union force to deal with the violence in Sudan's western region.

Sudan, under international pressure, in June agreed to a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force of more than 20,000, but many diplomats doubt Khartoum will keep its word.

Bush, who discussed Darfur with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the White House earlier this week, expressed frustration with the United Nations, calling it a "slow, tedious" process.

Chad/Darfur: Deby Accepts Idea of EU Peacekeepers

From the AP

Chadian President Idriss Deby said Thursday that he accepts the idea of an interim European Union peacekeeping force in the African nation to protect people affected by violence spilling over from neighboring Darfur.

Deby spoke after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been pushing for the force.

EU foreign ministers were expected next week to start planning for a possible six-to-12-month peacekeeping mission in Chad, to where masses have fled violence in the neighboring Darfur region of Sudan.

"Why accept? Because the state judges it necessary to accept," Deby told reporters.

The preliminary idea is to send 1,500 to 3,000 troops from the 27-nation EU to refugee camps bordering Sudan's western Darfur region, where civilians face violence from fighting that is spilling over the border from Sudan, diplomats have said.

The mission would eventually hand over to a United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force.

Darfur: UN Urges Rebel Leader to Attend Peace Talks

From Reuters

The U.N. envoy for Darfur on Thursday urged a rebel leader to reverse his opposition to efforts by the U.N. and the African Union to launch peace talks with the government.

Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, leader of a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, said in a statement sent to Reuters that his group would not attend a meeting of rebel leaders early next month in Tanzania organized by the U.N. and African Union.

"We need him on our side and I hope that we will see a positive interest from him," said Jan Eliasson, the U.N. Darfur envoy.

The aim of the meeting, to be held from August 3-5 in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, is to consult the rebels on when and where they might hold peace talks with the government, and to get them to agree on a common negotiating platform.

Some Darfur rebel factions have agreed to attend if invited, but Nur said he would not be part of that process.

Nur has few troops loyal to him, but he enjoys popular support in camps for displaced persons across Sudan's war-ravaged west.

International experts estimate 200,000 have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in fighting in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their arid region.

The Arusha talks are expected to pave the way for the launch of negotiations for comprehensive peace in Darfur.

"We count very much on him (Nur) playing a role in the negotiation process," Eliasson told a Khartoum news conference.

"This is an opportunity that must not be missed and we want to keep the door open to Abdel Wahed," he added.

Only one of three rebel negotiating factions signed a peace deal in May last year after intense international pressure. Since then the deal has been widely rejected by Darfuris and the rebels have split into more than a dozen factions.

Earlier this month, Eliasson warned that any party hindering the peace process could be penalized.

The European Union issued a similar warning in a statement obtained by Reuters and due to be adopted by European foreign ministers on Monday.

"The Council will consider any party failing to constructively engage in the peace process as an obstacle to peace and will promote appropriate further measures against them, notably in the U.N. framework," it said.

In May, the United States tightened sanctions against Sudan to press the government to end the bloodshed in Darfur.

Eliasson had said peace talks should begin by August. But on Thursday he said invitations to the talks would be sent by the end of next month.

Sudan: North-South Border to be Marked by End of 2008, Says Kiir

From Reuters

Sudan may begin to mark the boundary between north and south by the end of the year to overcome a key point of dispute between former foes, Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir said on Thursday.

A January 2005 peace deal ended Africa's longest civil war between Sudan's Islamist northern government and mostly Christian, animist southern rebels, creating a coalition government, sharing wealth and allowing for elections by 2009.

Under the deal the border commission should demarcate the north-south boundary, a sensitive issue ahead of a pre-election census. Many of Sudan's largest oil fields, which pump more than 500,000 barrels per day, lie along the disputed frontier.

"A border commission has been formed and they have started moving to recce (do reconnaissance on) the border areas and to talk to the local population to find out what landmarks used to demarcate the border," Kiir said during a visit to Beijing.

"Maybe toward the end of this year, after the rains, this committee will implement their functions of demarcating the border. Toward the end of next year I think we will get a final report from this commission," he told a news conference.

South Sudan can vote in a referendum on secession by 2011. The semi-autonomous southern region gets around 50 percent of revenues from oil in south Sudan and its budget is almost entirely dependent on them so demarcation of the border is key.

While visiting China, a major investor in Sudan's oil sector, southerner Kiir assured business leaders Sudan would protect their safety and respect contracts signed before the war, and he said Chinese oil exploration could continue to expand in Sudan, although he gave few details.

China's top state-run energy group, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the parent of oil and gas firm PetroChina <0857.HK> , holds a 50 percent stake in Khartoum's crude refinery and majority stakes in three oil blocks along the north-south border region.

Kiir said there were no new deals agreed during his trip to Beijing, though he discussed opportunities in southern Sudan with the Chinese business community on Thursday.

Two huge oil blocks in south Sudan were in dispute between major oil companies who signed with the northern government prior to the civil war and smaller firms who signed with Kiir's former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) during the conflict.

But earlier this month the north-south partners in peace ruled to uphold exisiting contracts signed prior to the war, a move which encouraged investors.

Kiir said even if south Sudan decided to separate, the government would continue to uphold any prior contracts signed with Khartoum's coalition.

Darfur: Chinese President Calls for Countries to Push Forward Peace Process

From the AP

China, whose involvement in Sudan is becoming a public relations liability before next year's Beijing Olympics, called Thursday for countries to continue their efforts to establish peace in the troubled Darfur region, state media said.

President Hu Jintao said during a meeting with visiting Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir that the international community should seize the opportunity and push forward the peace and political process in Darfur, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

"China will, as always, continue to play a constructive role," Hu was quoted as saying.

China has been criticized for its involvement in Sudan, even as it tries to portray itself as a responsible power while welcoming the world to the 2008 Olympics, a massive source of national pride.

China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil exports, sells the African country weapons and military aircraft, and has blocked efforts to send U.N. peacekeeping forces to Darfur without Sudanese consent.

Liu Guijin, China's special envoy to Sudan, has said China was instrumental in a June diplomatic breakthrough in which Sudan's government finally agreed to let a strong force of U.N. and African Union peacekeepers be deployed in Darfur.

Chinese officials have warned against attempts to "politicize" the Olympics.

CAR/Chad/Darfur: EU May Send Troops/International Security Needed for Peace, Says UK

From AFP

European Union officials may send soldiers to Chad and the Central African Republic to protect civilians caught up in the brutal Darfur conflict in neighbouring Sudan, said EU diplomats on Wednesday.

Officials would meet on Monday to study the proposal after the United Nations approached the EU for help. One diplomat political approval for the move could come as early as September.

He added: "Deployment could then start in October, in phase with what the UN does."

Another diplomat said that while the size of the European force was still to be decided, they tended to be talking about between 1 500 and 2 500 soldiers.

He said the main contributors to the force would be French. France already had soldiers based in both countries. One diplomat said: "But we are looking for the participation of other European countries."

The United States-based group, Human Rights Watch, warned on Tuesday about the need to avoid any confusion between a French and a European force, given Paris' strong political ties with Chad and the Central African Republic.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, head of UN peacekeeping operations, had talks with EU officials about this question on Monday and Tuesday.

Last week, he said the UN security council was hoping for a EU military force along with "a multi-dimensional UN mission with a strong police component".

They would help specialised Chadian forces ensure security in camps for refugees and internally displaced persons in the area.

He emphasised the need for close "co-ordination mechanisms" in the form of liaison offices between such a EU-UN force and the planned African Union-UN force that was to take over peacekeeping from cash-strapped AU troops in Darfur.

Last month, Khartoum accepted the deployment of the joint UN-AU peacekeeping force that would have at least 20 000 soldiers in Darfur.

Sudan and Chad accused each other of supporting rebel forces in their respective territories.

From Reuters

Britain's new international aid minister said the violence plaguing Darfur would only end once there was proper security in place from the international community allied with proper support from Sudan.

"We need to have security here on the ground in Darfur that requires both the international force ... but also requires clear action by the government of Sudan to make sure that there is a degree of stability and order within Darfur that is sadly lacking at the moment," Douglas Alexander said on Wednesday.

Britain's international development minister made the comments during a tour of the Al Salam camp for displaced persons near El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State.

"These people are living in genuine fear and I understand the concern that they must feel given the continuing security incidents that are taking place in the environs of this camp and more broadly across Darfur," he added.

International experts estimate that some 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million forced out of their homes since the violence flared in 2003.

Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000 and blames Western media for exaggerating the conflict.

Alexander arrived in Darfur on Wednesday, his first visit to Sudan.

In Al Salam, home to some 50,000 people displaced by more than four years of conflict between the Sudanese government, allied militia and ethnic minority rebels, the minister met separately with a group of women and tribal leaders.

He also met the governor of North Darfur State Osman Youssef Kibir, who told him that security in the region had improved considerably compared to three or four years ago.

The United Nations Security Council is considering a resolution sponsored by Britain and France on the deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union force to help quell violence in Sudan's western region.

Darfur: UN Envoy Continues Holding Meetings

From the UN News Center

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, today left Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, where he met with senior Government official, and travelled Nyala for further talks with other groups.

The Special Envoy will be meeting with representatives of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and civil society groups, as well as with UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local authorities, Mr. Ban’s spokesperson Michele Montas said at a press briefing in New York today.

Prior to arriving in Sudan, Mr. Eliasson and his African Union (AU) counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, chaired a two-day meeting in Tripoli, Libya, on fostering a peace settlement in strife-torn Darfur.

The UN Mission in Sudan, known as UNMIS, reported that harassment by the military continues to displace many people in Darfur. IDPs now number over 35,000 in Al Salam camp in South Darfur, and they are also flowing into Zam Zam camp from the Dobo area.

Meanwhile, this week, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) assisted the return of 150 refugees from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, bringing to the total number of those repatriated to Southern Sudan and Blue Nile State to 150,000.

IDPs are also being repatriated by air, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that approximately 300 people have been flown back to Yambio and Tambura in Western Equatoria from Khartoum, with 1,300 additional IDPs expected to benefit from air operations.

Uganda/DRC: UN Troops Deploy to Counter LRA

From AFP

UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo announced Wednesday they were deploying to the northeast of the country to try to intercept incoming rebels from Uganda entering via Sudan.

A contingent of 80 Moroccan peacekeepers have been deployed at Ngundu, near the border with Sudan, for a week already, said the UN MONUC mission's military spokesman Major Gabriel de Brosses.

They were there to set up an advance base, and Indonesian troops would be joining in the next few days, he added.

The UN troops, in cooperation with soldiers from the DRCongo army, were responding to the appearance of rebels from Uganda's Lords Resistance Army (LRA), who had arrived in the country via Sudan.

Northern Uganda and southern Sudan both border the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The MONUC's mission would be to repatriate any LRA rebels found inside the country, respecting the terms of the Juba peace process, said de Brosses.

The Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have been negotiating an end to the two-decade conflict since talks started in the southern Sudan town of Juba in July last year.

Violence in northern Uganda decreased after a ceasefire was signed last August.

But one of the sticking points to a final agreement is the indictment by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) of LRA leader Joseph Kony and his most senior deputies for crimes against humanity -- specifically, murder, rape, mutilations and mass abductions.

The presence of LRA fighters in what is already a troubled region of the DRC was first noted in September 2005.

Uganda has on several occasions threatened to send troops across the DRC border to pursue the rebels.

Uganda: Peace Talks 'Productive'

From AFP

After a year of stormy peace talks, the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) think a deal ending one of Africa's longest and most brutal conflicts is still within grasp.

The negotiations have been tortuous and intermittent since they kicked off in the southern Sudan town of Juba on July 14 last year, but both sides point out that violence has ebbed.

Top government negotiator Ruhakana Rugunda argued that keeping the two archfoes at the same table after two decades of a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced 2 million was in itself an achievement.

"The fact that the government has had structured, productive and sustained talks with the LRA for the first time is a positive thing," he said.

"We have also had Ugandans speaking with one voice as far as peace is concerned."

A cessation of hostilities was signed on Aug. 26 and violence in the northern part of the country affected by the conflict has receded, despite several grave violations by both sides.

LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayoo was equally upbeat about the peace process.

Genocide: Former Khmer Rouge Leader Denies Role

From the AP

The highest-ranking former Khmer Rouge leader still alive denied on Thursday that he was responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians during the party's brutal 1975-79 rule, adding that he was ready to face an international tribunal.

Prosecutors in the tribunal examining the deaths submitted a confidential list Wednesday of five former top Khmer Rouge leaders that they believed should be tried, along with the evidence to back the charges. Judges will decide whether to proceed with indictments.

"They didn't specify the names of the people, but I know I'm included," the former chief Khmer Rouge ideologue, Nuon Chea, said in an interview at his home in northwest Cambodia.

Cambodian and international prosecutors submitted evidence including thousands of pages of documentation and the locations of more than 40 mass graves.

"I will go to the court and don't care if people believe me not," Nuon Chea said. "It happened 30 years ago and it's very difficult to remember. Some of them" - tribunal members - "never experienced that. They weren't there, how could they know what was going on?"

Seeming unperturbed, Nuon Chea sat clutching a walking stick, the legacy of a stroke, and complained of pain in his right leg as he spoke, while his wife served homemade iced fruit juice.

He said there were more police officers than usual stationed near his house since the announcement Wednesday evening of the legal moves in Phnom Penh, and he added that he had to be careful about what he said.

Now an ailing 82-year-old, the former "Brother Number Two" in the Khmer Rouge has consistently denied any responsibility for the mass brutality that engulfed Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge held power.

"I was president of the National Assembly and had nothing to do with the operation of the government. Sometimes I didn't know what they were doing because I was in the assembly," he said. "I had no intention to kill my people.'

Darfur: More Sanctions Unless Violence Ends, Warns Brown

From Reuters

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday Britain would take further sanctions against Sudan if it did not act swiftly to stop violence in Darfur.

"It is urgent now that the international community reach an agreement on the appropriate response," Brown told parliament.

"We are prepared to take further sanctions against the government and against people in that region if they do not cease the violence, stop the militias and make sure that people have a decent living standard in a region that for too long has suffered from poverty, famine and war," he said.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died as a result of ethnic and political conflict in Darfur since it flared in 2003, when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms after accusing the central government of neglect.

Washington calls the violence genocide, and blames the government and its allied militia. Khartoum rejects the term and says only 9,000 have died.

After months of negotiations the Sudan government has agreed to a 26,000-strong U.N.-African Union Darfur force under a draft U.N. Security Council resolution.

But Khartoum said on Sunday it had reservations about the mandate for the force, which is needed to bolster 7,000 AU troops and police who have failed to stem the violence.

"Even before that process arrives there should be a cessation of violence on the ground and the president has a responsibility for making that happen," Brown said.

He said Britain would then be prepared to contribute emergency economic aid to the region.

The UN-AU force is unlikely to deploy before next year. The draft resolution would authorise recruitment for the force and Sudan has said most of the troops should be from Africa.

While Sudan does not need to agree to the resolution, member states would be concerned the government might obstruct the deployment or operations of the force if Khartoum objects to its mandate.

Darfur: China Praises Sudan for Agreeing to Peacekeepers

From Reuters

China praised the Sudanese government on Wednesday for agreeing to allow peacekeepers into the troubled region of Darfur and pledged to keep pushing for a solution to the problem.

In a meeting with Sudan's first vice president Salva Kiir, Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong "praised the agreement between Sudan and the African Union and United Nations on peacekeeping troops", state TV reported.

"China will actively push for an early solution to the Darfur problem together with the international community," Zeng said.

Khartoum has accepted a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force of some 20,000 troops and police to bolster the under-equipped African Union force of 7,000 in Darfur.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven into camps during more than four years of violence in the ethnically mixed region bordering Chad. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir puts the death toll at only 9,000.

China, a huge investor in Sudan's oil and traditionally wary of imposing resolutions on unwilling states, has resisted sending U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur without Khartoum's consent.

But in recent months Beijing has become worried that international condemnation of its stance could stain its hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Darfur: BU Team Discovers Possible Underground Lake

From The Boston Globe

In the dry wasteland of Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region, geologist Farouk el-Baz says he has discovered the imprint of an ancient underground lake as large as Massachusetts.

The find, if found to be legitimate upon drilling, could make possible the construction of 1,000 wells, a resource that would be vital to agriculture and humanitarian efforts.

Baz hopes it could also bring peace to an area mired in bloodshed, warfare some say was triggered by drought.

"It is dry desolation," Baz said in a telephone interview. "It's just a forbidding desert. Without water, it is a scary place."

By scouring satellite and radar images this past year, Baz said, he and a team of 20 other Boston University researchers identified possible streams running from a 5,000-year-old lake, which was once replenished by rain and is now obscured by the arid sands of northern Darfur.

Under the sand, the geologist says, a layer of sandstone hundreds of feet deep might hold water that could replenish the region for a century.

In June, he said, he showed Sudanese officials images of what appears to be an underground lake. Officials from neighboring Egypt, where Baz helped make a similar find in the 1980s, have pledged to donate workers and equipment to drill 20 wells in Sudan.

Baz plans to return to Sudan in November, when he will scout sites by helicopter.

He cited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's editorial in the June 16 edition of the Washington Post linking the violence in Darfur to climate change. In the piece, Ban said camel herders replenished themselves at the farmers' wells and grazed on their lands, until the rains stopped. Then, farmers fenced their land for fear it would be ruined by passing herds, he wrote.

"It is no accident that the violence in Darfur erupted during the drought," he wrote.

Darfur activist Eric Reeves, a literature professor at Smith College in Northampton, said water sources would be critical to improve agriculture and rebuild society. But he said that adding resources in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands have died, would not relieve victims of "the politics of a genocidal regime."

"What you see is not simply a competition for the scarce resources of Darfur," Reeves said in a telephone interview. "If we want to look at the violence in Darfur, we don't look underground, we look at the political realities that exist today."

Int'l Justice: Taylor Gets New Defense Team

From AFP

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor has been assigned a new team of lawyers to defend him against war crimes charges at a United Nations-backed court in The Hague, a court document revealed today.

Taylor’s acting defence counsel “named Mr. Courtenay Griffiths as chief lawyer for Mr. Taylor, Mr Andrew Cayley as assistant lawyer and Mr. Terry Munyard as assistant lawyer from July 17,” the document said.

Taylor, 59, the first African head of state to stand trial before an international court for war crimes, had boycotted the opening of his trial and sacked his lawyer, arguing that he had no chance of receiving a fair trial.

The judges at the UN-backed Sierra Leone tribunal later ordered that a new defence team be put together and that the court’s registry make more money available for Taylor’s defence.

The former president’s main complaint was that he does not have enough money to attract the kind of top lawyers needed to defend him in such a long and complicated case.

The former president, once one of Africa’s most feared warlords, has pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape and using child soldiers during the 1991-2001 civil war in Sierra Leone.

Up to 200,000 people were killed in the Sierra Leone conflict, with rebels mutilating thousands more, cutting off arms, legs, ears or noses.

Taylor allegedly armed, trained and controlled the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), responsible for many of the mutilations, in exchange for still-unknown amounts of diamonds used to fund warfare.

ICC: Japan Becomes 105th Member

From Reutersr

Japan ratified the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court by depositing papers with the United Nations legal department on Tuesday, U.N. officials announced.

With Japan, 105 countries have ratified the Rome Treaty creating the first permanent global criminal court, set up to prosecute individuals for the world's worst atrocities -- genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The Hague-based tribunal evokes memories of the Nuremberg tribunal that tried Nazi leaders and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal at the end of World War Two.

On April 27, the Japanese Diet's upper house unanimously approved accession to the court after the cabinet submitted legislation to parliament in February.

The Japanese ratification was timed to coincide with World Day for International Justice, which commemorates the adoption of the founding treaty of the ICC, the Rome Statute, on July 17, 1998.

Tokyo's action will give the fledgling court a financial boost as its highest payer, at 19 percent of the $124 million (90 million euro) annual budget.

"Japan is an important world power. We hope its decision will press other major powers and more Asian states to join the ICC," said William Pace, head of the Coalition for an International Criminal Court that represents more than 1,000 organizations supporting the tribunal.

Few Asian countries have joined the tribunal. China and India show little interest.

The Bush administration has vigorously opposed the tribunal, although it allowed the U.N. Security Council to refer Sudan to the ICC.

It takes 90 days -- until October -- for Japan to be able to become state party to the tribunal. Japan announced it had nominated a candidate for a judgeship to the court for election in December.

Darfur: UN to 'Step Up' Efforts

Whoa, slow down ... this crisis has only been going on for four years. Why the sudden need to "step up" efforts when doing next-to-nothing has worked out so well thus far? - From AFP

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told US President George W. Bush Tuesday that he would "step up" UN efforts to quell violence in Darfur and backed his host's call for a Middle East conference.

Ban cited "considerable progress" towards quelling violence in Darfur and vowed "we are going to step up the political process" after "positive" talks in Tripoli on holding new talks between Khartoum and fragmented rebel groups.

The president used his remarks during a joint appearance after talks at the White House to focus on a just-released US intelligence report that warned that Al-Qaeda had regrouped and planned new terrorist attacks on the United States.

"Al-Qaeda is strong today, but they're not nearly as strong as they were prior to September the 11th, 2001," Bush said. "Al-Qaeda would have been a heck of a lot stronger today had we not stayed on the offense."

Bush said they had discussed his new Middle East peace overture, efforts to create a tribunal in the murder of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri, as well as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Darfur but offered no further details.

Ban said Darfur negotiations were set for Arusha, Tanzania, in early August, and vowed to accelerate moves toward the deployment of a joint UN-African Union force.

"We are also going to facilitate humanitarian assistance," the UN chief added. "I am going to step up efforts to deploy hybrid operations as soon as possible in Darfur, to resolve this issue as soon as possible."

On Monday, Ban urged the UN Security Council to vote this week on a draft resolution authorizing the deployment of a joint UN-AU force, saying it would allow more than 20,000 military personnel and civilian police into the strife-torn province.

Darfur: Trust Cannot Be Bought by Weakness

From Reuters

United Nations and African Union forces need a robust mandate in Darfur and the Security Council should not dilute it to win support for the mission from Sudan, a top U.N. peacekeeping official said on Tuesday.

"Trust should not be bought by weakness," Jean-Marie Guehenno, U.N. undersecretary-general in charge of peacekeeping, told Reuters in an interview.

"No mission can work if it does not have the trust of all partners ... so we must establish this trust. But at the same time a peacekeeping mission in difficult conditions such as in Darfur must have the means to act," he said.

Under sustained international pressure, Sudan agreed last month to a combined U.N.-AU peacekeeping force for Darfur to quell four years of violence that has driven more than 2 million people from their homes. An estimated 200,000 people have died.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Monday to move quickly in authorizing up to 26,000 troops and police for the Darfur mission.

But a dispute has arisen among council members over a resolution sponsored by Britain, France and Ghana, without which member states will not commit personnel.

Sudan and several council members believe the resolution contains too many references to humanitarian and other issues, including a threat "to use all necessary means" in the areas of deployment.

Guehenno said the mission needed just such a "robust" mandate.

"It must be allowed to use all necessary means to accomplish its mission," he said.

"Trust must be based on a clear contract, with the mission being there to help the Sudanese to make peace with themselves. But to do that, it will need robust means, so we need a robust mandate that allows troops to act with the necessary firmness."

Chad: EU Must Agree to Strong Mandate for Peacekeepers

From DPA

The European Union must agree on sending troops to protect Darfur refugees in Chad and give them authority to use force, international experts said Tuesday. Any European mission deployed to Chad must be given "rules that give the troops the right to open fire when they or the civilian population are under attack," Alain Deletroz, vice president of independent think-tank International Crisis Group, told a news briefing.

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the issue of sending European peacekeepers to Chad at a regular meeting next week.

The United Nations had peacekeeping troops in Rwanda as the 1994 genocide unfolded, but its mandate was strictly limited to monitoring ceasefire violations.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said last week that the EU was considering sending troops to protect Darfur refugees living in camps in Chad ahead of the arrival of a planned African and United Nations force in western Sudan.

France last month asked the EU to send up to 12,000 troops to Chad to set up a humanitarian corridor to Darfur refugees.

The conflict between the pro-government Janjaweed militia and ethnic African rebels has been ongoing for over four years in Sudan's western region of Darfur, killing over 200,000 and driving an estimated 2.5 million people from their homes.

The EU must also take quick action to make the Chadian government stick to its promise to set free thousands of child soldiers, said Lotte Leicht, EU director of Human Rights Watch.

"The protection of the children and assistance that they are demobilized and reintegrated into society" was a major duty for the 27-member EU, Leicht said.

Thousands of child soldiers remain part of the Chadian army and its allied paramilitary forces, despite promises by the government to set them free, Leicht said.

EU foreign ministers must remind all parties involved in the Chad conflict "that the recruitment of children is a war crime," she said.

Leicht said that the EU had the duty to support the International Criminal Court for war crimes which is investigating the issue of child soldiers in Chad.

If the Chadian government refused cooperation with the court, government officials should be banned from a planned EU-Africa summit in December, she demanded.

Human Rights Watch has said that it has evidence for the recruitment of children by all parties in the conflict in Chad.

Children have been mobilized to serve as fighters as well as cooks, guards and lookouts on the frontlines.

Darfur: Sanctions Raising Opposition to Resolution

From the BBC

A draft Security Council resolution to authorise deploying a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region has run into opposition.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for it to be approved quickly, but key nations object to a sanctions threat.

Meanwhile, talks in Libya on the four-year conflict have made progress towards setting up future peace talks.

A small AU force has failed to halt the violence, which the UN says has led to some 200,000 deaths and 2m displaced.

Sudan's UN ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad said the draft UN resolution should be more Sudan-friendly and drop "irrelevant and alien issues" like the threat of sanctions.

Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa, a member of the Security Council, warned that any talk of sanctions in the draft was "totally unacceptable".

Last month, the Sudanese government agreed to allow the hybrid force into the region after months of pressure from the international community.

Following the two-day talks in Tripoli, the UN and AU have asked the rebel factions that did not sign a failed 2006 peace deal to attend talks in Tanzania early in August.

Mr Ban said the goal of the talks was to get all the key rebel groups, tribal leaders and the government around the negotiating table by September.

He has also urged the Security Council to pass the draft resolution this week to get the 24,000-strong hybrid on the ground speedily.

UN reports say security on the ground is deteriorating, pointing to the rise in attacks on aid workers and AU peacekeepers in Darfur.

"The resolution calls on member states to finalise their contributions within 90 days. I think this is fast by UN standards but I want to move more rapidly," said Mr Ban.

"The political situation on the ground is too fragile, the humanitarian crisis too dire, to waste more precious time."

Mr Ban said he has been told the first international troops could be sent to Darfur by October.

"I'll push for September," he told reporters.

He did not refer to the opposition to the draft resolution.

Sudan: Vice President Starts First China Visit

From Xinhua

Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit arrived in Beijing Tuesday afternoon, kicking off his first China visit.

Mayardit will hold talks with Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong and meet with other Chinese leaders.

"The two sides will exchange views on strengthening bilateral relations and other issues of common concern, including the Darfur issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a briefing last week.

Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Lam Akol told reporters on Monday that Sudan is keen on making the visit a success, noting the delegation would brief the Chinese officials on current developments in Sudan, the efforts for peaceful settlement of the Darfur issue and China's possible contribution in the rehabilitation and reconstruction process..

Darfur: Ban Tells UN Council to Speed Up Force Mandate

From Reuters

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Monday to move quickly in authorizing up to 26,000 troops and police in Darfur, an apparent reference to a dispute among members.

The council is considering a five-page resolution sponsored by Britain, France and Ghana that Sudan and several other council members believe contains too many references to humanitarian and other issues, including a threat of "further measures" if any of the parties "fail to fulfill their commitments or cooperate fully."

Noting it had been one month since the Khartoum government accepted his proposals for a joint United Nations-African Union force, Ban told a news conference, "I sincerely hope that the Security Council will take the necessary action within this week."

Without the resolution, member states will not commit personnel to Sudan's violent Darfur region. The draft calls for contributors to "finalize" their contributions within 90 days.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died.

Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Abdelmahmood Abdelhaleem said, "The draft as it stands now creates a lot of difficulty for us." He said it should be "more Sudan friendly," an apparent reference to the threat of other measures, such as sanctions.

In Khartoum on Sunday, Ali al-Sadig, spokesman for the foreign minister, said, "At the current stage we do not accept it, we have reservations."

The resolution would allow the mission "to use all necessary means," a euphemism for a use of force, "in the areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities."

Force could be used to ensure the security of the mission's personnel and humanitarian workers and "to protect civilians under threat of physical violence" as well as to seize or collect arms.

Some council members but not Abdelhaleem have objected to the tough mandate, which Jean-Marie Guehenno, the head of peacekeeping said needed to be "robust" for commanders "because the situation in Darfur is a very challenging one."

Specifically, the text would authorize a ceiling of 19,555 military personnel and 6,400 civilian police.

Infantry troops are expected to be drawn mainly from African nations. The new operation, called the United Nations-African Union mission in Darfur, or UNAMID, will absorb the 7,000 African Union troops currently in Darfur.

Logistics and headquarters personnel are expected to be drawn from other nations, and Ban said that China would soon send military engineers and a reconnaissance group leaves for Sudan on Tuesday.

Ban said several hundred international troops, or more, will be ready to deploy by October but he would "push for September." However, the bulk of the so-called large "hybrid" force is not expected to be deployed until well into next year, U.N. officials have said.

On the political front, Ban said there was a "successful" first round of talks with international envoys in Tripoli, Libya on Sunday in an effort to get a dozen splintered rebel groups to come to peace talks with the government.

"Our intention is to step up the pace of political negotiations involving all parties -- rebel leaders, tribal leaders, government leaders, " Ban said. "The goal is to get them around a table by early September."

He said he would visit Darfur but gave no date, saying the timing would depend on when "my visit could do most good in terms of cementing our advances.

"We must lock in our partners' commitments, on the ground and diplomatically," Ban said.

Darfur: Rebel Groups Invited to Peace Talks in August

From Reuters

The United Nations and the African Union invited Darfur rebel factions that did not sign a 2006 peace deal with the Sudanese government to attend talks in Tanzania next month, the two bodies said on Monday.

The meeting's aim is to ensure that all parties are involved and consulted about plans for the next round of peace talks between rebels and the government, and to avoid the "deadline diplomacy" critics cited as a reason the 2006 deal's failure.

Envoys of the United Nations, African Union, European Union, Arab League and government representatives from 14 countries including the United States, China, Russia, Libya and Egypt wrapped up a two-day meeting on Darfur in Tripoli on Monday.

"The meeting underlined that the current situation in Darfur is dynamic, fragile and evolving rapidly," a statement said.

"Participants agreed that there is a need for urgent action to achieve a comprehensive political agreement to end the conflict and the long suffering of the people in Darfur."

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in four years of rape, killing and disease in Darfur, violence the United States calls genocide. Khartoum rejects the term and puts the death toll at 9,000.

Only one of the three rebel negotiating factions signed last year's peace deal on Darfur, which has been roundly criticised by many of the country's estimated 2.5 million refugees who said it did not go far enough to ensure their security.

Since the May 1006 deal, the rebels have split into more than a dozen factions, who will not all get a seat around the negotiating table.

The statement did not name the factions to attend the talks in Arusha, Tanzania, on Aug. 3-5, but urged Libya, Chad and Eritrea to "facilitate efforts aimed at bringing cohesion among the non-signatory movements in furtherance of the peace process in Darfur".

In Eritrea on Saturday, five Darfur rebel groups agreed to unite ahead of possible peace talks.

In a statement to reporters, the new group, the United Front for Liberation and Development (UFLD), called on other rebels in Sudan's western region to join them.

Darfur: He Rang the Alarm

The latest from From Nick Kristof

Some day an American president will visit a genocide museum in Darfur and repeat the standard refrain: If only we had known ...

But that excuse will ring hollow, because there was a whistle-blower in the heart of the Bush administration. Roger Winter, whom President Bush had appointed in 2001 to a senior post in the U.S. Agency for International Development, frantically tried to ring alarm bells — but instead the administration turned away.

If there was a hero within the U.S. government on Darfur, it was Mr. Winter. But it was doubly frustrating for him because in 1994 he had the same experience during the Clinton administration, when he was running a refugee organization and desperately trying to galvanize officials to respond to the Rwandan genocide.

In outrage at Bill Clinton’s inaction during the Rwandan slaughter, Mr. Winter abandoned the Democratic Party and became a Republican.

Mr. Winter, 65, who also served in the Carter and (briefly) Reagan administrations, traveled regularly to Sudan for the Bush administration, trying to end the 20-year war between northern and southern Sudan. On those trips, Mr. Winter encountered the slaughter in Darfur as it began.

In May 2003, long before any newspaper noticed, Mr. Winter warned in Congressional testimony that violence was erupting in Darfur. Then, on Nov. 3, 2003, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum transmitted a message warning Washington that “the situation in Darfur is critical” and adding that “ethnic cleansing ... is underway.”

But Washington shrugged.

State Department officials apparently worried that an uproar over Darfur would derail the north-south agreement in Sudan, a prize achievement for the Bush administration. So they looked away. The State Department was even angry when the Agency for International Development released satellite photos showing the burned villages in Darfur.

Before testifying to Congress, Mr. Winter had to submit prepared remarks to the State Department for vetting. Frustrated by State’s passivity, he used his off-the-cuff remarks to speak passionately — and uncensored — about the horrors in Darfur.

Mr. Winter once took an administration colleague with him to fly over Darfur from Chad, to show him the Janjaweed militias as they burned villages. Administration officials aren’t supposed to invade another country’s air space and buzz militias as they slaughter civilians, but Mr. Winter was desperate to get another administration witness.

“We were trying to get everybody’s attention, including the White House and State Department and everybody else,” Mr. Winter recalls.

When Sudanese forces blocked a road to aid groups, Mr. Winter invited aid groups to join his own convoy and insisted on going down the road to assure humanitarian access.

It was agonizing, he says, to feel that Mr. Bush wanted to do the right thing on Sudan — and yet see the administration acquiesce on mass murder. Later Mr. Winter served as State Department envoy for Darfur, but at State he burned with the same frustration and retired last year, deeply disillusioned.

“Khartoum looked the U.S. in the eye, and we looked away,” Mr. Winter said, adding: “There was no real intention of taking effective action. They saw that. They read us. And so they weren’t threatened.”

Mr. Winter favored — and still favors — a no-fly zone over Darfur. We wouldn’t keep planes in the air, or even shoot planes down. But after Sudan bombed civilians in Darfur, we would later destroy a Sudanese attack helicopter on the ground.

Aid groups worry that such a strike would endanger their efforts. But I think Mr. Winter, who has 26 years’ experience in Sudan, is exactly right that a no-fly zone is the best way to shake up Sudanese officials and make them negotiate seriously for a peace agreement in Darfur.

“What we have done with our handling of Darfur is show Khartoum that in certain circumstances we are a toothless tiger,” he says. “No matter how forceful the words we use, we don’t act. Or we act in ways that the bad guys in Khartoum find tolerable. ... It tells them that they can get away with mass murder.”

The upshot, Mr. Winter believes, is that Sudan is increasingly likely to resume its war against southern Sudan, erasing one of Mr. Bush’s genuine achievements. Mr. Winter says of administration officials, “They’re turning a silk purse into a sow’s ear.”

Mr. Winter admires Mr. Bush for pushing for north-south peace but fears that the administration is simply running out the clock on Darfur. “Where we have gotten to with Sudan,” he says heavily, “is a tragedy.”

Chad: Government Keeps Children in Army Ranks

From Human Rights Watch

The Chadian army and its allied paramilitary forces are keeping thousands of child soldiers out of demobilization efforts, despite the government’s promises to release underage fighters from military service, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
On July 19, the UN Security Council’s working group on children in armed conflict will meet to discuss Security Council responses to the use of child soldiers and other human rights abuses against children in Chad’s armed conflict.

In May, the Chadian government pledged to cooperate with UNICEF in identifying and demobilizing child soldiers in the ranks of its military. Since then, several hundred children, some as young as 8 years old, have been released from a military base in central Chad. But none belonged to the national army; all came from a government-aligned paramilitary group. UNICEF’s requests to visit two other bases, both in conflict zones in eastern Chad, have not been granted by Chadian government officials.

“The Chadian government is failing on its promise to remove children from its armed forces,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Security Council should demand that the Chadian government and its allied forces end child recruitment and release children from their ranks.”

The 46-page report, “Early to War: Child Soldiers in the Chad Conflict,” documents how the Chadian army, its allied paramilitary militias and rebel forces have used and recruited child soldiers in both northern Chad and along the eastern border with Sudan’s Darfur region. The report is based on interviews with senior officers in the Chadian military as well as current child soldiers themselves.

Darfur: Arabs Pile into Take Land 'Cleansed' by Janjaweed

From The Independent - via POTP

Arabs from Chad and Niger are crossing into Darfur in "unprecedented" numbers, prompting claims that the Sudanese government is trying systematically to repopulate the war- ravaged region.

An internal UN report, obtained by The Independent, shows that up to 30,000 Arabs have crossed the border in the past two months. Most arrived with all their belongings and large flocks. They were greeted by Sudanese Arabs who took them to empty villages cleared by government and janjaweed forces.

One UN official said the process "appeared to have been well planned". The official continued: "This movement is very large. We have not seen such numbers come into west Darfur before."

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, sent a team to the border with Chad at the end of May to interview the new arrivals. Fighting in eastern Chad has been steadily increasing and it was thought that many could be refugees. But only a very small number have required support from UNHCR.

"Most have been relocated by Sudanese Arabs to former villages of IDPs (internally displaced people) and more or less invited to stay there," said the UN official.

The arrivals have been issued with official Sudanese identity cards and awarded citizenship, and analysts say that by encouraging Arabs from Chad, Niger and other parts of Sudan to move to Darfur the Sudanese government is making it "virtually impossible" for displaced people to return home.

James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust, said the revelations proved that the Sudanese government was "cynically trying to change the demographics of the whole region", adding: "If the ethnic cleansing has been consolidated because the land has been repopulated it will become irreversible. The peace process will fall to pieces."

Repopulation has also been happening in south Darfur where Arabs from elsewhere in Sudan have been allowed to move into villages that were once home to local tribes. Aid agency workers said the Arabs were presented as "returning IDPs".

Before the conflict started in 2003, Darfur was home to seven million people, mainly from three African tribes, Fur, Marsalit and Zargahwa. Darfur literally translates as "Land of the Fur". But some 2.5 million have now been forced to flee their homes after attacks by Sudanese troops and planes, and Arab militia on horseback known as janjaweed.

Most are now in camps around Darfur's main towns, relying on handouts from international aid agencies. About 250,000 have become refugees in Chad. A further 1.5 million have been affected by the conflict, meaning at least four million people are now reliant on the 80 or so international aid agencies in the region. More than 200,000 people are believed to have been killed so far during the four-and-a-half-year conflict.

And if Khartoum is moving Arabs from abroad to replace them, diplomats fear that Darfur rebels may try to remove them forcibly. "It could be quite explosive," said one western diplomat. "It is a very serious situation."

Nomadic Arab tribes have been crossing the border between Chad and Sudan for centuries, long before lines were drawn on a map. It is normal for tribes to follow the rains from west to east and back again, searching for fertile grazing land for their cattle. Straight lines carve out the northern borders of the five countries which spread across the Sahel, taking no notice of traditional tribal links and nomadic routes.

In Mauritania and Sudan, both countries long ruled by Arabs, black African tribes have suffered most. In Mali, Niger and Chad, the Arab and Tuareg nomads have been suppressed.

Towards the end of last year, Niger announced that it planned forcibly to remove more than 150,000 Arab nomads into Chad. Many of the Arabs, known as Mahamid, moved from Chad in the 1970s after a serious drought. Although the government later rescinded the order, it is thought that many decided to return to Chad voluntarily.

Apart from the 30,000 Arabs from Chad and Niger cited in the UNHCR report there have been consistent rumours that a further 45,000 Arabs from Niger have also crossed over. For most nomads citizenship means very little; the lines that separate the countries of the Sahel have not created a sense of nationality. But for the Khartoum regime it could be pivotal. Elections are to be held in two years, the first since President Omar al-Bashir seized power in a coup in 1989.

Although opinion polling is not very advanced, it is thought that no party is likely to win an overall majority. By providing citizenship for the new arrivals, one Khartoum-based diplomat said, President Bashir could be hoping to bolster his election chances.

For the Arabs who have crossed into Darfur there are both push and pull factors. Drought in parts of northern Africa has forced nomads to look further afield for fertile land. Although the spread of desert is rapidly reducing the amount of land available for farmers and nomads in Darfur, much of the area cleared by the janjaweed and government forces is fertile.

Darfur: Sudan Concerned by U.N.-AU Force Mandate

From Reuters

Sudan said on Sunday it had reservations about the mandate given to a 26,000-strong U.N.-African Union Darfur force under a draft U.N. Security Council resolution.

After months of talks, threats and negotiations, Khartoum finally agreed to the force to bolster 7,000 struggling AU troops and police who have failed to stem the violence which international experts estimate has killed 200,000.

"At the current stage we do not accept it, we have reservations," said foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig.

"We are engaged in consultations with the members of the Security Council ... we believe we will come to an agreed language," he added.

He declined to give specifics but said the concerns were not about the number of troops, but the mandate.

The draft resolution said the joint force was "authorised to use all necessary means," and was to be deployed under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which would give the troops authority to use force to protect the millions of civilians under threat in Sudan's remote west.

Sudanese officials have in the past said they would refuse to accept any force under a Chapter VII mandate in Darfur.

Sadig said that language in the resolution did not conform to the agreement in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last month to accept the joint force.

The force was unlikely to deploy before next year. The draft resolution would authorise the world body to begin recruitment for the force. Sudan has said most of the troops should be from Africa.

While Sudan's agreement to the resolution is not needed, member states would be concerned the government may obstruct the deployment or operations of the force if Khartoum disagreed with its mandate.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglecting the remote region. Khartoum mobilised militias, known as Janjaweed, to quell the revolt.

Those militias stand accused of mass rape, murder and looting. One militia leader and a junior cabinet minister are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Darfur: Sudan Government, Rebels Move Towards New Talks

From DPA

The brutal Darfur conflict moved one step closer to a solution Monday when delegates at an African Union (AU) and United Nations meeting in Libya agreed to convene next month in a bid to include rebel factions in peace talks.

The second international meeting on Darfur, which brought together envoys from 14 countries, agreed to hold discussions in Arusha, Tanzania, August 3-5 to discuss how to move forward a stagnant political resolution to the four-year-long conflict.

'The meeting welcomed the proposal of the special envoys to convene a meeting with leading personalities of the non signatory movements ... in an effort to facilitate the preparations for negotiations,' said a final communique issued in the Libyan capital Tripoli after the two-day meeting.

Only one of the western region's rebel factions signed on to a largely ineffective peace deal in May 2006 and observers say a more inclusive agreement is necessary to foster a full peace.

Since last year, splinter groups have been forming and on Saturday a new group, the United Front for Liberation and Development, came together to act as a stronger force at the negotiating table.

The Darfur conflict, which Washington terms genocide, began when rebels rose up against Khartoum's Islamist government, complaining that the region remained poor and undeveloped.

Sudan: Opposition Leader Held, Accused of Coup Plot

From Reuters

Sudanese authorities have arrested 17 people including opposition leader Mubarak al-Fadil and retired military officers, accusing them of trying to overthrow the government, state security leaders said on Sunday.

Fadil and Abdel Jalil al-Basha, both of the Umma breakaway party, were arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning. Fadil's party denied the accusations.

"Their plan was to overthrow the government, but it was very weak," Mohamed Abdallah Atta, deputy head of Sudan's state security organ, told reporters. "They were ready to fight for seven days," he added.

He said the group had wanted to execute their plan on July 15 but, lacking arms and soldiers, they had decided to delay and meet again on July 20. Lacking support, they planned instead to cause chaos in the capital.

Atta said the group planned to bring 1,000 conscripts from South Kordofan state in central Sudan, but only 30 had arrived in the capital.

He said Fadil was the group coordinator and was now in Kobar prison, but others were still being questioned by state security. Those charged would be taken to court, he added.

Atta said contacts had been made with undisclosed foreign countries, but said no neighbouring Arab country was involved.

The conspirators made calls to rebel groups from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, requesting more weapons, he said.

Fadil broke from the popular Umma party led by his cousin, ex-Prime Minister Sadig al-Mahdi, in 2002 and joined the National Congress Party government as a presidential adviser. Basha was tourism minister.

Fadil was sacked in 2004, his breakaway Umma party splintered and he returned to opposition politics.

"It is obvious for us that this is an attempt to frame him and distract people from problems on other fronts," a statement from Fadil's party said. "The party always renounced violence and always called for democratisation," it added.

Ali Mahmoud Hassanein, a politician from the opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), was also arrested but later released without charge. The DUP and Umma are considered the two largest northern political parties.

The opposition said it was concerned the authorities were targeting opposition parties ahead of elections due by the end of 2009.

Darfur: Players Making Progress

From AFP

Efforts to end the four-year conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region by paving the way for new talks between Khartoum and fragmented rebel groups took a step forward at a meeting in Libya today.

International envoys and rebel groups which failed to sign up to a May 2006 peace deal will meet next month to fix a date and venue for the start of negotiations between the warring sides, according to a final statement from the two-day conference organised by the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU).

The new meeting will take place in Arusha, Tanzania, between August 3 and 5, according to the statement from the Tripoli conference, the latest bid to find ways to end a civil war that has killed an estimated 200,000 people since 2003, "I think that the month of September will be crucial for Darfur," Said Djinnit, African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, told AFP.

He said the Tripoli conference had highlighted the need to move rapidly towards negotiations between the Sudanese government and rebel movements that did not sign the Abuja peace agreement in 2006.

"We have been in the constructive phase for some weeks. We are making progress on the peace process and rebel movements are increasingly showing their willingness to resume dialogue," Djinnit said.

The meeting was held as the United Nations examines a revised Security Council draft resolution authorising a joint peacekeeping force in Darfur for an initial 12 months to replace the embattled AU force.

Khartoum has been accused of sponsoring a genocidal crackdown in Darfur through its Janjaweed militia since rebels took up arms in 2003 complaining of marginalisation by the Islamist government.

The United Nations estimates about 200,000 people have been killed and two million displaced.

"It’s time to focus seriously on the peace talks," the UN envoy for Sudan, Jan Eliasson, told the opening session on Sunday.

"The unification of the rebel movements is key to the success of the process."

"Each day brings more suffering and destruction, but also a radicalisation on the ground," added his AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim, who deplored the militarisation of Darfur refugee camps.

Since the United Nations and the African Union launched a new peace drive five months ago they have made four missions to Sudan but have been confronted by multiple regional initiatives to try to resolve the conflict.

Representatives of the Justice and Equality Movement, the rebel group which failed to sign the Abuja accord, met officials from the UN, AU and Sudan’s neighbours, according to Libyan deputy foreign minister Ali Abdelsalam Triki.

And the AU’s Salim said he had secured an agreement from a JEM rebel chief Khalil Ibrahim to take part in all future negotiations.

"The Darfur dispute should be resolved through peaceful negotiation only," Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman Ali Al-Sadiq was quoted as saying by the Sudan Media Centre yesterday.

UN and AU negotiators are in near daily contact with the roughly dozen rebel groups, but many have not yet agreed to join the talks, Eliasson said.

Five rebel factions said they formed a new alliance on Saturday in Asmara to present a united front for peace negotiations with Khartoum and appealed "to all other movements to unify efforts."

But several major rebel groups, including the Sudan Liberation Movement, the Greater Sudan Liberation Movement and the JEM, remain outside the new alliance.

The UN Security Council draft says the proposed peacekeeping force, to be known as Unamid, will "consist of up to 19,555 military personnel and an appropriate civilian component including up to 3,772 police personnel."

The ill-equipped and under-funded AU force of 7,000 soldiers has been unable to stem the violence and is often targeted by the warring parties.

Darfur: Groups Discuss Peacekeepers for Africa

From the AP

The European Union and the United Nations are discussing the possibility of sending an EU peacekeeping force to Chad and Central African Republic for six months to help those affected by the spillover from the Darfur conflict, U.N. diplomats said Friday.

The idea was raised Wednesday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a meeting with the EU‘s foreign policy chief Javier Solana, according to a report in the French Roman Catholic newspaper La Croix.

France‘s U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said France‘s aim is by the end of July to put on the table in Europe and the U.N. "the elements for a decision, with the agreement of Chad."

The conflict has spilled over into Chad and Central African Republic, which also have faced attacks from rebels in their own countries.

"The discussion at the moment is focused on whether or not there can be a commitment to put a U.N. force in to take over from the Europeans," said Britain‘s deputy U.N. ambassador Karen Pierce, who said her country supports the French initiative.

Guehenno, who briefed the council, expressed hope that the U.N.-EU discussions "would address the very challenging humanitarian situation in eastern Chad and the north of the Central African Republic."

He said the preliminary concept calls for a U.N. resolution authorizing an EU military force as well as a U.N. mission with a strong police component that would help beef up specialized Chadian forces to address the security situation in camps for refugees and the internally displaced.

Darfur: UN Asks World to Assume Responsibility

From Xinhua

UN envoy for Sudan Jan Eliasson has said the international community should assume its responsibility for changing the situation in Sudan's Darfur region for the better.

Eliasson Sunday told the opening session of an international meeting on Darfur in the Libyan capital of Tripoli that it was time to reopen negotiations. He called on the parties concerned to cooperate in setting the stage for restarting the talks.

The UN envoy, who has led missions to Darfur, said he had witnessed the worsening security and instability that people in the region have been suffering and the situation hampers humanitarian relief efforts.

'We have an enormous responsibility toward the people of Darfur,' Eliasson said.

He called on all parties concerned to assume their own responsibilities for security, stability and development in the region.

The meeting in Tripoli, the second of its kind this year, is expected to focus on unifying competing peace plans and coordinating stands to pave the way for the restart of negotiations.

Diplomats from the United Nations, the African Union (AU), the Arab League and the European Union, as well as 18 countries including China, attended the meeting. Also attending were the Sudanese government and representatives of the country's rebel groups.

At the meeting, AU envoy for Sudan Salim Ahmed Salim praised efforts to revive negotiations and called on rebel groups to talk to the government.

Int'l Justice: A Diminished Life for Charles Taylor

From the International Herald Tribune

Sixteen months after his life of power and luxury ended in an abrupt arrest, Charles Taylor, warlord and former president of Liberia, is living in a new cellblock on the grounds of the Men's Penitentiary near The Hague.

Once known for his fine white suits, a swaggering style and plentiful weapons financed by trading timber and diamonds, Taylor now cooks his own food, does his dishes, reads newspapers and receives prison-issued pocket money. He is allowed to spend two hours in the yard and to work out in a gym.

He is the first African head of state to stand trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. If he is convicted, human rights groups say they hope that his fate could signal an end to impunity for violent dictators in Africa.

Since his trial began in June, prosecutors of the Special Court for Sierra Leone have produced about 40,000 pages to document what they call Taylor's drive for power and its accompanying atrocities, orchestrated from Liberia while he was backing forces in Sierra Leone's civil war. An estimated 200,000 people were killed or maimed in the fighting in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002.

Other crimes he is accused of in Liberia - where several hundred thousand more people died while he led a rebel army, and after he became president in 1997 - are not within the mandate of this court.

Taylor theatrically fired his lawyer on the opening day of his trial. Since then he has been interviewing replacement candidates and working on his defense. Herman von Hebel, the court administrator, said Taylor had two cells, "one where he sleeps and one where he keeps his paperwork." He has access to a computer, a television and a DVD player.

But after a life of mixing with presidents, rebels, diplomats, smugglers and a permanent coterie of aides, Taylor is feeling very isolated, said Karim Khan, his former lawyer.

Set within the high-security compound of the largest prison in the Netherlands, with close to 800 inmates, a cellblock for international prisoners was recently built for the International Criminal Court.

There, Taylor has only one fellow inmate: a Congolese militia commander, Thomas Lubanga. "They eat together, they share the common sitting room," said Marc Dubuisson, who oversees the prison administration.

The two inmates also share a staggering specialty. According to prosecutors, both men have used thousands of child soldiers as their henchmen and indoctrinated and drugged pubescent boys to become killers and warrior-butchers who were ordered to chop off civilians' hands, arms or other body parts. Girls were kept in the boys' camps as cooks and sex slaves.

Court officials said they did not know whether the two inmates discussed such topics. Lubanga, who will be tried by the International Criminal Court here for commandeering child soldiers in the Congo, speaks French, while Taylor speaks English. "We're arranging for some language courses, and also for computer lessons," Dubuisson said.

"They are not convicted; we have to treat them with dignity."

Uganda: "LRA Soldiers Beat Me and Left Me for Dead"

From IRIN

Edward Lomude, 16, lives in the village of Morsak, about 25km from Yei town in Southern Sudan. In a voice barely above a whisper, he told IRIN about his abduction on 19 May by the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

"I was at home when about 35 rebels came to our village. They had dreadlocks and carried Kalashnikovs; they were all speaking Acholi [a northern Ugandan language].

"They rounded up all the villagers at the shop and looted everything. They then took me and five other men with them to carry the goods they had stolen.

"They released the other five men the next day, but insisted I stay with them. From the little Juba Arabic they spoke, I gathered that they wanted me to become a soldier and fight with them.

"From early morning to late evening, they made me carry heavy goods that they looted from shops along the way. While I was with them, they only abducted one other person, a 15-year-old girl.

"After about one month, we had travelled through the bush and were near the town of Nabanga [in western Equatoria State near Sudan's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo]. I was so tired by then that my legs literally refused to move.

"When they saw that I was not useful any more, they began to beat me; they hit me with a gun on my neck until I passed out. They thought they had killed me and continued with their journey.

"After four days lying in the bush, unable to move, some Zande [local ethnic community] people found me and took me in; they looked after me and took me to the town of Yambio [largest town in Western Equatoria], and then another good Samaritan took me to Yei. The SPLA [Sudan People's Liberation Army] brought me home and my uncle, the parish priest, is looking after me.

"Until the day I was captured, I had never heard of the LRA. I don't know who they are or why they are fighting, and I don't know why they came to my village. What I know is they have left us empty-handed; the shops are empty and they took all our clothes and cooking utensils; no one here has any money to buy these things."

Darfur: Five Rebel Groups Agree to Unite

From Reuters

Five Darfur rebel groups agreed on Saturday to unite ahead of possible peace talks to end a four-year conflict in the region which so far has defied resolution, in part because of fractious rebel groups.

In a statement to reporters, the new group, the United Front for Liberation and Development (UFLD), called on other rebels in Sudan's western region to join them.

"This announcement of the formation of the UFLD is preparation for that eventuality (the peace talks) once it takes place," said Sherif Herir, a top leader in one of two Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) factions that signed the agreement in Asmara.

"The door is open for any movements to join," he added.

The Darfur rebels fractured into more than a dozen armed groups after an unpopular peace deal last year with Khartoum that only one faction signed.

[edit]

The new rebel group includes two SLA factions, the Revolutionary Democratic Front Forces, the National Movement for Reform and Development and Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance.

The announcement came one day after the rebels met the U.N. envoy for Sudan, Jan Eliasson, ahead of a meeting in Libya this weekend aimed at advancing peace talks among Darfur's rebel groups.

U.N. and African Union envoys have also set a self-imposed August deadline to launch peace negotiations.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki announced on Saturday that Asmara would attend the meeting in the Libyan capital -- scheduled for July 15-16, which would include regional and international envoys discussing the shape of new peace talks.

In talks with Eliasson, Eritrea's leader said more must be done to resolve the conflict in Darfur.

"The president called for stepped-up endeavors so that the Tripoli meeting may reach a joint consensus for the coming forum regarding endeavors to resolve the Darfur issue," said a statement in an Eritrean government newspaper.