Break

Having posted here on an almost daily basis for nearly three years, I have to admit that the entire crisis is wearing me down and I am finding it harder and harder to keep reading and posting articles about the daily ins-and-outs of what is happening.

On top of that, I am getting increasingly busy with work and other things - so I am going to put this blog on hiatus for the time being.

But for those of you still seeking daily updates on what is happening in the region, please visit Passion of the Present, which has consistently posted a vast array of coverage, and the ENOUGH Project.

Best,
KM

Darfur: Peacekeepers Without a Peace to Keep

From the New York Times

IF anyone needed proof that Darfur has degenerated into a peacekeeper’s nightmare, 30 truckloads of armed men forcefully delivered it two weekends ago.

They stormed a small African Union garrison in a dusty village, Haskanita, and massacred 10 African peacekeepers, looted their equipment and torched their base. The attack came as the African Union was preparing for a critical peace conference on Darfur and the United Nations was rushing to assemble a beefed-up force that will total 26,000 soldiers under joint U.N.-African Union command — the largest peacekeeping mission in the world.

Is the intervention too late? Or maybe, as some experts argue, too early?

The problem with Darfur is that it is not a Kosovo, an East Timor, or a Cyprus, all places where United Nations blue helmets have stepped between well-defined warring parties and stopped the bloodshed. Darfur is experiencing a different, messier kind of war.

Though often simplified, the situation in Darfur has become a chaotic free-for-all with many warring pieces, Arab versus Arab, rebel versus rebel, bandit versus bandit, all fighting one another in a desiccated, burned-out wasteland overrun with weapons and increasingly lethal for aid workers and peacekeepers.

If anything, Darfur resembles Somalia in the 1990s, when the failure of American-backed United Nations peacekeepers to subdue teenage gunmen in flip-flops ushered in 16 years of chaos that rages on today.

“Unless Unamid,” the abbreviation for the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, “develops a strategy, wises up very fast to the complexity of the conflict in 2007 and gets out of its fortresses, which is more unlikely than ever post-Haskanita, it will very soon become a major part of the problem,” said Julie Flint, a London-based journalist and co-author of “Darfur: A Short History of a Long War.” She cited the amount of water peacekeepers would consume — up to 40 times per person what a typical Darfurian uses, the burden on already broken roads and communications, and the huge expectations the force’s arrival will create.

“Darfurians are expecting to be saved by Unamid, to have roads opened, the janjaweed disarmed and banditry ended,” she said. This, she added, is “mission impossible,” however well the troops perform.

Impossible or not, some experts emphasized that if the force is to have any chance of success, it must be willing to fight robustly and take casualties.

Roméo Dallaire, the former United Nations commander in Rwanda who was ordered to essentially watch the 1994 genocide there explode before his eyes, said the troops must “go inside the camps, do night patrols and snap inspections, essentially go wherever they need to, without the Sudanese Army or police blocking them.” He said they also need to go after “every one of those splinter groups” and they’ll need the proper gear to do so.

Though the United Nations has gotten pledges for the foot soldiers it needs from countries like Egypt, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Thailand, it is still waiting on developed countries to cough up 24 helicopters, as well as heavy trucks and other equipment.

“Unless the commander screams to the high heavens for the force multipliers his troops need, he will fail,” said Mr. Dallaire, now a senator in Canada.

John Prendergast, co-chairman of the Enough project, an initiative to raise awareness of crimes against humanity, said the new peacekeepers needed to “make a statement early on that this force is different from the last one,” referring to the current African force.

“Let’s say a village has been attacked and the attackers are retreating,” he said. “If there’s good intelligence about who did this, then it’s very important for the peacekeepers to engage them, whoever they are — rebels, militias, the government — so they and other groups know there is a cost to their actions.”

The peacekeepers, he said, can’t forget their core mission — protecting people. “For example, they need to go on firewood patrols and protect the women collecting wood from getting raped,” he said. “No, this isn’t going to end the conflict. But it could at least end one of the most horrific subplots of this saga.”

Jane Holl Lute, an assistant secretary general at the United Nations, said the fragmentation of Darfur’s armed groups could be “a sign of weakness,” and restoring law and order would offer the peacekeepers an opportunity to win over the local population. She cited Haiti and Liberia as precedents.

Congo, which is home to the largest current United Nations peacekeeping force — more than 17,000 troops — is also an example. There, peacekeepers have made a dent in attacks on civilians, though by no means have they stopped them all.

When to act in Darfur has been a question since the conflict began in 2003, primarily as a rebellion by some non-Arab tribes. That fueled a brutal counterinsurgency by government-backed Arab militias, the feared janjaweed, who burned villages, raped women and slaughtered civilians. At least 200,000 people are thought to have died.

Leslie Lefkow, an Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, said, “There was definitely a lost opportunity for a robust intervention in 2004, when the situation was clearer in terms of the number and nature of the armed groups.”

On the other hand, there are dangers in jumping in too early.

“A peacekeeping force can end up prolonging the conflict by preventing either side from winning,” said Michael Clough, a former director of the Africa program at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Unfortunately, conflicts seldom end until one side loses — or realizes that it is likely to lose unless it agrees to a negotiated settlement.”

The ideal situation for using peacekeepers, of course, is when a deal has already been struck and they can simply monitor it. In Bosnia that made all the difference. Before the Dayton accords, peacekeepers were powerless to stop massacres, like the 8,000 people killed in Srebrenica, in 1995, in front of Dutch soldiers. After Dayton, there was a peace to keep, and it held.

And so the timing of the expanded force for Darfur may be backward. Because of the enormous international pressure, the decision to send the peacekeepers came first, and now there is a scramble to force a political settlement before they arrive.

Sam Ibok, a negotiator for the Africa Union, said one complication is that Darfur’s rebel leaders have “prematurely ripened.” That is, Western activists lifted them from obscurity and saw them as heroes in a very complicated conflict, before they had much chance to learn organizational skills. As a result, he said, “it’s very difficult for them to make peace.”

Ditto for the Sudanese government, which does not have a stellar record of living up to its word. On Thursday, former rebels in south Sudan abruptly quit the national unity government to protest what they said was a policy by Sudan’s leaders of undercutting the peace deal they signed two years ago.

The reforms they are demanding — power sharing, wealth sharing and democratizing Sudan’s militarized regime — are the same ones that the rebels are fighting for in Darfur.

Darfur: From Bad to Worse

An op-ed by Alex de Waal in The Los Angeles Times

Helping bring peace to southern Sudan in 2005 was the Bush administration's finest foreign policy achievement. It is now unraveling, risking a new north-south civil war that would surpass Darfur as a political and humanitarian disaster.

The Darfur advocacy campaigns have familiarized the American public with the suffering and abuse visited on civilians in that region of western Sudan. The people of southern Sudan suffered no less during the years of civil war beginning in 1983. The successive governments in Khartoum had two weapons of choice: freelance militias licensed to raid, burn and plunder; and deliberate famine that starved southern Sudanese to the point where vast tracts of their fertile land are now depopulated. The stakes were undeniably high. Khartoum didn't want to lose control of the south, which has oil. But most of those who live in southern Sudan -- Christians and followers of traditional theistic faiths -- believe that their homeland should separate from northern Sudan and end generations of exploitation by Khartoum's Arab-Islamic elites. Over 20 years, up to 2 million southerners perished.

A concerted diplomatic effort by neighboring African countries, backed by the U.S., Britain and Norway, brought Africa's longest civil war to an end. The Bush administration's commitment to peace was pivotal. In his first months in office, President Bush reversed the previous Clinton policy of backing Sudan's armed opposition -- especially the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement led by John Garang -- in favor of a negotiated accord. U.S. pressure helped make that peace a reality. More important still was a shared vision of a democratically transformed Sudan with a government of national unity that had a place for all, including President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir and the Islamists.

The peace deal was signed in Kenya in January 2005. But, as diplomats noted at the time, the deal was just a beginning; implementing the agreement would be 10 times harder. It includes complex provisions for power sharing, dividing the national wealth, demarcating the internal north-south boundary, integrating government troops and former rebels into joint military units, holding democratic elections in 2009 and holding a referendum in the south on self-determination in 2011. But then Garang died in a helicopter crash, and Vice President Ali Osman Taha, the leading moderate voice in Khartoum, found himself politically marginalized. With Darfur engulfed in war, progress became harder still.

Recent weeks have brought an accelerating drumbeat of warnings that the peace accord is breaking down. Garang's successor as leader of southern Sudan has spoken of a return to war. Southern leaders complain repeatedly that their counterparts from the north, in the National Congress Party, renege on agreements and make key decisions behind their backs. On Thursday, Pagan Amum, secretary-general of the SPLM, announced that his party was pulling out of the unity government until key elements of the peace agreement were fully implemented. Meanwhile, both sides are expanding their armies, aiming -- for now -- to deter the other from initiating a war.

Few Sudanese doubt that a new war would be even more hideous than its predecessor. The south would try to secede; for President Bashir it would be a fight to the death. Millions of southern civilians now live in the north, including in and around the capital, Khartoum. The SPLM has supporters and troops in other parts of the north as well, including the highly combustible Kordofan region. That area, next to Darfur, already is suffering a spillover of that war, and just last week the United Nations warned that violent conflict could erupt there. Potentially compounding disaster, a secessionist war probably would draw in Egypt on Khartoum's side and other neighbors, such as Uganda, in support of the south, and ignite a conflagration throughout the Nile Valley.

The deepening political crisis also poisons the chances for any peaceful resolution of Darfur's conflict. Why should Darfur's rebels make a deal with a government that seems to be collapsing? If it does collapse, the war in Darfur will enter a new and more deadly phase.

The dream of democratic transformation in Sudan is ailing, but it is far from dead. So far, the north-south cease-fire is holding. But the 2005 peace accord urgently needs the full diplomatic strength of the Bush administration behind it -- especially if peace in Sudan is to be any part of the Bush legacy.

Darfur: Prosecutor Calls For Arrest of War Crimes Suspects

From The Canadian Press

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is urging Canadians and people around the world to tell their governments to help nab suspected Darfur war criminals.

"One important thing the world did to prevent (genocide) was establish this court," Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Saturday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"Now, the challenge is to implement the law decisions."

Moreno-Ocampo, who spoke at a global conference Saturday on the prevention of genocide in Montreal, said land and cattle have been taken away from more than two million Sudanese, many of whom were forced into "squalid" camps.

More than 200,000 people have been killed during the conflict, which began in 2003.

Those behind these "massive atrocities" must be apprehended for the clash to end, he said.

In the spring, the international court issued warrants for Sudanese government minister Ahmed Harun and janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb, both suspected of committing war crimes in Darfur.

However, Sudan's government has refused to arrest the suspects.

Harun, meanwhile, was appointed as the country's humanitarian affairs minister, which puts him in charge of the people he displaced, Moreno-Ocampo added.

"There is no solution to Darfur if Harun is not arrested," he said.

"I have a strong case against the minister, now the Sudan has to arrest him."

But he said Darfur presents a challenge for the global community because the United Nations cannot deploy peacekeepers in the area unless it has an agreement with Sudan.

Moreno-Ocampo called on Canadians and people around the world to speak up about Darfur.

"It is time to break the silence," he said.

Canada's position that security should focus more on the individual rather than the state has given it a leading role in bringing war criminals to justice, he added.

"I hope Canada still leads, it's very important," Moreno-Ocampo said.

Rebecca Hamilton, a Harvard University law student and co-founder of a cross-campus organization condemning the Sudanese genocide, said although it's only five years old, the International Criminal Court can deal with war crimes on a permanent basis.

However, without its own police force to execute arrest warrants, The Hague-based court needs co-operation.

"Like anything, it requires the support of citizens," said Hamilton, who worked in the Sudan in 2004.

Hamilton attended the McGill University conference to launch a declaration from student leaders of 54 universities in 23 countries condemning the Darfur conflict.

She said prevention is key.

"It's not enough to just, when the crisis hits the headlines, to suddenly go 'Oh, we've got to do something,' and scramble," she said.

"You're always going to be too late."

Darfur: Canada Betraying Reputation, Says Dallaire

From The Montreal Gazette

Canada should take a leading role in bringing the ongoing slaughter of millions of civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan to an end, Senator Roméo Dallaire said yesterday.

Mr. Dallaire, a retired Canadian Forces general who commanded the United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the Tutsi genocide in 1994, said the government has shown no willingness to uphold the "responsibility to protect," the doctrine it came up with and convinced the United Nations to accept in 2005.

"Canada loves its reputation but is not willing to pay the price," he said in an interview at a conference on the prevention of genocide.

The doctrine -- the brainchild of former Liberal foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy -- obliges the United Nations to shield people all over the world from genocide and ethnic cleansing at the hands of their own governments, even if it means military intervention.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, echoed Mr. Dallaire's sentiments, saying that Canada also took a leading role in establishing the ICC.

"What message does silence bring to the victims in Darfur? What message does the silence bring to the perpetrators?" he said. "People need our help and attention now."

About 2.5 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes since February 2003 as a result of a government-supported campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Sudan's western region bordering Chad.

They've been executed, raped, tortured and had their property pillaged, observers say.

The Sudanese government has rejected the full deployment of a proposed African Union-United Nations protection force to Darfur and it impedes efforts to protect civilians.

"I'm still in awe in the most pejorative way of how we're being fiddled with by an astute, foxy and genocidal regime in Sudan," Mr. Dallaire said.

"What you have is the Sudanese applying all kinds of problems that ultimately will render a force ineffective."

Darfur: Splintered Rebels Search for Common Ground

From Reuters

Representatives of seven Darfur rebel groups net in south Sudan on Monday to try to reach a common negotiating position ahead of peace talks with the government.

But huge doubts remain about whether Darfur's rapidly fracturing rebel groups will be able to agree on a joint set of grievances and negotiating points before they travel to Libya for the negotiations with Khartoum on Oct. 27.

Even as the meeting got under way, rebels leaders said some fighters were shifting allegiances.

Organisers of the meeting in Juba, capital of south Sudan, said rebels would have up to five days to find common ground.

Some delegates in Juba told Reuters they were optimistic.

"We will not leave Juba unless we are reunited," said Tadjadine Bechir Niam, from a breakaway faction of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement. "We are ready to give any concessions."

A spokesman for the meeting's organisers, the South Sudan Darfur Taskforce, said they were hopeful the founder of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, would attend.

El-Nur has so far refused to take part in any peace negotiations, demanding a string of concessions from Khartoum.

Mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms in 2003 in Darfur accusing the government of neglecting the remote western region. Khartoum mobilised mainly Arab militias to quell the revolt.

The sheer number of rebel groups vying for a place at the negotiating table has proved a headache for the United Nations and the African Union, the organisers of the Libyan talks.

The leader of the main branch of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, Khalil Ibrahim, last week threatened to pull out of the peace process unless only two factions -- his own and a unified Sudan Liberation Army -- were allowed to take part.

The situation was further complicated by reports that a number of fighting units had agreed to leave their leaders and join the "Unity" faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-Unity).

Suleiman Jamous, a leading figure in SLA-Unity, told Reuters: "We are trying to get the Sudan Liberation Army back under one banner if possible. We are contacting field commanders across the region."

He said fighting units previously loyal to other SLA faction leaders including el-Nur and Ahmed Abdel Shafie had joined the new unified group.

Jamous also claimed a number of defections from the SLA faction run by Minni Arcua Minnawi -- the only rebel leader to sign up to a failed peace agreement with Sudan in 2006.

Another leading member of SLA-Unity cast doubt on whether Sudan's government had the authority to go to Libya, following the withdrawal of its main coalition partner.

The southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement pulled its ministers from the government on Thursday in a dispute over the 2005 peace agreement on the separate north-south civil war.

From AFP

Darfur rebel factions that have not signed a peace deal with Khartoum were meeting in the southern city of Juba on Monday to try to unify their positions ahead of peace talks in Libya later this month.

Salva Kiir, first vice-president and head of the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement that formed a government with Khartoum, opened the meeting with a call for "unity of the factions and of the people of Darfur."

The talks come with the southern semi-autonomous government gripped by its own crisis after it withdrew from the national unity government on Thursday, accusing Khartoum of failing to respect a 2005 peace deal for the south.

A Darfur peace deal was signed in May 2006 between Khartoum and one of three negotiating rebel factions to end four years of conflict which has killed at least 200,000 people according to the United Nations.

Since then, the non-signatory rebel groups have splintered into dozens of factions. UN envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson said last week he was aware of 28 rebel groups.

Kiir urged participants to draw up "common demands and form a single delegation" ahead of the Libya peace talks on October 27, according to Jar al-Nabi Abdel Kader Yunes, who heads a delegation of commanders who split from a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement headed by Abdel Wahed Nur.

Other rebel groups present are the Sudan Liberation Movement-Unity headed by Ahmed Teshafi and a faction of the Justice and Equality Movement, known as JEM-Unified Command, according to Yunes.

Two rebel chiefs from south Darfur known only as Mohammed Ali Kilai and "Commander Seddik" were also present, Yunes said, but could not immediately identify their factions.

Notably absent from the meetings was Nur's SLM faction, which has said it will not attend the Libya talks unless a UN peacekeeping force is deployed first in Darfur.

Also missing were the main JEM faction led by Khalil Ibrahim and the SLM faction headed by Khamis Abdallah, said Yunes.

The rebels meeting in Juba said that the Khartoum military tried to prevent them from reaching the talks, forcing the African Union plane they were flying in on Thursday to make an emergency landing in Darfur or be shot down.

"An air defence unit said it would shoot down the plane if it didn't land immediately," SLM-Unity spokesman Mahjoub Hussein said at the time. The aircraft was allowed to resume its journey several hours later.

Monday's talks come amid an upsurge in violence in Darfur, where the one rebel group to have signed the peace deal with Khartoum, the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minawi, has threatened to take up arms again.

Minawi's faction said that Sudanese forces and their allied Janjaweed militia killed 50 people in an attack earlier this month on a town it controls in Darfur, threatening the fragile peace deal.

The UN subsequently reported clashes between Khartoum forces and Minawi ex-rebels, but the circumstances of the violence were not clear.

Another attack carried out by unidentified forces on an African Union base near Haskanita in Darfur killed 10 peacekeepers from the under-manned force, ratcheting up the pressure ahead of the Libya talks.

Conflict and famine in Darfur have killed at least 200,000 people and displaced two million since Khartoum enlisted the Janjaweed to put down an ethnic minority revolt in 2003. Aid groups have blamed the militia in particular for widespread rape, murder and destruction of villages.

Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died in the conflict.

Chad: Ethnic Clashes Kill 20

From Reuters

Twenty people were killed in ethnic clashes in east Chad after the desertion of former rebels loyal to the defence minister stoked tensions in the region bordering Sudan's Darfur, government sources said on Monday.

The violence between the Tama and Zaghawa communities broke out after an armed group of Tama fighters who had served under Defence Minister Mahamat Nour abandoned the eastern town of Guereda last week and moved close to the Sudanese border. They accused Chad's armed forces of trying to disarm them.

Details of the inter-communal fighting were scarce but it appeared armed Zaghawa clansmen had taken advantage of the absence of Nour's men in Guereda to settle scores with Tamas. Clan rivalries run deep in eastern Chad as in Darfur, many local residents go about armed and clashes are frequent.

News of the latest violence emerged as European Union foreign ministers were meeting in Luxembourg to announce final details of the planned deployment of an EU peacekeeping force in eastern Chad to protect civilians, refugees and aid workers.

Chad's President Idriss Deby flew on Sunday to Biltine, the main town of the eastern Wadi Fira border region, and instructed the local governor to travel to Guereda to calm the situation, the government sources, who asked not to be named, said.

"There are 20 dead and lots of material damage," one said.

The desertion of the group of Nour's men, former members of the rebel United Front for Democratic Change (FUC) which he once led, raised fears of fresh splits inside Chad's fractious armed forces at a time when Deby's government is trying to push through a peace deal with other eastern rebels still under arms.

It also raised questions about the role of Nour, a Tama and former anti-Deby rebel chief who signed a peace deal with the Zaghawa president in December and was later named defence minister.

Nour has appealed for calm among his Tama fighters and flew back to Chad's western capital N'Djamena on Sunday after receiving treatment abroad for an illness.

He was expected to meet Deby in Biltine later on Monday.

The clashes in east Chad follow a surge in violence over the border in Sudan's Darfur, where rebels, militias and African Union peacekeepers have tangled in clashes ahead of planned Darfur peace talks in Tripoli this month.

The EU force for Chad is deploying to complement an even bigger United Nations/African Union force planned for Darfur, where a local rebellion and ethnic fighting since 2003 have killed some 200,000 people, experts say. Sudan's government rejects this figure, saying the death toll is much lower.

Deby, who has ruled Chad since he took power through an eastern revolt in 1990, has seen his government shaken by splits and military desertions over the past two years.

His government signed a peace deal in Libya last week with four rebel groups. The accord promises the rebels government posts in return for a ceasefire, but some rebel leaders have said differences remain over disarmament.

Uganda: LRA Displeased With ICC Chief Prosecutor

From VOA

Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have described as baseless and unfounded accusations that they are regrouping and still committing various forms of atrocities in Northern Uganda. This comes after the International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo accused the rebels of committing more atrocities even as the LRA was engaged in peace negotiations with the government to end over-20 years of insurgency. Ocampo also reportedly said that the international arrest warrants against the LRA leadership should not be suspended since the rebels have not stopped committing atrocities against innocent civilians.

David Matsanga is the rebel's technical advisor on ICC matters. From the Kenyan capital, Nairobi he tells reporter Peter Clottey that the ICC chief prosecutor's statement could potentially undermine the on going peace negotiations in Juba.

"We do respect the ICC, but we don't respect Moreno Ocampo. We don't want these things to be distinguished. Moreno Ocampo has become personal and the LRA is determined to also become personal because Moreno Ocampo has left his job and he has now become a witch hunter, a prosecutor, and investigator and doing all the things that are actually against the LRA," Matsanga noted.

He said the ICC chief prosecutor has not only failed to discharge his duties, but has also been biased against the rebels.

"He is not doing his job as the ICC statue has stated. He is doing a different job because he has been compromised by the government of the Republic of Uganda because he knows that it is him who flawed these investigations by investigating only one side of the conflict. So the LRA is determined to become personal from now. We respect the ICC, but we don't respect Moreno Ocampo as a prosecutor," he said.

Matsanga challenged the investigation that led to ICC indictment of crimes against humanity against the LRA leadership.

"You know very well that the ICC has no army, has no police to apprehend anybody. They are a talking shop one, because they have these things of Northern Uganda wrongly. You cannot investigate one side, and you call investigation. What do you call investigation? If two people have been fighting, do you investigate one side only? We have been keeping quiet… we are discussing peace, why should Ocampo a one single individual, a man from Europe to come and refuse what Ugandans are saying? They want peace and Ocampo wants to dole out punishment. Who is Ocampo? Ocampo has belittled himself to a degree of a person who should not be a prosecutor at all," Matsanga pointed out.

He said the chief prosecutor's recent statement could seriously destabilize the peace negotiations between the rebels and the Ugandan government.

"Ocampo is undermining Dr. Riek Marchar's effort to bring peace in the region. Why does he issue statements of this nature at this time when he knows that we have signed Agenda Number Two? Number three; we are going to sign the ceasefire (agreement) and DDR (disarmament, demobilization, and resettlement) why does he talk about arrest allegations, which recruitment? Can he name how many people were recruited, when and where were they recruited? Which camp are they in, what type of malice is this? This is total malice that I have ever seen… Ocampo's statements are naïve, prudish, sardonic, and they deserve the highest contempt of the whole international community. And even any lawyer who has studied law should actually condemn Ocampo," he said.

Darfur: Peacekeeping Hampered by Logistical, Political Hurdles

From AFP

Only weeks before the joint UN-African Union (AU) peace force is to begin deploying in Darfur, the operation appears hobbled by logistical and political problems compounded by an upsurge of fighting on the ground.

On the political front, UN diplomats also point to questions marks about a planned new round of Darfur peace talks scheduled for October 27 in Libya due to the surging violence and the refusal of some Darfur rebels to take part.

In his latest report on Darfur, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that the timeline for deploying the joint force known as UNAMID was being delayed due to problems in obtaining "land for construction of offices and accommodation in Darfur and...feedback regarding the list of troop-contributing countries submitted to the government of Sudan."

"It is of critical importance that the government (of Sudan) extend the support and cooperation necessary to resolve the issues pertaining to land, landing rights for UN aircraft and the finalization of the list of troop-contributing countries for UNAMID," Ban noted.

The United Nations and the African Union have so far agreed to accept troops for UNAMID from at least 16 countries, mostly from Africa but also from Thailand, Bangladesh, Jordan, Nepal, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries.

Khartoum has been insisting on UNAMID having a "predominantly African character" but has accepted that the UN can turn to non-African countries to fill gaps, notably in specialized areas such as logistics, transport and communications.

One key unresolved issue is a shortage of 24 transport and tactical helicopters that are meant to give the force sufficient mobility and firepower at a time when government troops and rebel fighters are locked in a fresh cycle of strikes and counter-strikes.

Ten of these helicopters which Jordan had offered to supply were rejected by UN peacekeeping planners as unsuitable for the operation.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, head of UN peacekeeping operations, Monday urged European countries and others with the needed capacities to provide the helicopters and pilots, saying they were "critical for the success of the mission."

But a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Europeans' reluctance to provide the helicopters stemmed from doubts about UNAMID command and control arrangements.

"There are still question marks over how effective and how robust this force is going to be," he said, adding that efforts were being made to try "to build confidence in the robustness of the force," notably by seconding a senior British military officer to its Nigerian commander, General Martin Luther Agwai.

The bulk of UNAMID, which is to comprise more than 19,000 military personnel, over 6,000 police and over 5,500 civilians, is not expected to be on the ground in Darfur, a region the size of France, until well into next year.

Meanwhile Ban also raised the alarm about the surging violence in Darfur, deploring "the brazen and brutal attacks" allegedly by rebel fighters on a base of AU peacekeepers that killed 10 of them in the southern town of Haskanita late last month.

Wednesday, the UN said fighting had erupted between Sudanese troops and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction of Minni Minawi, the only Darfur rebel group to have signed a 2006 peace accord, after the rebels accused Khartoum of attacking a town they control.

The escalating fighting comes as the UN and the AU scrambled to lay the groundwork for new Darfur peace talks set for October 27 in the Libyan capital Tripoli to try to end four years of fighting during which over 200,000 people are believed to have died.

Hardline Darfur rebel chief Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur's faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement has said he will not attend the new peace talks with Khartoum until UNAMID is fully deployed in Darfur.

But a Western diplomat here said that although "a significant faction leader" of Darfur's Fur ethnic group, Paris-based Nur could be subjected to UN sanctions if he is found to be "an obstacle to peace."

"He needs to be persuaded that this is serious negotiation and the train will leave the station and if he is not on it then he won't form a part of the outcome," he added.

The diplomat said the Tripoli meeting should be seen as the "start of a process"' and should produce agreement on a ceasefire.

Sudan: Crisis on Two Fronts as Southern Party Quits Govt

From AFP

Sudan faced a crisis on two fronts Thursday after the main party in the south withdrew from government because of Khartoum's failure to share power as hopes also faded for peace in Darfur.

Former southern rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement suspended their participation in the national government as fighting escalated in the western region of Darfur where rebels have taken up arms complaining of abuse and marginalisation by Khartoum.

Darfur peace talks due in Libya later this month have been put at risk by reports that Khartoum forces and their allied Janjaweed militias have intensified attacks on the rebels, including the only faction to have signed a peace deal.

In Khartoum, a senior SPLM official said the decision to withdraw from government was taken at a meeting in the southern capital of Juba presided over by party leader Salva Kiir.

"Our participation in the government is frozen until we can find a solution to our differences" with the north, he added.

The SPLM and its armed wing signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with Khartoum in 2005, ending 21 years of war between the Muslim north and Christian and animist south that killed at least two million people and displaced millions more.

At least 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting in Darfur.

While southern former rebel leader Salva Kiir currently holds the post of first vice president in the national government, further implementation of the agreement has been dogged by problems and mutual accusations of stalling.

The SPLM currently has 18 ministers and deputy ministers in the central government, as well as holding its own parliament sessions in Juba, the capital of the semi-autonomous south.

The SPLM official said key problems revolved around the withdrawal of northern troops from the south, the fate of the disputed oil-rich region of Abiye and "the evolution of democracy in Sudan."

He said that the SPLM would return to the government once the differences were resolved.

In Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi, the only rebel group to have signed a 2006 peace deal, threatened to take up arms again after it said more than 50 people were killed in a government-backed attack.

"From now on, our movement will not stand by and do nothing in the face of such attacks," Arku Suleiman Dhahia, commander in chief of the SLA said on Tuesday.

"If this happens again, we go back to square one which means war and it will be worse than the one before (the peace deal was signed) 2006," he told journalists in Khartoum.

The UN reported clashes between government of Sudan forces and Minawi troops but the circumstances of the fighting remain unclear.

As a result of the attack, Minawi, now a special advisor to President Omar al-Beshir, cut short a visit to Darfur in which he had been trying to persuade other rebel factions to join this month's peace conference in Libya.

US envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios earlier this month voiced "deep concern" at the "poisonous" atmosphere between the north and south peace partners since the CPA was signed.

"Tensions are rising. This is dangerous ... The current political atmosphere between (north and south) is poisonous," Natsios said on October 6.

He said the risk of clashes between both sides was high, warning of the danger of militarisation on the border.

In August, south Sudan's information minister Samson Kwaje warned that the world's focus on ending the conflict in Darfur could hamper the implementation of the north-south accord

Darfur: Arms Continue to Flow, Security Council Expert Panel Finds

From the UN News Center

The Sudanese Government and rebel groups in Darfur continue to violate the Security Council arms embargo, sending heavy weapons, small arms, ammunition and other military equipment into the war-torn region over the past year, a panel of experts set up to monitor the ban says in a new report.

The panel finds that the Government has shipped arms and equipment – including military airplanes and helicopters – by air into the airports of Darfur’s three provincial capitals, El Fasher, Nyala and El Geneina.

This occurred even though the Government did not submit any requests for approval or exemption to the Security Council committee set up in 2005 as part of the arms embargo, the report states, covering the period from the end of September last year to the end of August this year.

Government warplanes also made numerous offensive overflights in Darfur, and engaged in aerial bombardments, although the panel notes that the frequency of aerial attacks has declined since April.

Several non-State armed groups have also received weapons, including assault rifles, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns, that were bought in an unnamed country and then transported through Eritrea and later Chad to reach the rebels in Darfur, which lies on Sudan’s western flank.

The panel says it is still awaiting responses from several Member States concerning that shipment, as well as other shipments to non-State armed groups.

It reiterates its earlier recommendation to expand the arms embargo to cover Sudan’s entire territory and issues a fresh recommendation calling for a ban on the sale and supply of arms and related materiel to non-State armed groups located in or operating from neighbouring Chad.

Turning to the targeted financial and travel-related sanctions, the panel states that the Sudanese and Chadian Governments have failed to fully implement the resolutions relating to the ban, such as by monitoring the financial accounts of individuals named by the Council.

The panel also finds that both the Sudanese Government and Darfur’s major rebel groups have impeded the peace process, whether by conducting ongoing hostilities, placing lengthy pre-conditions on participating in peace talks or by failing to disarm other groups under their control.

Several rebel groups, including the National Redemption Front (NRF) and the Minni Minawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) have also actively targeted the African Union peacekeeping mission currently operating in Darfur.

For its part, the Government had used white aircraft in many of its offensive overflights in Darfur, including in at least one instance a plane with “UN” markings.

All sides, including local Arab tribal militia, are not enforcing any accountability for breaches of the laws and rules of war, while the panel states that rape is being widely used as an instrument of warfare.

Darfur: Moral Equivalence

A post from Eric Reeves on Comment is Free

Lakhdar Brahimi, a former UN envoy to Iraq and one of several international eminences know as "the Elders," briefly toured Sudan last week and declared that the Darfur rebels were being "pampered" by the "international community." This sentiment represents a growing exasperation on the part of western and African diplomats with the Darfuri rebels for being unable to coordinate a common position from which to negotiate a peace accord. And for this failure, rebel leaders and Darfuri political leaders in the disapora bear a great deal of blame, even as Khartoum has been exceedingly resourceful in its divide-and-rule policies.

But the notion that the rebels are being pampered by the international community is simply nonsense. Diplomatic criticism of the rebel leaders has grown steadily in past weeks and months. Moreover, one has only to look at the anemic Western contributions to the UN/AU hybrid peace support operation to Darfur authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 1769 to see how little pampering has occurred. All evidence suggests that the people of Darfur - civilians and rebels alike - will be left without meaningful improvement in human security for many months to come.

Indeed, the international community's willingness to commit to a policy of moral equivalence, in which Khartoum is no more responsible for violence and civilian destruction in Darfur than the rebels, shows that it is the Khartoum regime that is pampered, not the rebels. This perverse balancing of moral equities prior to peace talks scheduled to take place in Sirte, Libya has played directly into the broader strategy of the regime. These ruthless survivalists envision, with terrifying plausibility, a peace process owned by no one, poorly prepared for by AU and UN envoys, and presenting unfettered opportunities for the regime to cleave insistently to the ill-conceived Darfur peace agreement (DPA) as the only basis for negotiations.

The rebels, as well as Darfuris in camps for the displaced, overwhelmingly reject the DPA. Thus, with diplomatic pressure largely removed because of Khartoum's nominal commitment to a peace process, and with the disastrous consequences of the rebel attack on Haskanita, the regime intends to move toward a final military solution of its Darfur problem. Hundreds of thousands of civilian Darfuris are poised to die.

This renewed military solution has already begun in earnest, and Darfur appears on the brink of a resumption of full-scale war. Khartoum has in recent days attacked a number of targets, including humanitarians and civilians, and is gathering its forces across this deeply threatened region. The town of Haskanita, which came under Khartoum's control following the rebel attack on the nearby AU outpost, has been completely burned to the ground by Khartoum's regular forces, together with the Janjaweed militia. All the surrounding ethnically African villages have been abandoned, according to Suleiman Jamous, the most respected and credible of the rebel leaders, who also reports that during a rampage of several days more than 100 civilians were killed. The Associated Press has reported that 15,000 civilians were forced to flee the area. Some 130km to the west, according to numerous reliable reports, the town of Muhajeria was bombed on Monday by one of Khartoum's Antonov aircraft. Amnesty International reports that the plane was painted white, the colour of UN aircraft. At least 40 civilians were killed in this town of 5,000, which also hosts some 45,000 displaced civilians. We should bear in mind that all offensive aerial military flights are prohibited by the March 2005 UN Security Council Resolution 1591, a prohibition that Khartoum regularly ignores because of tepid criticism from precisely the international community Brahimi invokes as pampering the rebels.

There are threats far to the northwest, as well. Amnesty International and others warned on Tuesday that Khartoum is massing its forces near at least six towns in North Darfur, including Tine, Kornoy, Baru and Kutum. Tine is approximately 500km from Haskanita. The Group of 19, comprising many of the most honourable of the rebel commanders, dominates militarily in North Darfur and had nothing to do with the attack on the AU peacekeepers near Haskanita; indeed, at least one leader tried desperately to halt the attack beforehand. And yet a major military offensive by Khartoum is clearly in the offing, targeting this most potent source of rebel resistance.

Perhaps most ominously, Nyala - capital of South Darfur, the largest town in the region and previously thought one of the safest - is on the brink of a security collapse. Khartoum's forces in this area are attacking elements of the rebel faction of Minni Minawi. Reports from the ground in and near Nyala indicate that UN humanitarian organizations have begun withdrawing their non-essential personnel. If international nongovernmental aid workers also withdraw, some of the very largest camps for displaced persons in Darfur will be without assistance and - in the absence of international witnesses - vulnerable to violent assault. A number of expatriate humanitarian workers have also recently been expelled from the Nyala region by Khartoum.

And yet those who have been most critical of the rebel attack on the AU are evidently willing to countenance these attacks by Khartoum. The demonizing of the rebels has gone far beyond what can possibly be justified, even as a willingness to condemn Khartoum for its years of massive atrocity crimes has in many quarters atrophied to the point of merely perfunctory criticism.

Here it is important to recall something of the history of the Darfur conflict, as this history is increasingly distorted or simply ignored. The rebellion commonly dated to February 2003 grew out of years of severe economic and political marginalization by Khartoum, as well as antecedent ethnically targeted violence, much of it orchestrated by the National Islamic Front regime through Arab militias. The late 1990s saw especially intense attacks on the Massalit, an African tribal group that has had over 95% of its villages in Darfur destroyed over the last decade.

Since Khartoum began its genocidal counter-insurgency war after rebel military successes of early 2003, the ensuing destruction has been savagely comprehensive. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Africans have been killed; tens of thousands of African women and girls have been raped; the vast majority of African villages have been burned, along with food and seed stocks. Precious water wells have been poisoned with human or animal corpses. Agricultural implements have been destroyed; mature fruit trees cut down. The notorious Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal articulated the regime's intention in an August 2004 memorandum: "Change the demography of Darfur and empty it of African tribes."

When we assess current rebel violence, intransigence and fractiousness, we risk hopelessly distorting the nature of the rebellion and continuing resistance if we ignore the clear evidence of Khartoum's strategy of genocidal destruction. Similarly, if we ignore the regime's record of genocide - in Darfur, but also in the Nuba Mountains and the oil regions of southern Sudan - then the baseline for any peace process will also be badly distorted.

Confident that such distortions and ignorance will prevail, Khartoum has moved decisively onto the military offensive. This in turn will make it even harder to persuade rebel leaders to attend the peace talks. Historical myopia, excessive criticism of the rebel groups and growing international unwillingness to acknowledge the realities of genocidal destruction have brought Khartoum steadily closer to a final solution of its Darfur problem.

Darfur: Rebels Call for Probe into Attack, US Evacuates All Staff

From Reuters

Darfur's former rebels on Thursday called for an international investigation into an attack on their forces in Muhajiriya, where at least 45 were killed and dozens injured.

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) blames Sudan's army for the attack, although it has denied any involvement.

"There has to be an international investigation immediately," Minni Arcua Minnawi, the head of the SLA who became presidential adviser in Khartoum after his was the only rebel group to sign a May 2006 peace deal.

"We are committed to the peace and the ceasefire but we want the government to not repeat any action like this."

The attack on Muhajiriya, Minnawi's main town, was the latest in an upsurge of violence in southern Darfur after the worst attack on African Union peacekeepers since they deployed, killing and wounding at least 20 and destroying their base in Haskanita.

A U.N. statement said "tens of civilians were killed and wounded, and tens are reported missing, including children".

Minnawi said at least 40 civilians were killed and five of their soldiers.

Two aid agencies working in the town evacuated 29 staff after they were trapped in their compounds by the fighting.

Minnawi said his movement had written a formal complaint to the United Nations and African Union about the assault.

The army blamed tribal clashes between the Zaghawa and Maaliya in the area. Minnawi's party accused Khartoum earlier this year of arming the Arab Maaliya tribe.

"This is the behaviour of the government. They will never commit to any agreement," Minnawi told Reuters from Darfur.

"This will have a negative effect on peace talks," he said.

Minnawi is in Darfur ahead of peace talks set for Oct. 27 in Libya, and is due to meet rebel factions who reject last year's deal to persuade them to attend talks and unify their ranks.

Since the 2006 deal, rebels have split into more than a dozen factions and formerly pro-government militias have turned on each other, creating a chaotic security environment which the AU peacekeeping force has been unable to quell.

In a report made public on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "extremely concerned" about the "unacceptable" violence in the vast western Sudanese region, which he said was "not contributing to an atmosphere conducive to the peace talks".

He said the attack on the AU peacekeepers "confirms that the ... force which will be deployed to Darfur must be sufficiently robust to defend itself from spoilers and protect civilians from attack". A 26,000-strong AU-U.N. peacekeeping force is planned.

The Libyan talks will be between the Sudanese government and a range of Darfur rebel movements to try to end the four-year-old conflict. They will be jointly mediated by the United Nations and the African Union.

Mostly non-Arabs took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglect. International experts estimate 200,000 have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes in 4-1/2 years of fighting.

Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000 and says the West has exaggerated the conflict in Darfur.

The violence has cast a shadow over attempts to bring all rebel groups into the peace process.

"It highlights the urgent need for a new, broad based ceasefire ... that reflects the multitude of armed actors on the ground today in Darfur, said think tank International Crisis Group's Sudan expert, Dave Mozersky.

"This should be the first priority for new talks."

The world's largest aid operation has been closed in by the renewed fighting, with movement severely restricted and most aid workers travelling only by air after a spate of carjackings.

The United Nations said it had relocated its staff from Tawila town in North Darfur after fighting there two days ago. Amnesty International warned an offensive in North Darfur was imminent as government troops amassed in towns.

The U.S. embassy said it was temporarily evacuating all its staff from Darfur, including USAID and other State Department employees.

Darfur: Land Problems Delaying Roll-Out of UN Peace Mission

From the UN News Center

The timeline for implementing the hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur is being delayed because of difficulties in obtaining land to house the mission offices and staff accommodations and problems relating to the list of troop-contributing countries, says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In his latest progress report on the mission, which is known as UNAMID, Mr. Ban writes that the UN is waiting for feedback from the Sudanese Government on the list of troop-contributing countries.

“It is of critical importance that the Government extend the support and cooperation necessary to resolve the issues pertaining to land, landing rights for United Nations aircraft and the finalization of the list of troop-contributing countries for UNAMID,” he says.

The Security Council authorized the creation of UNAMID earlier this year to try to quell the violence in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2.2 million others forced to flee their homes since 2003 because of fighting between rebels, Government forces and allied Janjaweed militia.

Later this month, the UN and AU are co-convening peace negotiations in neighbouring Libya between the Sudanese Government and the rebels to try to reach a political solution to the conflict.

In his report Mr. Ban expresses concern about the continuing violence across Darfur, particularly the recent spike in attacks, which he warns “is not contributing to an atmosphere conducive to the peace talks” in Libya.

He also voices concern about the fragmentation of the rebel groups and their lack of unity ahead of the Libya talks, adding that is paramount that all parties enter the negotiation process well prepared and seriously committed to trying to reach a final settlement to the conflict as soon as possible.

DRC: Rebel Seeks Ceasefire

From Reuters

Congolese renegade General Laurent Nkunda called for another ceasefire on Wednesday between his soldiers and government troops, saying he was ready to start integrating his fighters once again into the national army.

The announcement was a sudden about-face by the rebel leader, who abandoned a previous month-old U.N.-brokered ceasefire on Monday amid renewed fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern North Kivu province.

"We want a ceasefire ... I'm looking for our partner MONUC (the U.N. mission in the Congo) to push the government forces to a ceasefire," Nkunda told Reuters by telephone from North Kivu.

He said he was ready to resume the integration of his fighters into the Congolese national army, as demanded by President Jospeh Kabila's government and the United Nations as part of efforts to pacify the vast, former Belgian colony.

Nkunda, who led a 2004 rebellion to protect Congo's Tutsi minority in the ethnically-mixed east, accuses Kabila of supporting Rwandan Hutu rebels -- ethnic enemies of the Tutsi.

His call for a ceasefire came after the army's top commander in North Kivu said government soldiers had retaken three villages, killing 20 rebels in two days of clashes.

"Their bombs are falling on the population. If this continues there will be many losses among the population," Nkunda said, referring to the government offensive.

The government had given Nkunda until Oct. 19 to start sending his troops back for integration into mixed army brigades -- a process agreed in a January peace deal which fell apart in August when the general's men deserted the units in droves.

Nkunda said he was ready to send an initial 500 of his fighters to be progressively integrated into the mixed brigades.

He offered no casualty estimates from the recent fighting.

But earlier, General Vainqueur Mayala, the army's top commander in North Kivu, said government forces had recaptured the villages of Karuba, Humure, and Ngungu.

"On the ground, we saw around 20 bodies abandoned by the insurgents," Mayala said.

Asked about media reports that 100 fighters had been killed, including 16 government soldiers, Mayala said no army troops had died in the operations.

Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission said on Wednesday six government soldiers had been wounded in the battles, but there was no independent confirmation of the death toll put forward by Mayala. A Nkunda spokesman disputed the figure.

In the recent fighting, artillery and machinegun fire has forced hundreds of families from their homes, worsening a humanitarian crisis in North Kivu where some 370,000 have fled fighting so far this year.

The province, which borders with Uganda and Rwanda, saw two weeks of heavy clashes in August and early September.

Kabila denies supporting the Rwandan Hutu rebels in North Kivu, who are accused of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide that saw the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

MONUC has placed responsibility for the renewed clashes in the province squarely on Nkunda and warned that, though it favours a negotiated solution, it had not ruled out force.

DRC: Congo's Rape War

An op-ed by John Holmes in the Los Angeles Times

DESPITE MANY WARNINGS, nothing quite prepared me for what I heard last month from survivors of a sexual violence so brutal it staggers the imagination and mocked my notions of human decency. I cannot find the words to describe what I

heard from the girls and women in Panzi Hospital, located in South Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, near the epicenter of one of the world's major humanitarian crises. What I do know is that I am not the same person now as when I walked into that hospital.

As a United Nations official with a special brief for humanitarian affairs, I have seen many people around the globe suffering under truly tragic circumstances. But Congo is different. Its long-running conflict has always been a brutal one, having claimed nearly 4 million lives between 1998 and 2004 -- the equivalent of five Rwandan genocides. And although the war formally ended years ago, fighting has continued in the eastern part of the country, where the national army is battling local and foreign militias in a struggle involving unresolved ethnic conflicts, regional power dynamics and the powerful tug of greed, with all sides vying for a slice of Congo's rich mineral resources.

One of these militias is the FDLR, the Hutu ex-genocidaire group that fled from Rwanda to Congo in 1994 and that continues to harbor wider political ambitions. Civilians are deliberately targeted and harassed by these groups in a climate of almost total impunity.

From the start, sexual violence has been a particularly awful -- and shockingly common -- feature of the conflict in Congo. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable in this predatory environment, with rape and other forms of sexual abuse committed by all sides on an astonishing scale. Since 2005, more than 32,000 cases of rape and sexual violence have been registered in South Kivu alone. But that's only a fraction of the total; many -- perhaps most -- attacks go unreported. Victims of rape are held in shame by Congolese society and frequently are ostracized by their families and communities. The ripple effect of these attacks goes far beyond the individual victim, destroying family and community bonds and leaving children orphaned and/or HIV positive.

Panzi Hospital is housed in rambling quarters outside the city of Bukavu in South Kivu. Of the 15,000 victims of sexual violence treated there since 1999, an estimated two-thirds or more are victims of the FDLR. One-third of the victims are children.

At the hospital, I met a 16-year-old girl, shy but still determined to tell her story. She had been abducted by the FDLR and held as a sex slave for months of unfathomable horrors before she managed to escape, pregnant and alone. I heard from other women who had been raped multiple times, often in front of other villagers or their families. Panzi staff members tell of a woman who was returning from working her fields when she was accosted by seven soldiers who gang-raped her. The last rapist forced the barrel of his gun inside her and pulled the trigger, literally blowing apart her genitals. We heard repeated stories from doctors and other staffers at the hospital of similar incidents involving bayonets or sticks as well as guns.

This sexual violence is an affront not only to the body but to the soul and dignity of every woman assaulted. It is a stain on everyone with influence or authority in Congolese society. Yet somehow it continues, amid widespread indifference and in a climate of impunity, with no functioning justice system to speak of. Even those few who are convicted and jailed in the attacks are likely to "escape." Leaders of the national and provincial governments, military commanders, the Catholic Church and other religious authorities and cultural and sports figures in Congo must do much more to change the culture that allows this to happen.

In 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia recognized systematic rape in Bosnia as a crime against humanity and prosecuted a number of those responsible. In eastern Congo, such crimes continue unpunished. The U.N. is working with Congolese authorities to prevent sexual violence and abuse by the security forces through awareness training and the creation of more disciplined and professional units, and to strengthen the judicial and penal systems. It is also seeking to increase direct assistance to victims, ensure the recruitment of more women in the U.N. peacekeeping force and strengthen protection efforts for girls and women living in hot-spot areas. Last year's national elections, supported by the U.N., were an important step forward and helped put an end to major fighting in much of the country, although not in the east. Since 2004, the number of displaced people has dropped from 3.3 million to 1.2 million.

But the country's needs remain enormous. In any case, there can surely be no dignified, peaceful future for Congolese society as long as its mothers, grandmothers, sisters and daughters are subject to these most dehumanizing of crimes.

Many of those I met in Congo asked, not unreasonably, what difference my visit would make in their lives. I told them I could not promise miracles but that I would do all in my power to draw attention to their needs while pushing hard to address the political root causes of their suffering. I am committed to that. But sustained pressure is needed from around the world to make clear that this kind of shocking and appalling sexual violence must not be tolerated any longer.

Genocide: UN More Able to Prevent Genocide, Conference Told

From Reuters

More than a decade after the United Nations was criticized for failing to stop genocide in Rwanda, the world body is more able to prevent another such atrocity, scholars and U.N. officials said on Wednesday.

The idea that internal affairs were outside the scope of international involvement had been a "crucial inhibitor to effective responses over a generation," Gareth Evans, president of the International Crisis Group, told a U.N. conference.

But faced with violence like that in Sudan's Darfur region -- where some 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since 2003 -- the world had been more ready to accept the need to intervene on behalf of vulnerable populations, conference participants said, even if intervention has been too little, too late.

Since assuming leadership of the United Nations at the start of this year, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has increased the mandate of his Special Representative for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities.

The U.N. Security Council is considering an additional post proposed by Ban -- special adviser for the responsibility to protect.

In January, the world body will establish a Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect at the City University of New York.

"There now really is a feeling that the international community as a whole has the responsibility to help states meet their responsibility, and that's a very big change historically," said Edward Luck, a U.S. academic who has been named as Ban's adviser on the responsibility to protect. The appointment needs Security Council approval.

But Jean-Marie Guehenno, U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, sounded a note of caution.

"We've been haunted in the last 15 years by what happened in Yugoslavia and what happened in Rwanda. And none of us can avoid the question, would that happen again?" he said.

"And I think we have to be honest. There has been some progress in the international discussion. But does that mean that it will be fundamentally different tomorrow? Not necessarily."

In Rwanda, some 800,000 people were killed in 1994 in a 100-day orgy of violence perpetrated mainly by ethnic Hutus against ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The slaughter was triggered when the plane of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down.

Genocide: Turkey Angry Over House Armenian Vote

From the New York Times

Turkey reacted angrily today to a House committee vote in Washington on Wednesday to condemn the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in World War I as an act of genocide, calling the decision “unacceptable.”

In a rare and uncharacteristically strong condemnation, President Abdullah Gul criticized the vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee in a statement to the semi-official Anatolian News Agency, and warned that the decision could work against the United States.

“Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once more dismissed calls for common sense, and made an attempt to sacrifice big issues for minor domestic political games,” Mr. Gul said. “This is not a type of attitude that works to the benefit of, and suits, representatives of a great power like the Unites States of America. This unacceptable decision of the committee, like similar ones in the past, has no validity and is not worth of the respect of the Turkish people.”

The Turkish foreign ministry, in a statement today, warned that relations with the United States will be made more complicated. “The committee’s approval of this resolution was an irresponsible move which, at a greatly sensitive time, will make relations with a friend and ally” more difficult, the Anatolian News Agency quoted the foreign ministry statement as saying, according to Reuters.

The House decision rebuffed an intense campaign by the White House and earlier warnings from Turkey’s government that the vote would gravely strain its relations with the United States.

The vote was nonbinding and so largely symbolic, but its consequences could reach far beyond bilateral relations and spill into the war in Iraq.

Turkish officials and lawmakers warned that if the resolution was approved by the full House, they would reconsider supporting the American war effort, which includes permission to ship essential supplies through Turkey and northern Iraq.

Before the Wednesday vote, President Bush appeared on the South Lawn of the White House and implored the House not to take up the issue, only to have a majority of the committee disregard his warning at the end of the day, by a vote of 27 to 21.

“We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915,” Mr. Bush said in remarks that, reflecting official American policy, carefully avoided the use of the word genocide. “This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror.”

A total of 1.5 million Armenians were killed beginning in 1915 in a systematic campaign by the fraying Ottoman Empire to drive Armenians out of eastern Turkey. Turks acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died but contend that the deaths, along with thousands of others, resulted from the war that ended with the creation of modern Turkey in 1923.

The House resolution was introduced early in the current session of Congress and has quietly moved forward over the last few weeks. But it provoked a fierce lobbying fight that pitted the politically influential Armenian-American population against the Turkish government, which hired equally influential former lawmakers like Robert L. Livingston, Republican of Louisiana, and Richard A. Gephardt, the former Democratic House majority leader, who backed a similar resolution when he was in Congress.

Backers of the resolution said Congressional action was overdue.

“Despite President George Bush twisting arms and making deals, justice prevailed,” said Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California and a sponsor of the resolution. ”For if we hope to stop future genocides we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past.”

The issue of the Armenian genocide has perennially transfixed Congress and bedeviled presidents of both parties. Ronald Reagan was the only president publicly to call the killings genocide, but his successors have avoided the term.

When the issue last arose, in 2000, a similar resolution also won approval by a House committee, but President Clinton then succeeded in persuading a Republican speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, to withdraw the measure before the full House could vote. That time, too, Turkey had warned of canceling arms deals and withdrawing support for American air forces then patrolling northern Iraq under the auspices of the United Nations.

The new speaker, Nancy Pelosi, faced pressure from Democrats — especially colleagues in California, New Jersey and Michigan, with their large Armenian populations — to revive the resolution again after her party gained control of the House and Senate this year.

There is Democratic support for the resolution in the Senate, but it is unlikely to move in the months ahead because of Republican opposition and a shortage of time. Still, the Turkish government has made it clear that it would regard House passage alone as a harsh American indictment.

The sharply worded Turkish warnings against the resolution, especially the threats to cut off support for the American war in Iraq, seemed to embolden some of the resolution’s supporters. “If they use this to destabilize our solders in Iraq, well, then shame on them,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, a Democrat from New York who voted for it.

The Democratic leadership, however, appeared divided. Representative Rahm Emanuel, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, who worked in the Clinton White House when the issue came up in 2000, opposes the resolution.

In what appeared to be an effort to temper the anger caused by the issue, Democrats said they were considering a parallel resolution that would praise Turkey’s close relations with the United States even as the full House prepares to consider a resolution that blames the forerunner of modern Turkey for one of the worst crimes in history.

“Neither of these resolutions is necessary,” a White House spokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe, said Wednesday evening. He said that Mr. Bush was “very disappointed” with the vote.

Mr. Bush discussed the resolution in the White House on Wednesday with his senior national security aides. Speaking by secure video from Baghdad, the senior American officials in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, raised the resolution and warned that its passage could harm the war effort in Iraq, senior Bush aides said.

Appearing outside the West Wing after that meeting, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates noted that about 70 percent of all air cargo sent to Iraq passed through or came from Turkey, as did 30 percent of fuel and virtually all the new armored vehicles designed to withstand mines and bombs.

“They believe clearly that access to airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would be very much put at risk if this resolution passes and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they will,” Mr. Gates said, referring to the remarks of General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker.

Turkey severed military ties with France after its Parliament voted in 2006 to make the denial of the Armenian genocide a crime.

As the committee prepared to vote Wednesday, Mr. Bush, the American ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, and other officials cajoled lawmakers by phone.

Representative Mike Pence, a conservative Republican from Indiana who has backed the resolution in the past, said Mr. Bush persuaded him to change his position and vote no. He described the decision as gut-wrenching, underscoring the emotions stirred in American politics by a 92-year-old question.

“While this is still the right position,” Mr. Pence said, referring to the use of the term genocide, “it is not the right time.”

The House Democratic leadership met Wednesday morning with Turkey’s ambassador to Washington, Nabi Sensoy, and other Turkish officials, who argued against moving ahead with a vote. But Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who now holds Mr. Gephardt’s old job as majority leader, said he and Ms. Pelosi would bring the resolution to the floor before Congress adjourned this year.

Darfur: SLA-Minawi Abandons Ceasefire

From AFP

Fighting has erupted between the only Darfur rebel group to have signed a 2006 peace accord and Sudanese troops, the United Nations said on Wednesday after the rebels accused Khartoum of attacking a town the rebels control.

The United Nations mission in Sudan said that exchanges of fire took place on Tuesday between the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi and the Sudanese army near the north Darfur town of Tawila.

"The circumstances of the incident remain unclear," The UN said in a statement that did not mention casualties. UN staff in the area have been evacuated to Darfur's main town of El-Fasher, it said.

Violence has been mounting in the troubled Sudanese region in the run-up to new peace negotiations set for the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on October 27.

The latest clashes came after Minawi's Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) faction, the only rebel group to have signed the peace deal, had threatened to take up arms once more after it said more than 50 people were killed in a government-backed attack on the south Darfur town of Muhajariya.

"From now on, our movement will not stand by and do nothing in the face of such attacks," Arku Suleiman Dhahia, commander in chief of the SLA said on Tuesday.

"If this happens again, we go back to square one, which means war and it will be worse than the one before [the peace deal was signed] 2006," he told journalists in Khartoum.

As a result of the attack, Minawi, now a special adviser to President Omar al-Bashir, cut short a visit to Darfur in which he had been trying to persuade other rebel factions to join this month's peace conference in Libya.

The Khartoum government denied any involvement in the attack, blaming it on "clashes between tribes in the region".

The UN said that about 6 000 people had fled Muhajariya to seek refuge around a nearby African Union military base.

"Other residents reportedly fled to neighbouring villages and the surrounding areas, leaving the town, which had a population estimated at 20 000 inhabitants, completely deserted."

It said that a large number of shops and houses in Muhajariya had been burnt to the ground.

Darfur: Attack "Targeted Women and Children"

From IRIN

The recent attack on Muhajiriya town in South Darfur, in which 45 people died and thousands fled their homes, mainly targeted women, children and the elderly, a rebel faction said.

"The government moved forces into the town two days earlier," Mohammed Bashir, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said from Khartoum, the capital. "With air cover, they attacked the town, burnt down half of it and killed mainly children, women and the elderly."

The Sudanese army denied involvement in the 8 October attack, saying violence in Muhajiriya was a result of "tribal fighting between the citizens of the area".

Bashir said residents and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled their homes were in desperate need of assistance. "They fled into [the bush]," he told IRIN by telephone on 10 October. "Although the town is calm now, they are still scared of going back to their homes."

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), about 45,000 internally displaced people were being assisted in and around Muhajiriya.

National and international aid workers from two NGOs were temporarily relocated after the attack, disrupting humanitarian operations.

"There are 20 wounded civilians who need to be taken to hospital," Bashir said. The SLA faction of Minni Minnawi, who signed a May 2006 peace deal and joined the Khartoum government, controls the area.

Amnesty International said the attack was supported by an Antonov, which had been painted in white UN colours. Since 2005, Sudan has been prohibited from offensive flights over Darfur and has been criticised for painting aircraft white, it said.

But spokesman Brigadier Osman Mohamed Al-Aghbash said the army had nothing to do with the incidents at Muhajiriya, adding that its planes had only conducted reconnaissance missions in Haskanita area under an arrangement with the African Union (AU).

"If these kinds of attacks continue, we will not sit without defending ourselves," the SLA spokesman warned. "It will also destroy trust ahead of the Libya talks."

The talks due to start in Sirte on 27 October are expected to bring together Darfur's armed factions and the Sudanese government to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict in the region. Fears have, however, arisen that recent attacks could force some of the groups to boycott the event.

Amnesty, in a statement, warned that more attacks were imminent in northern Darfur. Sudanese forces, it added, were gathering in large numbers in at least six towns, including Tine, Kornoy, Um Baru, Kutum.

"The northern area of North Darfur is under the control of armed opposition groups and it looks as though the Sudan Armed Forces want to attack this area before peace talks scheduled to take place in Libya before the end of the month," according to Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty's Africa Programme.

"We fear that civilians will once more suffer killing and displacement, with no force able to protect them."

The Muhajiriya attack followed an earlier one on Haskanita on 29 September. Ten AU peacekeepers were killed. Aid workers said that attack was carried out by an armed opposition group, but the town was occupied by Sudanese forces afterwards.

A UN assessment mission later found Haskanita had been burnt down. Sudanese authorities said the team had exaggerated its findings, adding that only the market was destroyed by a fire. The AU is investigating.

"The gathering of forces in the north, the burning of Haskanita last week, and yesterday's attack on Muhajiriya show the vital importance of ensuring that UNAMID [proposed UN-AU peacekeeping force] is deployed as soon as possible and has the resources available to protect civilians," said Hondora.

Preparations to deploy the force are ongoing, but the mission still lacks ground transport, light tactical helicopters and transport helicopters, according to the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Affairs, Jean-Marie Guéhenno.

Aid workers fear the upsurge in violence will further restrict the ability of the few humanitarian workers left in Darfur to reach thousands of vulnerable civilians.

Darfur: Preparations on Track for Peace Talks

From VOA

The latest attempt at Darfur peace talks is scheduled to begin October 27th in Sirte, Libya. However, the lead-up to the talks has seen an increase in violence in Darfur and threats by some rebel leaders not to attend.

For a preview of the talks, VOA English to Africa Service Reporter Joe De Capua spoke with George Ola-Davies, who’s with the UN/AU Joint Mediation Support Team for Darfur. He’s also spokesman for Jan Eliasson, the UN Special Envoy for Darfur. From Khartoum, Ola-Davies described preparations for the talks.

“Preparations are in high gear and I think everything is in place. The team is set. We’re both working together. I mean the Joint Mediation Support Team that is made up of the United Nations and the Africa Union…we have been talking to the parties to the talks. And if Mr. Eliasson is here this week it is to continue that negotiation with the team. And I am confident that things will be working out well,” he says.

But what of the increasing violence in Darfur and the threat by some not to talk part in the talks, will that affect preparations? Ola-Davies says, “No, it will not affect the preparations per se. Everyone is aware of the fact that, yes, issues on the ground and events on the ground are not in good sted for (the) negotiation process, but I think we’re confident that they’ll be participating. And we’re hoping they will cease hostilities before the start of negotiations.”

He says that the parties to the conflict “have to work toward negotiation. They have to talk among themselves. They have to settle things through dialogue…there can be no political gain through using violence.”

There’s no firm timetable for the length of the scheduled negotiations. “There is a schedule and that is it starts on the 27th of October. But the nature of negotiations is such that you cannot keep it open ended. And by the same token you cannot set a deadline to say that it will finish this week or next week or three weeks from now. No, there are issues to be discussed and we’re going to be discussing those issues. We will take time to discuss them.”

Darfur: MSF Pull Out of Town Amid Fighting

From the BBC

The medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres has pulled 16 staff out of a Sudanese rebel-controlled town in south Darfur after fierce fighting this week.

MSF said its staff left after patients fled the only hospital in Muhajiriya and mortar fire intensified on Tuesday.

The only Darfur rebel group to sign a 2006 peace accord blames the army for the assault and says dozens have died.

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) says it is now reviewing its relationship with the Sudan government.

MSF said the evacuation means that local people are now in urgent need of medical care.

Spokesman Seif Haroun for the faction led by Minni Minnawi told the BBC's Network Africa programme that it was still committed to attend peace talks in Libya later this month but warned that it would do whatever it could to protect its people.

The SLA had earlier said the fighting came as "a stab in the back" for their alliance with Khartoum.

The Sudanese government has denied involvement in the attack

The UN reports an upsurge of attack across a large number of locations in Darfur,

Amnesty International has warned that Sudan's Armed Forces are gathering in large numbers in at least six Darfuri towns.

The London-based human rights organisation said it had received credible reports that the Sudanese army was close to the towns of Kornoy, Um Baru, Kutum and Tine in northern Darfur.

A separate report spoke of a clash between soldiers and a rebel group in Tine, which is close to the Chadian border.

Observers say the upsurge in fighting is an attempt to gain ground ahead of the peace talks due on the 27 October, but the BBC's Amber Henshaw in Khartoum says this latest spate of violence does not bode well.

Intensive diplomatic efforts are underway to ensure the talks take place, with the United Nations Special Envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson conducting meetings in Khartoum following discussions with the AU over the last few days.

Mr Eliasson is holding talks with Sudanese officials as well as a number of regional governments, including Libya, Eritrea, Egypt and Chad.

At the same time rebel leaders are being airlifted to the southern Sudanese capital, Juba, to try to find a common position on Friday and Saturday.

The attack on the SLA-controlled town comes just 10 days after the African Union (AU) base in nearby Haskanita was raided by armed men, presumed at the time to be rebels.

Ten AU peacekeepers were killed in the raid, while equipment was destroyed or looted.

Darfur: Sudan Army Denies Attacking Town

From Reuters

Sudan's army has denied attacking the only Darfur rebel faction to sign a peace deal with Khartoum, saying tribal clashes were to blame for the fighting which killed 45 people in Muhajiriya town.

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Minni Arcua Minnawi was the only one of three negotiating rebel factions to sign the May 2006 deal and become part of government. Muhajiriya in South Darfur is the largest town under their control.

Minnawi's faction said Monday's attack, which they said killed 45 people and destroyed half the town, was a "stab in the back of the peace deal".

Rebels said militias mobilised by the government, known as Janjaweed, along with a small number of army soldiers were still burning villages around Muhajiriya on Wednesday.

"There are planes bombing in South Darfur," said SLA Unity faction commander Abu Bakr Kadu. "The militias along with some government troops are attacking and burning civilian villages."

But the army says it was not involved in Monday's attack.

"The Sudan Armed Forces affirmed that what is happening in the Muhajiriya area is tribal clashes between the people of the area and has no relation with the Sudanese army which took no part in it," it said in a statement issued late on Tuesday, its first public reaction to the rebel accusations.

AU force commander Martin Luther Agwai, who will also command a 26,000-strong U.N.-AU force due to take over from the AU, said planes were overhead but had not bombed Muhajiriya.

Analysts say the upsurge in fighting ahead of talks due to begin in Libya on October 27 is a land grab to garner stronger negotiating positions.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect. Khartoum mobilised tribal militias to quell the revolt.

The army statement on state news agency SUNA said Sudanese planes seen circling were monitoring the nearby area of Haskanita, as requested by the AU peacekeeping force, and were not in the Muhajiriya region.

On September 29 growing tension erupted into a assault on the AU base near Haskanita, killing 10 soldiers and destroying the camp in the worst attack on the force since it deployed in 2004.

The AU withdrew, asking the army to secure the formerly rebel-controlled area to help search for almost 60 missing soldiers, all but one of whom were found.

Haskanita town was burnt to the ground and all the civilians fled, with rebels reporting 105 civilians killed.

In a sign of more possible violence ahead, rights group Amnesty International confirmed rebel reports of government troops massing in towns in North Darfur. Most areas north of the main towns are controlled by the rebels.

"It looks as though the Sudan Armed Forces want to attack this area before peace talks scheduled to take place in Libya before the end of the month," said Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme.

Rebels said they expected invites to the talks in the coming days, but many said the violence had not created an environment for negotiation.

"The mediation is unprepared, the methodology is unclear, the participation is unclear and until this is clear (we) cannot say if we are going to attend," said Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr, a senior Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) official.

Some commanders from the SLA Unity faction said Khartoum was pursuing a military solution and was not serious about talks. But the leadership said they would attend.

Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, SLA founder, said he wanted a strong U.N. force on the ground before the talks, aimed at bringing those who rejected the 2006 deal on board to negotiate a proper ceasefire.

The U.N.-AU force is due to take over from the struggling and overstretched AU. Agwai says his force is outgunned and outnumbered in Darfur, with fewer than 6,000 soldiers there.

Amnesty urged quick deployment of the force, saying anything else would be a "betrayal of the people of Darfur". U.N. officials say key equipment is still needed from the West.

Darfur: UN Short of Copters

From the AP

U.N. officials said Monday they don't have enough military helicopters and ground transport for the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force expected to begin deploying to Sudan's Darfur region later this month.

Officials said the force had not received pledges from contributing countries for 24 needed transport and attack helicopters as well as about 60 long-haul trucks. They said the shortfall would not delay or halt deployment, but could "significantly impair" the force.

"If you want to ensure the protection of civilians, you need that mobility, you need the capacity to transport troops quickly to a place you hear there is some trouble developing, and you need to have the firepower and the strength to immediately dominate the situation," said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping.

The 26,000-strong U.N.-AU force is meant to replace a beleaguered 7,000-member AU force that has been unable to stop the bloodshed in Darfur. Sudan agreed to the deployment of a joint force, on the condition it be predominantly African, after months of international pressure.

Most of the troops committed to the force thus far are from African countries. There is concern, however, whether African countries can meet the U.N. technical standards for the mission, including providing specialized aviation and ground transport units.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, said his country did not oppose contributions of equipment from non-African countries, but the nationalities of the helicopter pilots would have to be decided "in consultation with the Sudanese government."

Abdalhaleem said Sudan would not accept U.S. pilots. Asked if it would allow European pilots, he said that "we will consider it."

From the Washington Post

Even as nearly two dozen countries are signing up to send thousands of peacekeepers to Darfur, a U.N.-backed force deploying there still lacks crucial equipment, a shortfall that could threaten the viability of the mission, according to senior U.N. officials.

The shortages gained urgency this month as the United Nations rejected a Jordanian offer to supply 10 transport and attack helicopters to reinforce the new African Union-U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur. They said the aircraft are too small, lack night-vision technology and cannot travel long distances required in the mission, according to U.N. and Jordanian officials.

The action represents a significant setback for U.N. efforts to send more than 26,000 peacekeepers to replace a smaller African Union mission of 7,000. It also underscores the difficulties faced by U.N. planners who are seeking to cobble together a force for Darfur drawn primarily from 19 poor countries in Africa and other parts of the developing world.

The violence in Darfur began in early 2003, when two Darfurian rebel groups launched raids on Sudanese police outposts. In response, Khartoum armed and sponsored local Arab militia, who destroyed hundreds of villages and drove 2 million people from their homes. The Bush administration has labeled the situation genocide, citing reports that more than 200,000 to 450,000 people may have died because of the violence.

The African Union sent its peacekeepers to Darfur in 2004 to help stem the violence. After initial successes, the African force has hunkered down in the face of increasing attacks against its unpaid, poorly equipped troops.

On Sept. 29, rebel forces reportedly destroyed an African Union compound in a remote region of South Darfur, killing 10 A.U. peacekeepers near the town of Haskanita. U.N. officials say that the helicopters are designed to prevent such attacks. "We see those assets as really critical for us to avoid the kind of disaster that took place in Haskanita," U.N. Undersecretary for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Gu¿henno said in an interview Tuesday. "So we will be pressing all around the world: African countries, non-African countries" for the helicopters.

Gu¿henno's office informed Jordan in a confidential Oct. 3 letter that its pledge of six Cobra attack helicopters and four Huey transport helicopters "cannot be accepted for deployment in Darfur" because the helicopters do not match U.N. requirements. The decision ended nearly six months of negotiations with Jordan and leaves the United Nations without an alternative.

Gu¿henno held a news conference on Monday to draw attention to U.N. shortages of advanced air and land transport assets needed to respond to crises in remote parts of the country. He said the United Nations also needs more land to build barracks to accommodate thousands of additional troops. The United Nations' failure to acquire these assets could jeopardize its efforts "to stabilize a region where there has been so much suffering," he added.

U.N. officials said Gu¿henno and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will begin contacting heads of states and senior officials in Africa, Europe and elsewhere that possess advanced helicopters. The United States has made clear it will not provide the helicopters, and Sudan's ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, said U.S. pilots would not be allowed to participate in the mission. U.N. military planners have urged South Africa to supply helicopters, but Pretoria has demurred, limiting its commitment to a battalion of 800 infantry troops.

The United Nations, meanwhile, has been awash in commitments for ground troops, including nearly 16,000 infantry, medics and engineers from Nigeria, Rwanda, Egypt and nine other African countries. Another 4,000 peacekeepers will come from China, Pakistan, Thailand, Nepal and Bangladesh. Four European countries -- Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden -- are prepared to commit about 400 medics, engineers and security forces.

Darfur: Thailand Will Send 800 Troops

From the AP

Thailand will send 800 troops to Darfur to join a peacekeeping operation in the wartorn region of western Sudan by the end of the year, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Thailand's Cabinet approved a planTuesday to send one battalion of 800 troops on a one-year mission to the United Nations and African Union joint mission to Darfur by Dec. 31, said government spokesman Chaiya Yimwilai.

The joint mission, called UNAMID, would meet the deadline set by the U.N. Security Council to replace the African Union force by Dec. 31, he said.

"Thailand is well-equipped to join the UNAMID mission, both in terms of personnel and equipment, in order to support the UN's role to maintain international peace and security," Chaiya said.

The troop deployment will cost Thailand 350 million baht (US$10.2 million) for the first six months, according to a government statement.

Darfur: Attack Imminent

From Amnesty International

Amnesty International today warned that the northern areas of Darfur are currently in the crosshairs of the Sudanese armed forces and that further deadly attacks are imminent.

Amnesty International has received reports that Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) are gathering in large numbers in at least six towns in northern Darfur, including Tine, Kornoy, Um Baru, Kutum.

Local people fear further attacks by government or armed opposition forces before peace talks in Tripoli, due to start on 27 October.

"The northern area of North Darfur is under the control of armed opposition groups and it looks as though the Sudan Armed Forces want to attack this area before peace talks scheduled to take place in Libya before the end of the month," said Tawanda Hondora, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme. "We fear that civilians will once more suffer killing and displacement, with no force able to protect them."

Yesterday more than 40 civilians were killed and scores injured when the SAF and Janjawid attacked Muhajeria, a town some 130 kilometres west of Haskanita. The attack was supported by a SAF Antonov, painted white, in the colours of the United Nations. According to reports, bombing from the Antonov preceded the attack. Such Antonovs have been supplied to the SAF from Russia, the last known transfer in September 2006.

Locals attempted to flee the attack, which left a large number of casualties from gunshot and shrapnel at the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) base in the town. The western part of the town has reportedly been looted.

Sudan is prohibited since 2005 from flying offensive flights over Darfur, and has often been criticised for painting aircraft white, in the colours of the UN.

"The gathering of forces in the north, the burning of Haskanita last week, and yesterday's attack on Muhajeriya show the vital importance of ensuring that UNAMID is deployed as soon as possible and has the resources available to protect civilians," said Tawanda Hondora, Amnesty International's Africa Deputy Programme Director.

"There is no time for delays. All signs are there that the people living in the northern area are at great risk and extra personnel and helicopters under military command must be urgently deployed to the area as soon as possible."

AMIS lacks personnel and material to protect civilians in Darfur. Although there are supposed to be some 7000 peacekeepers, there are actually less than 6,000 military personnel spread dangerously thinly over a region the size of France.

The Sudanese government frequently prevents AMIS movement, insisting that the situation is insecure. AMIS forces only have access to chartered helicopters, whose pilots often refuse to fly troops into areas they consider insecure.

"It will be a betrayal of the people of Darfur if, after so much struggle to get a UN force deployed, the international community allows the UN forces to suffer from the same defects that the AU forces have -- Sudan government obstruction combined with a lack of international will to give the right resources," said Hondora.

Darfur: Despite Violence, Peace Talks Must Go On

From DPA

Only weeks ahead of planned peace talks for war-torn Darfur the region is embroiled in violence yet again, but despite the attacks on civilians and African Union (AU) troops in recent weeks, the AU special envoy to Sudan said Tuesday the talks must go on.

A meeting of AU and United Nations envoys on Darfur in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa came to a close Tuesday morning, with AU envoy Salim Ahmed Salim saying he was confident the violence would not deter the October 27 talks from forging ahead.

'As long as there is no peace, for as long as people do not talk seriously in terms of ending the conflict, you are bound to have skirmishes of this nature,' said Salim, who is set to mediate the Tripoli talks alongside his UN counterpart Jan Eliasson.

A May 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement, signed by the Sudan Liberation Movement faction of Minni Minnawi, has failed to ebb the violence, and last week AU troops in Haskanita came under a violent incursion by what was believed to be a rebel splinter group, leaving 10 soldiers dead.

Haskanita was then burned to the ground in a separate incident which both the government and the rebels blamed on the other. The UN said civilians had fled the area after the attack on the AU base but reports said some 100 were killed.

Finally, Monday saw the town of Muhajirya bombed allegedly by the government, where at least 24 people were killed, the head of the AU force said.

The UN estimates more than 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting and some 2.5 million have been forced from their homes.

Salim recognized the daunting death toll and series of events, conceding, 'the atmosphere is not the most propitious' for talks.

With rebel movements breaking off from one another, a new dimension must be dealt with at the Libya talks, Salim said.

'Before there was a question of distrust between the government and the movements. Now you have distrust between the government and the movements, and between the movements themselves and in the movements themselves,' he said.

A meeting to try to unite the rebel groups in Arusha, Tanzania in August failed to group together each faction, with some still vowing not to participate in talks until a hybrid AU-UN force is deployed next year.

Experts say a combined approach of a peace deal and peacekeeping force are necessary to stem the conflict in Darfur.

Salim said the meeting in Tripoli, Libya, must be the round of talks that will actually allow peace to descend upon Darfur because its people are yearning for an end to the bitter fighting, adding that activists and tribal leaders will be attending the October 27 meet.

'The people of Darfur are tired of this situation, of the conflict. People are suffering. People are dying. There is a need for an end to that tragedy,' he said.

'And that commitment, that feeling on the part of the people, I am sure will be reflected at the talks.'

Darfur: At Least 40 Killed in Government Attack

From Reuters

A Sudanese army air and ground assault killed at least 40 people in the Darfur town of Muhajiriya, where bodies littered the streets amid burned out buildings, rebels who control the area said on Tuesday.

"Until now the number of dead civilians are at least 40, with 80 missing and a large number of injured," the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said in a statement sent to Reuters.

The SLA faction led by Minni Arcua Minnawi was the only one of three rebel negotiating groups to sign a May 2006 peace deal with Khartoum and became part of the government.

"Bodies are still lying around the town as this statement is written," the statement by SLA Minnawi's military spokesman Mohamed Hamid Dirbeen said.

"Some of the victims looked like they had been executed," it said of the attack on Monday.

AU force commander Martin Luther Agwai, who will also command a 26,000-strong joint U.N.-AU force due to take over from the AU, earlier confirmed a government air attack.

"Yesterday ... I was informed that there was some bombing and military activity in the area of Muhajiriya," he said of the raid which is a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution that banned Khartoum from offensive flying.

Agwai said civilians converged on the nearby AU base for safety. His troops treated about two dozen injured civilians and combatants but did not allow them to enter the base.

Reports from the town said the market and many houses were burnt and a number of civilians and rebels had been killed after army vehicles tore through on Monday.

The Sudanese army was not immediately available to comment.

Muhajiriya, which is home to about 5,000 residents, also hosts more than 44,500 Darfuris displaced by violence elsewhere.

Agwai said it was not yet clear why the fighting began on Monday, but initial reports indicated it could be tribal rivalries or a spillover from government clashes with other rebel factions.

He called for calm ahead of peace talks to begin in Libya on Oct. 27. "It is sad that as we are looking forward to Libya that people have engaged themselves in this activity causing destruction and loss of lives," Agwai said.

Minnawi's group called the attack a "stab in the back of the Darfur peace agreement".

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglect. Khartoum mobilised militias to quell the revolt, who now stand accused of war crimes. An estimated 200,000 people have died in the violence and 2.5 million have fled their homes.

Khartoum denies the death toll and says the western media is exaggerating the crisis.

Monday's raid was the latest in a series of deadly attacks that threaten to undermine efforts to bring more of Darfur's armed factions into the peace process and make way for the arrival of U.N. and AU troops to take over from 7,000 AU forces who have failed to contain the violence in western Sudan.

On Sept. 29, the AU base in Haskanita was attacked and destroyed, killing 10 peacekeepers. Rebels were suspected of being behind the attack on the AU base.

In the following days, while the government controlled Haskanita, the former rebel-held town was burned to the ground and thousands of residents were sent fleeing.

Suleiman Jamous, respected humanitarian coordinator for the Sudan Liberation Army, said 105 people died when the town was razed by government forces and allied militia.

Analysts said the fact that rebel factions were suspected of attacking the AU Haskanita base gave Khartoum cover for an offensive to garner as much land as possible before the talks.

"The upshot of this strategy, of course, is that it becomes more difficult by the hour for any rebel faction or leader to show up in Sirte, Libya in 19 days," said U.S. academic Eric Reeves.

"Khartoum will of course show up in Gaddafi's home town, and make much of the fact that 'the rebels refuse to negotiate'."

SLA founder Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur has said he will not attend talks until an able U.N. force could protect his people in Darfur. After this week's violence, some rival rebel commanders began to privately concur with his position.

British Minister for Africa Lord Mark Malloch Brown said if rebel leaders do not go to the talks, they abdicate their right to represent the people of Darfur.

"If they opt out, they should understand the consequences of doing that - probably their role in the peace negotiations may be finished," Malloch Brown told the BBC.

Darfur: Jimmy Carter's Shamefully Ignorant Statement

From Eric Reeves in The New Republic

ast week, Jimmy Carter toured Sudan as part of a group of international celebrities who are calling themselves "the Elders." Founded by Nelson Mandela, the Elders aim--in the modest words of one member, British billionaire Richard Branson--to address "problems in the world that need a group of people who are maybe...beyond politics, beyond ego, and who have got great wisdom."

Great wisdom? Let's just say the group is off to a rocky start. That's because Carter took the opportunity of his visit to Sudan to criticize the United States for labeling the killing and destruction in Darfur genocide. "There is a legal definition of genocide and Darfur does not meet that legal standard," Carter lectured. "The atrocities were horrible but I don't think it qualifies to be called genocide." He also said, "If you read the law textbooks...you'll see very clearly that it's not genocide and to call it genocide falsely just to exaggerate a horrible situation--I don't think it helps."

Carter got one thing right--that there is a legal definition of genocide, embodied in the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide--but that's it. The "atrocities" Carter refers to have included, over the past four and a half years, the deliberate, ethnically targeted destruction of not only African tribal populations, but their villages, homes, food- and seed-stocks, agricultural implements, and water sources. People die now in Darfur primarily because of this antecedent violence, directed against not only lives but livelihoods. Here, the Genocide Convention is explicit: You can commit genocide not only by "[k]illing members of [a] group" but also by "[d]eliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." The destruction in Darfur clearly meets that test.

Darfur: Nigerian Soldiers to Re-Occupy Attacked Camp

From AFP

Nigerian troops serving in an African Union (AU) force in Darfur will move back next week into the position where seven of their soldiers were killed in a rebel attack, a top general said Friday.

"To show our resolve, by Monday Nigeria will go back to occupy the position at Haskanita with strength, daring whomsoever to attack us again," Defence chief General Andrew Owoye Azazi said.

The seven Nigerians were among 10 AU soldiers killed last Saturday by rebel forces in the troubled region of western Sudan.

"We promise that the circumstances of the death of our colleagues will always give us more resolve. Wherever Nigeria sends us we will go," the general said, speaking at the state burial of the seven soldiers killed.

The September 29 attack on the AU military base at Haskanita in south Darfur was carried out by a group of heavily armed men in 30 vehicles.

It was the the most deadly assault on the peacekeeping force since its deployment in 2004 and the AU, which is now looking to the United Nations to beef up its strength with a planned joint mission, has launched an enquiry into the incident.

The seven soldiers were buried with full honours at the military cemetery in the federal capital.

President Umaru Yar'Adua did not attend the ceremony as he is away in Mecca on pilgrimage.

But in a prepared message, read out by the minister in charge of Abuja, Aliyu Modibbo, Yar'Adua reaffirmed his "commitment to peace and stability in our sub-region and in the world at large" and called the death of the peacekeepers "the sacrifice that Nigeria is making to the world".

"Nigeria will continue to play its role in the world and to Africa in particular. Whenever we are called and whereever we feel it is necessary to be there, Nigeria will be there," the message said.

Pall bearers marched slowly past carrying on their shoulders seven coffins, each draped in an AU flag and with a pair of boots and a cap on top.

At the sight of the boots belonging to her late husband Toyin Alao, Rashidat, a young, heavily pregnant woman, collapsed in grief.

"I cant believe that my husband is dead. I still take it as a dream," she had said before the ceremony began as she clung to her five-year-old son.

Alao had been due to finish his stint in Darfur in December.

Duniyan Audu, 33, was buried without ever learning of either the death of his father or the birth of his child, his family explained, saying it had been too difficult getting in touch with him while he was in Sudan.

Despite assurances from the junior defence minister, Fidelia Njeze, that the government would take care of the soldiers' families, another widow, Rebecca questioned how she would cope with her six children, ranging from four to 20.

"I am worried as to how these ones will be able to cope and survive without their father," she said, bursting into tears.

Darfur: Gov't, Militia Forces Raze Town

From Reuters

Sudanese government forces and militia groups razed a town in central Darfur where African Union soldiers were attacked, rebel leaders said on Friday, adding the troops were also threatening to raid a nearby town.

Sudan's army and Darfur rebel movements blame each other for last week's assault on the AU base in Haskanita in which 10 African Union soldiers were killed -- the worst attack on AU troops since they deployed in Sudan.

On Friday rebel leaders said at least 100 people have been killed and thousands displaced in Haskanita since Wednesday by the Sudanese army and pro-government Janjaweed militia forces.

The figures could not be verified and Sudanese military spokesmen could not be reached for comment. AU forces have evacuated the area.

"They have burned down the whole village, not leaving a single hut," Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr, commander of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told Reuters by telephone. "Not less than 100 have been killed."

As of Friday morning, government forces were still burning and looting parts of Haskanita, said Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, leader of a breakaway faction of JEM.

About 800 government and Janjaweed militia soldiers were moving toward the town of Andrav, 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from Haskanita, Ashr said.

"They are on their way to attack Andrav and they could reach it by evening," he said.

International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died in Darfur with 2.5 million driven from their homes. Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect.

Washington calls the conflict genocide, a term Khartoum rejects and European governments are reluctant to use. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.

The ongoing violence is likely to cast a shadow over U.N.-AU mediated peace talks due to start on Oct. 27 in Libya.

Darfur: Rebels Find Refuge in Eritrea, But Little Hope

From the New York Times

An alliance of rebel leaders from Darfur said Thursday that it needed more time to heal internal splits, and that unless something changed quickly, the much anticipated peace talks scheduled for later this month would probably fail.

Khamis Abdullah Abakar, chairman of the United Front for Liberation and Development, an umbrella group of several Darfur rebel factions, said, “We are trying to consult with each other, but there are still serious divisions.”

“Right now we’re headed toward another Abuja,” he said, referring to Abuja, Nigeria, where a peace deal signed by the Sudanese government and one rebel faction in 2006 hardly stopped Darfur’s bloodshed and may have only added to the chaos.

On Thursday, Mr. Khamis and fellow rebels from Darfur, the troubled region of western Sudan, lounged in a mustard-colored villa in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital, making phone calls and watching European soap operas on TV. All of this was courtesy of the Eritrean government, which has been a loyal friend to many of Darfur’s rebel groups and a player in the peace negotiations, even as American officials are accusing Eritrea of sponsoring terrorism in other parts of the region.

Eritrea is a little country with big ambitions. Since its independence in 1993, it has projected an aggressive foreign policy, shaping events in the Horn of Africa, though it has only five million people and is one of the poorest countries on earth.

In the past few months, Eritrea has opened its doors to rebel commanders from its neighbors, especially Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, which is part of the reason American officials are alarmed. The State Department says Eritrea has been shipping arms to Islamist fighters in Somalia, an allegation that the Eritrean government denies. At the same time, American diplomats have been quietly working with the Eritreans to push Darfur’s ever expanding galaxy of rebel groups to peace talks scheduled for the end of October in Libya.

The Eritreans have a decent track record, American officials say, when it comes to Sudan. Last year, the president of Eritrea, Isaias Afewerki, brokered a peace deal between the Sudanese government and rebels in a separate conflict in eastern Sudan that had ground on for 15 years and that cost thousands of lives.

African Union officials said Eritrea wields even more influence in Darfur, because of its longstanding contacts with the rebel groups there.

The Eritreans “have control over some of these movements,” said Sam Ibok, a senior adviser of the African Union. “And the Eritreans have played a constructive role.”

Leaders of Darfur rebel groups are spread out among a number of countries, including Chad, Libya and Egypt, as well as within Darfur itself. More than half a dozen Darfur rebel groups have hung out a shingle in Asmara. And in some cases, like the United Front for Liberation and Development, which claims to have more than 10,000 fighters in Darfur, the Eritrean government pays the rent. The rebels say Eritrea is a good base of operations because it is safe; it has an international airport and reliable phone lines; and various rebel leaders can meet anytime, day or night, in one of the city’s countless sidewalk cafes and talk shop over a cup of espresso — something they definitely could not do in Darfur itself.

“This has been an important front for Darfur for years,” Mr. Khamis said, strolling down a sunny street in Asmara. “We like it here.”

The situation on the ground in Darfur seems to be degenerating by the day, as evidenced by the massacre of 10 African Union peacekeepers over the weekend. The rebel leaders in Asmara denied that their fighters were responsible, even though African Union officials have blamed groups allied to some of them for the attack. Several rebel leaders said they feared the bloodshed would only get worse if the talks in Libya failed.

“We could get the people’s hopes up, and there could be a lot of frustration when nothing is accomplished,” said Abdulaziz Dafallah, a leader of the Revolution Democratic Forces Front, a Darfur rebel group that is part of Mr. Khamis’s alliance.

He said the rebels were behind in two key areas that were supposed to be wrapped up by now: appointing a negotiating team to represent all major groups and training the negotiators.

Mr. Ibok agreed that this was a problem and said “the people we require urgently for these talks don’t seem to be ready for them.”

Darfur: Slain Peacekeepers Buried

From the AP

A sob rose from the crowd of mourners Friday as white ambulances entered Nigeria's main military cemetery, carrying the bodies of seven soldiers killed while on peacekeeping duty in Darfur.

Nigeria, the biggest troop contributor to African peacekeeping missions, suffered the heaviest losses when Darfur rebels overran an African Union post in North Darfur last weekend. In all, seven Nigerians and one peacekeeper each from Botswana, Senegal and Mali were killed.

Nigerians, including those mourning Friday, said the attack would not bury hope that they and other Africans can bring peace to the world's poorest continent with missions like the one in Sudan's Darfur.

"Anywhere you have war, you will have losses," said Matthew Edoh, whose uncle, Lance Corp. Danjuma Madaki, was among the seven Nigerians brought home for burial Friday. "But if you can go for peace, even if you sacrifice yourself, you must go. We are all fellow human beings."

The funeral drew about 500 people _ soldiers in uniform, men in suits, women pulling their traditional printed wraps close against the early morning chill.

The deaths in Darfur "will not deter us," said a military spokesman, Col. Mohammed Yusuf. "If your neighbor's house is on fire, you can't just stand there. You must help. Also, it can spread to your own house."

Nigeria, a peacekeeping leader on the continent, has sent troops to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo and elsewhere. It has suffered losses before, particularly when Nigerian troops helped battle rebels trying to seize the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone.

In Darfur, a Nigerian, Gen. Martin Agwai, commands the AU force of 7,000. Nigeria has one battalion, or about 800 troops, in Darfur now and has said it will likely send another battalion to join a joint AU-UN force that was to replace the current AU force.

The weekend attack has spurred new calls for the joint force of 26,000 _ most were expected to be African, at Sudan's insistence _ to be deployed quickly. The first troops are expected to go this month and the new mission is expected to assume responsibility for Darfur on Dec. 31.

Darfur: Attack Raises Questions Over Hybrid Force

From IRIN

The 29 September attack on an African peacekeeping base in Darfur has raised fresh questions about the planned transformation of the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) into a hybrid AU-UN force that includes personnel from non-African countries.

Ten AU peacekeepers were killed in Haskanita, North Darfur, and 50 others are still missing.

Abdoulaye Wade, the president of Senegal, which has contributed about 540 troops to AMIS, threatened to pull his soldiers out of Darfur if it transpired that the peacekeepers lost their lives because of a lack of equipment. One of the soldiers killed in Haskanita was Senegalese.

Senegal has promised to increase its contingent in Darfur to 1,600 as part of the evolution of AMIS into the hybrid force.

"If they died because they didn't have the arms to defend themselves, I will withdraw all the Senegalese. ... I am not going to send people to be slaughtered," news reports quoted Wade as saying in Dakar on 3 October.

Five Senegalese troops died in an attack on the AU in Darfur earlier this year, prompting Wade to make a similar threat unless the peacekeeping mission won strong support from the UN.

Since its inception, AMIS has been widely seen as lacking the manpower, funds and equipment to make a significant contribution to restoring security in Darfur.

Insecurity in the area around Haskanita, for example, has brought humanitarian activities to a standstill for several months. If the hybrid force, known as UNAMID, takes over according to plan, it will be the world's largest peacekeeping mission, with 26,000 personnel, both military and civilian.

The transformation is supposed to take place on 1 January but according to the Nigerian general in command of AMIS, it will be some time before UNAMID is fully operational.

Martin Agwai told a visiting group of dignitaries, including former US president Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu, former Archbishop of Cape Town, that as of January there would be 8,000 UNAMID troops in Darfur at most, just 1,000 more than the current force.

Agwai added that essential aircraft had only been promised by one country, Jordan.

"Facing the reality, how many African countries can provide troops that can fully sustain themselves here?" he asked.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that the attack could "lessen the interest of troop-contributing countries in Africa. Senegal and Nigeria have already threatened to act.

"It's important the international community has to redouble its support for the mission both in terms of rhetoric and action, and that key governments voice support for the mission, demand that the mission is able to deploy without being obstructed by the government or rebels," HRW researcher Leslie Lefkow told IRIN.

The Haskanita attack has also given rise to fears that some of the dozen or so non-African countries, including those that have expressed a willingness to contribute to UNAMID, such as the UK, Sweden, Norway and Ireland, might now get cold feet.

"Of course [other countries will be deterred]. What western nations will want to contribute now?" Julie Flint, co-author of Darfur: A short history of a long war, told IRIN by telephone.

According to Enough, a project working to end genocide and crimes against humanity, "the brutal and deplorable September 29 attack on African Union peacekeepers is a stark reminder of the threats that UNAMID … faces in Darfur.

"This attack, and the continued fracturing of Darfur's rebel groups, also severely diminishes the prospects for success at peace talks set to begin in Libya later this month," the organisation stated in a report issued on 4 October.

The AU was less pessimistic about the repercussions.

"I don't think it will have any impact. The dates of the negotiations are still on. People are working to bring the parties together. The UN is preparing to deploy forces. That's on schedule. From [later in] October they should start deploying," AU peace and security spokesman Assane Ba told IRIN.

Asked about Wade's threat to pull out, Ba said: "I don't think he will go to that level."

If the attack was an attempt to derail the peace process, "it was unsuccessful because people are more than ever determined to go ahead with the plan", he added

Darfur: Brahimi Says West Pandering to Rebels, Carter Sees No Genocide

From the BBC

One of a group of veteran statesmen visiting Sudan, Lakhdar Brahimi, has accused the West of pandering to unrepresentative Darfur rebel groups.

The former UN envoy spoke as Nigeria's army chief was in Sudan to repatriate the bodies of Nigerian soldiers killed when Darfuri rebels overran their post.

The group of elders have urged the international community to speed up the deployment of 26,000 peacekeepers.

But they say the violence does not meet the legal definition of genocide.

At a news conference to mark the end of their two-day visit, the group said Darfur was deeply divided, with violence and widespread rape ignored by the Sudanese authorities.

"There is a legal definition of genocide and Darfur does not meet that legal standard. The atrocities were horrible but I do not think it qualifies to be called genocide," said former US President Jimmy Carter.

They also urged Khartoum to hand over war crimes suspects for trial at the International Criminal Court, notably Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmad Harun, and the Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb.

Mr Brahimi said peace talks planned later this month had raised a glimmer of hope.

But he said the situation for people in Darfur was dire and they too needed to be represented at the talks.

"The international community has acted rather irresponsibly on all this in the past by pampering a lot of these people around - not really wondering whether they really represented anybody and whether they were acting responsibly," said Mr Brahimi.

The group has now concluded a visit that took them from Khartoum to Juba in southern Sudan to discuss the shaky peace in force there, and then to El Fasher in Darfur from where they were able to visit some of the province's estimated 2m displaced people.

"It is quite clear to us that the crucial element to end the suffering of the people of Darfur is for the hybrid force to be deployed as soon as possible," Archbishop Tutu told reporters.

The African Union (AU) has some 7,000 troops deployed in Darfur as monitors, and their commander has admitted they are outmanned and outgunned by rebels who have splintered into many different groups.

A 26,000-strong hybrid force made up of both AU and United Nations forces called Unamid is meant to be in place by 2008 under the overall command of Nigerian General Martin Luther Agwai.

Ethiopia has just pledged 5,000 soldiers to Unamid.

The bulk of the forces currently in Darfur are from Nigeria and as the Elders were addressing their news conference, the bodies of the seven Nigerian soldiers killed when their outpost was overrun by rebels on Saturday, were being flown home.

The Nigerian Defence Ministry said the seven will be given a national burial in Abuja on Friday, to be attended by President Umaru Yar'Adua.

The bodies of the other three victims, from Botswana, Mali and Senegal will also be flown home for burial.

Darfur: Carter, Others Lash Out Over Atrocities

From the AP

Prominent world figures led by former President Carter and Desmond Tutu of South Africa said Thursday they were shocked by the suffering in Darfur and criticized Sudan's government in exceptionally harsh terms.

International visitors to Darfur usually speak cautiously about the region's misery while on Sudanese territory to avoid irking the government by focusing on its role in the violence that has killed more than 200,000 people and made 2.5 million refugees.

But the group of prominent personalities including former statesmen and international officials was sharp and direct in closing comments after a two-day tour of Darfur.

Carter spoke in an Associated Press interview of a "crime against humanity" in Darfur, pointing at the government-backed Arab janjaweed militias' guilt in the "ethnic cleansing" of ethnic Africans in the region.

His delegation struck the same tone at a news conference with Sudanese journalists in Khartoum early Thursday.

The wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela talked about the horrors of widespread rape for Darfur refugees, one of the most taboo issues for Sudan's government _ which denies it.

Graca Machel said women graphically recounted to her their ordeals. "They even used gestures to show us how brutally they were treated," said an emotional Machel.

She said she raised the problem during the group's meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir late Wednesday. "I have to confess it was the most depressing moment of our conversation," she said. "The government doesn't seem to have an understanding of what it means for women to say 'We are being raped.'"

She also warned that "the space of freedom" and the space for humanitarian work "is shrinking" in Darfur, calling on the government to change its methods.

Carter urged the government to cease air raids on Darfur civilians.

"There is no reason for the government to continue to bomb people," Carter told the unusually mute Sudanese reporters, who didn't ask a single question at the press conference.

Tutu underlined that "peace, that is so indispensable for Darfur and Sudan, depends on democracy." The former anti-apartheid figure described the "unbelievable squalor" refugees live in, saying "Darfur is one of the most awful places in the world."

The group was created two months ago with a mission of promoting world peace. It is chaired by Mandela, but he was too frail to make the trip to Darfur. Four of the 12 made this week's trip, along with billionaire Richard Branson, a financier of the group.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of discrimination. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing the janjaweed _ a charge it denies.

Most of the meetings in Darfur on Tuesday and Wednesday appeared to be with government-vetted people, and several local leaders of ethnic African refugees told the AP they had been intimidated into turning down invitations by the delegation's mission.

Carter got in a fight with the head of national security in the town of Kabkabiya on Wednesday because he was being blocked from meeting any of the ethnic African refugees, and his security entourage urged him to let the feared state police have their way.

The group also called for the peace process between Khartoum and semiautonomous southern Sudan to be invigorated, raising fears its failure could lead to imminent "new bloodshed."

Carter said al-Bashir had invited his foundation, the Carter Center, to come monitor general elections due in 2009 _ the country's first in over two decades. Carter said he would consult with his foundation on the matter.

The group also urged all of Darfur's splintered rebel factions to accept new peace negotiations due to open in Libya later this month.

The visit came two days aftr the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur was attacked by a rebel faction that killed 10 peacekeepers.

The delegation voiced its outrage at the AU's poor equipment and funding, calling on Western countries to commit strong support to the new, 26,000 force of U.N. and AU peacekeepers due to take over on Jan. 1.

The new force risks delays if it doesn't receive enough commitments, and the group said it was essential for the safety of civilians that it urgently deploy.

"Tell your governments to get cracking," Tutu said, addressing the Western public.

He said the delegation had been anxious not to appear as "another tourist group seeking photo opportunities" in Darfur. They vowed to use their influence to press Western powers for commitments to the peacekeeping force in the coming weeks.

From Reuters

nternational elder statesmen including two Nobel Peace Prize winners said on Thursday Darfur was rife with violence and deeply divided, after returning from the Sudanese region.

They warned rape was widespread and being ignored by the Sudanese authorities and also urged Khartoum to hand over war crimes suspects for trial at the International Criminal Court.

The group included Nobel laureates former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, veteran women and children's rights advocate Graca Machel and British tycoon Richard Branson.

Darfur has witnessed mass or widespread rape, a problem Khartoum denies, trying to muzzle rape reports by the world's largest aid operation.

"Every woman told us, we are raped, we are beaten and we are harassed," Machel said. "We are very concerned that it doesn't seem to have changed for the better, on the contrary it has changed for the worse. We were even told that yesterday a girl as young as 10 years was raped."

Machel said the Sudanese government had to accept there was rape and then help form a plan to combat it. But she said bringing up the issue with Khartoum officials was discouraging.

"I must confess it was one of the most depressing moments of discussion. The government doesn't have any understanding of what it means when women have to say repeatedly to different people ... we have been raped, we are being beaten, we are being brutalised, we are fearful."

Carter said Washington's use of the term genocide to describe the situation in Darfur, where international estimates say 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes, was unhelpful.

"There is a legal definition of genocide and Darfur does not meet that legal standard. The atrocities were horrible but I don't think it qualifies to be called genocide," he said.

Washington is almost alone in branding the 4 1/2 years of violence in Darfur genocide. Khartoum rejects the term, European governments are reluctant to use it and a U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry found no genocide, but that some individuals may have acted with genocidal intent.

Carter, whose charitable foundation, the Carter Center, worked to establish the International Criminal Court (ICC), said Khartoum should hand over to the ICC a junior government minister and militia leader wanted for war crimes.

Carter said it was unacceptable that Khartoum had appointed the suspect, State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Ahmed Haroun, as head of a rights committee.

Tutu said the delegation had received a "tale of two countries", from different sides, outlining the complexity of Sudan's multiple conflicts.

"I thank God for the humanitarian workers," he said. "They run the gauntlet of being assaulted, abducted but yet they come back for more. They are superb, they make me proud to be human."

Veteran peace mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said uniting rebels before talks due to start on Oct. 27 in Libya was crucial, but warned against "pampering" self-declared representatives.

"I very frankly believe that the international community has acted rather irresponsibly...by pampering a lot of these people around, not really wondering whether they really represent communities," he said.

Darfur: China's Deadly Games

An article by Jill Savitt in Salon

The Chinese government can be very persuasive when it wants to be. China persuaded the International Olympic Committee to award Beijing the 2008 Olympic Games -- marking the first time in more than 20 years that the Games will be held under an authoritarian government.

Now, China is attempting to persuade world leaders, the media and the public that Beijing has suddenly become a leader for peace in regard to Darfur. But there are many signs that China's recent efforts have been little more than a public relations campaign to spare the Olympic host from continued negative publicity about its complicity in the Darfur genocide.

For four long years, China was a major, if not the chief obstacle to international efforts to bring security to Darfur. Beijing blocked, vetoed or diluted resolutions at the U.N. Security Council that would have authorized a protection operation or sanctions on Khartoum for continued intransigence.

Suddenly this spring -- as China's role in Darfur was discussed publicly in light of the upcoming Olympics -- China took some new, high-profile steps to address Darfur. Beijing appointed a special envoy for the region. It announced that it would send 300 engineers to Darfur, and in a major turnaround China voted on July 31 for a U.N. resolution authorizing an African Union-United Nations "hybrid" force of up to 26,000 troops and police for Darfur.

Beijing insists -- in media interviews and in face-to-face meetings with Darfur advocates, including myself -- that its new and improved positions on Darfur have not come in response to pressure from activists pointing up the hypocrisy of simultaneously sponsoring a genocide in Africa and an Olympics at home. Beijing has said its position on Darfur is based on principle.

But if China's Darfur policy is indeed based on principle rather than public relations, there is far more it could do to help bring security to Darfur. It could begin by speaking honestly about the realities on the ground there. After a visit to Darfur in May, China's special envoy Liu Guijin said, "I didn't see a desperate scenario of people dying of hunger." Rather, Mr. Liu said the people of Darfur thanked him "for the Chinese government's help in building dams and providing water supply equipment."

Since then, in fact, the security situation in Darfur has gone from bad to worse. Humanitarian organizations are pulling out their personnel, and African Union forces were recently attacked and killed by a splinter group of rebels.

China could put a moratorium on oil ventures with Khartoum. Beijing contends that its purchase of oil from the regime in Khartoum -- more than $1 billion each year -- and its massive investment in infrastructure should be viewed as entirely separate from the violence and murder in Darfur. But it is oil revenues from China that continue to fuel the Sudanese regime's buying of planes and bombs, and its backing of hired killers, the Janjaweed.

China could suspend arms sales to the Sudanese regime, and demand that all other nations follow suit. Human rights reports document that weapons sold by China to Khartoum have been used against the innocent people of Darfur. This fact is all the more troubling given that by selling arms to the regime, China is recouping some of the money it spends in Khartoum buying oil.

China could publicly urge the regime to disarm the Janjaweed and cease aerial bombing campaigns. It could also criticize the Sudanese regime's harassment of the world's largest humanitarian operation -- and cry foul when humanitarian workers are ousted, as happened recently to the director of CARE in Sudan.

While China has widely touted its U.N. vote for the "hybrid" force, it has of course been silent about the central role Beijing's diplomats played in weakening the resolution -- by stripping provisions that would have applied sanctions and provided a mandate to disarm threatening combatants.

China was persuasive enough to convince the international committee that it is worthy of being an Olympic host. Now it must act like one, and live up to the grand slogan it has chosen for the '08 games -- "One World, One Dream" -- especially when the stakes are so much greater than athletes winning medals.

Darfur: Ethiopia Pledges 5,000 Troops

From VOA

Ethiopia is pledging to send 5,000 troops to Darfur to be part of a new United Nations / African Union peacekeeping force. The pledge comes amid Ethiopia’s involvement in Somalia and growing tensions with neighboring Eritrea.

Professor David Shinn of George Washington University is a former US ambassador to Ethiopia. He spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about whether this is a significant pledge on the part of Ethiopia.

“It is a significant pledge for several reasons. The timing is a little bit surprising because Ethiopia is experiencing a considerable amount of tension on the Eritrean-Ethiopian border, which causes it to keep a significant number of troops along that border. It also is very much engaged in Somalia with its troops. So one would have thought that it might stretch the military a little bit thin. It’s not clear when the troops would go to Darfur…it may be that they are some months away from actually departing for Darfur, but nevertheless it’s very significant,” he says.

With its current commitments, why would Ethiopia pledge troops to Darfur? Shinn says, “First, I assume there’s been a lot of pressure on the Ethiopians from the African Union and perhaps others in the international community to send troops to Darfur because they are so desperate to increase the numbers there…in addition, the Ethiopian forces are very experienced. They have been in a number of battles in recent years. They have comported themselves very well. And I suspect the feeling in the African Union and the international community generally is that they would be much more difficult for the rebels to deal with than some of the other African troops that are currently in Darfur.”

He says that the Ethiopian troops would be a needed and welcome boost to the new UN/AU Darfur force.

Ambassador Shinn also doubts Ethiopian leaders are very concerned about having their forces stretched too thin. “I’m sure they thought that through very carefully. The leadership in Addis Ababa comes from a guerilla background. They were fighters themselves. They understand these things and they certainly would not offer to send 5,000 troops to Darfur without having thought through very carefully the implications for internal security in Ethiopia.”

Darfur: How to Get the UN/AU Hybrid Force Deployed

A new report from ENOUGH

Now that the United Nations Security Council has authorized a UN/AU hybrid peacekeeping force for Darfur, problem solved, right?

Not by a long shot. Serious obstacles threaten to derail the rapid deployment of this protection force, called UNAMID. The brutal and deplorable September 29 attack on African Union peacekeepers is a stark reminder of the threats that UNAMID—an important component of the overall solution—faces in Darfur. This attack, and the continued fracturing of Darfur’s rebel groups, also severely diminishes the prospects for success at peace talks set to begin in Libya later this month. Nonetheless, assertive diplomacy, cooperation and coordination from international donors, and the judicious use of targeted pressures can overcome the obstacles, get the force on the ground, and set the stage for the only thing that can bring an end to Darfur’s long nightmare—a viable peace process.

The UN, in consultation with the AU, is moving quickly to amass and deploy UNAMID’s 26,000 military personnel and civilian police, attain sophisticated military hardware, and assemble facilities and infrastructure in the harsh, isolated terrain of Darfur.

Darfur: Akol Blasts Western Campaigns

From Reuters

Sudan's foreign minister on Wednesday urged all rebel groups to join the upcoming peace talks on Darfur and called Western campaigns to aid Darfur "vicious," hostile and unfair.

In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Foreign Minister Lam Akol said Khartoum was complying with all international agreements and would abide by its unilateral cease-fire pledge when peace talks start in Tripoli, Libya, on October 27.

But he said Sudan had been the target of "hostile, ill-intentional campaigns" from abroad aimed at exploiting the crisis in Darfur to serve their "well-known agendas and plans," an obvious reference to Western advocacy groups criticizing Sudanese army actions in Darfur.

"This vicious campaign targeted the policies of the country and its stance, and has strived to exaggerate and distort facts and to violate the country's capabilities and the heritage and values of its people," Akol said.

The minister urged Darfur's myriad rebel groups to stop warfare and join the "peace march without delay." He called on the international community to take "firm measures" against those who refuse to participate or obstruct the talks.

Akol, however, did not mention the rebel attack in South Darfur on Saturday that killed 10 African Union peacekeepers and wounded 10 others.

The underequipped and underfinanced AU force of 7,000 from 26 countries in Darfur will be absorbed into a joint AU-United Nations force of up to 26,000 troops and police.

Four years of warfare, disease and hunger have caused an estimated 200,000 deaths and uprooted more than 2.5 million people from their homes, many having fled to arid camps.

Sudan had equipped Janjaweed Arab militia, who tortured civilians, to put down a revolt by tribesmen in 2003. In the past year rebels have split into various factions and joined the abuse.

But despite continued violence, Akol said, the humanitarian situation had improved and there were no epidemics, hunger or food shortages, according to government indicators.

A former rebel from southern Sudan, Akol contended all agreements on power-sharing had been implemented in the south or would be carried out shortly under a 2005 agreement that ended a 21-year old civil war.

In August, however, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported that the Sudanese military had not removed some 3,600 troops from the south as promised and said a joint military units between the government and the former rebels was far behind schedule.

Akol also reminded rich countries that they had promised reconstruction aid after the 2005 north-south agreement at an Oslo conference the same year.

This included debt cancellation and the lifting of unilateral economic sanctions, among other measures.

The failure to deliver "in effect defeats the very objectives of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement itself, so that the country is able to face the burden of reconstruction and development," Akol said.

Chad: Rebels, Government Initial Peace Accord

From Reuters

Four Chadian rebel groups initialled a peace agreement with the government on Wednesday at talks in Libya, a Chadian official said, but the leader of the main faction said there were many points left to resolve.

"The contents are secret. An agreement should be officially signed very soon in a ceremony that will bring together heads of state in Tripoli," a senior Chadian government official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters in Chad's capital N'Djamena.

The talks have dragged on for weeks but have taken on greater urgency as the European Union assembles a peace force to deploy in the conflict zone in eastern Chad to help stem violence spreading from neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region.

In arid eastern Chad, where refugees and violence have spilled over the border from the four-year-old war in Darfur, local Chadian rebel groups have waged a cat-and-mouse rebellion against Chadian President Idriss Deby.

The main rebel movement's leader involved in the deal, Mahamat Nouri, was cautious about the extent of the agreement, saying "many, many, many" points remained to be thrashed out.

These included creating conditions for rebels to disarm in safety and their participation in state affairs, he said.

"We're moving very slowly," he told Radio France International.

Besides Nouri's Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), three other rebel groups were involved in Wednesday's preliminary agreement in Tripoli.

Chad's Minister of State for Infrastructure Adoum Younousmi signed for the government side, the Chadian official said.

Another small rebel faction signed a peace deal with Deby's government in N'Djamena on Monday, which had appeared to indicate progress at the talks sponsored by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. A new round of Darfur peace talks are due to start in Tripoli on Oct. 27.

Those talks were called at the request of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the United Nations and African Union assemble a 26,000-strong hybrid force to replace an overstretched, under-resourced African Union force in Darfur.

To complement the Darfur force, the European Union is assembling a separate force of between 2,500 and 4,000 EU troops to protect civilians and aid operations in Chad and northeastern Central African Republic, which have both been affected by violence spreading from Darfur.

French Defence Minister Herve Morin told Reuters television in Paris on Wednesday that he was sure that EU countries will contribute at least 3,000 troops for a peacekeeping force in eastern Chad and Central African Republic.

Darfur: UN Envoy Wants Immediate Ceasefire

From Reuters

Groups in Sudan's Darfur should cease hostilities now and not wait for peace talks at the end of the month after a weekend attack killed 10 peacekeepers, a United Nations negotiator said on Wednesday.

UN Sudan envoy Jan Eliasson said the attack, blamed on splinter groups from Darfur's already divided rebel factions, should not be allowed to disrupt talks scheduled to begin in Libya on Oct. 27. Most parties have agreed to cease hostilities at the same time, but fighting continues.

"We cannot say it was a deliberate attempt to disrupt the talks but it was certainly a deliberate step to provoke negative developments," the former Swedish foreign minister told Reuters in a telephone interview hours before flying to Sudan.

"But we have to move forward with the talks and we will move forward with the talks. The world expects the parties to cease hostilities on October 27 and in fact after this terrible attack they should cease hostilities now."

Eliasson said it was still not entirely clear who was behind the assault on the African Union peacekeepers, who are due to be reinforced when their mission is absorbed into a much larger 26,000 member hybrid AU-UN force.

"There are some sources claiming this is renegade or small factions of a group not acting in the spirit of the leadership," he said. "We have noted that important leaders of the different rebel movements have condemned this terrible act and by that committed themselves to the talks and the process of finding a political solution."

International experts say some 200,000 people have died and more than 2 million fled their homes in Darfur since local rebels took up arms in 2003. Washington has accused Sudan of using Arab militia known as Janjaweed to conduct genocide, a term European and African governments avoid.

Sudan says the death toll is around 9,000.

Eliasson said the Janjaweed were no longer a discernible group.

"The Janjaweed were traditionally associated with the Sudanese government (but) now they are dispersed into other groups," he said. "We are in a period where we have other problems. Frustration in the camps, splits within tribal and rebel groups."

He said the main demands from the people of Darfur were the right to return home to their villages from the camps where many now reside, the disarmament of the Janjaweed and compensation for the loss of life and property.

Former US President Jimmy Carter said on a visit to Sudan on Wednesday the government had tripled its formal offer on compensation to $300 million, $200 million of that a loan from China.

"I have only heard media reports on that," Eliasson said. "But if it is true it is good news."

Darfur: State Department Opposes New Congressional Action Against Sudan

From the AP

The U.S. State Department asked Congress on Wednesday to defer action on proposed legislation designed to pressure Sudan to end suffering in its Darfur region by blacklisting companies that support the African country's oil and energy sectors.

"It would send the wrong message to the regime at a time when it is actually being helpful with peace talks" scheduled later in the month in Libya and with the African Union/United Nations peacekeeping force, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Dibble told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Legislative measures can try to spur progress, "but we are concerned about the negative impact of an actual new law at this delicate juncture," she said.

Similarly, Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer said, "We are at a critical moment and it is important to avoid any action — including legislative measures — that might set back the progress we have made thus far."

Frazer said the Sudanese government had accepted the need to negotiate a peace deal, although it was not clear whether rebel factions would be an obstacle to a peace settlement.

Backing the proposed legislation, Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, who chaired the hearing, remarked, "the State Department appears to be overly sensitive to upsetting the Bashir government." He referred to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. "It seems to me you would like to have an arrow in your quiver," he told Frazer.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven out of their homes in four years of violence in Darfur between ethnic African rebels who took up arms against militia supported by the Arab-dominated central government.

On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council condemned the "murderous attack" on African Union peacekeepers last weekend in Darfur, reportedly carried out by a rebel group.

Congress, meanwhile, adopted legislation Tuesday that would increase penalties on companies that violate prohibitions on sensitive business with Iran, Sudan and other countries accused of serious human right violations. The legislation was sent to President George W. Bush for signing into law.

Frazer said the State Department appreciated efforts to increase pressure on Khartoum. But she said sanctions already are working.

Outlining the proposed new legislation, which is aimed at the African country's oil and energy industries, Sen. Richard J. Durbin, a Democrat, said it would require the Bush administration to create a list of companies that support the Sudanese government and prohibit federal government contracts being awarded to companies that support Khartoum.

"We must act, and we must act now," Durbin said.

Also testifying, Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican, said, "It is time again for the United States to show leadership on Darfur."

"We have a responsibility to ensure that genocide does not continue on our watch," he said.

And the committee's senior Republican, Richard C. Shelby, said ,"I believe we are going to pass a strong piece of bipartisan legislation."

Darfur's Bitter Ironies

A post from Eric Reeves on Comment is Free

It is grimly ironic that a group of international eminences - the "Elders," as they are called - arrived in Khartoum on Sunday, the same day more than 10 African Union peacekeepers were killed during a large-scale rebel attack near the village of Haskanita, in eastern North Darfur. Chaired by South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, the delegation, which also includes former US president Jimmy Carter and Lakhdar Brahimi, a former UN envoy to Iraq, offered earnest, but now familiar platitudes: "We, the Elders, are here because we care deeply for the fate of our planet, and we feel intensely for the suffering of millions of people in Darfur who yearn for nothing more than peace and dignity." The rebel force - apparently comprising a faction of the Justice and Equality Movement and rogue commanders from the Sudan Liberation Army Unity faction - took a savagely more expedient view of the situation, seizing a number of vehicles and other military equipment from the AU outpost.

Nothing can justify this barbaric attack against peacekeepers attempting, however feebly, to provide protection in Darfur. But the AU forces have been badly betrayed by their political and military leaders, particularly AU commissioner Alpha Oumar Konare, who has become abject in his deference to Khartoum, particularly on security issues. The AU leadership has also refused to respond to the legitimate concerns of rebel groups that did not sign last year's ill-conceived and disastrously consummated Darfur Peace Agreement. This is also the same AU leadership that stubbornly refused to ask earlier for a UN takeover of the Darfur mission, even as its inadequacies were apparent to all, including a number of African leaders. These failings have all contributed to growing distrust, even hatred of the AU by Darfuris.

This is sadly just as true of civilians in the camps, which fearful AU civilian police no longer dare to enter. These camps, into which some people have been displaced for over four years, have become cauldrons of rage and despair, awash in weapons and increasingly beyond the control of traditional leaders - the sheikhs and omdas who might prevent restless young men and boys from acquiring the guns that will make the camps the next front line in Khartoum's genocidal counter-insurgency war in Darfur.

Rebel leaders complain with understandable anger that many AU reports on village bombing attacks and atrocities committed by Khartoum and its Janjaweed allies are never made public. In the Haskanita area, for example, there are strong indications that Khartoum and its Janjaweed allies had been actively engaged in attacks on civilian targets in preceding weeks. These attacks included offensive military flights, explicitly prohibited by UN Security Council Resolution 1591. Moreover, after the signing of the Darfur peace agreement, the AU also bowed to Khartoum's demand that non-signatory rebel factions be excluded from the ceasefire commission, essentially ending any chance for balanced monitoring of the anemic ceasefire agreement. The lack of a mandate for civilian protection has also constantly compromised the standing of AU forces on the ground in Darfur.

For these and other reasons, securing the presence of rebel groups at the peace talks scheduled for later this month in Libya will be extremely difficult. Abdel Wahid el-Nur, founder of the Sudan Liberation Army, continues to refuse to participate in the talks. He has enormous, if diminishing, support within the camps, particularly among his fellow Fur tribesmen. As Darfuri civilians grow more impatient with negotiations that leave them languishing in camps, Abdel Wahid's resistance to participating becomes all the more consequential. But the attack on Haskanita also reveals how easily a rebel faction can become a spoiler. Moreover, the rebel groups have also become much more fractious and divided over the past year. Divisions along ethnic, political and personal lines have increasingly overcome the desperate need for military and particularly political unity. They will need to join together and engage in the talks with a real unity of purpose, if they are to succeed.

But the peace talks are also destined to fail without a great deal more pressure on Khartoum to negotiate in good faith. This means accepting that the current peace agreement is a dead letter for both the rebels and Darfuri civilians, and that arrangements for security, compensation and power-sharing will need substantial modification. Of particular importance are international guarantors for the security provisions in any agreement, preeminently the disarming of the Janjaweed and the various paramilitary forces into which they have been recycled. Only with such disarmament will people dare to leave the camps and return to their villages.

It is a perverse irony, then, that the rebel attack on Haskanita will almost certainly strengthen the regime's hand. By portraying itself as the AU's ally against the rebels, even as it continues to oppose the deployment of a genuinely hybrid force, this cabal of génocidaires may extract from the international community a more forgiving diplomatic attitude. But there is an alternative response. While the outrageous attack on AU peacekeepers in Haskanita can lead to more hand-wringing, more unctuous talk from international figures like the Elders, more excessively broad condemnation of all rebel leaders, it can also provide the catalyst for a serious effort to confront Khartoum, the essential first step in bringing real security to Darfur. The latter is distinctly the more important effort.

Darfur: Eight Die in Shoot-Out

From Reuters

Eight people were killed in a shoot-out between Sudanese government forces and former rebels in the Darfur town of Nyala, a day before it was visited by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, officials said on Wednesday.

Shooting broke out between fighters loyal to the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) of Minni Arcua Minnawi and government personnel late on Tuesday, said a diplomatic source who asked not to be named.

The United Nations confirmed it received reports of fighting in downtown Nyala soon after 9 p.m. local time on Tuesday night.

"The reports are that eight people in total were killed and there was an unspecified number of people injured," said a U.N. spokeswoman.

"The reports were that the fighting was between SLM Minni Minnawi and the government."

She added it was unclear whether it was the police or the army that was involved on the government side.

No one was available for comment from Sudan's armed forces.

The SLM Minnawi faction was the only Darfur rebel group to sign a peace deal with Sudan's government last year. But relations between the faction and the authorities have deteriorated.

The SLM-Minnawi faction last month accused Khartoum of arming and training forces of a tribal militia who have killed 170 civilians in South Darfur. Khartoum denied the charges.

The confrontation happened just ahead of a visit to the South Darfur capital by anti-apartheid hero Tutu, who was touring Darfur with a party of elder statesman.

It was the second violent incident reported in recent days in the town which in the past was seen as a relatively secure base for aid workers and Darfuris.

The United Nations reported that armed men seized two aid workers and hijacked their vehicle on Sunday, just 20 metres (66 feet) from their agency's base in Nyala. The two workers were released on Tuesday, one with a severe head wound.

Two aid vehicles were also hijacked in North Darfur on Monday, one in the centre of the region's main town of el-Fasher, which was also visited by Tutu and other elders including former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday.

The driver of one of the stolen aid vehicles was still missing, the U.N. said.

Darfur: Carter Faces Down Sudanese Security Over Meeting with Refugees

From the AP

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter got in a shouting match Wednesday with Sudanese security services who blocked him from a town in Darfur where he was trying to meet representatives of ethnic African refugees from the ongoing conflict.

The 83-year-old Carter walked into this highly volatile pro-Sudanese government town to meet refugees too frightened to attend a scheduled meeting at a nearby compound.

Carter was able to make it to a school where he met with one tribal representative and was preparing to go further into the town when Sudanese security services interrupted.

"You can't go. It's not on the program!" the local national security chief, who only gave his first name as Omar, yelled at Carter, who is in Darfur as part of a delegation of respected international figures known as "The Elders."

"We're going to anyway!" an angry Carter retorted. "You don't have the power to stop me."

U.N. officials told Carter's entourage that the Sudanese state police could bar his way. "Let's go, or somebody is going to get shot," said one U.N. official, as an increasingly tense crowd gathered. Billionaire businessman Richard Branson and Graca Machel, the wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela, tried to ease Carter's frustration as his U.S. secret service security urged him to climb into a car and leave.

"I'll tell President Bashir about this," Carter said, referring to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Carter later agreed to a compromise by which tribal representatives would be brought to him at another location later Wednesday. But the refugee delegates never showed up.

Most ethnic Africans appeared too frightened to speak in Kabkabiya, a North Darfur town that has long been a stronghold of the pro-government janjaweed militia.

Branson, who along with Machel was traveling with Carter, said some refugees had slipped notes in his pockets. "We (are) still suffering from the war as our girls are being raped on a daily basis," read one of the notes, translated from Arabic, that Branson handed to The Associated Press. The note said that on Sept. 26, a group of girls had been raped, and a refugee had also been shot two days ago. Branson said it had been handed over by an ethnic African man.

The Darfur conflict began when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing the janjaweed militia of Arab nomads — a charge it denies. More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven out of their homes in four years of violence.

The visit by "The Elders," which is headed by Nobel Peace laureates Carter and Desmond Tutu, is largely a symbolic move by a host of respected figures to push all sides to make peace in Darfur.

While Tutu led a group to the Otash refugee camp in South Darfur on Wednesday, the U.N. mission in Sudan deemed it too dangerous for Carter to visit a refugee camp.

The former U.S. president instead flew to a World Food Program compound in Kabkabiya, where he was supposed to meet with local community members including some ethnic African refugees.

But as the meeting was set to get under way, none of the nongovernment refugee representatives arrived, and Carter decided to walk out into the town to try to talk with them. Carter went to a school where he met with one representative before Sudanese security stopped him.

"We are in the security field. We're not that flexible," said the local national security chief, Omar, after the confrontation ended.

"This (the confrontation) illustrates the challenges that communities and humanitarian workers face in Darfur," said U.N. Mission in Sudan spokeswoman Orla Clinton, who witnessed the incident.

Carter later returned to the North Darfur capital of El Fasher and where he was planning to meet with community representatives later Wednesday.

"The Elders" delegation is trying to use their influence at a crucial time — with peace talks due to start in Libya and deployment of a 26,000-strong hybrid African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force to begin later this month.

Tensions are running high after rebels overran an AU peacekeeping base in northern Darfur, killing 10 in the deadliest attack on the beleaguered force since it arrived in the region three years ago.

Carter said Wednesday that he felt "The Elders" trip was proving effective. He said al-Bashir told him this week that Sudan has committed $100 million to a fund for Darfur's reconstruction and another $200 million has been pledged by Chinese diplomatic allies.

Carter said the main goal of three-day visit to Sudan was to seek guarantees for free and fair elections throughout the country in 2009.

Observes fear the elections could be postponed and warn that this could imperil the fragile peace in southern Sudan and worsen the conflict in Darfur.

If on time and open, the slated 2009 general elections would be the first democratic election since al-Bashir came to power in a military and Islamist coup in 1989.

Carter said during a private meeting with al-Bashir in Khartoum, the Sudanese president had vowed the elections would take place.

"If the CPA fails to fulfill its commitment to free and fair elections and democracy in this country, all other efforts will be futile," Carter said, referring to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended 21 years of civil war between Sudan's Muslim government in the north and the Christian and animist rebels in the south has improved life.

Darfur: Sudan Pledges $300 Million in Compensation

From Reuters

Sudan's president has promised to pay $300 million in compensation to the country's war-torn Darfur region, tripling a previous pledge, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Wednesday.

Carter spoke during a tour of Darfur marred by a heated exchange between the 83-year-old former president and Sudanese security, who tried to prevent him from visiting a tribal leader.

Carter told Reuters President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan had made the compensation pledge during talks with him and other members of a visiting group of elder statesmen, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in Khartoum on Monday.

"He promised us there would be $300 million in all coming to the Darfur region in compensation, $100 million coming from the government, and $200 million to be a loan from the Chinese," Carter said as he set off on a tour of the northern Darfur town of Kebkabiya with the elders party.

Sudan promised to pay $30 million in compensation to Darfur under the terms of a 2006 peace agreement signed with only one rebel group. Other rebel groups that refused to sign angrily rejected the offer as too low and remained unhappy when it was later raised to $100 million.

Soon after making the statement, Carter publicly clashed with a Sudanese security chief who had objected to the visit to a Darfur tribal chief.

"No you can't go. It's not on the programme," Kebkabiya security chief Omar Sheikh told Carter in a raised voice.

Carter angrily replied: "I don't think you have the authority to do so. We are going to go anyway. I'll tell President (Omar Hassan al-) Bashir."

The tribal leader Al-Tayyib al-Bukoura, regional head of the local Fur people, eventually arrived but, refusing to speak in front of Sudanese security, drove off with Carter.

Displaced people from the town crowded around the international visitors, including British tycoon Richard Branson, and slipped notes into their pockets detailing attacks and rapes.

One note said the government had ordered displaced Darfuris not to talk to visiting delegations and added, "If representatives talked about the suffering of their people they would be arrested and tortured by government agencies."

Graca Machel, rights campaigner and wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela, was visibly annoyed by security officers crowding around her as she listened to reports of rape from women's groups. She ordered the men to leave.

International experts say some 200,000 people have died in Darfur since mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003. The United States says Arab militia mobilised by the government have committed genocide, a term European and African governments have avoided.

The elders toured Darfur days after 10 African Union personnel were killed in the deadliest attack on their forces in the remote western region since they deployed in 2004.

The AU said it was still investigating the attack on their base in the rebel-held southeastern town of Haskanita to determine who carried it out. Rebel splinter groups in the region have been blamed, but key insurgent leaders have denied ordering the assault.

The AU force commander Martin Luther Agwai on Tuesday told the elders AU peacekeepers were outgunned and outnumbered by rebels and militias in Darfur.

Desmond Tutu on Wednesday called on world governments to speed up the deployment of a replacement force of 26,000 joint U.N.-AU peacekeepers, saying the under-equipping of the 7,000 African Union forces currently on the ground was a "disgrace".

"I am making a call to people of good will ... for goodness sake, tell your governments to get off their butts," Tutu told Reuters.

"It is unacceptable that the AU mission is not better equipped. They couldn't even evacuate the injured after the Haskanita attack because they don't have military helicopters," he added.

Carter said Bashir had promised to allow international observers into Sudan to make sure national elections scheduled for 2009 were "honest and fair".

Darfur: Commander Voices Fears for Peacekeepers

From the AP

The Nigerian commander of African Union troops said he feared for the future of a new peacekeeping force, but assured former president Jimmy Carter and other statesmen yesterday that the deaths of 10 comrades would not weaken his country's commitment to Darfur.

General Martin Agwai told the group the proposed force of AU and UN troops still lacked equipment, and even by January would have less than a third of the troops promised.

"Our president called me and assured me he understood our plan and would continue to support us," Agwai said, drawing applause from the delegates visiting El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province.

Over the weekend, rebels overran an African peacekeeping base in northern Darfur, killing 10 - the deadliest attack on the force since it arrived in the region three years ago.

Nigerian forces suffered the greatest losses in the assault, which drew condemnation yesterday from the UN Security Council.

"The council condemns this murderous attack and demands that no effort be spared so that the perpetrators be identified and brought to justice," the council's statement said, after a day of disagreement over whether to call the assault a terrorist act perpetrated by rebels, as South Africa, Russia, and some other council members wanted.

Nigeria's commitment is crucial because under the compromise reached between the United nations and Khartoum's government, the majority of the new 26,000-strong joint force must be predominantly African.

The delegation led by Carter and Desmond Tutu is trying to use their influence at a crucial time - with peace talks due to start in Libya and deployment of the hybrid force to begin later this month.

The visit by the elders is largely a symbolic move by a host of respected figures to push all sides to make peace in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven out of their homes in four years of violence.

Darfur: AU Wants to Respond to Attacks

From Reuters

The African Union has agreed that its mandate in Darfur should be reviewed to allow its forces to respond if attacked.

The AU denied on Tuesday that troop-contributing nations had threatened to pull their forces from a peace-keeping mission to Darfur after a rebel attack on an AU base.

It said 10 soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in the weekend raid, the worst assault on AU forces since 2004 when the 7 000-strong mission was deployed in western Sudan.

AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Said Djinnit said a joint United Nations-AU team would begin an inquiry into the attack, adding that the AU agreed its mandate in Darfur should be reviewed to allow its forces to respond if they were attacked.

"Member states are deeply angered about the killing and wounding of AMIS troops in Darfur. We will not rest until they (the perpetrators) are found out and brought to swift justice," Djinnit told reporters.

"The ambassadors who represented troop contributing countries in the Council meeting, have expressed their commitment and determination to remain in Darfur until peace was restored," he added.

Darfur: Peacekeeper Commander Pledges to Keep Commitment Despite Attack

From the AP

The Nigerian commander of African Union troops said he feared for the future of a new peacekeeping force but assured former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and other statesmen on Tuesday that his country would remain in Darfur despite the killing of 10 peacekeepers.

Gen. Martin Agwai told the group the proposed force of AU and U.N. troops still lacked equipment, and even by January would have less than a third of the troops promised.

"Our president called me and assured me he understood our plan and would continue to support us," Agwai said, drawing applause from the delegates visiting El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province.

Over the weekend, rebels overran an African peacekeeping base in northern Darfur, killing 10 — the deadliest attack on the force since it arrived in the region three years ago. Nigerian forces suffered the greatest losses in the assault, which drew condemnation Tuesday from the U.N. Security Council.

"The council condemns this murderous attack and demands that no effort be spared so that the perpetrators be identified and brought to justice," the council's statement said, after a day of disagreement over whether to call the assault a terrorist act perpetrated by rebels, as South Africa, Russia and some other council members wanted.

Nigerian's commitment is crucial because under the compromise reached between the United nations and Khartoum's government, the majority of the new 26,000-strong joint force must be predominantly African.

The delegation led by Carter and Desmond Tutu is trying to use their influence at a crucial time — with peace talks due to start in Libya and deployment of the hybrid force to begin later this month.

Along with the joint force's chief, Rodolphe Adada, the Nigerian general said the mission still lacked crucial equipment.

Only one country, Jordan, has so far committed needed aircraft, Agwai told the delegates.

Agwai said there would be at most 8,000 troops in Darfur by January — only 1,000 more than the current force: "Facing the reality, how many African countries can provide troops that can fully sustain themselves here?"

The joint force is planned to replace on Jan. 1st the 7,000-member African Union mission that has struggled since it began in 2004, too understaffed and under-equipped to ensure peace in the vast desert region of western Sudan. Violence has only increased. Some rebels resent the peacekeepers, accusing them of doing little to protect refugees.

Agwai also deplored that "there are offers we can't accept," alluding to the Sudanese government's resistance to any non-African intervention in Darfur.

"It has been easier (to deploy a U.N. mission) in Liberia and Sierra Leone, because those were failed states. Whereas here is a fully functioning and operational state."

Carter said that "this is one of the worst descriptions of conditions for a military operation that I have ever heard."

The visit by the elders is largely a symbolic move by a host of respected figures to push all sides to make peace in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven out of their homes in four years of violence.

"We hope that, as elders in a village, we will be able to share some of the wisdom and experience we have," Tutu told a gathering of community and tribal leaders.

The group includes 12 people and was founded two months ago, said billionaire businessman Richard Branson, who helped create it. The trip to southern Sudan and Darfur is its first mission. "The main purpose (of this trip) is to get fair elections in Sudan for 2009," Branson told the Associated Press in El Fasher.

The group visited a U.N. aid compound located next to the sprawling Abu-Shok and Es-Sallam camps where 150,000 refugees who fled Darfur's violence are living.

"We hope that you can contribute to put an end to this crazy way," said a nazir, or traditional leader among a group of about 30 men and women who came from the refugee camps to meet the delegation.

Earlier, the delegation met with the North Darfur governor, Youssouf Kebir, who insisted the security situation in the province is "stable and good."

But government forces have been waging a fierce offensive against rebels in North Darfur for the past two weeks. On Saturday night, amid the fighting, a force of 1,000 rebels overran a base of U.N. peacekeepers at Haskanita in North Darfur. In a battle that lasted into the early hours Sunday, the rebels killed 10 peacekeepers, looted the base then escaped when Sudanese troops moved in.

Darfur: Rebels Accuse Gov't of Attack

From VOA

A rebel faction in Sudan's troubled Darfur region is accusing the Khartoum government of responsibility for a weekend attack that killed 10 African Union peacekeepers. As Nick Wadhams reports from Nairobi, the attack could crush hopes that peace talks between the rebels and the government will take place as planned later this month.

Various Darfur rebel groups are scheduled to begin talks with the government on October 27, but the attack on peacekeepers - and the subsequent accusations of blame by various rebel groups - will complicate preparations.

Nouri Abdalla, the spokesman for one faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement in Kampala, Uganda, says his group believes the government orchestrated the attack to slow the deployment of a joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping force for Darfur.

Khartoum was reluctant to agree to the force, which would nearly quadruple the size of the 7,000 member African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. It has been undermanned and largely ineffective.

Abdalla says that the attack, as well as many other incidents of violence in Darfur recently, make it impossible for the rebels to meet with the government on October 27 as planned.

"We know that the government of Sudan has always been against the deployment of the U.N. peacekeeping forces," said Abdalla. "So basically they are trying to find a way to block the deployment even thought they have agreed to it. Because this is another thing something that the government of Sudan always does they agree to something and they back off from it. So basically we do not believe that October 27 is the right date."

Other reports from the African Union and the Khartoum government have indicated that it was an alliance between two rebel groups that was responsible for the attack. The Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudanese Liberation Army's Unity faction have forces in the area of the attack, Haskanita.

"It is impossible to say the government is responsible, the responsibility will be the two sides and now the investigation is underway to determine which side to hold fully responsible," said Yahia Bolad, another rebel faction spokesman, based in London. "There is fighting between the Justice And Equality movement and also the Unity faction of Mini Minnawi with the Sudanese government and its militias in that area."

The Darfur conflict began in 2003 and has killed about 200,000 people and displaced more than two million. Analysts and the rebels had expressed hope for a resolution in August, when various rebel factions met in Arusha, Tanzania, and agreed to a common stance ahead of peace talks with Khartoum.

But with the attack, which several rebel factions condemned, there are now fears that the rebels will split even further, raising the specter of a possible deadlock at the upcoming talks.

Darfur: Sudan Criticises U.S., EU After Attack

From Reuters

Sudan criticised the United States and European Union on Tuesday for failing to impose sanctions on Darfur rebel groups believed to be behind the deadliest attack on African Union troops in the war-torn region.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig said the "most likely" culprits of Saturday's attack on the Haskanita base were a splinter group of either the rebel Justice Equality Movement (JEM) or the Sudan Liberation Army's Unity faction.

The African Union said 20 of its personnel were killed or wounded and three were missing after the raid. Leaders from both JEM and SLA Unity have denied responsibility for the attack.

Sudanese Justice Minister Ali al-Mardi told Reuters the international community should have punished the rebel groups that have refused to sign peace deals with the government to end the four-year conflict.

"I am talking about the big powers, in particular the USA and the EU," he said.

"What happened in Haskanita is a direct result of what the international community has failed to do. If they had exerted pressure on them, this attack would not have happened."

The African Union mediated a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels in May 2006 but only one of three rebel negotiating factions signed the deal. Since then, rebels have split into a dozen factions.

The United States said late on Monday it was prepared to impose fresh sanctions on whoever ordered the worst single assault on African Union peacekeepers since the mission came to Darfur in 2004.

Sadig said rebels behind the attack were "more like bandits than military groups".

"The international community should come together to punish whoever was responsible," he said.

The African Union said on Tuesday it had established some clear leads in its investigation into the attack, but was waiting for more firm evidence before publishing the findings.

"Investigations are under way but they are not complete," said spokesman Noureddine Mezni. He said 10 soldiers wounded in the attack were being treated in Khartoum.

Darfur: Rebel Attack Came at End of Ramadan Fast

From the AP

The 1,000 Darfur rebels waited until sunset, the end of the Ramadan fast, to begin their assault. Some of the outgunned African peacekeepers, caught by surprise, fought back. Others fled into the scrublands, and at the end 10 of them were dead.

The rebels overran the African Union peacekeeping outpost, seized six armored vehicles and fled Sunday morning when the Sudanese army arrived at the base on the outskirts of the town of Haskanita in North Darfur where 157 peacekeepers and support staff were stationed.

"We were just preparing for dinner when the first rocket hit us," one peacekeeper, a stocky man in his 20s with a sharp nose, told an Associated Press reporter who arrived at the base hours after the attack.

Another soldier, fighting back tears, said: "The fighting was terrible. I can't even describe it."

The peacekeepers repelled the first rebel attack after dusk, but the rebels returned and a fresh battle raged for hours. Survivors said the rebels used several armored vehicles and rocket-propelled grenades an indication they possess heavier weapons than previously believed.

The rebels finally stormed the camp around 4 a.m. Sunday at a time when some of the peacekeepers ran out of ammunition. The peacekeepers took refuge in a ditch in one corner of the camp where dozens of empty shell casings from AK-47s were strewn in the sandy soil. More casings littered the ground near the entrance to the base.

"Once we ran out of ammunition, we all laid down in that ditch," said Abu Bakr, one of the peacekeepers.

The camp was surrounded by two rows of razor wire, spaced about 10 years apart, and there was no sign that the cordon had been penetrated, making it likely the rebels came in through the entrance.

One officer said mortars were also fired, but there was no sign of any craters.

It wasn't known if there were any rebel casualties.

Early Sunday, the Sudanese army arrived and the rebels left, AU soldiers told the AP. It was not clear whether the Sudanese army used force to chase away the rebels.

The rebels looted the camp on their way out, taking six armored personnel carriers, a dozen jeeps, boxes of ammunition, AK-47s and fuel for the vehicles.

An AP reporter who landed at the base hours after the attack heard bursts of sporadic gunfire in the distance. On a helicopter en route to Haskanita, several clusters of huts were seen smoldering in hamlets, apparently from a government operation against the rebels in the area over the past two weeks.

The scene at the base in the aftermath was chaotic.

Inside the camp, plastic tents where the peacekeepers slept still smoldered, giving off an acrid smell. The shell of a large armored personnel carrier apparently hit by RPG fire was still burning, its tires melted.

RPG fire left craters in the ground and in canteens scattered around. Prefabricated houses that served as the administration headquarters for the base were riddled with bullet holes. Papers were scattered on the ground and tables overturned.

Several Sudanese soldiers in dark olive brown uniforms sifted through the tents, smiling as they carried away mattresses, beds, fans and clothing.

AU troops in brown-green camouflage, some wounded and barefoot, carrying belongings including a refrigerator and computer, were being ferried out by helicopter to safety, while Sudanese troops stood in combat positions nearby. The survivors looked shellshocked and some said it was difficult to describe the intensity of the attack.

"They're in a state of shock. They looked like people who've just survived death," said the chief of the 7,000-member AU mission to Darfur, Rodolphe Adada, who is also slated to head a new joint AU-U.N. force, speaking in the North Darfur capital of El Fasher.

"This incident is beyond understanding ... it has no political rationality," said Adada. "It's unacceptable and it won't be without consequences."

Though AU soldiers have been attacked regularly since their mission was deployed in June 2004, the raid on Haskanita was the first time one of its bases has been overrun and the AU said it was the heaviest loss of life.

Most of the 157 peacekeepers on the base were Nigerian but there were also military observers from Botswana, Senegal and Mali.

Ten died in the attack, one was in critical condition and six other injured were taken to the Sudanese capital Khartoum for treatment.

Three peacekeepers were still missing late Monday, believed wandering the dangerous desert in a war zone around the base. Earlier, the AU said 23 peacekeepers were unaccounted for, but by late Monday, officials said 20 had reached another peacekeeping base.

The AU base at Haskanita is strategically important. It is about 12 miles from the boundary between Darfur and the neighboring region of Khordofan. The Darfur rebels have been trying to link up with new rebel groups in Khordofan, where there are large fields of Sudan's proven oil reserves.

The attack raised new concerns about risks to a planned deployment of a joint African-U.N. force of 26,000, expected to be much more robust than the current 7,000-strong AU force.

Two key peacekeeping countries, Nigeria and Senegal, said Monday they may have second thoughts about committing troops. Nigeria and Senegal both lost soldiers in the attack.

Darfur rebels have grown increasingly hostile to the AU force, saying it favors the Sudanese government and has failed to protect Darfur civilians.

Some rebel leaders also said the fighters stormed the Haskanita base because they suspected the AU was giving away their positions to the Sudanese army, which has been bombing the area for two weeks.

The AU denies any favoritism and has often complained its forces are over-stretched and undersupplied.

Several AU peacekeepers who survived the fighting told the AP they were able to identify the assailants as belonging to a splinter group of the Sudan Liberation Army rebels, known as SLA-Unity. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

But the SLA leadership said it had not ordered the attack and blamed it on rogue elements in the field.

The attack came amid increasing violence in Darfur, where government and rebel forces appear to be fighting for positions ahead of the peace negotiations set to open in Libya on Oct. 27. The government and most of the main rebel factions have said they will attend.

Darfur: Attack Imperils Talks

From the New York Times

he deadly attack on an African Union peacekeeping base by rebels in Darfur over the weekend brought the credibility of the rebel forces to a low point. It also demonstrated the extent to which the force, struggling with minimal manpower and matériel to keep a nonexistent peace, has come to be seen by many non-Arabs in Darfur as at best ineffective and irrelevant, and at worst, a tool manipulated by the Sudanese government, in the view of some rebel groups.

The assault by 30 truckloads of Darfur rebels late Saturday and early Sunday on a small base in Haskanita, killing 10 peacekeepers from three African countries, threatened to undermine fragile efforts by the United Nations and the African Union to forge a peace agreement at talks in Libya later this month to end the conflict in Darfur, the region of western Sudan where at least 200,000 people have died and more than two million have been chased from their homes.

It will doubtless also make it more difficult to find enough troops for the 26,000-member United Nations-led peacekeeping force that is supposed to begin deploying at the same time.

Crucial to both efforts are two things: a working cease-fire agreement and the unification of the fractured rebel groups who are fighting the Sudanese government and, increasingly, one another. Both objectives were left in tatters by the Haskanita attack, said Suleiman Jamous, perhaps the most respected elder statesman among the rebels fighting in Darfur.

"As rebels, we are losing the sympathy of the international community because of lack of control and divisions within the movements," said Jamous, a leading figure in the original Darfur rebel movement, the Sudan Liberation Army. "It is unthinkable that a man who is fighting for the well-being of his own people can attack these peacemakers and mediators who are here to help him."

Though the senior leaders of the main rebel movements were not believed to be involved in the planning or execution of the attack, Jamous said, their failure to stop it demonstrated a loss of control and a new lawlessness that could cost the rebels dearly in negotiating power.

The attack, Jamous said, may have been based in part on the perception among some rebels that the peacekeeping force of 7,000 troops has become too weak to protect civilians and co-opted by the Sudanese government, hence a legitimate military target for rebel groups.

"People are frustrated that the African Union is not able to protect them," he said. "The Sudanese government has been able to control the AU's movements, and that makes people think they are on the same side."

Noureddine Mezni, a spokesman for the African Union force, said that notion was outrageous. "We completely deny this kind of allegation," he said. "We have been working in Darfur for three years. These African troops came here to help Darfurians."

Mezni said the attack might have been an attempt by a rebel faction to grab attention before the Libya talks. Similar violence, on a much smaller scale, broke out before talks in Nigeria that led to a peace agreement last year that ultimately failed.

Jan Eliasson, the United Nations special envoy for Darfur, said rebel groups involved in this attack would not find a place at the negotiating table, and he called for leaders to condemn it, which at least one senior rebel commander had done. "We hope very much that it will not derail the talks in Libya," he said.

For the African Union, whose troops are to make up the vast bulk of a highly anticipated joint peacekeeping force with the United Nations, the attack was another devastating blow.

After the death of a Senegalese soldier, the sixth this year in Darfur, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said Monday that he would pull out his 538 troops if they were not adequately equipped and empowered to defend themselves. Senegal had pledged to increase its commitment to 1,600 troops under the United Nations banner, and its withdrawal would be a major loss to the nascent force. Military officials in Nigeria, which has the largest number of troops in Darfur, also indicated Monday that they were concerned about the risk to their soldiers and were reconsidering their participation in peacekeeping efforts in Africa.

"It is disastrous because it puts the AU in a terrible bind," said Alex de Waal, a Sudan scholar who has written extensively about Darfur. "And who would commit forces to the United Nations force under these circumstances?"

After a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting on the attack, Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States ambassador, said there was "unanimity and outrage" on the Council and broad agreement on the need to find out who was responsible. He said further Council action like sanctions should be taken against the attackers once they are identified.

The attack is believed by several international officials to have been carried out by relatively junior commanders of a rebel faction known as SLA Unity and some dissident elements of the Justice and Equality Movement, an Islamist group with strong political connections in the region but few ground troops.

According to de Waal and Jamous, rebels in the area around the base were angry about bombardment of the region by government planes and the failure of the African Union to stop it. Rebel commanders said they overheard radio chatter between the Sudanese planes and the African Union base, and took that as evidence of cooperation. African Union officials dismissed that as preposterous, saying the organization had complained to Sudanese officials about bombs dropped too close to its base.

The rebel attack, de Waal said, seemed to be "an illustration of the political immaturity and recklessness of some of these rebel leaders."

Still, United Nations officials held out hope, pointing to the Sudanese government's acceptance of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur and its willingness to reopen the failed Darfur peace agreement, signed last year by the government and one rebel faction.

"This is going to be extremely difficult, we know that," Eliasson said. "We now have these modest signs of progress. It is extremely important to nurture this plant and make sure we get to these talks."

Darfur: UN Council Can't Agree on Wording of Condemnation

From The Associated Press

The U.N. Security Council on Monday failed to agree on a formal condemnation of a surprise attack that killed 10 peacekeepers in Darfur with an envoy saying members disagree on whether to call it a terrorist act by rebels.

Ghana's U.N. Ambassador Leslie Christian, the current council president, said members will meet again on Tuesday to work on a presidential statement — which becomes part of the official council record.

He told reporters in a brief press statement — which does not become part of the council's official record — that members condemn the attack, deplore the 10 deaths and injuries to 14 peacekeepers, and want the perpetrators identified and brought to justice.

"The reason we couldn't come to an agreement," said South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, "was because most of us feel that this was a terrorist act" and every report says it was done by rebels, but some council members argued that they wanted to wait for the results of an investigation to find out what happened.

The rebels first attacked the AU peacekeepers' camp at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and then returned at 4 a.m., Sunday, overruning it.

Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Abdelmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed said the AU has already named some elements of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement and Sudan Liberation Movement who had been "very visible" in the area as the perpetrators of the attack.

But U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said "the AU is still not able to say which group is responsible at this point."

The U.N. Security Council has approved a 26,000-strong AU-U.N. force to replace the 6,000 AU troops who are ill-equipped and have gone for months without being paid.

Darfur: Peacekeeper Killings are War Crimes

From Human Rights Watch

The killing of 10 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur is a war crime and should be promptly investigated by the United Nations and the African Union, Human Rights Watch said today.

On September 30, unidentified forces attacked an African Union base in Haskanita, North Darfur, killing 10 AU peacekeepers and civilian police. At least 8 other personnel from the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) were seriously injured and approximately 40 remain missing, according to AU statements. Unconfirmed reports say the attack was carried out by unidentified rebel forces. The loss of life was the worst suffered to date by the under-resourced AU force.

“Deliberately attacking peacekeepers is a war crime,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Sudanese government and the rebel groups should cooperate fully with an independent investigation into the dreadful attack in Haskanita.”

Customary laws of war and the statute of the International Criminal Court prohibit directing attacks against personnel and objects involved in international peacekeeping missions, so long as they are not directly involved in hostilities.

Darfur: Nordic Peacekeepers Ready, Still Await Call

From Reuters

Norwegian and Swedish army engineers could be in Sudan's Darfur region as early as November as part of the U.N.-AU Darfur peacekeeping mission, their commander says, but so far their offer has yet to be accepted.

If the African Union approves the 400 Nordic troops, they will be the largest and best-equipped contingent from the developed world in the 26,000-strong hybrid AU and United Nations force, the bulk of which will be African infantry.

Norway's Lieutenant-Colonel Anstein Aasen said the contingent's main role would be building bases for the rest of the force along with heavy engineering projects such as roads.

But despite being on four months' deployment notice since September 2006, they still had no firm word on if they were wanted.

"We hear rumours that we are welcome," he told Reuters this week at Norway's Defence Ministry.

"But nothing certain. It is extremely frustrating, not just for us but also for our families."

Observers say it is unclear if the delay in accepting the offer of the joint Swedish-Norwegian engineer battalion is due to opposition from Sudan's government, which wanted an all-African force, or from the African Union.

"My feeling is that eventually they will be accepted," said former U.N. aid chief Jan Egeland, head of a Norwegian foreign policy think tank. "But we are losing time. This force should have been on the ground four years ago."

International experts say some 200,000 people have died in Darfur since mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003. The United States says Arab militia mobilised by Sudan have committed genocide, a term European and African governments have avoided.

Sudan says only 9,000 people have died. A small, poorly equipped African Union force has failed to stop violence.

At the weekend, 10 African Union soldiers were killed and 10 injured in a suspected rebel attack on an AU base in Darfur, the most serious assault on the force since it deployed in 2004.

If the Swedes and Norwegians are accepted, they will be the best-fitted battalion in the force, with more than a dozen Finnish-built wheeled armoured personnel carriers while most of the AU troops will be limited to land cruisers.

Aasen said the battalion would stick to engineering and leave civilian protection to the African infantry. But he said his troops would fight to defend people in danger if necessary.

Serious problems, however, must be resolved before his troops can deploy, he said.

Even if the U.N. and AU give the green light, the force currently has too few helicopters to offer 24-hour medical evacuation cover -- a pre-requisite for Norway to send troops.

Aasen, who first visited Darfur last month, said he was looking forward to the mission -- but not the weather.

"It will be very, very hot," he said. "It is the worst weather possible for a Norwegian."

Darfur: Sudan Releases War Crimes Suspect

From the Sudan Tribune

The Sudanese government disclosed for the first time that a Darfur war crimes suspect wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) was released from detention.

Sudan’s foreign minister Lam Akol revealed in press statements yesterday that Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb was freed due to lack of evidence against him.

The Sudanese government was believed to have been holding Kushayb in custody since November for what they described as “suspicion of violating Sudanese laws” and that he was under investigation for criminal acts in Darfur.

The judges of the ICC issued their first arrest warrants for suspects accused of war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region in early May.

The warrants were issued for Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Kushayb. Sudan has so far rejected handing over the two suspects.

The warrant for Haroun lists 42 counts including murder, torture and persecution, while the warrant for Kushayb lists 50 counts including murder and intentionally attacking civilians.

Akol reiterated that Sudan is not party to the ICC and as such has no obligation to cooperate with it.

The news of Kushayb’s release is likely to anger ICC officials and human rights groups who allege that he led attacks against civilians. Kushayb has been nicknamed as the “Butcher of Darfur” by Darfur refugees.

"We have eyewitnesses who saw Kushayb on his horse giving instructions in each of the cases. I have eyewitnesses who saw Kushayb involved in the execution of prisoners, the rape of women," the ICC Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in statements earlier this year.

Last month Sudan appointed the second war crime suspect Ahmed Haroun as head of a committee investigating human rights complaints in Darfur, a move criticized by human right groups.

Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the UN Security Council triggered the provisions under the Statue that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.

Sudan: Ruling Party Said to be Violating Comprehensive Peace Agreement

From VOA

The Secretary General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has accused the ruling National Congress Party of Sudan of violating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The agreement was signed in 2005 to end 21 years of civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan.

Pagan Amum also says the United States has agreed to remove Southern Sudan from the list of sanctions against the Khartoum government. He is part of a delegation visiting the United States from the government of Southern Sudan and the SPLA.

He told VOA that the delegation from Southern Sudan is here to discuss with the United States government issues concerning the implementation of the CPA.

“We are experiencing difficulties in the implementation of the CPA. Our partner, the National Congress Party is violating the CPA already, and we are here to discuss with the government of the United States of America and other actors in the international community, especially the countries that had supported the search for peace in Sudan so that they bring all the necessary encouragement and pressures on the parties so that the CPA is implemented and Sudan stays on course in building peace,” he said.

Amum said the government Southern Sudan is not satisfied because several aspects of the CPA are being violated.

“Our mean points where there is no implementation are, the Abyei Protocol is not implemented. There is no peace in Abyei. The people of Abyei up till now, two years after the signing of the peace agreement have not experienced any peace, and this is precisely because the National Congress Party is violating the agreement, is reneging from their commitment, particularly the security arrangement whereby they are maintaining huge forces in Southern Sudan contrary to the agreement,” Amum said.

He said the government of Southern Sudan is pleased with the implementation of some aspects of the power sharing arrangement.

“Definitely we have formed a government of national unity. The SPLA has 28 percent; the National Congress retains 52 percent, and other parties 22 percent. In that sense, yes the power sharing has been implement,”

However, Amum said some challenges remain in the full implementation of some aspects of the power sharing arrangement.

“Still we have a lot of challenges in terms of restructuring the state organs, particularly the civil service, the judiciary to make the civil service apolitical because what we have now is a highly politically dominated civil service by the National Congress which is hindering the neutrality required in the civil service in terms delivering professional services to the citizens,” Amum said.

He also said there are still what he called draconian laws from the totalitarian era that he said are being used to suppress freedoms, particularly the freedom of speech and media.

Amum said the delegation was able to get the U.S. government to exempt Southern Sudan from the sanctions against the Khartoum government.

“We are happy that our discussions were very fruitful, and now Southern Sudan is exempted, and the government of Southern Sudan will be having its relationship with the government of the United States of America. The Bank of Southern Sudan will be transacted in dollars without any hindrance,” he said.

Amum said discussions with the U.S. government on economic support to Southern Sudan have gone well. He said the Southern Sudan government expects an increase in U.S. development assistance.

He defended what seems to be unilateral negotiations with the U.S. government even though Southern Sudan is in a power sharing government with the government in Khartoum.

“The peace agreement has created a situation with confederate arrangement in the Sudan. Actually Sudan is two countries in one. Sanctions are continuing on the National Congress and aspects of the government of national unity because of the continuation of conflict in Darfur. So what we are doing is that we are working to end the problem of Darfur so that these sanctions can be lifted all over the country,” Amum said.

Darfur: Tutu, Carter, Other 'Elders' Visit

From United Press International

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu led a group of "elder" statesmen into Sudan's embattled Darfur region Tuesday to discuss stabilizing the situation.

Tutu was accompanied by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Graca Machel, the wife of South African civil rights leader Nelson Mandela and veteran U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the BBC reported.

The group met with Sudanese government officials Monday in Khartoum, and afterward, Tutu cautioned against too much optimism being placed on the visit.

"The Elders do not want to raise anyone's hopes during this visit," he told reporters.

Plans for Tuesday included talks with tribal leaders in the region where scores of militias with shifting allegiances have killed at least 200,000 people in the past four years. Another 2 million people have been displaced.

The fighting was originally based on black tribes resisting the Arabic government, which has been accused by observers of arming militias. Battle lines have since blurred and rights observers say many small militias appear to be seizing villages and land.

Uganda: Gov't Urges World Leaders to Pressure Rebels on Peace Talks

From the AP

Uganda's foreign minister urged the international community on Monday to put pressure on leaders of the country's brutal 20-year insurgency to comply with peace agreements and set a deadline for negotiations to end.

Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa told world leaders at the United Nations ministerial meeting that the rebel Lord's Resistance Army has failed to meet requirements to which they have agreed since negotiations began last year, including gathering at neutral zone Ri-Kwangba just north of the Congo border to be monitored.

"We urge the international community to bring adequate pressure to bear on the LRA to assemble at Ri-Kwangba and to put a time frame on the talks. Talks cannot go on forever," Kutesa said.

Southern Sudan has been mediating talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government since July 2006. A truce has been signed, but the talks have not progressed much and have repeatedly stalled. Negotiations broke down in late December 2006 after the rebel movement walked out.

Talks nonetheless are seen as the best chance to end the conflict that has spilled over to neighboring regions in Congo and Sudan.

Fighting since the insurgency began in 1986 has left thousands dead and forced 1.7 million people to flee their homes, according to relief organizations.

The LRA is made up of the remnants of a rebellion that began after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni took power that year. The rebels are notorious for cutting off the tongues and lips of civilians and abducting thousands of children, turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into fighters.

The group's top five leaders have been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, but have repeatedly demanded immunity from prosecution in return for signing a peace deal. Museveni's government has promised not to turn them over in return for an end to the bloodshed.

Kutesa said his government will not condone impunity, and is "working closely with the ICC to ensure accountability."

"As we inch toward a comprehensive peace agreement, international support and understanding is required to balance the need for durable peace and stability on one hand and the imperative for justice on the other," Kutesa said.

Darfur: Senegal Threatens to Withdraw Troops After Attack

From Reuters

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said on Monday he would pull his country's troops out of Darfur if it was determined that African peacekeepers who were killed at the weekend were not equipped to defend themselves.

Twenty AU soldiers were killed or injured and 40 missing after a "deliberate and sustained" assault on the Haskanita base in Darfur on Saturday night by armed men in 30 vehicles, who looted and destroyed the base, the African Union said.

It was the worst single attack on AU forces since the 7,000-strong mission was deployed to western Sudan in 2004.

"If they died because they didn't have the arms to defend themselves, I will withdraw all the Senegalese ... I am not going to send people to be slaughtered," he said, adding he had ordered an investigation into the attack.

The AU has long complained of a lack of equipment in Darfur, including attack helicopters and rapid response vehicles. They have also said their force was too small to contain the conflict in the vast and arid region the size of France.

Senegal has one of the largest contingents in Darfur and has taken casualties in the past. Most of the infantry in Haskanita was Nigerian but military observers were from various countries.

AU spokesman Assane Ba said seven of those killed were Nigerian, one Senegalese, a Malian and one from Botswana.

"AU peacekeepers will remain in Darfur until the United Nations-African Union Hybrid Operation will be deployed," he said from AU headquarters in Ethiopia.

While AU convoys and individuals have been ambushed -- around 40 killed in the three years prior to the Haskanita attack -- this was the first time an entire base was targeted.

AU force commander Martin Luther Agwai said the mission was making contingency plans and reassessing security. But he said little more could be done without getting desperately needed additional equipment and troops into Darfur.

"People did deployment on the premise that there was an (peace) agreement and they were coming to inspect and act as observers -- there was no planning for people to be able defend themselves," Agwai said.

Experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes as mostly non-Arab rebels in Darfur took up arms in early 2003 accusing the government of neglect. Khartoum mobilized mainly Arab militias to quell the revolt.

The AU mediated a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels in May 2006 but only one of three rebel negotiating factions signed the deal. Since then, rebels have split into a dozen factions.

The violence, which includes militias and tribal conflicts, has severely curtailed the world's largest aid operation.

Saturday's attack casts a shadow on AU-U.N.-mediated talks due to begin in Libya on October 27. Mediators Salim Ahmed Salim and Jan Eliasson expressed "shock and dismay" at the attack.

Condemnation over the attacks came in from around the world -- from the Arab League to Washington.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the violence underscored the urgency of the AU-UN mission.

"Obviously what the president (George W. Bush) wants is that U.N. peacekeeping force to get there as soon as possible because we are committed to ending the violence and providing assistance to the people who are suffering there in Darfur," she said.

Suleiman Jamous, a member of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) Unity faction which is one of two groups accused of the attack, said if his faction was involved in the attack it was a local decision, not ordered by the leadership.

"I have asked the leadership of SLA Unity to withdraw all the troops from the area, to where they can be under the direct control of the military command," Jamous said.

SLA Unity and a breakaway faction of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Bahr Idriss Abu Garda have forces in the Haskanita area. Other JEM commanders said Abu Garda and a SLA Unity commander had the stolen AU vehicles.

SLA Unity military chief Abu Bakr Kadu has denied his forces had attacked the AU base, saying the African troops may have been caught in the crossfire between fighting with the army.

Darfur: Attack on AU Peacekeepers

There is obviously a lot of coverage of the rebel attack on the AU - POTP has a good run down here.

Below are a few select articles:

AP - Peacekeepers look for missing in Darfur

African peacekeepers were searching for more than 20 members of their force still missing and feared wandering the wilderness of Darfur on Monday after rebels overran their base in an unprecedented attack that stunned the international force.

The attack Sunday on the Haskanita base in northern Darfur illustrated the chaos in the war-torn region ahead of peace talks later this month—and the dangers that could face a bigger United Nations force due to start deploying in coming weeks.

Darfur rebels have grown increasingly hostile to the struggling 7,000-member African Union force, saying it favors the government and has failed to protect Darfur civilians. The AU denies any favoritism and has often complained its forces are overstretched and undersupplied—but the attack raises fears that a future U.N. force could face the same bitterness.

In Sunday's attack, around 1,000 well-armed rebel gunmen overwhelmed the small Haskanita base of about 150 troops before dawn after hours of fighting, during which some of the African soldiers ran of ammunition. The battle killed at least 10 peacekeepers in the deadliest attack on the AU force since it deployed in June 2004. The rebels retained control of the base until early Sunday, when Sudanese government troops arrived and forced them out of the area.

The rebels looted ammunition and armored vehicles, and it took Sudanese troops to chase them away as AU troops evacuated.

The scene was chaotic at the base Sunday afternoon. AU troops with their belongings were being ferried out by helicopter to safety, while Sudanese troops stood in combat positions nearby.

Inside the camp, tents still burned and an armored personnel carrier was smoldering, as some Sudanese soldiers sifted through the tents, carrying away mattresses, beds and fans. Smoke could be seen rising from nearby villages, apparently burned amid a government offensive on rebels that has been raging in the area for two weeks.

A group of 23 peacekeepers were still unaccounted for after the attack and were believed to be wandering around the barren area near Haskanita, AU officials in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, said.

"We don't think they're hostage, we're hoping they're out there somewhere on the way" to safety, said a senior AU officer involved in the rescue. He and other officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Several others who had been missing managed to contact the AU, which was sending out rescue teams to retrieve them, the officials said. AU troops were searching for missing, but the officials would not give details on how the search was being carried for fear of compromising the rescue.

In El Fasher, the head of the AU mission, Rodolphe Adada—who is to command the planned joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping mission—was briefed by the force's military commander, Gen. Martin Agwai, on what happened. North Darfur's deputy governor and a Sudanese general commanding the zone headed a delegation to the AU headquarters to give their condolences.

The announcement that new peace talks to solve Darfur's conflict will open on Oct. 27 in Libya has sparked a flurry of fighting between rebels and Sudanese government forces as each try to improve their position ahead of the conference.

"There is a war going on between the rebels and the government, and the AU is crunched in the middle," said a senior AU officer who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The situation is further complicated by long-present splits among the rebel factions. Sunday's attack was believed to have been carried out by a splinter group of the Sudan Liberation Army known as SLA-Unity

The attack on the base came amid a large government offensive on rebels in the Haskanita region over the past two weeks, which saw heavy battles that rebels said also involved the janjaweed, Arab militia allies of the government accused of widespread atrocities against Darfur civilians.

Forces from the Arab-dominated government have been accused of indiscriminately targeting ethnic African Darfur villagers on suspicions they support the rebels.

The rebels launched their first assault on Haskanita around sunset Saturday, attacking just after the meal that ends the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The AU troops initially repelled them, officials said.

But the rebels renewed the attack with armored vehicles and rocket-propelled grenades—an indication that they have heavier armament than previously believed - and swept into the camp around 4 a.m.

"We battled for hours, but when we ran out of ammunition, we took refuge in this ditch," said a Nigerian peacekeeper who would only give his first name, Aboubakar, because he was not authorized to speak to the media under military regulations. He showed a corner of the camp—riddled with bullet marks and mortar holes—where the AU troops resisted.

Rebels looted several AU armored vehicles and jeeps and took a large amount of ammunition from the base before the Sudanese army routed them out early Sunday, the AU soldiers said.

"It may not be the right political thing to say, but the government forces saved us," said an AU officer, who also asked not to be named because of military regulations.

The 10 AU dead included a police officer from Senegal, two military observers from Botswana and Mali and seven soldiers from Nigeria, AU officers said. An AU statement said 10 were killed and seven wounded.

AFP - AU vows justice for killers of Darfur peacekeepers

The African Union on Monday began probing an unprecedented attack on one of its bases in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur that left 10 peacekeepers dead and 40 missing, vowing to punish those responsible.

"The enquiry is underway and we will make its conclusions public. Those who carried out this attack will be strongly sanctioned," African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) spokesman Noureddine Mezni told AFP.

The attack by a large, organised group of heavily armed men who overran southern Darfur's Haskanita camp in 30 vehicles took place on Saturday night, the worst assault on the under-manned force since it deployed in July 2004.

The AU declined to speculate on who carried out the attack or elaborate on the nationalities of those killed. The missing included 36 AU soldiers, three military observers and a police officer.

Seventeen other peacekeepers who were kidnapped in the raid were later discovered to the south of the base, Mezni said.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the killings and called on Darfur's warring sides to recommit to a settlement, citing peace talks scheduled for Libya on October 27 and preparations for a joint deployment of AU-UN troops.

"The secretary general condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent attack on African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita, South Darfur and calls for the perpetrators to be held fully accountable for this outrageous act," he said in a statement.

Ban urged all parties "to recommit as a matter of the highest priority to a peaceful resolution to the conflict."

AU-UN joint envoy Rodolphe Adada, who flew to the main Darfur town of Al-Fasher to personally supervise the enquiry into the attack, said he was "appalled by the outrageous and deliberate attack."

AU security chief Said Djinnit also said the perpetrators must be punished. "We believe strongly that the group involved should bear the full responsibility of this heinous attack," he said.

The under-equipped African force of around 7,000 troops from 26 countries patrolling Darfur, a region the size of France, is due to begin being replaced later this year by the hybrid 26,000-strong AU-UN force.

Five Senegalese AU peacekeepers were killed in an attack in April.

"Such irresponsible attacks constitute a serious violation to the ceasefire agreement," the new commander of the hybrid force, General Martin Luther Agwai, said, implicitly blaming rebels.

"Rebel groups, who indulge in such random violence and bloodshed, undermine their own credibility on any negotiation table."

Agwai also said it was regrettable that the attack happened ahead of the peace talks due in Tripoli later this month in an attempt to broaden a Darfur peace agreement signed by only one rebel faction in May last year.

The attack came as South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu arrived in Khartoum heading a group of statesmen known as The Elders seeking to help peace efforts in Darfur.

The delegation also includes former United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, US ex-president Jimmy Carter and former South African president Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel.

"This attack shows how desperate the situation is and how big is the need for peace," Tutu told reporters.

The group is due to meet Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir as well as opposition politicians, community leaders and people displaced from their homes.

Reuters - Influential rebel condemns Darfur attack on AU troops

An influential member of a rebel group blamed for the deadliest attack on African Union peacekeepers in Darfur condemned the assault and called on Monday for the group's leaders to withdraw from the area.

Eighteen AU soldiers were killed or injured and 40 were missing after a "deliberate and sustained" assault on the Haskanita base in Darfur on Saturday night by armed men in 30 vehicles, who looted and destroyed the base, the AU said.

It was the worst single attack on AU forces since the 7,000-strong mission was deployed in 2004.

Suleiman Jamous, a member of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) Unity faction which is one of two groups accused of the attack, said if his faction was involved it was a local decision, not ordered by the leadership.

"I have asked the leadership of SLA Unity to withdraw all the troops from the area, to where they can be under the direct control of the military command," Jamous said.

"And I have asked them to investigate to find out who, if any, SLA Unity commanders were involved. They have attacked the mediators and I offer my condolences to the families of the AU soldiers," said the elder rebel who is not in Darfur.

SLA Unity and a breakaway faction of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Bahr Idriss Abu Garda have forces in the Haskanita area. Other JEM commanders said Abu Garda and a SLA Unity commander had the stolen AU vehicles.

While AU convoys and individuals have been ambushed -- around 40 killed in the three years prior to the Haskanita attack -- this was the first time an entire base was targeted.

AU force commander Martin Luther Agwai said the mission was making contingency plans and reassessing security. But he said little more could be done without getting desperately needed additional equipment and troops into Darfur.

"We've come up with contingency plans, we have to improve," said Agwai, who took up his post only a few months ago. "We are reassessing everything and we have learned some lessons."

After a long day evacuating all the bodies, injured and traumatised survivors, Agwai defended the AU force, whose mission was to stem the violence in Darfur.

"People did deployment on the premise that there was an (peace) agreement and they were coming to inspect and act as observers -- there was no planning for people to be able defend themselves," he said.

The AU mediated a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels in May 2006 but only one of three rebel negotiating factions signed the deal. Since then, rebels have split into a dozen factions.

The violence, which includes militias and tribal conflicts, has severely curtailed the world's largest aid operation.

The AU has long complained of a lack of equipment, including attack helicopters and rapid response vehicles. They have also said their force was too small to contain the conflict in the vast and arid region.

"I don't know how they want us to do it without the facilities," Agwai said, adding driving normally it would take 4-1/2 hours to reinforce Haskanita and under attack, an entire day.

"We are just 5,000 plus military men scattered in an area as big as France with no roads," he added.

Agwai will command the joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force of 26,000 troops and police due to absorb the AU mission and remedy the chaotic security situation in Darfur.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in Darfur, with 2.5 million driven from their homes as mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect. Khartoum mobilised mainly Arab militias to quell the revolt.

Emphasising the AU's inability to deal with such an attack, it asked for Khartoum's help to secure the area and evacuate personnel using Sudan Armed Forces planes, the army said.

"We offered all the help we could. We have secured the area and moved the injured," a SAF spokesman said.

The attack is likely to overshadow AU-U.N.-mediated talks due to begin in Libya on Oct. 27. Mediators Salim Ahmed Salim and Jan Eliasson expressed "shock and dismay" at the attack.

"The Special Envoys urge all parties to the conflict to demonstrate a serious commitment to the peace process and to cease hostilities," they said in a statement.

The attack preceded a visit of "elders" to Sudan, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter, veteran peace mediator Lakhdar Brahimi and womens and children's rights advocate Graca Machel.

On Monday they are due to meet Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The trip to Darfur and southern Sudan is the group's first public mission since its inception this year.

Darfur: Another Disaster Brews

From the Los Angeles Times

Wells at this giant Darfur refugee camp are drying up.

Women wait as long as three days for water, using jerrycans to save their places in perpetual lines that snake around pumps. A year ago, residents could fill a 5-gallon plastic can in a few minutes, but lately the flow is so slow it takes half an hour.

"The water is running out," said a breathless Mariam Ahmed Mohammed, 35, sweating at the pump with an infant strapped to her back. "As soon as I fill one jerrycan, I put another at the back of the line."

Water isn't the only endangered resource. Forests were chopped down long ago, and the roots were dug up for firewood. Thousands of displaced families are living atop prime agricultural land, preventing nearby farmers from growing food.

As the Darfur conflict approaches its fifth year, the environmental strain of the world's largest displacement crisis is quickly depleting western Sudan's already-scarce natural resources. And experts say that is exacerbating chronic shortages of land and water that contributed to the fighting in the first place.

"There is a massive resource problem in Darfur," said environmentalist Muawia Shaddad, head of the Sudanese Environment Conservation Society. "We've been shouting about this for years, but no one listened."

In the struggle to bring peace to Darfur, where an estimated 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million more have been displaced, questions about dwindling natural resources have largely been brushed aside as the emergency effort focused on saving lives and feeding the hungry.

But with reports bubbling up from Darfur camps about water shortages, over-stressed land and increasing deforestation, aid workers and Sudanese activists say finding long-term solutions to the region's environmental woes is just as crucial as restoring security and reaching a political compromise.

"The clashes could all stop tomorrow and we won't have moved any closer to solving the real problems of Darfur, which I think come down to the environment," said Cate Steains, acting head of U.N. humanitarian operations in El Fasher, capital of the region's northern province.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, visiting Darfur last month, pledged increased attention to resource shortages.

"The government with international assistance will have to ensure that the people of Darfur have access to vital natural resources -- water being chief among them. The U.N. stands ready to assist in this effort," Ban said.

For decades, western Sudan has grappled with climatic changes, particularly in northern Darfur, which lies along the edge of the encroaching Sahara.

Over the last 50 years, annual rainfall in El Fasher has been down 34%, turning millions of acres of grazing land into desert, a recent United Nations Environment Program study found.

Tree coverage in Darfur has dropped as low as 18%, from 48% in 1956, Sudanese forestry researcher Kamil Shawgi said. During the same period, the population of the region -- a territory a quarter the size of California -- swelled fivefold to 6.5 million; the number of grazing animals increased from 30 million to 130 million.

For generations, Darfur's farmers and herders managed to share the land. Clashes were settled through tribal mediation. But after unprecedented droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, Darfur residents found it more difficult to occupy the same space.