Sudan: Another MSF aid worker arrested in Darfur - UN alarmed

The latest news reports posted here over the past 24 hours are really disturbing. The UN Security Council's first resolution last year was to ensure that Khartoum provided unimpeded access for aid and reined in their militias.

As far as I am aware, not a single Janjaweed has been arrested - instead, the genocidal regime in Khartoum is arresting aid workers with MSF aka Doctors Without Borders.

It seems like only a few days ago that Sudanese security forces repeatedly beat a BBC correspondent and carted him off, along with a Reuters photographer and a driver, and detained him for questioning even though he had press credentials.

Arresting aid workers who are there risking their lives to help the people of Sudan is outrageous. Clearly, the regime in Khartoum are not fit to govern and cannot - or will not - work to protect the people of Sudan.

Now, today, a second MSF worker has been arrested. This is simply the last straw.

I've said this many times before: everyone in Sudan ought to simply get up and walk out en masse so aid can be pulled out of Sudan and moved into neighbouring countries. Leave the rebels and Khartoum to slug it out and annihilate each other. There is no development aid without people. If there are no people, there is no development. If there are no displaced people in the Sudan, there is no aid for Sudan. Sounds simplistic but I really cannot see any solution other than assisted migration. If the 191-member states of the United Nations and the world's security forces can't sort out a handful of thugs in Khartoum, what hope is there for the people of Sudan - and Uganda - and DR Congo ...

UN alarmed by arrest of MSF aid worker in Sudan

Geneva, Tue May 31 AFP report via Sudan Tribune. Excerpt:

The UN's human rights chief, Louise Arbour, voiced serious concern Tuesday about the arrest of an international aid worker in Sudan who led damning research on rape in the conflict-ridden Darfur region.

"This is a very disturbing development," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.

Top Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) official Paul Foreman, was detained in Khartoum Monday and accused of crimes against the Sudanese state. He was later released on bail.

The medical aid group told AFP on Tuesday that its regional coordinator in Darfur, Vincent Hoedt, had also been arrested in the western city of Nyala.

MSF was also accused of "espionage, publication of false reports and of underming the Sudanese state," following Foreman's arrest, the group's Dutch branch said in a statement.

Arbour insisted that MSF had done "nothing more than record these horrendous crimes and try to focus critically needed attention on them".

"Rape and sexual violence are very real features of the life of the women of Darfur," she added.

"This is the conclusion of our monitors, of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur and of all serious investigations into the unfolding human rights crisis in the region."



Photo: This undated file photograph released by Medicins Sans Frontieres, (MSF) Amsterdam, Tuesday, May 31, 2005 shows Dutch aid worker Vincent Hoedt. MSF's Darfur coordinator, Vincent Hoedt, was arrested in the western region of Sudan this morning and authorities were taking him to the capital, Susanne Staals, spokeswoman for the Dutch branch of Medicins Sans Frontieres said. The Sudanese government was angered by an MSF report, published in March, that said its doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over 4 1/2 months. (AP Photo/ MSF)
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Sudan arrests second MSF aid worker for rape report

Khartoum, Tue May 31 Reuters report by Opheera McDoom Khartoum - additional reporting by Niclas Mika in Amsterdam:

Sudan arrested a second aid worker from the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid agency on Tuesday over a report on hundreds of rapes in the troubled Darfur region, the agency said.

Vince Hoedt, Darfur coordinator for MSF Holland, said he was under arrest and police were escorting him to Khartoum. It was not clear if he was charged with the same offences as the country director who was arrested and released on bail on Monday.

"I have been officially arrested but there are no official charges as yet," he told Reuters from Darfur. He was at the airport waiting to be transported to Khartoum, where he would meet with the authorities.

An MSF spokesman in the Netherlands told Reuters Hoedt saw his arrest warrant but could not read it because it was in Arabic.

Sudan arrested and later released on bail the country head of MSF Holland, Paul Foreman, who returned to meet authorities on Tuesday. MSF said in a statement the charges against him were spying, publishing false reports and undermining Sudanese society.

The attorney-general told Reuters on Tuesday the maximum penalty for the charges was three years in prison and then permanent expulsion from the country.

MSF Holland published a report in March detailing about 500 cases of rape over a period of 4 1/2 months in Darfur, where a rebellion has raged for more than 2 years.

The violence has killed tens of thousands and forced more than 2 million from their homes.

The report contained anonymous accounts by victims of their ordeals, including being held and raped repeatedly for several days, beaten and even arrested.

Pregnancy out of wedlock is illegal in Sudan, where Islamic sharia law is in force.

Rights group Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday the Sudanese government should be arresting war criminals in Darfur, not aid workers.

"This attack on the bearer of bad news is another assault on free speech," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director for Human Rights Watch. "There is no conceivable security or military reason for preventing publication of this kind of public health information.

"This is a perfect illustration of how far the Sudanese government is prepared to go to silence criticism and deny its own responsibility for massive atrocities in Darfur."

A U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry found evidence of mass rape during the rebellion in Darfur. The documents are with the International Criminal Court, which has been instructed by the U.N. Security Council to investigate alleged crimes against humanity in the remote west of Sudan, the first such referral.

MSF: 80% of Sudanese rape victims reported attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia

London Tue May 31 report by North London Online. Excerpt:

Sudanese authorities have charged a British aid chief with spreading false information in reports by the aid agency about alleged rape cases in Darfur.

Paul Foreman, head of the Dutch branch of Medicins Sans Frontieres, was detained and questioned before being released.

Prosecution lawyer Mohamed Fareed said in a statement that a case had been filed against Foreman and he was asked not to leave the country until interrogations were complete.

The Sudanese government was angered by the MSF report, published in March, that said its doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over four and a half months. The report said more than 80% of the victims reported that their attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia. The government denied the report.

"Upon interrogation, (Foreman) was not able to substantiate the claims nor could he provide any documents to this effect," Fareed said, complaining that the allegations were published on the group's website and quoted by the United Nations.

Fareed said if such crimes had really happened the culprits would be punished by prison and fines.

Geoffrey Prescott, a spokesman for the Dutch branch of MSF, said Foreman was questioned for several hours about the rape report and charged with crimes against the state and asked to report back to police today.

"We are intrigued by the fact that they are charging us, an agency investing millions in the saving of lives, rather than the people responsible for the rape," Prescott said in Amsterdam.

"It's also interesting that they took the report so personally, when we don't even name them as being responsible."

He said the incident had not impaired the work of about 80 MSF employees working in the country for the Dutch mission.
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UN Emergency Relief Coordinator urges Sudan to drop charges against MSF official

United Nations, Mon May 30 UN News Centre report:

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator today appealed to Sudan to drop charges against a senior official of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) who is apparently being targeted for the agency's publication of a report detailing violence against women in the country.

"I am very concerned about the arrest of Paul Foreman, country director of MSF-Holland, in Khartoum earlier today," Jan Egeland said in a statement.

Mr. Foreman has been released on bail.

Confirming the incident on its own website, MSF said the British national has been charged with crimes against the State. "MSF is being accused of publishing false reports, undermining society in Sudan and spying," said the humanitarian relief agency known for operating under dangerous conditions. It voiced outrage at the charges and rejected an suggestion that the report was false.

Urging Sudan's authorities to drop all charges against Mr. Foreman immediately, Mr. Egeland said MSF-Holland "is a crucial partner in our relief effort in Darfur," the country's war-ravaged western region.

According to MSF, the charges relate to "The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur," which the agency published in March.

"Faced with hundreds of women and girls seeking medical care following rape and sexual violence in Darfur, MSF wrote and published the report in order to raise awareness about the ongoing violence against women," the agency said, noting that the document "does not accuse the Government of Sudan."

Mr. Egeland, a UN Under-Secretary-General, stressed that MSF's work in treating victims of rape and sexual violence, and speaking out about the terrible crimes being committed, has been exemplary.

"It is an incontestable fact that rape and sexual violence are rampant in the ongoing crisis in Darfur," he said. "The Sudanese Government, the UN and international NGOs only recently made substantial progress in addressing this issue, efforts that must continue to ensure that all victims of sexual violence receive assistance and protection."



Photo: Sudanese men wait to see doctors in the Abu Shouk camp near El-Fasher, Sudan. A second Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) aid worker has been arrested in Sudan, a spokesman for the international aid group, Aymeric Peguillan, told AFP. (AFP/File/Salah Omar)
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BBC says charges are part of a drive by Sudan to end western criticism

UK, Tue 31 May BBC report:

An aid official has been detained in Sudan's Darfur region, a day after his director was charged with spying and spreading false information.

Vince Hoedt, Darfur co-ordinator for the Dutch section of Medecins Sans Frontieres has not yet been charged.

MSF Sudan director Paul Foreman was arrested on Monday and later released on bail, over a report on rape.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the charges are part of a drive by Sudan to end western criticism.

The Sudanese authorities deny accusations that they back the Arab Janjaweed militias alleged to have committed widespread atrocities, such as mass killings and mass rape.

They also deny that the scale of the violence is as severe as reported by aid agencies.

The state crime prosecutor said Mr Foreman had failed to hand over evidence on which the report on rape was based.

Mr Foreman said "medical privilege" and patient confidentiality prevented him from handing over documents requested by the authorities.

The BBC's Martin Plaut, who recently travlled to Darfur, says that many Sudanese believe western aid workers have given information on alleged human rights abuses in Darfur to the United Nations, which has passed a sealed list of 51 war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court.

Our correspondent says that in March, aid workers were threatened over their reports of mass rape.

Another reason for respecting the information, was because women "made pregnant as a result of rape outside wedlock can be arrested by the authorities" in Sudan, which operates strict Islamic sharia law, said MSF Holland spokesman Geoff Prescott

He told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the charity stood by its report, which he described as "accurate and truthful".

Sudan's state crime prosecutor said he had come to conclusion that the report was false.

Mr Foreman could face up to three years in prison if found guilty of falsifying the report.

It is not yet known when he will appear in court.

"We would like to reiterate that we think it's the people who perpetrate rape in Darfur who should be in court, not the people who are trying to bring medical assistance to the victims," Mr Prescott said.

The report - The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur - which came out in March, was based on the treatment of 500 women over a four-and-a-half month period in Darfur.

It details nearly 300 of these cases, with several written up as witness statements, Mr Foreman said.

Human Rights Watch Africa director Peter Takirambudde said Mr Foreman's arrest was "a perfect illustration of how far the Sudanese government is prepared to go to silence criticism and deny its own responsibility for massive atrocities in Darfur."

MSF says it has a significant presence in Darfur, with more than 300 international staff and 3,000 local staff treating some one million patients.

The UN says that about 180,000 people have died in the two-year conflict in Darfur, and more than two million driven from their homes.
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MSF Press Release: Dutch co-ordinator for MSF in Darfur held this morning

Khartoum/Amsterdam, May 31 MSF Press Release [via Eric at Passion of the Present with thanks]:

The international medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) expresses its outrage about the arrest of a second representative in Sudan this morning. Dutchman Vincent Hoedt, Regional Co-ordinator for MSF in Darfur, was arrested this morning in Nyala.

Yesterday, May 30, MSF's head of mission Paul Foreman was arrested in Khartoum and later released on bail.

"These arrests are totally unacceptable," said Geoff Prescott, General Director of MSF (Holland). "The government is punishing humanitarian aid workers for doing their job for victims of the conflict in Darfur".

The Sudanese authorities accused MSF of crimes against the state, publishing false reports, spying and undermining Sudanese society. MSF demands that all charges are dropped.

"The arrest of two senior co-ordinators severely undermines our ability to provide humanitarian assistance. The people of Darfur, who have been through so much already, must not be allowed to suffer as a result of these actions," said Geoff Prescott.

MSF has been working for more than 20 years in Sudan providing health care and emergency aid to millions of Sudanese civilians. MSF is the principle partner of the Sudanese Ministry of Health in the battle against the Kala Azar and has treated more than 60.000 Sudanese infected.

MSF works in over 29 locations in Darfur with 180 expatriate and 3000 national staff. In the last 12 months in Darfur alone, MSF has provided almost a million medical consultations and treated more than 50.000 children suffering from malnutrition. MSF is not only working in Darfur but throughout the Sudan, bringing medical care to Sudanese afflicted by epidemics and conflict.

Paul Foreman (45 years old) has worked for MSF since 2002. He has worked as head of mission for MSF in Congo-Brazzaville, Angola and Iraq. Foreman is originally from Carlshalton, United Kingdom.

Vincent Hoedt (35 years old) has worked for MSF since 1996 and was born in Rotterdam, Holland. Vincent Hoedt has worked for MSF in Colombia, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Zambia, Albania and Nigeria. Vincent first worked as a logistician, then later as project co-ordinator and head of mission for MSF.

"These arrests are totally unacceptable," said Geoff Prescott, General Director of MSF (Holland). "The government is punishing humanitarian aid workers for doing their job for victims of the conflict in Darfur".
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MSF wants Sudanese authorities to solve the crisis, instead of shooting the messenger

Nairobi May 31 report by IRIN:

Sudanese authorities have arrested two senior officials of the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) over a report that claimed that hundreds of rapes had taken place in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, MSF said.

Paul Foreman, the head of MSF-Holland was interrogated for three-and-a-half hours, then released on a one million Sudanese dinar [US $4,000] bond on Monday in Khartoum, while Vincent Hoedt, the MSF regional coordinator for Darfur, was ordered to the Sudanese capital for questioning on Tuesday.

"I'm technically arrested and not allowed to leave the country," Foreman told IRIN on Tuesday morning while on his way to a second round of questioning.

"The district attorney charged me with crimes against the state, publishing false information - and they are investigating other areas," he added.

Mohamed Fareed, a prosecuting attorney, said in a statement that "upon interrogation, [Foreman] was not able to substantiate the claims nor could he provide any documents to this effect." If the crimes had really happened, the culprits would be punished, he added.

The charges relate to MSF's report: "The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur", which was published on 8 March, MSF said in a statement released on Monday.

"It was an MSF report based on MSF medical consultations. It was written by MSF, and MSF stands by it," Foreman said.

The Sudanese government was angered by the report, which said that MSF doctors working in Darfur had collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over four-and-a-half months. More than 80 percent of the victims reported that their attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia. The report did not accuse the government of Sudan.

Faced with hundreds of women and girls seeking medical care following rape and sexual violence in Darfur, MSF published the report in order to raise awareness about the ongoing violence against women.

In a statement on Monday, Jan Egeland, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General, said: "I urge the Sudanese authorities to drop all charges against Mr. Foreman immediately. MSF-Holland is a crucial partner in our relief effort in Darfur. Their work in treating victims of rape and sexual violence, and speaking out about the terrible crimes being committed has been exemplary."

"They treated me well. It was a relatively straightforward question-and-answer session," Foreman noted with regard to his arrest on Monday.

The MSF head of mission did not think the authorities wanted to put him in jail. "They want me to denounce the report or jeopardise the doctor-patient confidentiality of MSF by releasing the medical dossiers. I'm not going to do either of those."

Foreman said the case against MSF had been building up over the past two-and-a-half months, following discussions about the report with the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC). HAC representatives said they were "extremely unhappy" with the report, while the medical charity insisted on following its humanitarian principles.

"We would like them [the Sudanese authorities] to put their energy in solving the crisis, rather than shooting the messenger," he said.

"As providers of medical assistance and as human beings we find it impossible to stay silent when we are witnessing these abuses - wherever they occur. MSF wants to make people and governments aware of these serious violations so that real action is taken to stop them," Geoff Prescott, General-Director of MSF in Amsterdam, Holland, said in a statement on Monday.

"Everybody who has looked into the situation in Darfur, including the government of Sudan, has concluded that rape is a problem," he added.

Egeland stated that it was an "incontestable fact" that rape and sexual violence were rampant in Darfur.

"The Sudanese government, the UN and international NGOs only recently made substantial progress in addressing this issue, efforts that must continue to ensure that all victims of sexual violence receive assistance and protection," he noted.

Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Paul Foreman Vincent Hoedt Africa UN

Jane Wells: Witness to Darfur at The Huffington Post - New book "The Ambiguous Genocide" by Gerard Prunier

Thanks to Eugene at Coalition for Darfur for this neat find:

Excerpt from Jane Wells' first hand account of her trip to Darfur:

I try to disappear, sliding my hot and sticky body down the back seat of the SUV as it bounces along an unmarked dirt road. I realize for the first time since arriving in Sudan that I am actually terrified. Our cell phones have quit working, and now the VHF radio signal is gone. My companions, part of the relief group, the International Medical Corps (IMC), don't have to tell me that these could be signs of an impending Janjaweed attack...

Read the rest of Jane's story at The Huffington Post and follow her five-part series, "Witness to Darfur," at The Huffington Post over the next four days.
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Darfur Sudan: New book "The Ambiguous Genocide" by Gerard Prunier

Coalition for Darfur blog features a post about a comment left by a reader pointing out a new book "The Ambiguous Genocide" by Gerard Prunier, author of "The Rwanda Crisis". Excerpt from the post:

Gerard Prunier sets out the ethnopolitical makeup of the Sudan and explains why the Darfur rebellion is regarded as a key threat to Arab power in the country - much more so than secessionism in the Christian South. This, he argues, accounts for the government's deployment of "exemplary violence" by the Janjaweed militias in order to intimidate other African Muslims into subservience. As the world watches; governments decide if, when, and how to intervene; and international organizations struggle to distribute aid, the knowledge in Prunier's book will provide crucial assistance.

The book is due out in September. See Coalition for Darfur's post The Ambiguous Genocide for further details.

Tags: Darfur Coalition for Darfur Sudan Huffington Post Gerard Prunier Ambiguous Genocide Africa Janjaweed Jane Wells

Full text: MSF's Report on Sexual Violence in Sudan

Note MSF's Report on Sexual Violence in Sudan - and keep scrolling down here for latest reports over past 24 hours re British and Dutch MSF aid workers arrested and charged by the genocidal regime in Khartoum for tarnishing the image of Sudan by helping Sudanese rape victims.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the charges are part of a drive by Sudan to end western criticism. Fat chance. They ain't seen nothing yet. Message to Khartoum: hassle, intimidate, beat and arrest international aid workers and news correspondents - especially British nationals and BBC reporters - at your peril, you savage flea brain camel face morons.



Photo: A Sudanese boy walks with his supply of food at a feeding centre run by medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005. Sudan arrested a second aid worker over a report on rape in Darfur and is also holding a man who translated for Kofi Annan when the U.N. chief met rape victims in the region, U.N. and aid officials said on May 31 2005. News of the arrests came a day after the authorities detained a senior official from international aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Sudan, whose remote region of Darfur has been plagued by more than two years of bloodshed. Photo by Antony Njuguna/Reuters REUTERS/Antony Njuguna.

P.S. Take a look at some (warning: graphic) pictures of mans handiwork: Congo Watch: UN reports atrocities in Congo. Congo death toll nearing 4m

Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Foreman Hoedt Africa BBC Journalists Plaut Rape Sexual Violence Genocide Aid Workers Carshalton Surrey Britain Holland UN United Nations

Sudan: Khartoum's duplicity exposed

UK Tue May 31. 2005 report at The Scotsman:

TODAY, The Scotsman publishes photographic evidence of helicopter gunships of the Sudan military in action against civilian villages in Darfur. For two years, refugees from Darfur have claimed that such raids by Sudanese government aircraft are routine. They are designed to crush a rebellion in Darfur against the Islamic fundamentalist regime in Khartoum.

Sudan's government has always rejected these charges. These pictures give the lie to this fabrication. According to the UN, at least 180,000 people have died as a result of the two years of genocide in Darfur. Another two million have been driven from their homes and forced into exile in neighbouring countries. The UN Security Council has tried to pressure Khartoum into ending the killing, but to little avail. The regime takes comfort in the fact that China and Russia (the source of the helicopters) are loath to jeopardise their trade with oil-rich Sudan by supporting UN intervention.

But with the evidence in front of our eyes, the time has come to consider direct action in Darfur by the United Nations and to shame Russia and China into action. At the very least, the Sudanese helicopter gunships should be surgically destroyed. Ultimately, the outside world - including the democratic nations of Africa - will have to be prepared to end the genocide in Darfur by force if necessary.
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See State-led murder and rape of villagers in Darfur uncovered
by
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
CHIEF NEWS CORRESPONDENT
The Scotsman.com

[Note, the above article implies photos have been published. Sorry, so far unable to find them. If anyone comes across them, please let me know and I will share them here and at Passion of the Present. Thank you.]

Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Paul Foreman Vincent Hoedt Africa Kofi Annan UN

'Sudanese Govt. trying to silence aid workers'

London, May 31 Associated Press report:

Rights and aid groups say the arrests of two officials from an international humanitarian group that spoke out about rapes in Darfur show how far the Sudanese Government will go to keep news of atrocities off the world's front pages.

"They don't want witnesses to what is going on in Darfur," said John Ashworth, a human rights researchers who has followed Sudan for 22 years. "The Government is clearly complicit in what is going on, and they don't want foreign voices shouting about it.''

The foreign workers feeding, clothing and succouring the people of Darfur have an all too intimate view of the region's horrors. The Dutch branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres, for example, based much of its March report on rape on what doctors treating victims had seen and heard.

MSF said its doctors collected medical evidence of 500 rapes over 4 1/2 months, and that more than 80 percent of the victims reported that their attackers were soldiers or members of government-allied militia. The Sudanese Government is accused of responding to a two-year-old rebellion in Darfur with a counterinsurgency campaign in which militiamen known as Janjaweed committed abuses - including killings, rape and arson - on such a scale that some have labelled what is happening there genocide.

On Monday, the Medecins Sans Frontieres overall Director for Sudan, was charged with spreading false information and told not to leave the country pending trial. On Tuesday, its Darfur coordinator was detained and brought to the capital.

Spokeswoman Susanne Staals, said there are situations in which her group, also known as Doctors Without Borders, would confine itself to delivering aid and not also work to spread information. But MSF could not remain silent on Darfur "because the scale of the violence is immense and no action is being taken to protect victims,'' she said in a telephone interview from Amsterdam.

Leslie Lefkow, a Human Rights Watch researcher who has tracked developments in Darfur, said targeting Medecins San Frontieres was part of a pattern that included the arbitrary arrest and detention of or threats against more than 20 workers from several foreign agencies over the last six months.

Tinke Ceelen, Director of a Dutch agency that advocates for the rights of refugees and displaced people around the world, is among those who have been detained. Ceelen said she, a colleague and four journalists who had been recording interviews with displaced people in Darfur were stopped in December as they prepared to fly out.

Their tapes and other materials were confiscated, and they were interrogated over several days and told they faced the death penalty on espionage charges. Ceelen credited pressure from her own Government and others for their release, which came after they recorded apologies for unwittingly violating Sudanese rules.

"It was all very ugly,'' said Ceelen, adding Sudanese officials told her several times during her detention that they were angry at how the conflict was being portrayed in the foreign press, and seemed to blame foreign aid workers.

"I'm convinced it's part and parcel of an ongoing intimidation campaign against relief workers,'' Ceelen said of her detention.

Lefkow said aid workers and foreign journalists also were finding it increasingly difficult to get permission to visit Sudan, all part of what she called an attempt "to draw the veil over Darfur so that it drops off the international agenda.''

Sudanese officials denied there was a campaign to interfere with aid agencies' work.

"There should not be any mixing of legal action taken against somebody and humanitarian action,'' Ahmed Adam, an official in Sudan's Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Legal procedures here or anywhere in the world are no impediment to humanitarian work.''

In Geneva, human rights chief Lousie Arbour, said on Tuesdaythat targeting the humanitarian community for doing its work "will not only do a disservice to the people of Darfur; it will draw attention away from the real criminals, those who continue to rape, kill and pillage with impunity.''

Journalists working in Darfur have found aid workers willing to talk about the atrocities they have witnessed and been told about, but often on condition of anonymity, not even allowing the names of their organizations to be used. They say they fear that if the Sudanese government knew who was speaking out, it would punish them by barring them from working in Darfur.

For months after the conflict broke out in early 2003, Sudanese officials severely limited international aid organizations' access to Darfur. Humanitarian workers were only allowed in after protracted negotiations and international pressure, and many feel their status remains precarious.

"We hope we can continue our work and continue to speak out,'' MSF's Staals said, adding the world must know what is happening in Darfur so that it can be moved to act and stop the violence.

Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Foreman Hoedt Africa BBC Journalists Plaut Rape Sexual Violence Genocide Aid Workers Carshalton Surrey Britain Holland UN United Nations

Sudan arrests Annan's Darfur translator

Khartoum, Tue May 31 Reuters report:

A Sudanese translator who accompanied U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to hear rape victims in Darfur's largest refugee camp has been arrested, Sudan's top U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.

Annan visited Darfur on Saturday and heard complaints against police and government authorities from refugees in Kalma camp in South Darfur, who said they wanted guarantees from Annan that they would not be arrested for speaking with him.

The state minister of humanitarian affairs, Mohamed Yousif Abdalla, publicly assured them of their safety.

"Against that promise a Sudanese translator has been arrested," U.N. envoy Jan Pronk told reporters in Khartoum. "And I am asking them (the government) to keep their word in particular if that word is a public word to the secretary-general of the United Nations," he added.

Annan had entered a reed hut to talk with rape victims, one of whom was pre-pubescent, aid workers said. The translator accompanied him and was later arrested.

The issue of rape is sensitive in Muslim Darfur and the government denies allegations by rights groups, aid agencies and a U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry that there is widespread rape in Darfur.

Two aid workers from the Dutch Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have been arrested for publishing a report based on medical evidence in the agency's hospitals in Darfur documenting about 500 rape cases over 4 1/2 months in the troubled region.

Pronk also accused the Sudanese media of conducting a "smear campaign" against non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and doctors and nurses.

The pro-government Sudan Vision daily published on Monday a full-page report accusing aid agency Medecins du Monde of falsely issuing a report on rape and called for the immediate deportation of the aid workers involved and the organisation to be expelled.

The English-language Sudan Vision article published the names of the rape victim and the two MDM workers involved in the report. The alleged victim was 17 years old.

Pronk said he deplored the Sudanese media for not believing the victims of rape.

"I consider (these) statements in the press ... as a smear campaign against nurses, doctors and NGOs who are helping victims," Pronk said.

He also criticised the media for not writing about the issue of rape despite his lengthy statements on the subject.



In this photo made available by the United Nations, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan meets with women as he visits Kalma Camp in Nyala, south Darfur, Saturday, May 28, 2005. Annan on Saturday called for widening the responsibilities of African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, saying the troops need to take a larger role in protecting the region's embattled civilians. (AP Photo/United Nations, Evan Schneide)
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Second Aid Worker Arrested in Darfur

Tue May 31 PA report by Nick Allen via Scotsman. Excerpt:

The arrest of Dutchman Vincent Hoedt followed that of his British colleague Paul Foreman yesterday.

Mr Foreman, 45, is head of mission for the international aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres in Sudan and Mr Hoedt is its regional coordinator in Darfur.

Mr Foreman, who is originally from Carshalton in Surrey, was arrested in Khartoum and has been released on bail. Mr Hoedt was held in the western city of Nyala.

Geoff Prescott of MSF said: "The government is punishing humanitarian aid workers for doing their job for victims of the conflict in Darfur. The arrest of two senior coordinators severely undermines our ability to provide humanitarian assistance. The people of Darfur, who have been through so much already, must not be allowed to suffer as a result of these actions."
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UPDATE May 31 19:56 GMT: UN envoy Jan Pronk says Annan translator not arrested

Khartoum, May 31 Reuters report:

Sudan's top UN envoy said on Tuesday that UN. chief Kofi Annan's translator had not been arrested but only harassed by authorities after talking to rape victims in Darfur's largest camp.

Earlier, Jan Pronk had told reporters the translator who entered a small reed hut with Annan to talk alone with rape victims in Kalma camp in South Darfur state on Saturday had been arrested, violating a public promise made by the government not to harass or detain those who spoke to Annan during his visit to the troubled region.

But later on Tuesday night he released a written statement retracting his earlier comments.

"The interpreter has been harassed but not arrested," Pronk's statement said. He said the interpreter had been asked numerous times to report to the authorities in Darfur, but after discussions the local authorities dropped the request.

Earlier Pronk said the government had broken its promise not to harass those who spoke to Annan during his visit by arresting the translator.

Tags: Darfur Khartoum Sudan MSF Paul Foreman Vincent Hoedt Africa Kofi Annan UN

Sudan charges MSF head over report

UK, Mon 30 May report by BBC. Excerpt:

The head of the Dutch wing of Medecins San Frontieres (MSF) has been charged with crimes against the Sudanese state over a report on rape in Darfur.

Paul Foreman was arrested on Monday and later released on bail.

The state crime prosecutor said Mr Foreman had failed to hand over evidence on which the report was based. The charity says it is confidential.

Pro-government militia in Darfur are accused of mass rape and killings, but the government denies complicity.


BBC Photo: Paul Foreman, a British national, is charged with crimes against the state

Jail term

"He (Mr Foreman) is on bail and not allowed to leave the country," MSF Holland spokesman Geoff Prescott told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"He's been charged with crimes against the state by the government on the grounds that they didn't seem to have appreciated our report on rape in Darfur".

Mr Foreman had said "medical privilege" and patient confidentiality prevented him from handing over documents requested by the authorities.

Another reason for respecting the information, Mr Prescott explained, was because women "made pregnant as a result of rape outside wedlock can be arrested by the authorities" in Sudan.

He said the charity stood by its report, which he described as "accurate and truthful".

Sudan's state crime prosecutor said he had come to conclusion that the report was false.

Sensitive

Mr Foreman could face up to three years in prison if found guilty of falsifying the report.

It is not yet known when he will appear in court.

"We would like to reiterate that we think it's the people who perpetrate rape in Darfur who should be in court, not the people who are trying to bring medical assistance to the victims," Mr Prescott said.

The report - The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur - which came out in March, was based on the treatment of 500 women over a four-and-a-half month period in Darfur.

It details nearly 300 of these cases, with several written up as witness statements, Mr Foreman said.

Contrary to Islam

Rape is a sensitive subject for the Sudanese government.

The government had always maintained that, as it runs contrary to Islam, rape is not taking place on the scale that numerous United Nations and international agencies have claimed.

Jan Pronk, head of the United Nations in Sudan, said he deplored the arrest.



BBC Photo: "That document was a non-political document only based on humanitarian concern of MSF which has done an excellent job of helping victims of rape" - UN envoy Jan Pronk.
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British humanitarian worker with MSF detained in Sudan

Amsterdam, May 30 Associated Press report -- Sudan's government detained a British aid official whose agency had angered it with a report detailing hundreds of cases of rape in the troubled Darfur region, the Amsterdam office of Medecins Sans Frontieres said Monday.

"This is an obvious attempt to intimidate humanitarian groups working in Sudan," Susanne Staals, spokeswoman for the Amsterdam office of Medecins Sans Frontieres, said of Monday's arrest of Paul Foreman, who headed the group's Dutch mission in Darfur.

"We're outraged," Staals said.

Sudanese authorities could not immediately be reached for comment on Foreman's arrest. In the past, they have said the MSF report on rape was untrue. - Full Story via SudanTribune.
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British aid chief held for rapes report

London Tue 31 May Times report by Xan Rice in Nairobi. Excerpt:

When the report was published, Mr Foreman acknowledged he was acting in defiance of orders from the Sudanese Government, but said that he would not violate patient-doctor confidentiality by handing over medical records.

"They have expressed their strong desire that we don't publish it, and I politely declined," Mr Foreman said.

Jan Egeland, the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs at the UN, supported publication of the report, which he said provided some of the first documented medical evidence of rape in Darfur. But the Sudanese Government has long denied that systematic rape has occurred in its western province.

Tags: Darfur Sudan MSF Paul Foreman Africa

MSF Shocked By Arrest of Head of Mission in Sudan - MSF Charged with Crimes Against the State

MSF-USA: Press Release 05/30/2005:

Khartoum/Amsterdam, May 30, 2005 - The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) confirms the arrest of its Head of Mission Paul Foreman, a British national, in Khartoum, Sudan. MSF's Head of Mission has been charged with crimes against the state. MSF is being accused of publishing false reports, undermining society in Sudan, and spying. MSF is outraged by the charges and rejects any notion that the report is false. Paul Foreman has been released on bail early this evening, but is not allowed to leave the country.

The charges relate to MSF's report "The Crushing Burden of Rape: Sexual Violence in Darfur" which was published on 8 March 2005. Faced with hundreds of women and girls seeking medical care following rape and sexual violence in Darfur, MSF wrote and published the report in order to raise awareness about the ongoing violence against women. It is noteworthy that the report does not accuse the government of Sudan.

MSF defends its right to speak about the humanitarian situation in Darfur and views these baseless charges as intimidation against the humanitarian community by the Government of Sudan. "As providers of medical assistance and as human beings we find it impossible to stay silent when we are witnessing these abuses - wherever they occur. MSF wants to make people and governments aware of these serious violations so that real action is taken to stop them," said Geoff Prescott, General Director of MSF in Amsterdam, Holland. "Everybody who has looked into the situation in Darfur, including the government of Sudan, has concluded that rape is a problem."

While distressed by this latest development, MSF remains extremely concerned about the continued level of violence and deplorable living conditions affecting the population in Darfur.

MSF has been working for more than 20 years in Sudan providing health care and emergency aid to millions of Sudanese civilians. MSF is the principle partner of the Sudanese Ministry of Health in the battle against the kala azar and has treated more than 60,000 Sudanese infected with the disease. In the last 12 months in Darfur alone, MSF has provided almost a million medical consultations and treated more than 50,000 children suffering from malnutrition. MSF is not only working in Darfur, but throughout the Sudan, bringing medical care to Sudanese afflicted by epidemics and conflict.

Tags: Darfur Sudan MSF Paul Foreman Africa

Sudan issues warrant for arrest of head of MSF aid agency - Sudan detains head of MSF

Doctors Without Borders (aka MSF) is one of the most highly regarded aid organisations. Recently, in a post here, I noted how MSF had stuck its head above the parapet with reports on how dire the situation was in the Sudan, which means things must be pretty bad for them to speak out.

In the next post here below, there is a report about MSF reporting 500 rapes or more over recent months. Khartoum has an ongoing problem accepting that rape happens. If the following news is true, it is outrageous and extremely troubling, especially since only last week BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher was beaten by Sudanese security forces:

KHARTOUM, May 30 (Reuters) - Sudan has issued a warrant for the arrest of the country head of aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) for publishing a report on hundreds of rape cases in Darfur, the attorney-general said on Monday.

"We have issued a warrant for the arrest of the head of the organisation after speaking to the (governmental) Humanitarian Aid Commission," Mohamed Farid, Sudan's attorney-general, told Reuters. He said it was for publishing a false report on rapes in the Darfur region in March.

MSF Holland released the report in March, saying its doctors working in Darfur had medical evidence of about 500 rape cases over a period of about 4 1/2 months in the region in the throes of a rebellion in its third year. Sudan denies there is widespread rape in Darfur.

The country director of MSF Holland, Paul Foreman, said he had not yet received the warrant. Farid said they had to serve it to him personally and had not found him at the office as yet to do so, but they were waiting for him to return.

Farid said the authorities had asked MSF Holland several times for the evidence on which the report was based, but the agency had refused to provide this. Therefore, they came to the conclusion that the report was false.

He added Foreman would not remain in jail but would be released on bail pending the trial. But he would not be allowed to leave the country.

"If they don't give us the medical documents we will send them to the criminal court accused of publishing a false report which harms the general peace," he said. He added the maximum penalty would be three years in jail.

Foreman said he could not violate the confidential doctor-patient relationship respected around the world by giving the authorities the medical documents.

"The reports and the victims of rape are both very real and we continue to do our medical work in Darfur," he told Reuters.

Tens of thousands have been killed in the fighting in Darfur and more than 2 million forced form their homes to makeshift camps around the region. Reports of rape are widespread in the conflict, and a U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry found evidence of mass rape during the conflict.

Rape is a sensitive subject in Muslim Darfur, and victims are often ostracised by society.

To read MSF report on rape please go to The Crushing Burden of Rape Sexual Violence in Darfur (PDF file)

[Usually, Sudan only does such a thing to get back at something or someone. Note here below, Kofi Annan was unable to meet with Sudanese President Bashir due to "weather conditions". It had been raining there for a while. One can't help wondering if there is more to it than meets the eye. Issuing a warrant for the arrest of the country head of one of the West's most trusted and highly respected aid organisations goes so against the grain it is an act of war - in my opinion. I say this because Khartoum know exactly what they are doing because of the outrage they caused when they threatened Oxfam's boss and caused trouble with other aid agency chiefs. It is outright initimidation and bullying and they must not get away with it.]
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Reports on rapes are false, says Sudan

Here is a copy of report via Here is a copy of report via IOL: Africa May 30 2005:

Khartoum - Sudan has issued a warrant for the arrest of the country head of aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) for publishing a report on hundreds of rape cases in Darfur, the attorney-general said on Monday.

"We have issued a warrant for the arrest of the head of the organisation after speaking to the (governmental) Humanitarian Aid Commission," Mohamed Farid, Sudan's attorney-general, said.

He said it was for publishing what he called a false report on rapes in the Darfur region in March.

In the report, MSF Holland said its doctors had medical evidence of about 500 rape cases over a period of about four a half months in Darfur. Sudan denies there is widespread rape in the troubled region.
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UPDATE (1): "I'm in the process of being arrested. I'm in the car being taken to the attorney general's office," Mr Foreman, head of MSF-Holland, told the BBC News website.

Note, MSF has a significant presence in Darfur, with more than 300 international staff and 3,000 local staff treating some one million patients.
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UPDATE (2): Sudanese security detained the country head of MSF international aid agency on Monday after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest over a report on rape in Darfur, the agency said.

Sudan's attorney-general told Reuters that authorities had opened a criminal case against the Dutch branch of aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) for publishing a report in March detailing 500 rapes over 4-1/2 months in Darfur. He said the report was false.

MSF Holland's office in Khartoum said it was not clear whether Paul Foreman, the country head, had been arrested or was being detained for questioning.
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UPDATE (3) To quote Jim's often used phrase at Passion of the Present "you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried."

Following on from the above news, a new Reuters report quotes Sudan's attorney-general, Mohamed Farid as saying:

"These kind of false reports damage the image of Sudan."

The Reuters report by Opheera McDoom also says aid agencies told visiting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Saturday that they were prevented for several days from entering Kalma camp in South Darfur, Darfur's largest camp housing about 110,000 displaced. Report excerpt:

Before his detention on Monday, MSF chief Foreman told Reuters he could not violate the confidential doctor-patient relationship respected world-wide by giving authorities medical documents.

"The reports and the victims of rape are both very real and we continue to do our medical work in Darfur," he said.

Tens of thousands have been killed in the fighting in Darfur and more than 2 million forced from their homes to makeshift camps around the region. Reports of rape are widespread in the conflict, and a U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry found evidence of mass rape during the conflict.

Rape is a sensitive subject in Muslim Darfur, and victims are often ostracised by society.

In anonymous accounts by victims, the report described how some women were held for days, raped repeatedly and beaten. It said some victims had been arrested. Pregnancy out of wedlock is illegal in Sudan, where Islamic sharia law is in force.

"These kind of false reports damage the image of Sudan," Farid said.

Farid said it was unlikely any action would be taken against the agency itself: "We need the organisation MSF to do its medical work in Sudan ... and to be present here," he said. "But it has to do its work in its specific capacity and this (report) is not within its capacity here."

Aid agencies operate under tight regulations in Sudan and often complain of harassment from local authorities in Darfur.

On Saturday, aid agencies told visiting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that they were prevented for several days from entering Kalma camp in South Darfur, Darfur's largest camp housing about 110,000 displaced.
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Photo: Internally displaced sick Sudanese await medical treatment at an Egyptian medical centre at Abu Shouk refugee camp, home of some 100,000 refugees in Darfur May 26, 2005. (Staff/Reuters)

UPDATE (4) Sudan arrests aid agency head after rapes report

Paul Foreman, the country head of the Dutch branch of aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), told Reuters he had been taken to a police station and spoken to the authorities. "I am under arrest but being released on bail," he said, adding he was in good health.

MSF Holland expressed outrage at the arrest. Jeff Prescott, General Director of MSF Holland in Amsterdam, said the agency had sent lawyers and extra staff to Sudan.

"We are actually outraged. We have a large presence in Sudan and have been there for many years," he told Reuters.

Sudan's attorney-general Farid said "If they don't give us the medical documents we will send them to the criminal court accused of publishing a false report which harms the general peace." He added the maximum penalty would be three years in jail.

Farid said Foreman would not be allowed to leave the country. Full Story via Reuters.co.uk.

Tags: Darfur Sudan MSF BBC Jonah Fisher Africa

Darfur, Sudan: European Union still an international actor despite French "No", says Solana

Brussels, Mon May 30 AKI report:

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, says that despite the French No vote and even without a new constitution, the EU will continue to be a player on the international stage. Commenting on the results of the referendum in France, where voters rejected the new constitutional treaty, Solana staunchly defended the union's role. "I don't think anyone will be surprised if I say that I am disappointed with the result. This is a difficult moment, and the meeting of EU heads of state and government on 16-17 June will be an opportunity for leaders to analyse the situation together," Solana said.

"Life goes on, and the world has not come to a halt," Solana continued, adding that "the EU will continue to operate as an actor on the international stage".

Referring to the aid and peacekeeping commitments of the EU in Darfur, Congo and Bosnia, he added: "the Union will continue to be committed in all these issues, it will continue to work around the clock in exactly the same way".

Solana argued that all this is perfectly possible without the approval by member states of the new constitutional treaty, because "the EU was already an international player even before it began talking about the constitution".

The charter would "help us to coordinate better and be more effective" in its existing role, he added.

Solana stressed that the EU diplomatic service - still in its infancy and forseen under the new constitution - will see the light of day in any case. "There is no reason to doubt that sooner or later the EU will have its own diplomatic service and everyone must get used to the idea".

In conclusion, Solana strongly cautioned against "psychological paralysis" as a result of the French setback; "that would be the worst result of all," he said.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

Sudan agrees to allow African Union to expand mandate in Darfur? - Aid workers say donors are failing to send food needed

On Friday 27 May, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Sudan's capital of Khartoum on a three-day visit.



Photo: Secretary General Koffi Annan (C-L) is received Friday 27 May 2005 by Sudan President Omar Bashir (C-R) in Khartoum, Sudan. (AFP/UN/Evan Schneider)

He met afterwards with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail, during which he confirmed progress in the security and humanitarian situation in Darfur.

Taha assured Annan that Sudan agreed to allow AU to expand mandate?

This piece of news is great, if it turns out to be true.

Mr Annan went from the airport to a meeting with Sudanese vice president Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, and Taha said his country was ready for peace talks next month aimed at relieving the emergency, said Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail.

Taha also assured Annan that Sudan agreed to allow the African Union to boost its role in protecting civilians in Darfur, Ismail said.

"We both agreed on the urgency to re-energize the peace negotiation in Darfur," Annan said.



Photo: In this photo released by the United Nations, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan meets with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail Friday, May 27, 2005, in Khartoum, Sudan to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur. (AP Photo/UN, Evan Schneider)

Annan visited Kalma Camp in Nyala and rebel-held area Labado

On Saturday Mr Annan called for widening the responsibilities of African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, as he visited south Darfur, where he described the suffering of refugees as "heart-wrenching". He visited the Kalma refugee camp in Nyala, home to 120,000 people, and the town of Labado, which was burned-out in fighting last year. Labado is a rebel-held area some 40 miles east of Nyala where the security situation remains intense.

Only half of Labadu's 60,000 civilians have returned to the town after militia attacks there last year. The rest still live in camps. Some told Annan they were too scared to return home. He said the situation is better than it was last year but still needs vast improvement.

"What we need is to create a secure environment to encourage people to go back to plant and pick up their lives," Annan said.

Annan said AU troops were doing a competent job, but would need a broader mandate and more resources to provide protection to the hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by more than two years of ethnic violence in Darfur.

"The security situation in Darfur is not acceptable and as long as the situation there is not acceptable then one has to do more," Annan said at Khartoum airport after a daylong visit to the region.



Photo: General view of the town of Labado in south Darfur Saturday May 28, 2005 after was abandoned by its 60,000 inhabitants when it was attacked in December 2004. Mr Annan toured Kalma refugee camp and the burned down town in Darfur on Saturday, hearing calls for African troops to play a bigger role in protecting those living in the troubled region. Reuters/Evan Schneider/U.N. Photo Full Story. May 29, 2005.

Thousands greet Kofi Annan at Kalma camp in south Darfur

Excerpts from a Reuters report on Kofi Annan's visit to Kalma Camp:

Aid workers said the Darfur emergency presented an extra challenge because insecurity rendered many areas out of reach. Donors needed to keep funds flowing for what the aid workers saw as "a long stretch ahead".

Annan talked alone to female rape victims, one of whom was prepubescent, in a reed hut guarded by AU troops in a section of the camp run by a Norwegian team.

MSF reports 500 women or more raped in recent months

A report by aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres in March said about 500 women or more had been raped in recent months and said their attackers were militiamen or soldiers. Khartoum denies widespread rape in Darfur.

As Annan was touring the camp, thousands of the refugees chanted "Down, Down, oh Bashir," referring to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

The leader of the Darfur rebel SLM said the situation of the refugees was particularly serious with the onset of rains that disrupt transport.

"I call on the UN and the secretary-general to take urgent and decisive steps to protect and return the displaced to their original homes and villages," [rebel leader] Abdel Wahed Mohamed al-Nur told Reuters by telephone.

New camp called Al-Salam to house 25,000 refugees

Last June, Kalma Camp housed 26,000 displaced in an area meant for 5,000. Now 110,000 [some reports say 120,000] Darfuris live in makeshift shelters in the area east of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.

Aid workers said they were preparing a new site called al-Salam camp to house about 25,000 refugees to ease pressure on Kalma.

Annan briefed by Idris on tribal efforts

Earlier on Saturday, Mr Annan was briefed by Governor Al-Haj Ata al-Mannan Idris on tribal reconciliation efforts aimed at restoring social cohesion and improving the lives of the residents.

Mr Annan said he made clear to Idris that a humanitarian crisis can only be prevented if farmers are able to return to their land, plant it, cultivate and harvest their crops.

Annan visited Juba and met John Garang in Rumbek

On Sunday, Mr Annan visited southern Sudan for about five hours, where he pledged UN support to Sudan's north-south comprehensive peace agreement (CPA), the SUNA news agency reported.

During his meeting with local officials in Juba, capital town of Behr-el-Jabel state, Annan said the UN supports the implementation of the the Sudan CPA signed by the Sudanese government and the SPLM.

The UN chief listened to local officials' reports on security and humanitarian situation in southern Sudan and the preparations necessary for the CPA implementation.

He then travelled to Rumbek town, the current administrative center of SPLM, and met with the SPLM Leader John Garang.

Arriving at Rumbek's airstrip, Mr Annan said: "Let us work together to rebuild. You have suffered for too long."

The secretary general was greeted by cheering crowds and a brass band, but also a warning of the desperate need for aid in the south - a small group of children held up a banner reading: "Kofi, no food, hunger imminent."

Mr Annan was given a traditional gift of a pair of white bulls. The secretary general said he would offer them to needy widows and orphans.

After talks with Mr Annan, Mr Garang said: "The Oslo donors conference made a lot of promises".

He told Mr Annan that the postwar return of hundreds of thousands of refugees to their homes in southern Sudan is mushrooming into a humanitarian crisis.

"We were happy with the pledges but they are not helping us now as our people would deserve."

"There are people actually who have starved to death and the UN food pipeline is virtually empty. So we are asking the secretary-general to please do something about it."

Aid workers say donors are failing to send food needed

Donors promised $4.5 billion to bolster the peace deal at a conference in Oslo in April, but aid workers say donors are failing to send food needed to avert the south's worst hunger crisis since a 1998 famine in which at least 60,000 people died.

Annan commended the move of the Sudanese government and the SPLM to constitute a government of national unity in next July, stressing the necessity of the participation of all Sudanese political parties and organizations of the civil society in the formation of the constitution.

The constitution must include documents on freedom and human rights, he said, pledging to work for increasing food aid to people in southern Sudan.



Photo: Mr Annan (R) receives the traditional gift of white bulls. He was asked to lay his hands on them in a good luck gesture. Annan accepted the cattle, which symbolises peace, and said he would hand them on to needy Sudanese. Annan said on Sunday he would press donors to meet aid pledges for southern Sudan after he was confronted by a stark message on the urgent need for food on his first visit to the war-battered region. Reuters/Evan Schneider/UN Photo

The Sudan News Agency quoted Annan as saying that his visit to Rumbeik was to show "backing for the peace process in the Sudan."

Last month, the two sides began talks aimed at drafting a new constitution, which President Omar el-Bashir branded as the start of the most critical period in Sudan's history.
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Annan leaves Sudan without meeting Sudanese president

KHARTOUM, May 29, 2005 (KUNA) -- Due to bad climate preventing his domestic trip to Khartoum from Juba, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan departed from Sudan without meeting President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.

According statements by UN Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS), Annan apologized, through a telephone conversation, to Al-Bashir for not being able meet because of the weather conditions.

With plans to visit Germany before returning to New York, Annan said, during the call, that he had spent an extra amount of time hoping the weather would improve, but he had to depart to Ethiopia to catch another plane to Germany.

During the three-day visit to Sudan, Annan met a number of Sudanese officials and opposition leaders, as well as members of UNMIS.
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Garang outlines priorities for southern Sudan

On May 24, in an interview John Garang is quoted as saying:

"Our priorities therefore are to lay down the foundations for government in the south. What I call the infrastructure for government in the south is to form the 10 provinces' governments, civil administrations, civil police, the rule of law, and the achievement of stability."

Also, he revealed he has at least 20,000 troops and said: "We are at present training our cadres and developing the skills. When citizens carry out wrong actions, they do not do so because they want to but because they lack the skills. This will be corrected with all sorts of training. We will turn the people's army elements into active cadres in the civil service. There are several structures for absorbing them. As you know, the army was present in the villages among the citizens and there were several complaints. We have now issued strict orders to every soldier to return to the people's army camps. In the past, their presence in the villages was justified, especially as they did not have food. But we can now provide them with food. These forces will have salaries once the government is formed."

On May 28, In a live debate broadcast on Sudanese TV, he is quoted as saying:

"Yes, we do have a vision and programmes. We want to start with the displaced in the north, and the refugees in neighbouring countries. These are our first priority, because we want the people of the south to return home. There could not be any development without people. This was one of the issues that we had tabled at the Oslo donors' conference." Full Story via BBC Monitoring Service.

[John Garang is a US educated economist. He spent some 40 years in the bush fighting. 21 years fighting the Sudanese government in a war that cost more than two million lives. His priorities never seem to put ordinary folk first - only his politics, power-base, army and commercial deals. Not much mention of food and water for civilians. It looks like he leaves it to the West and the UN to sort out. It would not be surprising to start seeing news reports of his people getting disenchanted with him. He comes across as ruthless as the Khartoum regime who have been power via a coup for about 17 years now. It would be better to see some women in power in the Sudan.]
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Darfur peace talks to start in Nigeria June 10

Peace talks between Khartoum and the Darfur rebels had been due to resume in the Nigerian capital Abuja today. UN envoy Jan Pronk accused two rebel groups of delaying negotiations and refusing to cooperate with African Union mediators.

Darfur rebel groups SLA and JEM said they will attend talks re-scheduled for June 10.
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Minute's silence to mark global death toll of hunger

As ministers step up pressure on the US to wipe out Africa's crippling debt burden, Geldof prepares to unveil U2 and Coldplay as Live 8 headliners

The British government is to back a national minute's silence to remember the world's poor ahead of the crucial G8 Summit in July.

The symbolic gesture is planned to illustrate the huge British support for plans to alleviate Africa's poverty and will be watched by the world's largest televised audience as part of the Live 8 concert on 2 July. - Full Story by Mark Townsend, Observer May 29, 2005.

What's Missing in the Darfur Sudan Debate: Addressing Property Rights Could Help Bring Peace - Tom Bethell's The Noblest Triumph

Following on from yesterday's Sudan Watch post featuring an interview with Peruvian economist Hernando De Soto, here are some related reports and further information. [Note Karol Boudreaux suggests the African Union should strongly consider adopting another less costly measure: sending a team of property lawyers to Sudan]

Excerpt from The Social Change Project, September 15, 2004:

GPI Fellow Karol Boudreaux published an article in the IREN newsletter in Nairobi, Kenya. In it she made the argument that long-term peace in Sudan can only be realised through the establishment of transparent, enforceable property Rights. Citing economist Hernando de Soto, she points out how America's old "wild-west" could demonstrate a similar case of success. To read Karol's article, click here or see following copy:

What's Missing in the Darfur Debate: Addressing Property Rights Could Help Bring Peace

Published in the IREN Newsletter, Nairobi, Kenya September 2004
KAROL BOUDREAUX , SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

The humanitarian crisis in Darfur, ranked as the worst in the world, continues to deteriorate despite pledges by the Sudanese government to stop the spread of violence in its western territories. It is estimated that 50,000 people have died and a million fled their homes so far as a result of the conflict. Women have been raped, children orphaned and starved and disease threatens tens of thousands.

The African Union, chaired by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, is leading a regional effort to resolve the conflict. Part of its mandate is to provide a protection force for displaced and terrorised Sudanese and to head an international monitoring team in Darfur. It will host peace talks in a few days in Abuja. Along with these commendable efforts, the African Union should strongly consider adopting another less costly measure: sending a team of property lawyers to Sudan.

To date, most discussions of the crisis, and most proposals for its resolution, have focused on the ethnic element: Arab militias terrorising black Sudanese. There have been reports that the militia, known as Janjaweed, may be engaged in government-sponsored ethnic cleansing and genocide. It is wholly appropriate that the international community condemn and seek an end to these atrocities and look to human rights law as a vehicle for punishing wrongdoers.

The awful spectre of genocide may, however, be diverting attention from one of the underlying causes of this crisis - the ongoing dispute over legal rights to access land and water. Arab militias have taken up the banner of pastoralists, migratory herders whose traditional rights of access to grazing lands and watering holes are threatened when black farmers, who are in competition for the same resources, try to restrict that access. As resources in the region become increasingly scarce, conflict escalates. Peaceful means of settling these disputes have failed and resulted in today's large-scale violence.

This basic scenario should resonate with Americans. After all, as Hernando De Soto reminds us in The Mystery of Capital, our history is rife with property-related violence (though not, of course, on a scale anything like what's occurring in Darfur). European settlers fought with Native Americas, cattlemen fought with sheep herders, ranchers fought with farmers, miners fought with miners - all over the allocation of property rights. De Soto points out that this violent past "is many nations' present." Sadly, it is Sudan's present.

But, it need not be Sudan's future. The African Union has a unique opportunity to provide what's missing in the debate on Darfur: a serious discussion of this crisis as a property conflict. Human rights law can be used to punish wrong doers in Darfur, but property law is needed to resolve the root causes of the problem. Indeed, if the AU deals in a meaningful way with underlying property conflicts in Sudan, it will go a long way towards quelling ethnic tensions.

One benefit of framing the peace talks in terms of property rights is that there are clear and relatively inexpensive ways to address the problem. In the short-term, the AU should insist on the creation of impartial property claims tribunals in Sudan. Such courts would provide an avenue for identifying and cataloguing legitimate property claims and for settling disputes peacefully. AU nations might provide the jurists for such tribunals, as they would be sensitive to the thorny nature of property and land tenure issues in Sudan, which brings customary law, common law, statutory and Islamic jurisprudence to bear on issues involving communal, private, and public ownership.

In the longer term, AU efforts should continue to be augmented by the larger international community, which can provide Sudan with the technical assistance needed to create a vigorous, transparent, accountable and accessible property rights environment. This is a much more serious challenge. Sudan currently receives poor grades in international indexes for its protection of property rights. It may be that the government lacks the will to define and protect legitimate property and tenure rights. If so, the Sudanese are destined for continuing chaos.

Perhaps though, as De Soto argues, the American West can provide a useful guide for the developing world. By helping the Sudanese to identify and integrate property rights into a formal legal system, the AU and the international community, would do a great service for the people of Sudan. A key lesson of the American past is that such rights may propel wealth creation but, more importantly, they promote peace.
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Tom Bethell's The Noblest Triumph - The right to own property has to be extended to as many people as possible

At Libertarian World: Owning Up Tom Bethell explains why nations can't grow rich unless individuals can claim that material riches are theirs. Excerpt:

Tom Bethell, born in England and educated at Oxford, came to the United States in 1962. "My main interest back then was New Orleans jazz," he recalls. Settling in the Big Easy, where he wrote a book and recorded local musicians, Bethell started writing for a local community newspaper. "It was a tremendous revelation for me; journalism was what I wanted to do with my life," he says. Bethell became an American citizen in 1974 and has since written for dozens of newspapers and magazines around the country. He worked at the Washington Monthly, served as an editor at Harper's, and for nearly 20 years has been the Washington correspondent for the American Spectator. On July 27, 1998, he met with Amazon.com's John J. Miller to discuss The Noblest Triumph, his book on the history of property eight years in the making. Excerpt from the interview:

Amazon.com: What's The Noblest Triumph about?

Tom Bethell: I realized that the institution of private property is a fundamental aspect of Western civilization and also one of the most underappreciated. If you look at books about property, you find the idea attacked outright. After Karl Marx, property fell into intellectual disrepute. More recently, there have been some very good but also very narrow books on the subject, such as Takings, by Richard Epstein. I wanted to examine property with a wide-angle lens.

Amazon.com: Why haven't property rights been sufficiently understood?

Bethell: Historically, economically, and philosophically, property does not fit easily into any particular academic field. It requires the historian to be interested in economics, the economist to be interested in law, and so on. There's never really been a broad book on the subject. We live in an age of such specialization that people in the academy have been reluctant to take on big topics. As a journalist, I rush in where experts fear to tread.

Amazon.com: How important are property rights?

Bethell: If a society doesn't have widespread ownership of property, it will be impoverished. You'll have actual famines caused not by bad weather, but by bad political institutions. Sudan is one of the most sparsely populated countries on earth, and it has a basic problem feeding its people. Holland is one of the most dense, but because it has a system of secure ownership it can feed them. If you can't sustain life, there will be no art, literature, or liberty. Private property is the institution that led to the rise of capitalism. It didn't happen until the 17th and 18th centuries in England. There were property rights before then, but they weren't widespread. Hernando de Soto made the same point about the Third World in his book The Other Path. He's from Peru but went to school in Europe. He saw individual riches there and knew that it wasn't because Europeans were more intelligent than Peruvians. He concluded that law was the missing ingredient. Underdevelopment is often due to the status of property rights in society. The right to own property has to be extended to as many people as possible.
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Hernando de Soto - Institute for Liberty and Democracy



Hernando de Soto is the president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, a Peruvian think tank committed to creating legal frameworks that help the poor of the developing and ex-communist world to access property rights and turn their assets into leverageable capital. Mr. de Soto is the author of The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World (Harper and Row) and, most recently, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else (Basic Books).

Read bio Hernando de Soto. Further interview at www.acton.org entitled The Poor are the Solution, Not the Problem.

Institute for Liberty and Democracy Mission:
Four billion people in developing and post-Soviet nations - two thirds of the world's population - have been locked out of the global economy: forced to operate outside the rule of law, they have no legal identity, no credit, no capital, and thus no way to prosper. The Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), based in Lima, Peru, has created a key that can open the system to everyone - a time-tested strategy for legal reform that offers the majority of the world's people a stake in the market economy.

All 8 Books by Hernando De Soto Including The Mystery of Capital

Hernando De Soto offers radical and yet convincing arguments on the reasons why capitalism only seems to work in some nations, mainly the ones in the northern hemisphere, and fails consistently in the rest of the world. - www.kelkoo.co.uk

Tags: Africa Darfur Sudan Hernando De Soto African Union Make Poverty History Tom Bethell Property Rights

Anti-poverty bands made with forced labour, Oxfam says

At one of the factories, the Tat Shing Rubber Manufacturing Company in Shenzen, employees were working a seven-day week for less than the minimum wage, with no annual leave, no right to freedom of association, and poor health and safety provisions, one report said.

At the Fuzhou Xing Chun Trade Company, workers were being paid below the minimum wage and having pay deducted for disciplinary reasons, the other report said.

The product? Make Poverty History wristbands.

See Full Report at Independent UK - via Laban Tall's Blog with thanks.

There is so much incompetence around. The report says:

"We were stupid," said Dominic Nutt at Christian Aid. "We didn't check it out, Cafod didn't check it out, and Oxfam didn't check it out."

The report lists the various wristbands. Note green 'Save Darfur' bands via www.savedarfur.org do not get a mention. I am still waiting for the 20 white Make Poverty History bands I ordered from UNICEF who sent me a note weeks ago explaining they were out of stock and would post them on asap. Poor Chinese must be working flat out. I wish the proceeds from all wristbands could be paid to the Chinese workers as a mark of respect and apology.

Colourful campaigns

- Yellow: The US cyclist Lance Armstrong began the craze, producing bands for his cancer charity.

- Blue: Beat Bullying. Launched by Radio 1 to coincide with an anti-bullying campaign. Also used for tsunami and prostate cancer campaigns.

- Black and white: Nike makes them in aid of a campaign to fight racism in football across Europe.

- Pink: Used by Breast Cancer Care, which provides support for those affected by breast cancer.

- Red: Support for campaigns ranging from heart disease and diabetes to HIV, to anti-smoking campaigns in the US.

- Orange: For the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Britain, and self-harmer charities in the US.

- Green: Used by Community Service Volunteers and the Ski Club of Great Britain.

- Magenta: Used by Diabetes UK.

Exclusive interview with Peruvian economist, Hernando de Soto: The poor are not the problem but the solution

This is an important post. I have been meaning to publish it here for the past two months. The delay is because it needed a few lines of introduction to explain a little about why it is posted at Sudan Watch for future reference.

Here in England, there are some areas where people are experiencing tense situations caused by traditional gypsies and modern day nomads parking their caravans illegally. The travellers* who choose to live 'on the road' in their motor homes have few places to park and live in peace because of past Tory policies that withdrew land where 'travellers' used to be allowed to park and reside temporarily.

Wherever the nomads park their caravans illegally, they - and many are families with young children of school age - are forced to move on by the authorities. Whenever nomads park and settle, it creates an emotive mess for government officials to deal with and sort out. Local residents and homeowners object to nomads settling anywhere near their neighbourhoods. Showdowns between government officials, local residents and nomads are sometimes filmed and broadcast on televison news. Terrible scenes involving bailiffs, police, mothers wailing and children crying. Nobody tells them where they can park. They are simply told to move on. It is awful because you know the same scenario is repeated when they arrive at another spot.

Recently, some nomads resorted to purchasing greenfield sites near homeowners and, without first applying for residency permission, set up camps of sixty or more caravans, afterwhich they applied for residency permission. My understanding is they used human rights laws to avoid eviction while residency permits were being considered - and turned down.

Nomads are viewed as sticking together. Keeping to themselves. Not mixing or trying to integrate into local communities. Locals residents resent and shun the nomads who are seen as not working by the rules. Most nomads are suspected of not paying full taxes or obtaining permits, like law abiding citizens are expected to do. In countries such as the Sudan, the government eliminates troublesome nomads by killing those who fight for and argue over land and resources.

[*See Gypsies and Travellers: The facts [via Laban Tall's Blog via The Adventuress with thanks]

A few months ago, I found an extraordinary interview report that gives an insight into why poor people in Africa are having such an impossible time. I found the report at Stephen Pollard's blog. Here below is a copy in full, authored by Stephen who posted it at his blog March 14, 2005.

The report is an exclusive interview with the Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto and covers such a complex issue I cannot summarise it here in a few short lines. Please be warned, the report is long and appears verbose and dry, but the quality of the information is so high, I promise you it is worth taking the time to read and digest it, slowly. Here is Stephen's post and the report:
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I am thrilled to be able to publish an exclusive interview with the Peruvian economist, Hernando de Soto, founder and President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima, and an intellectual hero of mine. He has published two books about economic and political development: The Other Path and The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else - one of, if not the, greatest books ever published on the issue of poverty in the developing world. As Bill Clinton puts it: "De Soto's ideas about how to empower the world's poor represent one of the most significant economic insights of our time".

De Soto's main thrust is that much of the marginality of the poor in developing and former communist nations comes from their inability to benefit from the positive effects that property rights provide. Without legal titles and the necessary property-related institutions, the poor cannot fully exploit their assets. The challenge these countries face is not whether they should produce or receive more money but whether they can identify which legal institutions are required and summon the political will necessary to build a property system that is easy for the poor to access.

Dirk Verhofstadt, of the Belgian think tank Liberales, had an exclusive interview with Hernando de Soto in his residence in Lima, and he has generously allowed me to publish it here.

The Economist calls the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) one of the most important think tanks in the world. How did it start?

At the end of the left wing dictatorship in Peru in 1979, we wanted to bring in new ideas. All we had here were traditional leftist messages, some of which I found very interesting. However, it was also very important to realize that we had nothing that related to a market economy and the more liberal view of democracy. So, the beginning was simply bringing in ideas from Friedrich Hayek, Jean-Francois Revel, Milton Friedman, and original Marxian thinking as well. We wanted to clear the air and explain that there was more substance to the kind of thinking which supports freedom and the efficient economies of the world than they suspected. One of these ideas was the relationship between marginality - where people are forced to live and work outside the system - and the law. At that time, I saw the law as the main factor of exclusion.

Take for example the history of Latin America where liberal ideas have come to government many times, but haven't succeeded. The main reason for that failure was that they never included the excluded. [This was a harder task than it seemed.] We found that most ideas that related to freedom and productivity were well known by think tanks but had not penetrated to the political decision makers and the average person. So, the focus of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy very much became this extralegal sector - particularly on the areas of property rights and free enterprise because they are the trusses to everything else.

Do politicians understand the importance of property rights?

If you are poor, like the majority of the people in the Third World or the former Soviet Union, you have only two things that allow you to survive - where you are living and whatever you are working with to provide you with an income. Poor people, for instance, put their simple belongings on a piece of unoccupied ground in the countryside or in the so-called pueblos jovenes, favelas, ranchos, barrios marginales, bidonvilles or shantytowns around big cities in the developing world. If no one disputes his or her claim, a bit of a roof follows. As time goes by, and as the neighbours come to recognize the newcomer's property, a regular structure will be added. Over time, not only do the neighbours recognize the squatter's property, but also informal organizations may 'register' the ownership - unofficially, of course. The occupants have to dedicate all their time to protecting their possessions against such enemies as poachers, intruders, and, of course, the government.

If you want to understand the importance of property rights, a good place to start is the genesis of property, something that is not controversial for the entire political spectrum. Half of the governments we work for, for instance, are definitely on the left and understand that the poor do not have property and believe that they should. So the law gives a point of penetration were everybody is in an agreement. Property rights are even recognized on a global level in points nine and ten of the Washington-consensus. However, these are the only points that have never been implemented. The objective of these points is to establish free enterprise and property. This big gap needs to be filled in. That is the objective of the ILD.

In your book 'The Mystery of Capital', you write that capitalism is like a private club, only open to a privileged few, enraging the billions standing outside looking in. Can you explain this?

Almost 5 billion people out of the 6 billion in the world live in either developing or formerly communist countries, where much of the economy is extralegal. Capitalism doesn't thrive in these countries because of their inability to produce capital. However, capital is the force that raises the productivity of labour and creates the wealth of nations. It seems that poor countries cannot produce capital for themselves no matter how eagerly their people engage in all the activities that characterize a capitalist economy. In fact, the poor inhabitants of less developed countries do have things, but they lack the process to represent their property in such a way that it can create and transfer capital. They have houses but no titles; crops but no deeds; businesses but no statutes of incorporation. In other words: their property is not registered, not formally legalised. This last fact is crucial, for only through property rights is it possible to obtain credit. Property converted into capital provides the potential to create, to produce, and to grow. Landownership can only be exchanged for a loan if it is registered. The main objective of the ILD is to establish and incorporate the invisible network of laws that turns assets from 'dead' into 'liquid' capital.

One of the conclusions in your book 'The Mystery of Capital' is that poor people are not the problem, but the solution.

They certainly are, and there are very simple reasons for this. First of all, wherever we go, we see that the poor have the majority of a country's savings, which means that they have done the majority of the work. Look at the situation in Egypt. There, extralegals have accumulated up to $ 248 billion in their enterprises and homes. This is 37 times more than all the loans received from the World Bank. It is 55 times greater than all the direct investments in Egypt and 35 times more than the value of the companies listed in the Cairo Stock Exchange.

In fact, the total value of the assets held but not legally owned by the poor in the Third World and former communist nations is at least $ 9.300 billion. So, the poor are obviously the solution.

The history of many countries shows that very poor people have built today's wealth. The poor today form a large entrepreneurial force, but it is a force that cannot leverage its assets. And that is the situation in all of the developing countries and in the former communist nations we have been in. There is no lack of entrepreneurship. There is no lack of a will to build assets. There just isn't the legal system to allow these assets to be leveraged the way you can do so in the West. International financial institutions have traditionally not counted these assets. Poor people have always been seen as recipients of benefits. We are changing this around by saying that whatever you are giving to them is peanuts compared to what they themselves can do. So, the direction should be to enable them, to empower the poor.

So, to solve the real problem we have to make the informal world formal?

Well, that's it, but it's not the old formality. You've got to think of a new formality. The old one has been offered to the poor, but they have obviously rejected it. There is the law. Don't forget that informal and customary systems of property rights exist, but mostly outside the legal framework of the country.

I am now a member of a newly created agency for foreign assistance. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan and the Administrator of the UNDP, Mark Malloch Brown, have set up a commission targeting private sector development. These kinds of agencies had never focused on the private sector, in spite of the fact that they are a big part of the world economy. So, the agenda seems to be moving in the right direction now.

But isn't the main problem legislation? Don't lawyers stick on to the existing laws?

That's right. The legal and administrative mechanisms for creating live capital either do not exist or are complicated, these take ages to navigate and cost far too much for the ordinary person. Rich people, on the other hand, have easy entry to business; that is, they have easy access to the tools that facilitate their entry, such as lawyers, accountants, and legal advisors who are able to safeguard their interests in the labyrinth of bureaucracy.

If a squatter wanted to acquire a legal title to his or her property, it would take at least 13 years in the Philippines, over 11 years in Haiti, and 6 years or more in Egypt.

Moreover, in business, it takes you 549 days to get a license to operate a bakery in Egypt and that is with a lawyer. Without a lawyer, it takes about 650 days. In Honduras, it costs an individual entrepreneur 3.765 dollar and 270 days to legally declare, register, and start up a business.

To create a mortgage in Mexico it takes 2 years. It takes 17 years to get a title on a house in Egypt; in Peru it used to be 21 years before we corrected that, and in the Philippines it's 24 years. These are but a few examples of complicated ownership legislation. The procedures for getting official authorization to build are so formidable that people chose to build without authorization. The entire phenomenon forces poor people into illegitimate and informal negotiations. It forces them to create extralegal means to gain access to a home or a business.

So, what the people in these countries need are transparent laws and efficient administration. One of the main reasons that laws are so complicated, and procedures are so costly and inefficient, is that legislators in developing countries only want to adopt western rules. They remain blind to the extralegal reality. In fact, they should leave their studies and offices and investigate the extralegal sector because that is where they would find all the information they need to create a legitimate legal system that everyone would understand and accept. By investigating and penetrating the 'law of the people', legislators and regulators can set up a better legal system. Most of the lawyers in developing countries are educated to protect the interests of their wealthier clients and write the law to assist them. However, they have an instinctive tendency to protect the legal status quo instead of to extend it or adapt it to suit the needs of an evolving reality.

You have been working in several developing countries by giving advice to their heads of state. What is your method of working?

To us the most important part of our work is that part that we call the diagnosis. When we are hired by heads of state, we form a team of maybe seven people from our side and a hundred from theirs. Then we draw a line and find out what's inside the law and what's outside the law. In the case of Egypt, we found that 92% of all the constructions and the land and 88% of all enterprises are outside the legal system. This means that the large majority of owners are not registered as such and are therefore not visible to councils, town planners, investors, banks, post offices, water companies, electricity providers, and other firms. The results of our diagnosis show politicians that something is very wrong. It even has a Marxists element of class, an element that has always been missing, even in liberalism. Because people do have specific positions. People in the so-called informal economy are the biggest entrepreneurial class in the world. There are more entrepreneurs in any Third World country than there are in the rich countries.

Over the past fifteen years or so, your Institute has worked in Peru, Egypt, El Salvador, the Philippines, Honduras and Haiti. In which country are you working now?

We are currently working with the Mexican government. We have finished the diagnosis. Seventy-eight million Mexicans - this is almost 80 percent of the total population - is either living or working in the extralegal economy. They produce approximately 35% of the GNP. In total there are about 137 million hectares of rural real estate, 11 million houses, and 6 million businesses that are not registered. Those are assets that can only be used as a shelter or as business tools, but not as a means to obtain collateral for a loan, to generate investment or to create additional functions to obtain surplus value. The whole value of this 'dead capital' amounts to $ 315 billion. That is equivalent to seven times the value of all known oil reserves in the country and 31 times the value of foreign direct investment. So, we are advising President Fox on the ways to reform all of this in order to integrate the excluded citizens. An efficient means is designing a legal framework to transform property and businesses into liquid assets. And by reducing the costs and increasing the benefits of operating legally, they can increase public tax revenues.

Is there a relation between corruption and the lack of property rights?

Yes, of course. Because a great part of corruption is essentially the purchase of the law; that is, you pay somebody to stop looking your way or to draft the law in a certain direction. When I was working in the Middle East, there was an entrepreneur that I got to known so well that I could ask him about corruption and pay-offs - 'baksheesh' is the local word. He explained: "I love baksheesh because it gives me certainty and predictability." They change the law continually. We have calculated that the government brings out about 30.000 new rules every year. None of these is enacted in a transparent manner, with public participation. The result is that the law is totally unpredictable and only serves the powerful and htose who have the means to remain informed. So, from this point of view, 'baksheesh' gives a kind of predictability. All the entrepreneur had to do was pay-off five key policemen either near his workplace, or where he made his transactions. And he knew what his outcome would be.

Now, traditionally that is what the law is supposed to do - give you predictability. However, if the law is inadequate, then your way of getting predictability is corruption. Therefore, when you have property rights - understanding "property rights" as your right to do business, hold shares and carry out business transactions -, it is clear that people will not look to corruption for security and predictability, wherever you go in the world.

Some people say that culture is separating the Third from the First World. Do you agree?

That is a myth. I really don't think culture has very much to do with the fact that some people are desperately poor and others are wealthy. It's an unfair proposition. It predisposes people to do the wrong things. It may even have racist implications. Instead of focusing on culture, let's take away all of these enormous legal obstacles that poor people have to face. We're absolutely convinced it does work because people are actively in enterprise all over the world. Countries that are less occidental than Latin American nations were poorer than us barely 50 years ago - like Japan, Taiwan and South Korea - changed their laws and are now in average 10 times wealthier than we are. Most of the people who say that 'cultural' handicaps do exist don't have much solid facts to prove it. Development will not be achieved by throwing money at the problem but rather by radically changing the legal systems. And I don't think it is primarily an IMF or World Bank responsibility. I think it's a local responsibility.

Despite privatisations and deregulations, the Russian economy is not doing well. Do you attribute this situation to a property rights problem as well?

There is only one way of knowing that and it is by getting the numbers on the shadow economy, which is precisely what we at the ILD do. It's like in medicine: the doctor has to see the patient. You can have the best written law in the world, but if it doesn't work on the ground it is only ink on paper. I wouldn't be surprised if in Russia the law looks good on paper, but, on the ground, it doesn't work. This is why a very important ingredient of any reform towards the market is feedback from the people so that you can create law based on general consensuses and on people's beliefs. There is no way of designing it in the air as bureaucrats of the old class often do. If you want to get law that is enforceable you've got to go get to the street!

How is it possible that those liberal ideas were never popular in Latin America?

Since liberation from Spain in the 1820's, many governments have tried to bring in a liberal revolution in Latin America several times. We have tried to follow the US model or the Western European models. Latin Americans have privatized railways, lowered tariffs to zero, and opened our economies to foreign investment. And we have failed nearly every time. The reforms made sense for a very small group of people at the top, but for the majority, it didn't fit their interests. The big mistake each time has been that although people were inspired by liberal ideas, in fact, they never had much interest for the poor. I would say that these people who pretended to be liberal, were not liberals but conservatives. By not caring for the poor, they gave the opportunity to the populist and communists to gain much ground.

Can we say that capitalism is in trouble?

Of course capitalism is in trouble, because, as usual, it is only catching among the top 20 or 10 percent of the population in Latin American countries that have got their property rights paperized in a way that they can enter the market. Capitalism is in trouble in the sense that it isn't working for the majority. I insist that capitalism doesn't work without universally accessible property rights. Capitalism definitely did not win the battle against communism: what happened is that communism collapsed. The main ideas or concerns held by the early communists and socialists are still around.

Do you agree with libertarians that plead for a minimal state? What is your position with regard to libertarianism and liberalism?

I think that some of the most resourceful sophisticated thinking comes from libertarians. To me, they are the 'avant garde' because, among other things, they point out the dangers of concentrated power. They are a continual source of inspiration to me but it is the gap between their proposals to do a way with government and reality. I am not too sure they understand that government is important to enforcing freedom and democracy -- maybe this is because they do not know what it is like to live without any government like some of us in the Third World. The rule of law has to be managed and enforced by strong government if it is to prevail. In my case, I would say that I am a classical liberal, corresponding to the liberal ideas of the 18th and 19th centuries, which were characterized by being radically opposed to the concentration of power and the causes of the poor.

The reason I study the 18th and 19th centuries of Europe and North America is not because I like the past, but because they provide me with lead to understand the present with regards to developing countries. There is a sense that individualism becomes clearer with the Renaissance. Before, people could not envisage themselves as being anything other than part of a whole. That phenomenon of individualism is now starting to take shape in Latin America. In Mexico, for example, where we are currently doing our biggest project, one of the areas we have to focus on is the ejido, which is an indigenous collective property system. We found out that the average age of the Mexican farmer is 65, which means that most of the young people have already left to the city and are becoming individuals. In other words, we are at that stage of individualization that you in Europe were at a couple of centuries ago. Europe's 18th and 19th centuries intellectual debate are very relevant to developing countries in former Soviet Union nations in the 21st century.


Tags: Africa Darfur Sudan Hernando De Soto African Union Make Poverty History Dirk+Verhofstadt Property Rights

Pope set for live link-up at Murrayfield in Scotland, UK

The Scotsman's chief news correspondent Gethin Chamberlain reports today that Sir Bob Geldof has another great idea. He has invited the Pope to Scotland to conduct a mass at Murrayfield stadium to coincide with the Make Poverty History march in the run-up to the G8 summit.

According to the report, talks with the stadium are believed to have already taken place with a view to staging the event on 2 July. The Vatican is understood to have told Mr Geldof that the Pope will be unable to attend in person, but that he could appear in a live link-up from Rome on a giant video screen set up in the stadium. There are also suggestions that Nelson Mandela could appear via a similar live link. Full Story



Photo: Sir Bob Geldof is eager for Pope Benedict, pictured, to conduct a mass at Murrayfield stadium to coincide with the Make Poverty History march at the start of July. Picture: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

It would be great to see Archbishop Desmond Tutu participating too.

Tags: Africa Pope+Benedict Mandela Blair Geldof Make+Poverty+History G8

Blair wins support for G8 plans - EU plan to double aid is greeted with caution

May 27 BBC report Blair wins support for G8 plans:

Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi have agreed on plans to increase aid to Africa and tackle climate change, they said after holding talks in Rome.

EU development ministers this week agreed to double aid to poorer nations. Under the deal, the EU's aid will be worth an extra 14 billion GPB annually in five years' time.

The BBC report reveals a document purporting to be a draft communique for the G8's climate change talks has now been published on the Carroll.org.uk weblog. Downing Street refused to say whether or not the leak was genuine.
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EU plan to double aid is greeted with caution

Yesterday's Financial Times reports the European Union's claim this week that it would double development aid by 2010 was greeted with joy by governments and some development charities, who regarded it as a significant breakthrough. Excerpt:

But the history of such announcements, combined with the caveats that surround them, counsels caution. Among other campaigners and some aid experts, scepticism about such announcements extends to the quality of existing aid.

One charity argues in a report today for instance that almost two-thirds of rich country aid is "phantom" aid that does not benefit its recipients.

Full Story at FT.com by Alan Beattie May 27, 2005. [with thanks to ij]
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Quotation of the Year

"What's happening in Africa today is something that, if it happened in any other continent in the world, there would be outrage " - Tony Blair

Tags: Africa sustainable+development environment Blair European+Union G8

Donors pledge nearly $300m for Darfur force - WFP says more than 6m people need food aid across Sudan

Photo: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, centre, is received at Khartoum airport by State Minister of Foreign Affairs Nageeb Khair, right, and the special representative of the Secretary General of the UN in Sudan Jan Pronk in Khartoum, Sudan Friday, May 27, 2005.

Annan arrived in Sudan on Friday to assess developments and see for himself the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, a day after urging rich nations to pledge more money to help end bloodshed there.

He met with top Sudanese officials in Khartoum on Friday to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis and security conditions in Darfur, and will meet with John Garang in South Sudan. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)
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Donors pledge nearly $300 mln for Darfur force

So far, donors have pledged nearly $300 million for Darfur force. A formal announcement on the total pledges is expected later on May 27, Mr Annan said after a one-day pledging conference finished in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday.

At the conference, the African Union requested $466 million cash in order to more than triple its existing force of 2,270 in Darfur.

Maybe Mr Annan's report will explain the reasons for the shortfall and clarify if the EU will be making a financial contribution. There is talk that some of the shortfall could be made up by the involvement of NATO.
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UN WFP estimates that more than six million people require food aid across Sudan

In a report from Nairobi May 27, 2005, IRIN says the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) now estimates more than six million people require food aid across Sudan.

Also, the report says food supplies for millions of families across Sudan are running critically low, and many will face severe shortages unless more funds for food and agricultural assistance are forthcoming, aid agencies warned.



Photo (Reuters/Antony Njuguna), Note the caption by Reuters states:

Sudanese children eat leaves torn off trees and boiled by their mothers to ward off starvation in the southern village of Paliang May 26, 2005. Mothers in southern Sudan are feeding their children leaves to stop them starving to death after rich countries failed to heed months of appeals to prevent the region's worst food crisis in seven years.

Er ... hello? Rich countries have NOT failed to heed months of appeals. It is not true. Last month, on top of all the other contributions during the preceding year, they pledged 4.5 billion dollars to South Sudan and the general public have donated generously to the internal aid agencies. Reuters is feeding garbage to its readers. Where are they getting their information from - who is creating this propaganda - and why? Is it just sloppy reporting or what?
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Sudan: Aid agencies sound alarm over precarious food situation

Last month, international donors at a conference in Oslo pledged 4.5 billion dollars in development aid for southern Sudan following the signing of the north-south peace agreement January 9. In fact pledges exceeded funding needs to rebuild Sudan.

"This conference has pledged 4.5 billion dollars (3.5 billion euros) for 2005, 2006 and 2007," Norway's Minister for Development Aid Hilde Frafjord Johnson told the donors gathered in Oslo.

So, what is going on? Here is an excerpt from the above report:

Jean-Jacques Graisse, WFP senior deputy executive director, who recently visited Khartoum, southern Sudan and Darfur said pockets of severe malnutrition had already been identified, as well as areas where households had exhausted their food stocks.

A survey conducted in Twic and Abyei villages in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state by ACR and GOAL found malnutrition rates were double the emergency threshold.

The consensus among NGOs is that funding shortfalls must be addressed immediately to avoid serious suffering of those who already experienced famine in 1998 in the southwestern region of Bahr el Ghazal, where tens of thousands of people died.

Of the US $302 million budget required for WFP operations across southern Sudan in 2005, only $78 million has been received. This represents a shortfall of $224 million - or 74 percent of requested funding.

"I am worried some areas may suffer a disaster if we don't have the resources to save lives," said Graisse in a statement on Tuesday.

Note, the report also states that for 2005, FAO had appealed for nearly $62 million in emergency assistance to support Sudan's agriculture sector. So far, Bellemans said, $10.5 million - just 17 percent - had been funded.

Does anybody know what is really going on out there? Why are pictures, such as those posted here below, coming through in the latest news reports on southern Sudan? Recently, the BBC reported that militias had blocked aid to Southern Sudan [see full story by Jonah Fisher, BBC News, New Faniak, southern Sudan May 18, 2005] but it does not explain why hard cash is not being channelled to those who are requesting funding. Are the donors pledging and not paying up? If so, why is the UN not shouting in the press like they usually do when they need money. Why are they not naming and shaming the countries not paying up?



Photo taken on May 25, 2005 via Reuters/Antony Njuguna. The following caption is, I guess, composed by Reuters:

"A starving Sudanese boy waits for food at a feeding centre run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km (99 miles) northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005.

Faced with competing calls to finance help for a separate conflict in Darfur, donors are failing to send the food needed to avert south Sudan's worst crisis since a 1998 famine in which at least 60,000 people died."

Who is blaming donors? Who knows, it could be that Reuters are not making this up. Maybe they are getting information from somewhere that states "donors are failing to send the food needed". Are they talking about the UN's World Food Programme or USAID not delivering the goods?



Photo and caption (again by Reuters/Antony Njuguna): A starving Sudanese family wait in line at a feeding center run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km (99 miles) northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005. Faced with competing calls to finance help for a separate conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, donors are failing to send the food needed to avert south Sudan's worst crisis since a 1998 famine in which at least 60,000 people died. Picture taken on May 25, 2005.
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Here is an excerpt from a first hand account of the humanitarian crisis in southern Sudan, linked to here below yesterday:

According to an international development consultant working in the area, Njunga M. Mulikita, the general public complaint is that they are not experiencing the peace dividend in tangible terms.

"When UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan tours Southern Sudan this weekend, he is likely to be greeted by crowds of people crying out for water wells, schools for their children and health facilities," Mulikita told PANA.

There is practically no infrastructure in southern Sudan. Everything was destroyed during the two decades of war between the Khartoum government and the SPLM/A.

Aid workers in the region were of the opinion that Annan's visit to Rumbek, the provisional capital of the SPLM/A should galvanise the international community to support the peace deal through a massive recovery and reconstruction programme.

"In my travels throughout Southern Sudan, the people I spoke with said they were simply tired of assessments carried out by UN agencies and NGOs.

"In one settlement, Koch, in the Upper Nile region, which I visited last month, the scarcity of water was so acute that over half of the women were suffering from severe diarrhoea.

"In another settlement, Kapoeta, which is not very far from the northern Kenyan town of Lokichokkio, recovery is hampered by anti-personnel and anti-tank mines because some of the heaviest fighting took place there," Mulikita explained.

Against this background, the incoming Government of Southern Sudan, to be formed by the SPLM/A faces huge challenges in addressing humanitarian, recovery and developmental needs of a war-weary population.

Presently, there is a massive influx of displaced persons who are going back to Southern Sudan.

However, officials in run-down municipalities such as Kapoeta, Koch, and Mayom wonder how the returnees would be accommodated given the devastated infrastructure.

"In Koch we were asked when we would arrange for a new well to be sunk to alleviate the suffering of women who must wake up as early as 03:00 hours to collect water.

"Water shortage in Koch is so acute that fights periodically break out at the settlement's sole water point," said Mulikita.

On this account, it is the hope of many people in Southern Sudan that Annan's forthcoming visit will draw international attention to the extreme humanitarian and developmental situation in the area.

Southern Sudanese want to see the pledges made at the Oslo donor conference being translated into improved water availability and living standards for women and children in all war-shattered settlements.
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Garang urges "real transformation" to succeed peace

Having glanced through John Garang's latest interview, I cannot see anything about emergency food and water for the people of South Sudan. Maybe on second reading later on, I will find something.
- - -

US support for repatriation and reintegration of Sudanese refugees

On May 17 ReliefWeb said the US is contributing an additional $18 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to support the repatriation and reintegration of Sudanese refugees from Kenya to southern Sudan.

The report said this assistance is part of the US commitment to Sudan announced by Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick at the April 2005 Oslo Donors's Conference. Full Story via ReliefWeb May 17, 2005.

[You have to wonder when exactly aid that is pledged actually reaches those most in need. Does anybody check? There are seldom progress reports of who is doing what, how and when. There are 10,000 aid workers in Darfur alone (about 9,000 are Sudanese). Massive operations when you think of what is happening over the border in Chad where 200,000 refugees sit imprisoned in camps, waiting to go home.

Humanitarian aid is a multi billion dollar business. 4.5 billion dollars have been pledged for southern Sudan. And news is still coming through of people suffering hunger and thirst. The UN and its WFP are good at telling us when they need cash. They say they can perform miracles if they get enough money. The 4.5 million dollars pledged last month was far greater than the UN called for. The UN always has the excuse it doesn't have enough money. And yet this time it received more pledges than it bargained for. What now?]
- - -

Amnesty singled out Sudan's Government as one of the world's worst

This week, Amnesty International singled out the government of Sudan as one of the world's worst human rights abusers, accusing it of turning its back as government forces and allied militias attacked people in the Darfur region.

One man with a unique perspective on the alleged human rights abuses in Sudan is Hartford Courant newspaper photographer Bradley Clift. He travelled to refugee camps in Darfur where he was detained by Sudanese government forces for 16 days. Full Story. Excerpt:



Photo: Bradley E. Clift) May 2005 -- While the ethnic cleansing he came to photograph continues outside the western town he was arrested in, Bradley Clift, photojournalist for the Hartford Courant, looks through bars at his compound in Nyala on day 14 of his detainment. Arrested for taking pictures in off-limits IDP camps (Internally Displaced Persons) Clift faced an array of serious charges that kept him in jail, prison and finally under house arrest for 15 days before his release was negotiated politically through the embassy.

"With what the police were saying to me, I never thought I'd see the light of day again," Clift said. "Missing my wife and son Spencer were the hardest parts, but the fear of a long prison sentence is what really rattled me. Every day I wondered what I was missing out that window, stuck, under house arrest in Nyala. And each day, the Aid workers would come back and tell me. It was all so painful." "All so torturous on so many levels," Clift said.
- - -

Feeling underwhelmed

One of my favourite British bloggers Clive Soley has just retired as a Labour MP and has been elevated to the House of Lords. Over the past year, I've left quite a few comments at Clive's blog about Sudan. Today Clive writes this line in his latest post:

"Ingrid will be pleased to see the latest moves on Sudan. There does seem to be a serious attempt to help the African nations develop an interventionist/peacekeeping force. NATO logistical support will be particularly important."

Here is a copy of a comment I posted in reply [Note: after posting the comment, a news report quotes WFP as saying six million people across Sudan now need feeding, It looks like the UN have changed their figures to include 2-3 million people in southern Sudan and probably those around Khartoum where the BBC says there are two million displaced people living in shanty towns]

Hello Clive, Yes it is pleasing to see Nato's chief attending talks on Darfur in western Sudan. But it is difficult to understand why at the same talks, when the African Union requested $466 million cash to triple the number of its troops in Darfur, international donors - so far - have only offered $300 million. It seems the balance may be made up by the EU or in contributions by Nato. It's a bit underwhelming. Pledges don't always materialise into hard cash. The longer this goes on, the more costly it will be to feed what amounts now to three million people in Darfur alone, bringing the figure to four million displaced who are totally dependent on aid for years to come simply because they can't return home and plant their food because of lack of security.

In April there was a donors conference in Oslo where 4.5 billion dollars was pledged for southern Sudan for development aid following the signing of the north-south peace deal Jan 9. Most of it is dependent on peace in Darfur but news reports are now coming through of people in desperate need of food and water in southern Sudan because aid/funding is not materliasing. News reports don't explain how much cash is actually allocated for aid or why these people are still suffering so badly for lack of water pumps and basic food. Mothers are feeding boiled leaves to their babies. It seems cancellation of debts are counted as aid money.

Sorry to sound so negative. On the surface, recent press reports sound good but when you dig deeper and see it from the refugees point of view, it doesn't look good at all. The rains are coming again soon. Rebels could start violence at any time in Eastern Sudan, people in the Nuba mountains southern Sudan are getting disenchanted waiting so long to feel the benefit of the peace deal. There's anarchy almost everywhere. Not a single Janjaweed has been arrested. One of the leaders Musa Hilal is freely walking around Darfur preaching peace. The African Union has 2,270 soldiers on the ground - and Darfur has waited eight months now for the extra 1,000 troops to arrive. Yes violence may have appeared to have lessened because there's hardly anyone left to hassle and kill! They've all been driven away for the West to take care of. As soon as they try to return home the Janjaweed turn up and attack again.

I'd like to see some women in charge in Khartoum. I'm serious. I read of an experiment once where they studied an all boy school class versus a 50-50 boy/girl class. The all boy class turned out to be a pretty unruly rum lot. In the other class, girls challenged the boys bullying and violent behaviour and the boys changed their ways because they found out if they didn't, they wouldn't be accepted by the group or get a mate. :-)
- - -

Quotation of the Day

"If violence and fear prevent the people of Darfur from planting and growing crops next year, then millions will have to be sustained by an epic relief effort which will stretch international capacity to the maximum" - Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General

Please read full report by Gethin Chamberlain, Chief News Correspondent for the Scotsman. Last year, Mr Chamberlain was one of the first reporters in the field reporting from the Chad-Sudan border Africa: Running a race against time

[with thanks to ij at G8 and The Middle East]

Sudan says donor conference successful - Nations pledge $200 million more for Darfur - peace talks start 10 June

Minister of State of the Sudanese Interior Ministry Ahmed Haroun said on Thursday that a donors' conference held earlier in the day in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa was a success.

Haroun, who accompanied First Vice President Ali Othman Mohammed Taha to the conference, told reporters that the conference succeeded in offering financial and logistical support required to strengthen the African Union's Mission (AMIS) in Darfur.

Earlier in the day, the 53-member pan-African body appealed for 460 million dollars in cash, military equipment and logistical support to reinforce its current troops to more than 7,700 by September.

In his address to the conference, Taha voiced the government's willingness to cooperate with and support the AU's mission in Darfur.

He reaffirmed that the Darfur issue is an African conflict and should be resolved within the AU framework.

[Sounds good but bear in mind, things are not always what they seem. Khartoum have proven themselves to have two faces and speak with forked tongues. They recently agreed to Ugandan forces hunting down LRA rebels in southern Sudan. Some news sources - including Khartoum's Monitor which was closed down for one day this week by Sudanese police - say Khartoum supports and arms the Ugandan rebel group LRA]
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Darfur peace talks to resume June 10

The AU has announced that a new round of peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels will be held on June 10 in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Darfur rebel group JEM confirms it will participate.

[At least we will find out soon enough just how genuine both sides are. But anything could happen between now and then. Eastern Front and others in Eastern Sudan are making themselves heard again. Eritrea and Ethiopia will start beating their war drums ... LRA attacks will happen in southern Sudan ... all the usual trouble that flares whenever Darfur peace talks loom. The rebels are just as bad as Khartoum. I have no sympathy for either side. Both are to blame for displacing 4 million people, causing millions of deaths and inflicting horrendous misery and suffering upon defenceless women and children]
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Nations pledge $200M more for Darfur

Associated Press confirms May 27 that international donors pledged an additional $200 million Thursday to fund the African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur during the above mentioned conference.

AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said officials were still analysing the pledges but that it appeared enough money was raised to bolster the force currently in Darfur. "There is a clear will. Many states and countries are willing to bridge the gap," Konare told reporters.

Canada made the largest new pledge, promising $134 million. The State Department's senior representative on Sudan, Charles Snyder, said Washington was adding an additional $50 million to the $95 million already pledged to end what he called "acts of genocide" in the ongoing conflict.



Photo: A young Sudanese child is helped with a drink of clean water at the Abu Shouk refugee camp near El Fasher, in Darfur, Sudan, in August 2004.(AFP/File/Jim Watson)

Peace will only be made, and kept, by the Sudanese people themselves

May 26 UN news centre -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the AU Commission, writes in an opinion piece published in the Washington Times May 26, 2005. Excerpt explains what should happen in principle, but things don't always work out that way in practice:

"The international response is thus falling short in two lethal ways: another $350 million in aid is needed to help more than three million people survive the rest of this year, and more troops, police, aircraft and other transport, training and logistical support are needed to enable the AU to protect the population in much of Darfur.

As part of our efforts to address the crisis in Darfur, we jointly convened yesterday a donor conference in Addis Ababa, to give the rest of the world (especially the wealthy countries that have the means to contribute, and whose media and public opinion have been most vocal about the need to halt atrocities in Darfur) an opportunity to rally round and give practical support to the Africans, who are actually doing something on the ground. This conference complements the one held in Oslo last month, at which $4.5 billion in aid was pledged to Sudan, mainly to support the fragile peace that has at last been achieved between North and South after a 21-year civil war.

Indeed, Darfur can only benefit if the rest of the Sudan is at peace, and if the new government of national unity (due to take office in July) leads the whole country in a new, more inclusive direction. Thus the 10,000-strong peacekeeping force that the United Nations is now deploying in the South will help make peace viable throughout the country, including Darfur.

But action is urgently needed in Darfur itself, on three fronts: the humanitarian effort must be fully funded, and safe access for relief workers - both inter- and non-governmental - must be fully guaranteed by all parties.

The AU force must be expanded without delay, and bolstered by logistical and financial support, so that it can provide real security throughout Darfur, allowing the people to return to their homes and resume cultivating their crops. African states that have promised troops must provide them promptly, and donors must provide the means needed for those troops to deploy. Both the government and the rebels must bring their forces and allied militias under full control, and ensure that they fully respect the cease-fire and humanitarian law.

And the parties to the conflict must negotiate a political agreement offering solid guarantees for lasting peace. The AU and the wider international community can and must help. But in the end peace will only be made, and kept, by the Sudanese people themselves."
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Southern Sudan cries out for humanitarian aid

Recently, at the last donors' conference in Oslo, the international community pledged 4.5 billion dollars in development funding for southern Sudan following the Jan 9 signing of a peace deal. Although most of it is conditional upon peace in Darfur, it is difficult to believe that none of it has been forthcoming for humanitarian aid. If the below report is true, then you have to wonder why has South Sudan's new leader John Garang has not screamed to the press on behalf of his people. News out of Sudan is as dubious as its politics.



Photo: A four-year-old Sudanese boy collapses from hunger at a feeding centre run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005. (Reuters).

See May 26, 2005 report by Anaclet Rwegayura via SudanTribune - Southern Sudan cries out for humanitarian aid.

Committee to Protect Bloggers: Media fast for Mojtaba today

As reported here May 19, today is Media fast for Mojtaba day.



Photo of Mojtaba via CPB: 'Apparently, Mojtaba has yielded to his mother's imprecation not to hurt himself and so cancel his fast'

[via Curt with thanks] Tags: Tehran Iran Mojtaba Blog Bloggers Committee+to+Protect+Bloggers

NATO chief off to Darfur meeting, urges Sudan not to hinder AU mission

ARE, Sweden, May 25, 2005 (AP/ST) -- NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer flew to an international conference in Ethiopia Wednesday with an offer of logistical support for the African Union's bid to widen its peacekeeping mission in the Sudanese region of Darfur.


Photo: NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (Sudan Tribune)

Making an early exit from a Euro-Asian security meeting in Sweden, he said it was important for the mission's success that Sudan does not hinder the African Union.

"What is important," he told reporters, "is that the government of Sudan will give the green light to the African Union" to more than double its current peacekeeping operation to about 7,000 troops.

He said NATO will offer airplanes to transport African peacekeeping troops, but military planners were still working out the details.

"We will do that in close consultation and harmony with the United Nations and, more specifically, the European Union," he said.

On Thursday, De Hoop Scheffer will attend an international conference in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to discuss the Darfur crisis further with EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and AU officials.

On Tuesday, the NATO allies said they stood ready to provide non-combat aid for the AU's beleaguered peacekeeping force in Darfur, approving "initial military options" for logistical NATO support. The EU has similarly agreed to offer assistance in the form of military transport, training and planning.

Last week, AU Commission President Alpha Oumar Konare asked both the EU and NATO for help.

De Hoop Scheffer stressed the AU -- not NATO -- would be running the Darfur operation.

The EU has already sent military advisers to help the AU mission and is spending US $116 million to cover almost half the costs of the operation.



United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (L) talks to African Union (AU) Commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konar (R) as he arrived at Addis Ababa airport in Ethiopia May 25, 2005 as both will co-chair the AU meeting on Thursday. The AU is seeking $460 million to more than triple its peacekeeping force in Darfur, a senior AU official said on Wednesday. (Reuters/Andrew Heavens)



Photo: A displaced Sudanese girl sits inside a temporary shelter at Sreef camp near Nyala in south Darfur, October 8, 2004. (AFP).



Photo: Sudanese women arrive with empty containers to collect water at Abu Shouk camp, home of some 100,000 refugees in Darfur May 25, 2005. (Reuters/Beatrice Mategwa)

Today, Human Rights Watch called for officials from the UN, EU, US and AU participating in tomorrow's donor meeting in Addis Ababa to denounce Sudanese government efforts to backtrack on cooperation with relief agencies.

HRW said Khartoum is refusing to grant visas and travel permits to increasing numbers of international journalists and the government's initimidation and stepped-up denial of access for media to Darfur are part of a recurring effort to reduce international criticism of abuses committed by the Sudanese government and its militia allies in Darfur.
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UN agencies help Sudan turn back polio epidemic

Continuing the all-out effort to eradicate polio from Sudan, the country's Ministry of Health, backed by United Nations agencies and other organisations, today launched a three-day campaign to immunize all children under 5.

Full Report via UN May 25, 2005.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

African Union's wish list for Sudan does not include troops

A report today by News 24 in Addis Ababa South Africa makes the African Union sound like it could be doing more in Darfur if only it was not so cash strapped and Western donors gave more. It is not true. The European Union alone has contributed a few hundred million dollars for starters. Not to mention huge pledges from the United States and other donors.

Journalists ought not to spread such rubbish news. The only reason there is not enough help to date in Darfur is purely down to the genocidal regime in Khartoum protecting its power base and sovereignty. End of story. If you want to know more about this, just keep scrolling on down here to August 2004 and keep on scrolling at Passion of the Present to April 2004. In short, everybody who wants to be on the ground in Darfur, is already there. In other words, nobody else wants to go. To date, it is Khartoum and African politics stopping African countries from contributing troops to the African Union mission in Darfur.
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South Africa sends 46 peacekeepers to Darfur

For what seems like eight months now, Darfur has waited for the long promised extra 1,000 African Union troops. A report today by Prensa Latina Johannesburg says South Africa has deployed 46 members of the SA Police Service (SAPS) to Darfur, as part of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS). Excerpt:

The members, six of whom are women, will join the 12 operational members and six members of the Headquarter Element who were deployed there earlier this year as part of the AMIS, the BUA News information service reports Wednesday.

The group - together with police members from other African countries - fall under the command of Director Anand Pillay, a South African who was appointed as the Commissioner of the AMIS Civilian Policing Component in Darfur.

All members of the SAPS deployed in Sudan had volunteered their duties and consequently passed stringent medical tests, evaluated and counselled, Police spokesperson Sally de Beer was quoted as saying by BUA News.

"They will undergo mission-specific training in Darfur," she added.

Director Pillay will deploy the members in terms of a needs analysis and in consultation with the African Union.

The role of the Civilian Policing members in Darfur would be to monitor the service delivery of the police of the government of Sudan to the community.

They will also facilitate the building of good relations between the community and the police, give technical advice, export their knowledge on the successful adoption and implementation of community policing.



Photo: Internally displaced Sudanese line up to fill their water containers at the Abu Shouk camp, home of some 100,000 refugees in Darfur May 25, 2005. The African Union (AU) celebrates Africa Day on Wednesday, marking the anniversary of the founding in 1963 of the Organisation of African Unity, replaced in 2002 by the AU as the driving force behind the struggle for peace, democracy, development, human rights and good governance on the worlds poorest continent. REUTERS/Beatrice Mategwa

Tags: Darfur Sudan African+Union Africa

Sudan: Women take brunt of human rights abuse: Amnesty

In no way am I a feminist but I do feel strongly that women should be in charge of African countries for a change. To nurture peace and help heal. Africa needs mothering. By great innovative women such as:

Wangari Maathai in Kenya
Gertrude Mongella in Tanzania
Winnie Byanyima in Uganda

Last year, Bishop Desmond Tutu said women should rule the world. Media baron Ted Turner said men have made such a mess of things, women should rule for 100 years. How many women have been in power in the Sudan since the year dot? None I guess. Radical change is needed. Too many boys playing with their toys have had things their own way for far too long.

What good do they do? See AFPs report on the latest from London-based Amnesty International. Here is a copy:

Women and girls faced "horrific" levels of abuse in 2004 worldwide, Amnesty International said in its annual human rights review, blaming widespread rape and violence on a mix of "indifference, apathy and impunity".

From honour killings carried out by the victims' families to sexual violence used as a weapon of war, abuse frequently went unpunished and survivors were often abandoned by their own communities, the London-based group said.

Amnesty said it had sought in the past year to argue that violence against women in conflict situations was "an extreme manifestation of the discrimination and abuse they face in peacetime", notably domestic violence and sexual abuse.

"When political tensions degenerate into outright conflict, all forms of violence increase, including rape and other forms of sexual violence against women."

The annual report, covering 131 countries, noted abuse across the world but highlighted several grave examples: in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), both armed groups and UN forces are guilty of rape; in Turkey, family abuse of women is widespread; in Darfur, Sudan, gang rape is systemic; and in eastern Europe, economic need fuels the trafficking of women.

In Darfur, where a local rebellion sparked a brutal government backlash, Khartoum-backed militias have staged mass rapes, including of schoolgirls, and "frequently abducted" local women into sexual slavery, Amnesty said.

Tens of thousands of women and girls were also subject to rape and sexual slavery in the DRC, and as in Darfur, victims were often then abandoned by their husbands and families, "condemning them and their children to extreme poverty".

All parties in the ongoing conflicts in the eastern DRC have committed the abuses against women, including military and police officers, and United Nations peacekeepers charged with the protection of civilians.

The two African cases were "not exceptional", Amnesty warned.

Latin America had the highest risk of all types of sexual victimisation, according to UN report findings cited by Amnesty.

In Colombia, the group said, security forces, left-wing rebels and paramilitaries targeted women and girls to "sow terror, wreak revenge on adversaries and accumulate 'trophies of war'."

In Turkey, between one-third and one-half of all women are estimated to be victims of physical violence by their families - raped, beaten, murdered or forced to commit suicide - while the country sorely lacked shelters and legal protection for victims.

Amnesty noted some progress in Ankara, with legal reforms that recognised marital rape as a crime and did away with the possibility that a rapist's prison sentence could be reduced or annulled if he agreed to marry his victim. Still, authorities largely failed to investigate most women's complaints of abuse.

Serbia and Montenegro "remained a source, transit and destination country" for women and girls who were trafficked to the West into forced prostitution, while the problem existed throughout the poorer countries of Eastern Europe.

"With clients including international police and troops, the women and girls are too afraid to escape," Amnesty said. -AFP
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Quotation

"When our resources become scarce, we fight over them. In managing our resources and in sustainable development, we plant the seeds of peace."

WANGARI MAATHAI, of Kenya, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Tags: Sudan Wangari+Maathai Winnie+ Byanyima Gertrude+Mongella Africa

BBC's Jonah Fisher beaten by Sudanese security forces outside Khartoum, Sudan

Sudanese security forces are savage morons. If this is what they do to reporters with credentials, imagine what befell the poor people who were carted off by police for questioning after a riot in which 14 policemen were killed.

BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher in Khartoum describes in a report yesterday what happened to him, a photographer and their taxi driver upon arrival at the displaced persons settlement of Soba Aradi on the outskirts of Khartoum at 0730. Here is a copy of his sickening report:

The security cordon had been up for a few hours. Every 10 metres, there was a riot policeman or soldier, backed up along the line by machine-guns mounted on the back of pick-up trucks. No-one was allowed in or out.

The men were tense, each no doubt aware of what had happened six days earlier when 14 policemen were killed along with a number of residents, including a child.

Having been warned away from the cordon by security, I retreated to my taxi with a news agency photographer, watching what was going on from a distance.

We saw soldiers going from house to house, and people put in trucks and driven away.

Beaten

After about an hour, my colleague ventured out of the taxi to try and take some photos.

When they saw this, security forces raced towards us and our taxi.



BBC Photo: Last week, 14 policemen were killed here in riots

Despite immediately showing our press credentials, the photographer, myself, and the taxi driver were grabbed and thrown into the back of a truck.

We were made to squat on the floor, and were hit repeatedly on the back of our heads as we were driven away.

On the drive through Soba Aradi to the security headquarters, we saw the scale of the operation.

More than 6,000 soldiers and police officers had been deployed in an overwhelming show of force.

Release

Once at the headquarters, we were forced on our knees in front of their commander, a man named Badawi.

He snarled at us, but his hostile attitude soon disappeared when we were allowed to telephone senior people in the government press office to prove our identities.

A small graze on my hand was gently swabbed and bandaged in the back of a van as they made arrangements for us to be released.

Badawi stood there chatting to me, assuring me that what we'd just experienced was "standard procedure, so no problem".

I told him we'd been hit.

"Point me out the man and I will punch him in the face myself," he assured me. I said I couldn't remember.

Less than an hour after our arrest, we were released outside Soba Aradi police station.

The next truckload of arrested people was just arriving.

Men both old and young, as well as two women, were taken off.

There was no sign of resistance, but the enthusiastic use of the cane which I had seen all day was evident both from the guard's swinging arms and the blood on some of the men's shirts.



Photo: A group of arrested people wait to be loaded into trucks to take them to central Khartoum from their camp for displaced people just south of the town Tuesday, May 24, 2005. Thousands of police descended on the camp Tuesday to make arrests in connection with deadly clashes last week between police and residents resisting being moved.

State Minister of Interior Ahmed Mohamed Haroon told reporters 50 camp residents were arrested in an operation that began early Tuesday in connection with last week's violence, which left 14 policemen and three civilians dead. He said six others had been arrested earlier. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)

Tags: Darfur Sudan BBC Jonah+Fisher Africa

Britain to send military advisers and civilian vehicles to Darfur Sudan

UPI report May 24 says Britain will send military advisers and civilian vehicles to Darfur but not troops, Defence Secretary John Reid has said.

Reid said Britain was offering 600 civilian vehicles, military headquarters' support and planners to support the AU peacekeeping mission.

Britain is also expected to offer extra funds to provide additional logistical support.

Other countries pledging help included France and Spain, which will provide aircraft to transport African troops, and Holland, which has offered communications.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Britain France Spain Africa

Sudan forces surround southerners in Soba Aradi

May 24 reports from BBC and SiberNews. Excerpts:

More than 1,000 armed Sudanese security forces have surrounded an illegal shanty town full of Southerners about 30km south of Khartoum, where violent clashes killed at least 17 policemen and residents last week.

Machine guns mounted on pick-up vehicle are pointing at the ramshackle houses in Soba Aradi which is in a suburb of the capital, Khartoum. Several lorry loads of men and women have been arrested, beaten with sticks and taken to a local police station.

Last week 14 policemen died during an attempt to resettle residents. Officials said most of the victims died as crowds massed around the police station and burned it down.

A spokesman for the residents said no-one was being allowed out of Soba Aradi.

"They have cordoned off all areas and have taken tough measures to stop people leaving," Mohamed Ahmed Abdel Gader Arbab told Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher says two million southerners squat illegally around Khartoum.

He says the Sudanese government has a long standing policy of trying to resettle these communities, but it is often to barren, desert sites that the people don't want to go to.

But Khartoum's governor, Abdul Haleem Mutafi, said police were hunting for known suspects in what was a criminal operation.

"This is nothing to do with the transfer of people. This is related to the security in the area. There are so many criminals in Soba Aradi," he told Reuters.
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A Reuters correspondent reports seeing at least 20 police vehicles and six lorries full of soldiers in an area outside the camp. Excerpt:

The police were heavily armed, with machine guns mounted on many of the vehicles.

The police were searching homes and had beaten some people before taking them away. It was not possible to say exactly how many had been detained.

A Reuters photographer and a driver as well as a BBC correspondent were released from police custody after being beaten and detained. The three men suffered bruising.

Security officials had said the detentions were a mistake.
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UPDATE May 24: Sudan'S State Minister of Interior Ahmed Mohamed Haroon told reporters 50 camp residents were arrested in an operation that began early Tuesday May 24, 2005 in connection with last week'S violence, which left 14 policemen and three civilians dead. Thousands of police descended on a camp for displaced people Tuesday to make arrests in connection with deadly clashes last week between police and residents resisting being moved. Abdul Haleem Mutaafi, the governor of Khartoum state, has said he planned to remove about 2,000 people who had settled in the camp from war zones in Sudan's south and west and send them elsewhere. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)

Tags: Soba+Aradi Sudan Khartoum Reuters BBC Africa

China has promised to join UN peacekeeping force in South Sudan

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ismail is currently in Vietnam after visiting China. He told the press today China has promised to join the UN peacekeeping force in southern Sudan.

[It would be interesting to know what John Garang thinks of such news. A few months ago, his team hotly objected to troops from any countries with commercial interests in the Sudan as they are bound to be onside with Khartoum.

News reports are emerging once again about French energy giant Total pursuing its legal right to explore oil in southern Sudan - the same area of land that Dr Garang's team signed over to fledgling White Nile, a UK-based shell company that has no experience of oil exploration but provides an entry to the prestigious London markets.]

Recent posts re oil in South Sudan and Darfur:

March 28, 2005: Sudan signs $400m contract with Sudanese White Nile Petroleum for oil field development in southern Sudan
April 18, 2005: White Nile must provide another document to relist shares
April 16, 2005: Sudan says oil discovered in impoverished Darfur
April 3, 2005: Sudan Watch: Oil found in South Darfur - Oil issues threaten to derail Sudan hopes for peace
Use search bar at top of this page for key words, ie oil, China, White Nile.
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Egyptian parliament approves sending troops to Darfur

The Egyptian People's Assembly (PA),the lower house of the parliament, approved Monday (May 23) a decision by President Hosni Mubarak on sending peacekeeping forces to Darfur, the official MENA news agency reported.

The PA said under the request of the UN, Mubarak has proposed to send peacekeeping forces to Darfur for a period of six years, adding that Sudan's security has much to do with Egypt's security.- via SudanTribune May 23, 2005.
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Sudan to set up criminal court to try war crimes in Darfur

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ismail said Sudan will set up a court to try Sudanese citizens accused of war crimes in Darfur within the next three months at the latest.

The UN Security Council in March referred Darfur war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. But it also left the door open for Sudan to hold its own trials provided these were credible, saying the ICC should encourage such domestic efforts.

Speaking to the press in China, the minister said that Khartoum is cooperating with the AU in this respect and that a Sudanese committee, headed by the minister of justice, would shortly announce the setting up of the court and name the general prosecutor.

Ismail promised the trials would be public and under the supervision of the AU adding that the ICC should encourage such local efforts. Full Story via Sudan Tribune May 22, 2005.



Photo: A special judge, sits in court in Nyala Sept 30, 2004 to try six Sudanese men accused of belonging to the Janjaweed, who killed 24 people in the southern Darfur region in Oct 2003. (Reuters).
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Security police censor English-language daily

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today (May 23) at the action of the Sudanese state security police in banning an entire issue of the English-language Khartoum Monitor newspaper in the earlier hours of 21 May after the editor refused to withdraw a report and an editorial, and then returning the following evening to scrutinise the content of the next day's issue.

[Note, IFEX covers the same news story and points out that Article 19 promotes free expression in peace process.]

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa Egypt China Censorship

EU supports Darfur's peace force and offers airlift for Darfur operation

Further to a recent post here, the EUobserver confirms the EU defence ministers meeting in Brussels today offered to provide air transport assistance to the African Union (AU) for Darfur - stressing that the bloc would not be stepping on NATO's toes. Excerpt:

"All of the ministers took the view that the EU must respond positively", said Luxembourg defence minister Luc Frieden, speaking of the African Union's call for help earlier this month.

"The European Union has had a long presence in Africa and good ties with the AU, it's on that basis that we are building this mission in Darfur", said Mr Frieden.

However, he stressed that the EU was aware that it should not get into "competition" with NATO, which is already drawing up plans for military assistance to the African Union force and which has an overlapping membership with the EU.

But there appeared to be confusion about what had been finally agreed. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that the 25-nation bloc could provide airlift capabilities.

He said that as soon as the African troops are ready, the EU would provide assistance to airlift soldiers.

"As soon as the troops are ready, we'll be ready to transport them to theatre", said Mr Solana.

France has offered to provide air transport for up to 1,200 soldiers.

But the British defence secretary, John Reid, who repeatedly stressed the importance of working with NATO, implied that a final decision had not yet been taken.

The EU was also at pains to stress that this is an operation that is to be run by the African Union.

"The soldiers which are there are African Union soldiers", said Mr Solana while Mr Frieden said "the most important aspect of the operation will not be to provide military personnel".

Complete list

The ministers agreed that they would complete a list of what they would provide to the African Union within the next 48 hours, but some countries appeared to be reluctant with the British defence secretary pointing out how many other committments his country already had - particularly in Iraq.

The defence ministers discussion on Monday follows an appeal by the AU's head, Alpha Oumar Konare, to both the EU and NATO earlier this month for help to end the civil war in Sudan which has claimed around 300,000 lives through violence, hunger and disease.

The Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003 after rebels took up arms against the government. Khartoum was then accused of retaliating by arming local Arab militia, who murdered and raped ordinary civilians.

Both Mr Solana and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the head of NATO, will on Thursday attend a conference in Addis Ababa to co-ordinate offers of help in the Darfur region.



Photo: French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie greets British counterpart John Reid in Brussels. The European Union pledged to coordinate with NATO in providing support personnel, training and equipment - including anything from vehicles, weapons and tents, playing down any strains over who should do what. (AFP/Gerard Cerles)

Supporting the Sudan mission has fueled some tension between the EU and NATO; more precisely, between the US and France, whose foreign minister Michel Barnier said NATO should not be "the world's policeman." - via DefenseNews May 23, 2005.
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EU offers airlift for Darfur operation

BBC confirms the EU has pledged planes and lorries to transport thousands of African troops to Darfur.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana noted that four countries - Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal and Nigeria - had offered troops for the Darfur mission, and said the European bloc could for example provide air transport for them.

"As soon as the troops ... are ready, we will be ready to transport them to the theatre" of operations, he said.

Full Report by Honor Mahony EUobserver Brussels May 23, 2005.



Photo: EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana (Photo: The Council of the European Union) AU lists military hardware it needs from donors for Darfur peacekeeping.
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Full text: Jose Manuel Barroso's speech

Full text of speech given by the president of the European commission to the European partnership for aid and development at the London School of Economics, Friday May 20, 2005. - via Guardian UK May 23, 2005.
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AU hosts meeting on Darfur May 26 along with UN chief, NATO and EU leaders

The African Union (AU) will host a donors' meeting on the Darfur crisis May 26 in Addis Ababa, along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as well as NATO and EU leaders.

From Addis, Mr Annan is scheduled to travel to Khartoum to meet Sudanese Government officials, AU officials and UN system representatives. In Rumbek, he is scheduled to meet John Garang, Chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which fought a war against the Sudanese Government for many years before reaching a peace agreement and getting some autonomy this year.

Last month, the pan-African body agreed to increase the size of its Darfur mission from 3,320 to 7,731 by the end of September and appealed to the AU's 53 members to support the operation with troops and cash. - via DefenseNews May 23, 2005.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

UN Sudan Situation Report 22 May 2005 - One dead, nine wounded in clash at Darfur camp

Click here to read full text of United Nations Country Team in Sudan (UNCT) report posted at ReliefWeb May 22, 2005.
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One dead, nine wounded in clash at Darfur camp, UN in Sudan confirms

UN News report 23 May 2005 excerpt:

UNMIS reported that on 19 May, a clash between police and merchants in Kalma camp housing internally displaced persons (IDPs) in South Darfur state reportedly resulted in one civilian death and nine injuries - six IDPs and three policemen.

Following the incident, police from the African Union (AU) mission in Darfur and elements of the AU Protection Force established a round-the-clock presence at the camp. The situation appears to have calmed, and yesterday, agencies were allowed to re-enter the camp to resume humanitarian assistance.

Meanwhile, in the North Darfur area of El-Fasher, the AU received reports of fighting in the areas of Amou valley near Turiyaa between the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) factions, and armed tribesmen.

In West Darfur, heavy fighting reportedly broke out near Golo, Jebel Marra, between SLA and Government forces on 16 and 17 May. On 19 May, a series of reported cattle-rustling related incidents between nomads and local farmers and Chadian-Zagawa nomads north of Seleah resulted in several deaths.

UNMIS said the situation in Seleah presently is calm, but tensions still high, and the probability of further conflicts is also high. The Mission has not yet suspended movement through Seleah, but is monitoring the security situation closely.

AU limits locations of warring sides in Darfur - Africans must change negative media image says Rwanda's President

The African Union (AU) began its operation today to limit the locations of forces of both the Sudanese government and the rebel groups in Darfur, local media said.

The AU team of verification and limitations of locations in Darfur started its visit to Darfur to specify the locations controlled by the warring parties in accordance with the ceasefire agreement signed in April 2004.

Full Report via Xinhua/ST May 22, 2005.


Photo: Rebels from JEM, one of Darfur's main rebel groups (Reuters/Sudan Tribune)
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Sudanese official says war in Darfur complex

David Rosenberg, coordinator of the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition who attended a forum said the deputy ambassador for Sudan in the US was presenting disinformation at the forum.

"He is coming to talk to Muslims, who understandably want to feel pride in their traditions, and enlist them in his propaganda campaign," Rosenberg said. Full Story at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Ann Rodgers via Sudan Tribune May 22, 2005. Excerpt:

The Sudanese deputy ambassador in the USA argued yesterday at a forum that complex regional ethnic and economic rivalries started the war in Darfur, and that the Sudanese government had a legitimate right to intervene.

He described Darfur as plagued by ethnic and tribal conflicts, despite centuries of intermarriage that have made the rivals indistinguishable from one another. The recently resolved 20-year civil war in the southern region of Sudan made arms readily accessible to these groups, who did not believe the national government would protect them.

When armed groups destroyed government airplanes and captured the top Sudanese Air Force general in 2003, the government responded, he said. "This is a tribal conflict ... but I am not saying that is the whole thing," he said. He also cited "ecological problems" over control of access to grazing lands and other natural resources.

He argued that the 16-year-old national government has benefitted Darfur, increasing public high schools from 16 to 250, universities from zero to three and hospitals from three to 23. He referred to the Janjaweed, a group of raiders accused of mass murder, rape and other crimes, as "outlaws."
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Africans must change negative media image - Kagame

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Rwanda's President Kagame says the international media had portrayed the 1994 genocide as the result of primitive tribal killings, rather than an organised campaign perpetrated by the former government, reducing pressure for outside powers to act. Excerpt:

Rwanda's president accused western media on Sunday of portraying Africa as a continent wracked with poverty, war and disease, and he challenged Africans to change that image.

"One of the reasons Africa is unable to attract enough foreign direct investment, which we need for our development, is the constant negative reporting," President Paul Kagame said in an address to the International Press Institute World Congress.

Kagame said it was a common belief on the continent that the international press gives Africa only negative coverage and ignores positive developments on the continent.

"I believe that we in Africa must take responsibility for the sorry state of affairs in our continent, most of which form and generate the kind of reporting that we have witnessed," Kagame said.

Kagame said in his own country, the international media had portrayed the 1994 genocide as the result of primitive tribal killings, rather than an organised campaign perpetrated by the former government, reducing pressure for outside powers to act.

"Constant reference by the media to tribal killings, civil war, anarchy and chaos obscured and minimised the genocide that was taking place and the complicity and indifference of some powers," he said.

"As a result the U.N. member states were not called upon to recognise the genocide that was under way and did not feel compelled to take the appropriate action".

Paris-based press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders says Rwanda's government has harassed and arbitrarily detained several journalists in recent years, undermining press freedom in the tiny central African country.

Kagame urged the media to highlight efforts by the continent to come up with African solutions to the conflicts in Burundi, Sudan, Somalia and Ivory Coast.

The International Press Institute, a group comprised of journalists, editors and media executives from more than 120 countries, is meeting in Nairobi to discuss press freedom, with a particular focus on Africa.

Full Report by Wangui Kanina via Reuters May 22, 2005.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Kagame Propaganda

Sudan's Soba massacre, or the unwise Khartoum State land policy - IMF chief visits Chad

Sudan's police ordered a printing house to stop printing Saturday's edition of the Khartoum Monitor, Sudan's only English-language newspaper, after the editor refused to change an article and an editorial that criticised the government's treatment of displaced people.

The newspaper reported eyewitnesses saying 33 people were killed and that police had fired into the crowd. The report did not include the government version of the story, which said no weapons were fired.

Sudan has a history of suspending newspapers and detaining journalists. The government has officially lifted state censorship of newspapers but press restrictions continue.



Photo: An armed Sudanese policeman contains women and men as they wait to receive food staples at a distribution point in the Internally Displaced Camp (IDP) of Mourni, the largest in West Darfur. At least 17 people were killed in clashes between refugees and police in a squatter area some 10 kilometres (six miles) east of the Sudanese capital, police said.(AFP/File/Cris Bouroncle)
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Lone woman on a mission



Photo (ADF) Squadron Leader Ruth Elsley, 36, is looming as a legend in Khartoum. She is the first woman to become the head of an Australian Defence Force's overseas contingent, leading Australia's 15-person team as part of the United Nations' peacekeeping mission, Operation Azure.

And to date, Squadron Leader Elsley is the only woman officer in Khartoum among some 170 males from about 40 countries who comprise the headquarters staff. - Full Story at Air Force News.
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Mine clearing course for Sudanese

May 20 AllAfrica report says military personnel from Sudan will be trained at a recently opened centre for education in mine clearing. Excerpt:

The Sh500 million International Mine Action Training Centre will drill the soldiers on de-mining and neutralising landmines in their country in line with the recent peace agreement and plans to resettle refugees.

There are about 80,000 Sudanese refugees at Kakuma camp in Turkana District, near the border with Sudan.

The soldiers will join 100 Kenyan military engineers already training at the centre located in Embakasi, Nairobi, before being deployed at home. They will be followed by a 75-strong company from Sudan's integrated forces.

The Sudanese will be expected to complete their training and return home to clear the landmines, especially in the south, before the more than 200,000 refugees in Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia are repatriated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

On Tuesday, the UNHCR's local representative, Mr George Okoth-Obbo, announced he expected to conclude the Sh7.3 billion repatriation job by October. It would include awareness programmes on landmines and Aids.
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International Monetary Fund chief visits Chad



Photo: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Rodrigo Rato visits a medical centre in tent at Oure Cassoni camp, Chad May 20, 2005. The camp on the Chad-Sudan border is home to over 26,000 refugees. (Reuters/IMF/Stephen Jaffe/Handout) Full Report.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa Ruth+Elsley Chad IMF

Sudanese govt still supporting Ugandan rebel group LRA

A news report from Uganda says accusations have emerged that the Sudanese government still supports the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. The new claims emerged at meeting of civil society groups in Juba by the head of the Anglican Church in Lomega, Rev. Paul Jugusuku.

"The Sudan government is still supporting the LRA," Rev. Jugusuku told the BBC's Network Africa adding, "Every night I have been in Juba the antonov comes and drops food and ammunition to the LRA."

The accusations come two days after the Sudan government renewed the protocol allowing Ugandan forces to operate in south Sudan to fight the LRA rebels. Full Report by The Monitor via Sudan Tribune, May 20. 2005.



Photo: Joseph Kony, leader of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels (ST)

Sudan Tribune report May 21 says John Garang calls for reconciliation and unity among southern Sudanese.

Note, the report makes no mention of Khartoum recently renewing its agreement with Uganda to allow Ugandan troops into southern Sudan to fight the LRA group of Ugandan rebels that many say are supported by Khartoum.

However, it does say some critics, who say SPLM/A leader John Garang essentially acts in the interests of his Dinka people - the largest ethnic group in southern Sudan - warn that militia groups opposing him could move in, once Sudanese government troops withdrew from their southern positions in August.

Read more on LRA at Uganda Watch and Sudan Watch.
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Militia blocks aid delivery in Southern Sudan

Part of a major UN aid operation in Sudan has been suspended and is under review after a militia leader blocked the delivery of food, reports the BBC.



Photo: A barge carrying tonnes of food aid leaves New Fanjak in southern Sudan May 18, 2005. The UN. has suspended an aid operation after a pro-government militia leader blocked the delivery of food. The aid operation is now being re-evalauted, following security concerns after the assistance was rejected, May 18, 2005. (Reuters/ST)



Photo: Southern Sudanese men carry bags of food back onto a barge carrying food aid in New Fanjak in southern Sudan May 18, 2005. Distribution did not place as planned but is expected to restart on Saturday.

The barge convoy has been delivering humanitarian aid which includes food, farm implements fishing equipment seeds and educational material for schools to populations living along the Nile river. Reuters/Beatrice Mategwa

Full Story by Jonah Fisher, BBC, southern Sudan May 18, 2005.
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Report to UN Security Council on UN assistance to the AU Mission in the Sudan

Excerpt from the Secretary-General's report to the United Nations Security Council 3 May 2005:

"AMIS has been a groundbreaking initiative for the African Union and its supporters within the international community. The Mission has accomplished a remarkable amount in a very short time and despite significant constraints. Those constraints have been identified in the report of the AU-led assessment mission. It is now critical for all concerned to do their part. States members of the African Union must now identify personnel to join AMIS; the AU Commission must strengthen planning and management capacity in order to support an expanded mission; and partners must provide the African Union with the means required to carry out a costly and challenging task."

Tags: Darfur Sudan Uganda United+Nations

NATO on alert to provide help in Darfur Sudan

Further details relating to the following report by the Guardian's diplomatic editor, Ewen MacAskill, are in yesterday's post here below entitled NATO and African Union set out plans for Darfur action:

Nato ordered its planners yesterday to begin urgently drawing up proposals to help out in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than a million displaced.

Nato's 26 ambassadors, meeting in Brussels, approved a request for help from the African Union, the pan-continental organisation, which has 2,600 troops on the ground.

This is the African Union's first peace operation and it is struggling, partly because of the scale of the crisis, partly because of a lack of experience, but mainly because of a lack of logistical support.

The AU, until now, has been reluctant to admit it is unable to cope, or to ask Nato for assistance.

The crisis in Darfur began two years ago when the Sudanese government, engaged in a conflict with rebels, used a combination of its own military and militia groups to attack isolated villages.

The UN assistant secretary general, Hedi Annabi, briefed the UN earlier this month that attacks on civilians, rape, kidnapping and banditry were on the increase. He said the attacks had been carried out by the militia.

International military involvement has grown rapidly from 12 months ago, when there were no international forces on the ground. In June last year, the AU had 10 monitors on the ground.

Soon afterwards, the AU put in 300 troops to protect them. The force has grown to 2,409 troops and 244 police. This is expected to rise to a total of about 3,200 by the summer, increasing to 7,700 in September.

A Nato official said yesterday that the organisation would not be putting troops on the ground and it should not be seen as comparable to Nato involvement in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

The priority for Nato in Darfur is to provide a team to help the AU with planning, co-ordination, communications and training.

Among the AU's requirements are helicopters, a necessity for operating in an area where roads are frequently im passable and where fast deployment is imperative in a conflict dealing with marauding militia bands.

A Canadian government representative offered at the Nato meeting to provide helicopters, and a British official said that if the US also offered to help with the airlift, that should be taken up.

A British official expressed hope that the AU force could be expanded further, to about 12,000. In addition, the UN is deploying 10,000 peacekeepers elsewhere in Sudan to maintain a ceasefire in the north-south civil war. The official suggested that eventually the two forces could merge into one UN peacekeeping force.

If it had been suggested at the outset that a UN peacekeeping force of that size, supported by Nato, would be put in place, the Sudanese government would have blocked it, the official said.

The AU presence is intended to reduce the violence and create a safe enough environment to encourage the million-plus people who have fled to camps to return home. The AU force is too small to cope with an area the size of France, and villages continue to be burned and refugees besieged in their camps. The militias have also become more difficult to deal with.

Nato only became involved in Darfur last week, when a team of two was sent from headquarters on a reconnaissance mission to the region.

The request for Nato help was made by the AU president, Alpha Oumar Konare, on Tuesday. "It is important we get the security situation under control very quickly," he said in Brussels. The Nato secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said: "The principle should be that the AU is principally responsible. Nato has no ambition to be the gendarme of the world."

The AU has also asked the EU to help, but the British official said yesterday that it did not have the heavy airlifting capacity that Nato has. Details are to be worked out at a meeting next Thursday in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia, attended by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and representatives of the AU, Nato and the EU.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

2nd Roundup: NATO and African Union set out plans for Darfur action

Further to today's Sudan Watch post African Union President visits NATO HQ Brussels, here is a second roundup up via Brussels/Tripoli (Deutsche Presse Agentur) via ReliefWeb May 17, 2005:

NATO and the African Union on Tuesday agreed joint action to end the crisis in Darfur, with the 26-nation western military alliance providing vital logistical support to African troops in the region.

A formal NATO decision on helping the AU is expected within the coming days, said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer after talks with Alpha Oumar Konare, head of the AU Commission.

Scheffer said he would be going to AU headquarters in Addis Abeba to discuss details of NATO's first mission in Africa.

Konare, who met NATO envoys in Brussels, told reporters his organisation needed help in transporting and housing African troops in Darfur as well as support in the communication sector.

But he insisted that the mission would be under AU leadership, with only African troops deployed in Darfur.

The AU wanted a "non-exclusive partnership" with NATO, Konare insisted, adding: "The AU will lead the mission (in Darfur) and will be in control."

"There will no non-African troops," he insisted. Scheffer said the alliance was planning a swift response to the AU request, saying he was confident NATO's decision-making council would agree to help AU in the coming days.

He promised "full transparency" with the European Union which is also working to help AU troops in Darfur.

NATO diplomats said the alliance could also provide equipment to AU forces struggling to bring peace to the war-ravaged region.

The United States is pressing for quick NATO assistance for the AU but France has so far been wary of alliance involvement in Africa.

Paris is expected to give the go-ahead to NATO aid for African troops but is insisting that the alliance should remain in close contact with the E.U. and the United Nations.

The E.U. has sent military advisers to help the African peacekeeping mission and is spending about 120 million dollars to cover some of the costs of the operation.

In Tripoli earlier, a meeting of representatives of seven Arab and African countries on Darfur agreed that negotiations should be resumed at the end of May in Abuja, Nigeria.

The African Union-sponsored negotiations held in the Nigerian capital broke down last December. Consecutive rounds had brought together representatives of the Sudanese government and rebel factions to discuss settling the conflict that began in February 2003.

The Tripoli gathering, hosted by Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, was attended by the presidents of Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Nigeria, Eritrea and the vice-president of Gabon. Representatives of the rebel factions were invited to the meeting, but did not attend.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose country chairs the African Union, said at the opening of the meeting late Monday that a solution to Darfur needed to come from within Africa, and that "any delay would only encourage foreign intervention in African affairs".

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustapha Othman Ismail, at a news conference in Tripoli late Monday, reiterated the government's position that any trials for crimes committed in Darfur would be held in Sudan with assistance by African legal advisers, reported MENA, Egypt's official news agency.

Ismail's comment came in response to a question about whether the government would respond to the request by the International Criminal Court in April to turn over persons suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

Sudan: African Union President visits NATO HQ Brussels

Further to Sudan Watch post April 29, 2005 entitled NATO's role in Darfur - AU commission chairman will visit NATO headquarters May 17 here is a copy of NATO's report via ReliefWeb on what happened yesterday, the first visit by a senior official of the African Union to NATO:

Mr. Alpha Oumar Konare, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, visited NATO HQ on 17 May to discuss possible Alliance support for the African Union's peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

He met for talks with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and addressed the North Atlantic Council, the Alliance's principal decision-making body.

African Union in the lead

Mr. Konare outlined the current situation in Darfur, the African Union's plans for strengthening its peacekeeping operation in the region and the support the Union would require.

The visit was a follow-up to a letter sent by Mr. Konare to the Secretary General on 26 April, suggesting discussions on the possibility of NATO providing logistical support to the African Union's peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

NATO has agreed to open exploratory talks, and the NATO Council will now discuss Mr. Konare's request, to see what support the Alliance could provide. NATO will also engage in close co-ordination with the European Union and the United Nations.

The support Mr. Konare requested included transport, training and communications.

"It is the African Union which is leading this mission," the Secretary General told reporters at a joint press point with President Konare, "It is the African Union which asked for our support."

The Secretary General was also invited by President Konare to attend talks on international support for the African Union's operation in Darfur in Addis Ababa on 26 May.

This was the first visit by a senior official of the African Union to NATO.
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Sudan: NATO to explore Darfur options

For future reference, here is a copy of a further NATO report via ReliefWeb May 18, 2005:

On 18 May the North Atlantic Council agreed to task the Alliance's military authorities to provide, as a matter of urgency, advice on possible assistance NATO could offer to the African Union in Darfur.

This advice will be prepared in full consultation and transparency with the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations.

The decision by the North Atlantic Council follows a request on 26 April by the African Union for consideration by NATO of the possibility of providing logistical support to the African Union's peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

On 17 May, Mr. Alpha Oumar Konare, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, visited NATO, providing details on the kinds of assistance that the African Union would require.

The Secretary General is due to attend talks on international support for the African Union's operation in Darfur in Addis Ababa on 26 May.
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Briefing on current issues by the NATO Spokesman

NATO Spokesman James Appathurai looks back on the key events of April. He talks about a request by the African Union for logistic support from NATO for the Union's peacekeeping operation in the Darfur region of Sudan. He then goes to preview an important Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council security forum, due to be held in May in Sweden.

Click here to download NATO Speech: Monthly briefing by the NATO Spokesman 29 April 2005 - Windows Media Player and view "Support for African Union in Darfur" or transcript. Here is an excerpt:

"Talks are beginning between NATO and the African Union but also between NATO and the European Union and the United Nations to ensure that we know what the requirements of the African Union are, what is already being provided, as I say, by the European Union, by the United Nations and on a bilateral basis, and where NATO can add value because that is absolutely the important thing here -- NATO should add value to what is already being provided to the requirements of the African Union.

So this work is going forward, the [UN] Secretary General is of course in direct contact with his counterparts in the other international organisations and the staffs at the working level are already in contact as well. We will see where this goes forward, an African Union delegation is expected in Brussels later in May and that will be an important time for discussions on how and whether- whether and how NATO can provide support to the AU in a pragmatic way in support of and in partnership with the other relevant organisations and countries that are providing support."

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

Darfur peace talks to resume within two weeks - Sudanese president

According to various news reports today, the mini-summit on Darfur held in Tripoli ended with an agreement to resume peace talks between rebels and Khartoum on May 30/June 1.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ismail is quoted as saying the next round of Darfur talks should be final.

At the summit, leaders of Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Eritrea and Chad reviewed the situation in Darfur, saying the conflict should be resolved within the framework of the African Union.

Full Report.



Photo: Libyan leader Col Gaddafi (C) attends an African mini-summit on Darfur in Tripoli, Libya. (AFP/Osama Ibrahim)

Note, Eritrea has good relations with all the major opposition movements in Sudan, many of them armed groups that have openly pledged from Asmara in Eritrea to overthrow the government in Khartoum.

Sudan has demanded that Eritrea not harbour armed Sudanese opponents or offer them assistance as a condition for normalising relations, Foreign Minister Ismail said. (AFP/File/Yasser al-Zayyat)

Cihan News Agency Istanbul report May 18 on summit says Sudanese Embassy Press Attache in Ankara Abdurrahim Omer Muhiddin visited Zaman Newspaper and Cihan News Agency on Tuesday. Excerpt:

Muhiddin said the genocide never took place in the region and defined the Darfur issue is an issue of the "immigrants and the locals". The issue has been distorted in the international arena claimed the Sudanese official emphasizing that the problem became an issue due to an ongoing struggle between the immigrant Arabs and Negro locals. According to Muhiddin, such points of view were absolutely erroneous. The Sudanese official said: "It is very difficult to make the distinction between the Arabs and Negroes in The Sudan. Two societies mingled with each other like finger and a finger nail."



Photo: Sudanese President Lt. Gen. Omar el-Bashir attends the 3rd African summit to discuss the Darfur crisis late Monday night May 16, 2005, in Tripoli, Libya. (AP).

"The Abuja negotiations should be resumed by the end of the month", President Bashir told reporters.

"All the countries represented at the summit agreed to send delegations to attend the Abuja talks and contribute in narrowing the views between the negotiators," he said. Full Report AFP May 17, 2005.
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Four killed as refugees near Khartoum clash with Sudanese forces

May 17 Reuters report - four people killed [Update via Reuters Sudan says 17 dead] - and dozens injured when Sudanese police and soldiers clashed with refugees from southern Sudan in a camp near Khartoum, witnesses say. Excerpt:

Slums and camps surrounding the sprawling capital are home to more than two million people from all over Sudan, but most of them are southerners who have fled two decades of civil war.

The areas have little or no running water or electricity, and aid agencies have found it difficult to fund assistance to them. Khartoum authorities say they want to demolish the slums to relocate residents to permanent, planned housing plots.

The governor of Khartoum insists the relocations are done with the consent of the people and their leaders. But the UN has criticised the policy, saying the relocations of the residents are not carried out in consultation with the people, and they are moved to desert areas miles out of the capital where there are no services.

One UN official at the scene said hundreds of people were fleeing the fighting. "It is not possible to move around inside still," the official said.

The UN sent representatives to the area to try to calm the situation.



Photo: Refugees near Khartoum clash with Sudanese forces

"The troops, army and police came in this morning and they shot at the civilians," said Majak Machar, a resident of the camp in Soba Aradi, about 30 km (19 miles) south of Khartoum.

"They wanted to take the people to another area and the people fought them because they didn't want to go."

"The civilians then attacked the police and have killed at least two of them" said Majak Machar, a resident of the camp in Soba Aradi.

May 18 update: Governor of Khartoum responds



Photo/Report Associated Press: Governer of Khartoum state, Dr Abdul Haleem Mutaafi, right, tells a press conference in Khartoum Wednesday, May 18, 2005 that a major political party which he declined to name had incited refugees of the Soba Aradi area leading to violence.

Sitting beside him in military fatigues is Tareq Mahgoub, Police director of Khartoum state. Many of the estimated two million war refugees camped around Khartoum are opposing forced relocation away from the capital. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)



Photo: Southern Sudanese refugees leave the camp in Soba Aradi, about 30 km (19 miles) south of the capital Khartoum, May 18, 2005. At least 17 people were killed and dozens wounded in clashes which erupted when Sudanese police tried to relocate refugees mainly from southern Sudan away from a camp near Khartoum on Wednesday, officials said. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin
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Sudan allows Ugandan forces to operate in Sudan

There has been no word in the press from John Garang and his former SPLM rebel group on the news that Sudan's President and Uganda's defence minister discussed Ugandan forces' deployment in Sudan under a UN mandate - and also renewed their agreement permitting Ugandan troops to continue to hunt the Ugandan LRA in Sudan.

The new agreement extends the Ugandan forces' stay in Sudan to June 30, 2005.

Presumably, the report at AllAfrica relates to South Sudan - it says the agreement, originally signed in April 2001, yielded tremendous results for Uganda. It has been renewed repeatedly since then and last expired on December 31, 2004.

"The agreement between Khartoum and SPLA has changed the entire scenario in southern Sudan," a source said.

Full Report May 17, 2005.
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Note: SOAT alert May 18 reports further arrests and detention of alleged SLA sympathisers.
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The Irish Government May 18 welcomed the release of Sudanese human rights worker Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam who was arrested in Kharthoum, ahead of his trip to Ireland to receive the inaugural Front Line award from President Mary McAleese.
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Sudan and Uganda sending troops to Somalia

Somali.net report May 16 says Sudan and Uganda are sending one battalion each to Somalia in the coming days.

Other African nations will take part in logistics and transportation of troops and equipment. These soldiers will help the new government relocate to Somalia from Nairobi, Kenya where it is temporarily located now.

Sudan and Uganda share a long border and often accuse each other of arming and training rebels.
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5,000 people in southern Sudan flee from Ugandan rebels

At least 5,000 people in southern Sudan have fled food shortages and attacks by the rebel LRA and sought refuge in northwestern Uganda since January, the UN High Commission for Refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

"[Some] said they were running away from LRA attacks, while the majority have fled their camp of Nimule in southern Sudan to Arua in Uganda due to food shortages, as relief supplies to the camp stopped some time back," UNHCR spokeswoman Roberta Russo, told IRIN on Saturday.

Full Report IRIN May 16, 2005.
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Update on Canada

Darcey in Canada explains the latest re Canadian troops for Darfur. More from Darcey later as and when there is news.

Update: Here is some: Kilgour speaks. Thanks Darcey.
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UN website for Sudan mission

Thanks to Coalition for Darfur for finding the new website of the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS).
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Let's all be hummingbirds

Warm thanks to Ansel in America for this Japanese story, courtesy of Wangari Maathai:

When the forest where the hummingbird lived went up in flames, the other animals ran out to save themselves. But the hummingbird stayed, flying to and from a nearby river with drops of water in its beak to pour on the fire.

From a distance, the other animals laughed and mocked it. "What do you think you are doing?" they shouted. "This fire is overwhelming. You can't do anything."

Finally, the hummingbird turned to them and said, "I'm doing what I can."

[We can all be like the hummingbird, doing whatever we can says Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is Kenya's deputy minister for environment, a member of parliament for the Tetu constituency, and founder of the Green Belt Movement.]

Tags: Darfur Sudan Libya Eritrea

Europeans Offer To Back Africa in Darfur - Queen's Speech

May 17 report by Lorne Cook, Agence France-Presse, Brussels via DefenseNews.com:

The European Union and NATO offered military support but no troops May 17 to an African peacekeeping mission in Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region, downplaying signs of tension over who should help.

Speaking after talks with visiting African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, the EU's executive commission proposed training police, offering strategic airlift and air observation support, and providing logistical help.

"The African Union (has) drawn our attention to the need for greater logistical support, particularly for transporting troops, particularly for housing troops, equipping troops," said EU aid commissioner Louis Michel.

"So, we have taken careful note," he told reporters.

The Darfur conflict, which pits rebels against pro-government militia, has resulted in the deaths of between 180,000 and 300,000 people and forced some 2 million others to flee their homes.

Last month, U.N. humanitarian affairs chief Jan Egeland said there was an urgent need to expand the AU's mission to prevent the number of displaced Darfur residents from rising to 3 million or 4 million.

The fighting began in February 2003 after black African groups rebelled against what they saw as persecution from Khartoum's Arab-led government.

The African Union hopes to have almost 8,000 troops in Darfur by the end of September, but EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana sought to allay any concerns that Brussels would send troops.

"The soldiers will be African Union," he said after his own brief round of talks with Konare. "The only thing the European Union is going to do is provide planners, these will be in the tens, not in the thousands."

Konare insisted that the AU wants to be in full control of the mission and that it is only seeking logistical help and support of a more general manner.

Providing support has, indirectly, been a source of tension between the EU and NATO; more precisely, between France and the United States.

France is opposed to a NATO role in Sudan - playing "the world's policeman" in the words of French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier - and Solana and NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer were clearly aware of the problem.

"There will be a meeting later in the month of all the contributors, the European Union and NATO, the member states ... meeting in Addis [Ababa, Ethiopia] to see how things can be done better," Solana said.

De Hoop Scheffer, for his part, said the alliance is looking into how it might be able to help Darfur in "full transparency with the European Union."

"I'm confident that NATO will be able to answer the call," he said, alluding potentially to what would effectively be the first alliance mission in Africa.

"NATO does not have the ambition of being the world's policeman," he went on, and said it would be possible "to imagine a certain division of responsibilities."

"Who would do what, is a little early to say," de Hoop Scheffer added.
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Full text of the Queen's Speech

FT.com publishes the full text of the Queen's speech at the state opening of parliament on May 17, 2005.

Note, it includes the line: "My Government will continue to push for a resolution of the conflict in Darfur."

Tags: Darfur Sudan Chad Africa NATO European Union African Union

UNICEF estimates the number of people in Darfur camps will increase to more than 3,000,000 in coming month

Now that online shopping and donating to humanitarian causes is so easy, I have decided to only shop at charities for cards and gifts. One of my favourites for children is the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF.

A few weeks ago, I did most of my Christmas shopping at UNICEF's online shop. Loads of cards. Good quality wooden children's toys and other nice gifts. Plus I ordered 20 Make Poverty History white bangles to drop inside greetings cards and Christmas stockings for children.

Within a few days of placing the order online, a neatly packed box was delivered direct to my door with a note saying the bangles are out of stock but would follow by mail in a few weeks.

Please read this excerpt from a report on Darfur by UNICEF UK May 10, 2005:

Signs of drought are everywhere. Whole villages are being abandoned as residents seek stable and safe access to water. The situation is even worse for displaced people living in the camps. UNICEF estimates that in the upcoming months the population in the camps will swell by an additional half million, bringing the total number of displaced people in Darfur to above 3,000,000.

The scenes at wells are equally chaotic. In Musbat, thousands will wait in line before sunrise for access to the only hand-pump in the town. Children are often pushed aside while waiting to fetch water. "These kids are probably expending more than a third of their daily calorie intake on water collection," said Brendan Doyle, a water and sanitation consultant for UNICEF. "They're returning to their families carrying containers of water outweighing themselves."

Photo: A UNICEF handpump has been positioned between the Al Riyad camp and El Geneina, enabling both communities to share access and interact. This also helps reduce potential friction between the two groups. (UNICEF UK/Kathryn Irwin)
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Darfur's children drop out of school in search of water

Bad news. Another emergency within an emergency. Darfur's children are dropping out of school to search for water.

See UNICEF's report on Darfur May 10, 2005. Excerpt:

Abdallah Hurry, a teacher at the Musbat elementary school in North Darfur, is losing students. Malnutrition and ongoing conflict have contributed immensely to the problem. These days, however, Abdallah is also losing students due to the lack of sufficient safe drinking water.

Extreme thirst is forcing students at Musbat and other schools in the area to spend their days trudging through the parched landscape. Besides dehydration, excursions into the surrounding landscape to find water expose children to other dangers, including sexual abuse from marauding rebel militias.

Across the North Darfur region, access to water is becoming scarce. Very little rainfall has caused scores of watering holes to dry up, while other wells have been poisoned by carcasses of dead animals. In addition, Government neglect of the water infrastructure has rendered half the area's pumps inoperable.

"What's happening here is an emergency within an emergency," warned Keith Mackenzie, UNICEF's Special Representative for the Darfur Crisis. "We've seen large scale displacement because of the conflict. Now it's happening because of the lack of food and water."

Photo: A man teaches a large group of children at a UNICEF-assisted school in the Kounoungo camp for Sudanese refugees. (UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt)



Photo: Children, accompanied by their teachers, wave UNICEF-supplied notebooks at their temporary school in an IDP camp in the town of Kass. Some 30,000 IDPs have taken refuge in the town - doubling its population. (UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt)
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Martin Bell reports direct from Darfur

A report [not dated] at UNICEF's website says UNICEF UK Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies and former BBC Correspondent Martin Bell travelled to Darfur to document the deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Martin sent a video report from a camp near the town of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.

Click here for Martin's latest video report.

[Note, I am a Mac user without the right application to view the video.]



Photo: An emaciated 16-month-old boy, Wayel, who is suffering from severe malnutrition, drinks from a glass held by an adult, at the UNICEF supported El Fasher Teaching Hospital in North Darfur. (UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt)
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Support to humanitarian organisations on the ground is vital

UNICEF says lack of food and water may also cause health problems and malnutrition and is concerned for the 1.5 million children under the age of 18 currently being affected.

"Support to humanitarian organisations on the ground is vital to ensure that they have the resources to fulfil their mandate", said Keith McKenzie, UNICEF's Special Representative in Darfur.

With 160 staff on the ground, UNICEF is supporting the following:

Education is a key intervention that provides a protective environment for children. Currently there are 180,000 children in school of the 450,000 school aged children, this is the highest enrolment rate in 30 years. In addition UNICEF supports child friendly spaces and provides training for troops, humanitarian and government workers on the protection of children.

Nutrition: UNICEF is responsible for providing supplies as well as technical assistance to therapeutic feeding centres.

Health: Providing essential drugs and training to 170 health centres

Water: Providing clean water and sanitation facilities.



Photo: Refugee children and women walk amidst their makeshift shelters in the Touloum camp, 80 kilometres from the Chad-Sudan border. The camp hosts an estimated 5,800 refugees from Darfur. (UNICEF/Hugues Laurenge)

Note UNICEF activities in Sudan and Chad.



Photo: A woman, Kaltoom Haj Tahir, feeds one of her seven children in the Abu Shouk IDP camp near El Fasher. The Abu Shouk camp shelters more than 30,000 IDPs. UNICEF is supporting the provision of health services, safe water and plastic sheeting in the camp. (UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt)
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UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow and son visit Sudan

Last November, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow and her son Seamus visited IDP camps in Darfur.

16-year-old Seamus is a UNICEF Youth Ambassador and is concerned about the effect of the conflict on boys and young men. He spoke with a number of teenagers and says they run the risk of joining armed groups.

"For the boys my age, the problem is they have nothing to do," he says. "They are really just stagnating in these communities. It's a big problem in that they are being recruited into local militias and resorting to banditry because they can't make their usual living, which is farming the land and pursuing business."



Photo: Mia Farrow and son Seamus review drawings made by children in a 'Safe Play Centre' in the Kalma camp for displaced people, near the city of Nyala. UNICEF helped to build the centre. (UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani)
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Vaccination campaign against meningitis planned in West Darfur

An IRIN report today May 17 says a vaccination campaign against meningitis is to be carried out in the Abu Seroj IDP camp in West Darfur after the UN World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed an outbreak of the disease there, health officials said.

"We moved the vaccines from Khartoum to El Geneina [the capital of West Darfur] on Monday and expect to start the vaccinations in two to three days," Gouido Sabatinelli, WHO Representative in Sudan, told IRIN on Tuesday.

"The next few days will be critical," Sonja Nieuwenhuis, senior health manager in West Darfur for the Swiss-based humanitarian organisation Medair, said in a statement.
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UN food agency warns of looming aid shortage

The UN World Food Programme said today May 17 it would soon have to reduce rations to refugees in Africa unless donors came up quickly with the $315 milllion it needed.

It still needs to 'pre-position' food for 200,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad and 60,000 Eritreans in Sudan before the onset of the rainy season in July.

[Note, If 60,000 Eritreans need to be in camps in the Sudan, things must be pretty bad in Eritrea.]

Tags: Darfur Sudan Chad Africa UNICEF

Blogging The Darfur Collection - UK Commission for Africa - Open Source Radio

Warm thanks to Catez in New Zealand at Allthings2all for putting together The Darfur Collection which brings together various bloggers who share a common concern for the people of Sudan, particularly Darfur.

The Darfur Collection was just published a few minutes ago. More on this at a later date. Thank you to Catez for featuring a post from the November archives of Sudan Watch.
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A Postcard from Khartoum

'Every place has a story; it's just that some stories are harder to tell then others. The Sudan is one of those places whose story is really hard to tell,' writes Lachlan Harris in a web magazine article entitled 'A Postcard from Khartoum.'


Photo: Khartoum

Excerpt from A Postcard from Khartoum May 16. 2005:

"It is not just the cuisine that is so limited; the entire country seems to be lacking the basic hallmarks of organisation and investment that are the calling cards of modern life. Outside the capital there are no traffic lights, bridges, signs announcing city names, or indications of directions. In fact, in the North, which is harsh desert country, there are no roads at all between the major towns, with drivers simply pointing their vehicles across the desert towards the next town, while trying to avoid the drifts of soft sand that trap any vehicle unlucky enough to drive into them.

Linking the towns and the capital is a maze of truck, bus, and minibus transport that, even to the locals, is mind-bogglingly chaotic. Transport simply arrives and leaves when it arrives and leaves. If you want to catch this bus, or that truck, then you must wait at a loosely defined meeting point until it arrives, otherwise it will simply leave without you. Cynical about the magnitude of this disorganisation, I was quickly disavowed of this naïve doubt by a two-day wait for a bus in the border town of Whadi Halfa. After this, it took me almost another week to make the 1500 kilometre journey to Khartoum.

As well as heavily limiting where you can travel in the Sudan (nowhere South of Khartoum, or about 50% of the country), the police simply do not let visitors take photos. Even in the remotest of towns, removing your camera from your bag is sure to attract the attention of the police. If you're lucky you're told to put it away, unlucky and you're dragged to the police station for interrogation until you disprove the suspicion you are a foreign spy."
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Map courtesy of Will in Uganda


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UK Commission for Africa

Prime Minister Tony Blair has made Africa one of his top international priorities during 2005 when the UK has Presidency of the G8 says Downing Street May 11, 2005.

In a recent speech he said there was 'no excuse, no defence, no justification' for the plight of the continent.

He set up the Commission for Africa to tackle some of the biggest problems head on. Its report was published in March and will be discussed at the G8 summit in Scotland this July.


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Open Source. It'll be a radio show. May 30, 2005

Here is a don't miss, must-do: listen to Open Source's pilot on podcasting and bloggers without borders. Hear phone interviews and discussions with Rebecca and Ethan of Global Voices, and several other bloggers, hosted by smooth (and thankfully not-so-fast) talking American Christopher Lydon at Harvad's Berkman.

Historic stuff. Keep it for your archives.



See Ethan's follow-up post On hold with Chris Lydon.


Photo: Christopher Lydon At Creative Commons Anniversary 2003 (Courtesy Joi Ito/Jonas M Luster December 15, 2003)

Note also GlobalCoordinate.com Geo-Community. Click on the map to zoom in. You can add your own comments, stories, or photos at any location.
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Update May 17, 2005

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC RADIO
IN THE AGE OF PODCASTING:
Anybody can create their own public radio online

Note Rebecca MacKinnon's post linking to a live webcast from Harvard's Berkman Center today, May 17, 2005.

Jake Shapiro of the Public Radio Exchange will talk about the future of public radio in the age of podcasting, which enables anybody to create their own public radio online.

This is history in the making. Keep it for your archives.

Tags: Podcasting Radio Audioblogging MacKinnon Shapiro Berkman Harvard Zuckermann Blair Darfur Sudan Africa

Media fast for Mojtaba

Excerpt from a post at Committee to Protect Bloggers Thursday, May 19, 2005:

The CPB is asking bloggers and other concerned people to observe next Thursday, May 26 as a Media Fast for Mojtaba.

Mojtaba Saminejad, a blogger from Iran, has declared a hunger strike. He is being held at Tehran's Gohar Dashat prison, which has a reputation for mistreatment of detainees. He is being held in the general population, the overwhelming majority of which are common criminals.

Mojtaba was arrested for reporting the earlier arrest of three of his fellow Iranian bloggers. (Iran has arrested over 20 bloggers over the last year.) Iranian bloggers who have been released have reported being the victims of torture.

Read full story at Committee to Protect Bloggers: MEDIA FAST FOR MOJTABA.

[Note: this post was published here on May 19 and has moved to here so that bloggers from Iran can see the above item about podcasting]

[via Curt with thanks] Tags: Tehran Iran Mojtaba Blog Bloggers Committee+to+Protect+Bloggers

Aid to Sudan depends on peace in Darfur says EU

The European Union parliament has resolved to bypass the Sudanese government with its financial aid until significant progress to return peace to Darfur has been achieved.

The EU recently decided to release E450 million for Sudan after the signing of a peace agreement between the government and the southern rebels that ended 22 years of conflict on 9 January.

The parliament, however, said the aid intended for Sudan should be granted gradually and must be managed as much as possible by humanitarian organisations operating in the country.

The Sudanese government should not benefit from it until it ends any form of violence in Darfur and accepts to cooperate with the ICC on the abuses that have taken place in the western region, the parliament said.

The European deputies also denounced the arrrest of two Sudanese human rights organisation officials. - via PANA Brussels, Belgium May 14, 2005


Photo: Mudawi Adam

Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam was arrested on Sunday and charged with photographing military buildings and with crimes against Sudan. He remains in police custody.

See SOAT alert May 14, 2005 "Sudanese rights activist Mudawi Ibrahim facing Death Penalty."
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EU president to meet with head of AU to discuss Darfur

On Tuesday, May 17 the President of the European Union, Jose Manuel Barroso, will meet with the head of the African Union to discuss the EUs role in managing the Darfur crisis.

Note, an African Union team has arrived in Khartoum to verify the positions of government troops and rebels in Darfur, an AU spokesman in Sudan said.

The team held talks with the head of the AU mission in Sudan (AMIS), Baba Gana Kingibe, and is due to travel to Darfur on Monday to start on the verification mission. The team is led by the chairman of the joint ceasefire committee, General Mahamet Ali.
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Six-way Libya summit to discuss Darfur crisis

On Monday, May 16 a six-way African summit will be held in the Libyan capital Tripoli to probe means of solving the Darfur crisis.

The summit will be attended by leaders from Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Chad, Gabon and Eritrea.

Sudanese Foreign Minister said Saturday that the aim of the conference was to "set the stage for reaching a quick solution to the Darfur crisis."

The summit will discuss consequences of a UN Security Council resolution calling for war crime suspects in Darfur to be tried before the International Criminal Court. The Sudanese government rejected the resolution as infringing on its sovereignty.

As a leading mediator of the Darfur issue, Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa was also invited to attend the summit.

In statements to the press before heading for Libya, Moussa said that the league's participation in the summit will be the first for the pan-Arab body at such a level, though not the first time for the league to attend meetings on Darfur.

Full Report via Xinhua Cairo, May 15, 2005.

Note, Libyan leader Col Ghaddafi has invited Darfur's two main rebel groups SLM and JEM to participate in the talks. But an AFP report May 15 says they are staying away. [That's OK, Col Gaddafi is handling their interests]
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Eritrean president leaves for Libya to participate in Darfur summit

President Isaias Afwerki left for Libya Sunday morning upon an invitation extended to him by the Libyan leader Col Gaddafi to participate in the Darfur summit.


Photo: Eritrean President Afwerki
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US to help AU in Darfur, but opposes tougher action against Sudan

The Bush administration has offered Air Force transport planes and crews to airlift thousands of additional African peacekeeping troops into Darfur this summer, State Department officials say.

The airlift proposal is part of a larger effort, including at least $50 million in U.S. aid and offers of equipment and military advisors from other members of NATO, to help African countries more effectively enforce an unstable cease-fire in Darfur, the officials said in recent days.

Full Report LA Times May 12, 2005.
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Do something ... But what?

The new AU deployment won't stop the genocide in Darfur. But what other options are there? See must-read by Bradford Plumer, assistant editor of the Mother Jones website, May 11, 2005.
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German military observers fail to get visas for Sudan

Deployment of German military observers to southern Sudan may be delayed. So far, the Sudanese government has issued entry visas to hardly any of the soldiers who are supposed to help with monitoring the peace agreement in the African country as of mid-May.

According to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, the reason for the delay is occasionally seen in the pressure exerted by German diplomacy.

Germany had pilloried the human rights violations in the crisis region of Darfur early and contributed to making the brutal civil war an issue in the UN Security Council, which adopted sanctions.

The UN in New York has now noticed that other Western members of the UN mission have not received the entry visas necessary for southern Sudan, either.

This makes it difficult for the UN to station 10,000 soldiers in Africa's largest country as soon as possible.

One of a total of some 50 German soldiers has meanwhile arrived in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, another four are in Nairobi, Kenya, for preparations. - BBC via Sudan Tribune Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2005.
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Kofi Annan describes what happened at Khor Abeche

Note neat monthly report to UN Security Council by the Secretary-General 10 May, 2005. It explains about the recent attack on Khor Abeche.

Mr Annan says in April, the number of conflict-affected persons rose to 2.45 million, of whom 1.86 million are internally displaced. Extracts:

Despite existing agreements on unimpeded access for humanitarian workers, non-governmental organizations continued to be harassed by the local authorities, particularly in Southern Darfur. In Northern Darfur there were repeated incidents of harassment of humanitarian staff, including some who were temporarily detained by SLA.

The World Health Organization is preparing for the second retrospective mortality survey of conflict-affected persons in Darfur. The survey will be conducted in May, and the results are expected to be available in June.

In Saraf Omra, Northern Darfur, a blanket meningitis vaccination campaign covered approximately 80 per cent of the targeted population in response to the outbreak detected in Northern Darfur in March 2005.

Local government is contravening the letter and the spirit of the agreements on voluntary return, for example by offering incentives to internally displaced persons to return or relocate.
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Protesters urge more British action on Darfur crisis

In London, Survivors of the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide and the war in Bosnia joined a protest on Sunday calling for Britain to help stop violence in Darfur.

About 200 demonstrators held a rally near the gates of Downing Street, where Prime Minister Tony Blair lives. Some protesters unloaded a coffin symbolising the victims of unrest in Darfur from a hearse.

Full Report AP May 15, 2005.


Photo: Protesters and refugees from Darfur, Sudan lay in the street to symbolize the dead outside 10 Downing Street in central London, Monday May 2, 2005 (AP).
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Darfur Peace and Development Organization

Darfur Peace and Development's Board of Directors includes Dr. Eric Reeves of Smith College.
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Bill Gates donates

Bill Gates has kindly given Lutherans $539,000 for Sudan relief work, reports Religion Journal May 9, 2005.

U.N. WFP: Walk the World June 12 - Play free video game

Take the first step right now. Click here to feed one child for one day, then see the Walk the World events near you.

For every person who clicks above, TNT Global Express, Logistics & Mail will sponsor the cost of feeding one child for one day through the United Nations World Food Programme's Global School Feeding campaign.

Note, their blog says, as of 21:00 GMT today, 2345 children will be fed for a day through visitors clicking into the site.
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Fight Hunger: find a walk near you

"Fight Hunger: Walk the World" is a global annual event to raise the awareness and the funds needed to help end child hunger.

Last year, 40,000 people walked on 20 June in over 70 countries, and raised enough money to fund school meals for over 30,000 school children in developing countries.

Join the U.N. World Food Programme on Sunday June 12, 2005 as they 'walk the world' in 24 hours and across 24 time zones.

Visit www.fighthunger.org to find a walk near you - or start one.

Right now, there are 213 "Fight Hunger: Walk the World" events in 71 countries.

[If I were well enough, I'd participate. I used to be a rambler and have many fond memories of great walks along the south west coast of England. If anybody goes on a walk June 12, as a result of reading this post, please let me know and I will write about it here. It would make me feel like I'd virtually participated.]
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WFP launches "Food Force" - the first humanitarian video game

WFP unveils a children's video game with a difference - teaching kids how to get food fast to the site of a humanitarian crisis.



Rome, 4 May 2005 - Food Force, the free educational video game launched by WFP last month, continues to spark strong demand and positive feedback from both children and teachers alike.

The game, which aims to teach kids about the issue of global hunger, has already been downloaded 750,000 times, and players around the world have been posting their comments at www.food-force.com



Food Force video game using PC or Mac, is available as a free internet download from www.food-force.com

Tags: Darfur Sudan Chad Africa UN

U.N. WFP says 3.25m people in Darfur will now need food

The UN World Food Program says there has been a spate of attacks this month which is making it difficult to get food to people who need it.

Willing drivers are also becoming extremely difficult to find.

November estimates predicted that 2.8 million people would need to be fed in Darfur this wet season, but it appears that up to 3.25 million people will now need food, Ramiro Lopes da Silva, WFP's Country Director in Sudan, said in a statement on Thursday.



Photo: With vast distances to cover, severe transport constraints and large quantities of both food and non-food items that need to be delivered, airlifts and airdrops are effective, if expensive, ways to move aid quickly to those in need. (Photo by Julie Stewart courtesy WFP) See ENS news report.



Photo: At El Obeid, a WFP contract truck driver stands beside his load of donated food before heading for a delivery point in Darfur. (Photo by Julie Stewart courtesy WFP)
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Aid agency slams Darfur drivers' murders

Violence and lawlessness in Darfur is threatening to disrupt aid deliveries and deprive people of food, the U.N. World Food Programme said yesterday.

The warning came after two of its drivers were shot and killed and the drivers' assistant on one of the trucks was shot and wounded on Sunday.

The two drivers were killed in separate incidents while transporting food aid between Ed-Daen and Nyala in south Darfur before transportation is made difficult by rains.

They are believed to have been killed by "bandits".



Photo: WFP convoy of 21 trucks. WFP 6x6 all-terrain trucks stuck along the road from El Obeid in central Sudan to El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, last August 2004. (WFP)

"WFP strongly condemns these attacks and extends its condolences to the families of the victims. Such attacks only make drivers extremely reluctant to transport food aid in Darfur and are making it very difficult to deliver enough food before the rains," said Ramiro Lopes da Silva, WFP's Country Director in Sudan.
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Killings put Darfur aid at risk

BBC news report says pro-government militias are still burning villages in Darfur.



Photo: These containers are lined up in preparation for a water distribution. Because water is scarce in many camps, trucks haul it from other regions. In some camps refugees rely on the same contaminated water sources used by the local population.

Aid workers fear that conflicts may erupt over water. (Photo courtesy of Howard G. Buffet for World Vision - link via Tim with thanks)
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Darfur refugees clash with Chad security forces, one killed

Refugees from Darfur clashed with Chad's security forces, killing one gendarme, a UN official said Thursday.

Aid workers pulled out of the Goz Amer refugee camp in eastern Chad because it became unsafe after the clashes Wednesday, said Ginette Le Breton of the U.N. refugee agency.

Two refugees, two aid workers and another gendarme were seriously injured in the clashes, she said.

The confrontation occurred a day after paramilitary gendarmes guarding the 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad tried to prevent refugees from selling plastic sheeting they were given by the U.N. refugee agency, she said.

The gendarmes on Tuesday arrested three refugees, prompting others to protest by burning down the community center in a nearby village, she said.

It was unclear why the gendarmes sought to prevent refugees from selling their plastic sheeting, Breton said.

"They sell the sheeting to get some extra money to buy a few things not provided by aid agencies," she said.

"We are talking with the leaders to see what we can do in order to calm down the situation, restart the work in the camp and resume the protection work for the refugees," Breton said.

At least 200,000 Sudanese live in awful conditions in eastern Chad after fleeing violent conflict in Darfur, the scene of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.



Photo: A soldier of the Chad National Army rests in a position in the wadi Tine, the empty bed of a seasonal river that marks the border between Tine Chad and Tine Sudan. (AFP Geneva May 12)
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World Vision Relief in Sudan and Chad



Photo: Some 120,000 refugees call camps like this home. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees supports these camps and partners with organisations like World Vision and the WFP to provide food, water, and shelter. These organisations, along with many others, are now working to extend aid to more of the Sudanese refugees as the rainy season sets in. (World Vision - link via Tim)
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GOAL in Sudan

In Darfur the Janjaweed have implemented a reign of terror over the past two years, murdering, raping and looting with impunity. Over 400,000 people have already been killed and millions have lost their homes and livelihoods. Many more - in danger from malnutrition and disease - languish in makeshift camps scattered across the inhospitable terrain, waiting in vain for the international community to come to their rescue.

As the people of Darfur have had their homes and communities systematically destroyed, there has been no planting of crops and as a result of this, starvation and famine are imminent.

GOAL is currently implementing a life saving primary health care programme and food and non -food distribution programme in the Kutum and Jebel Mara districts of Darfur, including supplementary feeding programmes, a water and sanitation programme, well construction, the provision of shelter and the distribution of seeds. At this crucial time, the people of Darfur desperately need our support.

Source: GOAL May 12, 2005 via ReliefWeb.



Photo: Refugee women gather to collect food. Over the next six months, World Vision will work with WFP to provide more than 3,000 tons of food to 26,000 refugees in Chad

On June 13, 2004 World Vision airlifted 49 tons of emergency relief supplies to Chad and delivered them to refugee camps. The airlift contained 5,000 plastic sheets, 8,000 water containers, 2,000 kitchen sets, and 300,000 water purification tablets. These supplies benefit up to 100,000 refugees. (World Vision - link via Tim)
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Medair responds to meningitis outbreak in West Darfur

Report by Ivor Morgan, Country Director of Medair, May 12, 2005:

The population of Abu Suruj, a once sleepy little village in a remote part of West Darfur, has swelled by nearly 50% to 5,000 people in recent months. People driven from their homes by the ongoing conflict have gathered in 'Kuma Camp' on the outskirts of the town.

Most of the displaced population live in temporary shelters made of straw -- inadequate to protect against either the harsh sun or the dust storms. The increased population means there is not enough drinking water to go around, and as a result many rely on dirty water collected from the wadi, a seasonal riverbed.

The Swiss-based humanitarian organisation Medair has been providing health-care for people in the area since 2001, and has been supporting the clinic in Abu Suruj since May 2004. In recent weeks, the clinic staff in Abu Suruj reported an alarming increase in cases of suspected meningitis and of 'acute jaundice syndrome', also known as hepatitis E. A Medair Outbreak Response Team was despatched to the area to investigate the situation.

Meningitis is a disease of the central nervous system, spread through droplet inhalation (for example, from coughing). Hepatitis E is an infection of the liver, spread through dirty drinking water. Both diseases are potentially fatal, particularly in the crowded, unsanitary living conditions in Abu Suruj. Fortunately, an effective vaccination against meningitis exists, and while hepatitis E cannot be treated, it can be prevented by using clean water and good hygiene practices.

Laboratory tests have recently confirmed 5 cases of meningitis in 1 week, exceeding the threshold for an outbreak, according to international guidelines. To limit the spread of this dangerous disease, Medair will be vaccinating 19,000 people during the coming week, within a 50 km radius of Abu Saruj.

"The next few days will be critical," said Sonja Nieuwenhuis, Medair's Senior Health Manager in West Darfur. "We have trained staff, and we will work closely together with the Ministry of Health, WHO and Unicef to vaccinate nearly 20,000 people. But we need to move fast, to stop this outbreak spreading further."

Medair's Emergency Water Team is seeking to improve hygiene and provide increased quantities of safe drinking water in Abu Suruj, by constructing an additional water storage system in the village. Medair will continue to train local hygiene promoters, who are essential in any outbreak response.

"We've kept water tanks, pipe and taps in store, for just such occasions as this," explains Wim Mauritz, Medair's Senior Water & Sanitation Manager. "We can set a system up in a couple of days, to provide water for 12,000 people."

Medair's response to this outbreak has been quick and comprehensive, and is expected to save many lives. Meningitis occurs in countries across the Sahelian belt of sub-Saharan Africa, most commonly between December and June. The last outbreak in Sudan, in 1999, reportedly killed over 2,000 people.

Medair is an international non-governmental organization (NGO), based in Switzerland. It has worked in Sudan since 1995, and is the longest-serving international NGO presently in West Darfur, having worked there since 2001. Medair's activities in Darfur are funded by a number of donors including the British and Swiss governments.

Elsewhere in Sudan, Medair works with war-displaced people in Khartoum; supports health-care rehabilitation in the Nuba Mountains; is preparing a post-conflict rehabilitation programme in Upper Nile; and provides emergency medical and water assistance in Southern Sudan.
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Photo: Refugees wait in line for food in Darfur (AFP) May 12, 2005.
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Britain welcomes Canada aid to Darfur, pledges more support

London, May 13, 2005 (AFP): Britain praised Canada's pledge of aid to boost African peacekeeping efforts in Darfur, saying London was also ready to offer further assistance.

"We warmly welcome the Canadian announcement of extra support for the African Union (AU) in Darfur. The crisis still remains a top priority for the British government," said joint a statement from Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Development Secretary Hilary Benn.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said Thursday his country would give 136 million US dollars (107 million euros) over two years to Darfur, adding to 72 million US dollars Ottawa committed last month in support of a peace deal which ended the longer-lasting civil war in southern Sudan.

Canada also is to supply planes, helicopters and material for African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, as well as 100 of its own troops for both southern Sudan and Darfur.

Britain has given 14 million pounds (26 million dollars, 21 million euros) of assistance to the African Union mission observing a ceasefire between rebels and government-backed forces in the vast western region, and said it was preparing to give more this year.

Its total pledge for aid to Sudan and eastern Chad, which is dealing with the refugee exodus from neighboring Darfur, is 100 million pounds for 2005.

"The AU is preparing a list of further needs for the international community to support. We will respond positively to this," Straw and Benn said Friday.

As many as 300,000 may have died in the more than two years of violence in Darfur, which began when rebels rose up against the government in February 2003 and were put down with the help of pro-government militias.

More than two million people have been displaced, many into squalid and dangerous camps that are still targeted by the militias, known as Janjaweed.



Photo: Canadian Premier Minister Paul Martin (L) with his British counterpart Tony Blair in October 2004.
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Photo: Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin (R) and Senator Romeo Dallaire comment on the situation in the war-torn Sudan, in Ottawa, May 12, 2005. (Reuters)

Canada dismisses Sudanese protest over Darfur aid

Heh. Read between the lines of this [edited] Reuters report, May 13, 2005:

Canada said on Friday it would go ahead with plans to send military advisors to Darfur despite Khartoum's insistence that it did not want the troops to enter the country.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said Canada would send up to 100 military experts to help a African Union force in the region.

This angered Sudan, which said it would reject the deployment of non-African troops in Darfur and complained it had not been properly consulted about the Canadian plan.

Martin spokeswoman Melanie Gruer said Canada needed the approval of the African Union for the troops' deployment rather than that of Sudan.

"There is no change to the plan. We will send what we said we were going to send," she said.

"We consulted Khartoum as a courtesy. It's up to the African Union to get Sudan's approval."
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True to form, Khartoum had a swift response. Here's an excerpt from a later Reuters report May 13, 2005:

Sudan rejects Canada's offer of military advisors

Sudan has rejected a Canadian plan to send military advisors to Darfur, saying Ottawa had not consulted Khartoum on its plan, the Sudanese embassy said on Friday.

In a press release dated Thursday, the Sudanese embassy complained that Khartoum had not been consulted in advance about the plan.

"(We) would like to affirm that the unwavering position of the Sudanese government ... is categorically rejecting (sic) any deployment of non-African military personnel in the Darfur region. Any logistical and financial support is most welcomed," said the release, which was sent to Reuters on Friday.

"It is to be as well stated that any future efforts or plans on Darfur should be worked out and finalized with the satisfaction and full approval of the Sudanese government."

No one from Martin's office or the Canadian foreign ministry was immediately available for comment.
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AU, UN delegations in Sudan discuss bilateral cooperation

Saturday May 14th, 2005.

AFRICAN UNION-AFRICAN MISSION IN SUDAN

Press Release Khartoum - May 13, 2005.
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Sudan: A Nation Divided

Excellent archive at BBC News In Depth Sudan provides a great resource and overview of the Sudan crisis to date.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Chad Africa

Sudan's Darfur rebels to resume peace talks with Khartoum

Darfur rebel groups SLM and JEM announced on Friday in Rome they were willing to resume Darfur peace talks with the Khartoum government, dropping their previous conditions for new negotiations.

"We are committed to resuming the negotiations in Abuja (the Nigerian capital), under the aegis of the African Union, without preconditions," the SLM and JEM said in a joint press statement issued in Rome.

The two groups have held secret talks in Rome, Italy with the African Union at the Community of Sant'Egidio, founded in 1968, which has brokered a number of African peace treaties.

The Darfur rebels had already said they were prepared to resume talks after a meeting early in May with Libya's Col Muammar Gaddafi.

Community of Sant'Egidio is the U.N. of Trastevere

No date was set for new talks, but the rebel groups said they hoped the various parties would get together "in the coming days" at Sant'Egidio to try to strengthen the peace process.

The SLA and JEM announcement came just three days before the leaders of Egypt, Sudan, Chad and Nigeria are due to meet in Libya to discuss the Darfur crisis.

The Community of Sant'Egidio is a Roman Catholic movement of lay people who strive to broker peace around the world.

Nicknamed "the U.N. of Trastevere" for the Rome neighbourhood where it is based, Sant'Egidio scored its greatest diplomatic success in 1992 when it helped build a deal to end 16 years of civil war that killed 1 million people in Mozambique.



Photo: Peace-broker St. Egidio community spokesman Mario Marazziti, right, shakes hands with Ismael Omer a representative of one of the main Darfur rebel groups, the SLM at a joint press conference with the JEM, at the community HQ in Rome, Friday May 13, 2005.

Seated at the table are from left are the SLM's Ismael Omer, Abdolgabar Dosa, and chairman Abdolwahid Mohamed Ahmed. Marazziti announced the groups are 'available to resume peace talks as soon as possible and without any preconditions' in an effort to end the two-year Darfur conflict. (AP/Plinio Lepri)
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Darfur rebel groups sign "Tripoli Declaration" pledging cooperation

On Wednesday May 11, 2005 Darfur's two main rebel groups signed a declaration Wednesday pledging to adhere to a ceasefire and help facilitate the flow of humanitarian relief aid.

The "Tripoli Declaration" was part of a drive by Libya to mediate in the Darfur crisis.

"We announce in front of Colonel Gaddafi that we are completely committed to a ceasefire," Khalil Ibrahim, senior official of the JEM, said to a round of applause from a gathering of about 200 political, tribal and military personalities attended by the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi and Sudan's State Minister for Humanitarian affairs, Mohammed Youssef.

Representatives from the two groups said on Monday that they would resume negotiations with the government without preconditions.

The declaration said the local rulers would be neutral while dealing with issues arising from the crisis and a permanent mechanism would be established to facilitate contacts between the concerned parties and to ease the movement of the relief teams.

"On hearing this agreement, the world should respect the Sudanese people and realize that they need no international custody to solve their problems," Gaddafi said.



Photo: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is greeted by rebel, tribal and opposition Sudanese leaders from Darfur at his tent in Tripoli, Libya, Wednesday, May 11, 2005. (AP/Yousef Al-Ageli)
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Local leaders demand Darfur peace talks moved to Libya

The source of this report is the French news site Sudan Tribune. It is copied here for future reference. [Note, the Darfur summit and Darfur peace talks are two different conferences]

TRIPOLI, May 10, 2005 (Sudan Tribune) --Leaders of the local administration in Darfur have called for a change in the venue of the upcoming talks between the government and the Darfur rebels from Abuja to Tripoli under the direct supervision of the Libyan leader.

According to Al-Ray al-Amm newspaper, they also demanded a major role for the local administration in resolving the Darfur issue.

Lashing out at the Darfur rebels, the Libyan leader, Muammar al-Qadhafi, described the rebels' motives for taking up arms as "non-objective and dishonourable".

At a meeting with the local administration leaders and delegations of the two rebel movements, headed by the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Khalil Ibrahim, and a member of the political office of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), Osman Bashri, Al-Qadhafi said the war was not justifiable and the conflict in Darfur was "primitive and senseless", and could lead Sudan into an international trusteeship.

He further said such problems could be resolved through negotiations and dialogue and not through rebellion.

"Those who started the war in Darfur have no respect for rights and are irrational. If their target was the Sudanese government, they should have gone to Khartoum," he added.

He however noted that the rebel demands were objective and acceptable but this did not call for an armed rebellion. He said there were some quarters who had exploited the conflict in Darfur and strengthened it further.

Al-Qadhafi said Sudan People's Liberation Movement leader John Garang himself sought to exploit the Darfur conflict to weaken the position of the government at the Naivasha peace talks.

He stated that without the disarming of the pro-government Janjawid militias and the rebels, we could not be able to restore peace.



Photo: Libya's leader Col Gaddafi smokes a cigarette
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Darfur rebels ask Libya's Gaddafi to defend their interests at Darfur summit

A rebel delegation from Darfur asked Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi on Monday May 9, to defend their interests at an African mini-summit next week to which they have not been invited.

On Monday, May 9, Col Gaddafi received representatives of Darfur rebel groups SLA and the JEM at his tent in the Al-Azizia district of the capital, an AFP correspondent witnessed. AFP report excerpt:

The rebels asked the Libyan leader for financial support of seven million dollars and funds to compensate their ethnic minority supporters for the ravages of the Sudanese security forces and their Arab militia allies.

They also asked him to look after their interests in Sunday's mini-summit which will gather Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and his counterparts from Chad, Egypt and Nigeria alongside Kadhafi.

The press was excluded from the reception before Kadhafi responded to the rebel delegation.

Full report AFP May 9, 2005.



Photo: Libyan leader Col Gaddafi leads noon prayers with a Sudanese delegation from Darfur before their meeting in his traditional tent in Tripoli, Libya, Monday May 9, 2005.

The first flight taking food from Libya directly into Darfur in western Sudan took place Saturday as the U.N.'s food agency launched a campaign to reach nearly 2 million people during the rainy season. (AP/Yousef Al-Ageli)

Tags: Darfur Sudan Chad Africa

Sea of Shelters in N. Darfur, Sudan - Four people killed in Chad camp

Recently, a blog called RELIEF FOR DARFUR? linked to Sudan Watch. Found it through Technorati. A new blog with no posts, except for a photo, see here below, that caught my eye. The photo, posted May 4, 2005 and titled "Food Distribution Day" featured a USAID tin.

Sudan Watch and a few other links were in the blog's sidebar. Beneath the blog's title RELIEF TO DARFUR? was a banner saying:

"Darfur, an area in western Sudan, captured the attention of many people across the world, but how does our attention translate to compassion and the cessation of suffering in this distant place? It will not come only in the form of shelters, food assistance, and health care, but will need to come in the form of security, safety and respect for survival. Respect for survival of all parties involved and their need to find their own place as Darfurians and people who must live together."

Photo posted by kukuziwa May 4, 2005 - "Food Distribution Day"

RELIEF FOR DARFUR? is a free BlogSpot with none of the usual stuff we bloggers like to put in our sidebars. The above photo was posted under the name of Kukuziwa. I wondered if Kukuziwa had connections with Sudan, so I left a comment to say hello.

A few days ago, I was pleased to see a reply from someone called Sarah who said she would be in North Darfur for the next few months. Of course, anybody can start up a blog and say anything. Somehow, I believed her. I hope it is true. I want it to be true.

Maybe the photo depicting USAID is a clue that Sarah (if that is her real name) is American. Maybe Sarah is an aid worker, or on assignment for a project, or a tourist or what ... we don't know, she doesn't say.

Today, Sarah published some new posts ... about her walk through the IDP camp of Abu Shouk near El Fasher, North Darfur ... the heartbreaking sight of a sea of shelters ... and all about a riot the other day at a camp.

Here below is a copy of Kukuziwa's three posts dated May 14 and copied here in full incase the links become broken:

Abu Shouk IDP Camp
Post by kukuziwa May 11, 2005:

It stood in the middle of a desert. Stretching as far as my eyes could see was a jumble of colorful makeshift tents, shelters and shacks. Already the colors of these shelters was faded by the sun and covered in a cloak of desert sand, making muted their once vibrant shades and designs. There is nothing "brilliant" to this assemblage now, although the sight is overpowering. All available space seems to be filled. There are donkeys, and goats, chickens and children of all ages. It is a rural city springing up from these dry desert sands.

Sea of Shelters
Post by kukuziwa May 11, 2005:

The IDP Camp of Abu Shouk is located in the middle of the desert. Although it is only a few kms from the center of El Fasher town it looks as though it were set in the middle of the Sahel. There are no trees and as far as the eye can see there are various shades, colors, and configurations of make shift shelters, some in the form of pre-fab plastic covered tunnel shelters, but most made of what wood and poles they can find, covered with small pieces of cloth, blankets and in some cases even clothes. It seems to be an endless sea of people trying to find shelter in sandstorms, blazing sun, and an environment that provides little to no protection. Abu Shouk has been in existence since April of 2004 and is "home" to some 71,000 people. It is a large city confined to an area that if void of these structures would seem like a scene from a movie on Saudi Arabia. The dunes are a brilliant orange against the noon day sun, and the distant mountains of Fasher rise slowly as though a mirage against this backdrop.

As I made my way through this vast land of displacement, you could see small shoots and roots beginning to emerge from what initially had seemed like chaos. There were market stalls, and people selling small plastic household goods, and packages of matches. There were "shelter side" stands made up of a few children or women selling groundnuts. There was commerce of a sort, the kind that buys some extra food for a family and allows for salt and sugar to be used in preparing meals.



[Note, re above photo, posted by Kukuziwa May 11 at Relief to Darfur? - I left this comment in response:

Mafi Mushkala Sarah, Good to see your new posts and amazing photos. I shall feature this in a post at Sudan Watch and link it to some of your posts here. The photos we see in the press show a sea of tents, not this terrible large scene of makeshift shelters that wouldn't last two minutes in the wind. It's heartbreaking to see these people do not at least have the pre-fab shelters or tents we see in press photos. I wish we knew the best way to help asap. Thinking of you especially when I see news on Abu Shouk. Looking forward to your next posts. Kind regards.]

There was riot other day at camp here
Post by kukuziwa May 11, 2005:

There was a riot the other day at a camp here just outside of town. 2,000 plus people mobilized to protest the rape of two young girls. It was believed that they had been raped by the police and the IDPs took to the desert roads surrounding the camps. The Sheiks and the Umdas (local leaders) could not contain the pain, anger and frustration of this crowd. It emerged as one force, spilling out from the seams of the camp out into the main road that leads to the entrance. The GOS mobilized and sent in waves and trucks of police, tear gas was fired into the crowd and shots fired. The unrest turned to chaos, and then to more unrest. It lasted for most of the day, waves of pain emerging in shifts as young men, women and even children mobilized, anxious to express their pain and anger even in the face of injury.

There seems to be no safety in these humanitarian havens. The police have been hired by the GOS and many of them are recognized as being party to the conflict, from areas where villages were burned and looted, or from being members of an Arab tribe accused of the attacks. There is little trust and pain lurks close to the surface. It is exhausting to be vulnerable in all places from village to road and from road to makeshift shelter. But even in the midst of fatigue frustration fuels dissent and resistance.
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Distillations of Darfur

Excerpt from Distillations of Darfur by kukuziwa May 4, 2005.

"There is still fear, even here in this populated town. It is easy for the IDPs to spot those that have "harmed" from those that are "hurt". This identification, recognition and reemergence of fear and distrust are everywhere."
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Four killed in Chad camp

Reuters report excerpt May 11, 2005:

Four people were killed in a camp for Darfur refugees in eastern Chad on Wednesday, the same day the U.N.'s refugee agency said it pulled staff from four other camps along the border with Sudan over security concerns.

Two refugees and two Chadian police officers were killed when a group of refugees started trying to sell the plastic sheeting used to make their tents, a UN official in N'Djamena said.

"There was a clash between refugees and police officers at (the town of) Goz Beida, in the Goz Amer camp. Two refugees were killed along with two police officers," the official said.

In the past 18 months, the UNHCR has transferred more than 200,000 refugees from the border to camps further inside Chad.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Chad Africa

Janjaweed still attacking inside Chad - Libya opens route for UN aid to Darfur

A twelfth camp was opened on May 4, 2005 in eastern Chad by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to decongest refugee camps nearby.

Talks lasted for several months before the Chad government and the 40 families living on the site agreed to allow the UNHCR to install the new camp.

Also involved in its management are non-governmental organisations Africare, Oxfam, which is in charge of water and sanitation, CORD, education and community services and MSF Holland, which is in charge of health.

According to IRIN May 4, the Janjaweed are still attacking inside Chad and aid workers in eastern Chad have reported a stream of incidences along the border in recent weeks.

Last month, Chadian authorities accused Khartoum of backing rebels opposed to Chad President Idriss Deby who operate near the border.

Health workers warned late last month that two out of the 11 refugee camps in arid eastern Chad are fast running out of water and no lasting solution has yet been found.

The most seriously affected camps are Am Nabak and Toulom, some of the northernmost camps that snake south along Sudan's 700 km border, according to UNHCR.

The Am Nabak site, which hosts 16,000 Sudanese refugees who spontaneously moved from the border, does not have its own water supply and was never suitable for the establishment of a camp, according to UNHCR.


Photo IRIN: 200,000 Sudanese refugees have fled across the border from Darfur into Chad.

Chadian government charges that the authorities in Khartoum have recently been helping Chadian rebels who are said to be gathering in Darfur, close to the Chadian border.

"We think it is inimical for a friendly country like Sudan, for which we have been making enormous sacrifices for several years, to nurture an armed rebellion on its territory not far from the border," the governor said.
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Update report May 11 via IRIN:

Aid agencies have withdrawn their staff from four refugee camps in eastern Chad following disturbances which led to the injury of seven aid workers in one particular incident, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Wednesday.

"UNHCR personnel and NGO staff withdrew from the camps of Iridimi, Touloum, Mile and Kounoungou on Tuesday 10 May," the UNHCR said in a statement released in Abeche, the main town in eastern Chad.

"At Iridimi, a group of demonstrators armed with sticks and stones injured five UNHCR workers and two representatives of an NGO," the statement said.

Ginette Le Breton, a spokeswoman for UNHCR in Chad's eastern town of Abeche, said around 40 workers were withdrawn.

"Today the situation is calm ... we are evaluating when services can be resumed in the camps," she told Reuters.
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Security benefit for use of fuel efficient stoves, in Darfur

Using the simplest of materials -- mud, clay, water, and donkey dung --more than 2,500 women in the Kebkabiya, North Darfur, Sudan, have learned how to build themselves a little bit of security. They are making stoves, write Coco McCabe of Oxfam, May 5, 2005.

For some of the women in Kebkabiya, a once-small town that is now bursting with more than 60,000 displaced people, the fuel-efficient stoves they are crafting have changed their lives. The stoves have allowed the women to cut by half or more, the amount of wood needed for cooking. So they need to make only half as many trips beyond the safety of the town's perimeter to gather wood - trips that put the women at constant risk of attack.


Oxfam Photo: Some of the women in the camp with their new fuel-efficient stoves. More than 2,500 women have learned how to build themselves a little bit of security.

The four-month project started by Relief International in mid-February and funded by Oxfam [see April 11, 2005 Proposal] provides participants with a one-week course in stove-construction and good cooking practices. The process takes three weeks: one for the class and two for stove-drying time.

Oxfam hopes to expand the stove-making programme to other regions of Darfur, thereby enabling more women to better protect themselves and improve the quality of their lives.

More than 2,500 in Kebkabiya have learned how to make fuel-efficient stoves. They dramatically reduce the amount of wood women must burn to cook their family meals.


Oxfam Photo: Women collecting their new stoves.

Now, in the displacement camps of Mornei, Darfur, Concern UK have already hosted two training sessions where the women learn how to construct and use the stoves. 50 women were involved in each session and each woman agreed that she would in turn pass the knowledge on to five other women.

The stoves are enclosed, meaning there is far less risk of fire spreading than with basic open fires which can be hazardous in crowded camp situations. The risk of small children falling into the fire is also removed by the fact that the stove is enclosed. Using less wood means the depletion of local fuel sources is slowed down and less smoke is omitted than with traditional fires.
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UN food agency opens new Libya route to deliver food aid to Darfur

Good news. Finally, the UN's WFP has begun airlifting food aid from a new route directly from Libya to reach Darfur. The aim is to move as much food aid as possible to nearly two million people during the rainy season, when access becomes extremely difficult.

Last November, a collaboration between the US and the Libyan governments allowed the transition of WFP food aid through Libya to reach Darfur refugees displaced by the fighting to camps in Chad.

The new air route will boost the overland transport route - opened last April - of food aid through Chad. This opening of the ancient caravan route through Chad has so far allowed the delivery of 400 metric tonnes of food aid. WFP is expecting to deliver some 50,000 metric tonnes of food aid through air, land and rail transport.

WFP has so far received US$286 million of the US$467 million it requires to feed an average of 2.3 million people each month in Darfur in 2005, leaving a 39 percent shortfall. (Cam/Aki)


Photo IRIN: 197,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to camps in eastern Chad

Health workers warned late last month that two out of the 11 refugee camps in arid eastern Chad are fast running out of water and no lasting solution has yet been found.

The most seriously affected camps are Am Nabak and Toulom, some of the northernmost camps that snake south along Sudan's 700 km border, according to UNHCR.

The Am Nabak site, which hosts 16,000 Sudanese refugees who spontaneously moved from the border, does not have its own water supply and was never suitable for the establishment of a camp, according to UNHCR.

Water has to be pumped out of wells in the town of Iriba and then trucked 40 kilometres through the desert to the camp.

At nearby Touloum refugee camp, water supplies are also dwindling.

There boreholes serving 20,000 refugees are not able to keep up with demand, and refugees have been receiving on average 9 to 12 litres of water per person per day, Garelli explained.

In the Am Nabak and Touloum sites, technicians are struggling to find alternative supplies.
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Seasonal rains likely to hamper relief operations

Already rains have begun in the southern most parts of Darfur," the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net) said in a report released on 5 May. It detailed how rainfall would affect relief efforts in the crisis-hit region of western Sudan.

"Northern areas, like El Fasher will start to experience heavy seasonal rains by the end of June," the report added. "By the end of July the rains will cover the entire region."

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa

UN Sudan Situation Report 9 May 2005

Fighting ebbs in Darfur, but banditry, attacks on relief workers plague region says UN News Centre today. Excerpt:

In South Darfur, banditry seemed to have decreased during the last week, but attacks and looting of trucks, including those belonging to the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were still being reported, as were incidents of harassment and detention of some NGO workers, the Mission said.

The difficulties faced by relief workers in the south will be the focus of a meeting tomorrow of the Sub-Joint Implementation Mechanism on Human Rights and Protection, according to UNMIS.

While tensions in the Jebel Moon area of West Darfur have decreased significantly, the UN Mission said its chief concern remained the influx of nomadic tribes from Chad into the areas bordering Sudan.

See UN Sudan Situation Report May 9, 2005 at ReliefWeb.

Terrorism and Arab culture: Where are the Saudi men risking death to stand between Muslim villagers in Darfur and the Janjaweed?

Today, Instapundit points to a post on Darfur by Joseph Britt at Belgravia Dispatch, May 5. It's about Tom Friedman's culture analysis piece in the Times yesterday, relating the thoughts of a friend of his resident in Cairo about Arab terrorism. Too long to go in to here. Read the whole thing. Journalists like Tom Friedman and Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times take it upon themselves to demand that every trouble happening in the world be sorted out by America when the finger could quite easily be pointed elsewhere. I've given up highlighting how the West is expected to intervene militarily in Darfur while the Arabs next door to Sudan aren't lifting a finger to stop fellow Arabs from killing and marginalising African tribes, driving them from their homeland and using rape as a weapon of war in the Arabisation of Sudan.

Here's an excerpt from Joseph's post entitled "Hidden in Plain Sight" where he points out that Nicholas Kristof writes frequently in the New York Times about Darfur without mentioning any Arab country or government other than Sudan's:

" ... None of them explain the Arab genocide in Darfur; the silence of other Arabs about Arab genocide in Darfur; or the Western media's silence about Arabs' silence about Arab genocide in Darfur. Friedman, for example, seems oblivious to the subject. Kristof, who is not, follows the conventional practice of American journalists witnessing something awful. This is to demand that the American government do something about it."

A few lines later, the post goes on to say:

" ... The Arab world isn't even doing that about Darfur. No peacekeepers, no aid, no media coverage, and for damn sure no guilt. Does Tom Friedman during all his earnest chin-stroking about the problem of terrorism and Arab culture pause to consider that this might be related somehow? Saudi imams get young men inspired to blow themselves up in the middle of Iraqi crowds, but we sure don't hear too many reports of young Saudi men risking death to stand between Muslim villagers in Darfur and the janjaweed.

What about Nick Kristof, who has access to the same maps of Africa that the rest of us do? Does he wonder that the largest Arab country, directly north of Sudan with a large army and an air force hundreds of planes strong, has never made a move toward establishing, say, a no-fly zone over any part of Darfur? Demanded UN sanctions against Sudan, or imposed any of its own? To be honest, I doubt the idea has even crossed his mind."

Heh. Well said. I don't read Kristof anymore. Can't work out what his game is at all. Nor that of the emotive American writers on the quirky Washington Post. One can only conclude they have political motives, which means they are spinning propaganda instead of educating us.
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P.S. Foundations can expect more scrutiny in an age of weblogs, according to this article.

Instapundit's review of BlogNashville Conference - Is big media on the run?

In his post at MSNBC titled "Big media on the run?" Prof Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com writes:

"Do blogs and other alternative media have traditional media organizations running scared? Some people are saying so, but I think there's more going on than fear. Still it's clear that the blogosphere is having an impact.

This past weekend I attended the BlogNashville conference at Belmont University, billed as the largest blogging conference to date. There were some representatives of Big Media organizations there, one of whom said straighforwardly "I'm here out of fear," but others of whom were looking for ways to incorporate blogs, and bloggers, into their operations."

Read full story.

Looks interesting. I'm keeping it aside to read later on. Just wanted to share it here right away. I think professional journalists have lots of reasons to fear blogland. Chewing over and pointing out rubbish in mainstream media, along with the spin, truths, half-truths, downright lies, political propaganda and character assassinations is what we bloggers, around the world, are placed to do well.
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Also today, Instapundit points out Adam Cohen's unimpressive ruminations on blog ethics in today's New York Times - and Virginia Postrel who writes in Forbes, "There's something about blogs that makes a lot of respectable journalists hyperventilate."

Heh.

Make Poverty History - Tony Blair chairs G8 summit July 6

Email just received from Patrick Kielty (pictured below):



Hello,

Over the past few months more than a quarter of a million people have sent a message to Tony Blair and asked him to make poverty history.

It's an achievable aim that has risen up the political and news agendas like never before - thanks to the actions of people like you.

But we are rapidly approaching the critical moment of this campaign - and it really is time to turn up the heat.

After last week's election result we now know for sure that it will be Mr. Blair who sits at that all-important G8 summit table in Scotland on July 6th. Last month, he said he would work "night and day" on this issue until the summit. Now he has the chance to prove it, and the responsibility to deliver.

30,000 children will continue to die needlessly every day unless he succeeds.

So please, if you are in the UK click here [outside the UK click here] and urge Tony Blair to make this his number one post-election priority.

Even if you have emailed him before, now is the time to do so again.

The countdown has begun to the biggest day ever in the fight to end poverty and we need to make sure that our message is getting through loud and clear.

Thank you,

Patrick Kielty

Is Sudan peace real or just a mirage? 4,000 flee LRA raids in Southern Sudan

Last August, I started a blog called Uganda Watch for the filing of reports about a savagely violent rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and other news highlighting the terrible situation in northern Uganda.

[Background info: In September of last year, the UN warned that northern Uganda was the most neglected humanitarian crisis in the world - 20,000 children suffering - 90% of the population sheltering in 180 refugee camps - 1.6 million fled their homes - 30,000 abducted as slaves and soldiers.

The war between the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and the LRA has been going on for 18 years. There is a history of tension between the north and south. In 1986, Yoweri Museveni, who is from the south, took power and set about trying to control the Acholi in the north. The LRA dominates resistance fighting, so it says, to reclaim Uganda for the Acholi. Now led by Joseph Kony, it is one of the world's most brutal armies and has terrorised its own people. At least 25,000 children have been abducted, the boys ordered to kill or be killed, the girls used as sex slaves. 500,000 people - mostly children - have been killed in the conflict.]


Photo: A Ugandan soldier walks past a charred body, Feb 23, 2004, in the Barlonyo camp 26 kilometers north of the Lira in northen Uganda after a massacre believed to be committed by the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group in which at least 200 people were killed. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

Here today at Sudan Watch, I am posting some news reports on the LRA - along with three opinion pieces by Sudanese blogger Joseph Oloya Hakim. Please bear in mind, the LRA received weapons and training from Sudan's Islamist regime throughout the 1990s. Joseph believes the LRA are still supported by the Khartoum regime.

4,000 flee LRA raids in Southern Sudan

An Associated Press report May 5, 2005 says the UN confirms thousands of Sudanese have fled their homes in the south to escape increasing and brutal raids on their villages by Ugandan rebels.

A report at AllAfrica, May 7, 2005 covers the same story, saying thousands of villagers have fled their homes to escape attacks by the LRA in southern Sudan. The report explains, in the last week thousands of Sudanese have been forced to cross to Kitgum inside Uganda following stepped up attacks by LRA in different parts of the war ravaged south. It goes on to say:

The UN estimates more than 4,000 people have arrived at the refugee transit centre at Palorinya in northern Uganda seeking protection," UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said. Many of the refugees said they had seen LRA rebels hacking people to death, cutting their lips off and burning homes, Achouri said. Most of the refugees were in bad health on arrival, she said.

Photo: Two young boy's get treated for severe burn wounds in the Lira hospital in northern Uganda, Feb 23, 2004, after a massacre believed to be committed by the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group in the Barlonyo camp 26 kilometers north of the town that killed at least 200 people. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
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Is Sudan peace real or just a mirage?

Here below is a copy of a first person account published May 8, 2005 by blogger Joseph Oloya Hakim, a native of Sudan and a staff worker for Servlife Africa. Joseph's post provides an insight into what is happening with returnees to Sudan, and the LRA from Uganda. Joseph believes the Khartoum regime are arming and supporting the LRA and says:

"It is becoming clear that the Arab government in Khartoum is still fighting a proxy war using the Uganda Opposition, the LRA, that is has supported for long."

Photo: Joseph of ServLife Workers

In his post of May 8. 2005 titled "Is Sudan peace real or just a mirage?" [click on the photo in the post - it is of a child with a mutilated mouth, presumably caused by LRA rebels who hack people to death or chop off lips and/or ears]. Joseph writes the following:

There is a growing speculation that the long fought war in South Sudan is not over yet. With the increasing attacks by the LRA on civilian population in Southern Sudan sparking another wave of 4000 refugees fleeing across the boarder into Uganda reported a local new paper on 7th May, 2005. It is becoming clear that the Arab government in Khartoum is still fighting a proxy war using the Uganda Opposition, the LRA, that is has supported for long. I have given considerable time on some of these attacks in my previous bloogs.

Reports incicates that refugees reported they saw people being hacked to death others mutilated as they flee. Similarly with the growing concern that Paulino Matip, a former Major General in Sudanese Army who at one time was a power rival with Riak comianding loyal militias in the western Nuer: Unity State, moving in and stationing his troops in and around Bentieu Oilfields at a time when the North and South Peace deal has to be consolidated indicates the cosmetic nature of the agreement that was signed on 9th January 2005 to end 20 years of hostilities in Sudan. It is still unclear as to why the two Sudan backed groups are militarily active when there was suppose to be unilateral ceasefire in the whole South Sudan.
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How Sudan returnees cope with LRA insecurity and meagre food rations

Read Joseph's post May 2, 2005 and see how Sudan returnees cope with LRA insecurity and meagre food rations. The post is copied here in full incase the link to Joseph's blog becomes broken:

After the Indiana team have successfully completed a one week Medical Outreach Program in Sudan refugee camp in Uganda and having had earlier considered doing similar outreach in South Sudan, I decided to Plan a trip to Nimule a boarder town at Uganda/Sudan boarder where Servlife Africa plans to host the next round of medical outreach. The trip itself is an exhilarating as well as an agonizing experience.

One of the few joys of Sudan trip is after 20 years in refugee camps, many Sudanese Voluntary Returnees are making back home. The joy of returning written on the faces of these returnees is something that automatically sparks joy in my heart too. Nevertheless, while most returnees are happy that they are back in their country following attacks and displacements in their Camps in Uganda by the LRA (The Lords Resistance Army) a shadowy Uganda rebel groups known for their atrocities in Northern Uganda, the uncertainties in which most of these returnees live in Sudan is something that is worrying.

Most of these returnees are going back to their traditional home places but are not being provided adequate protections. The fertile areas East of the Nile where most of these returnees are going back are areas that are infected by the LRA. These areas serve as Safe Heavens for the LRA as they are being re-armed by the Sudan Government.

While I was in Sudan, the LRA attached Nimule 3 consecutive days: killing one SPLA soldier and 3 civilian on the first day of attack; and abducted 9 civilians in the following attacks and the reports indicated that all the abductees were harked to death. Previously the LRA had attacked several returnee villages; killed and abducted many. "This turn of events is a worrying development for us" said one village leader.

"We returned hopping we shall be safe here but it is clear now that the Sudan Peace is a private agreement between Garang and Bashir: not for us; otherwise, why are we returnee civilians not being protected from attacks by the LRA?"

Besides the LRA insecurity, most of the returnees do not have returnee packages: no food and the refugee women I met collected wild leaves (View on Servlife Africa Photo Album) which they were preparing to cook. The returnees told me that at return a family just receives 5kg of Maize and nothing else and the 5kg depletes in 3 or 4 days.

Because of the LRA insecurity and the Landmines, the returnees could not venture in to the forest to collect wild fruits and wild vegetables. The medical services are poor and remote too and most returnees are likely to face a disaster if no helps come their way in terms of supplies and civilian protection.

By all standards, I may say the returnees situations are worst than in Refugee camps in Uganda.
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Focus on Darfur and countdown to current genocide?

Note this post by Joseph entitled "Focus on Darfur and countdown to current genocide?" May 5, 2005 [Joseph writes "the LRA attacks on returnee civilian is a political one pinning the Khartoum Government"] - copy in full:

At present the Sudan Government assertions of its authority in Darfur has focused on strengthening the military and establishing direct control with governors appointed form outside the region. The land issue remains unresolved, fighting still going on, government refusing to admit that is fighting anyone other that the bandits, the Fur formed Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance that joined the National Democratic Alliance that began military training in Eritrea in 1997. Rising insecurity engulfed the Masalit in 1998-9 when disputes with Rizaiqat resulted in over 100,000 internally displaced and several hundreds refugees fled to Chad. The government has insisted that it was tribal clashes.

Successive governments in Khartoum have tried to dismiss fighting that broke in the north and South as merely tribal clashes although they have fuelled such fighting with official and semi-official support to so called tribal militias.

Often times, appeals to Islam and Pan Arabism have been used by Khartoum Government to overcome the discontent of marginality elsewhere in the North. These appeals are not only to home grown support but increasingly about access to external powerful allies.

The power of Pan Arabist ideology, however fictitious its actual base, can connect local groups to a wider international community and offers them opportunity to mobilize support for internal conflicts. We have noted: the alliance of Arab tribes in Darfur appealing to Libya outside Sudan and the UMMA and NIF parties inside Sudan; Sadiq rallying Arab North to retake Kurmuk from SPLA forces, the successive governments were appealing to wealthy Muslim States for military hardware in the face of Anti-Arab insurgency in the South etc. etc.

With the above background, it would be naive to see the unfolding events in Darfur outside the policy of successive governments in Khartoum. Government in the West wants the definition of the word to classify the deaths and suffering of Darfurians whether it qualifies to be called Genocide or not. By the sheer scale of death, emptying of villages by para military groups supported by Behsir’s regime, as well as the willingness of the government to wipe out the black population of Darfur, nothing could be outside the term Genocide. The world has failed its mission; Rwanda has taken place in Sudan, and still no concrete action unfolding. More people have died and more will die and the world has sacrificed the Sudanese People on the alter of Islamic terrorism.

Sometimes, it is difficult to be thoroughly objective in a situation like Sudan. Although the North - South problems have reached a stage where no parties expect resumption of hostilities, The LRA attacks on returnee civilians is a political one pinning the Khartoum Government. Most South Sudanese believe that what Khartoum government did not achieve through military means, it is pushing to achieve through the policy of destabilizing the communities. The presence of the LRA, which it has re-armed in the past and which it is still arming, in Sudan is an extension or rather the arm of Khartoum government. Knowing that there would be a referendum in five years and most communities are to vote either for unity or secession,

Khartoum government hopes that by keeping the support for the LRA active, it will keep most communities a bay in exile and they would not have opportunities to participate in the referendum on the South. What is still disturbing is the slow move by the International communities in consolidating that comprehensive peace agreement between the

Khartoum government and SPLA/M signed in January this year. Darfur Situation still captures the spirit and emotion of the international communities. Yes it is correct that efforts be put to bring peace to that part of the region, but with a closed eye on the south problems things will soon fall out of hands; particularly communities that do not enjoy protections would take up arms and they will fight for shear survival of their respective communities: if this happens, something both the International communities and the weak Government in the South of the SPLA would not be able to handle. It will on the scale be a replication of Somalia in Sudan.


Photo via Joseph's post with thanks.
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Two Red Crescent staff members killed

Geneva (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was saddened to learn of the killing on 1 May of two members of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society by unidentified individuals who fired at their ambulance in the area of Kassala, east of Khartoum.

Faki Mohammed Nour, the driver of the vehicle, and Hassan Mohammed Ali, a nurse, reportedly died from their wounds on the spot. Mahmoud Adam Idris, a Red Crescent medical assistant accompanying them, was injured and taken to a nearby hospital. The patient who was being transported remains missing and is believed to have been abducted.

The ICRC expresses its heartfelt sympathy to the families, friends and colleagues of the victims and hopes that the fate of the missing person will soon be elucidated.
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Kofi Annan calls for more African Union troops in Darfur

Bearing in mind the above news re LRA, see what Kofi Annan said in this excerpt from an Associated Press report May 7, 2005.

The AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur needs to be strengthened but help from UN soldiers will be limited, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Friday.

Mr Annan said although violence in Darfur was not occurring on the massive scale of last year, the general level of insecurity in Darfur was still hindering humanitarian aid and remained "unacceptable."

The UN and its mission in Sudan could, however, help the African Union mission with technical advice, training support, help in choosing police, by developing an expansion plan and by convening troop contributors and pledging conferences.

An even larger deployment of 12,000 troops would be needed to keep the peace throughout Darfur to enable the return of all displaced people by the 2006 planting season, according to Annan.

He stressed that although it would be up to the African Union to decide how to organize this, its leaders might decide it was time for the wider international community to play a part in this complex operation which would require "a substantial increase in resources," he said.

He said the UN peacekeeping mission to Sudan would only be able to offer limited help to the AU troops in the coming months because it needed to focus all its attention on monitoring a north-south peace deal struck earlier this year between the government and southern rebels that ended a 21-year civil war.
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New Blog

Best wishes to Kukuziwa at Relief to Darfur? and thanks for the link.

Update May 8: I have just visited this link and was surprised to see a message from Sarah, the author of the blog. Sarah will be in North Darfur over the next two months. Be sure to read Distillations of Darfur. Hope we don't have to wait two months for Sarah's next post.
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Tags: Darfur Sudan Uganda Africa

Janjaweed leader preaches peace in Darfur - Some Darfur tribes agree local settlement

Interesting report here by Opheera McDoom for Reuters May 5, 2005. Ms McDoom has written many credible reports for Reuters, which is why I am copying this one in full for future reference - and the one below titled "Janjaweed leader preaches peace in Darfur".

UMM KADDADA, Sudan, May 5 (Reuters) - Sudan's first vice president witnessed the signing of a peaceful settlement of tribal conflict in Darfur on Thursday in a remote part of the region after weeks of talks.

Thousands of cheering villagers, brightly dressed women and white-turbanned camel riders greeted Ali Osman Mohamed Taha in Um Kaddada in the northeast of troubled Darfur.

Some in the crowd said their solution to the tribal clashes in the east of the region should be used as a template for the rest of Darfur.

The agreement came after 2 weeks of talks between local tribes, Arabs and non-Arabs, and involved drawing boundaries between farms and nomadic cattle herders' grazing paths.

"We say here again that the only solution to the problem in Darfur is through peace and negotiations," Taha told thousands of Darfuris.

"We say to those who are carrying arms amongst us now and to the world: our hands are outstretched to you, our hearts are open to you. We don't want war anymore," he said.

The rebellion in Darfur by non-Arab tribes is now in its third year. Tens of thousands have been killed in violence and more than two million fled their homes in the remote west.

The rebellion hardly affected the northeast but the web of tribal tensions did touch some villages.

Amid Abdallah from an Arab tribe said rebels attacked a few villages in the region and tried to force people to join their military campaign and turn the non-Arabs against the Arabs.

"But instead we united all the tribes and discussed and solved the problem ourselves," he said.

Those from non-Arab tribes were difficult to find among the crowd but Ahmed Ibrahim who was there said he thought tribal talks were the best way forward.

The tribal talks began in Khartoum between Arab tribes led by Musa Hilal, who the United States says is a top Arab militia leader suspected of war crimes during the rebellion.

They came to an agreement with some of the non-Arab Fur tribal leaders, one of the main tribes involved in the rebellion. They then moved the talks to the grass roots in Darfur. The agreement in Um Kaddada is the result of such talks.

Taha, the interior minister, the minister of humanitarian affairs and the U.S. charge d'affaires were among the dignitaries who travelled to Um Kaddada to witness the signing.

The town has a new hospital, which the governor said was part of the development needed to stop the fighting in Darfur.

Taha signed a peace deal in January to end more than two decades of civil war in the south. The president then asked him to turn his attention to Darfur.

But some local sheikhs in other areas of Darfur have cast doubt over whether armed groups will listen to tribal leaders.
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Janjaweed leader preaches peace in Darfur

Copy of a report entitled "Tribal leaders preach peace in worn-torn Darfur" by Opheera McDoom via Reuters and ReliefWeb 8 May 2005:

NUMU, Sudan, May 8 (Reuters) - An Arab tribal chief accused by the United States of being a leader of a brutal militia is now touring Darfur with a message of peace and reconciliation.

Musa Hilal and other tribal leaders in the western Sudanese region, including some from non-Arab groups, are taking part in a government-sponsored initiative to persuade villagers displaced by two years of fighting return home.

They offer people in some of the worst affected areas money as well as beefed-up security to encourage them to go back to their homes in the vast and arid region they fled in fear.

"No matter what it costs, no matter what the price, we have to restore normality in Darfur and reunite Darfuris," he told people in the northern non-Arab village of Numu on Sunday.

Hilal said a succession of governments in Khartoum had failed to develop Darfur, an impoverished region long suffering from conflict between mostly Arab nomadic tribes and non-Arab farmers over scarce resources.

"We have to put our home in order from within," said Hilal, 44, wearing a white turban and a long white gown.

But the initiative, agreed in Khartoum last month, has failed to win support from the main guerrilla groups.

The leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Ahmed Nour, said those from his non-Arab Fur tribe, Darfur's largest, who had signed the accord did not represent his people.

Darfur rebels launched an uprising in 2003 against what they say is government discrimination in favour of Arab tribes.

The United Nations says Khartoum responded by arming Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, who now stand accused of a campaign of rape, murder and burning non-Arab villages.

Tens of thousands have been killed in the violence and more than two million have been displaced, creating what the United Nations calls one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Hilal rejected U.S. accusations he was one of the leaders of militias involved in the atrocities, saying he answered a government call to defend his land and people and joined the official Popular Defence Forces, a local security force trained by the army.

KHARTOUM DEAL

He and other tribal leaders, including some from the Fur tribe, agreed in April on ways to encourage people to return and to ensure that a shaky ceasefire signed a year ago is respected.

Their plan includes more police to boost security in Darfur villages and money and food to help people rebuild their lives.

On his way to the Fur village of Numu, Hilal travelled in an armed convoy, even though he said the roads are now safe. It drove past a mountain where he said the first rebel training camp was set up by young men from the Fur and Zaghawa tribes.

He was also accompanied by a local Fur leader, who said his people had not backed the insurgency. "These rebels did not consult the people before taking up arms so why would we support them?" said Ismail Abakr Ibrahim.

A crowd of about 50 people gathered next to the village market, a few stalls selling fruit and vegetables. Camels and donkeys lay near army soldiers protecting the village about 200 km (125 miles) west of the capital of North Darfur state, El-Fasher.

Hilal said the government had promised $16 million to help those displaced by the conflict. A local committee would be formed to record the names of those families who had displaced relatives to facilitate their return home, he said.

"Each large family will get 2.5 million (Sudanese) pounds ($1,000), medium-sized families 1.5 million and small families will get 1 million," he told the crowd of white-clad men and women dressed in gaudy red and pink wraps.

The leader of the village mosque, Mohamed Khatir, said Numu had suffered economically from the war but that it had not been directly touched by the violence.

"I have relatives who ran to Kebkabiya (a nearby town) because they had no food," he said. "They will come back once all those citizens who are carrying arms leave from here."

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa

UN Sudan Situation Report 26 April - 4 May 2005

4 May 2005 Report - Highlights

On 3 May, First Vice-President Taha chaired an expanded Ministerial meeting on Darfur

On 3 May, the SRSG met with SPLM/A Chairman Garang to discuss CPA implementation and the supportive role of UNMIS

According to press reports, the National Assembly (NA) on 4 May approved a resolution condemning SCRs 1591 (2005) and

On 1 May, a Sudanese Red Crescent vehicle travelling to refugee camps near Port Sudan was stopped and hijacked by armed gunmen reportedly from the Eastern Front

On 3 May, a large scale cattle-rustling incident was reported in Yirol (southern BEG )

Political Affairs:

On 3 May, First Vice-President Taha chaired an expanded Ministerial meeting on Darfur including the Ministers of Defense, the Interior, Humanitarian Affairs, and Foreign Affairs. According to press reports, the Vice-President called on the armed groups to restrain themselves to avoid causing a deterioration of the situation in Darfur, and stressed the need to intensify humanitarian work and support reconciliation efforts between Darfur's different tribes. The GoS has also announced that it is studying the Draft Framework Protocol on the Abuja talks and stands ready to resume negotiations with the SLM/A and JEM in the near future.

On 3 May, the SRSG met with SPLM/A Chairman Garang to discuss CPA implementation and the supportive role of UNMIS. They talked about how to activate some of the CPA-derived implementation mechanisms. They agreed on using the Joint National Transitional Team (JNTT) to expeditiously address the issue of the SOFA. The SRSG encouraged Chairman Garang to speed up the nomination of the SPLM/A members on the Ceasefire Joint Monitoring Committee (CJMC) due to be launched on 8 May, which could in turn be used to tackle growing tensions in the Abyei area. On the Collaborative Committee on Other Armed Groups, of which UNMIS is a permanent observer, both the SRSG and Chairman Garang felt that it should be made operational as soon as possible to enable it to deal with the integration of the militia into the organised armed forces. Finally, the situation in Darfur was discussed, as well as the follow-up to the South-South Dialogue (SSD).

Before leaving Nairobi, the SRSG met with former Kenyan President, H.E. Daniel Arap Moi, to discuss how UNMIS could support the Moi African Institute ensure sustained progress in following-up on resolutions adopted at the South-South Dialogue.

According to press reports, the National Assembly (NA) on 4 May approved a resolution condemning SCRs 1591 (2005) and 1593 (2005) for ignoring international law and the role of regional organisations, and adopting double standards. Noting that the Sudanese judiciary is capable of trying those accused of war crimes, the NA called on the Government to deal with the resolutions on legal grounds, and on political forces to join ranks to tackle the "great challenges that faced Sudan." GoS President el-Bashir opened the NA session on 3 May with a speech in which he blamed the "negative signals and unfair pressures from the Security Council" for the slow progress with the Darfur talks, alleging that several measures had been successfully implemented to "contain the Darfur crisis."

Following discussions on the time-table and the internal rules of procedure, the National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC) began discussions on the draft constitution.

Returns reintegration and protection

UNMIS HROs reported on 4 May that two IDP girls living in Abu Shouk camp (North Darfur) one aged 13 years and the other 15 years, have been raped on 3 May by GoS soldiers when they went to collect firewood in Golo location (13 km west of El Fasher). According to UN reports the two survivors were released by the perpetrators this morning and are under treatement.

A possible outbreak of Lezmaniosis has been reported by WHO in Malha administrative unit (North Darfur). To date WHO has identified 25 reported cases and is planning an urgent investigation. The cases are under treatment in Al Malha hospital.

On 4 May, during a meeting called for by the Kass Commissioner and the HAC in Kass (South Darfur), the Commissioner raised issues of relocation/return, security/protection and the food gap in surrounding areas. The Commissioner was adamant that the IDPs would have to “evacuate” the schools as soon as possible. It was also stated that IDPs could not move into the open spaces in the town.

In West Darfur, the HAC has requested a meeting with all heads of UN agencies and NGOs to meet with the GoS reconciliation team that arrived 4 May from Khartoum.

Humanitarian:

SudanAid distributed 8.5 MT of various seed crops to 750 households yesterday in Rukon, Bahr El Jebel. In the same state, UNHCR distributed 2.6 MT of food to 147 Ethiopian refugees in Lologo, covering needs for the month of May. (South Sudan).

Insecurity:

On 1 May, a Sudanese Red Crescent vehicle travelling to refugee camps off the main highway (Es Showak-Port Sudan) was stopped near Showak and hijacked by armed gunmen alleged to be rebels from the Eastern Front (Free Lion Movement and Beja Congress). Two employees were killed. One was injured and a passenger in the vehicle is still missing.

On 2 May two commercial trucks escorted by GoS Police en route to Kabkabiya were ambushed by bandits between Tawila and Kabkabiya (North Darfur). Police allegedly opened fire on bandits, killing one and wounding a second.

On 2 May in the village of Ribash, few km south of Seleah (West Darfur), armed clashes occurred between armed tribesmen, nomads and the local population. Initial reports suggest up to nine people were injured during the fighting.

On 3 May, following the shooting incident reported on 1 May in Shangil Tobaya (North Darfur), a UN team which visited the area to assess the security and humanitarian situations found the situation to be calm. Interviewees confirmed that small arms fire lasted for 4 hours, but confirmation on identity of the parties to this firing has not yet been received from the AU.

UN Security conducted an assessment of the road and area Geneina – Masteri – Kongo Harasa finding the area stable and open for UN Movements.

A large scale cattle-rustling incident was reported in Yirol area in southern BEG on 3 May. The fighting was between the Ciec Dinka and the Aliab Dinka fighting against the Atuot Dinka over cattle and goat looting and grazing lands. The Ciec Dinka claim to have had 27 persons killed in the fighting and the Ciec Dinka claim to have 16 persons killed in the fighting. The number of Aliab Dinka killed or wounded is unknown. The SPLA says that the situation is under control and that some of the stolen property has, under their direction, been returned. An unspecified number of Dinka have been displaced to the east of the Bahr el Jebel River.

Zam Zam camp (North Darfur): following allegations regarding the rape of two women near the IDP camp, a crowd of over 2,000 IDPs formed outside the camp at the same time as sheiks and police forces met to discuss the cases. The crowd showed aggressive intent and GoS police intervened to control the crowd. According to UN sources, CS (teargas) rounds and automatic weapons were fired within the camp and an international NGO clinic received one case thought to be a bullet injury (not yet confirmed). On the afternoon of 4 May the overall situation in and especially to the North of the camp was reported as tense. UN and NGOs personnel have restricted movement to the area. UN will conduct a security assessment early on 5 May.

According to reports, daily fighting has occurred between Marla and Hijer (South Darfur), with tension increasing over the past week in view of expectations of a larger-scale clash in the near future.

The build up of militias south of Thur and in Abu Jabra/Tege (west and east Jebel Marra, respectively- South Darfur), and especially the increased aggressive behavior of militias in Abu Jabra/Tege is disconcerting. Rumors of an attack on the Jebel continue, and fears of violence, fueled by past incidents are keeping agencies from accessing these areas.

The AU conducted investigations in the area of Tina (North Darfur) into attacks by militia on 30 April and 3 May. In the first attack one person was killed and another injured. In the second, three other were killed and one injured.

UN reports militias patrolling in and around Saniafandu (South Darfur), also known as the 'White Army", growing increasingly aggressive, reportedly attacking and looting several lorries on 1 and 2 May between Saniafandu and Yassin. No casualties were reported.

Reports indicate that a military build-up appears to be taking place in the Wadi Seleh (West Darfur) locality with increased military patrolling, movement and tension in the communities. In Mukjar, trenches are being constructed and military presence has increased. In the same locality, nomads are moving closer to the village of Dambar, displaying aggressive attitudes despite the deployment of GoS police in the area.

It was reported on 30 April that Jikany Nuer tribesmen attacked the Lou Nuer villages of Guola (about 5km south of Doma) and Dor (between Doma and Ulang). During these attacks 3 Lou Nuer were killed and 6 Jikany Nuer were wounded. VMT reported that SPLM/A representatives are travelling into Upper Nile in an attempt to resolve these disputes.
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26 April - 2 May 2005 Report - Highlights

The Umma Party and Democratic Unionist Party boycotted the National Constitution Review Commission inauguration that took place on 30 April.

The GoS remains sternly opposed to Council Resolutions 1591 and 1593.

The AU Peace and Security Council decided to augment the number of AMIS personnel deployed in Darfur to 7, 731 by the end of September.

The Nairobi- based Pre-Deployment Training for Senior Staff Officers is ongoing (26 April -7 May).

The security situation continued to hamper humanitarian operations throughout Darfur, and in particular in South Darfur

Political Affairs:

Despite intense efforts by the GoS and SPLM/A joint committee to woo political opposition parties to join the National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC), the Umma Party and Democratic Unionist Party boycotted the NCRC inauguration that took place on 30 April. However, the GoS appears to be trying to open up the political space - the leader of the Popular Congress Party, Hassan al-Turabi, was moved out of prison and placed back under house arrest, while the Communist Party recently called on its members abroad to resume political activities from within Sudan.

The GoS remains sternly opposed to Council Resolutions 1591 and 1593. Following a declaration by President Al-Bashir earlier during the week that he would not extradite any Sudanese citizen for trial outside Sudan, on 30 April, the National Assembly decided to form a committee to discuss SCR 1593.

On 28 April, the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) decided to augment the number of AMIS personnel depolyed in Darfur to 7, 731 by the end of September. Both the SRSG and PDSRSG attended the PSC meeting, and also met with Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi. Efforts to re-start the stalled Abuja process were also stepped-up during the week, with the arrival of an AU delegation in Khartoum. The delegation met with the GoS First Vice-President, Ali Osman Taha, and plan to travel to Asmara to consult the SLM/A and the JEM on the Draft Framework Protocol. Both sides are expected to provide comments on the Protocol before the formal resumption of the talks, now scheduled for late May. Separate talks between the GoS and the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD) began in Abeche, Chad, on 25 April. A meeting of partners is expected to take place before the resumption of the main process in Abuja to co-ordinate the Chadian, AU, as well as other initiatives to bring peace to Darfur.

Military:

To date of the SitRep, 3 of the 4 chalks bringing the Nepalese TCC advance party including Contingent Owned Equipment (COE) have deployed into the UNMIS Logistic Base at EL OBEID. The Final advance party chalk was due to land at El Obeid on 2 May. The road convoy to KASSALA was due to depart El Obeid on 1 May 05.

The deployment of Engineer Platoons with air transportable plant equipment into Sectors 1 (JUBA- Bangladesh), III (MALAKAL-India), IV (Kadugli- Egypt) and V (Ed Damazin –Pakistan) is likely to slip by up to 14/21 days. This is due to lack of load lists being presented in a timely manner to DPKO and UNMIS MSD by the TCCs.

The Nairobi- based Pre-Deployment Training for Senior Staff Officers started 26 April and is due to finish on 7 May. The induction programme for future UNMOs and Staff Officers in Khartoum is being finalized in conjunction with the UNMIS Integrated Training Unit.

Induction of new personnel, training and establishment of JOC are key short-term activities. LOs have been successfully deployed to work with JMC and VMT and to JUBA, WAU and MALAKAL.

The Italian led SHIRBRIG TCC arrived in the mission on 27 April 05. The Team was briefed and had detailed discussions with the Military and MSD Staff on operational and logistics issues. During their visit the team undertook reconnaissance of all relevant sites (Mission HQ, FHQ Company Camp Site and Hotel accommodation for SOs).

UN Police:

Maj Gen Abdul-Rahman Ya’goub former Director of Planning and Information, has been appointed as Director of International Cooperation Department within MoI. Returns reintegration and protection

According to OCHA, 1,447 persons from Khartoum, Madeni, Sennar and Gedaref transited through Kosti to various locations in the South and the Nuba Mountains during the week. The 1,447 returnees included 358 people who moved from White Nile State (Kenana, Rabak and Kosti). A total of 950 IDPs have arrived in Bazia, Eastern Equatoria from Mabia camp as of 10 am on the morning of 26 April. These IDPs have all been registered. Seventy three IDPs were reported to have fallen ill, mainly with diarrhea and malaria, with one child passing away.

The GoS Minister of Humanitarian Affairs announced on 26 April that the government has devised new procedures to enforce humanitarian work following the signing of the peace agreement and to improve humanitarian aims for refugees, displaced people and returnees. The Minister indicated that the measures mainly deal with the registration of organisations, facilitations of tax procedures, facilitations of movement to Darfur and the issuance of cards to humanitarian workers in Darfur to assist movement.

With respect to funding, the Emergency Operation faces a 78 percent shortfall against its operational requirements, after taking into account a recent contribution from Australia (US$2.3 million). Pipeline breaks started in April will directly affect the food distribution and the nutritional status of more than 2.5 million targeted beneficiaries. To date, this EMOP, valued at US$ 302 million, has so far received about US$ 69 million, representing approximately 22 percent of the total operational requirements.

The security situation in the Kutum area, North Darfur, has been increasingly tense due to a large militia presence in the area. These militia have not been disarmed and removed from the IDP areas as promised by the GoS. IDPs are reporting that they cannot travel freely outside the camps for fear of being assaulted, raped or killed by militias.

Harassment against IDPs in Kalma and other camps continued to be reported by DSS and several NGOs. However, the purpose of this harassment remains unclear. Traditional leaders have requested that the AU’s role be extended to the protection of IDP camps, as their current role of monitoring the ceasefire has yet to bring an end to the violence.

Registration is ongoing at the registration points along the major return routes into Northern Bahr el Ghazal(South Sudan). Since 27 April, a total of 30 enumerators are being trained in Yei.

Preparation is ongoing for the forth-coming joint humanitarian response mission to Tongar-Zeraf, Sobat and Kodok Corridors in Upper Nile scheduled for 3rd to 21st May 2005.

Two international staff members of IOM in Nyala, South Darfur, have been charged with falsification of travel documents. The case is pending: the Chief of National Security has indicated that it will be dealt with by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is part of a pattern of reports from international organizations of continued instances of harassment, restrictions of freedom of movement, and criminal charges being laid by HAC in South Darfur. DDR:

On 27 April, the GoS DDR Interim Authority commenced 5 day orientation training course on DDR programme for 50 GoS Senior Army Officers. The training course will address the importance and orientation of the DDR programme in Sudan, as well as train some trainers for further information dissemination to large number of the military units of the GoS.

The UN DDR Unit gave an overview of the DDR programme being planned for the Sudan, the expected target groups and need for Government to continue to be fully involved in the process of the development and subsequently in the implementation. Hon. Hussein reiterated the GoS commitment to the implementation of DDR programme and expressed the continuation of support to the GoS Interim Authority and UN DDR Unit.

Humanitarian:

The security situation continued to hamper humanitarian operations throughout Darfur, and in particular in South Darfur.

In South Darfur, the HAC Commissioner informed agencies that all public statements or interviews given to journalists must be in the presence of the HAC for approval prior to publication. IOM and NRC continue to be harassed by HAC officials in Nyala and Kalma. OCHA has discussed with HAC numerous times about the role of IOM, the MCM agreement, and the need for a collaborative effort.

With respect to the situation in Khor Abeche, agencies have made clear to the AU Force Commander that they will return to the area once the AU has established a base in the village and the environment is more secure. The AU activities in this area are currently hampered by logistical problems.

On 26 April, MoH delivered a letter to all UN agencies and NGOs informing them that it would be raising the minimum level of incentives to the MoH staff seconded to UN agencies and NGOs to between 50% and 100% higher. All agencies found this unacceptable and decided that MDM and UNICEF would represent the international community in communicating their intent not to adhere to these new regulations. UNICEF and MDM were due to meet with the MoH on 30 April to discuss this matter.

In West Darfur, WHO reported that they are monitoring meningitis following three confirmed cases in the state (Riyad, Adamata and Abusourug camps). WHO and MoH are carrying out a collaborative active case assessment in these camps. The interagency assessment to Um Kedada in North Darfur was completed on 27 April. The team is expected to finalise the report early by next week. Preliminary findings include an acute shortage of water especially in the SLA controlled areas. General recommendations include interventions on water, food aid, seeds/tools, shelter/NFIs, market interventions and protection.

As a result of the fighting in Yirol East/Awerial and Yirol West (Bahr el GhazalSouth Sudan), it has been reported that approximately 2,400 people were forced to flee from Bonagok, Abuyong and Dor to Padak in Bor South County in Jonglei State. Yirol Town has not been affected and remains relatively calm and quiet. However, the Regional Administration is advising that agencies restrict their movements to the three locations mentioned. OLS Security is planning an assessment of the area.

Mine Action:

The mission of the Mine Action Support Group (MASG) took place from 25-29 April. Participants from 8 countries and the European Commission were briefed by Directors of the Mine Action Office in Khartoum and Rumbek, and had the opportunity to visit mine action projects in Kadugli and Yei. The Sudan Campaign to Ban Landmines and NGOs participating in mine action in Sudan had the opportunity to make presentations to the MASG in order to increase funding.

A Victim Assistance monthly meeting was held. Documentation for the “Approached to Recovery and Reintegration of Survivors of War-Related Injuries” conference was also finalized.

Human Rights:

The local judiciary in North Darfur continued to be unable to function effectively because a majority of its members are working on the three committees established out of the recommendations of the National Commission of Inquiry.

The pattern identified last week, i.e. HAC insisting on gaining access to all cases of rape treated by international NGOs, this week continued in South Darfur.

Civil Affairs:

Recent violence in El Fasher University has subsided, though police and national security forces still maintain a presence on campus. Even though these events have not affected daily life in the city, strong feelings abound on the GOS’s perceived heavy-handed approach in quelling the violence. Most of the students arrested are Zaghawa, and connected to the Wadi Hawar Community Association, which is reportedly linked to the SLA. Others were said to be members of the opposition Popular Congress Party.

Insecurity:

The security situation continues to be fluid with pockets of clashes and tribal clashes all over Darfur. In North Darfur banditry activity was prominent with two incidents where commercially hired UN trucks were looted. An international NGO staff member and vehicle was detained and released two days later. The obstruction of humanitarian activities by SLA is ongoing. In South Darfur armed attacks and banditry activity was prominent. On the Nyala -Ed Daien and Nyala – Manawashi road banditry activities were reported. The attempted arrest of a UN Staff member by GOS indicated the hardened position taken by GOS against humanitarian community, in particular in South Darfur. In West Darfur the control of Jebel Moon was fluid after clashes between the Maseria Jebel Tribe and the NMRD. The control of Masterei is also fluid with reports of attacks on police patrols by SLA. An influx of Chadian tribes has been reported into the areas of Seleha and possible tribal/armed clashes can not be excluded.

Safety of Personnel:

The safety of humanitarian personnel and property continues to be under threat although no direct attacks against UN staff members were reported. The continuous looting of food commodities from UN commercially hired convoys is of serious concern. The detention of a humanitarian worker by an armed group in North Darfur is also worrisome. The establishment of a checkpoint in the area 10 km West of Tawilla by SLA raises concern and action by SLA at the checkpoint resulted in the looting of a truck carrying relief commodities.

Tony Blair's Commission for Africa - The world's first blogging Lord: Clive Soley

Apologies for intermission at Sudan Watch over next few days. Today is the final 24 hours of the run up to the General Election here in Britain. Much bitterness is felt by many voters in the UK about British Prime Minister Tony Blair supporting the US with military intervention to remove the dictatorship in Iraq and enable Iraqis to vote and elect their leaders.

No doubt many Americans don't give two hoots about who is in power outside of America. Today, I feel like writing a vent about all those who mindlessly argue and spread political propaganda in mainstream media, on the Internet and in blogland and make concerted attempts to drown out political discussion, but I shan't because it would be complete waste of time and energy.

Suffice to say, Tony Blair has done more for Africa than any other British prime minister. Through his leadership, the UK is second to the US in its huge contribution to help the people of Sudan. The next G8 meeting is to be chaired by a British prime minister which Tony Blair has spent several years working towards with the aim of getting the G8 to agree on cancelling the debts of the world's poorest nations.

For this reason, and many others, I hope he wins another term in office, which I believe he will. Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher won another term for the Conservatives after taking Britain to war not in a fight against terrorism but over a piece of rock, in the middle of nowhere, that never seemed to belong to us in the first place. There's an old saying that goes something along the lines that "there is nought so queer as folk". If things go pear shaped tomorrow because of the UK's support to the US over Iraq, it is questionable if any more help will be coming from the UK for the people of Sudan and Darfur, not to mention the whole of Africa and the world's poorest nations.

On this note I shall say a warm hello and congratulations to my most favourite British blogger Clive Soley who, having recently retired as an MP after 26 years of great service to this country, has just been made a Lord. Surely Lord Clive of British Blogland must qualify for an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's first blogging Lord.

[Note to any new readers: please understand, this is not a political blog. The only reason this post appears here today is to encourage any British readers, no matter where they are on the political spectrum, to please vote tomorrow. Comments are welcomed if they are non-political and relate to a genuine and kindly interest in peace and prosperity for Africa and in particular DRC, Uganda and the Sudan. Thank you.]

Further reading:

Tony Blair's Commission for Africa, La Commission pour l'Afrique.
Clive Soley's Why MP's Should Get Blogging plus Fabian paper on Iraq.

Tags: Blair Soley Darfur Sudan Africa

ABC's Interview with Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal in Sudan

American journalist Jonathan Karl recently visited Sudan where he interviewed one of the most notorious leaders of the Janjaweed, Sheik Musa Hilal. Here is an excerpt from Mr Karl's report for ABC News titled "Darfur Notebook: Death in the Desert" May 2, 2005:

With the press conference now ready to start any second, I found another local journalist who agreed to call him back on my behalf to request the interview in Arabic. There security guards were now yellowing at my translator to hang-up because Zoellick was about to walk in, but he kept talking, talking and talking. When he finally hung up, he turned to me and said, "he says 'no way,' but I still think I can convince him to do it." It wasn't until after 9 o'clock at night that I heard back. Hillal had agreed to do the interview.

Richard, Wayne and I piled into a tiny Toyota taxi cab (every car in Sudan seems to be a Toyota) and took the 25 minute ride to our appointed meeting place.

Surprisingly, we found him at a meeting with leaders of one of the non-Arab Fur tribe -- one of the tribes he is accused of terrorizing. One of the fur tribe leaders, told us Hillal had come to seek reconciliation and forgiveness.

He agreed to an interview as "chief of the chiefs" of the Fur tribe sat beside him. Hillal repeatedly told me, "I am not a war criminal."

"Are you part of the problem?" I asked him.

"I am part of Darfur," he said, "and everyone who is part of Darfur is part of the problem."

But Hillal denies committing any of the crimes he's blamed for.

"You have been named by many as a war criminal," I said.

"If I am a war criminal, all the other tribal chiefs, they have the power to put me on trial and question me. I will accept their judgment, even if it means being shot."

But even through the denials, he offered a familiar defense. He was only following orders. He said all he had ever done was help the government deal with a rebellion.

"And a lot of innocent people got killed, didn't they?" I said.

"When you have a war," he said coolly, "normally innocent people are affected."

Hillal insisted reports of widespread destruction in Darfur are a "media fabrication." The Fur tribal leader told us the violence has forced the vast majority of his tribe from their homes and into refugee camps.

"That doesn't sound like a media fabrication," I said to him.

"It's reality," he said.

Hillal is widely expected to be indicted soon by the International Criminal Court. Indictment, is one thing, but don't expect Hillal to be arrested anytime soon -- the place we met him was a police officers club.

Full report.
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UN Sudan Situation Reports 26, 27, 30 April 2005

Click here for latest reports by UN personnel in Sudan.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa

SOAT Alert: Disappearance of 3 Men in Nyala, Darfur, Sudan

SOAT Human Rights Alert May 3, 2005 excerpt:

On 20 April 2005, armed men in military uniform stopped a passenger bus travelling from Belail Internally Displaced Persons camp to Nyala and boarded the bus. The armed men selected three male passengers belonging to the Zaghawa tribe and ordered them off the bus. According to eyewitness accounts, the armed men beat the three passengers with the butt of their guns before taking them away in a Land Rover. The details of the passengers are as follows:

1. Ahmed Manees Maalla, (60 yrs), from Marla and lives in Nyala

2. Adam Abdella Mohamed Tor, (34 yrs), from Marla

3. Ibrahim Khidir Abdella, (30 yrs), from Marla

The Omda (Mayor) of the Zaghawa group has visited the police stations and security offices in Nyala but the whereabouts of the three men are unknown.

SOAT expresses fears for the safety of the three men and is calling on the GoS to immediately investigate the incident, make known their whereabouts and give assurances that they will not be tortured or ill-treated.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa

Two million people live in camps in Darfur, Sudan

Even if some of the two million people living in camps in Darfur return home soon, October 2006 would be the date of the next harvest, says Oxfam UK in a BBC report today.

[Note, a recent post here points to a report where UN envoy Jan Pronk suggests 12,000 peacekeepers for Darfur starting next year, for four years]
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Oxfam sending 4 planeloads of water and aid for Darfur and Chad

Oxfam is sending two planeloads of vital aid supplies to Darfur and another two to neighbouring Chad, where it said refugees in overcrowded camps face water shortages and disease.

One of the Oxfam flights was to set off on Monday for El Fasher in North Darfur with 34 tons of water and sanitation equipment to provide drinking water to more than 200,000 refugees.
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Darfur Mortality Update: April 30, 2005

Professor Eric Reeves, in his latest analysis re Darfur, predicts that even with urgent humanitarian intervention, many tens of thousands of people will eventually die. Humanitarian capacity is not adequate to present needs and will be overwhelmed by the 3.5 to 4 million people needing food and aid during the impending rainy season.

Most threatening, he says, is the possibility that insecurity will force the suspension of relief operations. If this happens, the UN's aid chief Jan Egeland has estimated that Darfur's death toll may increase to 100,000 per month.

Prof Reeves points out the acute water shortages are likely to remain chronic, given the extent of deliberate destruction of wells and irrigation systems by the Janjaweed (maintenance of water resources has also been severely curtailed by insecurity).

He says he is modestly encouraged by news that the AU has sought logistical help from NATO. But he fears both the time frame and nature of help sought suggest that nothing approaching the required humanitarian intervention is in the offing and that it reflects a lack of urgency.

Full Report.

[My argument against military intervention during past year is it would defeat the object as Khartoum would dismiss aid workers from the counrty. See comment I left at Bradford Plumer's super post on this issue.]
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Tribal leaders 'looting Darfur food aid'

Correspondent David Blair writes from Kalma refugee camp in Southern Darfur. Note his report at Telegraph UK May 2, about corruption bedevilling food distribution in many camps in Darfur.
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Darfur: Refugees Call for British Aid

Hundreds of Darfur's refugees protested outside Downing Street today (Monday) to demand £30 million to fund an expanded peacekeeping force for the troubled region, writes PA correspondent James Reini in the Scotsman, May 2. Excerpt:

More than 250 asylum seekers staged the 'die-in' by laying on the street and brandishing placards bearing names of the conflict's 400,000 victims.

Among the protesters was political rap star Emmanuel Jal, 25, whose song 'Gua', the Arabic word for 'Power' is currently topping the Kenyan charts.

The singer said he became a child soldier armed with an AK47 at the age of eight after being lured into the Sudan People's Liberation Army in the country's long-running ethnic conflict.

"The British are respected in Sudan, and we believe the British can play a part in bringing peace to my troubled country."

The protest, organised by Waging Peace, brought many of Darfur's refugees to London from their new homes in Britain, mostly in the Midlands. Full report.

Further reading:

May 2 Darfur protest at Downing Street.



Photo: Darfur refugees in Netherlands demonstrate on Friday 29 April. Another demonstration was organised in Italy in favour of Darfur on the same Friday. (ST)
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Irish troops requested for Sudan

The UN has asked the government to send Irish troops to southern Sudan to monitor the fragile ceasefire, reports Stephen O'Brien in the London Times May 1, 2005.

Willie O'Dea, the defence minister, said the Sudanese assignment would be one of the more dangerous postings in the history of Irish peacekeeping overseas, but he said he would withhold judgment until the risk assessment report was complete and would bring a recommendation to cabinet where the final decision would be made.

Ireland has seconded one army officer to Darfur, and has provided financial support for the African Union Mission in Sudan. The government has also pledged 15m Irish pounds for the recovery and reconstruction of Sudan from 2005 to 2007, as part of a 4.5 billion USD international aid package.
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Thank You

Thanks to Global Voices Online for pointing here, via Bill's great post at Jewels in the Jungle, the high quality flash clip on Darfur by Physicians for Human Rights - and drawings by some children in Darfur.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa

EU's Solana to start dialogue with US on China - CIA supports genocide in Sudan?

For future reference, here below is a copy of a Reuters report April 29 on Javier Solana's important talks starting today in the US re China and his peace mission to Sudan and DRC.

[Note, the timing of Mr Solana's visit to America and the Sudan. Khartoum's intelligence chief - who, according to Eric Reeves' latest analysis, is one of the 51 suspects - was recently fetched by an executive jet, courtesy of the American Government, for a meeting with the CIA in Washington.

News reports say the intelligence information Khartoum provides has proven most useful and up to date. Regarding the report in the LA Times, logged here April 29, titled "Sudan considered valuable ally in US war on terrorism", one wonders if they on the trail of Bin Laden et al.

My theory, mentioned here several times, is the Bush administration, ever since Colin Powell's visit to Khartoum, has some sort of deal with Khartoum to desist from using the word genocide and quoting top end death tolls.

Watch the press, and notice if you see the Bush administration mentioning the g-word or high death tolls: next day or so news from Khartoum [usually Ismail] will hit the wires giving a clue that Khartoum has blown another gasket under pressure and threaten something or other - usually veiled in terms that go something like: "Sudan will not be able to fulfil its commitments as agreed if ..." - which is probably Khartoum speak for "not willing to provide more intelligence info if you continue using the g-word and referring to 400,000 dead". You have to wonder if Jack Straw was getting at something or someone recently when he mentioned the g-word in relation to Sudan because his speech always sounds measured.

Meanwhile, Robert Zoellick is taking flack from Sudan watchers such as John Prendergast and Eric Reeves [see his latest analysis] - even the Sudanese Embassy in Washington got involved with the politcs of numbers]. Here is the Reuters report:

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will start a strategic dialogue with the United States about managing the emergence of China when he visits Washington for talks next week, diplomats said on Friday.

Solana's office announced that he would meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley on May 2-4. He is also to address the House of Representatives International Affairs Committee.

The EU and the United States are at odds over moves to lift a European arms embargo on China, imposed after the crushing of a pro-democracy movement in Tienanmen Square in 1989.

The Europeans have put their plans on hold because of China's recent adoption of an anti-secession law threatening force if Taiwan declares independence, and in response to fierce opposition from Washington and Japan.

Congress has threatened to retaliate by freezing European countries out of military technology sharing if they lift the arms ban, while the Europeans swear they don't plan to sell any more weapons but just want to remove a diplomatic stigma.

EU foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg on April 15, said it was up to Beijing now to make gestures on easing tension with Taiwan and improving human rights, notably by releasing political prisoners held since 1989.

EU diplomats said Solana hoped to defuse tension over the issue by starting a broader, regular transatlantic dialogue about how to integrate China's growing economic, political and military power into a cooperative international system.

He is also expected to discuss plans for an international conference to support Iraq's new government, to be hosted jointly by the EU and the US in Brussels in late June -- a symbol of common purpose after bitter transatlantic rifts over the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The diplomats said Solana would also discuss efforts to bring peace to Sudan'stroubled Darfur region and to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he is on a peace mission.
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Re LA Times report above

Jim at Passion of the Present has a post today titled CIA supports genocide in Sudan?

[You have to wonder what the US Government is expected to do if Khartoum contacts them with ultra important information that leads to the whereaobuts of Bin Laden et al or tip offs to avert another 9/11. Surely it is in everyone's interest that the US takes any information it can get. Governments are responsible for working in the best interests of their country. I don't blame the American Government at all. It's interesting the dealings have been made public. Charles Snyder was recently quoted in a recent interview as saying the US gave Sudan top marks for its cooperation on terrorism. Sharing intelligence information need not detract from helping the people of Sudan. It stands to reason no country these days can afford to turn down useful intelligence information.]
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When Interests Trump ideals -- How Do You Choose Between Evils?

Continuing on with above issue, Jim Portland (sadly not a blogger) in the comments at a great post on Darfur by Bradford Plumer, writes this comment:

Phil Carter at Intel Dump has some cogent thoughts about the tradeoff of intelligence from Sudan on terrorism versus opposing genocide.

His summary position:

In the final analysis, I think that the U.S. government has made the right decision there to work with the Khartoum regime to get intelligence about Al Qaeda. But I'm very uncertain about that judgment. We know that genocide itself can breed instability and terrorism, just as failed states like Sudan can. And we also know that many, many more have perished in Darfur than from all of the terror attacks in the last 100 years combined. Should this effort bear no fruit, I will likely question my judgment that this policy is prudent, and lament the lost opportunity to save the victims of genocide in Darfur.

[See comment by Panzerlawyer at Phil's post.]

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa

Garang's speech to Sudan's parliament: Seek forgiveness and tolerance and give peace a chance

On April 30, 2005 in a 20-minute speech to Sudan's parliament [broadcast live by Sudanese TV and delivered on his behalf by Nhial Deng Nhial, a senior aide] former Sudanese rebel chief John Garang urged citizens to ensure that the recently signed peace agreement was fully implemented so as stabilise and develop Sudan. He also urged the international community to honour pledges made during the recent conference in Norway over the reconstruction of southern Sudan.

On commencement of the speech, he asked everyone to "rise and observe one minute silence in memory and honour of our nation's fallen heroes, from both sides of the divide, who paid the ultimate sacrifice." [The silence was observed]

Unusually [Europe doesn't get much appreciation from Sudan or the U.S. - which is why I making a point of blowing Europe's trumpet here] he said thank you and paid tribute to peace partners, saying:

"The efforts, which the SPLM made in realising a consensus and peace under the auspices of IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority on Development) led by Kenya, achieved substantial support from the friends of IGAD, Britain, Italy and blessed with the signing of the peace agreement in January 2004 in Nairobi.

Allow me, therefore, to greet in your name the Sudanese people and recognise the governments of the aforementioned countries. You were our friends, supporters during difficult times."

Here in this excerpt, best of all, he asks everyone to seek forgiveness and tolerance and give peace a chance:

"The implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement does not only give peace a chance but also creates an opportunity for Sudanese people to, wisely and optimally, seek forgiveness and tolerance as well reconstruct a strong Sudan based on equality and justice. The comprehensive peace agreement is a good agreement, if wholly implemented, and could be used as a model for the resolution of other conflicts in Sudan, Africa and world."

See full text of John Garang's speech - courtesy BBC Monitoring Service via Sudan Tribune, May 1, 2005.


Photo: We want peace..peace

Further reading:

May 1, 2005: Former Sudan Foes Dance to Celebrate Constitution - Reuters report by Opheera McDoom - Government ministers and former rebels danced and embraced in Khartoum on Saturday to celebrate the start of work on a new constitution which will pave the way for a government of national unity in Sudan.
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Irish troops requested for Sudan

The UN has asked the government to send Irish troops to southern Sudan to monitor the fragile ceasefire, reports Stephen O'Brien in the London Times May 1, 2005. Excerpt:

Lieutenant General James Shreenan, chief of staff of the Defence Forces, has asked for volunteers throughout the army and is likely to meet the number required even though 150 Irish officers are already serving overseas. The army is carrying out a risk assessment to categorise the level of threat posed by the peace monitoring mission before the government makes a final decision on whether to send Irish personnel.

Willie O'Dea, the defence minister, said the Sudanese assignment would be one of the more dangerous postings in the history of Irish peacekeeping overseas, but he said he would withhold judgment until the risk assessment report was complete and would bring a recommendation to cabinet where the final decision would be made.

The mission was requested by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations to support the peace agreement for southern Sudan signed in January by the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

Ireland has seconded one army officer to the troubled region of Darfur in western Sudan, and has provided financial support for the African Union Mission in Sudan. The government has also pledged 15m Irish pounds for the recovery and reconstruction of Sudan from 2005 to 2007, as part of a 4.5 billion USD international aid package.

Two million people died in a bitter civil war in Sudan, and while peace talks continue between warring southern Sudanese factions in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, some observers are concerned that not all the influential militia leaders of the region are participating.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa

Sudan: The Merowe/Hamadab Dam Project

May 2005 report from a visit to Sudan and a fact-finding mission to the Merowe Dam Project 22 February - 1 March 2005 by International Rivers Network. Excerpt:

The Merowe/Hamadab Dam Project is the largest hydropower project that is currently being developed in Africa. Once it is completed, a dam with a height of 67 meters on the fourth cataract of the Nile in North Sudan will create a reservoir with a length of 174 kilometres and a surface area of 476 square kilometres. The reservoir will displace about 50,000 people. (The project's Environmental Impact Assessment states that the reservoir will have a reach of 200 kilometres. This would affect a larger number of people, particularly on the island of Mugrat.)

The purpose of the Merowe Dam is to generate hydropower with an installed capacity of 1,250 megawatts. The project is expected to be completed between 2007 and 2009. It will roughly double Sudan's power generating capacity. According to the Environmental Impact Assessment, the project includes an irrigation component. There is uncertainty, however, as to whether or not the irrigation component will proceed, with Sudanese government officials giving different views.

The total cost of the Merowe Project is budgeted to reach $1.2 billion. In addition to the Sudanese government, the main funders of the dam include the China Export Import Bank, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and the Development Funds of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, and the Sultanate of Oman. Since many problems of the project, including the resettlement of the affected communities, have not yet been resolved, it is impossible to gauge the project's final cost at this point.

The dam and the transmission lines are mainly being constructed by Chinese companies. Sudanese contractors are involved in building the dam and the resettlement sites. Western companies are also involved in the project: Lahmeyer International of Germany manages the construction of the project; Alstom of France is supplying electro-mechanic equipment; and ABB of Switzerland is building transmission substations.

The Merowe Dam is currently under construction. The Corner House and International Rivers Network did not receive permission to visit the construction site. Together with representatives of the affected communities and the Environmentalists' Society, however, they were able to visit the project's first resettlement site at El Multaga.

Full report at nilebasin.com via Nile Basin Blog with thanks.
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Did you know?



The Nile River is the longest river in the world. From its major source, Lake Victoria in east central Africa, the White Nile flows generally north through Uganda and into Sudan where it meets the Blue Nile at Khartoum, which rises in the Ethiopian highlands. From the confluence of the White and Blue Nile, the river continues to flow northwards into Egypt and on to the Mediterranean Sea. From Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea the length of the Nile is 5,584 km. From its remotest headstream, the Ruvyironza River in Burundi, the river is 6,671 km long. The river basin has an area of more than 3,349,000 sq. km.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Sudan, history of the Abay (Nile)

[via Nile Basin Blog with thanks]

UPDATE May 2: Sudan Tribune has just published this story with a link to the pdf report. About the publishers:

International Rivers Network links the environment and human rights. For 20 years, IRN has worked with local communities to protect their rivers and watersheds, and has encouraged sustainable methods of meeting needs for water, energy and flood management. IRN is based in the USA. www.irn.org, info@irn.org

Founded in 1997, The Corner House aims to support democratic and community movements for environmental and social justice through analysis, research and advocacy work. The Corner House is based in the United Kingdom. www.thecornerhouse.org.uk, enquiries@thecornerhouse.org.uk
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Aquaplastics 2005

Over one billion people, one sixth of the world's population, do not have access to safe water.

Through aquaplastics website, WaterAid and the European plastics industry are working together to help tackle this huge problem.

Every day you click on this site, the European plastics industry will donate 10 cents to help WaterAid deliver clean, safe water and sanitation to people in Ethiopia. If they reach 1.5 million clicks by 22 June 2005 then a total of 150,000 euro will be donated to WaterAid.

Please help them to reach their target by clicking there once a day - it only takes seconds and it doesn't cost you anything! Thank you.

Water Aid is a UK Registered Charity No. 288701
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Ethan's Waterbottle WiFi and Geekcorps Mali



See Ethan's post on Waterbottle WiFi and Geekcorps Mali.

Plus, excerpt from Water bottle WiFi in Mali: In the great tradition of DIY wireless comes another project underway in Mali. The project is investigating best practices for building small DIY antennas and router enclosures at low-cost to serve the Malian television and WiFi markets. Designs were taken from numerous sources and adapted to use materials readily available in Mali such as plastic water bottles (peep the "BottleNet" antenna at right), used motorbike valve stems, and window screen mesh. Goals included reducing cost and making assemblages simple enough to require little technical skill. For about $40 per antenna, the project could end up satisfying most of the needs of the WiFi market in Mali. Want to piggy-back off your neighbor's broadband? Start saving your bottles.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa