Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s drawings of Darfur that were accepted by ICC as evidence in any trial

The plot thickens. Last year, Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s pictures of Darfur war that were accepted by the International Criminal Court as contextual evidence to be used in any trial.  See Times report 5 March 2009, copied here below.

Here is a sample of some of the drawings from BBC News, 4 March 2009:
In pictures: Child drawings of Darfur

The International Criminal Court is accepting supporting evidence of children's drawings of the alleged crimes committed in Darfur.

Rights group Waging Peace collected the drawings from refugees in Chad.


This sketch by Abdul Maggit depicts a typical scene of destruction.


Abduljabbar's picture shows someone being thrown into a fire and a soldier who appears to be cutting off a man’s head.


Mohammed's drawing shows Janjaweed militia in two pick-up trucks using machine guns on civilians. He also shows a tank. The Sudanese government has always denied using heavy artillery in Darfur.


This picture by Mohamat shows another village attack. Next to each civilian who has been shot is the word "Morts", which means dead people in French.


Adam, 15, shows shot civilians' bodies being tossed into the river. On the back of the drawing, he wrote: "Look at these pictures carefully, and you will see what happened in Darfur. Thank you."


Ismael, also 15, drew a Sudanese helicopter bombing his village, torching houses and killing civilians and a donkey. He said the armed men on horseback were Janjaweed.


Bakhid was eight years old when he saw his village being attacked and burned by Janjaweed forces on horse back and Sudanese forces in vehicles and tanks.


One young artist named Aisha said: "It is very kind to send us food, but this is Africa and we are used to being hungry. What I ask is that you please take the guns away from the people who are killing us."
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From Times Online
March 5, 2009
One small step for the ICC, a giant step for Darfur
Frances Gibb, Legal Editor

The issuing of an arrest warrant yesterday for Sudan’s President on charges of war crimes and of crimes against humanity was a landmark for the International Criminal Court.

The move — the first by the court based in The Hague against a sitting head of state — brought derision from the object of the warrant himself, Omar al-Bashir. He said this week that the tribunal could “eat” its warrant and that it was not worth the ink it was written with — as he danced for cheering supporters who burnt an effigy of the ICC chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

But it was also welcomed widely across the international human rights community and nowhere less than at Waging Peace, www.wagingpeace.info, the small London-based charity that focuses on atrocities in Africa and in particular in Darfur. Rebecca Tinsley, its chairwoman, said that the charity regretted that the court had stopped short of accusing al-Bashir of genocide but it welcomed the ICC’s acknowledgement of the role that the Sudanese President had “played in bringing death and destruction to Darfur”.

She added: “After five years of pandering to the Khartoum Government, the international community is finally sending a strong signal that the systematic murder, rape and displacement of innocent people will not go unpunished.”

The group has been instrumental in assembling evidence of the atrocities in Darfur, where the UN estimates that 300,000 people have died in the six-year conflict, and millions of people have been displaced, now living in camps near Darfur’s main towns. Al-Bashir puts the death toll at 10,000.

Last year Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s pictures of the genocide that were accepted by the court as contextual evidence to be used in any trial of al-Bashir as well as those of the so-called humanitarian minister, Ahmed Haroun, and the militia leader, Ali Kushayb, who have both been indicted previously.

It also helped to step up international pressure, presenting world leaders with the largest petition to emerge from Eastern Africa, signed by more than 60,000 Darfuris who had taken refuge in Chadian camps on the border of Sudan and who were appealing for an end to the atrocities.

Tinsley said: “Many Darfuri women had seen their husbands and children murdered and been raped themselves. Not only was it complete cultural anathema for them to take political action but they risked their lives in doing so. Signing their names posed an enormous threat to their safety.”

One testimonial from among 40,000 women who signed the petition read: “We the mothers want them [the UK peacekeepers] to enter Darfur immediately. They have displaced us, and killed us, and raped us in front of our children and husbands. They killed our children and burnt our houses. This was all done by the Janjawid in our homeland.”

Another, by a 13-year-old girl, Sumaiya, who was 10 when forced to flee Darfur, read: “The Janjawid and the Government burnt our houses, cut our trees and stole our money and goods and animals. They killed the women, the men, the elderly and the young and raped the girls. They attacked the mosque and killed the imam, the muezzin and people praying in the mosque.”

Many witness accounts collected by the charity were gathered through drawings. A researcher, Anna Schmitt, spent three weeks among the refugees and gave the children paper and pencils, asking them to depict their strongest memories. They showed attacks on their villages by Sudanese government forces and the Janjawid, including adult men being killed, women being shot, beaten and taken prisoner, babies being thrown on fires and government helicopters and planes bombing civilians.

Yet there has been delay and ambivalence over the prospective prosecution of al-Bashir — it is eight months since the ICC prosecutor made his request for a warrant to the court and his charges included genocide.

Peter Quayle, a solicitor who has completed an internship at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, said: “Awkward hand-wringing accompanied the announcement of the prospective prosecution of al-Bashir. But applause and ovation heralded the arrest of Radovan Karadzic to stand trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.”

One reason, he said, was that the “many” who felt the prosecutor’s case against al-Bashir to be hasty and presumptuous feared that the criminal indictment would influence the Darfur crisis for the worse. But, he argues, the worst has already happened. “The President of Sudan is to be prosecuted, not to forestall or deter atrocity, but to publicise and punish his alleged crime.” To delay on grounds of expediency — and the hope of securing peace — was to delay on a false premise, he argues; and any alleged dichotomy between justice and expediency “spurious”.

Above all, it is highly unlikely that al-Bashir will be arrested or handed over. The ICC has no police force and the warrant, to be delivered to the Sudan Government, is unlikely to be executed.

But the action by the ICC sends out a message that the international community at least wishes to bring him to account. Some hope that it may also bring peace. Tinsley said: “His arrest is imperative in bringing an end to the violence that has destroyed the lives of millions of people.”

It was time, she said, for countries to meet their obligations and ensure al-Bashir answers the charges he faces. Not to do so would jeopardise the lives of millions in Darfur — and also the future of international justice.

Note to self: more on this later.

AU's Mbeki and US's Gration arrive in Sudan - ICC registrar visits Sudanese refugees in Chad

The Head of the African Union's special panel for Darfur, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday evening (01 April) and was scheduled to meet Sudanese officials. Mr Mbeki is now scheduled to meet Sudanese government authorities, Darfur rebels and neighbouring states and submit a progress report to African Union in the next four months. Mr Mbeki was appointed as the Head of the AU High Level Panel on Darfur last month by the AU.

By my reckoning, the next four months ends in July. News of the Abyei Boundary Commission's report is expected to emerge by June of this year.

According to the below copied article from the Sudan Tribune, the ICC's registrar, Silvana Arbia, has been in Chad since Monday (30 March) where she told Sudanese refugees that victims will have rights before the court to participate in the judicial process, and described how they would be able to obtain reparations. See related story here below from Sudan Watch archives re "ICC's Ocampo denies getting any help or information from NGOs in Darfur": UK based rights group Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s pictures of Darfur war that were accepted by the ICC as contextual evidence to be used in any trial. Waging Peace collected the drawings from refugees in Chad.

Early today, (Thursday, 02 April) the new US envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, arrived in Khartoum for a week-long tour that is expected to include visits to Darfur in west Sudan, Juba, the capital of south Sudan, and Abyei an oil-rich area between north and south Sudan.

Note that South Africa has opened a new Consulate-General in Juba in Southern Sudan. South African exports to Sudan, which include base metals, machinery, wood pulp, plastics and chemicals, have increased over the past year from R463-million in 2007 to R718-million in 2008.

This month, Mexico assumes UN Security Council Presidency from Libya.

Source: the following reports.

April 02, 2009 report from the Daily Nation, Kenya's leading newspaper:
Mbeki in Sudan for Darfur peace talks
By Argaw Ashine, Nation Correspondent (ADDIS ABABA)

Head of African Union special panel for Darfur, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, arrived in Sudan to begin the search for a lasting solution in the conflict raged region of Darfur.

Mbeki arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday evening and was scheduled to meet Sudanese officials. He will also visit the Darfur region.

According to AU Peace and Security Council sources, Mbeki will hold a series of talks with tribal leaders, displaced peoples' representatives, UN and AU peacekeepers, political parties and civil society representatives.

The AU panel for Darfur, inaugurated at the end of March 2009 in Addis Ababa, aimed at fighting impunity and ensuring accountability in the region

Thabo Mbeki and his strong African eminent personalities Darfur panel planned to achieve a three-pillar objective of expediting the peace process, installing justice and start reconciliation process among the warring parties in Sudan.

Mr Mbeki, who mediated the Zimbabwe political crisis, is now scheduled to meet Sudanese government authorities, Darfur rebels and neighbouring states and submit a progress report to African Union in the next four months.

Mbeki has faced sharp criticism for his “soft” stand against Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe during his mediation effort, but he defended the criticism by saying the mediation was successful and achieved the intended result.

Mbeki dismissed criticism that he might have another “soft” stand on Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir, who has been charged with war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. The ICC issued an arrest warrant on Al Bashir March 4 this year.

“I am not starting a responsibility of defending any criticism” Mbeki said during his recent visit to Addis Ababa.

Mbeki said his team's responsibility is to produce the required result based on the mandate given from AU.

He stressed the value of reconciliation in healing wounds and to bring lasting peace rather than retaliation, as his country South Africa did after the fall of Apartheid.

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April 02, 2009 article from Sudan Tribune, France based pro rebel newsonline:
ICC registrar visits Sudanese refugees in Chad

April 1, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – The registrar of the International Criminal Court, Silvana Arbia, arrived Wednesday in the Sudanese refugee camps Treguine and Bredjing in eastern Chad, meeting with camp authorities and explaining about the warrant of arrest against President Omer Al-Bashir, according to a press statement.

The world court (ICC), which claims jurisdiction in Darfur because the UN Security Council referred the case to it in 2005, aims to try Bashir on seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The registrar is the principal administrative officer of the court, elected by the judges. It is her responsibility to set up the Victims and Witnesses Unit, according to the Rome Statute that governs the court. In consultation with the Office of the Prosecutor, this unit provides protective measures and security arrangements, counselling and other appropriate assistance for witnesses, victims who appear before the court, and others who are at risk on account of testimony given by such witnesses.

She is also responsible for overseeing the court’s outreach programmes, which are designed to communicate with communities affected by the situations that are subject to investigations or proceedings.

Arbia, who began her visit to Chad on Monday for a four day visit, met with mostly Masalit refugees, women’s groups representatives, and very many victims, stated the ICC statement. Questioned by the refugees as to how the arrest warrant would be executed, the ICC official responded that the Court will pursue efforts to obtain the cooperation of states so as to ensure that Omer Al Bashir is arrested and transferred to the ICC.

“The arrest warrant will be implemented,” she declared, underscoring that the court is a permanent institution and that justice will take its course even if he is a Head of State. Arbia also reviewed the other arrest warrants issued in relation with the Darfur case, against a militia leader and a minister of state.

She further told refugees that victims will have rights before the court to participate in the judicial process, and described how they would be able to obtain reparations. (ST)

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April 02, 2009 report from AFP by Guillaume Lavallee via zawya.com:
US envoy kicks off Sudan visit

KHARTOUM, Apr 02, 2009 (AFP) - US envoy Scott Gration began an official visit to Sudan on Thursday as President Barack Obama turned up the heat on Sudanese leader Omar al-Beshir to allow aid groups back into war-torn Darfur.

The retired air force general arrived in Khartoum early Thursday for a week-long visit, a month after an international arrest warrant was issued against Beshir for war crimes committed in the western Sudanese region.

Beshir expelled 13 international aid groups from Darfur after the International Criminal Court issued the warrant for him on March 4.

Obama, speaking after meeting with his special envoy on Monday, said he hoped to find a way for humanitarian workers to resume their work in Darfur.

"We have to figure out a mechanism to get those NGOs back in place, to reverse that decision, or to find some mechanism whereby we avert an enormous humanitarian crisis," Obama said.

International aid agencies distribute food, offer medical aid and provide access to water to some 2.7 million people displaced by the civil war in Darfur.

The Sudanese president remained defiant about his government's decision to expel the aid agencies from Darfur in response to the ICC arrest warrant.

"In one year we will Sudanise all the aid on the ground and we can fill the gap in food distribution within one year because the Sudanese Red Crescent already distributes 45 percent of the food in Darfur," Beshir said during a visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

On his Khartoum visit, Gration is due to meet with senior officials from the foreign ministry and could possibly meet Beshir, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

"The US embassy told us clearly that (Gration) was here to listen. We don't expect him to come with a plan," Ali Sadiq told AFP.

Gration is expected to visit Darfur over the weekend.

Obama had said that his envoy was to try to kickstart discussions between rebels and the government in order to reach a solution to the Darfur conflict, where 300,000 lives have been lost since 2003 and more than two million people displaced.

Sudan puts the death toll from the six-year war at only 10,000.

The Darfur question has garnered much attention in the United States, where groups like "Save Darfur" are pushing for a solution to the crisis.

The Sudanese government and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) signed an agreement in Doha in February aimed at holding peace talks, but JEM has indicated that it would back out if Khartoum does not authorise the return of the aid agencies.

Gration is also expected to visit Juba, the capital of south Sudan and Abyei, the oil-rich area between north and south Sudan where fighting last year threatened a return to Sudan's two-decade civil war which only ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.

Sudanese-US relations have been strained since the mid-90s.

The US had accused Sudan of harbouring Al-Qaeda members and in 1997 imposed sanctions against the country before launching a missile strike on Khartoum one year later. gl/jaz/cjo/bpz

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April 02, 2009 report from BuaNews-Xinhua by Bathandwa Mbola:
SA opens new Consulate-General in Sudan

Sudan - South African has opened a Consulate-General in Juba in Southern Sudan.

The new mission will contribute to facilitating the movement of business people between the two countries, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The department said the Consulate will consolidate South Africa's presence in the Sudan and strengthen the support for peace efforts and the implementation of post-conflict reconstruction and development related projects in Southern Sudan.

Having a greater presence in the country will also aid in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which was signed in 2005 marking an end to the civil strife in the Sudan.

South Africa is involved in the post-conflict reconstruction and development in respect of capacity and institution building.

To date, over 1000 Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) officials have been trained in public service and administration, judiciary and legal affairs and government communication, among others.

South Africa has deployed peacekeepers and civilian police in Darfur as part of the United Nations-African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan (UNAMID) and continues to support the Darfur peace efforts through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms.

Meanwhile, former President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday, arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on an African Union (AU) mission to help resolve the conflict in the Darfur region.

Mr Mbeki was appointed as the Head of the AU High Level Panel on Darfur last month by the AU.

South African exports to Sudan, which include base metals, machinery, wood pulp, plastics and chemicals, have increased over the past year from R463-million in 2007 to R718-million in 2008. - BuaNews-Xinhua

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Mexico to Assume UN Security Council Presidency
ISRIA (subscription) - ‎1 hour ago‎
In April, the Security Council will analyze the situation in Chad and the Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, the Congo, Western Sahara, Sudan, ...
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Further reading

Sudan Watch March 21, 2009: ICC's Ocampo denies getting any help or information from NGOs in Darfur and says Sudan expulsions 'confirm crimes'

According to the following report from Aljazeera today, the International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor denied getting any help or information from NGOs in Darfur. But the report makes no mention of those who worked in Chad and in other countries outside of Sudan.

Note that a report filed here at Sudan Watch [March 4, 2009 - Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s drawings of Darfur that were accepted by ICC as evidence in any trial] claims that last year, UK based rights group Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s pictures of Darfur war that were accepted by the ICC as contextual evidence to be used in any trial. Waging Peace collected the drawings from refugees in Chad.

ICC's Ocampo denies getting any help or information from NGOs in Darfur and says Sudan expulsions 'confirm crimes'

According to the following report from Aljazeera today, the International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor denied getting any help or information from NGOs in Darfur. But the report makes no mention of those who worked in Chad and in other countries outside of Sudan.

Note that a report filed here at Sudan Watch [March 4, 2009 - Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s drawings of Darfur that were accepted by ICC as evidence in any trial] claims that last year, UK based rights group Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s pictures of Darfur war that were accepted by the ICC as contextual evidence to be used in any trial. Waging Peace collected the drawings from refugees in Chad.

March 21, 2009 report from Aljazeera/Agencies:
Sudan expulsions 'confirm crimes'

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has criticised the Sudanese president's decision to expel 13 aid agencies from the country.

Moreno-Ocampo said that the ejection of the non-governmental organisations proves that the ICC was correct to pursue Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, on war-crimes charges.

The Netherlands-based court granted Moreno-Ocampo's request earlier this month for a warrant for al-Bashir's arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Al-Bashir's government has been battling ethnic African groups in Darfur since 2003 and he has been accused of orchestrating atrocities against civilians.

"This idea to expel the humanitarians is confirming the court decision," Moreno-Ocampo said in New York after the UN Security Council met to receive an updated assessment on the Darfur crisis.

"Expelling them is confirming the crimes."

Reversal rejected

Khartoum ordered the aid agencies out of Darfur after the ICC issued the arrest warrant, and has ruled out reversing that decision, despite pressure from the US and UN Security Council members.

"The decision of the government of Sudan is a legitimate sovereign decision which we will never reverse," Mohamed Yousif Ibrahim Abdelmannan, Sudan's envoy to the UN, told the council on Friday.

"This should not be a issue for discussion."

The UK, Austria, Uganda and several other countries have appealed to Khartoum to rethink its position.

A rebel group in Darfur, meanwhile, announced that it was pulling out of peace talks with the Sudanese government after the aid agencies were expelled.

"The movement cannot negotiate with the government of al-Bashir," Khalil Ibrahim, the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), told the Reuters news agency by telephone on Friday.

Jem signed a deal with the Sudanese government after talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, last month, under which both sides agreed to undertake "good faith" measures.

"There was supposed to be a conference [in Doha] after three weeks but we will not go," Ibrahim said.

'Free prisoners'

Ibrahim said the government must allow the expelled aid agencies back into Darfur and free Jem prisoners before talks could resume.

Ibrahim signed a 'good faith deal' with Sudan after talks in Qatar last month [EPA] Rashid Khalikov, a senior UN humanitarian affairs official, told the council on Friday there were "significant signs of an erosion of humanitarian response capacity, with a concurrent impact on the lives of people in Darfur" since the 13 foreign and three domestic NGOs were expelled.

UN officials say the banished aid groups accounted for around half of the aid-distribution capacity in Darfur.

Sudan says the aid groups, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Care, helped the ICC issue the arrest warrant.

The groups reject the charge.

Moreno-Ocampo said he had received no help or information from NGOs or UN agencies in his investigation.

JEM seem to energetically welcome any excuse not to participate in peace talks.
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Report from Alarabiya.net Saturday, 21 March 2009:
US says Bashir responsible for Darfur deaths

The United States demanded late on Friday that the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir “be held accountable for each and every death" in Darfur following his decision to expel foreign aid groups.

"President Bashir and his government are responsible for and must be held accountable for each and every death caused by these callous and calculated actions," Washington's U.N. ambassador Susan Rice told the U.N. Security Council during a briefing on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's strife-torn western region.

"We urge the international community to press the government of Sudan to reverse its expulsion edict and to ensure it does nothing to worsen an already grave situation," Rice said. "President Bashir created this crisis…He should rectify it immediately."

Without giving details, Rice told reporters after the meeting that Washington was consulting with council members and other U.N. member states on "appropriate next steps."

British, Austrian, Ugandan and several other envoys also appealed to Khartoum to rethink its position. They cited a bleak report on the humanitarian situation in Darfur from Rashid Khalikov, a senior official of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

But the Chinese and Libyan delegates were more cautious, focusing on the negative impact of the ICC arrest warrant.

British Ambassador John Sawers also had tough words for Khartoum, saying: "The United Kingdom will hold the government of Sudan responsible for the suffering that their decision causes."

The U.S. delegation requested Friday's briefing by Khalikov, who warned of "significant signs of an erosion of humanitarian response capacity, with a concurrent impact on the lives of people in Darfur."

Rice said Khartoum "owns its consequences, which will not only cost lives but leave the government locked deeper in an isolation of its own making."

Defiant Sudan

Several other ambassadors appealed to Khartoum to rescind the expulsion order. But Mohamed Yousif Abdelmannan, a Sudanese U.N. delegate, reiterated that his government's decision was irreversible.

"The decision of the government of Sudan is a legitimate sovereign decision which we will never reverse, and this should not be an issue for discussion," the Sudanese diplomat told the council.

Earlier Khalikov said the world body was still pressing for a reversal of the NGOs expulsion and recalled that a series of joint U.N.-Sudan assessments of the situation in three Darfur states was underway.

"The findings will be finalized this weekend with government counterparts in Khartoum," he noted. "We should be able to speak more next week about their impact on the wider assistance effort in Darfur."

"There is no doubt that our ability to help the people of Darfur and northern Sudan has been seriously compromised," the OCHA official said. "The current atmosphere of fear and uncertainty facing all aid organizations is affecting the assistance available to the people of Darfur."

Visiting ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who observed Friday's council proceedings, said Bashir, by expelling the humanitarian aid groups, "is confirming the crime" of extermination.

"The king is naked," Moreno-Ocampo said, referring to Bashir. "It is not my responsibility that the king is naked."

The United Nations says that 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been made homeless by the conflict in Darfur which erupted in February 2003.

Darfur: 10,000 aid workers in the Sudan need minders

Waging Peace UK website says:

"On April 11th the World Bank and UN are holding an international donors' conference in Oslo where they will raise nearly $8 billion to rebuild Sudan. Why should the government of Sudan listen to our concerns about Darfur when we are rewarding them with $8 billion for finally signing the peace deal with southern Sudan's rebels (allowing the development of Sudan's oil reserves)? Please contact your MP now, in the run-up to the election, and ask them to raise this issue with the Foreign Office and DFID.

Obviously, it's good to see a UK initiative concerning Darfur but I doubt if much can be done to stop the funding for South Sudan which was promised on condition of a signed north-south peace deal. [By the way, the figure mentioned by Waging Peace UK is misleading: Sudan plans to chip in the lions share of the $8 billiion from its oil revenues. International donors may end up contributing around 2 billion, which I believe also includes the cost of peacekeeping forces.]

Politicians involved in brokering the peace deal for South Sudan seem to believe the road to peace in Darfur goes through the Naivasha agreement. If Naivasha can be completed for southern Sudan it could change the face of Sudan's politics and provide a basis for similar deals concerning western and eastern Sudan. John Garang's new South Sudan government urgently needs funding to build a solid foundation for the 'New Sudan' and prepare for the return of its people - not to mention 10,000 UN peacekeepers and everything else involved in bringing about lasting peace in the region.

Personally, I would like to see an unarmed minder provided for each aid worker in hotspots without further delay. At the moment in Sudan, there are at least 1,000 international aid workers alongside 9,000 Sudanese workers. If minders, armed with satellite phones and cameras, were provided as guards for aid workers it might help if more witnesses were in the field. Here in Europe, during war time, women used to carry phials of pepper to throw into the eyes of assailants. You'd think these days, there would be some sort of stun gun or non-violent deterrent that could be used against would be rapists and attackers. I've read somewhere of a ruling that says firewood should be provided with aid - if that is the case, and firewood is not supplied, then minders ought to accompany displaced people collecting fuel for cooking food.

Satellite phone-cameras could transmit evidence of attacks and maybe help as a deterrent, especially since Sudan has been referred to the International Criminal Court. Khartoum always object to armed forces, but can hardly complain about 10,000 more aid workers while Darfur awaits the long overdue protection forces. Maybe the UN or aid agency insurance companies ought to insist that each aid worker is accompanied by a trained minder. There are plenty of strong young unemployed Africans able to speak Arabic and English who could be hired and trained as minders for humanitarian work.
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Peace deal fails to halt the flood of refugees

Here is a copy of a recent report by Rob Crilly in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya [apologies for mislaid link]:

STARVING refugees are pouring over the border from Sudan to Kenya despite a peace deal designed to end the 21-year war between the Khartoum government and southern rebels, according to aid agencies.

In a region where hunger is often used as a weapon of war, the new arrivals say they have come in search of food after poor rainfall disrupted last year's harvest. Refugees from Darfur, in western Sudan, have even made the 1,000-mile journey to the Kakuma refugee camp, about 50 miles into Kenya.

Next week, international donors will meet in Oslo to pledge more than a billion dollars to begin the process of reconstruction. They will be asked to help fund clean-water projects, new schools, hospitals and roads. However, many of the 67,000 Sudanese refugees in Kakuma say they will not go home until security and basic health services are improved.

George Okoth-Obbo, the Kenyan representative for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said only a handful of families had made "reconnaissance" trips home. Yesterday, the reception centre at Kakuma was packed with women and thin-limbed children.

The World Lutheran Federation, which runs the centre, said 3,360 people had been registered at the facility this year. In the 12 months before the peace deal was signed in January this year, a total of 3,749 people were recorded.

Achiek Ajak Chol is among the new arrivals. Her frail body shows the strains of a tough life. She supported her family after her son lost his arms fighting for the rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army. "For four years I could cope. I was able to cultivate. But now there is nothing. We have been eating wild fruits and leaves for four months," she said. She collected enough nuts to support her two young grandchildren for the eight-day trek and set off for Kenya, arriving on a lorry earlier this week.

Southern Sudan's vast oil reserves should make it one of the richest regions in Africa. But today it has one of the world's lowest life expectancies: 42.

After nearly 50 years of war - with only the barest of respites - the country's infrastructure is virtually non-existent.

More than two-million people died and about four million fled their homes during the conflict.

Under January's peace deal, Khartoum and the former rebels will set up a coalition government, share oil revenues and form joint military units.

Abdullah Merghani Ahmed is one of the refugees who made the long journey from Darfur. He left after Janjaweed militia swept through his village, killing his brother and raping his sister. "When he left we weren't thinking about Kenya," he said. "But we had nothing left to lose, so we just kept going until we felt safe."
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Further reading:

April 8 Human Rights Watch on the upcoming donors conference: Donors Must Boost Protection Force in Darfur - "The current situation for civilians in Darfur is unacceptable. They need immediate protection from ongoing attacks so they can return home and begin to rebuild their lives," said Takirambudde. "Donors should immediately provide support for an expanded African Union protection mission."

April 8 Irish news says UN is running out of cash to feed more than one million people living in Darfur. Carlos Veloso, WFP Emergency Coordinator for Darfur, said the non-cereal part of the daily ration would be cut by half next month as a last resort to help stretch current food supplies through July and August - the region's traditional lean months.

April 8 Latest overview by Eric Reeves on the current security and humanitarian relief situation in Darfur.

April 8 BBC says Sudan's militias 'threaten Chad'. Chad has accused Sudan of seeking to destabilise it by recruiting Chadian nationals into militias operating in Darfur. Chad's government spokesman said the 3,000-strong force operated just 25km (15 miles) from their common border.

April 8 Arabic news: Egypt's President met yesterday with Sudanese FM Ismail. President Mubarak received a telephone call from Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir during which they tackled ways of achieving comprehensive Sudanese reconciliation in the Sudan and the Darfur summit. Egypt's FM said the ICC would level charges but if the judiciary in the state concerned played its role properly, there would be no need for the international court. More on this at Reuters: "Sudan Darfur Trials Can Evade Hague Court: Egypt".

April 7 UNICEF calls on Arab funds to boost response to global emergencies.

April 6 (AFP) -- Sudan's government accused rebels Wednesday of attacking the town of Tawilah and wounding several residents in Darfur. The rebel group was not identified, nor was the number of casualties released. AU spokesman said it had "no evidence" to support the allegations.

April 5 (AFP) -- US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick will travel next week to Sudan and Darfur, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.

April 5-7 Darfur News roundup at GIF.

Note new blog by Wau Nar African Herbsman, USA.

Embassy of Sudan's letter to Rebecca Tinsley and others

Letters - The Guardian, Friday 3 July 2009
Peace In Sudan
By Dr Khalid Almubarak
Embassy of Sudan

Rebecca Tinsley and others (Horror of Bashir's rule in Sudan, Letters, 30 June) against President Omer al-Bashir of Sudan omitted significant facts. First, President Bashir has signed the comprehensive peace agreement of 2005 - which was brokered by the US, UK and others. That put an end to 22 years of civil war. Second, his government signed the Darfur peace agreement of 2006, which could have ended the conflict. Some rebels refused to sign and are prolonging the suffering of the displaced population.

Third, his government has managed to export oil and embark on development despite neoconservative sanctions. Fourth, Bashir heads a national unity government that is leading the country towards elections next year. The progressive electoral law guarantees women 25% of the seats of the assembly and ensures minority parties proportional representation. And fifth, the international criminal court accusations, intended to precipitate regime change, have had the opposite impact. The home front is now solidly behind the president.

In May and June, top-level meetings were held in Qatar and Washington in which the EU and the US were encouraging engagement and co-operation with the government of Sudan and ignoring calls similar to those expressed by Rebecca Tinsley and her co-signatories.

Letters - The Guardian, Tuesday 30 June 2009
Horror of Bashir's rule in Sudan

By Rebecca Tinsley Chair, Waging Peace, Gerhart Baum Former UN special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan, Giles Fraser Canon, St Pauls, Ed Husain Quilliam Foundation, Rabbi Maurice Michaels, Helen Baxendale, Stephen Mangan and six others

Today President al-Bashir celebrates 20 years since the military coup in which he took power in Sudan. In the past two decades he has waged two civil wars, taking the lives of more than 2.6 million people, and displaced a further 6.5 million; he has funded murderous rebel armies in Chad and Uganda; and most recently he has been indicted by the international criminal court for five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crime.

Few of his contemporary dictators can claim so many casualties and such opprobrium. Yet Bashir continues to manipulate even his critics in the international community, setting Russia and China against Europe and the US, and cynically lobbying the African Union and Arab League to back him against the "neocolonialist", "imperialist", "Zionist", western "conspirators". Diplomats struggle to grasp that the architect of such ubiquitous suffering and violence can, at the same time, be a highly skilled diplomat. Bashir is the master of conceding the minimum required just at the right moment to delay concerted actions, such as sanctions, against his regime.

As Bashir enters his third decade in power, we urge the UN and its member states to reflect on the horror and destruction he has brought to his country and not to allow the suffering of the Sudanese people to be forgotten. Only a coherent, concerted and consistent policy towards Bashir will deliver peace and justice to the people of Sudan.

Further reading
Mar 04, 2009 - Sudan Watch: Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s drawings of Darfur that were accepted by ICC as evidence in any trial

ICC's Ocampo: "What happened in Darfur is the consequence of extermination plan defined by the top authority -- Mr. Omar el-Bashir"

British Palestinian QC Michel Massih, who is leading Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir's international defence team, has criticized the way the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo publicized his accusations against the Sudanese president. Massih, who has been practicing international law for 30 years, told Arab News Broadcast, “I have never heard in my legal career of a chief prosecutor that launches media campaigns against a defendant, regardless of the nature of the charges.”

Note the following report from Voice of America News and the quotes that I have highlighted in red. Not much of it makes sense to me. One wonders if Mr Moreno-Ocampo is mentally unhinged.

From Voice of America News
ICC Chief Prosecutor: Sudan's Bashir Will Face Justice
By Lisa Bryant
Paris
03 April 2009

Photo: ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo gives a press conference in The Hague, 04 Mar 2009

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir continues to defy an international arrest warrant, recently returning from an Arab League meeting in Qatar. But the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, says he is confident Mr. Bashir will be brought to justice. Lisa Bryant spoke with Moreno-Ocampo in The Hague.

The International Criminal Court issued the arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir in early March. It is the first arrest warrant against a sitting head of state and charges the Sudanese leader with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Those crimes center of the conflict in Darfur, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced almost three million.

But so far, the only major impact the arrest warrant seems to have generated is Mr. Bashir's decision to expel more than a dozen international humanitarian groups working in Darfur, a desolate, impoverished stretch of land in western Sudan.

Since the arrest warrant was issued, the Sudanese president has so far visited Egypt, Eritrea, Libya and Saudi Arabia. He also attended an Arab League meeting in Qatar -- where Arab leaders, at least publicly, expressed their solidarity for Mr. Bashir. None of these countries are members of the Hague-based court.

But the man who delivered the warrant -- the criminal court's chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo -- is adamant he did the right thing. He directly blames Mr. Bashir for the Darfur crisis.

"What happened in Darfur is not a humanitarian crisis. What happened in Darfur is not crimes committed by autonomous militias. What happened in Darfur is the consequence of extermination plan defined by the top authority -- Mr. Omar el-Bashir," he said.

Mr. Bashir is one of the first cases the Netherlands-based criminal court has taken on since it began holding trials this year. The court is the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. Moreno-Ocampo says the United Nations Security Council referred the Darfur crisis to the court. In issuing the arrest warrant, he said, the court has done its job.

Now, he says, it's up to the international community to act.

"We are not calling for military intervention. We are not calling for bombing. But we are also not calling for nothing. We are not calling for denial. We are not calling for silence. between bombing and nothing there are a lot of alternatives," he said.

Moreno-Ocampo says there has already been some reaction, with countries calling on Sudan to explain its decision to expel humanitarian workers. He suggests Arab countries are also quietly criticizing Sudan -- even as they present a united face in public.

And he believes that sooner or later, the court will try President Bashir.

"Omar el-Bashir knows his destiny is to face justice. He's tainted now. The problem is, how many people will die in the [meantime]," he said.

For its part, the United Nations warns that expelling foreign relief workers from Darfur could have a devastating impact on those living there. Mr. Bashir claim the workers were spies who helped the court mount war crimes charges against him.

Further reading:

Apr 03, 2009 - Sudan Watch: ICC's Registrar returns from fact-finding mission concerning Sudanese refugees in Treguine and Breddjing camps in Chad

Apr 02, 2009 - Making Sense of Darfur: A Waste of Hope by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal. Copy:

Those who believe in justice, truth and accountability should demand the highest professional and ethical standards of the Prosecutor of the ICC. Any failings in these respects can do incalculable damage to the prospects for justice, and the future of the ICC. We believe that the Prosecutor of the ICC isn’t up to the job and it is time to be frank about his shortcomings. And we are not alone. Many groups that support the ICC publicly are privately concerned by Luis Moreno Ocampo’s management of the Court. Some of his most capable and committed staff have quit, in exasperation and despair at his performance. Kofi Annan described the ICC as a ‘gift of hope’ to the world. It can still become that. You can read our account in World Affairs.

Apr 02, 2009 - Sudan Watch: British lawyer leading Sudanese president's int'l defence team says Article 6 of UN Security Resolution 1593 is meaningless

Apr 01, 2009 - Sudan Watch: If UN Security Council does not cancel ICC proceedings against Sudan's Bashir, ICC or its Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo must go

Mar 27, 2009 - Sudan Watch: Making Sense of Darfur: Grading the ICC Prosecutor-And the Bench (Alex de Waal and Julie Flint)

Mar 21, 2009 - Sudan Watch: ICC's Ocampo denies getting any help or information from NGOs in Darfur and says Sudan expulsions 'confirm crimes'. Excerpt:

Note that a report filed here at Sudan Watch [March 04, 2009 -
Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s drawings of Darfur that were accepted by ICC as evidence in any trial] claims that last year, UK based rights group Waging Peace submitted more than 500 children’s pictures of Darfur war that were accepted by the ICC as contextual evidence to be used in any trial. Waging Peace collected the drawings from refugees in Chad.

Jan 26, 2009 - Sudan Watch: ICC's case against Sudan's President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir is a mess riddled with flaws - UNSC must invoke Article 16

Save Darfur. Save Sudan. Conflict and Humanitarian Emergency in Sudan: An Urgent Call to Action.

US Department of State Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Sudan today, Wednesday, May 1 2024. Click here to watch it on video. 

This is a copy of the statement of U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello:

Statement of
Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello
U.S. Department of State
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
“Conflict and Humanitarian Emergency in Sudan: An Urgent Call to Action” 

May 1, 2024

Chairman Cardin, Ranking Member Risch, I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the horrific crisis in Sudan. I also want to thank this Committee for your untiring and vital advocacy for the people of Sudan over many years, and particularly since this tragic war began last April.

As this Committee well knows, the war and humanitarian crisis in Sudan are already catastrophic. Worse yet, the most likely trajectory forward is towards famine, fighting that takes on increasingly ethnic and regional aspects, and the possibility of a failed state of 50 million people on the strategic eastern gateway to the Sahel. For the past year, the people of Sudan have suffered death, crimes against humanity, sexual violence and starvation as a weapon of war, and ethnic cleansing. More than 8 million Sudanese people have been displaced– more than if every resident of Maryland and Idaho combined was forced from their homes, 3 million children – approximately one in eight children – have fled violence since mid-April, making it the world’s largest child displacement crisis. 25 million people are in need of basic food and medicine with 4.9 million of those people on the verge of famine. This brutal war is having a disproportionate impact on women and girls, who both parties have subjected to ongoing atrocities, including rape and conflict-related sexual violence.

The scale of the suffering is shocking. Beyond each of those statistics are human beings, like the woman I met who had recently escaped Darfur. She described the horrors committed against her by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and then being re-traumatized when she got to a neighboring country. Sadly this is all too common. Yet the world has treated Sudan as an invisible crisis, rarely covered in the world press. While much of the world turns a blind eye to this crisis, the Sudanese that I’ve met – including women and youth - have let me know how much they notice the statements and speeches Chairman Cardin and Ranking Member Risch have made. I appreciate that Senator Booker led a recent delegation to witness first-hand the scale and stark conditions of refugees flooding into Chad from Darfur. When these women and children – too many with bone-thin arms and thousand-yard stares – were asked at the border why they had fled, the answer repeatedly was simple – “food.”

Food insecurity and malnutrition have reached alarming levels across Sudan, driven by conflict and blockage of humanitarian aid. Nearly 18 million people in Sudan faced acute food insecurity, with nearly 5 million people on the brink of famine. According to the latest data from February, nearly 3 million children in Sudan are acutely malnourished. A woman carrying her baby of 7 months said to me, “this Ramadan, we’ve had more iftars with no food than with food.”. Absent a change in humanitarian access and flow of aid, conditions are expected to worsen with the imminent arrival of the ‘lean season’ which lasts through the summer. Sudan is on the verge of famine, due to blatant and systematic violations by both SAF and RSF of international humanitarian law. Amidst this fragility, the SAF made the unconscionable decision earlier this year to block, disrupt, and limit humanitarian aid in a way that has made it impossible to meet the scale and urgency of hunger facing the Sudanese people.

But even in areas without major limits on humanitarian access, like the refugee camps in Chad, resources have fallen painfully short. The World Food Program (WFP) had cut daily rations to 30 percent below recommended levels in case no new funding arrived. For this reason, the decision of this Congress to pass supplemental humanitarian funding earlier this month was truly a lifesaving decision for many Sudanese. The United States has now committed over $1 billion in food, medicine, and other humanitarian aid since the war began, and I hope that the media will let more Americans see how their generosity is helping some of the world’s most vulnerable people. However, much work remains to mitigate famine, including pressure to translate donor pledges into results on the ground and escalating pressure on both the SAF and RSF to allow unconditional, safe and sustained cross border and crossline delivery of aid in accordance with international humanitarian law.

While humanitarian aid is vital, the hundreds of Sudanese with whom I have met have spoken with one voice on this fact – the only true solution to the humanitarian crisis and human suffering is to end this war, and that is my top priority as the U.S. Special Envoy. While two armed factions launched this conflict, this is less a civil war between two sides than a war which two generals and their affiliates are waging against the Sudanese people and their aspirations to a free and democratic future. Let’s be clear: the RSF and its leadership are rooted in the Janjaweed militias who committed genocide and widespread crimes against humanity. They have conducted this war with unspeakable brutality, including through ethnic cleansing of the Masalit, sexual violence as a weapon of war, and torching whole villages. Any external actor providing support to the RSF cannot claim ignorance of its past or on-going atrocities.

In December, Secretary Blinken determined that the SAF and the RSF have committed war crimes, and that the RSF and allied militia have also committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. The SAF bombed civilian areas, and now proactively interferes with humanitarian operations, repeatedly refusing the flow of lifesaving food and medicine in direct violation of international humanitarian law. The Biden Administration has also issued OFAC sanctions against SAF and RSF targets, as well as entities responsible for supporting these violations.

In a moment, I’ll share why I believe that a peace deal could be on the horizon, but first, let me be crystal clear that there is undeniable momentum now for this crisis to get much worse. A two-sided war is in danger of factionalizing, with more ethnic militias moving from neutrality to combatants. Many of these groups have populations that overlap with neighboring countries, increasing the chances of this becoming a regional war. We see credible reports about the growing number of negative actors, including Islamists and former regime officials, and a rise in hate speech and polarization. The current battle over El Fasher in North Darfur could eliminate one of the last semi- safe civilian havens in western Sudan and produce a flood of new refugees. The possibility of famine and a fractured state is real, and we are communicating that with urgency from the highest levels of our government to those who have leverage to end this war. As Secretary Blinken said in his April 13 video message to the Sudanese people, “more fighting cannot, and will not, end this conflict.”

Let me summarize three of our lines of effort focused on ending the war.

We have elevated and focused U.S. leadership on Sudan across the inter-agency. This has included repeated engagement by Secretary Blinken, and tremendous support from the Department’s

African and Near Eastern affairs bureaus, and tireless support from our Embassies for a ten-week sprint of shuttle diplomacy. We have also seen Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield publicly and consistently pursue Sudan as one of her top three priorities and push the United Nations Security Council to call for a Ramadan ceasefire. The U.S. Department of Treasury is playing a crucial role on expanding sanctions and ensuring consequences for those committing atrocities and spoiling the peace, including through the imposition of sanctions against perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict, implementing the Presidential Memorandum to Promote Accountability for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. USAID, along with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), has been a key partner in tenaciously advocating for humanitarian access, aiding Sudanese pro-democracy and civil society groups to continue organizing in their communities, and supporting courageous youth who continue to find innovative ways to deliver food and medicine at great risk.

Second, we have focused our strategy on building and aligning sufficient political will in the region to compel a peace deal consistent with the aspirations of the Sudanese people. Over recent months, we have made clear to regional and European counterparts that Sudan now represents not only a humanitarian and human rights crisis but also a threat to regional and Europe’s stability. We expect all actors, even those previously playing a negative role, to now be partners in a peace deal to prioritize stability over a failed state that would have consequences for the broader region for a decade or more. This is reflected by – but not limited to – a commitment to new peace talks in the coming weeks. These talks will be (1) inclusive of key African and Arab regional leaders, (2) focused on aligning external political will, and (3) designed to produce a comprehensive cessation of hostilities. We expect all partners, even those who have previously fueled the conflict, to understand that the United States government now expects them to be partners in peace.

While this revised formulation of the Jeddah platform represents our best opportunity for formal talks, I have been clear publicly and privately that we are not waiting for Jeddah talks to resume to negotiate an end to this war. We are actively engaged in it every day, with every meeting and every signal sent. In this effort, I want to thank so many of our African partners, the United Nations, and the African Union who are leading efforts to create greater global consensus and urgency for compelling a deal.

Third, we are continuing to raise the costs of those conducting and fueling this war. We are engaged directly with both fighting factions, including their top generals, to deter escalation and atrocities. We have led the world on sanctioning bad actors – both individuals and entities like banks that are enabling the atrocities – and have made clear our readiness to expand those sanctioned.

Finally, the greatest source of hope is the resilience and unity of the Sudanese people, and we continue to center and amplify their call not just for peace but for the restoration of their shared aspirations for a democratic future. They are united in wanting the war to end, full access to humanitarian aid, and a unified professional army under the authority of a civilian government. They do not want to see former corrupt regime officials or extremists use this war as a backdoor to power. In short, they want their future back – the future they so courageously began with the

overthrow of the authoritarian Bashir regime. That is the North Star of our policy - standing with the Sudanese people.

As we speak, Sudan faces two distinct but accelerating trajectories– one towards famine and possibly a failed state, and the second towards peace and a democratic future. The only two barriers to ending this war are, first, the political will of two Generals and those fueling this horrific war, and second the absence of enough political will by those of us who could compel a peace. Our North Star is the aspirations of the Sudanese people. Our path is building and aligning enough will in the region to silence the guns and restore the Constitutional transition. That path can be paved, but time is very much not on our side.

In closing, let me express my appreciation to this Committee for your support for the people of Sudan, for the mandate of the Special Envoy, and the light you shine on the crisis in Sudan. 

The Honorable Tom Perriello

U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan

U.S. Department of State

Washington, D.C.

DOWNLOAD TESTIMONY

END

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

The 'genocide' in Darfur isn't what it seems (Marc Gustafson)

From The Christian Science Monitor
Opinion piece by Marc Gustafson, August 19, 2009
The 'genocide' in Darfur isn't what it seems

Activist hype, though well-intentioned may have misdirected funds that could have saved lives.

OXFORD, ENGLAND - The "Save Darfur" movement is one of the largest American activist movements in recent history.

It emerged in the summer of 2004 in reaction to an issue that had little impact on the lives of average Americans: a year-old civil war in Darfur. Horrific stories of rape, murder, and genocide began to appear in US newspapers and define Darfur. Millions were moved by these accounts and organized a movement to stop the violence.

In the next five years, however, the war in Darfur became one of the most misunderstood conflicts in recent history.

That's because the activist campaigns mischaracterized and sensationalized it in order to grow the movement. Such distortion helped the PR effort, but it arguably hurt the very people who needed help.

Activists inflated casualty rates, often claiming that hundreds of thousands of Darfurians have been "killed." What they tended to leave out was that the majority of the casualties occurred as a result of disease and malnutrition ( stemming from war).

Differentiating between those may seem insignificant in the shadow of the horrific acts of war crimes in Darfur, but ignoring these categorizations has led many activists to put pressure on the US government to fund violence-prevention plans and international peacekeeping troops, often in lieu of providing humanitarian aid and funds for peacemaking.

The Save Darfur Coalition has been particularly effective in using its scores of followers to pressure policymakers. They have hired lobbyists in Washington to draft legislation and pressure politicians to focus their efforts on violence prevention and UN troop deployment.

Before these lobbyists were hired, the US had sent a total of $1.01 billion dollars to Darfur. Of this, $839 million (83 percent) was allocated to refugee camps and humanitarian assistance, while $175 million (17 percent) was directed to fund peacekeeping activities. These numbers show that Washington was initially more focused on providing humanitarian aid than peacekeeping.

From 2006 until 2008, when the Save Darfur Coalition and many other groups began to pressure the government, the allocation of US funds shifted dramatically from humanitarian aid to peacekeeping, presumably due to the influence of the lobbyists and public pressure campaigns.

Of the $2.01 billion that was spent, $1.03 billion (51.3 percent) was spent on humanitarian aid, while $980 million (48.7 percent) was spent on funding peacekeeping missions, a significant shift toward peacekeeping.

In the end, these proportional changes were problematic because, as many casualty surveys show, the number of people who were "killed" in Darfur declined significantly after the April 8 cease-fire of 2004, while the rate of those who were dying of disease and malnutrition remained high.

Had the Darfur activists not advocated for a reallocation of funds, more lives would probably have been saved.

Many activists have also mischaracterized the nature of the violence in Darfur, intimating that the government of Sudan and rogue Arab tribes have been responsible for most, if not all, of the bloodshed. "Save Darfur" advertisements, newsletters, and websites frequently use the term "ongoing genocide" to describe the conflict.

The term "genocide" was originally used to provide a sense of gravity so that international governments and institutions would respond more rapidly to the conflict.

Despite the good intentions of activists, the popularity of the word "genocide" posed many unanticipated problems and it distorted the balance of culpability and innocence.

Using the term "genocide" implies that there is a unidirectional crime taking place. To be clear, horrible crimes have been committed, but the perpetrators aren't as clear-cut as the term would make it seem.

The government of Sudan has killed many people and is responsible for war crimes in Darfur, but the rebel insurgents bear some responsibility, too. When the United Nations conducted its International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, it found that many of the rebel groups engaged in "serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law."

By using the word "genocide," and attaching the term to only one side of the conflict, the opposite side is easily ignored.

In Darfur, the use of the term "genocide" has allowed the rebel groups to slip under the radar and commit crimes against humanity without the rest of the world taking notice. Had "genocide" not been the focus, activist campaigns might have challenged the rebel groups and checked their criminal acts.

For example, Eritrea, Chad, and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement were the principal funders of the rebel groups in Darfur. They were and are also allies and aid recipients of the US government, which means they could have easily been pressured to cut their lifelines to the rebel groups.

Today, the situation in Darfur continues to be mischaracterized. Most of the ongoing violence can be attributed to banditry, lawlessness, and fighting between rebel groups. According to the latest United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) report, 16 fatalities were recorded for the month of June and none of them was linked to the conflict between Sudanese forces and the rebel groups.

The conflict in Darfur has not met the 1,000 casualties per year threshold that most political scientists consider necessary for a conflict to be categorized as a "civil war" since last year.

Despite these changes, many continue to argue that the government of Sudan is waging a large-scale assault on Darfur. The terms "ongoing genocide" and "war in Darfur" are still used frequently in activist literature and advertisements, which has left the American people believing that not much has changed in Darfur.

President Obama himself has recently used the word "genocide" to refer to the current situation. Similarly, the State Department and the US ambassador to the UN distanced themselves from the US presidential envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, who dared to suggest that the genocide in Darfur was over.

If they wish to help ameliorate the conflict, officials in Washington and activists alike must recognize that there have been big changes in the scale and nature of the violence in Darfur.

Instead of focusing on military intervention or the punishment of only one participant in the conflict (the Sudanese government), efforts should be directed toward funding the peacemaking process and the safe return of more than 2 million displaced refugees.

Marc Gustafson is a Marshall Scholar and doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford. He is currently writing his dissertation on political trends in Sudan.

Hat tip: Save Darfur Accountability Project, 19 Aug 2009 - MUST READ: The ‘genocide’ in Darfur isn’t what it seems

Further reading

And the winner of the Save Darfur Not-Really-A-Campaign-Naming-Contest is…
Darfur Accountability Project, 18 Aug 2009

Save Darfur Hits Bottom and Keeps Digging
Darfur Accountability Project, 17 Aug 2009

MUST READ: The Save Darfur coalition’s vital statistics
Darfur Accountability Project, 13 Aug 2009

Email received today from Save Darfur Coalition:

From: info@savedarfur.org

Subject: Your 50 foot display they won't be able to ignore

Date: Friday, 21 August 2009 17:04:14 BST

To:     ingridj.jones

Dear friend,

You can help bring the U.N. face to face with the photos of those forgotten in Sudan.                  But we still need $28,291 to project the Darfur/Darfur exhibit throughout New York City during the U.N. General Assembly in September. Give by midnight tonight to help make our campaign possible.

Our window of opportunity is closing...

With just hours to go until our deadline, we're still $28,291 away from raising the funds we need to project the unforgettable images of the Darfur/Darfur exhibit in New York City during the U.N. General Assembly.

Please make a gift before midnight TONIGHT and help us bring world leaders face to face with those forgotten in Sudan!

Just imagine it...

Presidents. Premiers. Prime ministers. World leaders will come face to face with the images of millions of Sudanese citizens who were promised peace, but who continue to face the threat of violence.

By projecting the photos of the Darfur/Darfur exhibit, we'll show them that the millions are more than numbers—they're real people. Mothers. Fathers. Children. Their faces, with your words "Don't Forget Darfur," will be impossible to ignore.

Can you make a gift now and help us bring these gripping images to NYC for the U.N General Assembly?     

It's the kind of unforgettable statement we have to make. Recent violence in South Sudan claimed another 185 civilians in the Jonglei state.¹ Increasing insecurity in the south can all too easily have destabilizing effects in Darfur and beyond.

Some experts believe that, without decisive intervention from world leaders, this rise in insecurity could reignite the brutal war that killed over 2 million in 2003.

But with your help, we can make peace in Sudan a priority again for world leaders.

Make your gift before midnight tonight and your donation will support our Darfur/Darfur exhibit—as well as posters, fliers, street teams and press conferences to support our national "Don't Forget Darfur" campaign.

We've come so far since those terrible months of 2003—with your help I know we can help the people of Sudan continue making progress toward a healing peace.

Thank you,

—Mark

Mark Lotwis
Save Darfur Coalition

¹ http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/08/11/sudan-end-violence-jonglei-state

Photo credit: Darfur/Darfur

The Save Darfur Coalition is an alliance of over 180 faith-based, advocacy and human rights organizations whose mission is to raise public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to mobilize a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of more than two million people in the Darfur region. To learn more, please visit http://www.SaveDarfur.org.

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From Sudan Watch Ed:  Sudan Watch archives hold almost 3,000 photos plus 5,000 individual postings, many of which contain several reports.  It is taking me time to search through it all to label each item. The label here below links to recent entries.