"The Vice-President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Ahmad al-Musawi, has said he cast doubts on the enemies' intentions towards the Darfur region.Note Sudan backs Iran's peaceful use of nuclear energy January 26, 2006.
In a press conference held at the Hilton hotel [in Khartoum] yesterday morning, he urged to end foreign interference in Darfur and let the Sudanese government work towards resolving the issue in a suitable way.
He further reiterated Iran's support for a Sudanese solution in this regard, and his trust in the mediation of the AU member states to resolve the crisis."
"A 42-page report said those carrying out the violence included soldiers who fired at civilians from helicopter gunships.- - -
The report criticised the government of coup leader Omar el-Bashir, saying promises to end centuries of discrimination and marginalisation of black African minorities were marked by "token gestures" while murder and torture went unpunished."
From September to November 2005 government forces, working with militia who were often described by witnesses as Janjaweed, carried out at least eight organised armed attacks on over a dozen camps or villages occupied by internally displaced persons (IDPs). The attackers killed and wounded civilians and destroyed their homes.- - -
The report rejects Sudan's rationale that it was responding to rebel activities, stating that in most cases civilians were "deliberately targeted." It notes that State-sponsored offensives fan the flames of violence by irregular groups "The increase in large attacks on civilians by Government forces likely encouraged the militia to execute other abuses with impunity."
Examples of sexual violence are also described in the report, such as the case of an IDP who was collecting hay one morning when she was approached by three armed military men, "slapped in the face, kicked in the stomach, and accused of being a rebel. She was then raped by two of the men."
The Geneva-based OHCHR reported allegations of torture at the hands of the national security, military intelligence and police officials in Khartoum, and voices serious concern about the absence of fair trial guarantees as well as inhuman detention conditions.
The 42-page report, which bases its findings mostly on direct investigations and information collected from victims, witnesses, and government authorities, calls on the Government to cease its attacks on civilians in Darfur, disarm militias there, and install an effective law enforcement system.
Khartoum is also urged to end culture of impunity, strengthen the judiciary and revoke immunity laws protecting state agents. "The National Security Service should be stripped of it abusive and unchecked powers of arrest and detention," the OHCHR states in the report, which was prepared in cooperation with the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
Noting that the conflict in Sudan was initially sparked in response to marginalisation and discrimination, the report recommends that resource allocation be fair, transparent, non-discriminatory, and involve the affected communities. The Government should also facilitate the humanitarian and development aid and allow civil society to function freely.
In January, 2005, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), ending a 21-year civil war which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2 million people and the displacement of some 4 million others.
The Sudanese army source said the attack came from within Chadian territory. "This attack came suddenly from inside Chadian territory, and we returned fire with the same force using artillery," he said.NMRD operate along Chad-Sudan border
The NMRD operate along the Chad-Sudan border. The long border between Chad and Sudan is porous and many tribes span the frontier. Deby himself took power in 1990 in an uprising he launched from Darfur.United Front for Democratic Change (FUC) Chadian rebels, led by Mahamat Nour
Abdallah said Chadian rebels, led by Mahamat Nour, had fought alongside the Sudanese armed forces in the attack. "We don't understand why they are doing this. We have no problem with Mahamat Nour," he said.
Nour leads an alliance of Chadian insurgents called the United Front for Democratic Change, known as FUC. His group attacked the Chadian border town of Adre in December and are sworn to depose Deby.- - -
Nour denied involvement in the clashes. "Our forces were nearby but they did not participate in the attack," he told Reuters by telephone from eastern Chad.
Sudan arrested 20 Chadian rebels in Khartoum last week, including one leader. Nour said they had been released and had left the Sudanese capital.
Sudan denies supporting the Chadian rebels. The rebels declined to say why they were in Khartoum, but Nour had written a letter requesting that his group be given an audience at an African Union summit in Khartoum on Monday.
"The area of Armankul northwest of the town of Geneina, capital of West Darfur state, came under artillery shelling that continued for an hour and a half from inside the Chadian territories," military spokesman Gen. Abbas Adul Rahaman Khalifa said in a brief statement carried by the official news agency, SUNA.Further reading:
He did not specify whether the attack was carried out by Chadian soldiers or a rebel group. "Our armed forces have dealt with this aggression with a retaliation in preservation of the sovereignty of the national territories and safeguarding the lives of Sudanese subjects," Khalifa said.
"The UN said it wanted the US and European countries to help form a tough mobile force. But this has met with resistance so far in Washington and Europe and the preference is for a largely African force.Imagine, if all the money used for Darfur aid and peacekeeping over the past three years had been spent on building water pumps, schools and roads in Darfur. By continuing to murder while refusing to reach a peace agreement, uneducated and unemployed gun toting men are making a living from ruining the Sudan, failing its children while getting away with rape and murder. What a waste. It's a crime against humanity.
The AU, at its summit in Khartoum last week, exasperated western diplomats by failing to discuss in any detail the Darfur crisis. But it did agree a resolution supporting the take-over of the force by the UN. The AU said it was struggling to find the 10m a month needed to maintain it."
"Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia [No. 18]. He keeps getting worse. If his police keep arresting and shooting people, he's definitely gonna be someone to watch."See why by scrolling though Sudan Watch's sister blog Ethiopia Watch and note Basque News article 25 January 2006 entitled "AU condemns worst right offenders, among them Ethiopia".
"I have no reason to believe that the Government would not be interested. I think that the Government will be interested in getting a peace agreement soon. And they have been to Abuja," he said.Surely a peace agreement could have been reached by now if the rebels really cared about the millions of defenceless women and children imprisoned in camps. This could go on for decades. The rebels keep splitting up and are not disciplined enough or educated to govern responsibly.
The UN envoy said he had been to the Abuja talks often "and the Government negotiated quite constructively. They were good, tough negotiators but constructive."
"The Darfur crisis has already impacted negatively on millions of children in Darfur, and if it is not resolved, it will have far reaching repercussions for many tens of thousands of children in the decades to come.Save the Children fights for children in the UK and around the world who suffer from poverty, disease, injustice and violence.
"If Sudan's record of atrocities makes it unsuitable to lead Africa this year, it is hard to see how al-Bashir will be the best leader to make Africa's case to the world next year," said Reed Brody, of Human Rights Watch.- - -
He added that Congo-Brazzaville's human rights record, while better than Sudan's, was "nothing to celebrate".
Mr Sassou-Nguesso, 62, seized power in the oil-rich state in 1979. His Marxist regime was a key ally of the Soviet Union. Under pressure from France, the former colonial power, he eventually introduced democratic ref-orms and left office after losing an election in 1992. But he returned to power in a welter of bloodshed by leading a victorious rebel army with Angolan military backing in a civil war in 1997.
He called an election in 2002, banned his two main rivals from running and claimed victory with almost 90 per cent of the vote. Fighting continues in Congo-Brazzaville, where rebels are trying to oust him.
Mr Sassou-Nguesso's human rights record has been heavily criticised. When the United Nations repatriated 350 refugees to his capital, Brazzaville, in 1999, they immediately disappeared and their fate has never been established.
Despite all that, African officials insisted that Mr Bashir's failure to win the chairmanship demonstrated Africa's new concern for human rights.
When questioned by Sir Menzies Campbell, the interim Liberal Democrat leader, over the lack of action, Mr Blair said: "I think the international community is failing people in Darfur." He agreed that the African Union troops should have a boosted mandate.Further reading:
Congo Republic's President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who was appointed by African leaders on Tuesday as chairman of the AU, said he would welcome UN support for AU troops in Darfur but that the force had to remain African-led.
'The United Nations can bring forces, but all of that should be to support the AU forces, under the command of the AU and its officers who are there,' Sassou told Reuters in a joint interview with French radio late on Tuesday.
'This dossier must be managed by the African Union. I believe that the international community will understand that it is better to operate like that,' he said after an AU summit in Sudan's capital Khartoum."
Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the Sudanese are receiving help in Gaga camp, which currently holds around 6,600 people.
There are more than 200,000 refugees from strife-torn Darfur in camps in eastern Chad and Mr. Redmond said the security situation had deteriorated in West Darfur in recent months, involving both the Janjaweed militia and "a recent rise of tensions between Chad and Sudan."
Gaga is the newest of 12 UNHCR camps in eastern Chad and many of the new arrivals say they travelled at night, riding donkeys to reach the camp, or else walked for days to find safety.
Mr. Redmond said that because of the worsening security situation in West Darfur, the Geneva-based agency had reduced the number of aid workers operating in the area and, as announced at the weekend, security concerns had also forced the UNHCR to reduce staff numbers in eastern Chad.
The weekend announcement came after unidentified armed men attacked the town of Guereda and abducted five government officials last Friday. While expressing concern for their safety, UNHCR calls for the immediate release of those detained, Mr. Redmond said today.
"It will be large and resources will be required," Mahiga said. "The AU would continue to participate operationally and politically."
Guterres told the Security Council the situation in Darfur has deteriorated over the past six months, saying that it will require bold measures and the full involvement of the African Union and the UN to avert the catastrophe.Associated Press Jan 24, 2006 quotes Mr Guterres as saying a large UN peacekeeping force is needed in Darfur if a "total humanitarian disaster" is to be avoided in the country's Darfur region.
"If we fail, if there is no physical protection for those in need of aid, the risk is a much greater calamity than what we have seen so far," he said. "I appeal to this body today in the strongest terms".
"I do believe the Sudan-Chad situation is the most challenging humanitarian problem we face today in the world," Guterres said at a press conference following his Council appearance.Unknown group of armed men attacked town of Guereda in Chad
Guterres told the Security Council that international pressure on Sudan is essential for a peace agreement to materialize in the country and to avoid the explosion of a wider crisis.
"This is crucial. The proof that this is crucial is that the instability in Darfur is very quickly having an impact in Chad," Guterres said. "We had to relocate part of our staff. We have 200,000 refugees on the Chad border. Military confrontation in that region would be a total humanitarian disaster."
But two weeks ago, Jan Pronk, the top UN envoy in Sudan, called for a force of as many as 20,000 troops to provide security in the vast and arid region.
The AU said it accepted the Pronk's call in principle and that its ministers would make a final decision at the end of March.
"I think the international community is failing the people in Darfur, which is why it is so important that we take the measures that the development secretary, indeed the government, have been pressing for," he said. "And those measures have got to include not just the immediate humanitarian help, but also to make sure that the African Union peacekeeping force comes up to its full strength."Mr Blair says a number of steps need to taken to bring peace to Darfur, but he defends British policy on the issue.
"The only way that the situation in Darfur is going to improve is when there are sufficient numbers of peacekeeping forces on the ground to keep the combatants apart, when the process of dialogue and peace takes place, which we have been calling for, and obviously, where the measures are in place to improve humanitarian help," he added. "So we have to do more, but we are doing more and I would just point out we as the British government have been leading in this area and will continue to do so."- - -
"A UN helicopter crashed today near Golo in the Jebel Marra area where fighting has been taking place, a UN statement said ... one UN source said the aircraft made a forced landing because of a problem with its rotor."In news here below, UN envoy Jan Pronk is quoted by a Chinese news agency as saying, "I will not tolerate if Nur's forces captured those humanitarian workers" ... and that he could not know whether the cause of the helicopter crash was mechanical or shot by particular circles, adding the UN mission in Sudan would deliver a statement later.
"Of course we will continue on peace talks. We expect the problem of Darfur to be solved next year."Updates
He said that he has just learned about the crash of the chopper and could not know whether the cause of the accident was mechanical or shot by particular circles, adding the UN mission in Sudan would deliver a statement later when any information on the accident is available.- - -
Pronk expressed his concern of what was taking place in Gebel Marra where 73 non-governmental organizations are operating, stressing the need to "evacuate the humanitarian workers this day". The UN official added that he informed Abdu-al wahid Mohammed Nur, one of the two rivals of the Sudan Liberation Movement [aka SLA], whose group controls the area, to commit to the ceasefire and to stop military operations there.
"I will not tolerate if Nur's forces captured those humanitarian workers," said Pronk.
"It should be noted that rebellion against the government policies in Darfur started in reality in 1992 when the late Mr Daoud Yahya Bolad, a one time leading member of the ruling party of General El Bashier, became aware of the government complicity in the campaign of destruction that targets the African tribes of Darfur. Mr Bolad quietly broke ranks with the government, forged a link with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army and Movement (SPLA/M) and started organising members of his Fur clan in the Jabal Marra area. He was able to establish a western faction of the SPLA/M and get the support of some followers in the western parts of Darfur. Mr Bolad was speedily arrested and summarily executed by the security forces in 1992 and consequently his movement ceased to exist."- - -
"Reuters recently reports (dispatches of March 14 and 16, 2005) on fighting between Khartoum's forces and the National Movement for Reform and Development (a third Darfuri rebel movement) in the Jabel Moun area of West Darfur. The Darfur Relief and Documentation Center (Geneva) has also recently reported in detail on intense fighting in the same area, and gives a much fuller sense of the impact of fighting on humanitarian operations:- - -
"Lawlessness, banditry activities, violence and the threat of violence are rampant in the region with serious implications on the situation of food security in many affected areas especially in the Jabal Marra massive and Jabal Moun in West Darfur."
BBC World Service Trust has launched "Darfur Salaam", a humanitarian radio programme for Darfur in Sudan to be broadcast at 8.00am local time on the new BBC frequency of 11820 kHz and repeated at 8.00pm on 9640 kHz.The first edition aired on Friday 20 January 2006.
"We don't want to make any cracks. If that means Sudan should withdraw, we will," Mustafa Osman Ismail said, as AU leaders met at a summit in Khartoum.
"In his welcome address, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir pledged to work with Sudan's neighbors and other African countries to maintain peace and stability on the continent.Note, Egypt's Mubarak will not attend the summit because he has a cold.
He said as one of the founding members of the Organization of African Unity, AU's predecessor, Sudan has played an important role in the continent's unity and integration, adding that with its unique geographical location, it can also act as a link between Africa and the Arab world.
Al-Bashir also called for the continuation of the AU mission in Sudan's troubled western region of Darfur, saying that only in this way can Africa prove its capability in resolving internal conflicts."
Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir has denied the existence of the so-called Janjawid militias in the war-torn Darfur region and said this was a fabrication by the media. He said the armed groups obtained their weapons from outside Sudan and most conflicts in Darfur were over natural resources such as water and pastures.See Sudan's Janjaweed largely controlled West Darfur but were not present at Darfur peace talks - Why not?
In an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau, Al-Bashir accused extremist Christian circles in the US Congress and the Zionist lobby of influencing the US Congress against Sudan.
Al-Bashir asked foreign powers not to interfere in the Darfur conflict pointing out that there was no genocide there.
"We have very strong relations with Nigeria and we hope that Obasanjo will play a role as a wise man in Africa to support Sudan's competition for the chairmanship," said al-Zahawi.Let's hope Mr Obasanjo will play a role as a wise man in Africa by continuing to chair the AU.
When African leaders gather in Khartoum on Monday for the African Union summit the theme of their two-day meeting will be education and culture. Both subjects fit easily with the AU's vision of promoting the "socio-economic integration" of the world's poorest continent.Full story.
Yet the AU's sixth summit has the potential to be its most controversial and looks set to test the credibility of the organisation. It could also provide an examination of whether Africa's leaders have genuinely bought into the idea of a new order on their continent.
Essentially, African leaders will be in a position to make judgments on their peers; deciding whether Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the oft-criticised Sudanese president, should become Africa's top diplomat; and how a legal case against Hissene Habre, the former Chadian dictator accused of atrocities, should proceed.
Dr Khalil Ibrahim, a protege of Islamist hardliner Dr Hasan al-Turabi. Formed in November 2002, JEM is increasingly recognised as being part and parcel of Dr Turabi's Popular Congress. Time magazine has described JEM as "a fiercely Islamic organisation said to be led by Hassan al-Turabi" and that Turabi's ultimate goal is "the presidential palace in Khartoum and a stridently Islamic Sudan". [2] Khalil is a long-time associate of Turabi's and served as a state minister in Darfur in the early 1990s before serving as a state cabinet-level advisor in southern Sudan. Ibrahim was a senior member of the Islamist movement's secret military wing. The International Crisis Group has noted that "Khalil Ibrahil ... is a veteran Islamist and former state minister who sided with the breakaway (Popular Congress) in 2002 and went into exile in the Netherlands. There is additionally evidence of some level of involvement of al-Qaeda with the Islamist JEM organisation.
"Our objective is to improve the quality of life for the whole of Sudan," said Khalil, adding that Darfur was "just a starting point". He said the JEM and SLM/A had similar objectives, but the JEM had "a broader base" with troops and supporters stationed in Kordofan and other areas.
Since mid-November, heavy fighting has reportedly taken place in western Darfur between the JEM, and the government and militia groups operating in the region.
According to Ibrahim many of the militias are from Chad, and are being paid by Sudanese elements to fight and loot Sudanese property.
Some are accusing the rebel SLA faction of deliberately provoking the Janjaweed into last week's attack in Darfur, arguing that they wanted to stop the other factions from making progress in the talks. Dr Reeves thinks this is a clear possibility:
"There is very little doubt that Minni Minnawi, the Secretary General of the SLA, launched a provocative attack on the town of Shearia ... Certainly, the SLA is culpable on many counts, all of which translates into a situation which is so violent and so insecure that humanitarian operations are all in the red zone: they are all on the point of withdrawal."
"Sudan's Information Minister al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik said the chairmanship would be decided by African leaders on Monday, the first day of the summit in Khartoum.Jan 20, 2006 Reuters report quotes a director of Human Rights Watch as saying:
But U.N. envoy for Sudan Jan Pronk said at a news conference in The Hague he thought it unlikely a new chairman would be appointed. "At the moment, the expectation is that President (Olusegun) Obasanjo of Nigeria will be asked to continue a bit longer, and that would be wise," he said."
"It would be highly inappropriate for the Sudanese government, which is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, to preside over the African Union. The A.U.'s credibility, and its ability to promote and protect human rights, would be irreparably damaged."- - -
Even the most loathsome tyrants are occasionally admired for their charm, their guile or perhaps their intellect. The same cannot be said for Sudan's Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir who heads one of Africa's biggest and potentially richest nations. Part blowhard, part thug, al-Bashir is a graduate of the 'Idi Amin School of Dictators'.
When General al-Bashir seized power in a sudden military coup on 30 June 1989 there were nagging doubts about his ability to take charge of the mammoth war-torn nation. A youthful 42 at the time, he had been one of the key figures in the Sudanese military assault on black southerners.
Sudan is a country divided between mostly Muslim Arabs in the north and Christian or animist black Africans in the south. The southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) launched its drive for secular democracy and self-determination in 1983. Since then, the Government (even before al-Bashir became leader) has conducted an all-out war against southern dissidents. Amnesty International estimates ~ million people have died in the carnage while 4.5 million have become internal exiles and another 4.5 million have fled the country.
AI-Bashir was an eager, early player in this mayhem. He was born into a peasant family in the small village of Hosh Bannaga, 150 kilometres north of the capital Khartoum. As a young man he later joined the army and quickly vaulted to the top of the command structure. He studied at military college in Cairo where he also became a crack paratrooper, later serving with the Egyptian army in the 1973 war against Israel. Back in Sudan, al-Bashir led a series of successful assaults on the SPLA in the early 19805 and soon was appointed General - scant 20 years after leaving military college.
Al-Bashir toppled Sadeq al-Mahdi's democratically elected government in 1989 -'to save the country from rotten political parties' as he said later. With the backing of Hassan al-Turabi, the fundamentalist leader of the National Islamic Front (NIF), the General immediately took steps to 'islamicize' the state. Al-Bashir dissolved parliament, banned all political parties and shut down the press. He also stepped up scorched-earth campaign in the south while courting his fundamentalist supporters. All opponents were dismissed as 'agents imperialism and Zionism'.
Like his fellow Middle-Eastern demogogues, al Bashir loves nothing better than a good anti-Semitic rant. He . once claimed that 'Jews control all decision-making centres in the US. The Secretary of State, the Defence Secretary, the National Security Advisor and the CIA are all [controlled by] Jews'. In March 1991 al-Bashir reinstated strict Islamic . religious law (sharia), pleasing al-Turabi who was appointed speaker of the country's jerry-rigged parliament.
But not for long. Jealous of the influential cleric's growing power in the NIF, al-Bashir declared a state of emergency in December 1999 and ousted al-Turabi from the party.
He followed this with showcase elections a year later which he won easily. Not that difficult a feat given that all major opposition parties were in hiding and SPLA-controlled areas in the south didn't take part at all.
Meanwhile, both international outrage and the death toll in the civil war continues to mount. The General's regime has been buoyed by infusions of cash from the petroleum industry which has refused to bow to international pressure and continues to pump oil along a 2,200 kilometre pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Al-Bashir shrugs off UN sanctions and the loss of World Bank aid, secure in his new-found oil wealth. Sudan, he crows, has entered 'a new stage. We have learned to rely on ourselves.'
Not quite. There would be no oil money to grease the war machine without the co-operation of a consortium of foreign oil companies led, shamefully, by Canada's Talisman Energy. Arms imports have skyrocketed with the new oil money - as has Government bombing of southern civilians. President al Bashir has openly declared his intention of using petrodollars to win the war. One press report noted that 'troops backed by tanks, helicopter gunships and aerial bombardments are torturing, slaughtering and burning men, women and children in a drive to evict all non-Arabs from oil-producing areas.' To add to Sudan's misery, food shortages, rooted in war and exacerbated by drought, are widespread and a deadly, biblical-style famine now threatens millions.
But never mind. Omar al-Bashir seems unperturbed. While he was bombing his fellow Sudanese citizens in the south he decided to honour his own success. On the tenth anniversary of the coup that brought him to power he decorated himself with a national medal.
"China maintains a strong economic presence in Sudan and could strengthen the African Union-led peacekeeping mission, which is understaffed and ill-equipped for the task, Drnovsek was quoted as saying."Is he thinking of Chinese peacekeepers and/or funding? John Garang, when he was alive last year, rejected any suggestion of Chinese troops participating in the UN's peacekeeping mission for southern Sudan because the Chinese government is onside with Khartoum regime. China depends on 20% of its oil from Sudan and is involved in large scale projects like Sudan's Merowe Dam.
