Sudan activists - UNAMID receives US Envoy Gration in Darfur - Sudan's delegation at AU HQ meeting on Sudan

NOTE to self, for future reference. Yesterday evening (Friday, 07 May c. 21:00 hrs UK) I sadly noted here at Sudan Watch that in western Sudan on 07 May 2010 at about 11.30hrs, a military convoy from UNAMID’s Egyptian contingent, with three vehicles and 20 personnel, was ambushed near Katila village, 85km south of Edd al Fursan, South Darfur (click here for map) by a group of unidentified armed men who indiscriminately opened fire, without warning, on the peacekeepers.

This morning (Saturday, 08 May) while searching Google News for reports of the shocking attack, I was surprised to find that among a list of reports, Google had somehow managed to connect and include three seemingly unrelated reports from Sudan Vision Daily, AllAfrica and Sudan Tribune. See copy of the three reports here below, plus several other related reports and a report from Sudan Watch archives regarding an Egyptian peacekeeper killed in El Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur in May 2007.

Gunmen kill 2 peacekeepers in Sudan's south Darfur

‎
The Associated Press - 13 hours ago

Fighting between rebels and Sudanese government forces began there in 2003, killing up to 300000 people and driving 2.7 million from their homes. ...

Two Egyptian peacekeepers killed in Darfur‎ - BBC News
AU and UN call for holistic approach to Sudan crises‎ - Sudan Tribune
Two Egyptian peacekeepers killed in Darfur ambush‎ - AFP
Press TV - Sudan Vision
all 194 news articles »

Government Delegation to Addis for Joining AUHQ Meeting on Sudan
From Sudan Vision Daily - Saturday, 08 May 2010 @ 00:10:00 BST by Staff Writer:

Government delegation chaired by the State Minister of Culture and Youth, Dr. Amin Hassan Omer headed yesterday to Addis Ababa for participating in the international two-day consultative meeting on Sudan's present and future political developments.

The meeting was scheduled to convene yesterday at the African Union Headquarters in the Ethiopian Capital, Addis Ababa.

In a press statement on Thursday, Deputy Chief of Sudan Mission to Addis Ababa, Akoi Bona Malwal, reported that the Head of the AU Panel on Darfur, Thabo Mbeki would present there a comprehensive report on Darfur peace process, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement implementation progress, as well the arrangements for the self-determination referendum.

According to Malwal, participants in the meeting would include: AU, UN, EU, UNAMID Chief, Gambari, AU-UN Joint Chief Mediator, Djibril Bassolé, Organization of Islamic Countries, and the Qatari mediator, Egypt, Libya, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council are expected to join the meeting today.

Diplomatic sources informed that the Sudan official delegation to the meeting included the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mutrif Siddig and ruling party leading figure, Sayed Alkhatieb.

Analysts suggest that the high level of participation in the said meeting reflects the international community’s concern over the risks South Sudan’s secession might pose to the regional and global security.

Sudan: Unamid Receives U.S. Envoy Gration
United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (El Fasher)
From UNAMID - (hat tip AllAfrica) - Thursday, 06 May 2010:

A delegation led by US Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration today visited UNAMID's headquarters in El Fasher, North Darfur.

Mr. Gration met with Deputy Joint Special Representatives Henry Anyidoho and Mohamed Yonis, Force Commander Patrick Nyamvumba, senior UNAMID officials, and UN Deputy Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sudan Toby Lanzer.

The US envoy shared his views on how to better integrate the efforts of the Government of the Sudan, UNAMID, aid agencies, and other stakeholders to secure peace and stability in the region. Among the issues discussed were programmes that promote reconciliation, recovery and development, as well as the challenges of their implementation.

Mr. Gration later met with representatives of various humanitarian organizations operating in Darfur, before departing for Solinga, a model village in North Darfur to which some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have voluntarily settled.

The US envoy plans to travel to Addis Ababa on 9 May and participate in African Union meetings on Sudan to discuss the Darfur peace process and the implementation of the CPA.

AU and UN call for holistic approach to Sudan crises
From Sudan Tribune - Saturday, 08 May 2010:

May 7, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) - In a joint meeting held with United Nations in Addis Ababa, the African Union on Friday called for a holistic approach to be taken in dealing with the different crises in the Sudan

The African Union and the United Nations stressed "the necessity of reaching a political agreement before the referendum on independence (in southern Sudan) in January 2011", and for an "inclusive" political process in Darfur.

The meeting between the two organizations aimed to evaluate the strategies they should follow, "with a particular emphasis on the post-electoral context, the peace process in Darfur and the preparations for the referendum".

The former South African President, who is charged by the AU to identify the best way to bring justice in Darfur and to settle the political problems in the country, briefed the UN Security Council last December on the conclusions of a report he complied about the Sudan.

Thabo Mbeki, who sought the support of the UN, reiterated the root cause of the conflict in Darfur and Sudan being the "concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a Khartoum-centered elite and the consequent marginalization of the so-called periphery, including Darfur".

However, the UN Security Council pointed out the need to coordinate the efforts of the two organizations in a way to not obstruct the ongoing attempts or to interfere with the International Criminal Court jurisdiction. The AU wants to suspends the ICC referral and the UN Security Council supports it.

The statement also stressed "the need for greater support from the international community and close coordination among international actors". (ST)

Further reading

Sudan's delegation participates in Addis Ababa's international consultative meetings
From MirayaFM - Saturday, 08 May 2010 14:48 - Updated Saturday, 08 May 2010 15:11:

The head of Sudan's delegation to the international consultative meetings on Sudan held in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa, Dr Amin Hassen Omer, conducted on Saturday a number of meetings with key officials including US envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, and Head of the African Union - United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNMAID), Djibril Bassole.

On Saturday, the African Union will hold deliberations on implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and current efforts at resolving the Darfur conflict, among other issues.

Participants include international envoys for Sudan as well as representatives from the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Arab League, Egypt and Qatar. The delegates aim to formulate strategies to coordinate regional efforts on issues pertaining to Sudan for the near future.

Gration: 'crucial time for Sudan'
From Politico.com - Saturday, 08 May 2010 by Emily Canal 11:57 AM EDT:

Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration said it is a crucial time for the nation in a briefing Wednesday on his just-finished two-week trip to Chad, Sudan, Qatar and Rwanda.

With the south moving toward a 2011 referendum on secession following this month's elections held amidst widespread reports of irregularities, Gration has been pushing for a peace deal between senior officials in the national capitol of Khartoum, which represents the nation's mostly Muslim north, and those in Juba, the de facto capitol of the largely Christian and animist south.

"We must not let this opportunity to promote Sudan-wide political transformation, to improve the overall security, to facilitate a lasting peace pass us by," Gration said. "We will not rest until we've done everything we can to secure a brighter future for the next generation of Sudanese. Failure in this case is not an option, and we'll strive for success."

Gration said he spent much of the trip discussing Comprehensive Peace Agreement issues with the National Congressional Party.

State Department Spokesman Phillip Crowley said Thursday in a briefing that Gration is on his way to Khartoum to continue discussions with representatives of the government of Sudan.

"Tomorrow, he will travel to Addis Ababa to participate in African Union meetings on Sudan and discuss regional strategies and international coordination in support of CPA implementation and the Darfur peace process," Crowley said.

The Enough Project released a benchmark report card for Sudan this week that found national reform and humanitarian access had worsened across the board.

The group warned that "[n]o progress has been made on substantive national reforms critical to addressing some of the root causes of conflict in Sudan."

JSR Gambari meets AUHIP
From UNAMID website - Thursday, 06 May 2010:

06 May 2010 - The African Union High Level Panel on Darfur, chaired by former President Thabo Mbeki, and a UNAMID team led by Joint Special Representative (JSR) Ibrahim Gambari met in Addis Ababa today to explore areas of mutual interest ahead of a United Nations/African Union meeting scheduled to take place soon.

Among the topics covered was the Sudan’s current political landscape following the recent elections and the possible implications for the implementation of the Mission’s mandate.

Consultative meetings on Sudan kick off in Addis Ababa without Sudanese delegation
From MirayaFM - Friday, 07 May 2010 20:13 - Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 May 2010 00:22 ):

International envoys and representatives from the African Union, and United Nations convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, on Friday to begin consultative meetings on Sudan, without the participation of the Sudanese government.

Sudan's Deputy Ambassador to Addis Ababa, Akoi Bona Malwal, said that the government has not received an official invitation to attend the high level meeting, but added that a delegation led by State Minister of Youth and Sports, Amin Hassan Omar, will be taking part in minor side meetings.

Malwal further said that he is aware that foreign ministers from neighbouring countries will be attending the meeting but could not disclose any other information, saying he does not know "what else is happening" even though the discussions are about Sudan.

The meeting is scheduled to discuss the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and ongoing efforts to resolve the Darfur conflict among other issues.

Special Envoys for Sudan from China, France, Russia, UK, and the US as well as representatives from the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will attempt to coordinate regional efforts on issues pertaining to Sudan for the near future.

Meanwhile, Brussels-based International Crisis Group has said that if Southern Sudan secedes after the referendum in 2011, diplomatic support must be achieved will neighboring countries to ensure that the decision is respected in order to prevent a new civil war from ensuing.

The latest NGO report "Regional Perspectives on the Prospect of Southern Sudan Independence", calls on the African Union, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development to harmonize efforts in support of the referendum, recognize its results and assist in the peaceful implementation of its outcome

Click and listen to Sudan's Deputy Ambassador to Addis Ababa, Akoi Bona Malwal.

05 May 2010 - UNAMID urges all parties in Darfur to remain committed to the peace process
From UNAMID website - Wednesday, 05 May 2010 - PR/ 18-2010 PRESS RELEASE:

UNAMID urges all parties in Darfur to remain committed to the peace process
El Fasher, 5 May 2010 - The Government of North Darfur has declared curfew in El Fasher town and its environs starting 23:00 hours (11:00pm) of Tuesday 4 May 2010, to 15:00 hours (3:00pm) of Wednesday 5 may 2010.

The curfew has been lifted on the scheduled time.

UNAMID reminds all parties that the Darfur crisis cannot be resolved through military means but can only come through negotiations.

The AU-UN Joint Special Representative, Mr. Ibrahim Gambari, urges all parties to remain committed to their engagement in the political process and implement the provisions of the Framework Agreements signed between JEM and the Government of Sudan.
*****
Communication and Public Information Division Media Contacts
Kemal Saïki, Director; saiki@un.org, tel.: +249 (0)92 244 3529 / mobile: +249 (0)92 241 0020
Noureddine Mezni, Spokesperson; mezni@un.org, mobile: +249 (0)91 253 8420/ +249 (0)91 217 4276
Chris Cycmanick, OiC, Media Relations; cycmanick@un.org, mobile: +249 (0)91 253 843
*****

Sudan: Activists From Across the Country Support Congressman Wolf's Call for a Change of Course on Sudan
Press Release from Pax Communication (Washington, DC) - Wednesday, 05 May 2010 - [hat tip AllAfrica]:

Today Sudan activists and Sudanese expatriates from around the country commended Congressman Frank Wolf for his bold call to President Obama for a change of course in dealing with Sudan. Twenty-five regional groups representing 18 states have joined together in a show of bipartisan support for the policy recommendations outlined in Wolf's statement and his letter to President Obama.

In a press conference this morning on Capitol Hill, Wolf said it is time for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to re-take control of U.S. policy involving Sudan. Wolf also made a series of other recommendations, including calling on the administration to not recognize the outcome of the recent presidential elections in Sudan and to move forward with its stated aim of strengthening the capacity of the security sector in the South. In addition, he said priority must be given to ending the attacks in Darfur and completing restoration of humanitarian aid in region. (Full text of Wolf's statements and letter here.) [ http://wolf.house.gov ]

"On behalf of the many Americans who are concerned about the Obama Administration's weak implementation of its stated Sudan policy, I commend Congressman Wolf for his leadership on Sudan and his bold call today for a change of course," stated Eric Cohen, Chairperson of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur. "It is far past time for the Administration to implement the policy that was announced five months ago which stated that benchmarks would be applied to Sudan based on verifiable changes in conditions on the ground with disincentives applied for backsliding or lack of progress. We strongly agree that Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Rice should directly oversee the implementation of that policy."

The anti-genocide organizations and Sudanese diaspora organizations supporting Congressman Wolf's request of the President include: Americans Against the Darfur Genocide, Washington, DC; Connecticut Coalition to Save Darfur, Bloomfield, CT; The Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, Boston, MA; The San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, San Francisco, CA; Idaho Darfur Coalition, Boise, ID; New York City Coalition for Darfur, New York, NY; The Essex County Coalition for Darfur, Montclair, NJ; Save Darfur Washington State, Seattle, Washington; Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide, Atlanta, GA; Jewish World Watch, Los Angeles, CA; i-ACT, Los Angeles, CA; Investors Against Genocide, Boston, MA; STAND, University of Maryland's chapter, College Park, MD; Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, Washington DC; Stop Genocide Now, Los Angeles, CA; Operation Broken Silence from Memphis, TN; "Change the world. It just takes cents," Denver, CO; Genocide No More--Save Darfur of Redding, CA; Use Your Voice to Stop Genocide RI, Portsmouth, RI; Darfur and Beyond, Phoenix, AZ; Miami Help Darfur Now, Miami, FL; Kentuckiana Interfaith Taskforce On Darfur, Louisville, KY; Never Again Coalition, Portland, OR; Champion Darfur, Las Vegas, NV; and the Equatoria Sudanese Community Association in the USA.

Copyright © 2010 Pax Communication. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

Note the following copy of an insightful comment by khalid.mustafa published at AllAfrica on Thursday, 06 May 12:18:25 2010 in reply to the above press release from Pax Communication:

"Save Darfur Coalition has not helped Darfur's people; but has spent money on activities to disrupt Sudanese -American relations. These ideological activists have already forced Dr Andrew Natsios to end his role as envoy for president Bush. They try to repeat the campaign with Gn Gration. Natsios now calls for engagement with Sudan . The call to divest from Sudan was started by Netanyahu at the AIPAC conference in 07. It has nothing to do with US interests . The attemot to forge a neo-con policy again (as if G. Bush has not lost the elections!) would poison relations with the whole Muslim world. This runs counter to president Obama's Cairo speech."

POSTSCRIPT
Recently, here at Sudan Watch, I decided to stop publishing news of bandits, pirates, kidnappers and terrorists and other evil doers who aim to destabilise Sudan. In my view, many of the civilian gunmen in and around Sudan are terrorists who belong in jail. I doubt that JEM et al will give up using propaganda and violence in their attempts to gain power and remove the Sudanese government. Terrorists thrive on spreading fear. They use the world's media and gullible activists to spread propaganda and garner support. Sudan Watch archives show that terrorists such as JEM have orchestrated attacks in and around Sudan in order to generate publicity and avoid communicating through official peace mediators, which is why I have stopped publicising their wicked words and evil deeds. This could be the last blog post at Sudan Watch featuring attacks on peacekeepers. Because of its timing and style, I fear that yesterday's attack on Egyptian peacekeepers in Darfur was premeditated in order to maximise publicity and send out messages aimed at destablising Sudan. I suspect the recent kidnapping of South African peacekeepers in Darfur was also terrorist related. From now on, no more publicity for terrorists unless there is verifiable news of them being arrested or attending peace talks.

Note, Sudan Watch report dated 27 May 2007 re Egyptian peacekeeper killed in El Fasher, North Darfur: UN NGO's Leave El Fasher - Egyptian UN soldier killed in Sudan's North Darfur - excerpt:

The circumstances surrounding the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Ehab Nazih, a Military Staff Officer from Egypt, are still under investigation, according to UNMIS, which confirmed that late Friday, three armed men, wearing civilian clothes, broke into the private house he shared with seven other UNMIS staff.

After taking money and valuables from the other occupants of the house, the armed men moved to the victim's room and demanded money from Lt. Colonel Nazih, who gave them all the money he had and was then shot.

He was rushed to the a Hospital run by the African Union Mission in Darfur (AMIS), where he was pronounced dead, UNMIS said, offering thanks to "the AMIS staff and medical personnel who did all they could to save the life of their UNMIS colleague." + + +

Note, Sudan Watch report dated 24 March 2009 re report from Sudan Watch archives March 2006: Al Qaeda terrorists are already entrenched in Sudan, U.N. Envoy Jan Pronk warns



More than 20 peacekeepers have been killed since the joint UN-African Union mission was deployed in Darfur in 2008. (Photo and caption from Press TV news report 08 May 2010)

Before checking and without re-reading Sudan Watch, I reckon the number of African Union or UN personnel attacked/killed in Darfur could be around one hundred.

+ + + God help and bless the peace workers and children of Sudan + + +

A Beat for Peace - Sudan 365: On April 10 & 11, activists from 19 countries will drum a "beat for peace"

Copy of Press Release (note that the Sudan Watch referred to in the Press Release is not connected in any way to this blog, Sudan Watch, or myself):

Association of Canadian Students for Darfur
Apr 10, 2010 08:00 ET

Activists from 19 Countries Join Global Day of Action Ahead of Elections to Urge ‘No Business as Usual’ With Sudan

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - April 10, 2010) - On April 10th and 11th, activists from 19 countries will drum a "beat for peace" in a global demand that the April 11 elections not become a flashpoint for increased violence and human rights abuses. Many opposition parties have withdrawn from the elections citing violent intimidation, fears of vote-rigging, and reports of widespread restrictions on basic freedoms that make election campaigning perilous.

The global Sudan365 (www.sudan365.org) coalition, including Amnesty International, Arab Coalition for Darfur, Darfur Consortium, Enough Project, FIDH, Human Rights Watch, Italians for Darfur, IKV Pax Christi, Refugees International, Save Darfur Coalition, and Sudan Forum Norway, has initiated a one-year/365-day program to promote democracy, justice and peace in Sudan.

Events are taking place from Mali to Norway, South Africa to Israel, Senegal to Northern Ireland (for a full list of locations see www.sudan365.org) as part of a global "beat for peace" backed by famous drummers including Stewart Copeland from The Police, Phil Selway from Radiohead, Ghanaian drummer Mustafa Tettey Addey and Middle Eastern pop star Mohamed Munir.

In solidarity, Canadian Students for Darfur, with STAND UBC, is holding its annual Day for Darfur on April 11 at the Vancouver Art Gallery (Robson Street plaza) between 12:45 and 4 PM, with live music to "beat for peace" including Yoro's amazing talking drum, Dan Beer, the Jarrod Tyler band, and the CJ Thon group with DJ Praise Owora. Speakers include Darfuri refugees, Liberal MP Dr Hedy Fry, NDP MP Bill Siksay, and Adrianne Carr of the Green Party.

Campaigners are urging world leaders to exercise extra vigilance, warning that the elections environment is unstable, and pointing to the recent offensive in the Jebel Marra region in Darfur, in which hundreds of civilians were reported killed and thousands displaced from their homes, and increased violence in southern Sudan.

'Sudan Watch' will invigilate during the election period. See Sudan Vote Monitor (www.sudanvotemonitor.com), a project launched by Sudanese civil society to report on election violations, and Twitter (twitter.com/sudan365).

"Opposition activists have been prevented from carrying out peaceful activities, arrested and tortured. It is clear that elections carried out in this context will be severely compromised." said Osman Hummaida, Executive Director of the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies.

"Violations of human rights – particularly restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of the press – are threatening prospects for a free, fair and credible vote across Sudan," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa Director of Human Rights Watch.

"Sudanese authorities are clearly failing to uphold international standards including those agreed with the African Union in Juba in March." said Ms Gagnon.

'The respect, protection and promotion of human rights by all those involved in the election; including the government, candidates, and supporters is of critical importance. Sudan must end the cycle of violence, insecurity and human rights abuses in the country,' said Erwin van der Borght, Africa Director of Amnesty International.

The elections are intended to be a milestone in the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Campaigners are calling on the international community to insist that Sudanese parties to resolve outstanding issues ahead of the scheduled referendum in January 2011 and increase measures to protect civilians over the course of the year. The campaign calls for:

The Government of National Unity and Government of South Sudan to respect rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and guarantee freedom of movement to election observers;

Election Observation Missions to remain in Sudan for the election period to monitor and publicly report on the human rights context before, during and after the elections;

The international community to speak out about any serious human rights violations;

The UN mission to increase its presence and patrols in volatile areas, in line with its mandate to protect civilians;

World leaders to scale up their support for Sudanese parties in resolving outstanding issues ahead of the referendum and work with Sudanese parties to agree on a decisive strategy for international engagement after the referendum.

"This is a wake-up call to leaders. The elections start tomorrow. The referendum is less than 9 months away. The situation in Sudan remains dire. The recent spike in violence in Darfur shows that the conflict is far from over. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, that brought an end to a civil war in which over 2 million people died, remains fragile and inter-ethnic violence has increased. We need a first-class, coordinated international response. And we need it now." said Joel Charny, Vice President for Policy, Refugees International, a member of the campaign.

"Farce will turn into tragedy ... if violence is allowed to get out of control and Sudan's people suffer." said Mark Lotwis, Acting President of the Save Darfur Coalition.

The Association of Canadian Students for Darfur raises public awareness of the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and urges the Government of Canada to take world leadership in stopping the genocide, and bringing justice and democracy to Sudan.

The full Sudan365 press release is posted on the ACSD blog site www.darfurcanada.wordpress.com.

The Vancouver, Canada contact is; Bruce Edwards 604-820-3646 darfur@telus.net Canadian Students for Darfur
For more information, please contact
Association of Canadian Students for Darfur
Bruce Edwards
604-820-3646
darfur@telus.net

- - -

Beat for Peace - Sudan 365

Copy of an unpublished blog post for Sudan Watch, drafted on 18 January 2010:

"This campaign is unprecedented. It's incredibly exciting. Thousands of drummers from some of the most famous drummers in the world to community groups across five continents have come together to create a global beat for peace in Sudan. The next 365 days will be critical for the people of Sudan. And this global drumbeat is a cry for positive action from world leaders to prevent conflict from returning," said Jamie Catto, founder member of 1 Giant Leap and Faithless.

The film features a drum beat for peace starting in Sudan and being picked up and passed on like a baton between drummers in over 15 countries around the world including Brazil, Mexico, US (NY and LA), UK, France, Spain, Senegal, South Africa, Ghana, Egypt, Mali, UAE, Japan, Russia and Australia.

The film was launched on www.sudan365.org on January 9th 2010. Campaigners will be asked to upload pictures and videos of themselves joining the 'beat for peace'.



From www.ilikemusic.com, Tuesday, 12 January 2010:
Beat for Peace - Sudan 365

World famous drummers are supporting a new global campaign for Sudan - Sudan365 (www.sudan365.org) - calling on global leaders to take urgent diplomatic action over the next 365 days to prevent all out conflict returning to Sudan.

Celebrity drummers - including Phil Selway of Radiohead, Jonny Quinn of Snow Patrol, Stewart Copeland of The Police, Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, the renowned Egyptian drummer Yehia Khalil and Mustapha Tettey Addy from Ghana who has been drumming since the 1970s - have come together to create a global 'beat for peace' for Sudan.

"I wanted to be involved in this project because I think music is such a powerful way of bringing people together. Of course, I'm biased in thinking that what's underpinning it all is always the beat - always drummers! Hopefully this film will show that together people can make a huge noise and through this film I hope people's focus will be brought back to what is happening in the Sudan over this very important next year," said Phil Selway of Radiohead who is supporting the campaign.

The drummers appear in a music film which was the brainchild of Jamie Catto - the drummer of Faithless who was behind the hit global music project '1 Giant Leap' - and produced by Emer Patten and the team at Splinter Films, the specialist music film company who have produced concert films for Beyoncé, Foo Fighters and Kings Of Leon among many others.

"This campaign is unprecedented. It's incredibly exciting. Thousands of drummers from some of the most famous drummers in the world to community groups across five continents have come together to create a global beat for peace in Sudan. The next 365 days will be critical for the people of Sudan. And this global drumbeat is a cry for positive action from world leaders to prevent conflict from returning," said Jamie Catto, founder member of 1 Giant Leap and Faithless.

The film features a drum beat for peace starting in Sudan and being picked up and passed on like a baton between drummers in over 15 countries around the world including Brazil, Mexico, US (NY and LA), UK, France, Spain, Senegal, South Africa, Ghana, Egypt, Mali, UAE, Japan, Russia and Australia.

"It is fantastic to join so many drummers from around the world. Sometimes the spoken word is a barrier but here we are coming together with so many drumming styles, so many instruments, so many sound colours, for a great cause, and we are delighted that we can communicate and hopefully make a difference to so many people through the beat of the drum," said Dame Evelyn Glennie, the award winning percussionist who is featured in the film.

The film was launched on www.sudan365.org on January 9th 2010. Campaigners will be asked to upload pictures and videos of themselves joining the 'beat for peace'.

"We are very proud to be a part of this cause for the Sudan. We think that music is the best way to unify a common message, and that message is peace," said Ojos de Bruno, a famous Spanish flamenco group who are featured in the film.

"Sudan has experienced too much pain and suffering in the last three decades. Now is the time to make sure that the future is one of peace and prosperity for all those in Darfur and the rest of Sudan. Music is an incredible force for positive action and this global beat for peace calls on world leaders to act now to stop a disaster later." Mohammed Munir, Middle East musician & drummer.

« View all web results for A global drumbeat for peace in Sudan

BBC News

Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Police drummers unite to launch global drum-beat for peace

NME.com - ‎Jan 8, 2010‎

The brainchild of Faithless drummer Jamie Catto, the video features a 'drum beat for peace' that starts in Sudan and is then passed around 15 other ...

International drumming event held for Sudan peace Sudan Tribune

World famous drummers launch global drum-beat for peace for Sudan ReliefWeb (press release)

Music stars to drum for peace in Sudan AFP

hotpress.com (subscription) - Amnesty International

all 112 news articles »

Sudan 365: A beat for peace- Thousands gather in 15 countries to warn of ...

Amnesty International UK - ‎Jan 8, 2010‎

The next 365 days will be critical for the people of Sudan. And this global drumbeat is a cry for positive action from world leaders to prevent conflict ...

Darfur activists on Sudan Elections 2010

Copy of Press Release:

ADVISORY: Week-long Series of Press Briefings by Human Rights Organizations to Provide Up-to-the-minute Commentary as Controversial Sudan Elections Unfold

In an effort to provide journalists with timely commentary on the latest developments in the crucial Sudan elections, leading human rights organizations will be participating in a series of press briefings hosted by Sudan Now, a campaign led by several of the participating organizations.

Washington, D.C. (Vocus/PRWEB ) April 10, 2010 -- In an effort to provide journalists with timely commentary on the latest developments in the crucial Sudan elections, leading human rights organizations will be participating in a series of press briefings hosted by Sudan Now, a campaign led by several of the participating organizations. The press calls will be held each day from Monday, April 12 through Friday, April 16 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. The calls will be largely devoted to questions from journalists after very brief opening statements from the guest speakers. Organizations participating in the press calls include the Save Darfur Coalition, the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress, Genocide Intervention Network, Humanity United, and other organizations to be determined.

According to the Sudan Now campaign, the current implementation of the U.S. policy on Sudan has not addressed a number of extremely concerning developments including clear indications that the national election will be neither free nor fair, ongoing government attacks that have killed hundreds and displaced thousands in recent months, and ongoing obstruction by the Government of Sudan in access for aid workers and UN investigators to Darfur.

WHEN:
Monday, April 12 through Friday, April 16 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time (daily)

WHO:
John Norris, Executive Director, the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress
Mark Lotwis, Acting President, Save Darfur Coalition
Sam Bell, Executive Director, Genocide Intervention Network
David Abramowitz, Director of Policy and Government Relations, Humanity United

DIAL IN NUMBER:

US/Canada Dial-in #: (877) 210-8943 – Conference ID # 68487901
Int'l/Local Dial-In #: (706) 902-0621 – Conference ID # 68487901

Sudan Now is a campaign led by a group of prominent anti-genocide and human rights advocacy organizations committed to bringing meaningful and lasting peace to Sudan and encouraging strong American leadership and action to achieve this goal. The campaign challenges President Barack Obama and top U.S. administration officials to live up to their promises to take strong and immediate action to help end the international crisis in Sudan and bring a lasting peace to the people of that country. Organizations participating in the campaign include Humanity United, the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress, Genocide Intervention Network, Stop Genocide Now, and Investors Against Genocide.

Please note: Photography and broadcast quality recent b-roll from IDP camps are now available for general use. You can download video at http://media.savedarfur.org/save-darfur-media-epk-download; images are available athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/savedarfur/sets/72157623816650366/. Photography and b-roll of a student protest on Capitol Hill will also be available on Monday.

Contact:
Jonathan Hutson, the Enough Project, 857-919-5130, jhutson@enoughproject.org
Mame Annan-Brown, Genocide Intervention Network, 347-564-2936, annan-brown@genocideintervention.net
Andrea Clarke, Save Darfur Coalition, 202-460-6756, andrea@savedarfur.org
Julia Thornton, Humanity United, 650-587-2030, jthornton@humanityunited.org
Susan Morgan, Investors Against Genocide, 617-797-0451, susan@paxcommunications.org

# # #

Darfuris who helped the ICC say they falsified information and were told what to say

Quote of the Day

"As for those rebel groups who are calling for the resignation of another country's envoy, the energy would best be spent on uniting and galvanizing their own people so that they solve their own problems" -Embassy of Sudan, Washington DC, October 2009.

Source:  The following statement was issued by the Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan - via Reuters/PRNewswire-USNewswire, Thu. Oct. 15, 2009.  (Also, note two reports here below re members of a new Darfur rebel group calling itself the National Group to Correct the Track on the Darfur Crisis (NGCTDC) are now saying they falsified information for the ICC and were told what to say.   Reportedly, many translators and witnesses admitted fabricating stories and exaggerating information about the Darfur conflict.)

Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan: Why the Activists Push for Policy Proven to be Failed and Detrimental in Sudan!

(WASHINGTON) - These past two weeks have witnessed a flurry of letters to the Obama administration from outraged activists and groups who in essence demand that the president change his policy of engagement and assume, like the previous administrations, a hostile posture towards Sudan. Among the latest of these missives is one that explicitly calls for the resignation and replacement of the U.S. envoy, General Scott Gration, whose diplomacy has brought us closer to a resolution than his predecessors have managed in years.

Ironically, this campaign comes at the backdrop of monumental initiatives that Sudan and the international community have or will inaugurate. Last week's conference in Moscow was one such initiative in which the tremendous progress made by Sudan on the salient issues was unanimously affirmed. And while recognizing the challenges that remain, the summit acknowledged and pledged support to Sudan's ongoing efforts to see a swift conclusion to those pending issues. Moscow's conference was preceded by a number of other initiatives that sought to build consensus between the rebel groups. Among these were the meetings held in Cairo, Tripoli and those convened in Addis Ababa where the unity of certain groups was achieved. The upcoming Doha conference, foreseen to produce a final and comprehensive peace agreement for Darfur, is also a significant milestone that is the fruit of earnest diplomatic efforts exerted by Sudan and the international community.

Sudan is reaching out and taking steps to mend fences with Chad so full diplomatic relations are restored. This will undoubtedly have a positive impact on Darfur. There is also the democratic transformation of the country that the upcoming elections will instigate. The Sudanese are diligently working to create the necessary mechanisms that will ensure the smooth conduct of legitimate plebiscites. In a matter of months after these elections, a referendum is scheduled to take place. Preparations for that are already underway and the parties are now diligently working on the referendum law as promulgated in the CPA.

All of these highlight Sudan's serious commitment to peace and proactive pursuit of solutions to the problems, a fact that clearly negates the picture painted by these activists. Their statements stand in stark contrast to those made by far more knowledgeable and impartial international authorities on the ground. It was only last month when the Joint Representative of the UN-AU, Rodolphe Adada, and the hybrid force commander, General Luther Agwai proclaimed that the war in Darfur has ended, a fact reiterated by the AU summit held shortly afterwards. And yet these activists want the world to believe their own cooked up "facts" and disregard what such credible authorities report. And the world found out how deceitful these groups really are when the dissenting group of Darfuris who helped build the case for ICC recently announced at a conference in Ethiopia that they falsified information and were told what to say.

It is true that the influence of these groups, which has primarily been achieved by placing pressure on the White House to adopt policies suiting to their own end, has had a devastating impact on the situation. Voices from Darfur have long spoken out against these groups precisely because of this fact. Therefore it is paramount that we face the fact that the daily bread and butter of these groups comes from the very crises they profess to "end"; so that while the rest of the peace-loving world cries out for solutions, they're vigorously seeking ways to undermine positive efforts and gains made.

Lastly, its noteworthy that most of those groups criticizing General Gration today were also staunch critics of the previous envoys whose modus operandi was more in-line with what the activists are now calling for. Yet the inescapable fact is that these ambassadors were unable to deliver any solutions to the problems. It is baffling then why someone who claims to genuinely be in pursuit of peace, would advocate for a policy proven to be failed and in fact detrimental. As for those rebel groups who are calling for the resignation of another country's envoy, the energy would best be spent on uniting and galvanizing their own people so that they solve their own problems.

Information Office
Embassy of Sudan

CONTACT: Embassy of Sudan Press and Information Office, phone:
+1-202-338-8565, or fax: +1-202-667-2406

SOURCE:   Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan

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Many translators and witnesses admitted fabricating stories and exaggerating information about the Darfur conflict.

From IslamOnline.net
Darfurians Admit Exaggerating Conflict
By Ismail Kamal Kushkush, IOL Correspondent
Wed. Sep. 9, 2009

ADDIS ABABA – Many Darfurians are coming out to admit being engaged in providing exaggerated numbers and false information to foreign journalists and international investigation teams visiting refugee camps in Chad.

“We are sons of Darfur with direct connections to what is happening in the region,” Sulayman Ahmad Hamid, a former member of the rebel Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), told several Sudanese and foreign reporters.

“We helped provide international investigation teams with translators and witnesses,” he said, citing cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“We told witnesses being questioned to exaggerate the number of victims killed or raped in Darfur.”

The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the Khartoum regime accusing it of discrimination.

The UN says that 300,000 have died as a result of war, disease and malnutrition, but the Sudanese government has put the number at nearly 10,000.

No independent field-research accounts are available to date.

In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir charging him with committing war-crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Hamid and many others are members of a new group calling itself the National Group to Correct the Track on the Darfur Crisis (NGCTDC).

“As a rebellion we had hoped to achieve gains for the people of Darfur,” says Kamal al-Din Ali, the general secretary of NGCTDC.

“But today, Darfur is a source of income for many groups and an excuse to implement foreign agendas.”

Ali affirmed that his group upheld the right of Darfurians for justice and compensation, but rejected exaggerated stories about the war.

“This does not mean we will give up on the rights of our people. But we will not be part of agendas that seek to divide Sudan like Yugoslavia or Iraq”

Fabricated

Salah Muhammad Mansur, a pharmacist by training, fled to Chad when the war broke out in 2003 and joined the SLM/A in the Chadian capital N’djamena.
There, Mansur worked as a translator for visiting journalists, activists and investigation teams.

“In late May 2004, I worked as a translator for the American organization Coalition for International Justice (CIJ),” he recalled.

“We visited Hajr Hadeed, Kharshana and Daga camps. When we questioned a refugee how many people were killed in your village, if they said ten, I would tell the investigator 200,” Mansur admitted.

“If they asked how many women were raped, if they said ten, I would tell them to say 200

“If the refugee said they were attacked by the Janjaweed, I would tell them no, say that government forces also provided help from behind.”

The Janjaweed are a militia accused of having ties to the government of Sudan.

Mansur explains why he and other Darfurian translators opted to exaggerate information for visiting journalists and investigation teams.

“We were mad at that government at the time because of what had happened.

“Plus, we were simply employees, the weather was hot, the terrain was harsh and we wanted to get our work done.”

Ismail Muhammad Yusuf was a witness to an attack carried out by the Janjaweed in the village of Shataya in 2004 and later fled to Chad.

He recalls that in June 2005, three investigators came and asked him how many people were killed in his village.

“I said 116-117, but the translator then argued that these investigators came from far places, so you must give a greater number, say 300.”

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From Aljazeera, Thu. Sep. 10, 2009 - excerpt:
Darfur groups 'padded' death tolls

A group of former Sudanese activists says some of the figures of those reported dead and displaced in the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region were exaggerated.

The former Darfur rebel activists told Al Jazeera that they increased tolls and gave false evidence during investigations conducted by delegates from foreign organisations into the conflict.

"We used to exaggerate the numbers of murders and rapes," Salah al Din Mansour, a former translator with World NGOs in Darfur, said.

"If the figure was 10, for example, we asked people to say two or three hundred."

"In case of an attack on a certain village, from the Janjawid, we used to ask them to mention the government forces with their Land Cruiser cars, in order to involve the government in the tribal clashes."

The group said they had decided to admit to their fabrications in an attempt to put an end to the crisis.

'False' testimonies

Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall said the group claimed its false testimonies also helped build a criminal case against Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
[...]
Government officials have hailed the activists' alleged confessions as vindication of their long-time denial of committing war crimes in Darfur.

"We will continue listening to these confessions with the UN, with the permanent and non-permanent members ... namely in terms of raising the awareness of the international community to the necessity to support the national efforts," Halim Abdul Mahmoud, Sudan's ambassador to the UN, said.

But Yahia Bolad, a spokesman for the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, said the people making the allegations were not a part of Sudan's resistance group and were fabricating their claims.

"Many NGOs and many international leaders visited Darfur and they concluded that there are war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the United States also labelled it as a genocide," he told Al Jazeera.

"The evidence was there. The villages were destroyed, the IDPs [internally displaced persons], the refugees - this is clear evidence."

New book by Mahmood Mamdani: 'Save Darfur' movement is not a peace movement

Copied here below are two reviews of a new book entitled Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror (Pantheon) by Mahmood Mamdani, the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University. I am copying the reviews in full because they contain points of view on the 'Save Darfur' movement.



Photo: Mahmood Mamdani was previously the dean of the faculty of social sciences at Makerere University and the founding director of the Centre for Basic Research in Kampala, Uganda. He has also taught at the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. His previous books include "Citizen and Subject," "When Victims Become Killers," "Scholars in the Marketplace" and "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim." He lives in New York City and Kampala. (sdsuniverse.info)

From The National April 03, 2009
The devil is in the details
By Wesley Yang

Mahmood Mamdani’s stemwinding book on Darfur brilliantly punctures the sanctities of the international humanitarian order – but doesn’t know where to stop,Wesley Yang writes.



Photo: A soldier in the Sudanese Liberation Army, which rebelled against the Sudanese government in Darfur, holds a bullet as he loads an aging Kalashnikov. (Benjamin Lowy/Corbis)

The international community is presently engaged in a high-stakes game of poker with the government of Sudan. At stake is the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court, the permanent sitting tribunal whose purpose is to punish those that commit the worst crimes against humanity. Also hanging in the balance are the lives of 2.5 million Darfurian refugees who have been driven from their homes by a scorched earth counter-insurgency campaign launched by the Sudanese government in response to rebel attacks in the region in 2003.

Both sides in this international stand-off have already demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice those lives for the sake of the principles they support. The Sudanese government has thrown out 13 international aid groups who provide the food and medicine necessary to sustain those refugees, under the pretext that they gathered evidence for the ICC against Sudan’s president, Omar al Bashir. The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo went ahead with the indictment in full knowledge that this was the likely consequence. He claims to be acting in the interest of justice alone, without reference to the political or humanitarian situation – and no one disputes that by arming and abetting mounted Arab proxies (later dubbed “devils on horseback” in the press) to put down a rebellion with indiscriminate violence against civilians, al Bashir violated the spirit and letter of international law (as have many rulers before him). We have a struggle for primacy between the two principles – national sovereignty and international law – that seems likely to define global politics for the rest of this century.

Providing an accurate account of these principles, and the intricate politics in which they are embedded, involves wading through self-serving and overwrought claims from both sides while weighing two genuine and incommensurable claims to legitimacy. In his new book, Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror, the distinguished Africa scholar Mahmood Mamdani does his readers the considerable service of laying waste to many of the dangerous and self-serving illusions of one side of this argument. But he erects a mirror edifice of illusions in its place; getting the story straight requires disentangling the true from the misleading in Mamdani’s account.

On one side, there are the claims of universal justice that the ICC purports to represent. The ICC is the institutional face of a growing movement seeking to make real the promise of “Never Again” inscribed into the Convention on Genocide of 1948. The ICC indictment of al Bashir was the first against a sitting head of state, and it was hailed in editorial pages across America as a great progressive advance for global justice. Even those who worried about the consequences of the indictment still placed hope in its deterrent value. The goal was to worry the minds of subsequent heads of state tempted to use mass rape and murder as a counter-insurgency tactic.

Taken on its own terms, in narrow isolation, this is a worthy and unassailable mission. But nothing exists in narrow isolation, least of all moral purity and universal justice. Such claims exist in a real world of actual politics amid complicated histories, which many Darfur activists have made it their business to elide – portraying the conflict in Darfur as what Mamdani dubs “a morality tale unfolding in a world populated by villains and victims who never trade places and so can always and easily be told apart”.

On the other side are the rights of sovereign governments to govern themselves without outside interference, which the Sudanese government and the Arab nations that have rallied to its side purport to defend. Sovereignty has been, since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the currency of the international system, and, as Mamdani reminds us, a privilege hard-won by postcolonial states only recently.

In the wake of the American misadventure in Iraq, the weird confluence of moralistic rhetoric and bellicose policy that characterised Bush’s foreign policy, the complicity of so many ostensibly liberal hawks caught up in the Iraq War fervour, and a history of one-sided enforcement of humanitarian rules, it should surprise no one that the leaders and intellectuals of formerly colonised states are wary of the claims to universal justice emanating from what Mamdani dubs the “new humanitarian order”. At this week’s Arab Summit in Doha, Arab leaders, many of them signatories to the ICC, (which the United States has refused to sign) lined up in unanimous support of al Bashir.

The human rights lobby views this emphasis on sovereignty as the first and last resort of butchers who employ anti-colonialist rhetoric to defend their crimes. Weary of the grubby compromises of diplomats and corporations willing to do business with tyrants and criminals, one faction of the human rights community calls for armed western intervention to defend helpless victims of state violence everywhere. The Save Darfur movement, an aggressive and media-savvy coalition “whose scale recalls the anti-war movement of the late 1960s and 1970s”, rose up with the intention to turn Darfur into a test case for western action to halt what it called a genocide in progress.

Mamdani devotes the first section of his book to assailing the credibility of Save Darfur. He accuses them of inflating the scale of the killing, obfuscating the reality of a “civil war” and “cycle of insurgency and counter-insurgency” that it called genocide, bombarding viewers and readers with “a pornography of violence” that removed the conflict from its political context, sustaining an impression of ongoing genocide long after the claim was plausible, portraying the conflict in racialised terms as a genocide conducted by Arabs against Africans and ceaselessly advocating for hard-line policies more likely to harm than to the help the victims they intended to save. On each of these counts, Mamdani assembles a more or less devastating case. Save Darfur publicised a figure for the number of deaths – 400,000 – that was twice as high as reliable estimates (Mamdani cites a study commissioned by the US Government Accountablity Office to this effect) and escalated its rhetoric at precisely the moment – January 2005 – when the scale of killing fell dramatically. Save Darfur have continued to clamour for aggressive action despite a humanitarian crisis that was largely stabilised due to the cooperation of the Sudanese government with aid agencies that had reduced the mortality rate to between 100 and 200 month in Darfur – “below emergency levels”, according to World Health Organisation.

Most important for Mamdani’s purpose, though, is the Save Darfur Coalition’s emphasis on the race of the perpetrators and victims: “The central claim is that perpetrators and victims in Darfur belong to two different racial groups, Arab and African and that the Arab perpetrator is evil.” Mamdani is not content to say, as he does, that Save Darfur are committed to policies that will do harm. He intends to demonstrate that they are part of a more insidious agenda written into the War on Terror. To strip Darfur of its politics serves a political project of its own, and Mamdani makes it his mission to reveal its workings – what he sees as the foundation of a post-Cold War order in which American clients and proxies act with impunity while rogue states are subject to violent discipline at the hands of the international community, with America at its head. It is a politics notable for denying that it is a politics at all and, as Mamdani narrates it, one that portends a bleak future for the inhabitants of the developing world.

In the long historical section that makes up the centre of the book, Mamdani traces the centuries-long intermingling of Arab and African identities in Darfur, and their reciprocal permeability. He also shows how these identities were politicised under the “indirect” rule practised by British colonial administrators that pursued a policy of “re-tribalisation” of the various groups that shared Darfur by assigning homelands to certain groups and denying them to others.

This backdrop allows Mamdani, in his third and final section, to return to the question with which the book opens. Since Americans are inclined to regard Africa, to the extent that they regard it at all, as a site of “meaningless anarchy – in which men, sometimes women, and increasingly, children, fight without aim or memory,” why has there been “a global publicity boom around the carnage in Darfur”?

The worst conflict since the Second World War, with a death toll of 3.9 million between 1998 and 2004, raged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the figure of “excess deaths” caused by the Iraq war likely outstrip the same numbers in Darfur. Yet only Darfur, a conflict in a remote and impoverished region without oil or other significant exportable resources has generated a lavishly funded advocacy organisation. For Mamdani, the answer is embedded in the definition of genocide itself. “Only when extreme violence targets for annihilation a civilian population that is marked off as different ‘on grounds of race, ethnicity, or religion’ is that violence termed genocide,” Mamdani observes:

“Given that colonialism shaped the very nature of modern ‘indirect rule’ and administrative power along ‘tribal’ (or ethnic) lines it is not surprising that both the exercise of power and responses to it tend to take ‘tribal’ forms in these newly independent states. From this point of view, there is little to distinguish mass violence unleashed against civilians in Congo, Northern Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, Darfur, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and so on. Which one is named ‘genocide’ and which one is not? Most important, who decides?”

The new humanitarian order is, as Mamdani describes it, “a bifurcated system whereby state sovereignty obtains in large parts of the world but is suspended in more and more countries in Africa and the Middle East,” in which subjects exchange their political rights as citizens of sovereign states for the “human” rights possessed by “wards in an open-ended international rescue operation” in a humanitarian “system of trusteeship” administered by an international community that lacks either accountability or responsibility. The world he describes he looks a lot like the world as the Palestinians under the jurisdiction of UNRWA see it, and the vision Mamdani projects of an Africa delivered piecemeal to the good intentions of the international community is a stark one.

A problem with this claim, however, is that the record of American policy in Sudan challenges it. Indeed, proponents of humanitarian intervention in Darfur make a diametrically opposite charge against the American government – that it has subordinated its interest in the cause of human rights to its desire to maintain relations with Sudanese intelligence to aid the War on Terror. Mamdani’s argument also passes over the American response to Sudan’s much longer, more brutal and more complex civil war, a two-decade conflict pitting Christians and animists from the south of the country against the Arab Islamist cabal to the north that controlled the state and the military.

It was here that al Bashir pioneered the technique of using proxy war conducted by mounted Arab warriors. And it was this conflict that first aroused activist concern among the evangelical Christian movement at the base of George W Bush’s electoral coalition.

Islamists in Sudan were waging a brutal war against the Christian coreligionists of the single most belligerent electoral constituency in American politics. If the goal of American policy was, as Mamdani alleges, to “slice Africa by demonising one group of Africans, African Arabs”, then surely the Sudanese Civil War was the perfect opportunity to carry out this agenda. But the Bush administration instead expended considerable diplomatic resources cajoling the North and the South to make peace in a negotiated settlement that Mamdani himself acknowledges as Bush’s only foreign policy accomplishment.

While there were plenty of hardline advocates for the fantasy of regime change in Sudan, the United States remained effectively committed to the stability of the Bashir regime, as the only guarantor of the peace deal it had signed, through the end of the Bush Administration.

And so, when Mamdani describes the “the responsibility to protect” as “a slogan that masks a big power agenda to recolonise Africa”, he is mistaking the fantasies of American activists for the policies of their government. He is also asserting the existence of a hidden nefarious agenda where none exists, and providing a false clarity that is the merely the obverse of the good-and-evil dichotomy of the War on Terror and the humanitarian order that he assails.

This overreaching damages the credibility of Mamdani’s powerful and incisive criticism of the international justice movement. So much of what Mamdani argues is true, and so much of it cuts against the grain of the usual coverage of Darfur in ways that are essential for the broader public to understand. And neither he, nor the rest of us, can afford to squander the opportunity to set the record straight.

Wesley Yang is a frequent contributor to The Review.

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From Philip Weiss at Mondoweiss (www.philipweiss.org)
April 06, 2009
Mamdani: 'Save Darfur' movement is not a peace movement

James North writes:

I remember Mahmood Mamdani from 35 years ago, when he was the most dynamic leader of the newly-organized union of graduate students at Harvard. Today he is a distinguished professor at Columbia, one of our most original analysts of Africa, most recently of Darfur. He is himself an African (from Uganda) of South Asian descent, and his decades of teaching and doing research all over his home continent command our interest.

His most recent work, Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror (Pantheon), is really several books in one. A large middle section covers the ethnic/tribal/political history of Darfur itself in enormous detail, and will be useful mainly to Africa specialists. But his opening segment, a brilliant dissection of the Save Darfur movement, should be read by everyone who thinks they understand what is really going on today in that area of Sudan. His conclusion is similarly indispensable, in which he raises doubts that the Western passion to pursue "justice" in places like Darfur can also promote peace.

First, the facts.

Two rebel movements in Darfur rose against the Khartoum regime in 2003, which responded over the next 2 years with murder and repression. Starting in 2005, all the experts agree, death rates there dropped dramatically. But, Mamdami notes, "The rhetoric of the Save Darfur movement in the United States escalated as the level of mortality in Darfur declined." He carefully documents that prominent people in the Darfur solidarity movement, such as the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, are chronically vague about how many died and when.

Since then, the two Darfur rebel movements have splintered into 20 factions, some of which are fighting each other, and the civil war element which was present from the start has only gotten worse. But the Darfur solidarity movement continues to see the conflict in one dimension, as "Arabs" committing "genocide" against "black Africans."

Mamdani says:

"It was a feat of imagination that required, at the least, a combination of two things: on the one hand, a worthy conviction that even the most wretched and the most distant of humans be considered a part of one’s moral universe but, on the other, a questionable political sense that the lack of precise knowledge of a far-distant place need not be reason enough to keep one from taking urgent action."

What’s more, Mamdami contends, and here the expert opinion is all on his side, that the solidarity movement’s proposals – the most prominent is to send foreign troops – will make a bad situation worse. He says pointedly:

"One needs to bear in mind that the movement to Save Darfur – like the War on Terror – is not a peace movement: it calls for a military intervention rather than political reconciliation, punishment rather than peace."

Mamdani then makes a daring and original effort to interpret the origins of the Darfur solidarity movement. He points out that Darfur protests were far bigger than demonstrations against the simultaneous U.S. war in Iraq, in which far more people were then dying. He is not entirely sure why. First he comes close to suggesting that the Save Darfur movement was a deliberate or at least a convenient way to depoliticize opposition to Iraq, especially among students. But then he suggests that Darfur may be a roundabout way for Americans to avoid Iraq:

". . . Iraq makes some Americans feel responsible and guilty. . . Darfur, in contrast, is an act not of responsibility but of philanthropy. Unlike Iraq, Darfur is a place for which Americans do not need to feel responsible but choose to take responsibility."

Whatever the explanation, Mamdani emphasizes that Save Darfur’s moral outrage interferes with a peaceful settlement. He spends more than half the book outlining the tangled ethnic, tribal, historical, regional and environmental history of the region. The reader’s head is swimming in names, but Mamdani’s central point has registered: Darfur today is extraordinarily complex, not reducible to simply "Arabs" vs. "Africans."

Toward the end of the book, Mamdani raises questions about the International Criminal Court (ICC), which last year indicted Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir for "genocide." He points out, reluctantly but realistically, that the demands of "justice" may conflict with "peace." If Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress had in the early 1990s insisted on prosecuting the responsible officials in the apartheid regime from top to bottom there would have been no peaceful settlement. Similar painful compromises and overlooking of past crimes were necessary in Mozambique and elsewhere.

He does recognize a "kernel of truth" in the International Criminal Court’s indictment, with respect to "the period of 2003-4, when Darfur was the site of mass deaths." He says, "There is no doubt that the perpetrators of this violence should be held accountable, but when and how is a political decision that cannot belong to the ICC prosecutor."

Maybe Mahmood Mamdani’s own African origins help protect him against simple-minded moralizing. He is familiar at first-hand with human rights violations; his own family was expelled from Uganda in the early 1970s by the infamous (and at first Western-backed) dictator, Idi Amin. But for him Africa is his original home, not a distant fantasyland in which to work out his psychic conflicts. He has earned our respect and considered attention.

Comments

its taken far too long for people to challenge groups like save darfur, which oppose peace in sudan.
Posted by: mohanad, April 06, 2009

Darfur, like Bosnia and Kosovo, became a neocon cause, partly, I think, to show that the U.S. would intervene to protect Muslim victims of ethnic cleansing, to defang the "clash of civilizations" dragon.
Posted by: Grumpy Old Man, April 06, 2009

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Cryptic note to self, thinking about the real story and Jim.

Sudan says ICC rumours are aimed to spoil Darfur peace talks in Doha

Why is the ICC grinding a rumour mill in the run up to, and during, the Darfur peace talks in Doha? And, more to the point, why is the ICC leaking rumours to the New York Times and Sudan Tribune? I'd like to think that maybe the aim is to flush out what the insurgents are thinking, to get a measure of their reactions and single mindedness on the removal of Sudan's President Al-Bashir at any cost.

Over the past four years or so, groups of shadowy insurgents in South Sudan, Darfur and Chad have spun the media and worked hard at discrediting African Union peacekeepers in order to get the UN onside. Now that they have the UN in Darfur, they may view the UN, USA and ICC as being on their side. Some days, I wonder if I am the only person who thinks that the USA, UN and ICC appear, perhaps unwittingly, to be acting like puppets of the forces behind the insurgency. For all we know of those dark forces, the USA, UN and ICC might find themselves playing right into the hands of Al-Qaeda who (the archives of Sudan Watch show) are entrenched in Khartoum. Where's France and Russia in amongst all of this I ask myself.

America's Eric Reeves and the New York Times and its columnist Nicholas Kristof have a lot to answer for. They and the insurgents (Sudan Tribune and savedarfurcrowd included) have made clear in their writings that they want Sudan's president removed. Why should they want the Darfur peace talks to succeed when any progress on the peace front might encourage more members of the UN Security Council to vote for any arrest warrant against Sudan's president to be suspended.

Meanwhile, the terrorists win while playing their deadly waiting game that could go on for many years. None of them seem to really care about how it is affecting the lives of millions of young children growing up in Sudan and Chad. Humanitarians and freedom fighters, my foot. Ambitious, self serving, lowlife parasites, the lot of them. If they truly cared about the children of Sudan and Chad they would have pushed with one voice for peace talks to succeed, long ago.

These days, I imagine that they are all part of the same group and strategy stemming from the civil war days in Southern Sudan in which two million Sudanese people perished. Somewhere amongst all of this is the Ugandan terrorist group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) that's managed to be on the rampage for more than 20 years. The LRA is a well-ordered fighting force, whose senior officers have been trained by Sudan, Iran and Iraq. Credit where it is due, America has done much to champion the cause of Southern Sudan and is even helping Uganda militarily against the LRA.
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Sudan dismisses Beshir ICC charge as 'rumours'
February 13, 2009 KHARTOUM (AFP):

Sudan has dismissed as "rumours" reports that its president, Omar al-Beshir, would become the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court in connection with alleged war crimes in Darfur.

The ICC had been expected to make a decision on issuing an arrest warrant as early as this month after chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in July accused Beshir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

But after The New York Times reported Wednesday that ICC judges in The Hague had decided to issue an arrest warrant for Beshir, a spokesman for the court retorted Thursday: "At this moment, there is no arrest warrant."

"When we have something to announce, we will announce it. For now, there is nothing to announce," ICC spokeswoman Laurence Blairon told AFP.

"No decision has yet been taken by the judges," the ICC later said in a statement.

"The rumours are aimed to spoil the Doha talks; that is why we don't consider them," Sudanese foreign ministry official Mutrif Siddiq told AFP, referring to Qatari-hosted talks between a Darfur rebel group and the Khartoum government.

In Doha, the head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the most active rebel group in Darfur, called on Beshir to give himself up.

"I advise Beshir to turn himself in, voluntarily," Khalil Ibrahim said, adding that he would welcome any arrest warrant for the Sudanese president.

"If Beshir does not turn himself in, no doubt, we will arrest him and hand him over to the international court," Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim, whose JEM last year launched an unprecedented but unsuccessful attack on Khartoum, said that a warrant would "not affect the peace process, neither in Darfur nor in Sudan, nor will it affect Sudan's stability."

Sudan has been seeking to garner international support to fight the accusations, with the Arab League and the African Union both saying formal ICC charges will not help the situation in Darfur.

Khartoum has also in recent weeks hosted senior officials from China and Russia, both of which have veto rights as permanent members of the UN Security Council which has the power to defer a Beshir prosecution for one year, renewable.

Thursday, the UN Security Council held an informal session with Arab League and African Union representatives who made a new pitch for a one-year deferral by the 15-member council of the ICC case against Beshir, under Article 16 of the Rome statute that created the court in 2002.

AU envoy Ramdane Lamamra pushed for the 12-month deferral, arguing that this would not undermine justice in Darfur, Japan's UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu, the council chair this month, told reporters.

Several diplomats said after the session that supporters of such an option did not have have the nine votes within the council necessary for adoption of a deferral resolution.

They said only six council members: Burkina Faso, China, Libya, Russia, Uganda and Vietnam backed a deferral.

Sudanese officials, including Beshir, have always insisted they will not cooperate with the ICC, saying that any allegations of crimes in Darfur would be dealt with in Sudanese courts.

"It's clear Sudan is not a party of the ICC. Whatever the ICC does it is not affecting us," Siddiq said, slamming the charges as "politically motivated."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged Khartoum to act "very responsibly" if an arrest warrant is issued for Beshir.

The UN chief said that whatever decision the ICC reaches, "it will be very important for President Beshir and the Sudanese government to react very responsibly and ensure the safety and security" of UN peacekeepers in Darfur and protect the human rights of the population.

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From Los Angeles Chronicle
Enough Project Report - ICC Warrant for Bashir
Newswire Services February 12, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC –

A new report by the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress explores the impact of an arrest warrant for Sudan's President on the ruling party, Darfuri rebel groups, the existing north-south peace agreement, and the international community. The decision by the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is both welcome and unsurprising given the long pattern of profound abuses in Sudan directed from the highest echelons of government.

The response of key actors in Sudan to the ICC´s move against Bashir is still obviously a work in progress, but the choices made in the coming weeks by Bashir's National Congress, or NCP, the main rebel groups in Darfur, and the Sudan People´s Liberation Movement, will have profound impact on the country's future. Understanding the calculations of these actors is fundamental to leveraging the arrest warrant into progress toward peace.

Enough Project Executive Director John Norris commented, "As we have learned from earlier indictments of Liberian President Charles Taylor and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, these charges can be a catalyst for peace — if the international community stands resolutely behind efforts to promote accountability while simultaneously pursuing a strategic approach to a peace process. The situation in Sudan is no different." Senior officials within Bashir's NCP are deeply concerned about the possibility of further charges by the ICC, and a growing fissure between Bashir´s loyalists and potentially more pragmatic elements of the NCP could lead to the president´s removal.

The international community must now fashion a firm and coordinated peace strategy conditioned on actions rather than words and policies rather than personalities. What should be clear to the international community, including the United States, is that President Bashir should be delivered to the court to face a fair trial on the charges against him. Furthermore, the international community needs to use multilateral diplomacy, well targeted pressures, and judicious incentives to bring both the NCP and Darfur's rebel groups to the negotiating table, while making a major effort to revitalize the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA, as part of a broader and more strategic peace effort for all of Sudan.

Enough Project Co-chair John Prendergast observed, "The arrest warrant for President Bashir is the potential game-changer that the Sudanese people have been waiting for, in order to shake up the deadly status quo that has led to millions of deaths in Darfur and Southern Sudan. The warrant offers the Obama administration a chance to lead multilateral efforts to bring about a solution to Sudan´s decades-long cycle of warfare. Working publicly for a peace deal for Darfur and privately for Bashir's resignation will provide the necessary international leadership that has been lacking for some time."

Note, I have highlighted text in red for future reference.
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From Christian Science Monitor
Has the ICC decided to issue an arrest warrant for Sudan’s Bashir?
By Robert Marquand, Staff writer:

PARIS – With an arrest warrant for Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir possibly days away, according to the New York Times, the UN Security Council faces a moment of truth: Will it allow the International Criminal Court (ICC) to move forward in the prosecution of the alleged “mastermind” of what ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and the US government have both called a “genocide” in Darfur?

Or, will Council members postpone the Bashir case for another 12 months on grounds that Mr. Bashir could inflict terrible revenge on international aid workers, not to mention his own people?

The Security Council, under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, can decide it is “in the best interest” for the ICC to defer the prosecution of Bashir to preserve stability and peace, which might include a fragile pact in Sudan between north and south.

“The council can come in at any time and defer,” says Mark Ellis of the International Bar Association in London, “but they would have to get all five members to agree, and I’m not sure they can.”

Whether or not judges at the ICC have fully signed off on an arrest warrant for Bashir is unclear. The New York Times published a story Thursday stating that a warrant had been issued. ICC officials insist they have not.

The Times report states flatly that “Judges at the [ICC] decided to issue an arrest warrant for [Bashir], brushing aside requests to allow more time for peace negotiations in the conflict-riddled Darfur region.”

The account prompted a storm of back and forths between the court, Sudan, the media, and the UN – whose chief, Ban Ki Moon, had a shouting match on Feb. 8 with Bashir, according to the Times. The purported arrest warrant isn’t the only issue dogging the ICC in recent days. As the Monitor is reporting today, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo is causing a stir in Israel by suggesting he may investigate alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority continues to press the court to do so – with some 200 requests. Yet such an act is widely seen as dubious in legal circles. Neither Israel nor the Gaza entity is a signatory to the ICC. To investigate Israel for the Gaza attacks, the ICC would have to recognize Gaza as a state; moreover, both the prosecutor and the court would have to agree that it has jurisdiction in Gaza by such recognition.

Regarding the Bashir case, Monitor sources and news reports suggest it is virtually certain that the three pre-trial judges at the ICC agree there is enough evidence to try Bashir on war crimes and crimes against humanity. But there may be a disagreement on the fraught charge of genocide.

Proving “genocide” in a court of law is a high hurdle, requiring proof of “specific intent.” This may in fact represent a technical reason why the ICC now claims that no arrest indictments are ready.

Le Monde correspondent Philippe Bolopion, at the UN, citing diplomats there, says the judges “upheld the first two charges but didn’t reach an agreement on the genocide indictment, more complex to prove.” Several sources told Mr. Bolopion that “the ICC judges have not officially made their decision and haven’t transmitted it to the UN yet. They haven’t even mentioned the date in which the announcement will be made public. Several sources inside the ICC confirm that the arrest warrant will be issued in the next days, presumably before the end of the month.

Ironically, perhaps, it was the UN Security Council that approved a Darfur war crimes investigation in Sudan; but members may not have suspected the ICC would go so far as to indict a sitting president. France has suggested, according to German press sources [DPA], that “the ICC should withhold the arrest warrant if al-Bashir would surrender two senior Sudanese officials charged with the killings in Darfur.”

Many other press reports in the past week have cited quotes from the Sudanese ambassador to the UN saying that the ICC arrest warrants were “expected.”

As the Monitor reported recently, the ICC began its first case at the end of January with the trail of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, charged with recruiting 30,000 child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The idea for the court emerged after the relative success of war crimes tribunals in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, with experts hoping that stronger concepts of justice would serve as a soft-power deterrent against heinous acts and genocide.

The court has since moved in fits and starts. Moreno-Ocampo made a splash last summer by indicting Bashir, but most of the ICC’s focus so far is on Congo, where little-noticed wars have claimed some 5.5 million lives. Four Congolese alleged warlords are now at The Hague; a joint trial of Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo is expected in several months.