A warm thank you to British blogger Doug at Quadrophrenia for posting lyrics Song for Sudan lyrics.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Sudan knows UN has no appetite for action - - British officials pessimistic about the international community
Excerpt from Aug 24 Scotsman New atrocities in Sudan as UN deadline looms:
"British officials and human rights groups are pessimistic that the international community will have the courage to face down the Sudanese government", says the Scotsman. "A senior British official travelling with Mr Straw said he sensed a "slackening of will among international partners" over imposing harsh sanctions on Sudan if it fails to meet the deadline. He said that Britain would prefer a "graduated" response to avoid splitting the Security Council: "If you were to drive ahead like a bull at a gate and end up with a split in the Security Council, that would work to the advantage of hard-liners in the Sudanese government."
Jemera Rone, who has just returned to the Washington office of Human Rights Watch after a trip to Darfur, said the group had evidence of a catalogue of incidents which had taken place after the Sudanese government had promised to comply with the UN. Those included rapes, attacks on villages and the involvement of government troops. "There has been some bombing. From what we could see attacks on villages are continuing. There were many, many incidents of looting and women are being raped when they go into government-controlled areas," she said. And she was highly critical of suggestions from Mr Pronk that Khartoum should be given more time and that refugees should be confined to secure areas. "The Jan Pronk plan gives them yet more time to fool around doing nothing. The idea of safe havens is abhorrent. We want the ethnic cleansing to be reversed but they are talking about making the safe havens permanent. The international community is looking to the Sudanese government to protect the people it has driven from their homes."
- - -
Aug 24: Copy of letter to Prime Minister of Canada from leaders of Canadian churches urging Canada to take a stand and act boldly on Darfur.
- - -
Aug 18: Families on the Fringe Dalih, North Darfur: More than 7,000 people have been camped in the tiny village of Dalih, 3 km outside Tawila in North Darfur since February. They are living in some of the most miserable conditions seen anywhere in the world, squatting in school buildings and abandoned huts or living in rudimentary shelters clustered together near the schools. Maurice Herson, a senior humanitarian manager for Oxfam UK who recently visited Dalih explains:
“Their shelters are nothing more than bits of dried thorny shrubs that have been heaped – almost as if by the wind – into little circles and semicircles."
"One of these piles of twigs and sticks has a diameter of about a metre and a half, with a few tattered pieces of faded, dirty cloth stretched across one side to provide some relief from the sun."
"Five families live in this space. They told me that the women and children crowd inside at night to sleep, while the men sleep outside in the space between the shelters."
“Some of the other families I met had been given plastic sheeting by another aid agency. But as they don’t have anything to attach it to the wind blows it away so they simply huddle underneath it when it rains.”
“What I saw in Dalih is human misery more or less at its worst. My heart goes out to the elderly people in particular. This is a sad way to move towards the end of your life.” [Full Story]
"British officials and human rights groups are pessimistic that the international community will have the courage to face down the Sudanese government", says the Scotsman. "A senior British official travelling with Mr Straw said he sensed a "slackening of will among international partners" over imposing harsh sanctions on Sudan if it fails to meet the deadline. He said that Britain would prefer a "graduated" response to avoid splitting the Security Council: "If you were to drive ahead like a bull at a gate and end up with a split in the Security Council, that would work to the advantage of hard-liners in the Sudanese government."
Jemera Rone, who has just returned to the Washington office of Human Rights Watch after a trip to Darfur, said the group had evidence of a catalogue of incidents which had taken place after the Sudanese government had promised to comply with the UN. Those included rapes, attacks on villages and the involvement of government troops. "There has been some bombing. From what we could see attacks on villages are continuing. There were many, many incidents of looting and women are being raped when they go into government-controlled areas," she said. And she was highly critical of suggestions from Mr Pronk that Khartoum should be given more time and that refugees should be confined to secure areas. "The Jan Pronk plan gives them yet more time to fool around doing nothing. The idea of safe havens is abhorrent. We want the ethnic cleansing to be reversed but they are talking about making the safe havens permanent. The international community is looking to the Sudanese government to protect the people it has driven from their homes."
- - -
Aug 24: Copy of letter to Prime Minister of Canada from leaders of Canadian churches urging Canada to take a stand and act boldly on Darfur.
- - -
Aug 18: Families on the Fringe Dalih, North Darfur: More than 7,000 people have been camped in the tiny village of Dalih, 3 km outside Tawila in North Darfur since February. They are living in some of the most miserable conditions seen anywhere in the world, squatting in school buildings and abandoned huts or living in rudimentary shelters clustered together near the schools. Maurice Herson, a senior humanitarian manager for Oxfam UK who recently visited Dalih explains:
“Their shelters are nothing more than bits of dried thorny shrubs that have been heaped – almost as if by the wind – into little circles and semicircles."
"One of these piles of twigs and sticks has a diameter of about a metre and a half, with a few tattered pieces of faded, dirty cloth stretched across one side to provide some relief from the sun."
"Five families live in this space. They told me that the women and children crowd inside at night to sleep, while the men sleep outside in the space between the shelters."
“Some of the other families I met had been given plastic sheeting by another aid agency. But as they don’t have anything to attach it to the wind blows it away so they simply huddle underneath it when it rains.”
“What I saw in Dalih is human misery more or less at its worst. My heart goes out to the elderly people in particular. This is a sad way to move towards the end of your life.” [Full Story]
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
SUDAN: WHY NOT IMPOSE AN OIL EMBARGO? Chinese FM discusses Sudan with US, Russian, French counterparts
Unless Sudan is credibly threatened with painful sanctions, such as an oil embargo, the Sudanese government will make no serious attempt to ease the plight of its black African citizens, Britain's Economist magazine wrote earlier this month. An oil embargo is the only punishment that would make a real difference, diplomats say. The following is a report, copied here in full, from the Washington Post re sanctions, dated August 24, 2004:
China, India, Malaysia and some European countries are dramatically expanding business ties with Sudan, taking advantage of U.S. sanctions that bar American companies from operating here, local officials and foreign diplomats say. Companies from those countries — some of which are at least partially state-owned — are investing billions of dollars and working closely with the Khartoum government with little concern about its role in recent mass killings in Sudan's Darfur region, Western diplomats say. "They couldn't care less how many people are dying in Darfur — that's not how they conduct their policies," one senior diplomat said. "Everyone has an agenda here. Sudan has oil, gold and a major port on the Red Sea."
These companies also are replacing old American technology sold before the sanctions, which were imposed unilaterally by Washington in stages during the 1990s to punish Khartoum for its support of terrorism and human rights abuses, the diplomats say. "Most of the cotton-gin machinery here is American, but they can't get spare parts. So Chinese companies provide inferior — but nevertheless suitable — replacement parts," another senior Western diplomat said.
"They are also starting to replace those machines. They are signing contracts for $20 million — and it's not only the sales, but the subsequent business of supplying parts for the machines," he said. "So the Chinese are beginning to take this piece of the market away from the Americans."
Chinese companies also are building oil refineries, pipelines and production facilities. Officials in Beijing have boasted that they helped Sudan change from an importer to exporter of oil. U.S. companies traditionally had been among the most active foreign investors in Sudan. Their fortunes, however, worsened when relations between the two countries began to deteriorate after the 1991 Gulf war, during which a fundamentalist Islamic government in Khartoum supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
In the early- and mid-1990s, Sudan provided refuge to some of the world's most-wanted terrorists and criminals, including Osama bin Laden, Carlos the Jackal and Abu Nidal. Because of its support for those and other extremists, it was blacklisted by the State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993.
In 1996, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum was closed, and a year later, Washington imposed economic, trade and financial sanctions. The embassy reopened last year, but with only a skeleton staff.
The United States succeeded on July 30 in passing a U.N. Security Council resolution giving Sudan 30 days to rein in and start disarming the Janjaweed Arab militias responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees in Darfur.
At the end of that period, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to report to the council on the government's actions. A negative report will open to door to measures against Khartoum, such as diplomatic, economic and travel sanctions.
But hardly anyone expects those actions to come close to the severity of the U.S. sanctions, which means they will have no effect on most of the foreign companies' business. An oil embargo is the only punishment that would make a real difference, diplomats say.
"Unless it is credibly threatened with painful sanctions, such as an oil embargo, the Sudanese government will make no serious attempt to ease the plight of its black African citizens," Britain's Economist magazine wrote earlier this month.
China, a permanent Security Council member, is not likely to vote for an oil embargo or any other meaningful sanctions, council diplomats said.
"The best we can hope for from the Chinese is an abstention," one diplomat said.
Chinese officials, when accused by the West of turning a blind eye to Sudan's human rights abuses, say, unlike the United States, they separate politics from business.
However, that rule seems not to apply to countries that recognize Taiwan's independence, Western diplomats point out. Beijing considers the island part of China and turns its back on states that differ.
In addition, Beijing, whose own human rights record often is criticized, maintains that punishing Sudan economically would be interfering in its internal affairs. China is Sudan's largest trading partner, according to the CIA World Factbook, followed by Japan, Saudi Arabia, India, Britain and Germany.
Although the Europeans are more likely to support the United States, they have been slow to respond to the Darfur crisis with any specific and credible threats. Several European airlines have regular flights to Sudan, and European companies are investing in a variety of sectors.
A German businessman, whose company hopes to build a new airport in Sudan, said during a recent Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt that shortage of money has never been an issue. The Sudanese "may be slow in doing almost everything, but they are always on time when it comes to paying their bills," he said.
U.S. trade sanctions have given trademark regulations in Sudan a whole new meaning. The leading hotel in Khartoum uses the Hilton name and logo even though it is not part of the well-known chain.
A little more creativity has been used to exploit the popularity of American food brands. Fast-food restaurants with the McDonald's golden arches in front bear the name Lucky Meal. Pizza Hut has been replaced by Pizza Hot.
The Sudanese are not likely to experience the real thing again anytime soon, as a change of U.S. policy is nowhere in sight. "Sudan is a state sponsor of terrorism, and Congress has mandated that there should be sanctions," a senior State Department official said.
- - -
CHINESE FM DISCUSSES SUDAN WITH US, RUSSIAN, FRENCH COUNTERPARTS
Here is a copy, in full, of a China News report:
BEIJING, Aug 23, 2004 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing talked over phone with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier on Monday night, respectively.
Li exchanged views with his three counterparts on the Darfur crisis in Sudan. All parties agreed in the conversation that their delegates to the United Nations will keep contacts and coordinate with each other on the issue.
Li and Lavrov said that they will make well preparation for Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming China visit and the ninth meeting between premiers of the two countries in a bid to ensure the visit and the meeting to bear active fruits.
Li and Barnier agreed to continue to promote Sino-French cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and science, and make joint efforts in the preparatory work for French President Jacques Chirac's China visit in fall.
During Li's phone talks with Powell, Powell briefed Li on the latest development of the case of Chinese businesswoman Zhao Yan and reiterated that the US side will promptly and properly handle the case."
- - -
AUGUST 25 IS SUDAN DAY OF CONSCIENCE
MeetUps being held across America
Today, August 25 in America is Sudan Day of Conscience. MeetUps for Sudan peace supporters are taking place across America.
To join in the effort, I have published several posts at Passion of the Present, sharing news of UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's visit to Khartoum, the British Government's policy on Sudan and what others are saying. Also to mark the day, the posts will appear in this blog.
- - -
SONG FOR SUDAN
Read the lyrics here
Warm thanks to Doug at Quadrophrenia for posting the lyrics of Song for Sudan.
- - -
Aug 18 : Families on the Fringe - Dalih, North Darfur:
More than 7,000 people have been camped in the tiny village of Dalih, 3 km outside Tawila in North Darfur since February. They are living in some of the most miserable conditions seen anywhere in the world, squatting in school buildings and abandoned huts or living in rudimentary shelters clustered together near the schools.
Maurice Herson, a senior humanitarian manager for Oxfam UK who recently visited Dalih explains:
“Their shelters are nothing more than bits of dried thorny shrubs that have been heaped – almost as if by the wind – into little circles and semicircles."
"One of these piles of twigs and sticks has a diameter of about a metre and a half, with a few tattered pieces of faded, dirty cloth stretched across one side to provide some relief from the sun."
"Five families live in this space. They told me that the women and children crowd inside at night to sleep, while the men sleep outside in the space between the shelters."
“Some of the other families I met had been given plastic sheeting by another aid agency. But as they don’t have anything to attach it to the wind blows it away so they simply huddle underneath it when it rains.”
“What I saw in Dalih is human misery more or less at its worst. My heart goes out to the elderly people in particular. This is a sad way to move towards the end of your life.” [Full Story]
- - -
Aug 24: Copy of letter to Prime Minister of Canada from leaders of Canadian churches urging Canada to take a stand and act boldly on Darfur.
China, India, Malaysia and some European countries are dramatically expanding business ties with Sudan, taking advantage of U.S. sanctions that bar American companies from operating here, local officials and foreign diplomats say. Companies from those countries — some of which are at least partially state-owned — are investing billions of dollars and working closely with the Khartoum government with little concern about its role in recent mass killings in Sudan's Darfur region, Western diplomats say. "They couldn't care less how many people are dying in Darfur — that's not how they conduct their policies," one senior diplomat said. "Everyone has an agenda here. Sudan has oil, gold and a major port on the Red Sea."
These companies also are replacing old American technology sold before the sanctions, which were imposed unilaterally by Washington in stages during the 1990s to punish Khartoum for its support of terrorism and human rights abuses, the diplomats say. "Most of the cotton-gin machinery here is American, but they can't get spare parts. So Chinese companies provide inferior — but nevertheless suitable — replacement parts," another senior Western diplomat said.
"They are also starting to replace those machines. They are signing contracts for $20 million — and it's not only the sales, but the subsequent business of supplying parts for the machines," he said. "So the Chinese are beginning to take this piece of the market away from the Americans."
Chinese companies also are building oil refineries, pipelines and production facilities. Officials in Beijing have boasted that they helped Sudan change from an importer to exporter of oil. U.S. companies traditionally had been among the most active foreign investors in Sudan. Their fortunes, however, worsened when relations between the two countries began to deteriorate after the 1991 Gulf war, during which a fundamentalist Islamic government in Khartoum supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
In the early- and mid-1990s, Sudan provided refuge to some of the world's most-wanted terrorists and criminals, including Osama bin Laden, Carlos the Jackal and Abu Nidal. Because of its support for those and other extremists, it was blacklisted by the State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993.
In 1996, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum was closed, and a year later, Washington imposed economic, trade and financial sanctions. The embassy reopened last year, but with only a skeleton staff.
The United States succeeded on July 30 in passing a U.N. Security Council resolution giving Sudan 30 days to rein in and start disarming the Janjaweed Arab militias responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees in Darfur.
At the end of that period, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to report to the council on the government's actions. A negative report will open to door to measures against Khartoum, such as diplomatic, economic and travel sanctions.
But hardly anyone expects those actions to come close to the severity of the U.S. sanctions, which means they will have no effect on most of the foreign companies' business. An oil embargo is the only punishment that would make a real difference, diplomats say.
"Unless it is credibly threatened with painful sanctions, such as an oil embargo, the Sudanese government will make no serious attempt to ease the plight of its black African citizens," Britain's Economist magazine wrote earlier this month.
China, a permanent Security Council member, is not likely to vote for an oil embargo or any other meaningful sanctions, council diplomats said.
"The best we can hope for from the Chinese is an abstention," one diplomat said.
Chinese officials, when accused by the West of turning a blind eye to Sudan's human rights abuses, say, unlike the United States, they separate politics from business.
However, that rule seems not to apply to countries that recognize Taiwan's independence, Western diplomats point out. Beijing considers the island part of China and turns its back on states that differ.
In addition, Beijing, whose own human rights record often is criticized, maintains that punishing Sudan economically would be interfering in its internal affairs. China is Sudan's largest trading partner, according to the CIA World Factbook, followed by Japan, Saudi Arabia, India, Britain and Germany.
Although the Europeans are more likely to support the United States, they have been slow to respond to the Darfur crisis with any specific and credible threats. Several European airlines have regular flights to Sudan, and European companies are investing in a variety of sectors.
A German businessman, whose company hopes to build a new airport in Sudan, said during a recent Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt that shortage of money has never been an issue. The Sudanese "may be slow in doing almost everything, but they are always on time when it comes to paying their bills," he said.
U.S. trade sanctions have given trademark regulations in Sudan a whole new meaning. The leading hotel in Khartoum uses the Hilton name and logo even though it is not part of the well-known chain.
A little more creativity has been used to exploit the popularity of American food brands. Fast-food restaurants with the McDonald's golden arches in front bear the name Lucky Meal. Pizza Hut has been replaced by Pizza Hot.
The Sudanese are not likely to experience the real thing again anytime soon, as a change of U.S. policy is nowhere in sight. "Sudan is a state sponsor of terrorism, and Congress has mandated that there should be sanctions," a senior State Department official said.
- - -
CHINESE FM DISCUSSES SUDAN WITH US, RUSSIAN, FRENCH COUNTERPARTS
Here is a copy, in full, of a China News report:
BEIJING, Aug 23, 2004 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing talked over phone with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier on Monday night, respectively.
Li exchanged views with his three counterparts on the Darfur crisis in Sudan. All parties agreed in the conversation that their delegates to the United Nations will keep contacts and coordinate with each other on the issue.
Li and Lavrov said that they will make well preparation for Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming China visit and the ninth meeting between premiers of the two countries in a bid to ensure the visit and the meeting to bear active fruits.
Li and Barnier agreed to continue to promote Sino-French cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and science, and make joint efforts in the preparatory work for French President Jacques Chirac's China visit in fall.
During Li's phone talks with Powell, Powell briefed Li on the latest development of the case of Chinese businesswoman Zhao Yan and reiterated that the US side will promptly and properly handle the case."
- - -
AUGUST 25 IS SUDAN DAY OF CONSCIENCE
MeetUps being held across America
Today, August 25 in America is Sudan Day of Conscience. MeetUps for Sudan peace supporters are taking place across America.
To join in the effort, I have published several posts at Passion of the Present, sharing news of UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's visit to Khartoum, the British Government's policy on Sudan and what others are saying. Also to mark the day, the posts will appear in this blog.
- - -
SONG FOR SUDAN
Read the lyrics here
Warm thanks to Doug at Quadrophrenia for posting the lyrics of Song for Sudan.
- - -
Aug 18 : Families on the Fringe - Dalih, North Darfur:
More than 7,000 people have been camped in the tiny village of Dalih, 3 km outside Tawila in North Darfur since February. They are living in some of the most miserable conditions seen anywhere in the world, squatting in school buildings and abandoned huts or living in rudimentary shelters clustered together near the schools.
Maurice Herson, a senior humanitarian manager for Oxfam UK who recently visited Dalih explains:
“Their shelters are nothing more than bits of dried thorny shrubs that have been heaped – almost as if by the wind – into little circles and semicircles."
"One of these piles of twigs and sticks has a diameter of about a metre and a half, with a few tattered pieces of faded, dirty cloth stretched across one side to provide some relief from the sun."
"Five families live in this space. They told me that the women and children crowd inside at night to sleep, while the men sleep outside in the space between the shelters."
“Some of the other families I met had been given plastic sheeting by another aid agency. But as they don’t have anything to attach it to the wind blows it away so they simply huddle underneath it when it rains.”
“What I saw in Dalih is human misery more or less at its worst. My heart goes out to the elderly people in particular. This is a sad way to move towards the end of your life.” [Full Story]
- - -
Aug 24: Copy of letter to Prime Minister of Canada from leaders of Canadian churches urging Canada to take a stand and act boldly on Darfur.
Monday, August 23, 2004
British Government behind African troops - Britain stands ready to provide further assistance if necessary
Sudan is a former British protectorate. Britain is the world's largest cash donor, and the second-largest contributor of aid, to Sudan. It's historic ties with Sudan stretch back more than a century to when the region was under British control.
Today, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is on his way to Sudan to pile pressure on Khartoum. On leaving Heathrow Airport, he told reporters that the Sudanese government would "face the opprobrium of the world" if it failed to rein in the Arab Janjaweed militia by the UN security council deadline of August 30. His trip has been planned since July 22, 2004.
Mr Straw will be making clear to the Sudanese government that it needs to do much more to help the victims of the Darfur conflict, the Foreign Office said. He will also be impressing on the Sudanese the need for them to do more to improve the country's security situation.
The point of the trip is “to impress on the government of Sudan how seriously the international community takes this, to make his own first-hand assessment of the situation and to feed that back to Kofi Annan and others”.
The British government, which is providing logistical support for African troops protecting monitoring mission in Darfur, is pushing for a bigger commitment from the African Union. It is particularly keen for troops to be sent from Arab north Africa, which would be more acceptable to Sudan's Arabic-speaking government.
Senior Foreign Office officials said that over the weekend Mr Straw spoke by telephone to Mr Annan, as well as the United Nations’ special representative in Sudan Jan Pronk, and several senior ministers in countries bordering Sudan.
Speaking before his departure Mr Straw said his fact-finding mission would feed into UN deliberations on Sudan. "I am keen to see for myself the situation on the ground in Darfur, and to make clear to the Sudanese government and people the extent of British, and broader international, concern," he said.
"UN security council resolution 1556 sets out the steps that the Sudanese government must now take to deal with the crisis. I will discuss with President Bashir and others exactly how they plan to do this."
"In preparation for the visit I have spoken among others with UN secretary general Kofi Annan, President Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Kagame of Rwanda." "During and after my visit I shall be liaising closely with President Obasanjo who is holding preliminary peace talks in Abuja starting Monday."
"I shall provide a full read-out to Kofi Annan as a contribution to his pending report to the security council."
Also, before his departure, Mr Straw confirmed that the British Government was providing logistical support to Nigerian troops who are protecting a monitoring mission in Sudan. “We are providing the air transport and all the rations for the Nigerian troops,” he said.
He had told the leaders of neighbouring Nigeria and Rwanda, which are both involved in the monitoring mission, that Britain stood ready “to provide further assistance if necessary”. “The key here is international solidarity and consensus," he said.
He also insisted that, despite UN security council divisions over Sudan, there was "an emerging consensus about the imperative need for the government of Sudan to relieve the humanitarian crisis, to provide for the safety of the displaced persons and to make sure there is an effective political process".
On arriving in Khartoum this evening, Mr Straw will hold talks with vice-president Osman Mohamed Taha and foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail. After visiting Abu Shouk, one of the biggest refugee camps in Darfur, tomorrow, he will return to the Sudanese capital for further talks with the foreign minister, Mr Pronk, and on Wednesday Sudan’s president Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir. His visit is expected to last three days.
Downing Street said the foreign secretary would be taking a "clear message" that the government of Sudan must do more to meet its obligations under the UN security council resolution.
UK responses: "This is the moment when the international community has to show that it means business if we are not to see another Rwanda," said Michael Ancram.
The shadow foreign secretary said a UN-mandated force should be sent into Darfur to safeguard security.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat spokesman Tom Brake said the "time for quiet diplomacy is over". "The foreign secretary must request details of how many militiamen have been disarmed and charged, and how the Sudanese authorities intend honouring their pledge to bring a halt to the ethnic cleansing in Darfur," he said.
Amnesty International also warned that the foreign secretary must confront the Sudanese government head on. The human rights group's UK director, Kate Allen, said: "Jack Straw must use this critical opportunity to make it starkly clear to the Sudanese government that the international community will not tolerate continuing atrocities in Darfur. "Mr Straw's message should be that rape, torture and murder absolutely must be stopped and that perpetrators need to be brought to justice. "It is action that is needed now, not denials or empty promises."
- - -
The UN estimates that the conflict has affected 1.5 million people in Darfur itself, and another 200,000 in nearby Chad.
British officials believe that is "a conservative estimate".
- - -
Further UK reports:
Aug 23 report by BBC on fresh peace talks being held today in Nigeria between rebels and GoS to try to end the conflict in Darfur. Opening the meeting, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, current head of the African Union, said: "We are gathered here today to put our heads together, to rub minds together because as far as we are concerned in Africa, part of one of our houses is on fire."
Aug 23 report by BBC re Militia chief denies Darfur atrocities. One-eyed and dressed in traditional white, flowing gowns, Ahmed Khalil Sheet, an Arab militia leader in Darfur admits that his tribe was armed by GoS to fight SLA and JEM.
Aug 23 special report by Guardian UK on how Darfur poses an early test for African Union.
Update - Aug 23 BBC report: Is Darfur the new Rwanda? "In Sudan, if you have African groups and Arab militias, you certainly have ethnic groups, and if one is trying to exterminate the other, then arguably you have genocide" - Barrister John Jones
See Passion of the Present for the latest major developments on the Sudan.
Today, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is on his way to Sudan to pile pressure on Khartoum. On leaving Heathrow Airport, he told reporters that the Sudanese government would "face the opprobrium of the world" if it failed to rein in the Arab Janjaweed militia by the UN security council deadline of August 30. His trip has been planned since July 22, 2004.
Mr Straw will be making clear to the Sudanese government that it needs to do much more to help the victims of the Darfur conflict, the Foreign Office said. He will also be impressing on the Sudanese the need for them to do more to improve the country's security situation.
The point of the trip is “to impress on the government of Sudan how seriously the international community takes this, to make his own first-hand assessment of the situation and to feed that back to Kofi Annan and others”.
The British government, which is providing logistical support for African troops protecting monitoring mission in Darfur, is pushing for a bigger commitment from the African Union. It is particularly keen for troops to be sent from Arab north Africa, which would be more acceptable to Sudan's Arabic-speaking government.
Senior Foreign Office officials said that over the weekend Mr Straw spoke by telephone to Mr Annan, as well as the United Nations’ special representative in Sudan Jan Pronk, and several senior ministers in countries bordering Sudan.
Speaking before his departure Mr Straw said his fact-finding mission would feed into UN deliberations on Sudan. "I am keen to see for myself the situation on the ground in Darfur, and to make clear to the Sudanese government and people the extent of British, and broader international, concern," he said.
"UN security council resolution 1556 sets out the steps that the Sudanese government must now take to deal with the crisis. I will discuss with President Bashir and others exactly how they plan to do this."
"In preparation for the visit I have spoken among others with UN secretary general Kofi Annan, President Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Kagame of Rwanda." "During and after my visit I shall be liaising closely with President Obasanjo who is holding preliminary peace talks in Abuja starting Monday."
"I shall provide a full read-out to Kofi Annan as a contribution to his pending report to the security council."
Also, before his departure, Mr Straw confirmed that the British Government was providing logistical support to Nigerian troops who are protecting a monitoring mission in Sudan. “We are providing the air transport and all the rations for the Nigerian troops,” he said.
He had told the leaders of neighbouring Nigeria and Rwanda, which are both involved in the monitoring mission, that Britain stood ready “to provide further assistance if necessary”. “The key here is international solidarity and consensus," he said.
He also insisted that, despite UN security council divisions over Sudan, there was "an emerging consensus about the imperative need for the government of Sudan to relieve the humanitarian crisis, to provide for the safety of the displaced persons and to make sure there is an effective political process".
On arriving in Khartoum this evening, Mr Straw will hold talks with vice-president Osman Mohamed Taha and foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail. After visiting Abu Shouk, one of the biggest refugee camps in Darfur, tomorrow, he will return to the Sudanese capital for further talks with the foreign minister, Mr Pronk, and on Wednesday Sudan’s president Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir. His visit is expected to last three days.
Downing Street said the foreign secretary would be taking a "clear message" that the government of Sudan must do more to meet its obligations under the UN security council resolution.
UK responses: "This is the moment when the international community has to show that it means business if we are not to see another Rwanda," said Michael Ancram.
The shadow foreign secretary said a UN-mandated force should be sent into Darfur to safeguard security.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat spokesman Tom Brake said the "time for quiet diplomacy is over". "The foreign secretary must request details of how many militiamen have been disarmed and charged, and how the Sudanese authorities intend honouring their pledge to bring a halt to the ethnic cleansing in Darfur," he said.
Amnesty International also warned that the foreign secretary must confront the Sudanese government head on. The human rights group's UK director, Kate Allen, said: "Jack Straw must use this critical opportunity to make it starkly clear to the Sudanese government that the international community will not tolerate continuing atrocities in Darfur. "Mr Straw's message should be that rape, torture and murder absolutely must be stopped and that perpetrators need to be brought to justice. "It is action that is needed now, not denials or empty promises."
- - -
The UN estimates that the conflict has affected 1.5 million people in Darfur itself, and another 200,000 in nearby Chad.
British officials believe that is "a conservative estimate".
- - -
Further UK reports:
Aug 23 report by BBC on fresh peace talks being held today in Nigeria between rebels and GoS to try to end the conflict in Darfur. Opening the meeting, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, current head of the African Union, said: "We are gathered here today to put our heads together, to rub minds together because as far as we are concerned in Africa, part of one of our houses is on fire."
Aug 23 report by BBC re Militia chief denies Darfur atrocities. One-eyed and dressed in traditional white, flowing gowns, Ahmed Khalil Sheet, an Arab militia leader in Darfur admits that his tribe was armed by GoS to fight SLA and JEM.
Aug 23 special report by Guardian UK on how Darfur poses an early test for African Union.
Update - Aug 23 BBC report: Is Darfur the new Rwanda? "In Sudan, if you have African groups and Arab militias, you certainly have ethnic groups, and if one is trying to exterminate the other, then arguably you have genocide" - Barrister John Jones
See Passion of the Present for the latest major developments on the Sudan.
Sunday, August 22, 2004
'You are slaves, die like slaves' - Darfur refugees tell of Janjaweed killing spree
August 22, 2004, report by Kim Sengupta in Nyala, Darfur, copied here in full:
There is little left in Silaya except burnt-out huts and a row of graves in the fields beyond, the only reminders of one of the worst atrocities of the savage conflict in Darfur.
On 30 July, three weeks after the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, announced that he had reached agreement with the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, on ending the violence, the village came under sustained and murderous attack from government troops and their Janjaweed allies. Under a UN resolution, Sudan has until the end of the month to meet a set of conditions aimed at alleviating what the UN calls "the worst humanitarian disaster in the world".
This week, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, the latest international dignitary to visit the country, will tell President Bashir that his failure to disarm the Janjaweed remains the most serious unfulfilled obligation of the UN terms. However, the British government is expected to agree with Mr Annan that Khartoum has made efforts to rein in the terror unleashed on African villages and established "safe" areas, even though another 35,000 refugees, fleeing fresh attacks, are threatening to cross into neighbouring Chad. About 200,000 Sudanese are already filling camps to capacity there.
The Sudanese government, some argue, should be given more time. But the people of Silaya, in south Darfur, have a far different experience of the government. More than 100 people were killed in one raid. Most of them were shot, but 32 were tied up and burned alive. Twenty-five young women and girls were taken away; the bodies of some were found later. Also discovered were the remains of many who had fled the onslaught but were pursued and slaughtered.
Survivors say that the raiders had specific, targeted victims whom they hunted down and set alight - teachers, clerics and those who had returned after further education in the cities. In some cases, other members of the family were shot while one person was dragged off for burning.
Picking off the educated few in the rural areas is not a new practice. Influential figures in the Islamist administration and the military blame them for organising opposition to the government, and those taught in the past by foreigners are suspected of imbibing non-Muslim beliefs. Priests in African villages are particularly blamed for not using their influence to condemn the rebels.
Many of those who did manage to escape from Silaya had ended up in Muhajariya, an enclave south-east of Nyala, the capital of south Darfur, which is controlled by two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement.
They are among 50,000 refugees driven into the area after government troops and their Arab militia allies burned an arc of villages around Muhajariya. The rebels, who have sparse resources and little aid coming in from the international agencies, now have to look after these dispossessed as well as their own fighters.
Commander Abdul Majid of the SLA said: "The attacks on the civilians are part of a military campaign. This war is not just against the SLA or JEM but against the people of Darfur. They are following a scorched-earth policy. They are burning the villages and driving the people into our area because, that way, they can finish off both the fighters and the civilians."
Babikir Ali, from Silaya, described how the village was attacked. "It was in the morning," he said. "We first had two helicopters which were flying very low. They fired from the air and hit some of the huts. Then we had troops in Land Cruisers, and the Janjaweed on horses and camels. They shot a lot of people before catching some others, putting them together and setting them on fire. It was a terrible, terrible thing."
"One of them was my brother," said Bahir Hashim al-Bakr. "He was a schoolteacher. When they arrested him, he was in the classroom. There were about 12 children hiding under tables and crying. They were all shot. They were looking for the educated people, the leaders we had. They're the ones who were being burned. I've heard about this happening at many places, but it is the first time I saw such a thing with my own eyes."
Yahir Ali, 33, recalled: "They were carrying matches and they set fire to people. Some others they threw back into the burning huts. They were shooting at everything and shouting 'Zurghas' [a pejorative term for blacks] and they were laughing, 'You are slaves, die like slaves'. My aunt was killed. She was an old woman and she had fallen. This man stood over her and just shot her."
The refugees at Muhajariya were not aware of the minutiae of the UN resolution or the machinations of the big powers. Asked whether they felt the government had made the situation safe for them, Babikir Ali smiled bitterly. "We are a problem. If we go back to our village, the Janjaweed will come again and kill off the rest of us. Then there is no longer a problem. Maybe that is what the outside world wants."
[Note to readers: apologies unable to credit source of report - misplaced link - will insert later if found]
There is little left in Silaya except burnt-out huts and a row of graves in the fields beyond, the only reminders of one of the worst atrocities of the savage conflict in Darfur.
On 30 July, three weeks after the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, announced that he had reached agreement with the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, on ending the violence, the village came under sustained and murderous attack from government troops and their Janjaweed allies. Under a UN resolution, Sudan has until the end of the month to meet a set of conditions aimed at alleviating what the UN calls "the worst humanitarian disaster in the world".
This week, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, the latest international dignitary to visit the country, will tell President Bashir that his failure to disarm the Janjaweed remains the most serious unfulfilled obligation of the UN terms. However, the British government is expected to agree with Mr Annan that Khartoum has made efforts to rein in the terror unleashed on African villages and established "safe" areas, even though another 35,000 refugees, fleeing fresh attacks, are threatening to cross into neighbouring Chad. About 200,000 Sudanese are already filling camps to capacity there.
The Sudanese government, some argue, should be given more time. But the people of Silaya, in south Darfur, have a far different experience of the government. More than 100 people were killed in one raid. Most of them were shot, but 32 were tied up and burned alive. Twenty-five young women and girls were taken away; the bodies of some were found later. Also discovered were the remains of many who had fled the onslaught but were pursued and slaughtered.
Survivors say that the raiders had specific, targeted victims whom they hunted down and set alight - teachers, clerics and those who had returned after further education in the cities. In some cases, other members of the family were shot while one person was dragged off for burning.
Picking off the educated few in the rural areas is not a new practice. Influential figures in the Islamist administration and the military blame them for organising opposition to the government, and those taught in the past by foreigners are suspected of imbibing non-Muslim beliefs. Priests in African villages are particularly blamed for not using their influence to condemn the rebels.
Many of those who did manage to escape from Silaya had ended up in Muhajariya, an enclave south-east of Nyala, the capital of south Darfur, which is controlled by two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement.
They are among 50,000 refugees driven into the area after government troops and their Arab militia allies burned an arc of villages around Muhajariya. The rebels, who have sparse resources and little aid coming in from the international agencies, now have to look after these dispossessed as well as their own fighters.
Commander Abdul Majid of the SLA said: "The attacks on the civilians are part of a military campaign. This war is not just against the SLA or JEM but against the people of Darfur. They are following a scorched-earth policy. They are burning the villages and driving the people into our area because, that way, they can finish off both the fighters and the civilians."
Babikir Ali, from Silaya, described how the village was attacked. "It was in the morning," he said. "We first had two helicopters which were flying very low. They fired from the air and hit some of the huts. Then we had troops in Land Cruisers, and the Janjaweed on horses and camels. They shot a lot of people before catching some others, putting them together and setting them on fire. It was a terrible, terrible thing."
"One of them was my brother," said Bahir Hashim al-Bakr. "He was a schoolteacher. When they arrested him, he was in the classroom. There were about 12 children hiding under tables and crying. They were all shot. They were looking for the educated people, the leaders we had. They're the ones who were being burned. I've heard about this happening at many places, but it is the first time I saw such a thing with my own eyes."
Yahir Ali, 33, recalled: "They were carrying matches and they set fire to people. Some others they threw back into the burning huts. They were shooting at everything and shouting 'Zurghas' [a pejorative term for blacks] and they were laughing, 'You are slaves, die like slaves'. My aunt was killed. She was an old woman and she had fallen. This man stood over her and just shot her."
The refugees at Muhajariya were not aware of the minutiae of the UN resolution or the machinations of the big powers. Asked whether they felt the government had made the situation safe for them, Babikir Ali smiled bitterly. "We are a problem. If we go back to our village, the Janjaweed will come again and kill off the rest of us. Then there is no longer a problem. Maybe that is what the outside world wants."
[Note to readers: apologies unable to credit source of report - misplaced link - will insert later if found]
Janjaweed Leader Moussa Hilal - interview with UK Telegraph and IslamOnline.net
Tribal leader accused over Darfur says he was acting for government
Aug 22: UK Telegraph news report by Philip Sherwell in Khartoum, copied here in full:
The sheikh accused by the United States of co-ordinating Janjaweed militiamen has admitted that he was "appointed" by Sudan's government to recruit Arab tribesmen to "defend their land".
In an interview with The Telegraph, Musa Hilal scorned calls for his arrest on the eve of this week's visit to Sudan by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and the United Nations' deadline for Sudan to begin its promised crackdown on the Janjaweed.
"I don't care what my enemies say about me," he said, jabbing his finger. "I have no concerns about being arrested. I don't think the Sudanese government would be stupid enough to take that decision."
Mr Hilal has been identified by the US State Department as the most senior of seven Janjaweed leaders allegedly responsible for the ethnic cleansing conducted against predominantly black African villagers by Arab militiamen in the province of Darfur.
Mr Hilal, 43, a tall man who has three wives and 13 children and leads a tribe of more than 200,000 people, denies the accusation. He was not an "agent" of the government, he said, but acknowledged allegations that the Khartoum government was using the camel and horse-riding Arab militia to suppress the rebellion.
"I am one of the tribal leaders responsible for collecting people for military service for the country," he said, claiming that he organised his followers to defend themselves against Darfurian rebels.
"I was appointed by the government to organise people to defend their lands but legally, not illegally. They were defending themselves against the mutineers."
Mr Straw will reinforce international pressure on Sudan's government when he arrives in Khartoum tomorrow for meetings with President Omar al-Bashir and other high-ranking leaders.
A British official said: "He will reiterate the need for Sudan to live up to its promises. They will be told very clearly that the world is not going to forget what is going on in Darfur." However, a senior aide to Mr Straw added that there was little appetite at the UN to follow through immediately on the threat of sanctions after the August 30 deadline imposed on Sudan.
Sudan's government told the UN on Thursday that it will provide a list next week of Janjaweed fighters it "controls". Although UN officials regard this as a significant concession after the Sudanese authorities spent months denying ties to the militia, they are waiting to see whether the list features the "big names".
If Sudan does fulfil its pledge to bring militia leaders to justice, Mr Hilal - whose name is regularly mentioned in the accounts of victims of Janjaweed fighters and militia defectors - is likely to be among its most prominent targets. But for now, he appears to feel no threat from the government, after taking a prominent role in crushing last year's rebellion in Darfur.
As if to prove that he has nothing to fear from the UN either, he chose to meet me in a British colonial-era hotel on the banks of the Blue Nile, which is also the base for Jan Pronk, the UN special envoy responsible for assessing Sudan's response to ending the terror.
Mr Hilal batted away UN figures showing that at least one million people had fled their homes in the last year of attacks, murders and rapes. "This is all propaganda from enemies of Sudan, particularly in the West," he said. "The number of displaced is much less."
He also claimed that many refugees had chosen to flee their villages to improve their lives. "They find water and education and financial assistance in the camps that are not available in their villages," he said. His claim bears no relation to the reality of life in the teeming and miserable camps across Darfur.
Mr Hilal said that he and other tribal leaders had stepped in to defend their lands against the Darfur rebels because the Khartoum government had not deployed its own troops in sufficient numbers. The men he recruited, he said, joined the police and the paramilitary Popular Defence Force, an Islamic militia created by the government to fight alongside its regular forces.
Mr Hilal's name also appears frequently in leaked state documents obtained by Human Rights Watch, the New York-based pressure group that has chronicled links between the militia and the government.
But Mr Hilal, dressed in a white turban and green robe, became angry when asked if he belongs to the Janjaweed. "I am not Janjaweed. The Janjaweed are bandits, like the mutineers. It is we who are fighting the Janjaweed," he declared.
Al-Zahwi Ibrahim Mailek, the information minister, said that it was for the country's judiciary, who do not have a reputation for independence, to decide on any legal action against Mr Hilal. "If anyone has evidence against Musa Hilal, let them bring it before us," he said. "But we cannot just arrest people because of unproven claims."
While Mr Hilal was giving his version of events in the riverside hotel, Mr Pronk was upstairs holding meetings in the reception rooms which serve as his offices.
He told The Telegraph that Sudan's government must show that its new security orders are being imposed on the ground. "I see political progress but I do not yet see that being translated into changes in Darfur," he said.
Mr Pronk, who will deliver his initial report in a week's time, said that although there had been fewer militia attacks this month, villagers were continuing to abandon their homes. "They are still fleeing because they still have reason to be afraid," he said. "One million people don't flee for nothing."
- - -
Janjaweed Leader For Disarming "All Warring Parties"
KHARTOUM, August 4 (IslamOnline.net) – The leader of the Arab militias accused by Washington of being responsible for atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur said Tuesday, August 3, he is willing to lay down arms should all other warring parties do the same in compliance with the latest UN Security Council Resolution.
The latest UN Security Council Resolution concerning disarmament in Darfur should include all armed militias in the restive region, Janjaweed leader Moussa Hilal said In an exclusive interview with IslamOnline.net.
“If disarmament is not all-encompassing, no body will care,” he told IOL. “It makes no sense to disarm and leave us all by ourselves facing bloody revenge sprees and ethnic cleansing.”
He was referring to a provision in the UNSC resolution, which condemned “all acts of violence and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties to the crisis, in particular by the Janjaweed, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, rapes, forced displacements, and acts of violence especially those with an ethnic dimension”.
The UNSC threatened Sudan with punitive measures if it failed to rein in the Arab militias within one month.
More than 10,000 people are said to have died in Darfur since the revolt against the government broke out among indigenous ethnic minorities in February 2003.
The United Nations has labeled the 16-month-old conflict as the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, amid mixed reports putting the number of people killed at 10,000 to 50,000 and over one million forced to flee their homes.
Western media and countries alleged that systematic ethnic cleansing and mass rapes were taking place in the 125,000-square miles Darfur - almost the size of the United Kingdom.
But Dr. Hussein Gezairy, Regional Director of World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, July 29, that the situation in the restive area did not amount to genocide or ethnic cleansing as claimed.
On Monday, August 2, The Guardian reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair is making the case for a "colonial war" against Sudan because of its growing oil reserves, as there are no signs of highly-touted claims of genocide in the Arab country.
“If disarmament is not all-encompassing, no body will care,” Hilal said.
Hilal said rebels in Darfur are misleading the United States and the UNSC by making "much fuss about nothing".
“I warn that Sudan will be another quagmire for the US whose intelligence services had misled them into an Iraqi swamp that badly tarnished the US image in the eyes of the peoples of the region and left its interests vulnerable,” he warned.
Hilal categorically denied responsibility for acts of violence in Darfur, including arsons and mass rapes, saying they are mere calumnies fabricated by the rebels.
He particularly blamed the Justice and Equality Movement for blemishing his reputation, asserting that its leaders tried to forge an alliance with him to defeat the government forces.
“I don’t mind them taking any action against me, but it should be based on fair investigation and counts of an independent fact-finding commission.
“I’m pretty sure that a fair trial will do justice to me and redeem my reputation,” he added.
Hilal also called for holding a reconciliation conference brining together the leaders of all tribes in Darfur to realize peace for the welfare of all Darfuris, Arabs and Africans alike.
“We only stick to our right to existence…We have been here for hundreds of years and reject any solution to the crisis that ignores our rights as it will end up with creating another [John] Garang,” the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail had warned that the Sudanese army would fight back if foreign troops are sent to end the conflict in the Darfur region.
"If we are attacked, we will not sit silent," Ismail had said during a visit to Turkey last month.
The main rebel groups in Darfur walked out from the African Union-mediated peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, insisting their demands must be met before they would start negotiating with Khartoum .
Hilal further said that the Arabs in Darfur have taken the brunt of the crisis.
“The rebellion is implementing a political agenda aimed at driving us out of our homeland to break away from Sudan and establish a state in the west with no Arab population,” Hilal told IOL.
“Since 1980s, the rebels have been circulating flyers calling for expelling us and liberating Sudan from the Arabs as well they have launched systematic marauding campaigns, but our pleas fell on deaf ears.”
He said the successive governments, including the incumbent, “ignored our pressing warnings and left us facing the African militias against sepulchral silence from the international community”.
Asked why Arab Darfuris did not resort to makeshift camps, Hilal said the Arabs feel it is dishonor to leave their women and families sustain on foreign aid.
“It hurts our pride, so the men are responsible for providing for them in hard times,” he said.
Hilal also denied that he was battling the African militias in cahoots with the government.
“We have only joined the civil defense corps since the start of confrontations between the government and the rebels to defend Darfur,” he said, noting that some 3,000 of Arab Darfuris had enrolled in the army in 2003.
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-08/04/article01.shtml
Aug 22: UK Telegraph news report by Philip Sherwell in Khartoum, copied here in full:
The sheikh accused by the United States of co-ordinating Janjaweed militiamen has admitted that he was "appointed" by Sudan's government to recruit Arab tribesmen to "defend their land".
In an interview with The Telegraph, Musa Hilal scorned calls for his arrest on the eve of this week's visit to Sudan by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and the United Nations' deadline for Sudan to begin its promised crackdown on the Janjaweed.
"I don't care what my enemies say about me," he said, jabbing his finger. "I have no concerns about being arrested. I don't think the Sudanese government would be stupid enough to take that decision."
Mr Hilal has been identified by the US State Department as the most senior of seven Janjaweed leaders allegedly responsible for the ethnic cleansing conducted against predominantly black African villagers by Arab militiamen in the province of Darfur.
Mr Hilal, 43, a tall man who has three wives and 13 children and leads a tribe of more than 200,000 people, denies the accusation. He was not an "agent" of the government, he said, but acknowledged allegations that the Khartoum government was using the camel and horse-riding Arab militia to suppress the rebellion.
"I am one of the tribal leaders responsible for collecting people for military service for the country," he said, claiming that he organised his followers to defend themselves against Darfurian rebels.
"I was appointed by the government to organise people to defend their lands but legally, not illegally. They were defending themselves against the mutineers."
Mr Straw will reinforce international pressure on Sudan's government when he arrives in Khartoum tomorrow for meetings with President Omar al-Bashir and other high-ranking leaders.
A British official said: "He will reiterate the need for Sudan to live up to its promises. They will be told very clearly that the world is not going to forget what is going on in Darfur." However, a senior aide to Mr Straw added that there was little appetite at the UN to follow through immediately on the threat of sanctions after the August 30 deadline imposed on Sudan.
Sudan's government told the UN on Thursday that it will provide a list next week of Janjaweed fighters it "controls". Although UN officials regard this as a significant concession after the Sudanese authorities spent months denying ties to the militia, they are waiting to see whether the list features the "big names".
If Sudan does fulfil its pledge to bring militia leaders to justice, Mr Hilal - whose name is regularly mentioned in the accounts of victims of Janjaweed fighters and militia defectors - is likely to be among its most prominent targets. But for now, he appears to feel no threat from the government, after taking a prominent role in crushing last year's rebellion in Darfur.
As if to prove that he has nothing to fear from the UN either, he chose to meet me in a British colonial-era hotel on the banks of the Blue Nile, which is also the base for Jan Pronk, the UN special envoy responsible for assessing Sudan's response to ending the terror.
Mr Hilal batted away UN figures showing that at least one million people had fled their homes in the last year of attacks, murders and rapes. "This is all propaganda from enemies of Sudan, particularly in the West," he said. "The number of displaced is much less."
He also claimed that many refugees had chosen to flee their villages to improve their lives. "They find water and education and financial assistance in the camps that are not available in their villages," he said. His claim bears no relation to the reality of life in the teeming and miserable camps across Darfur.
Mr Hilal said that he and other tribal leaders had stepped in to defend their lands against the Darfur rebels because the Khartoum government had not deployed its own troops in sufficient numbers. The men he recruited, he said, joined the police and the paramilitary Popular Defence Force, an Islamic militia created by the government to fight alongside its regular forces.
Mr Hilal's name also appears frequently in leaked state documents obtained by Human Rights Watch, the New York-based pressure group that has chronicled links between the militia and the government.
But Mr Hilal, dressed in a white turban and green robe, became angry when asked if he belongs to the Janjaweed. "I am not Janjaweed. The Janjaweed are bandits, like the mutineers. It is we who are fighting the Janjaweed," he declared.
Al-Zahwi Ibrahim Mailek, the information minister, said that it was for the country's judiciary, who do not have a reputation for independence, to decide on any legal action against Mr Hilal. "If anyone has evidence against Musa Hilal, let them bring it before us," he said. "But we cannot just arrest people because of unproven claims."
While Mr Hilal was giving his version of events in the riverside hotel, Mr Pronk was upstairs holding meetings in the reception rooms which serve as his offices.
He told The Telegraph that Sudan's government must show that its new security orders are being imposed on the ground. "I see political progress but I do not yet see that being translated into changes in Darfur," he said.
Mr Pronk, who will deliver his initial report in a week's time, said that although there had been fewer militia attacks this month, villagers were continuing to abandon their homes. "They are still fleeing because they still have reason to be afraid," he said. "One million people don't flee for nothing."
- - -
Janjaweed Leader For Disarming "All Warring Parties"
KHARTOUM, August 4 (IslamOnline.net) – The leader of the Arab militias accused by Washington of being responsible for atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur said Tuesday, August 3, he is willing to lay down arms should all other warring parties do the same in compliance with the latest UN Security Council Resolution.
The latest UN Security Council Resolution concerning disarmament in Darfur should include all armed militias in the restive region, Janjaweed leader Moussa Hilal said In an exclusive interview with IslamOnline.net.
“If disarmament is not all-encompassing, no body will care,” he told IOL. “It makes no sense to disarm and leave us all by ourselves facing bloody revenge sprees and ethnic cleansing.”
He was referring to a provision in the UNSC resolution, which condemned “all acts of violence and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties to the crisis, in particular by the Janjaweed, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, rapes, forced displacements, and acts of violence especially those with an ethnic dimension”.
The UNSC threatened Sudan with punitive measures if it failed to rein in the Arab militias within one month.
More than 10,000 people are said to have died in Darfur since the revolt against the government broke out among indigenous ethnic minorities in February 2003.
The United Nations has labeled the 16-month-old conflict as the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, amid mixed reports putting the number of people killed at 10,000 to 50,000 and over one million forced to flee their homes.
Western media and countries alleged that systematic ethnic cleansing and mass rapes were taking place in the 125,000-square miles Darfur - almost the size of the United Kingdom.
But Dr. Hussein Gezairy, Regional Director of World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, July 29, that the situation in the restive area did not amount to genocide or ethnic cleansing as claimed.
On Monday, August 2, The Guardian reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair is making the case for a "colonial war" against Sudan because of its growing oil reserves, as there are no signs of highly-touted claims of genocide in the Arab country.
“If disarmament is not all-encompassing, no body will care,” Hilal said.
Hilal said rebels in Darfur are misleading the United States and the UNSC by making "much fuss about nothing".
“I warn that Sudan will be another quagmire for the US whose intelligence services had misled them into an Iraqi swamp that badly tarnished the US image in the eyes of the peoples of the region and left its interests vulnerable,” he warned.
Hilal categorically denied responsibility for acts of violence in Darfur, including arsons and mass rapes, saying they are mere calumnies fabricated by the rebels.
He particularly blamed the Justice and Equality Movement for blemishing his reputation, asserting that its leaders tried to forge an alliance with him to defeat the government forces.
“I don’t mind them taking any action against me, but it should be based on fair investigation and counts of an independent fact-finding commission.
“I’m pretty sure that a fair trial will do justice to me and redeem my reputation,” he added.
Hilal also called for holding a reconciliation conference brining together the leaders of all tribes in Darfur to realize peace for the welfare of all Darfuris, Arabs and Africans alike.
“We only stick to our right to existence…We have been here for hundreds of years and reject any solution to the crisis that ignores our rights as it will end up with creating another [John] Garang,” the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail had warned that the Sudanese army would fight back if foreign troops are sent to end the conflict in the Darfur region.
"If we are attacked, we will not sit silent," Ismail had said during a visit to Turkey last month.
The main rebel groups in Darfur walked out from the African Union-mediated peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, insisting their demands must be met before they would start negotiating with Khartoum .
Hilal further said that the Arabs in Darfur have taken the brunt of the crisis.
“The rebellion is implementing a political agenda aimed at driving us out of our homeland to break away from Sudan and establish a state in the west with no Arab population,” Hilal told IOL.
“Since 1980s, the rebels have been circulating flyers calling for expelling us and liberating Sudan from the Arabs as well they have launched systematic marauding campaigns, but our pleas fell on deaf ears.”
He said the successive governments, including the incumbent, “ignored our pressing warnings and left us facing the African militias against sepulchral silence from the international community”.
Asked why Arab Darfuris did not resort to makeshift camps, Hilal said the Arabs feel it is dishonor to leave their women and families sustain on foreign aid.
“It hurts our pride, so the men are responsible for providing for them in hard times,” he said.
Hilal also denied that he was battling the African militias in cahoots with the government.
“We have only joined the civil defense corps since the start of confrontations between the government and the rebels to defend Darfur,” he said, noting that some 3,000 of Arab Darfuris had enrolled in the army in 2003.
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-08/04/article01.shtml
Genocide, what genocide?
For the record I am copying here in full a report by Steve Crawshaw, published in the Financial Times August 21, 2004, entitled "Genocide, what genocide?"
At last, the world has focused its attention on the catastrophe of western Sudan. A United Nations Security Council resolution has set a deadline for the end of this month for the Khartoum government to take action against the murderous Janjaweed militias. In recent weeks, stories from western Sudan have filled the newspapers, and have regularly led the television news. Any readers and viewers who are interested in foreign affairs - and many who are not - now recognise the name of Darfur.
The Sudanese denials of responsibility remain as disingenuous as they have been from the start. Eyewitness testimonies in Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports had already demonstrated the extent to which the Janjaweed and the government forces have worked hand in glove. Government planes bombed villages alongside the Janjaweed's campaign of burning and killing. More recently, HRW last month published documents confirming the direct (if still denied) links between Khartoum and the Janjaweed.
Editorial writers have rightly pointed to the need for fire prevention, not just arriving at the last moment in an attempt to douse the blaze. On this occasion, however, it was not just a matter of failing to prevent. Media and governments alike refused to take any notice of what was happening - long after the lethal conflagration had begun.
There was much editorial soul-searching in April over the failures to chronicle the Rwandan genocide that had taken place 10 years earlier, in 1994. That soul-searching was, however, accompanied by an almost complete disregard for the crimes against humanity that were being committed in Darfur at the very same time. Channel 4 News broadcast a film by the independent filmmaker Philip Cox in February - but that was in the midst of almost complete silence. The Financial Times, in its editorial on the Rwandan anniversary on April 7, made a reference to Darfur. But few others regarded the story of ongoing mass killings as worth more than the very briefest of mentions.
Even when the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, used his Rwanda anniversary speech on April 7 to address the subject, few newspapers took much notice. A colleague noted: "The international media don't seem to send reporters to cover genocides. They cover genocide anniversaries."
It was a depressing experience, to put it mildly, to talk to editors and reporters and to email our Darfur reports all around the world only to find that, although nobody denied the horror (how could they? - the facts were well documented, and UN officials had spoken out), few believed that the tragedy needed highlighting. Other human-rights and humanitarian NGOs in this country and elsewhere had identical experiences. The logic - rarely explicit, but implied - seemed to be: "If this were as important a story as you claim, others would be writing about it. Since they're not writing about it, it's not a big story."
None of this, of course was, new - especially in Africa. In 1984, the Ethiopian famine was not "news" for many months until Michael Buerk made it so, with a single powerful report for the BBC about "the closest thing to hell on earth". In 1994, the Rwandan genocide was not deemed to be news until the worst of the slaughter was already over. And now, in 2004, we have seen the process repeated, all over again.
Paradoxically, it was the attempted suppression of a story about Darfur that allowed many news editors to treat it as a serious news story for the first time. A campaign of rape, ethnic cleansing and murder did not, apparently, count as news. But the suppression in late April of an internal UN report that confirmed the known facts was news. The censors, in short, gave the subject publicity.
Just a few years ago, I was foreign-news editor on a paper that prides itself on taking foreign news seriously. I asked myself whether I would have reacted in the same way. Depressingly, I must assume that the answer is yes. When it comes to mass killings of civilians, a curious Catch-22 comes into play. If editors do not see the story on TV, they do not believe it's news; if programme makers do not read it in the newspapers, they do not believe it's news. And if politicians and officials don't see or read it except in reports thudding on to their desks from human-rights and humanitarian NGOs, then that doesn't quite count, either. "Make my phone ring," one senior US official told my colleague Alison Des Forges, when she tried to persuade the Clinton administration to take notice of the ongoing slaughter in Rwanda in early 1994. Until the story is on the front pages, the phones will not, of course, ring.
In Darfur, as in Rwanda, the failures were dire. Editors refused to think about Darfur, at a time when many thousands of lives could still have been saved. It is possible that the terrible failures of recent months may act as a wake-up call in the future. But it is difficult to feel confident of such a rosy scenario.
Steve Crawshaw is London director of Human Rights Watch and a former foreign-news editor at The Independent.
At last, the world has focused its attention on the catastrophe of western Sudan. A United Nations Security Council resolution has set a deadline for the end of this month for the Khartoum government to take action against the murderous Janjaweed militias. In recent weeks, stories from western Sudan have filled the newspapers, and have regularly led the television news. Any readers and viewers who are interested in foreign affairs - and many who are not - now recognise the name of Darfur.
The Sudanese denials of responsibility remain as disingenuous as they have been from the start. Eyewitness testimonies in Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports had already demonstrated the extent to which the Janjaweed and the government forces have worked hand in glove. Government planes bombed villages alongside the Janjaweed's campaign of burning and killing. More recently, HRW last month published documents confirming the direct (if still denied) links between Khartoum and the Janjaweed.
Editorial writers have rightly pointed to the need for fire prevention, not just arriving at the last moment in an attempt to douse the blaze. On this occasion, however, it was not just a matter of failing to prevent. Media and governments alike refused to take any notice of what was happening - long after the lethal conflagration had begun.
There was much editorial soul-searching in April over the failures to chronicle the Rwandan genocide that had taken place 10 years earlier, in 1994. That soul-searching was, however, accompanied by an almost complete disregard for the crimes against humanity that were being committed in Darfur at the very same time. Channel 4 News broadcast a film by the independent filmmaker Philip Cox in February - but that was in the midst of almost complete silence. The Financial Times, in its editorial on the Rwandan anniversary on April 7, made a reference to Darfur. But few others regarded the story of ongoing mass killings as worth more than the very briefest of mentions.
Even when the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, used his Rwanda anniversary speech on April 7 to address the subject, few newspapers took much notice. A colleague noted: "The international media don't seem to send reporters to cover genocides. They cover genocide anniversaries."
It was a depressing experience, to put it mildly, to talk to editors and reporters and to email our Darfur reports all around the world only to find that, although nobody denied the horror (how could they? - the facts were well documented, and UN officials had spoken out), few believed that the tragedy needed highlighting. Other human-rights and humanitarian NGOs in this country and elsewhere had identical experiences. The logic - rarely explicit, but implied - seemed to be: "If this were as important a story as you claim, others would be writing about it. Since they're not writing about it, it's not a big story."
None of this, of course was, new - especially in Africa. In 1984, the Ethiopian famine was not "news" for many months until Michael Buerk made it so, with a single powerful report for the BBC about "the closest thing to hell on earth". In 1994, the Rwandan genocide was not deemed to be news until the worst of the slaughter was already over. And now, in 2004, we have seen the process repeated, all over again.
Paradoxically, it was the attempted suppression of a story about Darfur that allowed many news editors to treat it as a serious news story for the first time. A campaign of rape, ethnic cleansing and murder did not, apparently, count as news. But the suppression in late April of an internal UN report that confirmed the known facts was news. The censors, in short, gave the subject publicity.
Just a few years ago, I was foreign-news editor on a paper that prides itself on taking foreign news seriously. I asked myself whether I would have reacted in the same way. Depressingly, I must assume that the answer is yes. When it comes to mass killings of civilians, a curious Catch-22 comes into play. If editors do not see the story on TV, they do not believe it's news; if programme makers do not read it in the newspapers, they do not believe it's news. And if politicians and officials don't see or read it except in reports thudding on to their desks from human-rights and humanitarian NGOs, then that doesn't quite count, either. "Make my phone ring," one senior US official told my colleague Alison Des Forges, when she tried to persuade the Clinton administration to take notice of the ongoing slaughter in Rwanda in early 1994. Until the story is on the front pages, the phones will not, of course, ring.
In Darfur, as in Rwanda, the failures were dire. Editors refused to think about Darfur, at a time when many thousands of lives could still have been saved. It is possible that the terrible failures of recent months may act as a wake-up call in the future. But it is difficult to feel confident of such a rosy scenario.
Steve Crawshaw is London director of Human Rights Watch and a former foreign-news editor at The Independent.
Africa - A scar on the conscience of the world
August 21, 2004, Independent UK news report copied here in full:
Three years ago, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to the world to heal the wounds of Africa. As Foreign Secretary Jack Straw prepares to fly to the Sudan tomorrow, the continent is still riven by strife, war and famine.
"The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world. But if the world as a community focused on it, we could heal it. And if we don't, it will become deeper and angrier" - Tony Blair, 2 October 2001.
IVORY COAST: REBELLION
What is going on? The country, which produces 40 per cent of the world's cocoa, is effectively split between north and south following a rebellion two years ago by Muslim northerners over national identity and land ownership.
What is Britain doing to help? Britain is taking a low profile with no direct aid. The African Union, is attempting to organize elections in October to end the standoff.
What is the solution? No signs of early resolution to stalemate
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: WAR
What is going on? Sporadic fighting continues despite 2002 peace agreement. Congolese Tutsi rebel soldiers occupied eastern town of Bukavu for a week in June
What is Britain doing to help? Britain backs the UN peacekeeping mission and is also pressing Uganda and Rwanda to end any involvement, which they deny
What is the solution? Conflict expected to continue
ZIMBABWE: TYRANNY/FAMINE
What is going on? Political crackdown continues ahead of elections next year
What is Britain doing to help? Britain hopes South Africa will intercede with President Mugabe to resolve standoff
What is the solution? Stalemate will only be removed when Mugabe leaves power - quietly, it is hoped
SUDAN: ETHNIC CLEANSING/FAMINE
What is going on? Rebellion in Darfur provoked government crackdown leaving 1.2 million homeless and 50,000 dead
What is Britain doing to help? Largest single cash donor having provided £63m in humanitarian aid. Backs African Union efforts and UN
What is the solution? No easy answer. Sanctions could prove disastrous
UGANDA: REBELLION/AIDS
What is going on? Mystical Lord's Resistance army has terrorised northern Uganda for years with vicious campaign that has forced 1.5 million people from their homes
What is Britain doing to help? Britain has supported President Museveni with £740m in development aid since he came to power
What is the solution? Negotiations with Sudan-based leader Joseph Kony doomed to failure, miltary solution seems inevitable
RWANDA: ETHNIC STRIFE
What is going on? Rwanda continues to deny Congolese accusations that it has its soldiers in Congo in violation of a peace agreement. Ethnic tensions in Rwanda still strong after 1994 genocide.
What is Britain doing to help? UK is largest single donor, providing nearly £33m last year. But government rejects calls to use aid to pressure President Kagame
What is the solution? Peace in Rwanda depends on solution for Congo
BURUNDI: CIVIL WAR
What is going on? 160 Tutsis were the victims last week of low level civil war
What is Britain doing to help? Britain is stepping up aid with £8m budgeted for 2004-5. UN just set up political mission
What is the solution? Solution depends on settlement in DR Congo
- - -
On the trail of the killers who harvest child body parts for muti medicine
21 August 2004, Independent UK news report by Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent, copied here in full:
They first hit 10-year-old Sello Chokoe with a blunt instrument, causing a gash on his head. They then chopped off his penis, his hand and his ear. They were harvesting his body parts for "muti" - the murderous practice of traditional African medicine
Yet it is far from a normal part of such medicine. "In my many years of service in the South African police, I have not encountered this sadistic taking of a young innocent life," said police inspector Mohlahla Moshane as he led us to the spot.
The murder site is a few kilometres away from Sello's village, Moletjie, in northern Limpopo province. There stands a distinct and lonely hill in a vast grass and shrub veld.
The unsuspecting Sello was lured to the spot after being asked to look for a neighbour's donkeys. After a carefully planned ambush, his killers wedged him between the two large rocks to performed their macabre ceremony.
Sello seems to have dragged himself from the rocks where he had been abandoned. A woman collecting firewood found him and he was taken to hospital, but died a few days later. He was buried last Sunday in his fear-wracked village.
The practice of muti provides a disconcerting counterpoint to the contemporary image of the new South Africa. Dr Gerard Lubschagne, who heads the investigative psychology unit of the South African police service, conservatively estimates lives lost to ritual murders at between 50 to 300 every year. "We don't have accurate figures because most murders here are recorded in our records as murders irrespective of motive," he says. "Most people might also not regard a murder as a muti matter but just dismiss it as the work of some crazy killers."
Dr Lubschagne admits the rate of murders signals a very worrying trend in South Africa. Despite South Africa being the most developed African economy, a huge chunk of its population still believes power and wealth are better stoked by witch-doctors than stockbrokers and market analysts. "People who want to do better, people who want to be promoted at work, gamblers and politicians who want to win and even bank robbers who seek to get away with their criminal acts turn to muti," Dr Lubschagne said.
How the body parts are used varies with what customers want to achieve. They are eaten, drunk or smeared over the ambitious person. Various parts are used for different purposes. A man who had difficulty in producing children killed a father of several children and used his victim's genitals for muti. In another case, a butcher used a severed human hand to slap each of his products every morning before opening as a way of invoking the spirits to beckon customers.
Mathews Mojela is the head teacher at Sello's primary school. He has worked in rural areas for nearly a quarter of a century and says muti is founded in the archaic belief that there is only a limited amount of good luck around. If one wants to increase his wealth or luck, then it should come at another's expense.
The screaming of a child while his body parts are being chopped off is also regarded as a sign calling customers to the perpetrator's business, Mr Mojolela said. It is also believed that magical powers are awakened by the screams. Eating or burying the body parts "capture" the desired results. Robert Thornton, an anthropology professor at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg , who has done research in traditional healing, says children like Sello are targeted because it is believed that the power of the virgin is greater than that of a sexually active adult.
The main motivating idea is what Professor Thorntorn describes as "symbolic logic", the idea that another person's penis will strengthen the perpetrator's, or that the perpetrator's far-sightedness will be improved by devouring the victim's eyes. Blood is thought to increase vitality.
Professor Issack Niehaus of the University of Pretoria fears that muti killings will increase as the inequalities of wealth become more entrenched. He said: "I would expect the occult economy - that is the belief in using magical means to gain prosperity - to increase as poverty worsens."
At the spot where Sello was murdered, Inspector Mashane said "A young kid is carefully lured into this bush and mutilated without any witnesses. If he survives, perhaps he is the only person who could help identify his killers."
One of the few victims who lived to tell his story was Jeffery Mkhonto, who six years ago was mutilated by an organised gang set to harvest body parts. He had been lured to the house of a neighbour for food and ended up being castrated.
Dr Lubschagne says muti killings are difficult to investigate because there is no clear relationship between perpetrator and victim. Yet other reports have also suggested that the muti victim is often known to the perpetrators and is easily lured and murdered in the process. Communities themselves are often too afraid to come forward with evidence because of fears of a magical retaliation.
At Sello's homestead, even the elders were too afraid to point any fingers directly at a neighbour, a traditional healer, although many villagers implicated him in Sello's murder in muffled tones. The neighbour had allegedly sent Sello to fetch his donkeys without Sello's mother's permission. Peter Kagbi, who is in his late sixties, was questioned for four days by the police over Sello's murder before being released pending further investigations. Mr Kgabi confirmed that he had sent Sello to fetch the donkeys, but he denied taking part in the murder.
He said he saw nothing wrong in sending Sello without the mother's permission as he had done that on similar errands before, a point hotly disputed by the boy's family. Mr Kgabi said he had been threatened by the community and told they planned to burn him alive because he was a wizard.
"Some are accusing me of killing Sello but I did not," he said. "I have not fled my home despite the threats because if I do, the community will regard that as an admission of guilt."
Even the eventual capture and conviction of Sello's killers would do little for his brokenhearted single mother, Salome, 39, who lives with her two remaining children on a £15 a month social grant from the government.
"Anything that does not bring back my son is hardly of any importance to me now. No mother wants to lose a child this way," she said.
Her emotional state will not be helped when she learns that Sello's body parts probably were sold for no more than £200 each, the price normally charged for a child's body parts in the muti industry.
- - -
This blog is dedicated to Dr James Moore [more later -- this weblog is in the process of being set up]
Three years ago, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to the world to heal the wounds of Africa. As Foreign Secretary Jack Straw prepares to fly to the Sudan tomorrow, the continent is still riven by strife, war and famine.
"The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world. But if the world as a community focused on it, we could heal it. And if we don't, it will become deeper and angrier" - Tony Blair, 2 October 2001.
IVORY COAST: REBELLION
What is going on? The country, which produces 40 per cent of the world's cocoa, is effectively split between north and south following a rebellion two years ago by Muslim northerners over national identity and land ownership.
What is Britain doing to help? Britain is taking a low profile with no direct aid. The African Union, is attempting to organize elections in October to end the standoff.
What is the solution? No signs of early resolution to stalemate
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: WAR
What is going on? Sporadic fighting continues despite 2002 peace agreement. Congolese Tutsi rebel soldiers occupied eastern town of Bukavu for a week in June
What is Britain doing to help? Britain backs the UN peacekeeping mission and is also pressing Uganda and Rwanda to end any involvement, which they deny
What is the solution? Conflict expected to continue
ZIMBABWE: TYRANNY/FAMINE
What is going on? Political crackdown continues ahead of elections next year
What is Britain doing to help? Britain hopes South Africa will intercede with President Mugabe to resolve standoff
What is the solution? Stalemate will only be removed when Mugabe leaves power - quietly, it is hoped
SUDAN: ETHNIC CLEANSING/FAMINE
What is going on? Rebellion in Darfur provoked government crackdown leaving 1.2 million homeless and 50,000 dead
What is Britain doing to help? Largest single cash donor having provided £63m in humanitarian aid. Backs African Union efforts and UN
What is the solution? No easy answer. Sanctions could prove disastrous
UGANDA: REBELLION/AIDS
What is going on? Mystical Lord's Resistance army has terrorised northern Uganda for years with vicious campaign that has forced 1.5 million people from their homes
What is Britain doing to help? Britain has supported President Museveni with £740m in development aid since he came to power
What is the solution? Negotiations with Sudan-based leader Joseph Kony doomed to failure, miltary solution seems inevitable
RWANDA: ETHNIC STRIFE
What is going on? Rwanda continues to deny Congolese accusations that it has its soldiers in Congo in violation of a peace agreement. Ethnic tensions in Rwanda still strong after 1994 genocide.
What is Britain doing to help? UK is largest single donor, providing nearly £33m last year. But government rejects calls to use aid to pressure President Kagame
What is the solution? Peace in Rwanda depends on solution for Congo
BURUNDI: CIVIL WAR
What is going on? 160 Tutsis were the victims last week of low level civil war
What is Britain doing to help? Britain is stepping up aid with £8m budgeted for 2004-5. UN just set up political mission
What is the solution? Solution depends on settlement in DR Congo
- - -
On the trail of the killers who harvest child body parts for muti medicine
21 August 2004, Independent UK news report by Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent, copied here in full:
They first hit 10-year-old Sello Chokoe with a blunt instrument, causing a gash on his head. They then chopped off his penis, his hand and his ear. They were harvesting his body parts for "muti" - the murderous practice of traditional African medicine
Yet it is far from a normal part of such medicine. "In my many years of service in the South African police, I have not encountered this sadistic taking of a young innocent life," said police inspector Mohlahla Moshane as he led us to the spot.
The murder site is a few kilometres away from Sello's village, Moletjie, in northern Limpopo province. There stands a distinct and lonely hill in a vast grass and shrub veld.
The unsuspecting Sello was lured to the spot after being asked to look for a neighbour's donkeys. After a carefully planned ambush, his killers wedged him between the two large rocks to performed their macabre ceremony.
Sello seems to have dragged himself from the rocks where he had been abandoned. A woman collecting firewood found him and he was taken to hospital, but died a few days later. He was buried last Sunday in his fear-wracked village.
The practice of muti provides a disconcerting counterpoint to the contemporary image of the new South Africa. Dr Gerard Lubschagne, who heads the investigative psychology unit of the South African police service, conservatively estimates lives lost to ritual murders at between 50 to 300 every year. "We don't have accurate figures because most murders here are recorded in our records as murders irrespective of motive," he says. "Most people might also not regard a murder as a muti matter but just dismiss it as the work of some crazy killers."
Dr Lubschagne admits the rate of murders signals a very worrying trend in South Africa. Despite South Africa being the most developed African economy, a huge chunk of its population still believes power and wealth are better stoked by witch-doctors than stockbrokers and market analysts. "People who want to do better, people who want to be promoted at work, gamblers and politicians who want to win and even bank robbers who seek to get away with their criminal acts turn to muti," Dr Lubschagne said.
How the body parts are used varies with what customers want to achieve. They are eaten, drunk or smeared over the ambitious person. Various parts are used for different purposes. A man who had difficulty in producing children killed a father of several children and used his victim's genitals for muti. In another case, a butcher used a severed human hand to slap each of his products every morning before opening as a way of invoking the spirits to beckon customers.
Mathews Mojela is the head teacher at Sello's primary school. He has worked in rural areas for nearly a quarter of a century and says muti is founded in the archaic belief that there is only a limited amount of good luck around. If one wants to increase his wealth or luck, then it should come at another's expense.
The screaming of a child while his body parts are being chopped off is also regarded as a sign calling customers to the perpetrator's business, Mr Mojolela said. It is also believed that magical powers are awakened by the screams. Eating or burying the body parts "capture" the desired results. Robert Thornton, an anthropology professor at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg , who has done research in traditional healing, says children like Sello are targeted because it is believed that the power of the virgin is greater than that of a sexually active adult.
The main motivating idea is what Professor Thorntorn describes as "symbolic logic", the idea that another person's penis will strengthen the perpetrator's, or that the perpetrator's far-sightedness will be improved by devouring the victim's eyes. Blood is thought to increase vitality.
Professor Issack Niehaus of the University of Pretoria fears that muti killings will increase as the inequalities of wealth become more entrenched. He said: "I would expect the occult economy - that is the belief in using magical means to gain prosperity - to increase as poverty worsens."
At the spot where Sello was murdered, Inspector Mashane said "A young kid is carefully lured into this bush and mutilated without any witnesses. If he survives, perhaps he is the only person who could help identify his killers."
One of the few victims who lived to tell his story was Jeffery Mkhonto, who six years ago was mutilated by an organised gang set to harvest body parts. He had been lured to the house of a neighbour for food and ended up being castrated.
Dr Lubschagne says muti killings are difficult to investigate because there is no clear relationship between perpetrator and victim. Yet other reports have also suggested that the muti victim is often known to the perpetrators and is easily lured and murdered in the process. Communities themselves are often too afraid to come forward with evidence because of fears of a magical retaliation.
At Sello's homestead, even the elders were too afraid to point any fingers directly at a neighbour, a traditional healer, although many villagers implicated him in Sello's murder in muffled tones. The neighbour had allegedly sent Sello to fetch his donkeys without Sello's mother's permission. Peter Kagbi, who is in his late sixties, was questioned for four days by the police over Sello's murder before being released pending further investigations. Mr Kgabi confirmed that he had sent Sello to fetch the donkeys, but he denied taking part in the murder.
He said he saw nothing wrong in sending Sello without the mother's permission as he had done that on similar errands before, a point hotly disputed by the boy's family. Mr Kgabi said he had been threatened by the community and told they planned to burn him alive because he was a wizard.
"Some are accusing me of killing Sello but I did not," he said. "I have not fled my home despite the threats because if I do, the community will regard that as an admission of guilt."
Even the eventual capture and conviction of Sello's killers would do little for his brokenhearted single mother, Salome, 39, who lives with her two remaining children on a £15 a month social grant from the government.
"Anything that does not bring back my son is hardly of any importance to me now. No mother wants to lose a child this way," she said.
Her emotional state will not be helped when she learns that Sello's body parts probably were sold for no more than £200 each, the price normally charged for a child's body parts in the muti industry.
- - -
This blog is dedicated to Dr James Moore [more later -- this weblog is in the process of being set up]
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