Khartoum talks fail to meet UN Security Council deadline: Sudan is now in violation of international law

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's veteran troubleshooter Lakhdar Brahimi and UN peacekeeping chief Hedi Annabi began talks in Khartoum on Tuesday to break the deadlock but, as the UN Security Council deadline expired on Wednesday, no agreement was reached, Reuters reported today:

"The assessment mission is still not decided upon by the government of Sudan," said presidential advisor Majzoub al-Khalifa after his meeting with Brahimi and Annabi. The UN resolution was passed under chapter seven meaning Sudan was now in violation of international law.

Khalifa said the political dialogue with the UN had to deal with the mandate of any UN troops before allowing the assessment mission to enter.

After two days of meeting government officials, Brahimi said the talks had been "very good" and a "joint vision" had been agreed. He declined to immediately elaborate.

UN spokesman Bahaa Elkoussy said talks were ongoing and that Brahimi was "optimistic".

Brahimi will meet President al-Bashir on Thursday evening but has not been given a meeting time as yet with key player Vice President Ali Taha who instead left the country on Wednesday for talks in Eritrea.

Khalifa, head of the government talks team, said he expected the outcome of the discussions with Brahimi to be "very positive," but declined to elaborate.

Brahimi is due to leave Sudan on Friday morning.

Photo: Janjaweed leader Sheikh Musa Hilal, a Sudanese chief who heads Darfur's largest Arab tribe, is seen inside a small shop in Mistariha, Sudan, May 23, 2006. (Reuters/STR)

May 24 2006 IRIN report: Gov't under pressure to accept UN peacekeepers

UN chief talks with Sudan's president on UN peacekeeping operation - Troops, by themselves, cannot be the full answer

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has spoken with the Sudanese President seeking support for the deployment of a UN team assessing conditions for a possible peacekeeping operation in Darfur, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday.

Dujarric told reporters at the UN HQ in New York that Annan told President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir that he hoped to see the UN assessment mission to be dispatched as soon as possible and sought the cooperation and support of the Sudanese Government to that end. - Xinhua May 23, 2006.



Photo: Displaced Sudanese women queue at a water point 21 May 2006 in Abu Shouk camp, close to Al-Fasher, the capital of the war-torn Sudanese northern Darfur region. (AFP/File/Ramzi Haidar)

May 23 2006 UN News Service: Asked whether States were prepared to contribute personnel to a UN mission in Darfur, the peacekeeping chief said a number "have expressed a measure of interest" but noted that none would make a commitment in the absence of a Security Council mandate and clear information about the situation on the ground. "No country is going to start spending money preparing its troops for a possible deployment until it knows that this deployment is going to happen for real," he said.

Mr Guehenno also underscored the importance of a comprehensive approach to addressing the Darfur conflict. "The troops, by themselves, cannot be the full answer. There has to be a political process that the troops support," he said.



Photo: Rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) pose 21 May 2006 in a deserted house in Tina, a small village abandoned by its residents after being attacked in March, southwest of Al-Fasher, the capital of the war-torn Sudanese northern Darfur region. Apart from a few tarred roads and a handful of settlements connected to mains electricity, North Darfur state is a collection of miserable villages in which people survive on the bare minimum. (AFP/File/Ramzi Haidar)

See May 23, 2006 NYT/CT report from Tina, Sudan by Lydia Polgreen: Rebels' rivalry subverts hope for Darfur peace

Advisory group of new UN disaster relief fund CERF holds inaugural session

UN News Centre May 23, 2006 reports that Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown welcomed the Group members into their new positions and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland briefed them on how the CERF had been used since its 8 March launch.

Note, to date, allocations have been or are being considered for 15 emergencies, nearly all in Africa.

Blair meets with Konare at Number 10 to talk about Darfur: Joint statement issued re formal request from AU to NATO

Tony Blair met with European Commission President Barroso in Downing Street today, before holding talks with the chair of the African Union, Alpha Konare.

The PM invited Mr Konare to Number 10 to talk about the vital Darfur peace agreement, before speaking to journalists.

In a joint statement, the two leaders said the peace agreement signed earlier this month was a "triumph" for the African Union.



"It is good for the people of Darfur and brings the real prospect of peace. President Konare and I strongly urge other rebels to sign (it) before the AU's deadline of 31 May."

See transcript of their joint doorstep - Joint press conference with Alpha Konare 24 May

Copy of Joint Statement

The UK has been working to support the African Union's successful work in Darfur over the last two years. The African Union Monitoring Mission in Darfur has improved security within a very difficult environment indeed. The Darfur Peace Agreement signed earlier this month was a triumph for the African Union. It is good for the people of Darfur and brings the real prospect of peace.

President Konare and I strongly urge other rebels to sign the Agreement before the AU's deadline of 31 May. If they do not do so, and they impede the implementation of the Agreement, then the AU and the UN have agreed that sanctions should be applied to them.

We call on the Government of Sudan to respect the recent decisions of the AU and the UN Security Council and agree to allow a UN technical assessment mission to enter Darfur in order to plan for a transition from the current AU force in Darfur into a UN peacekeeping mission.

President Konare and I have been discussing today how the UK can further assist the AU in implementation of the Peace Agreement, bilaterally and as a member of NATO and the EU.

The AU has said that is wants to strengthen its force in Darfur in order to implement the Peace Agreement. African nations are considering what additional troops they can provide.

The UK has committed a further GBP 20 million to the mission, bringing our total contribution to over GBP 52 million.

The EU and NATO, through airlift co-ordination and training, have made a valuable support contribution to the AU mission. We stand ready to do more.

NATO has offered to provide substantial support to the AU to help strengthen its effectiveness throughout Darfur. President Konare and I have discussed this and I hope that a formal request will be coming from the AU to NATO shortly, to enable this assistance to be provided as soon as possible.
- - -

Darfur needs UN peacekeeping force within two months, official says

British officials said a small NATO delegation could be sent to Darfur to provide leadership, support and airlift capability for African Union troops before the arrival of a UN force, Pravda reported May 23, 2006.

Blair and Bush to hold US talks - Darfur on agenda

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to fly to Washington for talks on Thursday with US President George W Bush.

On the agenda would be "supporting the new Iraqi government, preventing Iran from acquiring the means to build nuclear weapons, bringing peace to the Middle East, ending the violence in Darfur, and promoting free trade", said Mr Bush's spokesman Tony Snow. - BBC

Sudan falling 'far short' on many of its human rights commitments - UN report

Sudanese authorities are failing to uphold many of the human rights commitments made last year, especially in the Darfur conflict, where the Government is unable and unwilling to hold perpetrators of international crimes accountable, and the killing of civilians, raping of women and girls, and pillaging of entire villages continues, according to a United Nations report released today.

Full story UN News Centre May 23, 2006.

Canada raises Darfur aid by C$40m on top of C$170m pledged

Canada is increasing aid to Darfur by $40m, Toronto Star reported May 23:

Peace is still possible in Darfur, Prime Minister Stephen Harper predicted as he announced the aid on Tuesday.

Half of the new aid money will be spent on food aid, water and sanitation, basic health care, and protecting refugees in Sudan and in neighbouring African countries.

Canada has been providing military and technical assistance to the African Union Mission in Sudan, including sending Mounties to train civilian police forces.

Other Canadian military and civilian experts have assisted with strategic planning, logistics and air operations, training, information support, and communications.

Prior to Tuesday's announcement, Canada had allocated $170 million since 2004 to support the African Union mission, making it one of the top three international donors.

- - -

May 23 2006 Reuters report: Canada promises aid but no more troops for Darfur

Zoellick ready to quit White House

Financial Times today says a friend of Mr Zoellick said he told the White House in February of his intention to leave but that his departure was delayed because of his involvement in the Darfur peace negotiations.

Rebels' rivalry subverts hope for Darfur peace

TINA, Sudan -- A grisly new battle between rebel factions is raging here in Darfur, casting doubts on the future of a peace agreement to end the war, writes Lydia Polgreen for New York Times News Service May 21, 2006. Full report via Chicago Tribune - copy:

The tactics of the rebels have grown so similar to those of their enemies that an attack on this dusty village on April 19 bore all the marks of the brutal assault that first forced its people to flee their homes three years ago. Soldiers in uniform, backed by men toting guns on camels, stormed the village, burning huts, shooting, looting and raping.

Only this time, the soldiers were not government troops, as they had been before. Nor were the men on camels and horseback the fearsome janjaweed, who often destroy villages alongside government forces in a campaign of murder and rape that the Bush administration has called genocide.

Instead, last month's attack came from a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, the same rebel movement that says it wants to liberate the non-Arab people of Darfur from the yoke of Arab domination. Alongside the rebels were armed nomadic herdsmen from the Zaghawa, a non-Arab tribe that is supposedly fighting for the people of Darfur against the government.

"It was the Zaghawa who did this," said Ismail Rahman Ibrahim, one of Tina's sheiks. "We used to fear the Arab janjaweed. Now we have another janjaweed."

Carnage's origins complex

The carnage in Darfur has often been described as a fight between Arabs and Africans or a battle between herders and farmers. But neither captures the complexity of the ethnic and economic tensions in the region that have fueled the new hostilities between the rebels.

The leader of the largest rebel faction, Minni Minnawi, signed a peace agreement with Sudan's government on May 5 to end the conflict in Darfur, in the face of mounting pressure from international diplomats.

But the leader of a second faction, Abdulwahid Al Nur, refused, saying the agreement did not meet basic requirements on issues like power-sharing and disarmament of the janjaweed militias. He has remained unwilling to sign, but the African Union is so keen on bringing him on board it has extended the deadline for him to sign until the end of the month.

The split between the leaders was initially dismissed as irrelevant by diplomats negotiating the peace agreement to end the Darfur war. But the depth of that rift now threatens to undermine the shaky new accord, which the Bush administration has hailed as a hard-won diplomatic victory.

In an interview, Al Nur said he had no regrets about not signing, because, he said, the accord failed to address the root causes of the conflict.

"I refused to sign the agreement because it forgot that the crisis in Darfur was first a political crisis, before it developed into a military crisis and now humanitarian crisis," he said. "So, if you really want to address the crisis and put a real end to the crisis, you have to go back to the root, which is political."

Al Nur, who founded the SLA, and Minnawi, his rival, both come from non-Arab tribes. But Al Nur is from the Fur, farmers who make up the largest ethnic group in Darfur, while Minnawi comes from the Zaghawa, a much smaller group of non-Arab nomadic herdsmen who also live in Chad and Libya.

Marriage of opportunity

Initially they fought side by side with the same aim -- forcing the government in Khartoum to grant greater autonomy and a larger share of the nation's wealth to the impoverished region of Darfur. It was a partnership that made sense. The Fur are the largest ethnic group in Darfur, but they lacked tactical expertise. The Zaghawa had plenty of military experience and access to money and weapons from the military in neighboring Chad, which is led by Zaghawas.

But tensions soon emerged between the groups. The Fur grew suspicious of the Zaghawa, believing that they wanted to form a Zaghawa nation in Darfur and dominate the other tribes living here, a suspicion some analysts believe was fomented by the government in Khartoum in an effort to force a split between the rebels.

In the area around Tina, Fur villagers were forced from their homes by the thousands as the rebels and the government battled for control over every inch of territory in pitched battles. But the rebels took firm control last year, so much so that farmers who had fled to camps around Tawila returned to their fields to plant their crops.

The brief tranquillity came to an abrupt end with an assault by Minnawi's fighters on several towns held by Al Nur's faction.

Tiger Muhammad, a commander in Al Nur's faction, said the attack on Tina and other towns his faction controlled was unprovoked.

"It seemed to be the only objective was to displace the civilians," Muhammad said.

In nearby Susuwa, where the Minnawi faction has its base, commanders denied attacking civilians. Sounding very much like the government in Khartoum, which has blamed tribal conflicts for the violence in Darfur and has denied playing a role in arming militias, the Susuwa commanders said the conflict between the Fur and the Zaghawa here was simply a matter of stolen property.

"The conflict is due to the stealing of animals," said Muhammad Daoud, a commander of the force, arguing that Fur villagers steal animals, so Zaghawa herders go looking for them in their villages.

That explanation does not sit well with the thousands of villagers huddled in a makeshift camp with scant water, food or health services that has sprung up next to the African Union base in Tawila. Most of the people living in grass huts here arrived as a result of the recent violence between the rebel factions.

"First it was the janjaweed and the government, now it is the rebel factions," said Abubakar Moussa, who fled Tina after the April 19 attack. "Separation is the nature of humanity. We don't care much whether it is Abdulwahid or Minni. We need one nation under peace in Darfur."

AU, rebels delegation to Khartoum to discuss peace implementation

Sudan Tribune report May 22, 2006 says Chief negotiator of the Sudanese government delegation at Darfur peace talks Majzoub al-Khalifa told reporters that a delegation of the AU, headed by Ambassador Sam Ebok, and other delegations of the rebel groups are expected to arrive in Khartoum on Wednesday to begin the practical implementation of the peace agreement.

Sudan govt violates humanitarian law: Annan

EUN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the Sudan government that its restrictions on vital supplies and relief workers distributing them in Darfur constituted a violation of international humanitarian law, Reuters's Evelyn Leopold reported May 23, 2006 - excerpt:

In a report sent to the UN Security Council on Monday, Annan also said atrocities, including rape, pillaging and driving people from their homes, were swelling the population in squalid camps, now about 2.5 million.

Humanitarian access has been limited by the Khartoum government's refusal to allow foreign aid groups to hire national staff. Officials have also harassed U.N. staff about travel documents, especially in areas held by the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army in south Darfur.

"At the same time, government-imposed embargoes on certain essential items, including fuel, foodstuffs and other humanitarian assistance entering SLA-held areas in South Darfur, have prevented the access of civilians to vital goods and constitute a violation of international humanitarian law," Annan wrote in the 10-page report.

While he put much of the blame on the government and Arab militia supporting it, the rebels, who have broken into splinter groups, have hijacked relief trucks and forced four assistance groups to suspend food distribution.

AU concerned about janjaweed "massing" near Kutum, North Darfur

"The AU patrol saw a massing of about 1,000 Arab militia for about two days now," Moussa Hamani, spokesman for the African Union Mission in Sudan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur from Khartoum today.

Rebels say the government attacked their positions in northern Darfur while the government says it is undertaking a campaign to flush out "bandits."

Darfur's new UN force could be same troops in different hats

"We are against a UN presence," said Abdallah Jouzou, mayor of Kouma in pro-government territory 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Al-Facher.

"The African Union has helped to settle the conflict in Darfur and it remains the only solution," he said.

But when an AU officer explained to him that the new UN force would be mainly African, Jouzou looked relieved.

"In that case, it's fine," he agreed.

Full report AFP via ReliefWeb 22 May 2006.

Sudan denies breaking peace deal

The Sudanese authorities have denied rebel accusations that they have broken this month's peace deal by attacking and looting a village in Darfur, BBC reported today:

The region's largest rebel group, which signed the deal with the government, said the army and Arab militias had launched the raid in North Darfur.

North Darfur governor Osman Mohamed Kibir told the BBC that the accusations of army involvement were groundless.

But our correspondent says that aid agencies working in the region have backed up the rebel claims.

The African Union, which brokered the peace deal, also says there has been a spate of deadly attacks in the past week.

"The problem seems to be that everyone wants to maximise their territory before the truce and disarmament actually come into effect," AU spokesman Moussa Hamani told the AP news agency.

May 21 2006 Jan Pronk's Weblog: "What about the Janjaweed? Will the peace agreement stop them?" - Militias kill dozens despite Darfur peace-rebels - Darfur rebels who signed a peace deal said on Sunday the government has already breached the agreement by attacking their areas in North Darfur.

May 21 2006 Shearia, South Darfur: 60 killed in clashes

Fears Janjaweed will turn on Sudanese government if they try to take their arms by force

May 21, 2006 Observer report by Xan Rice in Um Jalbakh, Darfur - excerpt:

The Janjaweed is not an army,' said Eltayeb Hag Ateya, director of the Peace Research Institute at Khartoum University. 'It's more dangerous than that. It's a concept, a blanket. Some are pro-government, some are bandits, and some are mercenaries.

'The peace agreement says the government should disarm them all, but that's impossible. Not all are under its control - some are even against it.'

'They [the Janjaweed] have major psychological problems with this disarmament issue and perhaps they are right,' said an African Union commander at a briefing last week, as a government representative listened uncomfortably. 'They were given arms by the government and killed on its behalf. If they put down their weapons now while the rebels are still armed, then what will happen to them?"

There is a very real fear that the Janjaweed, whose tribes were equally marginalised by Khartoum in the past, will turn on the government if they try to take their arms by force.

[via CFD via POTP with thanks]

Shearia, South Darfur: 60+ killed in clashes

A new surge of inter-ethnic and militia violence has killed at least 60 people in separate attacks in Darfur in the past few days, said the AU and the UN on Sunday, News 24.com reported May 21, 2006 - excerpt:

Most of the recent attacks were launched by the so-called Janjaweed.

The UN said on Sunday it had received unconfirmed reports that the Sudanese army had fought a Janjaweed group in southern Darfur on May 18, killing six and arresting two. Sudanese authorities were not available to comment on the incident.

The UN said the Sudanese army and police had stated they would disarm armed bandits in the zone. Nazir Tigani, a local militia leader, warned he would resist such a move, said the UN.

Anticipating a possible increase in violence, the UN's security assessment office in Sudan advised UN workers and international non-governmental organisations to limit their movement in the area and to update possible evacuation plans.

Darfur rebel groups affiliated to leaders who refused the May 5 peace agreement have also executed some of the latest deadly raids, said the UN and the AU.

"We've been witnessing a stiff rise of attacks in the last week," said Moussa Hamani, the chief information officer for the 7 300-strong AU mission to Darfur.

"The problem seems to be that everyone wants to maximise their territory before the truce and disarmament actually come into effect," he said from Khartoum.

- - -

May 21 2006 Jan Pronk's Weblog: "What about the Janjaweed? Will the peace agreement stop them?": In the last two weeks in Khor Abeche, Labado and around Kutum many people have been killed. These attacks took place after the agreement. In West Darfur, even in the city El Geneina itself, bandits related with the Janjaweed have become blatantly aggressive, not only towards civilians but also towards the police and the military, governmental as well as African Union military.

May 21 2006 Gulf Times - Many slain in Shearia, South Darfur, say rebels.

Jan Pronk's Weblog: "What about the Janjaweed? Will the peace agreement stop them?"

UN SGSR Jan Pronk in his blog entry May 19, 2006 points out that despite the fact that Abdul Wahid did not yet sign the Abuja peace agreement, he had signed earlier cease fire agreements, he is still bound by his signature and can be taken to task. Note also this excerpt:

In the last two weeks in Khor Abeche, Labado and around Kutum many people have been killed. These attacks took place after the agreement. In West Darfur, even in the city El Geneina itself, bandits related with the Janjaweed have become blatantly aggressive, not only towards civilians but also towards the police and the military, governmental as well as African Union military. This was the main question asked by all commanders and all displaced persons alike, irrespective of the rebel faction they felt associated with: "What about the Janjaweed? Will the peace agreement stop them?"

In Abuja that question had never been asked by Abdul Wahid himself. From the beginning he was more interested in questions of power: whether the Darfurians would get a Vice-President in Sudan (a position which he claimed for himself), whether Darfur would become one region or would remain three states, whether Darfurians would get an adequate number of posts in the national government and in the assembly, and whether the SLM would get the majority in Darfur and become stronger than the governmental party, the NCP. These are relevant questions. However, whether or not to contain and disarm the Arab militia and the Janjaweed is for his people a matter of life and death. The people behind Minie Minawi and Abdul Wahid will only believe in the peace agreement if they see that the government and the international community together are serious and successful in stopping the Janjaweed. Then they might press their leaders to reconcile. This also may be the most effective way to bring Abdul Wahid aboard.

- - -

Militias kill dozens despite Darfur peace-rebels

May 20 2006 Reuters - Dozens were killed in a major attack by government-backed militias on Shearia town in Sudan's Darfur region, the latest in a wave of raids since a peace deal was signed earlier this month, rebels said on Saturday. A spokesman for the main rebel faction group who signed the deal on May 5 told Reuters from the field in Darfur that despite the agreement, heavy attacks have continued on the ground. "The attack on Shearia was yesterday -- the Janjaweed have attacked many many places in South Darfur despite the peace deal," al-Tayyib Khamis said. Shearia is in South Darfur. "There are about 20-25 dead and many injured but it's unclear as yet how many," he said.

May 21 2006 Reuters' Opheera McDoom: Darfur rebels who signed a peace deal with Khartoum in early May said on Sunday the government has already breached the agreement by attacking their areas in North Darfur. "In the evening yesterday Janjaweed began the attack with some of the government army with them," said al-Tayyib Khamis, spokesman for the SLA. "They went in and took the civilians' money and possessions and then left again."

Pope calls for swift action to end Darfur hunger

Pope Benedict called on Sunday for "concrete and swift" action to stop world hunger and in particular save hundreds and thousands of people from starvation in Darfur, Reuters (via ST) reported May 21, 2006:

"I am thinking particularly of the urgent and dramatic situation in Darfur, in Sudan, where great difficulties continue in satisfying the most basic food needs of the population," he said in his weekly address to pilgrims in St Peter's Square.

Media organisations had a responsibility to publicise hunger in order to mobilise governments and public opinion, he added.

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI gestures from his studio window overlooking St Peter's Square during his traditional Sunday blessing, at the Vatican, Sunday, May 21, 2006. The pontiff called Sunday for "contributions from everyone'" to help overcome the scourge of world hunger, and made a special mention of Darfur. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)

UN Security Council meeting in Khartoum next month

UN Security Council Ambassadors will head to Sudan next June for a rare meeting outside New York aimed at pressing for an end to Sudan's three year Darfur crisis, Sudan Tribune reported May 20, 2006 - excerpt:

Diplomatic sources told the London based Asharq al-Awsat, the UN Security session in Khartoum intends to hold a special session on the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in January 2005.

Members of the Security Council will hold also meetings with Sudanese official related to the Darfur peace deal.

This meeting will be the fifth time since 1952 that the council will hold a formal meeting outside UN headquarters in New York. The Security Council held an extraordinary session in Nairobi in November 2004 to press for an end to South Sudan's 21 years civil war.

Next few weeks to be 'make or break' for millions with lives at stake in Darfur, Chad, Under-Secretary-General Egeland

IRIN report on today's UN Security Council briefing. Excerpt:

In his presentation to the UN Security Council following a recent visit to Sudan and Chad, Egeland outlined five goals that needed to be achieved immediately: implementing the Darfur peace agreement; bringing on board those who have not signed it; substantially strengthening the African Union Mission in Sudan [AMIS]; accelerating the transition of AMIS to a UN operation; and securing and funding the humanitarian lifeline to more than three million people.

In Darfur and Eastern Chad, humanitarian relief constitutes a lifeline for close to 4 million people

UN Security Council report on today's briefing by Jan Egeland:

The Governor of South Darfur had agreed that the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) could return to Kalma as camp coordinator, a decision also confirmed by Second Vice-President Taha.

Regarding access restrictions, both the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Mr Kosti, and Vice-President Taha had provided assurances that the moratorium on humanitarian access restrictions for Darfur would be fully implemented.

The Vice-President had issued a policy statement, declaring the Government's intention to ensure full humanitarian access to Darfur, he said. Also, NGOs were invited to work with the Government in drafting the rules and regulations to ensure that national and international NGOs could carry out their activities freely and effectively, and in accordance with international human rights standards.

He [Jan Egeland] said he returned from his mission with an even greater sense of admiration for the thousands of humanitarian and AMIS personnel on the ground. "Their commitment to work in the most difficult conditions, and under constant threat to their personal safety, is truly awe-inspiring."

In Darfur and Eastern Chad, humanitarian relief constituted a lifeline for close to 4 million people, he said.

Annan dispatches Brahimi and Annabi to Khartoum

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to dispatch Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister who stepped down from active UN service last December, to Khartoum next week to press Sudan's government to allow UN military planners into Darfur, UN officials said on Friday.

Mr Brahimi is to be accompanied on the trip by senior UN peacekeeping official Hedi Annabi, UN chief spokesman Stephanie Dujarric told Reuters today.



Photo: Lakhdar Brahimi (AFP/Prakash Singh)

May 19 2006 UN News Centre: UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has said that once host country approval is given, it would take up to six months or more to get a more numerous UN force fully operational. Meanwhile, it was vital that the AU force receive a more robust mandate to protect the civilian population and that its number at least double, he added.

Accidental fire sparks explosions at Juba, Sudan arms dump

A fire at a munitions dump sparked a wave of explosions outside the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on Friday, injuring several people and rattling nerves in the region that suffered two decades of civil war. 10 injured. Reuters.

Bono in Africa blog

Reuters has a Bono in Africa newsblog. [via PSD Blog]

Surprisingly, Darfur is a place in Sudan as well as a rhetorical device (Daniel Davies)

Copy of a blog entry by Chris in Boston at Left Center Left May 3, 2006:

"Daniel Davies echoes my sentiments on Darfur,

Demanding "action" without ever saying what that "action" might be is the height of irresponsibility, and is almost always a marker of someone who has not troubled themselves to spend five minutes reading Sudan Watch to find out what is actually going on.

...only makes the more specific point (above and here that events on the ground have shifted to the point that diplomacy is nearing success and that it's quite probably the Stop Darfur voices in the West who are destabilizing that right now."

[Thanks chaps. Note, Daniel's blog entry at Crooked Timber (link above) has attracted some 50 comments]

Trocaire: Relief workers arrested in Darfur

Staff from a relief organisation in Darfur which is supported by Trocaire have been arrested and are being detained without charge by Sudanese security services.

Trocaire is very concerned for the health and safety of the two human rights workers, and fears that they may be subjected to torture and ill treatment.

The two men are Mossaad Mohamed Ali and Adam Mohammed Sharief, and they work at the AMEL Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims in Nyala in South Darfur.

They were arrested for the second time this week on Tuesday, and their families and UN staff have been unable to see them since then.

Full report Reuters 19 May 2006.

Sudan's Turabi calls for overthrow of Khartoum regime

Leader of Sudanese opposition Popular Congress, Hassan al Turabi, is calling for the overthrow of the Sudanese regime through popular resistance, Sudan Tribune reported May 18, 2006:

Turabi said the Darfur Peace Agreement, signed on Friday 5 May lacks a legitimate basis.

The regime will not fall "unless the people will replace it - not to the benefit of any regime or party, but to the benefit of all," al-Turabi told reporters yesterday.

Note, Drima in Malaysia has some insightful thoughts on this news in his latest blog entry at Sudanese Thinker.

JEM rebel commanders in South Darfur back peace deal

South Darfur province commanders from the rebel JEM said today they fully supported the Darfur Peace Agreement, Xinhua (via COMTEX and ReliefWeb) reported - excerpt:

In a letter to AU Commission Chair Konare and chief mediator for the Darfur peace talks, Salim Ahmed Salim, they expressed belief that the peace agreement "has satisfied the aspirations of our people of Darfur."

"Therefore we have chosen to fully support the DPA and ready to implement its political, military, humanitarian and security requirements and arrangements, and to sign this document anytime anywhere we requested to do so," the letter quoted Abdullrahiem Adam Abdullrahiem Abu Reeshah, JEM secretary for South Darfur, as saying.

"We believe that war is only a means that leads eventually to peace, and not a goal in itself."

JEM leader will have to leave Chad if he does not sign Darfur peace deal by May 31

Darfur rebels face bleak future without peace deal, Reuters' Estelle Shirbon reported May 18, 2006 - excerpt:

SLA faction leader Nur has spent much of the past two years in the Nigerian capital Abuja, where the peace accord was negotiated, but on Thursday he and his advisers were dispersing and had no clear strategy from now until May 31.

"He really should realise that he has everything to gain by signing, and if he doesn't he'll find he has no friends, no money and nowhere to go," said one diplomat who has been closely involved in the push to persuade Nur to sign.

The other holdout leader is Khalil Ibrahim of the JEM, and his position appears even more precarious. Ibrahim has few fighters and his support in Darfur has dwindled. The movement survives mainly on funding from Islamist networks.

Ibrahim has used Chad, where President Idriss Deby is a tribal ally, as a base, but that could be about to change.

"Deby told Khalil that if he does not sign by May 31, he must leave Chad because the AU and UN are sanctioning non-signatories. Khalil was surprised," said a Western diplomat in the Chadian capital N'Djamena.

Sudan's militias violating ceasefire pact in Darfur - UN, AU

Armed militias have repeatedly broken a cease-fire in Darfur since a Sudanese peace agreement was signed a week and a half ago, the AU and the UN said Tuesday - Sudan Tribune - report May 17:

Arab militias known as the Janjaweed on Monday attacked at least two villages in the north of this vast, arid region of western Sudan, the AU said.

An unidentified armed group launched a separate attack Sunday in southern Darfur, the UN said.

Photo: Waiting for peace: Children are pictured at Abu Shouk camp, located 7km north-west of Al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. (AFP/Ramzi Haidar/Yahoo)

Attacks on 7 villages around Kutum town, North Darfur

May 17 2006 Sudan Tribune - Janjaweed militia attacks villagers despite peace deal - The Janjawid militia have launched a widespread attack against the villages of Kori, Karbi and Lari Kangra on the outskirts of Kutum in North Darfur.

May 18 ST/AP report - Militia have killed 11 people in Darfur says UN - The attacks, which violated the May 5 peace agreement, occurred in seven villages around the town of Kutum in north Darfur on Monday, the UN said. The UN did not blame any specific group for the attacks, but the AU has said the raids were carried out by the Janjaweed - an Arab militia allegedly backed by the government.

After peace, Darfur's rebel forces turn on each other and fight for Tawilla, North Darfur making it one of the most insecure regions of Darfur

With Darfur's remaining rebels still refusing to sign a peace deal, fighters that were united against the Sudanese government have turned on each other, UK Guardian reported May 17, 2006. Excerpt:

Around Tawilla thousands of civilians have been displaced since the beginning of the year following deadly violence between two ethnically-divided factions of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), Darfur's largest rebel movement.

In what has become a turf war for control of rebel-held territory, gunmen on pick-up trucks and horseback have been burning huts, killing, looting, and even raping women, in raids just as deadly as those of the Arab "Janjaweed" militia.



Photo: Members of the Sudanese Liberation Army north Darfur province, May 15, 2006. (Candace Feit/Reuters)

Villages that had been emptied due to raids by government forces are once again deserted. Camps for displaced people on the outskirts of town lie abandoned, their terrified former residents having barricaded themselves in makeshift shelters against the razor wire surrounding the African Union peacekeepers' base. All but one international NGO have left.

"Initially the trouble here was the government forces," said an AU military observer based in Tawilla, two hours' drive west of the state capital, El Fasher. "But now these different SLA groups fighting each other have become the problem."



Photo: A soldier with the Government of Sudan sits next to weapons and ammunition at an outpost in Sudan's northern Darfur town of Tawilla May 17, 2006. (Reuters/Candace Feit)

Fighting between the rebels reached its peak before the peace agreement was signed on May 5 by Sudan's government and the larger faction of the SLA, which was desperate to make territorial gains before the ceasefire.

Hopes of an end to the rebels' mutual enmity, which has added another layer to an already muddled conflict, were dashed again on Monday when the SLA faction led by Abdel Wahid ignored an extended deadline to accept the Darfur peace agreement. A third, smaller, group, the Justice and Equality Movement, is also holding out. Mr Wahid is demanding more detailed provisions on compensation for the war's victims and disarmament of the Janjaweed militia. There are serious doubts as to whether the peace accord can hold. Negotiators have again extended the deadline for the rebel groups to join the agreement to May 31.

Yesterday the UN security council passed a resolution to speed up planning for a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur and threatened sanctions against anyone who opposed the May 5 accord. On Monday the African Union agreed to transfer authority for its 7,300 strong peacekeeping force to the UN by the end of September.

The latest twist in the Darfur crisis follows a major falling out late last year in the leadership of the SLA, a broad-based guerrilla movement formed to protest against the region's marginalisation by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum.

Minni Arcua Minnawi, the group's secretary-general, took with him the larger share of the fighters and weapons. Most of his men are Zaghawa, a cattle-herding tribe. Mr Wahid, the SLA chairman, and a member of the sedentary Fur, Darfur's largest tribe, was left with a smaller force but a large support base.

"We thought we would meet up in Khartoum, as we still had the same objectives," said Commander "Tiger" Mohamed, from the Wahid faction, who arrived in the deserted village of Tina yesterday with several dozen of his fighters.

Some of his men, a motley gang wearing turbans and leather amulets, took part in the 2003 attack on government forces in El Fasher that helped spark the Darfur conflict. Retribution came quickly to Tawilla, where the vast expanse of desert gives way to rocky foothills to the west, as government forces attacked African tribes.



Photo: An armed member of a faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur walks in Tina, north Darfur province of Sudan, May 16, 2006. (Reuters/Candace Feit)

The SLA "liberated" the area more than a year ago, bringing a degree of stability. Civilians began returning to their fields to plant crops. Some even returned to their villages near the town. But since February this year Tawilla has become one of the most insecure regions of Darfur as rebels under Mr Minnawi sought to capture territory from their rival faction. Civilians were caught in the crossfire. The initial attack, at Korma, left 12 of Mr Wahid's fighters dead, along with numerous bystanders. Attacks on villages continued throughout the next two months. On April 19 the Minni rebels attacked the village of Tina, forcing all the inhabitants to Tawilla and looting their property.

"When you see the suffering around Tawilla, it is because of Minni," said Mohamed, a thin man wearing military fatigues. "He has a secret agenda of wanting to create a big 'Zaghawaland' but we are fighting for all the people of Darfur."



Photo: An African Union peacekeeper patrols Shok Shok village after an attack by a rebel faction in Sudan's northern Darfur province, May 14, 2006. (Reuters/Candace Feit)

US's Zoellick phoned Save Darfur Coalition to express his thanks for level of US activisim

Copy of email just in from David Rubenstein of Save Darfur.org in New York:

Dear Supporter,

Thanks to your efforts and the efforts of many others working to create a lasting peace in Darfur, I am pleased to report we have seen significant progress in recent weeks.

On May 5, the Sudanese government and Darfur's largest rebel faction signed the Darfur Peace Agreement, laying out a plan to end three years of violence and raising hopes for a lasting peace in Darfur. There is a much more to do, however, before that hope is realized.

In the next two weeks, the Sudanese government and the two remaining rebel factions must come to terms in order to ensure a strong building block for a lasting peace. With or without additional signers, it is imperative that the parties live up to their commitments to end the genocide and rebuild Darfur.

Another significant step forward was taken just yesterday, as the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution demanding strict observance of the peace agreement, and calling for a quick transition from the current African Union peacekeeping force to a stronger UN force. Prior to the signing of the peace agreement, Sudanese President Bashir opposed a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur by saying that there was no peace to keep. With this peace agreement, however, that argument has been rendered moot.

Soon there will be a joint UN-African Union assessment mission dispatched to Darfur to assess the situation. Following their return, the stage will be set for UN Security Council consideration of a second resolution to actually authorize the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force.

These are real, substantive steps forward, and you helped make them happen.

In fact, just one day after over 50,000 rallied on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and thousands more rallied at events across the country, President Bush dispatched Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick to the peace talks to make sure that an agreement was reached.

Upon his return, Deputy Secretary Zoellick personally called the Save Darfur Coalition to express his thanks for the level of U.S. activism which helped make the peace deal possible. In an interview last week, he said that "of all I've dealt with in foreign policy over some 20 years that I'm not sure I've ever seen as much broad support from churches, from communities and universities."

Your collective voices have helped accomplish amazing results thus far!

But much more still remains to be done. Work at the UN is far from over, funding for humanitarian aid and peacekeeping falls short and puts millions of lives at risk. And above all, the people of Darfur still must contend with the dual threats of violence and starvation every day.

As we continue the fight, there will be many more opportunities for you take action and help make a difference.

Best regards,

David Rubenstein
Save Darfur Coalition

Oxfam worker in Sudan says problems in Darfur are only going to be resolved by a political process

VOA interview with Alun McDonald who works for Oxfam in Sudan - by Angel Tabe, via Blogger News Network - excerpt:

McDonald says because the problems in Dafur are only going to be resolved by a political process, the peace agreement is a very positive move. "It's definitely a move in the right direction, but the history of agreements on Dafur means that we have to be cautious, take steps to ensure that what is agreed is actually implemented and there is an improvement on the ground, for example strengthening the AU force that is in Dafur at the moment ... just seven thousand troops to secure this whole area, they have hardly any funding, a mandate that doesn't allow them to protect civilians, so we need more troops, more funding and a stronger mandate."

As some speculate that the displaced may go home by the rainy season, McDonald says, "We are not at the stage when we can start talking about return.. People going short distances to the market, collect firewood, short distances outside the camps, are still risking their lives, so they are certainly not ready to travel dozens of miles. What needs to be done is strengthening the AU force so that patrols are carried out in rural areas."

McDonald says the threat of attacks by Al Quaeda is serious, but, "We are not letting it affect our work. There are more than three million people who need humanitarian assistance, so organisations generally are committed to providing that."

African Union force faces grim obstacles in Darfur

"Colonel Muraina Raji, the commander of about 800 troops based in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, said peacekeeping here is possible, but not with the resources he now has at his disposal," writes Lydia Polgreen (NYT/IHT May 17, 2006) from Menawashei, Sudan:

"If they had given us the resources, we could do this," he said. "My sector is very big but I have only one battalion. If I had three battalions, I would be fine."

As it is, his officers just make do with what they have.

Armed only with a thick notebook, Kadangha, the Togolese military observer who has been here for 10 months, marched into the South Darfur village of Menawashei to assess the security situation. He has been here many times before, and the story is always the same - Arab bandits on camels and horseback attacking non-Arab villages. Sometimes they only steal; sometimes they rape and kill. That day he received a grim report of both.

Kadangha listened and carefully took notes as villagers described the vicious attack by Arab militants last week. The militants killed one woman, shot six others and raped 15 women, witnesses said.

The village sheik, Omar Muhammad Abakar, was not happy to see the major.

"I don't want to talk to you," he said. "I have given you so many reports, but you did nothing. Many rape cases were reported and you conduct many patrols. But you have done nothing."

This is something Kadangha hears every day. He takes dozens of reports and sends them to the cease-fire commission, made up of representatives of the warring factions, but nothing ever happens to the violators.

Taking reports and making patrols is nearly all the African Union is mandated to do. Since arriving in 2004, the African Union force has been here to monitor - but not enforce - the ceasefire agreement signed between the rebels and the government that year in Ndjamena, Chad's capital.

Note, the report points out such sensitive issues as the disarmament of pro-government janjaweed militias, scheduled to be complete by October, will take place under the auspices of the African Union force, which is ill- equipped to handle its current, limited mandate, never mind potentially explosive new duties. Also,

Because of financial problems, the African Union soldiers are paid irregularly. Many have not received their pay in two or three months.

Yet their work is difficult. They patrol under a punishing sun from morning till night, each with just a small bottle of water to drink and no food.

Darfur's nearly 520,000 square kilometers, or 200,000 square miles, are vast and forbidding, crossed by just one major paved road. Going a few dozen miles can be a dusty, bumpy half-day affair. A journey of 120 kilometers, or 75 miles, more usually requires an overnight trip.

The African Union force is small enough that, spread out, each soldier would oversee an area larger than Manhattan.

[They all deserve medals]

UN special envoy Jan Pronk heads to West Darfur

UN SGSR Jan Pronk, headed today for West Darfur to reinforce the efforts exerted to win a large scale support for the Darfur Peace Agreement Bahrain News Agency reported May 17, 2006:

Official Spokesman of the UN delegation to Sudan, Baha Al Kousi, said Pronk will meet West Darfur Governor, the representatives of the African Union, civil society and humanitarian organisations as well as the representatives of the Sudanese armed groups which objected to the peace accord. Pronk hailed the peace accord, stressing the need to back up efforts to implement it and draw more support.

Sudanese driver of kidnapped Arab diplomat dies in Baghdad

"These honest consulates work to help the Iraqi people ... I call on the kidnappers to release him for the benefit of Iraq," said Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of main bloc representing Iraq's Sunni minority, the Accordance Front. Full report Reuters May 17, 2006.

Sudan says will not open talks on Darfur peace deal

Sudan refused on Wednesday to reopen negotiation on a peace deal signed between the government and a main rebel faction in Darfur May 5, 2006.

"We will not open the negotiation again and there is no problem (in the peace agreement) which should be negotiated any more," Sudan's government delegation to Abuja talks spokesperson Amin Hassan Omer told reporters. Full report ST/Xinhua May 17. 2006.

EU to extend civilian-military training to AU in Darfur plus EUR 50m in addition to EUR 162m already provided

Excerpt from EU Council Conclusions on Sudan at a meeting in Brussels, 15 May 2006:

Full normalisation of relations with Sudan will depend on progress achieved in implementing the CPA and the DPA and on a nationwide political process leading to democratisation and peace in the whole of Sudan.

UK to give $40m to AU mission in Darfur bringing UK contribution to $100m

Following the UN Security Council's adoption of Resolution 1679 - support for the Darfur Peace Agreement; Minister for Africa Lord Triesman announced yesterday that Britain is to give a further GBP 20 million to support its implementation, Black Britain reported May 17, 2006:

The GBP 20 million being donated by the UK to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) brings the total contribution by the UK to over GBP 52 million. Lord Triesman said yesterday that now: "other donors must do their bit."

The Minister for Africa said that a speedy transfer from AMIS to the proposed UN peacekeeping mission is essential. Referring to the continued interference by the Government of Sudan, Lord Triesman said:

"The moment has arrived for the Government of Sudan to drop its objections." Top of the agenda is for the Sudanese government to allow a UN/AU assessment mission into Darfur to asses how the handover will be implemented.

Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, who was present at the final days of the peace talks called on those who had not yet signed up to the peace deal to do so without delay. He said:

"The UK Government is ready to play its part in support of implementation, and we will continue to press for sanctions against those who impede the peace process."

Japan to give $8.7m to AU mission in Darfur + $10m in medical support

The Japanese government on May 16 decided to provide about 8.7 million USD in emergency grant aid to support the activities of the AU aimed at resolving the Darfur conflict in western Sudan, Viet Nam News Agency reported May 17, 2006:

The money will cover costs arising from the activities of the African Union Mission in Sudan such as publicity efforts, humanitarian assistance and peace negotiations, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

It will also support the work of the Darfur integration task force set up within the African Union to oversee the conflict, which erupted in 2003, and to support the mission's activities, according to Japan's Kyodo News.

May 16 2006 Sudan Tribune unsourced article from Tokyo: Japan donates $8,7 mln to AU force in Darfur: The aid, decided by the Cabinet on Tuesday morning, is the first specific step in Japan's contributions to help resolve the conflict, which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced during his trip to Africa from late April to early May. Koizumi unveiled the Japanese government's plan to contribute about $8.7 million to support activities aimed at resolving the conflict and about $10 million in medical support.

Sudanese VP Ali Taha meets UN envoy Jan Egeland

Sudanese Vice President Ali Taha met in Khartoum today with UN's top humanitarian official Jan Egeland, Bahrain News Agency reported May 17, 2006.

May 17 2006 Sudan says press and aid groups can move without restriction inside Darfur over next 3 months

May 16 2006 Sudan offers 20,000 tonnes of extra food to UN WFP

Sudan says press and aid groups can move without restriction inside Darfur over next 3 months

Sudan will allow all NGOs and the press to circulate without restriction in all the states of Sudan's Darfur region, a Sudanese minister announced Tuesday, says unsourced article at Sudan Tribune May 16 2006. Excerpt:

The Government has granted all charity organizations and all media organs the right to access to all areas inside the three states of Darfur for a period of three months that would be evaluated and assessed, the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Costa Manyebi, said in the meeting with the foreign organizations operating in the Sudan.

The minister proposed the formation of a joint work team that would include the local national parties as well as the relevant voluntary organizations to set up mechanism and plans for the reactivation of humanitarian action in the region and for the implementation of the DPA.

He said this mechanism would work to make the peace durable, sell the DPA for all concerned sectors of the Darfur society, contain the effects of war in the region and convince the movements that have not yet signed the peace agreement to join the peace process. The minister confirmed that the government pays attention to the criticism levelled against the voluntary work law that has been recently passed by the National Assembly.

Manyebi said this law has now become a reality but that it has to be implemented through a number of regulations and bills and that at that stage that criticism could be taken into account.

- - -

May 16 2006 Reuters Sudan to announce new rules for Darfur aid groups

May 17 2006 UN News Centre UN rights chief raises concerns over restrictive law with Sudan's government

May 18 2006 Reuters (Opheera McDoom) Sudan tightens foreign press travel to Darfur

May 18 2006 AP via ST - Sudan lifts NGO restrictions, urges peace on Arab tribes - US - Sudan is lifting travel restrictions on international agencies in the Darfur region, but pressure must be kept up on Khartoum to make sure it keeps its promises, the chief US negotiator on Darfur said Thursday. US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said he was also informed late Wednesday that the Sudanese government "has notified the Arab tribes in the region that any breach of peace would be met with a very strong response."

Sudanese FM Lam Akol starts two-day visit to Russia

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lam Akol, Tuesday left for Moscow on a two-day visit to Russia on the invitation of his Russian Counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, Sudan Tribune reported May 16/17, 2006:

"The Russian Federation will continue to offer every possible assistance in consolidating the political settlement on Darfur in the interests of Sudan's unity and territorial integrity and peace in the region. Russian peacekeepers will also make their contribution to the UN's efforts to promote stability," Lavrov said, speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Sudan 9 May.

May 17 2006 AP via ST Sudan's support crucial for UN peacekeeping in Darfur - Russia.

Darfur activists need to put up or shut up

Excerpt from Alec Brandon's opinion piece - Darfur activists need to put up or shut up - in University of Chicago's student newspaper, May 16, 2006:

The editors of the New Republic were spot-on when said that to "care about a problem without caring about its solution" is nothing but a "sophisticated form of indecency."

- - -

[May 19 2006 Rebuttal by Caroline Buddenhagen, University of Chicago Darfur activists support realistic solutions]

Can US military intervention ever bring justice?

Excerpt from Lance Selfa's opinion piece - Can U.S. military intervention ever bring justice? - in the Socialist Worker May 19, 2006:

The Somalia invasion, memorialised in the film Black Hawk Down, is remembered as a failure. But in its initial stages, the Wall Street Journal hailed it for restoring the US military's "moral credibility." The Journal added, "There is a word for this: colonialism."

If the US intervenes in Darfur, "saving" Darfuris will be the last thing on its mind.

- - -

NYT's Nick Kristof feeds twaddle to his readers

Excerpt from latest opinion piece - Darfur: Dithering Through Death - by NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof:

If other UN officials followed Mr Egeland's undiplomatic example and spent more time being offensive, devoting less energy to diplomatic receptions and more to dragging journalists through the world's hellholes, the globe would be a better place - and the UN would be more relevant.

John Bolton, now the US ambassador to the UN, once suggested it wouldn't matter if the UN's top 10 floors were lopped off. But let's not do that - the UN is far better than the alternative of having no such institution. But take it from this disillusioned fan of the UN system: let's also be realistic and drop any fantasy that the UN is going to save the day as a genocide unfolds. In that mission, the UN is failing about as badly as the League of Nations did.

[What a load of twaddle. Mr Egeland speaks out to raise funds. Thank goodness Egeland, Bolton and the Kristof's of this world are NOT in charge of the US or UN: we'd have World War III on our hands in no time!]

Snow Patrol covers Lennon's hit 'Isolation' for Amnesty International's campaign calling for justice in Sudan

British band Snow Patrol have covered former Beatle John Lennon's hit 'Isolation' as part of Amnesty International's online campaign calling for justice in Sudan.

The cover is the soundtrack for a new video, which is calling for war criminals to be punished for the rape of thousands of women in Darfur.

The video can be viewed at noise.amnesty.org and the song can also be downloaded from Amnesty's site.

[As John Lennon was a real peace loving guy, I find it difficult to imagine him approving of his name being connected to such a campaign, the timing of which - during such a sensitive stage of crucial peace and disarmament talks, not to mention delicate negotiations for forces to protect the people of Darfur - I feel is not only poor judgement on Amnesty's part but wrong]

Translators needed in Darfur to help AU build trust - More "Mama Rosa's" needed too please!

Thanks to a reader for the following comment posted today at Sudan Watch entry "Female AU police officers build trust in Ardamata camp, West Darfur - More "Mama Rosa's" needed in Darfur please!":

One of the problems that women like Mama Rose face is that there are not many female translators and few of the police women speak Arabic. They need more translators!

Rebels recruit Darfur refugees in Chad as soldiers - UN

Sudanese rebels are recruiting thousands of men and boys from refugee camps in neighbouring Chad, where more than 200,000 Sudanese have fled to escape the Darfur conflict, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.

Some 4,700 men and boys were recruited or forced to join the rebels from the Breidjing and Treguine camps in March, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said citing reports from refugees. Recruitment has also been reported at the Goz Amir camp in April, the agency said. Full report AP May 16, 2006 via ST May 17, 2006.

US's Zoellick in UK to discuss Darfur peace deal

US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick arrived in London May 16, 2006 for talks with UK officials, and to discuss a new peace deal agreed for Darfur, AP/ST reported.

Zoellick is to discuss implementation of the deal with UK Treasury chief Gordon Brown, part of a two-day visit.

Implementation of the agreement and planning for a UN peacekeeping force to take control of an AU-led peacekeeping mission in Darfur are expected to be discussed.

UN Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1679 (2006) paving way for UN force in Darfur

May 16 2006 UN News Centre Security Council unanimously adopts resolution paving way for UN force in Darfur:

The Security Council took a major step forward today towards establishing a robust United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur rby unanimously adopting a resolution calling for the deployment on the ground of a joint UN-Africa Union (AU) team to pave the way for the operation, which would take over from the AU mission (AMIS) now monitoring the vast region.

Immediately welcoming the resolution's adoption in a statement issued by his spokesman, the Secretary-General said the UN "hopes to dispatch, as quickly as possible, a joint UN/AU Technical Assessment Team to Darfur, and towards that end, is in continuous consultation with the Government of National Unity" of Sudan.

May 16 2006 ReliefWeb: TEXT of Resolution 1679 (2006) adopted by the Security Council at its 5439th meeting, on 16 May 2006 (S/RES/1679)

S/RES/1679(2006) in several different languages, including Arabic and French.

Sudan offers 20,000 tonnes of extra food to UN WFP

On May 16, 2006 the UN Security Council voted unanimously to start the process which could lead to a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. - BBC

The Council's resolution presses Sudan to let UN military experts into Darfur within a week to plan for deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in the region later this year. - Reuters.

Sudan is willing to discuss UN peacekeepers deployment in Darfur, Information Minister Zahawi Ibrahim Malek said May 16, 2006.

SUDAN TO ANNOUNCE NEW RULES FOR DARFUR AID GROUPS AND OFFERS 20,000 TONNES OF EXTRA FOOD TO WFP

Sudan to announce new rules for Darfur aid groups - VP Ali Taha said the government would allocate more money for aid to Darfur and offer 20,000 tonnes of extra food to the World Food Programme to cover a donor gap this year. - Reuters May 16 2006.

Sudan renews its rejection of UN force to Darfur

Sudan renewed its opposition to the transfer of the African Union peacekeeping mission to the UN. It said that such takeover is not indicated in the signed deal with one rebel faction earlier in May. Full report Sudan Tribune 15 May 2006.

May 15 2006 UN News Centre: UN moves on several fronts to reinforce Darfur peace accord - Contrary to what had been reported, he [Egeland[ said the Sudanese Government had not yet agreed to a UN force and at present was discussing the proposal.

AU to transfer Darfur force to UN by September 2006

The African Union on Monday agreed to transfer its peacekeeping force in Darfur to the UN by the end of September or earlier.

Nigerian FM Olu Adeniji, chairing a ministerial meeting of the AUs Peace and Security Council, said the AUs 7,300-strong force in Darfur could leave before the Sept 30 deadline if the UN force was ready.

UN SGSR, Jan Pronk, told reporters in Addis Ababa after the meeting ended. "It is now high time to take very concrete steps towards a stronger force." Full report AP/ST 15 May 2006.

Darfur rebels given until end of May to sign peace deal

The African Union today gave two rebel groups (Khalil's JEM and Nur's SLA faction) a further two weeks to sign a peace deal, Reuters reported:

Nigerian FM Olu Adeniji, chair of AU Peace and Security Council, said the two hold-out rebel groups had been given more time to accept the peace accord.

"The extension of the signature for those who didn't sign the agreement will be laid open until the end of May, after which, failure to sign will indicate non-commitment to the peace process and the AU will take a decision," he said.

But one of Nur's close advisers said the international community should press Sudan's government to grant some extra concessions to make the deal more acceptable to the rebels.

"If we agree on this document as it stands because of pressure from the international community, we will not be able to return to our people," said Babiker Mohamed Abdallah.

"If the government is not serious, two weeks is not enough. If it is serious, even two days is enough," he told Reuters in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Photo: US Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, right, talks with Jendayi Frazer, US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, and British Cabinet member Hilary Benn sitting far laft, while Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, behind, walks pass at the peace talks meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, Friday, May 5, 2006. (AP Photo/George Osodi)



Photo: Minni Arcua Minnawi (L), leader of main rebel group SLA and Ibrahim Khalil, leader of the smaller JEM rebel group participate in a meeting with Sudan government representatives during negotiations on a peace plan for Darfur in Abuja, Nigeria May 2, 2006.



Photo: Khatha Nanluho, who is a rebel with the SLA stands outside of the venue of the Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, Tuesday, May 2, 2006. (AP Photo/George Osodi)



Photo: Ahmed Tugod, the chief negotiator for Sudanese Justice and Equity Movement (JEM), gestures at the Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, May 3, 2006. (AP Photo/George Osodi)



Photo: SLA rebels waiting at their bases in Gellab, North Darfur, Sudan, in 2004, during a meeting with Africa Union officers. (AFP/File/Marco Longari)



Photo: Rebel faction leaders appear at the exchange ceremony of the African Union (AU) draft peace agreement for Darfur in Abuja May 5, 2006.



Photo: Sudanese government delegation members rejoice inside the venue of the peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, Friday, May 5, 2006. (AP Photo/George Osodi)



Photo: SLA leader Minni Arcua Minnawi (L) is congratulated by Africa Union Commission President Alpha Oumar Konare after he signed the deal with the Sudanese government in the Nigerian capital Abuja May 5, 2006 to end three years of fighting that has killed many of thousands of people and forced 2 million to flee their homes. Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde



Photo: An unidentified member of the SLA, reacts before they walk out of the peace talks meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, Friday, May 5, 2006. (AP Photo/George Osodi)



Photo: Abdel Wahid Nur of the SLA faction, second right, together with members of his group walks out of the peace talks meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, Friday, May, 5 2006 refusing to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement. (AP Photo/George Osodi)

Chad's President Deby wins 3rd term, opposition cries foul

Idriss Deby won Chad's presidential elections with a substantial majority, according to Chadian election officials, but opposition parties that boycotted the ballot have denounced the process as a sham. - May 15 2006 IRIN.



Photo: A Chadian soldier stands next to a rocket launcher on Thursday, April 20, 2006 outside Parliament that was captured from rebels during a rebel attack on the capital N'djamena.

May 16 2006 Reuters Chad opposition rejects Deby re-election: Deby, 54, a French-trained pilot, has ruled Chad since his Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) rebel group seized power in a revolt from the east in 1990. He won elections in 1996 and 2001, though international observers noted irregularities both times.



Photo: A Chadian woman made homeless by warfare sits next to a fire on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 near the refugee camp Kou Kou Angarana in Chad, some 30 kilometers from the Sudan border. The election on Wednesday, May 3, 2006 came nearly three weeks after rebels who had gathered near the Chad-Darfur border launched a pre-dawn attack on the capital in a failed bid to oust President Idriss Deby, and after opposition parties called for a boycott of the vote. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

It's hell in Darfur, but is it genocide or ethnic cleansing (and what is the difference between the two) or civil war?

On 26 April 2006, Ben Lieberman emailed me via Sudan Watch, saying:



Subject: Re: Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing

Hello,

Thanks for your useful blog. I was very interested to find this since I am teaching a class on African history, and I have written a history of ethnic cleansing in Europe and Western Asia.

I think your recent discussion of the definitions of Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing was very clear. In practice, I think the two can merge together in that the methods used to expel a group can in some cases predictably lead to genocide.

Thanks for your work.
Ben Lieberman

Fitchburg State College
Fitchburg Massachusetts
- - -

I emailed the following reply to Ben 14 May 2006:



Subject: Re: Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing

Dear Ben,

Thank you for your interesting email. Please forgive my delay in replying. I was pleased to hear from you, and started to reply right away but was unable to complete due to an avalanche of news reports appearing in the run up to the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

I thought of you today when I read an article in the Los Angeles Times (14 May 2006) entitled "It's hell in Darfur, but is it genocide?" by Michael Clough, director of the Africa program at the Council on Foreign Relations from 1987 to 1996. He is the author of "Free at Last? United States Policy Toward Africa and the End of the Cold War."

To save you registering with the LA Times to read the piece, I am copying it in full, here below.

I'd like to publish an excerpt from the piece (probably the opening paragraph) at my blog Sudan Watch, along with the information in your email. Would you mind if I published your email in full?

If you do mind, I wonder if you would be kind enough to please send me a few lines (or however much you can manage) of text that would be OK to quote you on that explains what you mean when you say "In practice, I think the two can merge together in that the methods used to expel a group can in some cases predictably lead to genocide."

I'm having difficulty attempting to articulate in a short piece about why (when some critics see little difference between genocide and ethnic cleansing - and the findings of the UN's International Commission of Inquiry* on Darfur concluded the Sudanese government was NOT pursuing a policy of genocide in Darfur) some UN officials like UN SGSR Jan Pronk and others continue to refer to Darfur as ethnic cleansing.

My view is Darfur is not genocide or ethnic cleansing. It's civil war, no?

Here's some wishful thinking: I wish you could write a piece (and, if you can, get it published in mainstream press) that answers this question:

It's hell in Darfur, but is it genocide or ethnic cleansing (and what is the difference between the two?) or is it civil war?

Thanks again for your email and kind words.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Ingrid (Jones)
England, UK
http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com

*The International Criminal Court (ICC) - Summary [Apr 7 2006 UN assembly president calls Darfur violence "ethnic cleansing" - The International Criminal Court (ICC) Summary: The International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, chaired by the Italian judge Antonio Cassese, concluded in its report published on 31 January 2005 that crimes against humanity and war crimes such as killings, rape, pillaging and forced displacement have been committed since 1 July 2002 by the government-backed forces and the Janjaweed militia. It declared, however, that the government of Sudan was not pursuing a policy of genocide in Darfur]

Apr 8 2006 What is the difference between genocide and ethnic cleansing?

Apr 9 2006 Juan Mendez, UN Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide, tells press "definitely ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur"

Apr 9 2006 The Genocide Convention required States to prevent genocide - Mendez
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Today, 15 May 2006, I received the following reply from Ben:



Subject: Re: Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing

Dear Ingrid,

Thanks very much for your reply. The Michael Clough essay is indeed very interesting, though as you'll see I have doubts about his conclusions. Please feel free to post my original email or this new email--I've tried to improve my explanation.
Best regards,
Ben

Here's my (modeslty) extended explanation with a brief comment on the Clough op-ed.

In discussing Darfur or any other similar crisis it is important to keep in mind that crimes such as ethnic cleansing and genocide do not exist in a single form, but fall on a spectrum of violence. Ethnic cleansing can be defined as the removal, through violence and intimidation of an ethnic group from a given territory, but the victims may be defined by ethnic identity, race, religion, or by some combination of the three. In genocide, the goal is not removal of the group but extermination.

In practice, however, ethnic cleansing and genocide exist on a spectrum of violence. The goals of removal or extermination can be distinct, but ethnic cleansing and genocide can merge together because the methods used to expel a group can in some cases predictably lead to genocide. In the Armenian Genocide, for example, most of the Armenian population of Anatolia was deported, though many, especially men were massacred. However, it was predictable that a very large proportion of Armenian civilians deported south into the desert under the threat of continuous attack would die, and as I point out in my book Terrible Fate, contemporaries, included Germans who served a government allied with Turkey, knew that mass death was predictable.

Michael Clough is obviously extremely knowledgeable about Dafur, but some of the arguments in his Los Angeles Times op-ed may not apply to the issue of defining genocide.

First, the boundaries between the identity of victims and perpetrators in both genocide and ethnic cleansing can be malleable. There is often a paradox to ethnic cleansing. Many who witness violence are shocked not just at the horrors of killing and rape, but because they remember previously close or at least amicable relations between victims and perpetrators, but at the very same time they may stress a different picture of old tensions.

Secondly, a policy of combating insurgency by attacking villages and displacing civilians can be entirely consistent with ethnic cleansing if the goal of such a policy is to drive out large numbers of civilians and remake ethnic and or religious maps.
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Photo: Historian Benjamin Lieberman is professor of history at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts and a graduate of Yale and the University of Chicago. His recent lecture at Clark University focused on the topic of his new book - the first comprehensive history of ethnic cleansing in Europe - entitled Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe (Ivan R. Dee, Publisher). He has also written From Recovery to Catastrophe, a study of Weimar Germany. He lives in Maynard, Massachusetts, USA.
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It's hell in Darfur, but is it genocide? The Sudanese government has targeted villagers, but not a whole race.
by Michael Clough
Los Angeles Times May 14, 2006

GENOCIDE IS not being committed in Darfur. This is not a popular position, I know. But to call what's happening there "genocide" when it's not is unlikely to help the people of Darfur - and could even make it harder to mobilize the public to respond to similar crises in the future.

For 25 years, I've studied and written about conflicts, human rights catastrophes and humanitarian emergencies in Africa. I'm all too familiar with the many official excuses for inaction that can be given while millions of civilians die. Sadly, one of the reasons I prefer working as an attorney for prisoners on death row, rather than as a foreign policy analyst, is that I find it far less depressing than trying to change U.S. policy toward Africa.

The debate about what to do in Darfur - and the use of anti-genocide rhetoric to arouse public concern - has only deepened my misgivings about the way the United States responds to African crises.

From September 2004 to July 2005, I worked as Human Rights Watch's interim advocacy director for Africa, helping to publicize the organization's findings in Darfur. Beginning in February 2004, Human Rights Watch researchers documented horrifying abuses and released evidence that the Sudanese government was responsible for them.

There are no reliable estimates of how many Africans have died in Darfur. Including those killed in attacks and those who have died from disease or malnutrition, the total could be as high as 200,000.

As with so many tragedies in Africa, no one had heard of Darfur until U.N. humanitarian organizations began reporting that hundreds of thousands of civilians had been driven out of their villages. If the world had noticed and responded in early 2003, when the Sudanese government first armed groups of Arab nomads, known as janjaweed, and ordered them to attack villages suspected of harboring antigovernment rebels, the question of genocide would have never arisen - and thousands could have been saved.

But it wasn't until December 2003 that U.N. relief officials warned about an impending humanitarian disaster in Darfur. Soon after, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reported that janjaweed, in concert with Sudanese military units, were slaughtering and displacing villagers.

Both organizations immediately urged the United Nations, the U.S. and other major powers to pressure the Sudanese government to call off the attacks and provide relief to victims flowing into refugee camps in Chad. But lawyers and researchers within Human Rights Watch (and probably Amnesty International) concluded that the events in Darfur did not rise to the level of genocide, a legal designation in international law, because there was no proof of "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such."

That didn't stop activists - inspired in part by Samantha Power's book, "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide" - from invoking the emotive power of the word "genocide" to mobilize the international community. They buttressed their case by drawing attention to the fact that the atrocities in Darfur were coming to light as the world was holding ceremonies commemorating the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda.

In September 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, after hearing from a team of lawyers and investigators sent to Darfur by the State Department, famously declared that "genocide has been committed in Darfur." Congress had already done so.

But the pattern of human rights abuses in Darfur is very different from what happened in Rwanda. As Alison Des Forges, a senior advisor to the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, and others have documented, the slaughter in Rwanda was carefully planned and ruthlessly carried out in a matter of weeks; the clear intent was to eliminate the Tutsi population of Rwanda. In all, 800,000 people were butchered.

In Darfur, the Sudanese government has targeted African villagers. But it is not clear that the government's intent is to wipe out these Africans. The assaults followed successful rebel attacks on some government military facilities. In unleashing janjaweed and targeting the rebels' base of support, the government used the same counterinsurgency tactics it employed in a decades-old war against southerners. (Darfur is in eastern Sudan.) The Sudanese government is certainly not the first to combat an insurgency by attacking sympathetic villages and displacing civilians.

Paradoxically, labeling the atrocities in Darfur genocide may exacerbate the underlying conflict and make it more difficult to create the conditions necessary for civilians to return and live in peace.

Alex De Waal, an activist, longtime expert on Darfur and advisor to the African Union, has written that ethnic, tribal and racial lines in Darfur have been far more malleable than the genocide characterization suggests. Before Darfur, there had been conflicts between janjaweed's nomadic Arabs and the African pastoral tribes that support the rebels. But these clashes were chiefly the result of environmental pressures and competition for land, not deep-seated ethnic or racial animosities. And, until 2003, Darfur was relatively peaceful.

BY CONTRAST, the genocide in Rwanda was presaged by a history of attempts by Hutus and Tutsis to slaughter each other. Even so, many scholars have attributed the tribes' antagonism to colonial policies that reinforced the ethnic dimension of economic and political competition.

Over the long run, peace in Darfur will require Africans and Arabs to live together. Calling their conflict "genocidal" won't make that easier. In Rwanda, for instance, the Tutsi government that came to power after the genocide now uses the rhetoric of genocide to rationalize political repression.

There is also a grave risk in raising the specter of genocide to galvanize a global response to the human rights abuses in Darfur - the international community may be less inclined to react to serious abuses that don't rise to the level of genocide. This could be truly tragic because the only way to prevent genocide is to act at the first sign of threats to civilians.

Of the many tragedies of Darfur, one is that it had to be mislabeled a genocide before politicians and activists were stirred to respond.

Further reading

May 15 2006 Genocide: Lessons from the 20th Century - by Dr Matthew Levinger, director of the Academy for Genocide Prevention at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, in OneWorld - via CFD blog.

May 17 2006 The Daily Star Genocide: a crime lost in definition - by Jerome Mayer-Cantu, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley who closely follows genocide and international law issues. - via CFD.

UK's Benn says "This is a moment for Darfur"

The international community should add to the pressure on rebel factions to sign a peace deal for Darfur, UK International Development Secretary Hilary Benn said today - Reuters' Daniel Wallis:

"If you have won in essence what you're looking for, what possible justification is there to carry on fighting and prolong the suffering of the people of Darfur, who have suffered far too much already?" Benn said.

"We must try, even now, to persuade the other two rebel groups, in particular Abdel Wahed, because during the signing ceremony in Abuja some of his delegation came and said 'We think we should be signing', Benn said.

"This is a moment for Darfur and there is no doubt it has been international pressure that has brought us to this point," he told Reuters in northern Uganda, where he is visiting camps for people displaced by a separate conflict.