Turabi says increase in attacks by JEM rebels likely in order to make themselves look big before coming to East Sudan peace talks

Sudan Tribune (Khartoum) report excerpt:

Turabi, who now heads his own opposition Popular Congress party, says that insurgents from the Justice and Equality Movement, currently fighting government forces in the western Darfur region as well as increasingly in the east, are a better bet for Sudan's future.

"On the ground they're not at all powerful in Darfur, but they're more intelligent, and they're more national. They think about the whole country."

While denying his reported links to the Islamist JEM, Turabi says that an increase in their attacks is likely ahead of peace talks for the east due to start in Asmara on June 13.

"They just want to assert themselves before they come to the negotiations, otherwise they are spoken to as an inferior. This is natural, all human beings are like that."

Nevertheless, Turabi's ideas are in many ways similar to those of the JEM, seeking a new form of Islamic democracy and rejecting the non-democratically elected caliphate system that predominated under early Islam.

"That was wrong. Everything is by consultation and it must be freedom for all, Muslims and non-Muslims. If someone attacks you with words, you must respond with words, if they attack your God, Allah, allow them to speak their minds."

[What a weasel. He changes colours to fit any bandwagon to jump on. See June 6 2006 Drnovsek and Prince Albert II agree on resolving Darfur crisis - JEM leader still in Slovenia? - Darfur's JEM rebel leader says of Darfur "We're going to have our own country."

And note May 28 2006: Turabi cancels London visit after entry visa delay - Sudan's Turabi calls for overthrow of Khartoum regime.]

UN Security Council delegation in Khartoum meets Sudanese President al-Bashir

On arrival in Khartoum Monday June 5, UN Security Council delegation chief and UK Ambassador to the UN Sir Emyr Jones Parry said the United Nations was there to work with the government.

"We're doing it in support of the people of Sudan. We're not doing it for any takeover. We're doing it with the government of Sudan all the time, and we're not seeking in any way to usurp the powers of the government of Sudan," he told reporters.

Full report BBC June 6, 2006.

UN News Centre report confirms all 15 Security Council member countries are represented on the mission, the majority of them at the level of ambassador. The Council mission is slated to visit Darfur and cross the border to Chad where 210,000 refugees from Darfur are living in camps.

Xinhua says on Thursday, the delegation is scheduled to pay a visit to Juba, capital of south Sudan, where its members are going to have talks with First Sudanese Vice President and President of the Government of the South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit as well as local senior officials.

The delegation will travel on Friday to Darfur, where they will meet in the al-Fashir city with Osman Mohammed Yousuf Kibr, Governor of the North Darfur state, and officials of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS).



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/Sudan Watch archive)

UN Security Council members meet Sudan's President al-Bashir

IRIN report June 6, 2006 - excerpt:

"The Security Council delegation is now meeting Lam Akol [the Sudanese foreign minister] and will meet with Bashir later today," said Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), on Tuesday.

The Council members, who arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Monday, met Jan Pronk, special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and other UN officials Tuesday morning, she added. The meeting would be followed by one with Deng Alor, the Sudanese minister of cabinet affairs.

The delegation, led by Jones Parry of the United Kingdom, is expected to stress the importance of a full and rapid implementation of the 5 May Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA). The delegation will also seek the support of the Sudanese government to allow a UN force to take over the peacekeeping mission from 7,000 underfunded African Union (AU) troops.

Sudan recently agreed to allow a UN military planning team to go to Darfur, but it has stopped short of giving its consent to a UN force.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, was appointed to lead the planning team on Monday. The team is expected to arrive in Sudan later this week on a joint mission with the AU. It is expected to hold wide-ranging discussions with Sudanese authorities aimed at strengthening the AU monitoring force in Darfur and preparing for the possible transition to a UN peacekeeping operation.

DPA allocates initial $30m in compensation to 3m Darfuris - More is promised but peace deal critics in camps aren't hearing the message

As noted here on June 5, 2006 a faction of Nur's SLM rebel group says the Darfur Peace Agreement needs no additional clauses - main issue delaying signing is compensation to IDPs.

A report by Reuters today (see below) points out that initial compensation from the Government of Sudan to some 3m Darfuris works out at $10 per person. As noted here earlier, the African Union Mission in Darfur currently costs $1 billion a year. Imagine the cost of the humanitarian operation currently taking place across the Sudan. The UN's World Food Programme alone feeds 6.1m people across Sudan, including 3m from Darfur. It seems to me a vociferous fraction of those 3m, many of whom can't even read or write, are being fed propaganda by rival rebel factions driven by self interest.

Incidentally, the populated of Darfur is estimated at 6-7 million - USAID uses the figure 6.5m. Where are the demos and protests against the Darfur Peace Agreement from the other 3.5m Darfuris?

Once can't help but wonder if the poor displaced Sudanese people are getting used to the closeness of camp life, regular food, water, medics, educators and security under the blanket provided by the international community. First the Darfuris say they won't return home because of security fears. Now they refuse to support peace because the cash on offer to them is not enough right now. From what I can gather, most of the civilians want peace.

Maybe JEM rebels and Nur's SLM faction brainwash underlings to keep their followers keen. Promising more than can be delivered right away. If this is how the the rebels act before they get into government, imagine how they will govern fairly. It seems as though leadership within the rebel groups is coming from self serving opportunists who are not fit to govern.

From what I can see, the rebel leaders are not presenting the DPA in a fair light to their people. No doubt most of the people have heard about the $4.5 billion in development funding pledged for southern Sudan pledged by international donors when a peace agreement was signed for the south ... and how the south got its own Vice Presidency position and are allowed to vote to break away in 2011 and take the south's oil wells (which northern Sudan and Khartoum regime currently depends on). $30m must sound like a pittance to their uneducated ears. Do they know the $4.5 billion has strings attached - that it depends on peace being agreed for Darfur? Darfuris are not helping the poor people in southern Sudan. What decent business person would commit to investing in Darfur during such instability? Darfuris are shooting themselves in the foot.

Soon another donor conference will take place for Darfur. Maybe the Darfuris, with nothing to lose, believe they have time on their side enabling them to hold out for more money, power and wealth. Do they realise who pays for the humanitarian operation and troops, where the money originates (tax dollars, earned by ordinary hard working folk)? What if citizens within each country around the world decided to form rebel groups, take up arms and kill for what they wanted, holding governments to ransom for years on end, for however long they wish, sqaundering a fortune in the meantime?

Note, after two years my sympathies with the so-called rebels representing the oppressed people of Sudan are wearing thin. I have a lot of patience and compassion which makes me think I can't be the only person feeling this way right now. The rebels ought to explain to their people that international donors represent the citizens of countries who earn the tax dollars used to assist 6m people across the Sudan. People, animals and crops in the Sudan and Chad need water, not war. Time is not on their side. There is no future in regions without enough water to sustain life. Science tells us if they want to save their heritage and culture, time is of the essence.



Photo: People from a Kafonja tribe going with their donkeys every morning for fresh water to pump in desert. Taken in desert, close to Mussawarat es Sufra, Northern Sudan by Vit Hassan

G8 aid for Africa under threat from climate change

Last year, a friend emailed me saying "Lord May predicted that much of Africa will become uninhabitable if the West continues to consume such a large share of the planet's resources. In the face of that threat, the starving masses will have to move elsewhere --- or perish. He dare not say that there are 'too many people in the wrong place' but that happens to be the cause of the problem --- including the greedy 280 millions in America." See The Royal Society Science News: G8 aid for Africa under threat from climate change, warns Lord May of Oxford 24 Oct 2005.

Darfur peace deal allocates initial $30m in compensation to 3m Darfuris

Reuters report by Opheera McDoom, Fata Borno Camp, Sudan, June 6, 2006 - excerpt:

Last week, on Minni Arcua Minnawi's first return to Darfur since signing the Abuja peace deal, he wanted to visit Abou Shouk camp near the main town of el-Fasher. But the African Union said he was unable to out of fears for his safety following daily protests against the agreement.

At nearby Fata Borno Camp residents warned him to stay away from their camp as well.

"If Minni comes here we will slaughter him," said Abdallah Adam Ibrahim, who fled his home to the camp in north Darfur three years ago.

"He has sold our souls and our tears -- he is a traitor," he said, running his finger across his throat to mime slitting the throat of the young SLA leader.

Rival SLA leader Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) refused to sign the Abuja deal. They said they wanted more compensation for war victims, more political posts and a role in disarming the Janjaweed.

"Minni may have the soldiers but all the camps belong to Abdel Wahed," said Ibrahim Ismail Adam, another Darfuri who has taken refuge in the Fata Borno camp.

"We have paid a dear price in this war, we have suffered rape, pillage and killing, so we have to have compensation," said Mohamed Abdel Karim, a local Fur leader from the areas around Fata Borno.

The Abuja deal allocates an initial $30 million in compensation from the government for more than 3 million Darfuris the United Nations says were affected by the conflict.

Nur and those in the camps dismissed the $10 per person payout as a joke.

Minnawi says some international partners have promised to add to that amount. But his many critics in the camps aren't hearing his message.

Minnawi is unable to travel to areas controlled by commanders loyal to Nur and also says he still does not fully trust his government partners in peace.

"If I trust the government 100 percent I would not come to land in the AU camp," he told Reuters in an interview in the AU headquarters in el-Fasher.

This week he refused to allow an AU plane moving him from south Sudan to el-Fasher to stop and refuel in Nyala in South Darfur for security reasons.

The AU peace agreement reached in early May was the result of two years of talks. Analysts say the road ahead on the ground in Darfur will likely be as long and difficult. Despite the setbacks during his first weeks as peacemaker, Minnawi remained optimistic.

"With time ... everyone will recognize that the peace is for them, the peace is for the Darfuri people," he said.

Photo: Bedouin from a Kafonja tribe. They are going every morning to pump in desert for fresh water. Taken in desert, Mussawarat es Sufra, Northern Sudan by Vit Hassan.

Jun 2 2006 DPA report - Darfuris say peace deal incomplete - 'We stay for 100 years in camps'

Jun 3 2006 Sudan's Dinka back home after 20-year journey - 90,000 displaced southerners in Darfur, 25,000 have returned

May 27 2006 UNICEF's Clean-water project in Sudan keeps children healthy and in school - this provides links to:

Jan 26 2006 In Darfur, handpumps are on the frontline of peacebuilding

Jan 30 2006 The war on terrorism that most Americans don't know about

Feb 5 2006 Peacekeeping waterpumps - East Africa a front in war on terrorism

Feb 23 2006 Drilling for Sudan's drinking water is more important than drilling for oil

Feb 28 2006 Water to spark future wars: UK

Mar 5 2006 The 21st century's most explosive commodity will be . . . WATER
- - -

Hat tip to Laban Tall's Blog for these links:

Jun 5 2006 Independent UK - Desert life threatened by climate change and human exploitation - The UN EP investigation found that climate change over the past 25 years has caused temperatures to rise faster than the global average in nine out of 12 major deserts studied. The study found that the projected temperature increases over the next 75 to 100 years range from 1C to 7C.

Jun 5 2006 AAP report - Climate change threatens 'vital' deserts - Far from being barren wastelands, the deserts that occupy one quarter of the earth's land surface could be key sources of food and power, the United Nations said.

Sudan's Darfur rebels accused of torture - Last week Minnawi's SLA faction targeted Bir Maza, Minnawi's home town occupied by rival rebel group

BBC report by Jonah Fisher in Kutum, North Darfur, June 5, 2006:

The BBC has obtained photos which show people who have been tortured by one of Darfur's rebel factions in Sudan.



The pictures, taken by African Union peacekeepers, show supporters of one rebel faction who were abducted when a rival group attacked.

It is a month since the signing of a peace deal which was supposed to end the three-year-long conflict.

But there is no improvement on the ground, with armed groups continuing to attack each other and civilians.

There are no "good guys" in Darfur's bloody conflict.

Minni Minnawi, the leader of the region's biggest rebel group, was hailed by the international community when he signed the peace agreement at talks in Nigeria.

In the month since the deal, Mr Minnawi has stopped attacking the Khartoum government - but instead, turned his attention to his former rebel allies.



Torture

A week ago, Mr Minnawi's faction targeted the town of Bir Maza. Although it his home town, it is occupied by a rival rebel group.

It is not clear who is to blame for the men's injuries

An unknown number of people died in the clashes and 15 people were abducted.

Three days later, 13 of the men were released. They told the African Union (AU) that they had been tortured by Mr Minnawi's group for opposing the peace deal.

Richard Lourens, the AU's sector commander, who saw the men, described injuries of burn marks and swollen jaws, thought to be caused by pistol-whipping and ropes.

Mr Minnawi has denied being behind the attack, saying Chadian mercenaries are to blame.

Publicly, the AU say they have yet to decide who was responsible.

As their supposed partner in peace and the focal point for the new agreement, Mr Minnawi is not a man they want to offend.

[via Coalition for Darfur, with thanks]
- - -

Bir Maza, Minnawi's home town in Darfur

Nov 15 2005 Julie Flint commentary The Daily Star - Not long after rebels took up arms in Darfur - to fight against marginalization and injustice, they said - Abdel-Rahman Ali Mohammadayn, a king of the Zaghawa tribe that is one of the mainstays of the rebellion, was captured, bound hand and foot, hanged from a tree and beaten to death. He was killed not by the Sudanese government, but by the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) - specifically, by that faction of the rebel movement whose leader, Minni Arkoi Minawi, was last week "elected" chairman of the SLA. The inverted commas are essential here: Minawi's "unity" conference was little more than a coup, a grab for power portrayed as a move toward "democratization." [edit]

Marajan, a member of the Meidop tribe, came to international attention at the last round of Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, which he attended despite orders from Minawi to report to him instead in the village of Bir Maza. Similar orders went to two other North Darfur commanders who support the peace process: Saleh Adam Izhaq, a member of the Berti tribe, and Jar al-Nebi, a member of Minawi's own Zaghawa tribe. All three declined the invitation, forewarned by friends close to Minawi that they would be prevented from traveling to Abuja. (At Abuja, Marajan took delight in relating that Saleh was newly married, and "had he gone to Bir Maza, his new wife would be a widow!") Marajan and Saleh left their villages and were lifted out of the North Darfur desert by African Union helicopter; Jar al-Nebi slipped away on a donkey, by night. After Marajan's departure, Minawi's men caught up with his escort, killed five men and abducted three. (During his detention, in Bir Maza, Commander Haroun Adam Haroun, one of the three, was hanged by his arms and legs from a tree for three to four hours a day, three times a day. He was asked repeatedly: "Where is Marajan? What has he told you? Is he forming a new group?")
- - -

UPDATE: Jun 6 2006 Reuters report by Opheera McDoom {via Scotsman] - SLA accuses Darfur rebel rivals of attack, kidnapping:

Whatever the truth, the local AU commander monitoring the region said it was a violation of the May 5 deal for Minnawi to be entering areas not under his control. "That I regard as a cease-fire violation," said Richard Lourens.

Commanders allied to Nur are refusing to recognise the Darfur peace deal and warn Minnawi not to risk his life by venturing into their area of control in the vast region.

"Minni cannot enter here and if he does people will be killed," said Ismail Adam, the commander in Debbis, in north Darfur. "This is an individual peace and does not belong to the people of Darfur," he says.

They want a role in disarming Arab militias known as Janjaweed, more political posts and more compensation for the more than 3 million people affected by the conflict.

Jun 6 2006 VOA reportRebel Factions Battle in Sudan's Darfur Region - Supporters of Minnawi, who supported the Darfur peace deal, deny that they attacked the town. They say Chadian rebels control the town and they told the African Union that their own men had been abducted. The AU has been unable come to a conclusion and it appears Minni Minnawi has lost popular support in Darfur. Many people call him a traitor for signing the peace agreement.

UPDATE: Jun 9 2006 Sudan Tribune report: SLM detains 2 rebel leaders for their rejection of Darfur peace deal - A Darfur rebel faction who signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government arrested and tortured two rebel leaders for their opposition to the peace deal. According to Amnesty International the Sudan Liberation Army of Minni Minawi detains Commander Suleiman Jamous formerly SLM humanitarian coordinator since 20 May because he is opposed to the Darfur Peace Agreement signed on 5 May between the SLM Minawi and the Sudanese government in Abuja.

Arab League supports Joint AU-UN Mission in Darfur and calls on Arabs and Muslims outside Sudan to back DPA

Commentary at Asharq Alawsat Newspaper June 5, 2006 by Amr Moussa, Arab League's secretary-general. Excerpt:

If we remain on course, the joint [AU-UN] mission will work alongside the Sudanese government and the people of Darfur to protect civilians, assist refugees and the displaced to return to their homes and rebuild their lives. It will also strengthen human rights and create a positive atmosphere to enable national reconciliation to take place, as part of a Darfur conference, which the Arab League will take part in. The joint mission will also work alongside governments and aid agencies to ensure the people of Darfur receive what the shelter and food they need. It is envisaged that the joint mission will be mobile and capable of dealing with the forces opposed to peace.

In the meantime, it is crucial for the AU mission in Sudan to receive all the funds and resources it requires in order to implement the accord. Arab leaders in their March summit in Khartoum confirmed this. The international community should also see the Abuja accord as a first step, and put words into action, especially with regards to development efforts and achieving national unity and stability.

I call on Arabs and Muslims outside Sudan to back the Abuja accord and support all efforts to strengthen it, in order to protect their brothers in Darfur and across Sudan.

Faction of Nur's SLM says DPA needs no additional clauses - main issue delaying signing is compensation to IDPs

IPP Media report June 5, 2006 via ANDnetwork .com says a delegation of the rebel faction SLM that refused to assent to the Darfur Peace Agreement on Friday appealed to its leader, Abdulwahid Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur, to sign the document. Excerpt:

Speaking to journalists here, members of the delegation said they were in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to convey the desire of all the people of Darfur for peace and express gratitude to the African Union (AU) for its efforts to resolve the crisis in Darfur.

"The major reason for our leaders not to sign the peace agreement is about compensation to the internally displaced persons who have lost everything (as a result of the fighting)," said Issa Mohamed Adam, political advisor in Abdulwahid's constituency.

"This is the main issue delaying the signing of the agreement," he said. "I am convinced that one day we will sign the agreement because we cannot be excluded from the peace process of Darfur."

The faction's delegation includes field commanders and representatives of political offices and IDP camps. The authorities in Khartoum supported their trip to Addis Ababa, Issa said.

They expressed gratitude to the international community, the United Nations and its specialized agencies as well as non-governmental humanitarian agencies operating in Darfur.

They also appealed for continued support for the IDPs and refugees in order to facilitate their safe return to villages once peace returns in the region.

"In the Movement, we don't have dispute with our leaders. We think this peace agreement needs no additional clauses.

We are convinced that we cannot gain anything from the war while the international community is calling for peace," said Mohammed Abdallah Abdulkhalid, a member of the faction's political bureau.

According to Issa, the widely held impression that Mini Minawi, who signed the DPA, led the largest group of SLM/A was a distortion of the facts on the ground.

"We would like to correct the information about which group is major in the Movement. We represent the majority of the population in Darfur and we are active in three states of the region, North, South and West.

"We are fixed in our original movement that was set up in 1992 and that is the major one under the leadership of Abdulwahid" Issa claimed. "If the leader does not sign the peace agreement, we'll sign it ourselves".

Drnovsek and Prince Albert II agree on resolving Darfur crisis - JEM leader still in Slovenia?

Photo: Leader of Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim speaks during a meeting with Slovenia's President Janez Drnovsek in the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Wednesday, May, 31, 2006. (AP Photo/Denis Sarkic)



Photo: Slovenia's President Janez Drnovsek, the head negotiator of Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Ahmed Tugod Lissan, JEM meber Abdulahi Osman El-Tom, and the leader of Sudan's Democratic Union and former Governor of Darfur Ahmed I. Diraige, from left to right, talk in the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tuesday, May, 30, 2006. The meeting between Drnovsek as a mediator and representatives of the JEM will try to find a solution that would allow the rebel groups and Sudanese government to sign the a peace deal for Darfur. (AP Photo/Denis Sarkic)

I say, the story of Slovenia hosting a delegation of Darfur's JEM rebels gets stranger by the day. Slovenia's President Janez Drnovsek and Prince Albert II of Monaco on 31 May repeated their call on the need to solve the situation in Darfur, with the prince again expressing his support for Drnovsek's endeavours to bring peace to the Sudanese region, Slovenia Business Week (Slovene Press Agency STA) reported June 5, 2006 - excerpt:

The pair also agreed that cooperation between the two countries is excellent, with Drnovsek pointing out that the prince was accompanied by a strong business delegation, which discussed improving economic relations with their Slovenian counterparts.

Prince Albert also revealed his wish that Monaco open up to Mediterranean countries which are "practically my neighbours", stressing that the principality has been for the past five years active in Slovenian projects on the preservation of cultural and natural heritage.

Drnovsek added that cooperation between the two countries is a proof that even small countries can change things for the better. He also observed that Monaco is active in a variety of humanitarian activities, including the support for Slovenian missionary Pedro Opeka in Madagascar.

Prince Albert also commented on gaming, explaining that the industry has had a long history in the principality and never caused excessive problems.

Photo: Head negotiator of Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Ahmed Tugod Lissan, JEM leadership member Abdulahi Osman El-Tom, JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim and Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek, from left, talk during their meeting in the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Wednesday, May, 31, 2006. (AP Photo/Denis Sarkic)

June 1 2006 Despite Slovene efforts, Darfur JEM refuses to sign peace

June 2 2006 Darfur's JEM rebel leader says "We're going to have our own country"

June 2 2006 Senior members and field commanders of JEM and Nur's SLM/A faction ask to sign Darfur Peace Agreement

SLA Team set to arrive in Khartoum next week, followed by SLA leader Minnawi week later, to commence implementation of Darfur Peace Agreement

UN Security Council starts its mission in Sudan late today aimed at brokering peace for Darfur and convincing Khartoum that a UN peacekeeping operation in Darfur was not tantamount to an invasion force:

Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, during a stopover in Frankfurt on the flight to Khartoum, said Sudanese leaders felt they needed more time to pull together their government, following a power-sharing agreement last year with former southern rebels. "We have to be a little bit understanding -- not soft, but understanding," he told Reuters.

China's UN ambassador Wang Guangya agreed, saying a recent council resolution ordering Sudan to allow in the UN planning teams disappointed Khartoum.

Instead they had expected to be complimented for their flexibility in negotiations with Darfur rebels, not all of whom have signed the accord.

Some Sudanese fear NATO soldiers among the UN force and believe any mandate under enforcement provisions in Chapter 7 of the UN Charter constitutes an invasion. Chapter 7 is cited in nearly all U.N. peacekeeping operations.

"Those who speak about the US invasion of Iraq should speak about the US invasion of Iraq," special UN envy Lakhdar Brahimi, told a recent news conference in Khartoum. "But when you speak about the United Nations, then please talk about the U.N. as you know it (and not) as if it is coming to invade," he said.

JEM's leader might still be away in Slovenia. As noted here earlier, Chad's President Deby said he cannot allow him return to Chad if sanctions are imposed on rebel leaders refusing to join Darfur peace deal.

Yesterday, the African Union rejected calls for peace negotiations to be handed over to the UN, saying the deal should not be held hostage by recalcitrant factions - AFP/Gulf Times reported today:

"We cannot hold the Darfur Peace Agreement hostage to those who did not sign, we have to go ahead and start implementation because the situation in Darfur can't wait," AU spokesman in Khartoum Noureddine Mezni said.

Rebels had until May 31 to agree to the peace deal, drawn up in Abuja on May 5, or face UN sanctions, but only one faction of the main Sudan Liberation Movement signed ahead of the deadline.

The AU declaration came after the dissident SLM faction on Saturday said the bloc had failed in its efforts to broker an end to the three-year conflict in western Sudan and called on the UN to take over.

"This document was prepared and finalised in tight consultation with international partners including the UN, the European Union and the Arab League, as well as many national governments," Mezni said.

"The document was witnessed by all of them, and the institutions endorsed the document as balanced and just. The document is African and international at the same time. We have done the maximum possible."

The holdout SLM faction led by Abdul Wahed Mohamed al-Nur said on Saturday it had rejected the whole peace agreement after AU mediators failed to include its demands.

One month has passed since Darfur Peace Agreement was signed by SLA rebel leader Minnawi and Government of Sudan.

"I have the advance team which should be in Khartoum next week and after that we will prepare to go there," SLA leader Minnawi told Reuters in el-Fasher, the main town in Darfur, today:

"When we signed the peace we requested the AU forces to come here ... I think the UN forces have the right to come here ... to protect the civilians," he said. Minnawi said he saw no difference between AU and UN troops, except that the UN force would have better logistics and more resources.

He also said he was not worried about the thousands of Darfuris in Khartoum and across the region who have been protesting against the signing of the deal because the other rebels did not sign. "With ... time everyone will recognise that the peace is for them, the peace is for the Darfuri people," he said.

"The modalities in the agreement ... are timelined and also there is a plan supposed to be adopted by the AU ... All these things are progress towards disarmament of the Janjaweed."

Yesterday, SLM insurgent leader Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur failed to meet Kiir and Minnawi for peace talks.

An official spokesman of the SLA, Esam Eddine al-Haj, said that Minnawi had actually arrived in Yei and met Kiir. However, he said he was unable to contact Minnawi to find out the outcome of the discussions.

Al-Haj, who is based in Italy, said a delegation from Minnawi's SLA would arrive in Khartoum within the next two weeks, followed by Minnawi, to implement the Abuja agreement.

[Sudan Watch Ed: For the purposes of using keywords to search the archives of this blog, I refer to Minnawi's faction of Darfur rebel group SLM/A as "SLA" (something Reuters does too) because he appears to run the military side of the movement -- and al-Nur's faction of the SLM/A as "SLM" or "Nur's SLA faction" because he appears more political and claims to represent the interests of a larger number of Darfuris. Also, in order to search items relating to Minnawi, I maintain the spelling of his name as "Minnawi" - same goes for "Janjaweed" and "Gaddafi". If Nur signs the peace deal, I guess the movement may be referred to as SLM/A. Question is: who will I be referring to as the leader of the SLM/A? My view is the Darfuri people are not aware of the contents of the Darfur Peace Agreement. Maybe al-Nur is being selective in his translation of it? Maybe he has promised his people more than can ever be delivered in one go? Many Darfuris can't even read or write - how do they know they are not being hoodwinked simply to serve the greedy ambitions of one man? Same goes for JEM. Then there are days, when I read reports of rebels in eastern Sudan, I wonder if all of the Sudanese rebels are part of one group, conveniently splitting into factions and playing two ends against the middle in order to appear they genuinely want an end to the suffering of their people. Backward barbarians. Janjaweed and all. Give them an inch and they take a mile. No wonder the Sudan is ruled with a stick. It's a wild country, the size of Europe.]

UNITED POWER ...



Even animals can sometimes find together way... (Photo Vit Hassan, Sudan)



Photo: Sandstorm over pyramids in Bajrawia (Vit Hassan)

SLA rival Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur failed to meet Kiir and Minnawi for peace talks

On Thursday it was noted here at Sudan Watch that Sudan's First VP Kiir was to meet SLM/A's Minnawi and Nur (and maybe JEM leader) within 72 hours.

Today, Reuters' Opheera McDoom reveals:

Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir had travelled to Yei in southern Sudan on Friday to try to reconcile Minnawi and his SLA rival Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur.

But Nur refused to attend the meeting, leaving the others waiting for two days.

On Saturday Nur's faction told Reuters in Nairobi the AU had failed to mediate the conflict and called on the United Nations to take over the peace process.

"The African Union mediation team has failed to realise peace in Darfur," said Nouri Abdalla, an adviser to Nur.

I agree with Drima of Sudanese Thinker when he says:

There's no honour in the way he and the others carried out their rebellion. UN & AU Keep Your Word! and enforce the sanctions you've been talking about all along.

Note May 18 2006 Reuters report - JEM leader will have to leave Chad if he does not sign Darfur peace deal by May 31 - "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.

Jun 3 2006 TEXT- Press Release by Nur's SLM regarding AU Mediation.

UN not asked to broker deal

The African Union has rejected calls for negotiations on reaching peace in Darfur to be handed over to the UN, saying the deal will not be held hostage by recalcitrant factions.

The AU spokesperson in Khartoum, Noureddine Mezni, said: "We can't hold the Darfur peace agreement hostage to those who did not sign; we have to go ahead and start implementation because the situation in Darfur can't wait." - AFP

June 3 2006 SLA's Abdel Wahed Mohamed al-Nur rejects the whole Darfur Peace Agreement, wants UN mediation

June 3 2006 Al-Mahdi calls on Darfur rebels to adopt "civil jihad" to press Khartoum into convening all-inclusive conference

June 4 2006 SLA rival Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur failed to meet Kiir and Minnawi for peace talks

President of South Africa says a just resolution of conflict in Darfur must be based on the repudiation of any winner-takes-all-approach

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA
Thabo Mbeki May 16, 2006. Excerpt:

In his book, Mansour Khalid wrote: "In the case of Sudan, the mainspring of war has been iniquitous attempts by one group to gain immoderate advantage over a presumed rival under the pretence of enhancing 'national' acquirements narrowly perceived."

In this light, Sudan's war may fairly be traced to a sense of perverted nationalism that never cared to keep the mean between two extremes. Invariably, perverted nationalisms are driven by a winner-take-all inclination. On no account do they put up with relinquishing a little; they always hunger for taking all.

"This acquisitiveness invites, as a matter of course, retortion by those who suffer most from its consequences either to reparate injuries or end injustices (real or perceived). Those root causes of conflict, if not identified, recognised and dealt with, inescapably fester and burst."

A just resolution of the conflict in Darfur, and all the other historic tensions that have affected Sudan, must indeed be based on the repudiation of any winner-takes-all approach, which makes it impossible to build the inclusive societies that are the only condition for the achievement of peace, stability and national unity and reconciliation in all African countries.

Everything must be done to expand the reach of the agreement Signed in Abuja on 5 May, by ensuring that all Darfurians are persuaded to board the Sudanese peace train. Africa, and not only Darfur, Sudan and Chad, has great need for that piece of good news.

Sudan welcomes Libyan role in eastern Sudan Peace Talks Eritrea June 13

Presidential Advisor Mustafa Osman Ismail said that Sudan welcomed Libya's role to try and bring about a peaceful settlement to eastern Sudan crisis, Sudan Tribune reported today. Excerpt:

He said that Sudan affirmed that the government of national unity was ready to go to Eritrea and embark in talks with the concerned parties as was agreed upon during Vice-President Ali Osman Taha's recent visit to Eritrea.



Photo: The signing of the procedural arrangements for eastern Sudan peace talks, Asmara, May 25, 2006 (ERINA)

The Sudanese government and the rebel Eastern Front Thursday 25 May signed in the Eritrean capital an agreement on the procedural arrangements for their coming negotiations. The parties agreed to start talks on June 13.

The agreement called on Eritrea to play the role of the mediator in the coming negotiations between the two parties.

Sudan during long time insisted on the Libyan mediation for the Eastern Sudan peace talks. It accepted the Eritrean mediation last April and since different measures adopted to prepare the talks in Asmara.

Further reading

Feb 28 2006 UN says Eritrea, Libya, Chad supply arms to Sudan's Darfur rebels and SPLM/A provided training and arms to SLM/A

Apr 26 2006 Sudan Tribune - Officials to Eritrea to prepare for East Sudan talks

May 14 2006 Letter to Editor of The Arab American News - Darfur, Eritrea and "the road to peace in the Horn of Africa runs through Asmara..."

Jun 1 2006 Reuters: Sudan asks for more African troops in Darfur-Libya

Jun 2 2006 Sudan Tribune Libya's Gaddafi warns of NATO intervention if Chad and Sudan don't return to normal

Jun 4 2006 Sudan Tribune (Khartoum) Rebels reject NDA participation in Eastern Sudan talks - Eastern rebels rejected the participation of the National Democratic Alliance in the expected peace talks with the Sudanese government within two weeks, saying that their former ally is now part of the national unity government.

Head of AU Mission in Darfur needs immediate extra funds and 5,600 more troops - AU said donors would only fund 4,000 troops

June 4, 2006 Reuters report by Opheera McDoom - excerpt:

The African Union force charged with observing a ceasefire in the wake of a very fragile Darfur peace deal must be given immediate extra funds and 4,000 more troops, the AU mission head in western Sudan said.

"This agreement has been a very fragile one extracted under very severe conditions -- it was like extracting something from a lion's jaw," Collins Ihekire, the military head of the 7,000-strong AU mission in Darfur, told Reuters on Sunday.

"We must be empowered now to make sure that we can minimise any problems," he said, adding if the deteriorating security situation worsened it would be difficult to get the parties back to negotiations.

Ihekire said he had wanted an extra eight battalions, or around 5,600 troops. But the AU said donors would only fund another five battalions -- 4,000 troops.

Donors will meet on June 20 in Brussels to pledge more funds for the cash-strapped mission, which the United Nations hopes to take over if it can win agreement from Sudan.

"What is preventing us is ... lack of ability on the ground," Ihekire said.

"It is due to a paucity of resources," he said, adding he did not have enough troops to secure the region the size of France.

He said the fact that only one rebel faction had signed the deal would be an obstacle to implementation. Efforts are still ongoing to get the other two factions to sign.

Note, June 1 2006 What's going on? AU Mission in Darfur costs $1 billion a year - SA troops in Darfur still waiting to be paid: EU said there was no delay in funding- - -

May 30 2006 VOA Misinformation about Darfur Peace Agreement has led to violent reprisals against AU peacekeepers - AU media campaign urges Darfuris to support peace

Chadian army, rebels battle near Sudan border - Is RDL/FUC leader Mahamat Nour dead or alive?

Chadian army, rebels battle near Sudan border - Sudan Tribune June 3, 2006, excerpt:

A Chad military source said the rebels were under orders from a former ally of Deby, Timane Erdimi, who turned against the president in December 2005 and has since become the head of an opposition movement.

The statement added that Mahamat Nour, the brains behind the United Front for Change (FUC) rebel group, had died from a heart attack in Dubai on Friday. It gave no further details.

Regarding Mahamat Nour, contradictory reports suggest also he is detained in Khartoum by the Sudanese security service.

Photo: Chadian rebel group FUC leader Mohamat Nour.

Note, a comment posted at Sudan Watch Jan 13, 2006 by unknown author of Genocide au Darfour, blog tells us:

"The commander in charge of the massacres in Darfur is called MAHAMAT NOUR ABDELKRIM. The "captain" Mahamat Nour, ex-officer of the chadian army, has commanded the Jandjawids with the sudanese logistic. He has been the principal planner of the genocide in Darfur. Thanks to his chadian nationality, he was used as an alibi by the Sudanese government."



Jan 14 2005 Chad-Sudan: A third rebel movement the NMRD has appeared in Darfur: The NMRD claims to be a breakaway movement from JEM, one of the main rebel groups in Darfur. NMRD leader said his group broke away from JEM in April last year because it disagreed with Tourabi, an Islamic fundamentalist politician, over the rebel movement.

Jan 28 2006 Sudan accuses Chad of shelling Arm Yakui, West Darfur - NMRD Darfur rebels attack Sudan army base in Arm Yakui

Feb 12 2006 Reuters exclusive interview: Mahamat Nour the Chad rebel leader demands change, by force if needed

Feb 20 2006 Two Chadian army generals desert, join rebels

Apr 2 2006 Mohamat Nour's Chadian rebel United Front for Change (FUC) aims to depose Chadian president Deby

Apr 10 2006 FUC in eastern Chad mount fresh offensive to get to N'Djamena and oust Chadian President Deby

Apr 11 2006 BBC Chadian rebels raid central town

Apr 11 2006 Propaganda war in Chad aimed at sowing fear and panic

Apr 12 2006 BBC Chad rebels 'advance on capital' - The BBC's Stephanie Hancock in N'Djamena says people in the capital are going to work as usual, but are not sending their children to school in case of unrest.

Apr 13 2006 Analysis: Conflict in Chad has roots in Darfur - by Africa correspondent of The Times.

Apr 14 2006 Tripoli Agreement: Leaders of Chad and Sudan on the evening of Wednesday 8 Feb 2006 signed a peace agreement in Tripoli, Libya under which they promised to immediately expel armed groups hostile to their respective governments. See Apr 10 African military monitors now on Sudan-Chad-CAR border.

Apr 16 2006 Sudan Tribune (Paris) Chad's rebels say govt using mercenaries, deny Sudan support: Darfur is in the throes of a civil war pitting Janjaweed militia loyal to the Sudanese government against rebels, some of whom come from the same Zaghawa ethnic group as Chadian President Deby. The FUC is alleged to be supporting the Janjaweed militia in Darfur. On Saturday the FUC and MDJT faction accused Deby's regime of recruiting fighters from among the Darfur rebels. "We have proof - we have captured several prisoners from Darfur's armed rebel movement," they said. The two groups also accused Deby of recruiting European mercenaries to fight them, with the help of former French gendarme Paul Barril. Barril denied the charges.

Apr 23 2006 Chad rebel prisoners say Sudan recruited them: "The Sudanese intelligence people were our contacts ... they were always dressed in civilian clothing," Colonel Adoum Maratis, a captured rebel commander who said he came from Central African Republic, told reporters. "We were given transport, communications. We were well equipped," Maratis said, adding that around 1,200 fighters in 75 pick-up trucks were involved in the attack on N'Djamena. Maratis said he was recruited four months ago in Khartoum at a meeting with rebel chief Mahamat Nour.

Apr 23 2006 Jan Pronk Weblog FUC, RaFD, SCUD - Chadian rebels had good contacts in W Darfur

Jun 4 2006 Sudan Tribune (Paris) Sudan releases Chadian rebel leader Sileick - Sudan arrested Sileick to support his rival Nour: Chadian rebel leader Mahamat Sileick released by Sudan has refugee status in France and says FUC's (formerly known as RDL) Nour is close to Sudanese security service.

Chadian rebel leader Mahamat Sileick released by Sudan has refugee status in France and says RDL/FUC's Nour is close to Sudanese security service

Sudan Tribune report (Paris) May 30 2006:

The released Chadian rebel leader said Tuesday that Sudanese authorities had arrested him to help his rival in a Chadian rebel group to unify Chadian rebels and overthrow Deby regime.

Sileck was detained without charge since October last year in Dabak prison, Khartoum. He has a refugee status in France.

In a statement to Radio France Internationale (RFI) Mahamat Sileick who is freed by Sudanese Authorities at the end of the last week, said the main objective of his detention was create favorable conditions for his rival in the Alliance Nationale de la Resistance (ANR), Mahamat Nour to create a large opposition movement against Chadian president Idriss deby.

My presence in the ANR was impeding Nour's project at that time.

In late October 2005, shortly after Sileck was arrested, Mahamat Nour formed the Rassemblement pour la Democratie et la Liberte (RDL), composed overwhelmingly of former ANR members. It is widely reported that the RDL, shortly after its creation, received a significant increase in military assistance from the Sudanese government.

In late December, following the high profile attack on Adre, Mahamat Nour formed a new umbrella movement composed of seven other Chadian armed opposition groups opposed to President Idriss Deby, called the Front uni pour le Changement Democratique au Tchad (FUC). The RDL remained the key player within this group. The FUC launched a coup attempt on 13 April 2006 from eastern Chad on the Chadian capital, N'Djamena.

Sileick who is currently in a secrete residence outside the Sudan, said Nour is very close to the Sudanese security service. "These people believed he can be helpful in the realization of their project to topple down president Deby".

Sileick release comes after a campaign in favour of his liberation in which many French MPs are involved. The French Foreign Ministry since last March disclosed that Paris had engaged a series of contacts with the Sudanese authorities about him.

TEXT- Press Release by Nur's SLM/A regarding AU Mediation

Click here to read the text of SLM/A press release dated June 3, 2006 regarding the AU Mediation. It opens by saying, the SLM/A has exhausted all avenues to realise peace in Darfur through the AU mediation.

See June 3 2006 Reuters report SLA's Abdel Wahed Mohamed al-Nur rejects the whole Darfur Peace Agreement, wants UN mediation.

Al-Mahdi calls on Darfur rebels to adopt "civil jihad" to press Khartoum into convening all-inclusive conference - Unused water and Roseires Dam

Sadiq al-Mahdi is the last elected prime minister of Sudan. He led a coalition government until he was toppled in a coup in 1989. The man who overthrew him was military officer Omar al-Bashir, who is now Sudans president.

The below copied report quotes Sadiq Al-Mahdi as saying elevation of Roseires Dam would be the most viable project in Sudan as it would avail it of 4bn cubic metres of unused water. Unused water? How interesting. Horrendous fighting goes on in the Sudan over the shortage of water for drinking, farming and livestock. As noted here at Sudan Watch many times before, water is key to the future development of the Sudan. Excerpt from Small-hydro Atlas:

Sudan needs to implement new hydro projects to overcome energy shortages and to reduce dependence on imported oil. Integrated Nile Basin development would allow for better use of the water resources of the Nile, increasing, electricity production. An interconnected power grid, involving hydro plants in the Upper Nile basin and the Egyptian grid could solve problems of instability and insufficient capacity supplied to the country.

June 3, 2006 KHM report (Khartoum) Sudan Tribune. Copy:

Former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi, told over a million of his supporters at the town of Sinja, Blue Nile State that everyone should work to rid the Sudan of its problems.

He called on Darfur rebels to adopt what he termed "civil jihad" in order to press Sudanese government into convening an all-inclusive conference to realize just peace and install a national government to conduct fair elections.

Al-Mahdi welcomed all peace agreements but said that the way these agreements were signed would create dissension and discord as they were not built on national base.

States should be given their shares in power and wealth and boundaries of the states should be demarcated in accordance with their existing boundaries in 1956, Al-Mahdi added.

He lashed out at the government's policy of lifting health subsides, its exploitation of power for partisan purposes and its agricultural and industrial policy which has led to unprecedented deterioration in agriculture and industry.

Al-Mahdi compared Sudan to Nigeria, "the government is replicating Nigeria's experience where people were deprived of the fruits of oil."

Elevation of Roseires Dam would be the most viable project in Sudan as it would avail it of 4bn cubic metres of unused water, he added.

Further reading

Jun 1 2005 DPA - Sudanese opposition leader to boycott interim government.

Apr 25 2005 Sudan Tribune - Sudan's last democratically elected prime minister called for a South African model: Sadiq Al-Mahdi is an Oxford educated economist and, at 31, was the youngest Prime Minister of Sudan and the last to be democratically elected. He says Sudan is at the stage that South Africa was when the former president FW de Klerk freed Nelson Mandela.

May 7 2006 Sudan Tribune - Sudanese opposition describes Darfur deal as flawed : Umma Party Secretary General Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi said the Abuja deal "hinges on temptations" after failure of reaching agreement with the armed groups in Abuja noting that this deal should be discussed on a Darfur-to-Darfur negotiation table.

Sudan's Dinka back home after 20-year journey - 90,000 displaced southerners in Darfur, 25,000 have returned

June 3, 2006 UK Independent report by Tristan McConnell in Kiir Adem, South Darfur:

Joseph Dut is going home after years on the move. He fled his home in southern Sudan in 1983; now the cycle of violence is returning him once again.

He is one of thousands of southern Sudanese who escaped to the western province of Darfur during the 21-year civil war, only to flee south again now due to the fighting there.

The banks of the river Kiir have been home to thousands of southern Sudanese for the past few months as destitute and hungry people flee Darfur. They are predominantly Dinka people, traditionally cattle-herding Africans, but Sudan's wars robbed them of their cows long ago.

The Kiir's 100-yard-wide stream of swampy chest-deep water marks the difference between safety and danger in this disputed border area between north and south Sudan.

The trading centre of Kiir Adem is little more than a strip of dirt with a ramshackle collection of wooden frames and grass roofs. Here, Mr Dut sits on a small pile of his belongings. "When the Arab militias came to the town we were in, shooting, we ran," recalls Mr Dut. "They took everything, so we left."

In a continent of sometimes ungovernably large countries, Sudan is the largest. It has been torn apart by civil wars since independence from Britain in 1956. While the fighting in Darfur continued, the war between Khartoum and the south ended in January 2005, after 21 years and two million deaths.

People such as Mr Dut were pushed from pillar to post. For many, it is the first time they have returned in more than two decades.

"After leaving the south we lived for some time as refugees in Libya, and then we moved back to Sudan, to Darfur," says Mr Dut. In Darfur he - with his wife and five children - worked as a farmer on the arid land and slowly rebuilt their lives. Then the Janjaweed militia came earlier this year, shooting AK-47s, burning houses and looting. Again, Mr Dut was on the run.

Mr Dut is one of 11,000 southern Sudanese who have travelled from the state of South Darfur through Kiir Adem into the neighbouring state of Northern Bar el-Ghazal in the past three months, fleeing attacks by the Janjaweed militias blamed for the ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

The conflict in Darfur threatens an already shaky peace agreement in the south, monitored by a 10,000-strong UN force.

Next week, a UN Security Council delegation will visit southern Sudan, Khartoum and Darfur to assess the country's continuing troubles.

Nick Horne, a UN official in Aweil town in Northern Bar el-Ghazal, estimates that of the 90,000 displaced southerners in Darfur, 25,000 have so far returned. "Some of those returning now left because of the fighting, some because of the famine in 1987," he said.

This week, the migration of displaced people will all but stop as the rainy season begins in earnest. But for Mr Dut and his family, more than 20 years of fleeing conflict are at last over. Once again he will be starting to rebuild his life, but this time he is at home. "Home is always home. Even though there's nothing here, I am happy," he says.
- - -

June 4 2006 Scotland on Sunday - Sudan refugees seek home in Israel.

SLA's Abdel Wahed Mohamed al-Nur rejects the whole Darfur Peace Agreement, wants UN mediation

This is what the Darfur rebels have wanted all along, for UN mediators to replace AU mediators and for the UN to take over the AU Mission in Darfur. The following report by Reuters points out what has been said by the UN all along, that the demand for UN mediated talks is unlikely to be met as the UN has supported the AU and the accord it brokered. Excerpt:

"The African Union mediation team has failed to realise peace in Darfur," said Nouri Abdalla, an adviser to Nur.

"The whole Darfur file, with regard to resolving the conflict in Darfur, we are asking the United Nations to take over the file," he told Reuters in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

The demand is unlikely to be met as the United Nations has supported the AU and the accord it brokered.

"The SLA has decided that any extension to the deadline to sign the proposed DPA (Darfur Peace Agreement) is a waste of time and unacceptable," Abdalla said.

"We asked for supplementary documents to be attached to the proposed DPA, and if that happened, our key fundamental demand, we were going to sign it," Abdalla said.

"What we are saying right now is that we are rejecting the whole agreement altogether."

He said the AU had failed because it was selective in applying pressure on the rebels to sign the peace Darfur deal.

- - -

June 3 2006 Aljazeera/Agencies report - Darfur rebel faction rejects AU role: "The AU has absolutely and miserably failed in its efforts to mediate the fighting in Darfur," said Nouri Abdalla, an adviser to al-Nur. "It is time it hands over the whole Darfur mediation file to the United Nations."

NATO Update: UN's Jan Egeland visits NATO

NATO Update May 30, 2006 confirms UN aid chief Jan Egeland, discussed Darfur and the role of the military in disaster relief during a visit to NATO on 30 May:

Mr Egeland met NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to discuss NATO's continuing support for the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

NATO recently agreed to extend its assistance to the African Union until September this year. This Alliance is helping to airlift African Union peacekeepers in and out of Darfur and training its forces.



They also discussed likely NATO support for a possible UN-led peacekeeping mission in Darfur, after the mandate of the current African Union force ends in September.

[via News Blaze]

UN-AU mission leaves for Darfur in next few days

UN News Centre report June 2, 2006 - excerpt:

A joint United Nations-African Union team will head early next week to Darfur to assess the needs of the AU's peacekeeping mission there as well as the possible transition to a UN force, a senior United Nations official said today.

"This mission will be leaving in the next few days and will assemble in Addis in the first part of next week, it will then travel on to Khartoum as a joint team from UN-AU team," Hedi Annabi, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, told reporters after briefing the Security Council.

The mission will conduct consultations with the Sudanese Government before going to Darfur "to meet with the local authorities, establish contact with them, look into the requirements of AMIS (the AU Mission in Sudan) to enable that force to perform the additional tasks foreseen for AMIS under the Darfur Peace Agreement," he said.

"The mission will also conduct an assessment of the requirements of the transition to a UN peace operation" should such an operation be established, he added.

While the Government has agreed to the deployment of an assessment team to Darfur, it has not yet agreed to a transition to a UN operation. "I think that is it is understood that we are conducting the assessment mission without prejudice to the decisions that will need to be taken by the various actors involved - the Government of Sudan, the AU and the UN Security Council," Mr Annabi said.

"We have tried to make it clear to them that for us, the main purpose of that force would be to assist in the implementation of the provisions of the Darfur agreement," he noted. "In other words, a peacekeeping operation whose sole purpose would be to assist the parties who have concluded the agreement to bring back peace to that long-suffering region of Sudan."

Sudan to Establish Joint Integrated Forces With Ex-Rebels

The following copy of a news report features on the website of the Embassy of Sudan, Washington, D.C., USA.

NEWS STORY Monday, May 22, 2006

Text of report in English by Sudanese newspaper Khartoum Monitor website on 22 May

Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) chief of staff and deputy chairman of the Joint Defence Board (JDB), who is also the chairman of the current session of the JDB, General Oyay Deng Ajak, chaired the JDB's third meeting yesterday at the Armed Forces Officers Club in Khartoum.

The spokesperson for the JDB, Maj-Gen Majdhub Rahama, in a statement to Khartoum Monitor disclosed arrangements for preparing a 15,000 joint integrated forces shared equally by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the SPLA in order to function as an international force if required.

Rahama denied a dispute between the two parties saying there were only minor outstanding points which would be settled later. He explained that all matters related to the implementation of military provisions of the CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) had been thoroughly discussed, adding that a committee has been formed for the redeployment of forces and the resolution of all their problem.

"The most important issue discussed in the meeting has been the building of trust among combatants," Rahama stated, confirming that implementation would be preceded by an integrated survey. The JDB meeting is scheduled to end tomorrow.

Source: Khartoum Monitor website, Khartoum, in English 22 May 06

Darfuris say peace deal incomplete - 'We stay for 100 years in camps'

Deutsche Presse-Agentur report June 2, 2006 El Fasher, Sudan.

Senior members and field commanders of JEM and Nur's SLM/A faction ask to sign Darfur Peace Agreement

June 2, 2006 IRIN report - just in:

Senior members of the two rebel groups that earlier refused to accept a peace deal aimed at ending hostilities in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur have now expressed interest in signing the agreement.

Around 40 delegates from Abdelwahid Mohamed al-Nur's faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - including field commanders and political officers - are in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to request the African Union (AU) to allow them to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), which their leaders failed to sign before the 31 May deadline.

Representatives of both rebel groups told journalists on Friday that they had decided to sign the peace agreement in order to end the crisis in Darfur.

"We have suffered a lot from the crisis. We came here to express our support for the peace agreement. We are not against our leaders' reasons not to sign the peace agreement, but we urge them to join the peace agreement," said JEM field commander Abdela Abdela Bakt.

While awaiting further instructions from the AU regarding the modalities that would allow them to sign the DPA, the two factions asked the pan-African body to give their leaders additional time to sign the agreement.

"We would like to ask the AU to give additional days for our leaders to put their signature. If they fail to do so again, we will sign the peace agreement," said Mohammed Adam Basi, political advisor to the SLM/A. "On our part, we are ready to sign it any time, as soon as the AU finalises the mechanisms."

AU says dissident rebels behind deterioration of security in Darfur - Faction of JEM ready to sign peace deal

Chair of AU Commission, Alpha Konare, blamed the two holdout groups of being behind what he described as the "progressive deterioration of the security situation in Darfur."

A dissident faction of the JEM merged in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Thursday, saying it accepted the peace agreement.

"We already discussed all of the decisions with the African Union and now we are ready to sign the Darfur peace agreement," said Col. Abdul Majid Hassan, who said he leads the movement's faction is South Darfur. It was not immediately clear how much support Hassan's faction enjoys. - AP report June 1 via ST June 2, 2006.

Darfur's JEM rebel leader says "We're going to have our own country"

Darfur rebel group JEM says independence is a valid alternative, Sudan Tribune reported June 2, 2006. Excerpt:

The head of one of the three rebel groups in Darfur has mentioned the possibility of his group seeking independence for the western Sudanese region after it failed to sign up to the recent peace deal, TV Slovenija reported.

Khalil Ibrahim, who took part in talks with Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek on Wednesday, told the Slovenian public broadcaster that his Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) would seek independence if there was no peace in Darfur.

"Now as the next step that means that we will ask for self-determination - we're going to have our own country," Khalil told TV Slovenija, which said that this is the first time he has mentioned the possibility of independence.

Moreover, Khalil believes it does not make sense to extend the deadline for JEM to sing on to the peace agreement since the mediators from the African Union and International partners refuse to accept JEM's demand that the people of Darfur be compensated for the damage caused during the civil war.

"The most important point is not to make extension but to make substantive changes and commitments," he said.

Moreover, he claimed that his movement was put under enormous pressure during the peace talks in Abuja. "You sign or we will kill you, this is what they told us," he said.

Photo: Khalil Ibrahim (Sudan Tribune)

Note April 1, 2006 report Sudanese rebel group JEM dismisses peace talks and calls for Darfur's sovereignty - excerpt:

The chair of Darfur rebels group JEM, Khalil Mohammed, on Wednesday dismissed Darfur peace talks as "a waste of time, energy and resources of stakeholders." He said the peace talks would not achieve any meaningful result as they were "merely going in circles."

Mohammed said that if the African Union's April deadline for peace in the region lapsed without success, "the people of Darfur will be left with no choice other than to ask for self-determination".

"If we do not get our own sovereignty, the only alternative is a forceful change of the government in Khartoum," Chairman of Darfur rebel group JEM threatened.

UN World Food Programme feeds 6.1m people across Sudan

Between 1 to 28 May, United Nations World Food Programme dispatched a total amount of 40,167 tons of food from logistical hubs to the Darfur region in Sudan. - WFP Emergency Report No. 22 of 2006.

The Executive Director of the UN WFP, James Morris, arrives in Khartoum today to visit the agency's largest emergency operation, which was hit recently by a severe shortage of funds to feed some 6.1 million people across Sudan.

After meetings with government ministers in the capital on Saturday, Mr. Morris will fly to South Sudan, where WFP feeds hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese returning home after 21 years of war.

The war displaced more than four million southern Sudanese inside the country and another 600,000 are scattered in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.

WFP's emergency operation in Sudan, with a budget of $746 million, was only half funded and contributions, especially cash, are needed to end ration cuts and cover requirements for the last quarter of 2006 and into 2007. - UN News Centre report June 2, 2006.

80,000 people now in Red Cross camp at Gereida, Darfur

While the Darfur insurgents bide their time, refusing to make peace, British Red Cross Society UK says an estimated 80,000 people are now living in the Red Cross camp at Gereida, Darfur - nearly a fourfold increase since 2004, Reuters June 1, 2006.

Britain urges SLM/A al-Nur to join Darfur peace deal

Official British source has urged the SLM/A faction led by Abdelwahid al-Nur which refused to sign the peace agreement in Darfur to sign the accord, Sudan Tribune reported June 2, 2006. Excerpt:

The spokesperson for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Barry Marston told Al-Arabiya TV that Abdelwahid al-Nur is wrong if he believes that there is a better deal waiting for him. He has a golden opportunity to lead the population of Darfur towards this future. The international community will not be sympathetic if he does not seize this opportunity.

"This agreement guarantees the Darfur population a real representation in the Sudanese government and institutions. It guarantees them compensation and aid from the central government. It guarantees them the disarmament of the militias and of the Janjawid and it guarantees them other things. We believe that the time has come for all parties to join ranks in order to help the people of Darfur who suffered enormously in recent years" he further said.

Marston said that Britain is the second biggest donor state as far as Sudan is concerned. For instance, in the last three years we donated more than 100m pounds as a humanitarian aid to this region.

Libya's Gaddafi warns of NATO intervention if Chad and Sudan don't return to normal

Libyan leader Col Gaddafi on Thursday urged Sudan and Chad to settle their differences in the name of African unity as he opened a summit of African leaders in Tripoli, SudanTribune reported June 1, 2006. Excerpt:

"The conflict between Sudan and Chad serves only the enemies of Africa," Gadhafi said at the opening of the two-day summit of Community of Sahel-Saharan states (CEN-SAD).

"Relations between Chad and Sudan must return to normal," Gadhafi said.

If the conflict between the two countries continues, "that would open the way for intervention by troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation," he said.

"We must send observers to Darfur and the Sudan-Chad frontier," Gadhafi added.

Chad's Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami on Wednesday urged fellow African states to exert pressure on Sudan over its alleged support for Chadian rebels.

The Sudanese minister of state for foreign affairs, Al-Sammani al-Wassila, denied the charges of Sudanese interference in Chad, saying Khartoum was "ready to resolve this dispute"

Sudan's president pardons women home brewers

Sudanese President al-Bashir has decreed all women imprisoned for brewing illegal alcohol should be released, ending a vicious cycle affecting southern widows trying to feed their families in Khartoum. - Sapa-AFP/Mercury May 31, 2006.

Note, the report points out selling alcohol is the Sudan is illegal under Islamic sharia law. The president's decision was a show of good faith between the former north-south foes.

With Darfur rebels still not in peace pact, Annan to consult African leaders on next steps

Voicing concern that two factions in Darfur missed a deadline to sign a peace accord already endorsed by the largest rebel group, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said he would consult with African Union (AU) leaders on possible follow-up measures, UN News Centre reported June 1, 2006:

The Secretary-General strongly believes that the only way forward in addressing this devastating conflict is through the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement, as well as the decisions of the African Union Peace and Security Council.

Assistant Secretary-General Hedi Annabi will brief the Security Council tomorrow on the mission he undertook last month with Mr Annan's Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for talks with Sudanese Government leaders talks on strengthening the current AU mission in Darfur (AMIS) and its possible transition to a UN peacekeeping force.

Sudan asks for more African troops in Darfur-Libya

Having followed news of Col Gaddafi's efforts to broker peace for Darfur, and logged reports here at Sudan Watch, this news just in from Reuters sounds most interesting:

Sudan asked on Thursday for more African troops to join the 7,000-strong African Union force monitoring a truce in the troubled region, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said.

"Sudan demanded forces from the Community of Sahel-Saharan States be dispatched to Darfur," Gaddafi told a meeting of the group in Tripoli.

"We discussed that demand raised by Sudan and we agreed upon that demand," Gaddafi added in his speech to leaders of the Community.

He did not say whether Khartoum had asked for a specific number of troops and did not give any details about what force the group might provide and when it might go to Darfur.

Gaddafi becomes Community chairman after the one-day gathering of heads of state of the group, which includes Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Ghana, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso, Morocco and Tunisia.

Gaddafi, whose remarks were broadcast live on state TV, vowed to work to "extinguish fires" in Sudan, Ivory Coast and other trouble spots on the continent.

"Those who are creating troubles and problems in Africa must be treated like criminals because such problems divert attention and efforts from focusing on economic and social development in Africa," he said.

Gaddafi told African leaders to "count on Libya's resources and potential" to further cooperation and resolve conflicts and tensions across the continent.

Further reading

May 29 2006 Sudan proposes Libyan role in Darfur peace implementation

May 28 2006 Libyan leader Gaddafi to supervise Darfur Peace Agreement - this link leads to:

May 27 2006 Libyan leader receives AU Commission Chairman Konare

May 28 2006 Sudanese envoy al-Khalifa to meet in Libya with Col Gaddafi and SLM/A's Minnawi re Darfur peace process

"Save Darfur" movement comes across as a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army

Don't you wonder who funds and supplies the rebels in Darfur? I do. If you know, could you please share here. There are some clues within UN reports archived at this blog but it's all rather vague. For all the miles of news published on Darfur, I've yet to find anything that tells us about the Darfur rebel leaders and how they make a living and afford armies for three years.

Having tracked the news on Darfur pretty closely, on a daily basis for more than two years, I've noticed how at critical pressure points of peace negotiations - like now for instance, when Darfur peace talks are at their most sensitive - there appears to be slick, efficient, well organised campaigners in America that have a knack of issuing timely emails and press releases calling for military intervention (an act of war) by international/UN troops (what the rebels have wanted all along) whenever the rebels need to hear it most.

Here is an example of something issued today:

Elie Wiesel Foundation For Humanity's press release June 1, 2006 at Save Darfur.org - also circulated by Reuters:

62 Nobel Laureates Urge President Bush, Other World Leaders to push for UN peacekeeping force to implement Darfur Peace Accord. Also Urge Bush to appoint "Presidential Envoy for Peace in Sudan."

This concerted effort by what seems now like an army of American civilians must be affecting US foreign policy and drowning out the voices of those who are against military intervention but in favour of supporting the fledgling African Union and "African solutions to African problems".

The spinning of Darfur reminds me a little of the pumping-up of emotion in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq. As we all saw on TV, the American people and their troops were shocked to find they were not feted by the local - troops were not welcomed with open arms or strewn with flowers as they entered Iraq to liberate the people from their despicable tyrant.

SUDANESE SAY NO TO THREAT OF INTERVENTION



Photo: Aug 5, 2005 China Daily report: Sudanese say no to threat of intervention - Over 100,000 Sudanese protesters march to the HQ of the United Nations in Khartoum Wednesday, Aug 4, 2004 to protest at the possibility of Western military intervention to combat a humanitarian crisis in the western region of Darfur.

The following extracts and photos are from a blog entry March 5, 2006 by Jan Pronk, UN SGSR in the Sudan:

In February I had had difficult encounters with tribal and traditional leaders in Nyala and El Fashr. Most of them were strongly against a UN force in Darfur. They accuse the United Nations of being manipulated by the United States. They fear that Western countries and NATO want to re-colonize and occupy Sudan. They speak about a conspiracy against Islam and against Arab nations. They referred to Irak and Afghanistan. They threatened with a war to defend their territory.


Photo: No No For New Occupation (Jan Pronk Weblog/Paula Souverijn-Eisenberg copyright)

Banners against a potential UN peacekeeping force in Darfur at a public rally in Sheria, South Darfur, 25 February 2006.


Photo: Shearia Warns Pronk To Play With Fire (Jan Pronk Weblog/Paula Souverijn-Eisenberg copyright)

Vicious verbal attacks against the UN and Kofi Annan have not been answered by the authorities. This has added to a climate within which threats have become quite nasty: “we warn the ambassadors of the US and the UK and the Special Representative of the UN that they might be shot”, and “we are waiting for you, but please come with enough coffins”.


Photo: Demonstration in Nyala against a potential AMIS-UN transition (Jan Pronk Weblog/ Paula Souverijn-Eisenberg copyright)

I also try to make clear that the UN is exactly the opposite of what they are afraid for. Peace-keeping by the UN is a guarantee that the sovereignty of a nation is respected, that the protection of the people is the sole objective, that there is no second agenda or, at least, that the second agenda of other nations can be neutralized.

In Sheria and Gereida my thoughts went back to Srebrenica, 1995. Will we make the same mistakes, or other, with similar consequences?

Southern Sudan ex-rebels desperately need training-UN

James Ellery, southern region coordinator for the UN Mission in Sudan, said the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) guerrillas must be turned into an apolitical group that could fulfil their role in last year's peace agreement, Reuters Daniel Wallis reported June 1, 2006. Excerpt:

"This is crucial work that is yet to be done," Ellery told Reuters on Thursday at his headquarters in the southern capital Juba.

"The SPLA is not the right sort of army for peacetime, never mind a federal, or perhaps eventually a sovereign, setting."

But Ellery said he did not share criticism of the government of south Sudan, which is 80 percent controlled by the SPLA, most of whose leaders spent two decades in the bush.

"The task they face is gargantuan," he said. "This area has been astonishingly neglected and systematically excluded from development for 50 years."

Southern Sudan is one of the poorest places on earth, with vast mined areas, few tarmac roads and little infrastructure.

Analysts say the north has the capacity to implement the peace agreement, but has shown little political will, while the SPLA is committed, but is weak and disorganised.

Under the [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] deal, most of the northern troops in the south are to be withdrawn. Ellery said that was well under way.

"Most mornings you see them leaving from the airport," he said. "Khartoum has now pulled out 56 percent, and everybody accepts that figure, so they are well ahead of the 50 percent of troops they committed to withdraw before the start of July."

He said the peace agreement was "broadly on track". There remained significant differences between both sides over the future of disputed areas, he said, and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants had not started.

He said the most problematic area included Upper Nile state, where nearly 50 people were killed in April in clashes between two factions of the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), which fought with Khartoum against the SPLA during the war.

One SSDF faction joined SPLA forces and the other joined the government army after the peace deal stipulated that armed groups had to join the army or the former rebels. Ellery said the area had been calm since.

"Things became unravelled there briefly, but now we can say that disarmament in the most difficult part of the country is going well, at the moment," Ellery said.

Talks continue to convince Darfur rebels to sign peace deal

June 1 2006 AP report via Sudan Tribune - excerpt:

"The African Union continues its intensive talks with the factions to convince them to sign, even after the deadline has passed," Khartoum-based AU spokesman Moussa Hamani said.

He added, however, "the agreement itself is not negotiable."

Another AU spokesman in the Sudanese capital, Noureddine Mezni, said that First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit, chairman of the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement, is mediating to bring the factions together in Juba, in the country's south, for further talks in coming few days.

Further reading

May 31 2006 The Sudanese Thinker blog by Drima: Strategic Victimhood In Sudan (A MUST READ)

May 31 2006 The Daily Telegraph correspondents in Addis Ababa: Deadline for Darfur peace deal passes - AU drawing up new document to allow dissident factions and commanders to sign peace deal and escape sanctions

Jun 1 2006 Sudan Tribune: Despite Slovene efforts, Darfur JEM refuses to sign peace

Jun 1 2006 Sudan Tribune: Sudan's ex-rebel Kiir to meet SLM/A's Minnawi and Nur (and maybe JEM leader) within 72 hours - SPLM

AU says "regrets" no deal with Darfur rebels

June 1, 2006 Reuters report by Opheera McDoom - excerpt:

In a statement, AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare noted "with deep regret" that last-minute efforts to get the two factions to sign the deal had failed.

It said the AU's Peace and Security Council will now decide what, if any, punitive measures are to be taken against the groups. The AU council will meet in the coming days although no date has been set.

"Future violations of the ceasefire agreement will not be tolerated," the AU statement said, adding the 7,000-strong AU force monitoring a truce in Darfur should be more "proactive" in self-defence and the protection of civilians.

(Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa and Marja Novak in Ljubljana)

See STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE AU COMMISSION, ALPHA OUMAR KONARE, ON THE STATUS OF THE DARFUR PEACE AGREEMENT (DPA) AND THE SITUATION IN DARFUR, Addis Ababa, 1st June 2006. - Reuters/ST

Yee-haw! Another warmongering American proposes illegal military invasion of the Sudan ... with private hired guns!

Is there something in the water in America or what? Most of the Darfur commentary that I'm coming across online is beginning to sound like it's written by a bunch of cowboys. Surely their aggressive gung-ho warmongering attitude is down to their upbringing, insularity, education (particularly history) and diet of Hollywood movies and TV. Considering America's short history (I have pottery older than the USA) and what goes on with American natives, Klu Klux Klan and other race relations, it's amazing to see American know-it-alls thinking they can sort the problems of ancient cultures and mindsets so far removed from their own they may as well be living on another planet.

Note this excerpt from an opinion piece by Max Boot in the LA Times June 1, 2006 - Send mercenaries to Darfur. Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on FOREIGN RELATIONS! Crikey. Gulp. Y'all have a nice day!

"....there is a way to stop the killing even without sending an American or European army. Send a private army. A number of commercial security firms such as Blackwater USA are willing, for the right price, to send their own forces, made up in large part of veterans of Western militaries, to stop the genocide.

We know from experience that such private units would be far more effective than any U.N. peacekeepers. In the 1990s, the South African firm Executive Outcomes and the British firm Sandline made quick work of rebel movements in Angola and Sierra Leone. Critics complain that these mercenaries offered only a temporary respite from the violence, but that was all they were hired to do. Presumably longer-term contracts could create longer-term security, and at a fraction of the cost of a U.N. mission.

Yet this solution is deemed unacceptable by the moral giants who run the United Nations. They claim that it is objectionable to employ -- sniff -- mercenaries. More objectionable, it seems, than passing empty resolutions, sending ineffectual peacekeeping forces and letting genocide continue.

From the weblog of Jan Pronk, UN SGSR in the Sudan, Dec 31, 2005:

There is hardly any country in the world which can point towards such a long history as Sudan. The first time I visited the National Museum in Khartoum, about thirty years ago, I was surprised to see beautiful pottery, older than what I had seen before in Egyptian musea. As a European, coming from a country with a history hardly longer than two millennia, I became quite modest when confronted with artifacts which had been crafted six to seven millennia ago. Sudan, and in particular North Sudan, has seen the rise and fall of empires and civilizations, wars and climatic changes, invasions from abroad. It has survived all that. This may explain the Sudanese attitude towards present conflicts and threats. Sudanese leaders, whatever region or tribe they belong to, display confidence in their own strength and do never haste. They seem to believe: 'history shows: time is on our side'.

Photos: In Meroe, 3 hours North of Khartoum, ancient buildings are testimony of past civilizations. (Jan Pronk Weblog/Paula Souverijn-Eisenberg Copyright) Click on the original images at Jan Pronk's blog entry for magnified view.
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Some reactions

June 1 2006 Beltway Blitz - blog entry Boot: Send in the Mercenaries - Max says the UN is bound to fail again in the Sudan. Given its history, that's a fair prediction. But he notes that Western democracies aren't serious enough to send their own troops. His solution: mercenaries. I've secretly harbored this thought for a long time. Still don't know that I think it's a good idea. Is Mr. Boot crazy? Am I for even considering it? [Sudan Watch ed: Yes to both questions]