There is apparently going to be a major "Save Darfur" march across the USA on September. Since the "Save Darfur Coalition" clearly have their hearts in the right place, I don't want to sound like I'm criticising them. However, I am very worried that the coalition seems to be quite short of a specific plan for saving Darfur, and is thus rather vulnerable to being exploited by people who do not have the best interests of Darfur at heart. (This would hardly be the first time that a well-intentioned humanitarian campaign got hijacked by dangerous ideologues.) For this reason, I suggest below a few concrete proposals and outline the dangers posed by the current campaign.Great. Well said Daniel. Thanks.
In May, I was writing about the peace agreement in Darfur as the only realistic prospect for improving the situation there and suggesting that developed world commentators should shut up for a while and give it a chance. It appears that I was doubly wrong; nobody shut up and it did not have a chance. There was a period in June and early July when the level of violence was definitely abating and it looked as if the holdout groups could be brought into the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), but instead, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) has fallen apart into a myriad of factions and a new and extremely violent guerrilla force (the National Redemption Front or NRF) has been formed. Things are now, according to Jan Egeland and Jan Pronk, the two commentators who I trust the most - as bad as they have been for at least two years.
Although the situation is as bad or worse than it was before the peace agreement, it is now bad in a different way. Most of the violence is now being carried out not by the Sudanese state and Janjaweed irregular militias, but by the various rebel group factions.
Drawing distinctions can get quite confusing. The convention is that each SLA faction is named after its main commander. Thus, SLA/Minawi is Minni Minnawi's faction, which is the largest, mainly identified with the Zarghawa tribe, and which signed the peace agreement. (I use the word "tribe" because it is conventional, but note that it is a racially loaded word and these groups ought to be thought of as ethnicities rather than as organised tribal power structures.)
During the Abuja peace talks, Abdel Whalid Mohammed el-Nur split from Minawi, forming the group that is now known as SLA/Whalid or SLA/Nur (and which is better represented among the Fur tribe). The SLA/Nur also split during the talks, as 19 of its military commanders accused Nur himself of harbouring dictatorial ambitions. This group is known as SLA/G19.
As well as the SLA, the other main rebel grouping was the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a group which had its roots in Hassan al-Turabi's Islamist movement, but which appeared (to Jan Pronk at least) to have dropped most of its specifically Islamic demands in the peace negotiations and probably ought to be regarded as a Sudanese political movement rather than a Darfuri nationalist one. The JEM has always been very violent, opposed to peace, and has always seemed to be very well resourced with weapons and money. It has now blocked with SLA/G19 to form the National Redemption Front (NRF), and the worst of the violence over the last few weeks has been taking place as the NRF has taken over territory in North Darfur that was previously held by SLA/Minnawi.
The situation in the refugee camps has become unspeakably grim. SLA/Nur has allegedly been press-ganging men into joining their militia, while other rebel factions, private militias and freelance Janjaweed have been running riot around the camps, attacking and raping women as they venture out to collect firewood. The proportion of Sudan that is accessible to aid agencies keeps shrinking, and the donor community has failed to fund the aid effort properly. Mass starvation is now imminent.
The Khartoum government have not actually been responsible for the majority of the violence. However, they also bear their share of responsibility for the current disaster. Most press coverage appears to be criticising them most severely for refusing to allow a UN peacekeeping force to be brought in. However, they have stubbornly required that every rebel group sign the DPA before they are prepared to negotiate with them, which has resulted in the effective disbanding of the Ceasefire Commission and made diplomacy far more difficult than it needed to be. Even worse, Khartoum has decided that by failing to sign the agreement, the holdout rebel factions have become "terrorists" and subsequently permitted the Sudanese national army to suppress them. Observers in north Darfur have been witnessing the amassing of troops and helicopters, suggesting a forthcoming attack on the NRF forces in support of SLA/Minnawi. Such a large attack would be bound to have significant civilian casualties, even if carried out with the best of intentions, and the world is right not to trust the Sudanese government.
So what is to be done? Well, the demand that has been made for the last several months is for a UN peacekeeping force to be put into Sudan. But this is not nearly specific enough. A UN peacekeeping force is not a panacea and has no specific magical ability to keep peace. In order to do better than the existing AU force, any UN peacekeeping force would have to either a) be much larger or b) have very different mission terms and rules of engagement.
The first of these possibilities - a much bigger UN peacekeeping force - raises as many questions as it answers. The implicit message from a number of western governments is that they are not prepared to fund the African Union mission properly, but would make much more resources available for a UN mission. I don't understand why anyone would take this point of view. There is no reason to believe that African troops are incompetent, or that they are incompetently led, or that they are partisan. The international community just seems to be allergic to funding a mission to Darfur unless it is the UN getting the credit. This seems so incomprehensible to me that I have to believe that the international community is being insincere, and that they are using the lack of a UN force as a fig leaf to cover up a general reluctance to commit resources. I'm agnostic here. The important issue is clearly to get a properly resourced peacekeeping force guarding the refugee camps as soon as possible. It's very doubtful that any feasible size of peacekeeping force could have a material effect on the factional conflicts, but genuine help could be given here.
The second possibility - that a UN peacekeeping force could have different mission terms or rules of engagement - is part of the whole problem. If we look through the rhetoric about "colonialism", the reason that Khartoum doesn't want a UN mission in Sudan is that they suspect that such a mission would at a minimum start arresting them on International Criminal Court charges and quite likely be the prelude to a removal of the Khartoum government and a partition of Sudan into separate countries.
A lot of the organisations affiliated to the Save Darfur coalition do in fact want to see Sudan broken up, and this is one of the first reasons why I think that some of the statements of the coalition have been highly counterproductive to the aim of getting a proper peacekeeping force put in place. When people like Eric Reeves start talking about a "non-consensual deployment of UN troops" (I don't know why he can't bring himself to use the word "invasion"), and are treated as mainstream commentators by the Save Darfur lobby, it is not surprising that the Sudanese government is suspicious of the true motives of the humanitarian lobby.
Neither Pronk nor Egeland view a "non-consensual deployment" as a realistic option, because of course it isn't. It would involve fighting a war against the Sudanese army which could only end in Sudan requiring a similar reconstruction effort to that needed in Iraq or Afghanistan, neither of which have gone so well as to make a neutral observer think it would be a good idea to try a repeat in a country with poor food security. Looking back at the list of what is going wrong in Darfur, they are all currently consequences of anarchy.
Promoting more anarchy seems like a bad idea. Sudan does not yet exhibit all the worst problems of Somalia, Iraq Afghanistan and Congo, but it has a plentiful supply of nascent warlords, insurgents, Islamists and border resource disputes, so it could yet show us exactly how bad things could be. Some things, unfortunately, cannot be achieved by force, and the fact that their absence is an intolerable state of affairs does not in and of itself mean that it is worth giving violence a try anyway.
As well as making it diplomatically more difficult for a peacekeeping force to be put in place, there are two more baleful effects of the more militant wing of the "Save Darfur" lobby. First, there is a kind of catch-22 effect created by the lobby's insistent focus on the evils of the Khartoum regime as the sole cause of the problems. In order to create a meaningful peace in Darfur, everyone has to sign up to the DPA or its successor treaties. However, at present, every group that signs the agreement is being treated as if they were cronies of Khartoum and therefore obvious enemies of the Darfurians. This has to be unconstructive; at present, humanitarian organisations are being stigmatised and having their impartiality called into question, which interferes with their ability to do their job.
And more perniciously, as I said in the earlier piece, there is a real danger of creating perverse incentives for the Darfurian rebels (who, one has to emphasise, are responsible for the current slaughter more than anyone). If a mass movement in the west appears to be simultaneously calling for a decapitation of the Khartoum government and denigrating the peace agreement, then this must surely encourage the rebel groups to follow the NRF strategy rather than joining the peace agreement.
So what should we be asking for? I can't think of anything more sensible or realistic than Jan Egeland's suggestions, which I'd summarise as follows:
1. A diplomatic effort to persuade Sudan's government to stand down its military operation and allow a UN force into Sudan. This is not as macho and satisfying as an invasion but it will be less horribly destructive. Even if this means giving commitments about ICC prosecutions that turn to ashes in our mouths, it is the only way forward that does not involve disastrous loss of life. Certainly, if the UN is going to retain the credibility of its peacekeeping operations, it needs to establish the principle that they are not fronts for an invasion and regime change, and anyone interested in humanitarian intervention ought to respect that.
2. Proper funding of the African Union mission and the relief effort, now and unconditionally. It is a scandal that funding has been delayed for these vital operations because of the negotiations over the UN force. Contrary to what news reports might suggest, the full title of AMIS is not "The Poorly Equipped And Funded African Union Mission". It is poorly equipped and funded because a lot of donor nations made big promises to fund it. A promise they have not kept.
3. Respect for the peace process and even-handedness among all parties to the conflict. As Egeland says, there can be no military solution. No indication should be given at all to the NRF that they can gain more outside the peace process than within it, or that they can depend on a UN force being sent to protect them if they start an attack on SLA/Minnawi. Similarly, Khartoum and SLA/MInnawi need to be held to the terms of the ceasefire they have agreed and not allowed to believe that they can weasel out of it by pretending to be carrying out anti-terrorist activities.
Once more, Darfur is on a knife edge, and once more there is considerable potential to make things worse. And so once more, there is a positive duty on all western commentators to be sure that before opening their mouths, they know what they are talking about.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
UN: There can be no military solution to Darfur war (Daniel Davies)
"Ill-informed demands for unspecified action are counterproductive, and it is dangerous to let the rebels believe that they have a supporting army when they don't," writes British economist Daniel Davies in great commentary today at the Guardian's Comment is free. Copy:
China emerges as world's third largest food aid donor, UN agency says
In the same year it stopped receiving food aid from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), China emerged as the world's third largest food aid donor in 2005, according to the latest annual Food Aid Monitor from INTERFAIS, the International Food Aid Information System, the agency said today. - 20 July 2006 UN News Centre.
JEM-Ibrahim leader says Draft UN resolution undermines sustainable peace in Darfur
Chairperson of Darfur rebel group JEM, Khalil Ibrahim, criticised the draft UN Resolution, saying it undermines the right of Darfur people for political solution and for a sustainable peace in Darfur, Sudan Tribune reported today - excerpt:
[Ibrahim] told Radio France Internationale, that this Draft resolution tries to impose unacceptable peace of Abuja while Darfur people reject this agreement.He's got a nerve. How come he is permitted residency in France?
Khalil Ibrahim, who rejected to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) last May, considers priority must be to find an agreement over the demands of the Darfur holdout rebels groups constituting the majority in the troubled region.
"Increasing the number of the troops only will not solve the problem of Darfur, but the political solution should come first. The DPA should be reconsidered and made comprehensive and then, the international troops should come to maintain the peace process," he said.
Sudan's Taha not in favour of UNMIS in Darfur
Taha who was in favour of the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur, shifted his position and started since one week to denounce any role of international force in Darfur. - SudanTribune - UN draft resolution shows US voracity for oil 30 Aug 2006.
Sudanese riot police teargas protestors and Reuters vehicle
"They give out sweets at one protest and tear gas bombs at the other," said one Sudanese bystander.- Reuters via Gulf Times 31 Aug 2006.
War looms again over Sudan's Darfur (Lydia Polgreen)
International Herald Tribune
By Lydia Polgreen The New York Times
August 30, 2006
EL FASHER, Sudan
War looms again over Darfur
There is plenty of frantic shuttle diplomacy happening in the corridors of power in Khartoum, Washington and New York to avoid a new bloodbath in Darfur.
But here in the tense heart of the region, where the bombs will drop and the bullets will fly, everyone is nervously watching the Ilyushin cargo planes landing on El Fasher's busy airstrip, their holds packed with the stuff of war: troops, trucks, bombs and guns.
"The planes land, day after day, week after week, night after night," said a foreign military official at the airport who had seen the planes land and unload their cargoes.
As negotiations over a proposed UN force to shore up the shaky peace in Darfur limp along with no sign of compromise, the opposing sides in the conflict seem headed toward a large-scale military confrontation.
"Unfortunately, things seem to be headed in that direction," said General Collins Ihekire, commander of the beleaguered 7,000-member African Union force that is enforcing a fragile peace agreement between the government and one rebel group.
Nearly four months after signing the agreement, the government is preparing a new assault against the rebel groups that refused to sign, bringing Darfur to the edge of a new abyss, perhaps the deepest it has faced.
The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes. But that may be a prelude to the deaths likely to come from fighting, hunger and disease.
In the past few months, killings of aid workers and hijackings of their vehicles, mostly by rebel groups, have forced aid groups to curtail programs to feed, clothe and shelter hundreds of thousands of people.
"We have less access now than we did in 2004 when things were really bad," said a senior aid official in El Fasher, speaking on the condition of anonymity because outspoken aid workers have been sanctioned and expelled by the government. "If there were a major military offensive you could be looking at a complete evacuation of humanitarian workers in North Darfur, which would leave millions without a lifeline."
Diplomatically, Sudan has taken a hard line, refusing to allow any international peacekeepers other than the small and powerless African Union force already in place, despite a request from the union to hand over its command to the United Nations.
A visit to Khartoum this week by Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, failed to produce an agreement, and Sudan has so far snubbed the United Nations, potentially leaving the people of Darfur without any international peacekeepers to protect them.
The African Union force has enough money to keep going only until Sept. 30, when its mandate ends. It is perpetually running short of fuel, food and equipment, and its suppliers - like its soldiers - have waited months for payment and are reluctant to make new deliveries.
Worse, the force is finding itself increasingly drawn into battles between the government and the rebels.
Rebel leaders deny they were involved in an ambush on a fuel convoy this month in which two Rwandan soldiers were killed, but they say that the African Union is biased in any case because it brokered a peace agreement that they reject.
Most ominous is the looming confrontation between government troops and rebel holdouts, set to take place on a battlefield that is home to a quarter- million people and could easily set off a chain of battles across Darfur.
"In terms of loss of life it could dwarf the killings in 2003 and 2004," said a senior aid official, asking not to be named.
In that period alone, at least 180,000 people died from attacks on villages by government forces and their allied Arab militias, known as the janjaweed, and in battles with non-Arab rebel groups seeking greater power for their fellow tribesmen in the long marginalized region. The violence brought on widespread hunger and disease, often the most lethal killers here.
El Fasher was once a sleepy state capital in an impoverished, backward part of Sudan. Now it is a garrison town swarming with government troops in crisp new uniforms driving shiny trucks mounted with guns.
The government has made no secret of its intentions - it submitted a plan to the Security Council this month in response to a resolution calling for 20,000 UN troops here. Instead, the government said it planned to use 10,500 of its own troops to crush the rebellion, a move that would violate the peace agreement it just signed, according to Ihekire.
The rebel movements that refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement have massed in a vast swath of territory north of here, gaining strength and flexing their muscle in attacks on government troops and its allies, as well as on the African Union forces.
In an interview deep in the territory they hold, commanders of the new rebel alliance, the National Redemption Front, said they were ready for a fight. "Our capabilities are unlimited, on the air and on the ground, to repel them," said Jarnabi Abdul Kareem, a commander.
The splintering and reforming of the rebel groups in the chaotic period since the peace agreement was signed was evident in their makeshift logos. On one truck, the initials of the rebel group had been changed so many times that the jumble of acronyms had become a collection of illegible smears.
Seated in a circle under a thorny tree, leaders of the front, joined in collective hatred for the signers of the peace agreement, say they came back to the battlefield reluctantly. "We are holding arms in our left hand but an olive branch in our right," said Abubakar Hamid Nour, a commander of the Justice and Equality Movement, an Islamist group that has joined with a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army to fight the government.
The battles over this patch of earth have already exacted a terrible toll. On the outskirts of Hashaba, people displaced by the fighting as far back as 2003 have settled, their camps becoming semi-permanent villages. There are few men here - just a handful among dozens of drawn-faced women and wiry children with ochre-tinted hair, a telltale sign of malnourishment.
At a clinic run by the International Rescue Committee, an aid organization, Hassan Ibrahim Isaac said he opens the clinic every day, writing futile prescriptions for the sicknesses that kill here: malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia. But the clinic's pharmacy ran out of antibiotics and anti-malarial drugs long ago.
"I still come because I don't want people to give up hope," Isaac said. "But now fewer people come. They know I have nothing to give them."
Military officials for the African Union said the new government assault could take shape in two ways - government troops could build up along an axis between El Fasher and the towns of Mellit and Kutum, using a scissor-like advance aided by Antonov bombers and attack helicopters to wipe out as many rebels as they can, then force the rest to flee north.
Another possibility is that the government will attack from the south, where it holds ground north of El Fasher, and airlift troops to swoop down from the north as well.
Bombing attacks on Kulkul, a town that has changed hands several times in the chaotic period since the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed but had been a stronghold of the newly united rebel groups, already have pushed those rebels north to Umm Sidir and beyond, African Union commanders said.
Armed conflict on a vast scale seems so likely and the hope of a UN peacekeeping force arriving to ease the tensions so distant that a joke has been making the rounds of the military and aid officials here: The most important peacekeeper in Darfur now is the rain.
It turns the rough, dusty tracks that crisscross the arid plains and mountains into impassable bogs, and swells once-dry riverbeds into rivers easily capable of carrying off a Toyota Landcruiser, the military vehicle of choice.
But the rains end in the next couple of weeks.
By Lydia Polgreen The New York Times
August 30, 2006
EL FASHER, Sudan
War looms again over Darfur
There is plenty of frantic shuttle diplomacy happening in the corridors of power in Khartoum, Washington and New York to avoid a new bloodbath in Darfur.
But here in the tense heart of the region, where the bombs will drop and the bullets will fly, everyone is nervously watching the Ilyushin cargo planes landing on El Fasher's busy airstrip, their holds packed with the stuff of war: troops, trucks, bombs and guns.
"The planes land, day after day, week after week, night after night," said a foreign military official at the airport who had seen the planes land and unload their cargoes.
As negotiations over a proposed UN force to shore up the shaky peace in Darfur limp along with no sign of compromise, the opposing sides in the conflict seem headed toward a large-scale military confrontation.
"Unfortunately, things seem to be headed in that direction," said General Collins Ihekire, commander of the beleaguered 7,000-member African Union force that is enforcing a fragile peace agreement between the government and one rebel group.
Nearly four months after signing the agreement, the government is preparing a new assault against the rebel groups that refused to sign, bringing Darfur to the edge of a new abyss, perhaps the deepest it has faced.
The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes. But that may be a prelude to the deaths likely to come from fighting, hunger and disease.
In the past few months, killings of aid workers and hijackings of their vehicles, mostly by rebel groups, have forced aid groups to curtail programs to feed, clothe and shelter hundreds of thousands of people.
"We have less access now than we did in 2004 when things were really bad," said a senior aid official in El Fasher, speaking on the condition of anonymity because outspoken aid workers have been sanctioned and expelled by the government. "If there were a major military offensive you could be looking at a complete evacuation of humanitarian workers in North Darfur, which would leave millions without a lifeline."
Diplomatically, Sudan has taken a hard line, refusing to allow any international peacekeepers other than the small and powerless African Union force already in place, despite a request from the union to hand over its command to the United Nations.
A visit to Khartoum this week by Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, failed to produce an agreement, and Sudan has so far snubbed the United Nations, potentially leaving the people of Darfur without any international peacekeepers to protect them.
The African Union force has enough money to keep going only until Sept. 30, when its mandate ends. It is perpetually running short of fuel, food and equipment, and its suppliers - like its soldiers - have waited months for payment and are reluctant to make new deliveries.
Worse, the force is finding itself increasingly drawn into battles between the government and the rebels.
Rebel leaders deny they were involved in an ambush on a fuel convoy this month in which two Rwandan soldiers were killed, but they say that the African Union is biased in any case because it brokered a peace agreement that they reject.
Most ominous is the looming confrontation between government troops and rebel holdouts, set to take place on a battlefield that is home to a quarter- million people and could easily set off a chain of battles across Darfur.
"In terms of loss of life it could dwarf the killings in 2003 and 2004," said a senior aid official, asking not to be named.
In that period alone, at least 180,000 people died from attacks on villages by government forces and their allied Arab militias, known as the janjaweed, and in battles with non-Arab rebel groups seeking greater power for their fellow tribesmen in the long marginalized region. The violence brought on widespread hunger and disease, often the most lethal killers here.
El Fasher was once a sleepy state capital in an impoverished, backward part of Sudan. Now it is a garrison town swarming with government troops in crisp new uniforms driving shiny trucks mounted with guns.
The government has made no secret of its intentions - it submitted a plan to the Security Council this month in response to a resolution calling for 20,000 UN troops here. Instead, the government said it planned to use 10,500 of its own troops to crush the rebellion, a move that would violate the peace agreement it just signed, according to Ihekire.
The rebel movements that refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement have massed in a vast swath of territory north of here, gaining strength and flexing their muscle in attacks on government troops and its allies, as well as on the African Union forces.
In an interview deep in the territory they hold, commanders of the new rebel alliance, the National Redemption Front, said they were ready for a fight. "Our capabilities are unlimited, on the air and on the ground, to repel them," said Jarnabi Abdul Kareem, a commander.
The splintering and reforming of the rebel groups in the chaotic period since the peace agreement was signed was evident in their makeshift logos. On one truck, the initials of the rebel group had been changed so many times that the jumble of acronyms had become a collection of illegible smears.
Seated in a circle under a thorny tree, leaders of the front, joined in collective hatred for the signers of the peace agreement, say they came back to the battlefield reluctantly. "We are holding arms in our left hand but an olive branch in our right," said Abubakar Hamid Nour, a commander of the Justice and Equality Movement, an Islamist group that has joined with a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army to fight the government.
The battles over this patch of earth have already exacted a terrible toll. On the outskirts of Hashaba, people displaced by the fighting as far back as 2003 have settled, their camps becoming semi-permanent villages. There are few men here - just a handful among dozens of drawn-faced women and wiry children with ochre-tinted hair, a telltale sign of malnourishment.
At a clinic run by the International Rescue Committee, an aid organization, Hassan Ibrahim Isaac said he opens the clinic every day, writing futile prescriptions for the sicknesses that kill here: malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia. But the clinic's pharmacy ran out of antibiotics and anti-malarial drugs long ago.
"I still come because I don't want people to give up hope," Isaac said. "But now fewer people come. They know I have nothing to give them."
Military officials for the African Union said the new government assault could take shape in two ways - government troops could build up along an axis between El Fasher and the towns of Mellit and Kutum, using a scissor-like advance aided by Antonov bombers and attack helicopters to wipe out as many rebels as they can, then force the rest to flee north.
Another possibility is that the government will attack from the south, where it holds ground north of El Fasher, and airlift troops to swoop down from the north as well.
Bombing attacks on Kulkul, a town that has changed hands several times in the chaotic period since the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed but had been a stronghold of the newly united rebel groups, already have pushed those rebels north to Umm Sidir and beyond, African Union commanders said.
Armed conflict on a vast scale seems so likely and the hope of a UN peacekeeping force arriving to ease the tensions so distant that a joke has been making the rounds of the military and aid officials here: The most important peacekeeper in Darfur now is the rain.
It turns the rough, dusty tracks that crisscross the arid plains and mountains into impassable bogs, and swells once-dry riverbeds into rivers easily capable of carrying off a Toyota Landcruiser, the military vehicle of choice.
But the rains end in the next couple of weeks.
Sudanese forces seizing laptops to scan for porn
Reuters/tvnz Aug 31, 2006:
Sudanese security forces have begun temporarily seizing laptop computers entering the country to check information stored on them as part of new security measures.Seizing laptops to stop porn entering a country doesn't make sense. The material the Sudanese government say it is concerned about doesn't need to be carried into Sudan. It can be transmitted over the Internet. Avoid taking modern gadgets to Sudan, I guess. Sudan doesn't do its image of being in the dark ages much good when it makes such backward moves. Why aren't Sudanese officials focusing on munitions entering the country and crime?
A state security source said on Wednesday the procedure was introduced because pornographic films and photographs were entering Sudan. "We return the laptops after one day," he said.
UN officials, aid agency workers, businessmen and journalists who regularly visit Sudan worry, however, that the security of sensitive and confidential information such as medical, legal and financial records could be at risk.
"They could download email systems, passwords, even get into people's bank accounts," said one source in Khartoum's aid community, who declined to be named for fear of retribution.
Other innocent material could also be construed to be subversive, like maps or photos, the source added.
African countries shun fibre-optic cable deal
African countries shun fibre-optic cable deal, Reuters/ST reported today.
Only seven out of 23 countries signed the accord for the long-delayed East African Submarine System (EASSy), which aims to slash phone and Internet costs.Back to the dark ages. Africa is putting itself behind the rest of the world.
Only Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda signed the protocol in Kigali.
The EASSy cable was originally expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2008. The project is expected to cut Internet costs to nearly one third of current levels over the next five years and boost investment in Africa.
Illicit ivory sales globally is being driven by new demand from China - Poachers kill 100 elephants in Chad
Greedy moronic barbarians. The remains of 100 African elephants killed for their tusks have been found in Chad not far from Darfur, conservationists said on Wednesday. - Reuters report excerpt:
The discovery was made earlier this month by a team led by Mike Fay, a renowned conservationist and explorer with the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society and National Geographic.Note the report tells us wildlife groups say a rise in illicit ivory sales globally is being driven by new demand from China and that elephants are especially at risk in lawless or violence-prone regions where their tusks are a ready source of income. Sad.
"... his team discovered five separate elephant massacre sites totalling 100 individuals during a survey made August 3-11 from their small plane," Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said in a statement.
WCS said most of the animals had their tusks removed and more than 50 of them appeared to have been slain just days before the team found their carcasses.
Red Cross worker killed in Darfur after abduction�
Reuters 31 Aug 2006 excerpt:
A Sudanese national working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who was abducted in Darfur by an armed group two weeks ago, is dead, the humanitarian agency said on Wednesday.
The Swiss-based agency said that it had not yet recovered the body of the 31-year-old man, who was not named, nor had it any details of how he was killed.
The man was abducted east of the Jebel Marra mountains in north Darfur on August 16 after an ICRC team was stopped by an armed group -- also not identified in the statement.
The team had been distributing food and the man was forced to drive one of two vehicles stolen in the attack, the agency said.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Sudanese Thinker: Debating UN Troops & the Conspiracies
Excerpt from Drima's blog entry at The Sudanese Thinker - Debating UN Troops & the Conspiracies:
If people want to talk about Darfur from a humanitarian perspective, then UN troops will make things worse and Darfur will become a warzone. However if people want to talk about Darfur from a political perspective, then a bloody revolution is the only way to settle the problem. Both are bad scenarios and that's why I support strengthening the AU troops. Nobody is opposed to them and if strengthened they can provide the protection needed in Darfur. I don't understand why it's so hard for others to understand that.Me neither, Drima. Thanks. I'd like to see a joint force of everyone pulling together for the sake of Sudan's children.
US, UK seek quick vote on UN force for Darfur - UN Resolution requires Sudan's consent before actual deployment
Reuters report via Washington Post via CFD 30 Aug 2006 - excerpt:
Britain and the United States called for a vote on Thursday on a U.N. resolution to allow the United Nations to begin assembling a peacekeeping force for Sudan's Darfur region, despite opposition from the government in Khartoum.
The resolution would require the Sudanese government's consent before actual deployment, but Western powers expect Khartoum to eventually accept a U.N. presence in Darfur, as it already has in southern Sudan.
"I think council colleagues understand why we really do need to act" in Darfur, British U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said on Tuesday after two weeks of Security Council deliberations on the measure drafted by Washington and London.
"Our judgment here is that we think we've found a formulation that would win acceptance on the council and achieve the objective we've been seeking, which is the early transfer of (peacekeeping) responsibility in Darfur to the United Nations," said U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.
The envoys spoke with reporters a day after U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland warned the 15-nation council of a looming new humanitarian disaster in Darfur and said U.N. inaction could lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
The two ambassadors said a revised text would be circulated before council talks set for Wednesday.
Diplomats said it would state explicitly that the force could go in only with the Sudan government's consent, since council members agreed deployment would be impossible without it.
"It will address consent among other issues and will be clear on how the transition will take place," Jones Parry said.
Highlights from revised UN Resolution for UN troops in Darfur circulated Aug 29
Britain and the US on Tuesday circulated a revised UN Security Council resolution on a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur to take over from 7000 Africa Union troops. Following are highlights from the six-page, 2600-word draft that both countries hope to put to a vote on Thursday. [via Reuters/IOL 30 Aug 2006]:
Deployment Of Force
- To deploy a peacekeeping force in Darfur "on the basis of the acceptance" by the Sudan government, as an addition to the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), which has 10 000 personnel in southern Sudan.
- Creates an UNMIS mission in Darfur of up to 22 600 military and police personnel: 17 300 military, 3300 police and 2000 in formed police units.
The final number has not yet been agreed.
- Asks UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to consult with African Union and Sudanese parties on a plan and timetable for transition from the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) to a UN operation.
Deployment should begin no later than October 1.
During the transition AMIS is to be provided with air assets, ground mobility training, engineering and logistics and mobile communications capacity.
Mandate
- Support implementation of the May 5 Darfur Peace Agreement; investigate violations; establish a buffer or demilitarised zones inside and around camps of villagers driven from their homes.
- Monitor armed groups in Darfur and along Sudan's borders with Chad and the Central African Republic.
- Help develop a disarmament program for combatants and their families.
- Work with the national police, including training and restructuring and mentoring and monitor their performance on joint patrols; help support an independence judiciary and professional corrections system to combat impunity.
- Help co-ordinate voluntary return of refugees and other displaced people to their homes by establishing the necessary security conditions.
Mandate Provisions Under Chapter (which allows use of force)
- UNMIS is authorised to "use all necessary means" within its capabilities to protect UN personnel and facilities; prevent disruption of the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement by armed groups, and prevent attacks and threats against civilians.
- UNMIS is to seize or collect arms whose presence in Darfur is in violation of the peace agreements and to "dispose of such arms and related material as appropriate."
Chad, Central Africa Republic
- Sets up political, humanitarian, military and civilian police liaison officers in key locations in Chad, where Sudan refugees had fled and villagers along the Sudanese border have been evicted from their homes.
If necessary, the same system can be set up in the Central African Republic.
- Requests Annan to report to the Security Council on the protection of civilians in refugee and displaced persons camps in Chad and on how to improve the security situation on the Chadian side of the border with Sudan.
Sanctions
The measure threatens, in response to a request by the African Union, to impose sanctions, such as an an asset freeze or travel ban, against any individual or group that violates or attempts to block the implementation of the Darfur agreement or commits human rights violations.
US's Frazer took up with Sudanese president the arrest of journalist Paul Salopek - Sudan to send envoy to US to discuss Bush plea for Darfur
AP report Aug 29 via ST Aug 30:
Aug 29 2006 AP report via ST: Sudan to consider case of US journalist accused of spying:
Sudan's president is sending an envoy to Washington to discuss a request by President Bush to allow a UN force into the war-torn Darfur region, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.- - -
The request was delivered to President Omar al-Bashir by Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer in a meeting at his home, spokesman Tom Casey said.
"She made a very clear case of what U.S. policy is, and he certainly listened to what she had to say," Casey said.
"President Bashir said in response to the message from the president that he would be sending an envoy to Washington and that he would then provide a direct response," Casey said.
The Sudanese president has opposed a U.N. force on Sudanese territory and has said he plans to send government troops to Darfur to pacify the region.
Frazer also took up with the Sudanese president the arrest of an American journalist by pro-government forces in the Darfur region.
The reporter, Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune, his driver and interpreter were arrested Aug. 6. He was charged with espionage, passing information illegally, writing "false news" and entering the African country without a visa.
The State Department has said any judicial process should be fair and speedy.
Casey said he did not know what al-Bashir's response might have been. He said Salopek was in good health and receiving frequent visits from U.S. diplomats assigned to the country.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a U.S. official said later there was no foundation to the spy charges but that some technical violation of immigration regulations could not be ruled out.
Aug 29 2006 AP report via ST: Sudan to consider case of US journalist accused of spying:
President Bashir said during a meeting with Frazer that he would consider Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Salopek's "case out of a humanitarian standpoint," said Bashir's spokesman Mahjud Fadul Bedry.
Despite saying he would consider Salopek's case, al-Bashir also said Tuesday that the conflict in Darfur was "exaggerated by the Western media by repeatedly publishing allegations of ethnic cleansing and rape," Bedry said.
Sudanese leader meets with US's Frazer after snub
Sudan's president met with US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday after failing to secure a meeting with him a day earlier, John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said.
Frazer went to Khartoum at the weekend to deliver a strong message to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir that he must accept UN peacekeeping troops in the war-torn western Darfur region. She extended her stay on Monday after she was unable to meet with him.
"My understanding is he (Bashir) was maybe too busy yesterday but he did meet with her this morning," Bolton told reporters at UN headquarters in New York. "I know that she saw President Bashir."
He said he had no details of what was said during the meeting, however.
Source: Reuters 29 Aug 2006.
Frazer went to Khartoum at the weekend to deliver a strong message to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir that he must accept UN peacekeeping troops in the war-torn western Darfur region. She extended her stay on Monday after she was unable to meet with him.
"My understanding is he (Bashir) was maybe too busy yesterday but he did meet with her this morning," Bolton told reporters at UN headquarters in New York. "I know that she saw President Bashir."
He said he had no details of what was said during the meeting, however.
Source: Reuters 29 Aug 2006.
Norway to call international conference on Darfur
Norway's Minister of International Development, Erik Solheim, is to call an international emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the crisis in Darfur, Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported on Tuesday.
Full story by Xinhua via People's Daily Online
Full story by Xinhua via People's Daily Online
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Uganda Sudan Border Project - Stephen Alvarez photos
Excerpt from The Uganda Sudan Border Project:
For the past four years, photographer Stephen Alvarez has journeyed to the Uganda Sudan border area to document the effects of civil war and rebel insurgencies and the plight of refugees, night commuters, and civilians attempting to rebuild their lives.
Prints are available for purchase, all proceeds will suport the education of children at Amazing Grace Orphanage in Adjumani, Uganda and its sister orphanage, St Bartholomew's, in Kajo Keji, Sudan.
Susan Tabi founded Amazing Grace Orphanage in Adjumani, Uganda in 1994 to care for orphans of the Sudanese civil war. Ebzon Wudu joined her to help with admin of the orphanage.
Amazing Grace cares for over 30 children. The facility has 5 dorms, an office, kitchen and bathrooms. The team of 7 caretakers has created livestock and agricultural projects to help support themselves and the children.
Uganda: ICC still calling for Kony's arrest
Take this report and change the name of Kony to Bashir (and Uganda to Sudan) to get an idea of what Khartoum regime and its followers must be thinking when it comes to Darfur rebels getting UN troops onside.
Aug 28 2006 Reuters/CFD ICC Still Calling for Kony's Arrest:
Aug 28 2006 Reuters/CFD ICC Still Calling for Kony's Arrest:
International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors said on Monday they still hoped for the arrest of leaders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) despite an offer of amnesty by Uganda under the terms of a truce.
Leaders of the cult-like rebels, who are infamous for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping thousands of children, are wanted by the Hague-based Court to face war crimes charges.
"We believe that the countries or the states which have an obligation to execute the arrest warrant will do so," the court's deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told journalists.
"We still maintain that because we think those persons who bear the greatest responsibility should not go unpunished."
He was speaking at a news conference called to discuss a separate case and reiterating the Court's position.
The ICC issued arrest warrants against LRA leader Joseph Kony and his deputies last year but has no police force to hunt down its targets, so must rely on Ugandan, Sudanese and former southern Sudanese rebel troops to bring them to justice.
Under the terms of a truce agreed on Saturday, Uganda has offered amnesty to LRA leaders, including those hunted by the ICC, if they abandon their hideouts and assemble at two Sudanese camps within the next three weeks to thrash out a final deal.
The LRA said all leaders including the ICC indictees would come to the camps.
Asked about Uganda's truce offer, Bensouda said: "We certainly hope that they will execute the warrant that has been issued against the top leaders of the LRA."
Uganda begins ceasefire with LRA
Excerpt from BBC report today:
A ceasefire between Uganda's government and the Lord's Resistance Army rebels has come into force.
The truce, signed on Saturday, gives rebels three weeks to assemble at points in southern Sudan where the regional government will protect them.
Comprehensive peace talks are then meant to start. Uganda has pledged that it will not try to attack the rebels.
Thousands have died during the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda, and more than one million have fled their homes.
The ceasefire took effect at 0600 local time (0300 GMT) on Tuesday.
Ugandan army spokesman Maj Felix Kulayigye told the BBC that so far the truce was holding.
Monday, August 28, 2006
UN's Jan Egeland warns of looming catastrophe in Darfur
The United Nations' most senior humanitarian official issued a dire warning today about the situation in Darfur, stating that "a man-made catastrophe of an unprecedented scale" looms within weeks unless the Security Council acts immediately to deal with the spiralling violence, looting and internal displacement. Full story at UN News Centre 28 Aug 2006.
Dark Clouds Over Darfur
This may be symbolic for AMIS. The NRF and certain breakaway factions of JEM has threatened to target AMIS. They do not agree with what the DPA stands for. (Photo and caption courtesy Werner, Soldier of Africa 27 Aug 2006)
Changing of the Guard in Darfur
Changing of the guard. This is the first time I have really photographed this daily occurrence in our base. (Photo and caption by Werner of Soldier of Africa 27 Aug 2006)
Dinner Time in Darfur
We asked the protection force to prepare the dinner for last night and they did a real good job of it. Not only was the food very good, but the catering staff also dressed very nicely. I believe that the food makes any function good or bad. (Photo and caption by Werner of Soldier of Africa 27 Aug 2006)
SLM faction says Sudan Mujahideen are transported to camps in Darfur's Sarf, Omrah and Kabkabya janjaweed controlled zones
Sudan Tribune Aug 25, 2006 (PARIS):
A Darfur rebel group accused the Sudanese government of transporting Islamists Arab groups to Darfur region in order to train them to face the eventual arrival of United Nations force to the region.
According to a press statement by a faction of rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) signed by Esamedin Al Haj, Sudanese government transports Arab Mujahideen in night flights after the curfew to Nyala and Al-Fasher airports.
Al-Haj added that the Mujahideen are transported to camps in Sarf, Omrah and Kabkabya, areas known as Janjaweed controlled zones.
Sudanese ruling National Congress Party officials renew since several months opposition to UN takeover of the peacekeeping mission in the trouble region of Darfur.
Sudanese Islamist leaders say they will take up arms against United Nations peacekeepers if they deploy to Darfur, and some have warned they will also fight the Khartoum government if it agrees to the force.
President al-Bashir, who swore to lead personally the resistance to a U.N. force, renewed Sudan's rejection to any UN forces in Darfur, considering the draft resolution forwarded by Britain to the Security Council in this regard as a colonial attempt against, a matter which Sudan would not allow.
Despite Sudan's objections, the United States and Britain have introduced a Security Council draft resolution that would deploy up to 17,000 troops and 3,000 police in Darfur, where an overstretched African Union force is monitoring a shaky truce.
The Islamist NCP mobilizes its militias like Popular Defence Forces and Dababin to fight international forces in Darfur.
Leaders of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, have called on Muslims to fight any U.N. force in Darfur and while the diplomatic wrangling continues, Khartoum's many Islamic groups have delivered a clear message.
Sudan hosted bin Laden in the 1990s, relations soured and under U.S. and regional pressure Khartoum asked him to leave in 1996. But it is not excluded that Sudanese security service renewed contacts with Islamist groups.
Sudan reiterates rejection of UN force in Darfur, calling for African peacekeepers to be strengthened
AP report 28 Aug 2006 via Easy bourse - excerpt:
A senior US diplomat Jendayi Frazer left Sudan without meeting President Omar al-Bashir after Khartoum rejected demands that it approve the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in war-torn Darfur.
Frazer departed Sudan late Sunday, a day before the UN Security Council was to discuss a draft resolution on the peacekeepers.
Frazer had been expected to deliver a message from US President George W Bush to al-Bashir.
Sudanese President al-Bashir was unable to meet the American diplomat "due to his crowded schedule," the president's office said.
Instead, Frazer handed the message to presidential adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmed, who in turn gave her a message from al-Bashir repeating his rejection of the U.N. force, presidential spokesman Mahjub Badry, told reporters.
Instead of the UN force, al-Bashir has called for the African peacekeepers to be strengthened - and he has said he plans to send Sudanese troops to Darfur to pacify the region.
Ismail: Sudan has proposed to boost the AU force in Darfur
Anything that boosts the African Union force in Darfur is better than nothing. News reports from a year or two ago in Sudan Watch archives, show that the late John Garang proposed to help Darfur by suggesting a joint force of 30,000 troops for Darfur - 10,000 each from SPLM/AU/GoS. I don't understand why what Khartoum is proposing can't be made to work, especially if 2,000 UNMIS monitors were deployed with enough of the right equipment and helicopters. A year or so ago, some pundits said Darfur rebels would never agree to such an arrangement. Too bad. John Garang wouldn't have made such an offer if he didn't think it would work.
Sudan Tribune Aug 27, 2006 (KHARTOUM):
Sudan Tribune Aug 27, 2006 (KHARTOUM):
Sudan reiterated its rejection to transfer of the mandate of the African Union troops to an United Nation force, instead Khartoum proposed to boost the AU force in the region.
Presidential Advisor, Mustafa Osman Ismail told the press after a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jenday Frazer that he renewed Sudan's opposition to UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
Ismail further indicated that Sudan has proposed to boost the AU force deployed in Darfur. Further, the government intends to deploy regular troops in the strife-torn Darfur region, besides troops of the former Darfur rebel groups signatories to the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA).
The Arab League backed this proposal last week. Sudanese president told UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that Khartoum would deploy 10,500 Sudanese troops to Darfur to provide security. However, Frazer had stressed before its arrival to Khartoum that the Sudanese forces "aren't considered neutral and so we don't feel that the people of Darfur will get any comfort" from such a move.
Ismail said they have informed Frazer that US should gives a chance for the implementation of the PDA signed on 5 May, and to allow the president of the Darfur interim authority, Minni Minawi, to form his administration.
Ismail said he told Frazer that tension would increase if a UN resolution was approved to pave way for an international force in Darfur.
The US assistant secretary of state for African affairs did not get much during two other meetings held with the Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol and Majzoub al-Khalifa who headed the government delegation to Darfur peace talks.
Lam Akol said he discussed with the visiting US official the government position that is opposed to the transition as well as the US vision in favour of the UN takeover of the AU mission in Darfur.
Sudanese presidential advisor Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmed said a transfer of authority from African Union to UN troops would "imply lack of confidence by the UN in the African Union," adding that Khartoum continued to back the AU.
He further added "Sudan's decision is to stick with the African Union. As for their demand for a UN role - yes - but only in humanitarian assistance and in the strengthening of the AU forces - participation in strengthening the humanitarian role and support for the African forces so that they can complete their mandate of organizing security."
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Sudan's Darfur plan envisages a joint force of 26,500 GoS/SLM-Minnawi troops by year end
Eric Reeves' latest opinion piece [hat tip POTP ] - excerpt:
As it [Sudan gov't] refuses an invitation even to discuss the UN Security Council resolution on security in Darfur, what has Khartoum proposed instead? Our best guide is again the report of Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi (to the Security Council, August 17, 2006):
"the plan does not indicate a willingness on the part of the Government of Sudan to agree to a transition to a United Nations operation in Darfur. In addition, the plan seeks to address the security situation outside the framework of the relevant Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) bodies. In particular, it envisages the combined deployment of 26,500 additional Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM)/Minni Minawi troops to Darfur by the end of the year. As members of this Council will appreciate, this would not only be inconsistent with the DPA's restriction on military deployments outside of agreed areas of control, but would also violate the arms embargo imposed by the Security Council in paragraph 7 of resolution 1591 (2005)." (Paragraph 8)
CHAD: NRF rebels aim to extend in South Darfur & Jebel Marra
Via Sudan Vision and African News Dimension Aug 27, 2006:
Reports from Sudanese-Chadian borders indicate that a Chadian cargo of gasoline and petrol is expected to be delivered to the National Redemption Front which rejects the DPA in the regions of Bahai and Al-Tina inside the Chadian frontiers.
Information obtained by Sudan Vision from Chad asserted that the process is being carried through follow up and coordination by Adam Ali Shogar in N'djamena. They added that the Redemption Front needs those supplies to achieve its objectives of extending in South Darfur and Jebel Marra after it occupied Kalkal and Sabah regions, which are still under their control.
Observers stated that the support processes by Chad for Darfur rebels who reject the DPA are still going despite all the agreement and means of understanding signed between the Sudanese and Chadian governments and despite Chad's pledges of abstaining support for rebels.
A Redemption Front force, led by Hassan Bijo, had recently stopped and robbed (17) tankers which contain Avgas that belonged to the African Union and some organizations on their way between Al-Fashir and Um Kadoda and at about (20) kilometers from Um Kadoda.
Information indicate that the whole cargo arrived at Bir Mazza region where Commander Adam Bakhit is stationed and the cargo is on its way to Chad to be swapped for ordinary fuel, arms or land-cruiser vehicles.
These same observers stated that Chad might be unable or unwilling for some internal or external reasons to stop support for groups rejecting the DPA. They asserted that such support will definitely disturb Darfur as well as regional peace and will violate the agreements and all memos and pledges between the two governments.
It is worth noting that a senior delegation from has arrived in Khartoum headed by the Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Alami. It is believed that the Sudanese government will deliver to him a strong message on the continued Chadian support to rebels, especially at a time when Sudan is striving hard to implement the DPA in accordance to visions of international intervention, which is still rejected by the Sudanese government.
US envoy Frazer gets a chilly welcome and a "NO" from Sudanese president
Sudan has reserved a chilly welcome to US envoy Jendayi Frazer who arrived yesterday to persuade a defiant president to accept the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur, Sudan Tribune reported 27 Aug 2006. Excerpt:
After the angry mob at the Khartoum Airport orchestrated by the ruling National Congress Party, Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir said that Frazer's mission would do little to change his country'sposition.
"We will not hand over our country to international forces, whether Frazer comes here or not... Frazer might be accustomed to hearing 'yes' from many leaders but here she'll get a 'no'," Beshir said Sunday.
Bashir was speaking before a meeting with the Sudanese journalist in Diaspora. It was not immediately clear who Frazer would be meeting during her visit.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Reeves: If Khartoum's massive military offensive in N Darfur takes place, there will be massive civilian destruction
Coalition for Darfur points today to an interview with Eric Reeves at Democracy Now! Excerpt:
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about this latest news and the reaction of the Sudanese government?
ERIC REEVES: There are many facets to Khartoum's decision. It's to date paid no real price for its obduracy, its refusal to abide by international norms, either in the North-South conflict, which nominally ended in January 2005, or in its genocidal conduct of war in Darfur. What I am hearing from my sources on the ground and what the Hedi Annabi, the head of U.N. peacekeeping, recently said in a report to the Security Council that I have seen, is that Khartoum is right now planning a massive military offensive in North Darfur, which has been the most violent of the three Darfur states.
If this offensive takes place, there will be massive, massive civilian destruction. I think we're also likely to see a withdrawal of virtually all humanitarian workers. This will leave some 1.2 million people completely dependent on humanitarian aid, without any assistance whatsoever. By my own calculation, some 500,000 people have already died. As many more could die in the coming year if current trends continue.
Only with the deployment of an effective -- and I emphasize effective -- international force can genocidal destruction be brought to a halt. Khartoum gives no sign of capitulating on this, and I'll be very interested to know what Jendayi Frazer, President Bush's envoy to Khartoum, takes with her in the way of sticks and pressures to bring to bear on this recalcitrant regime.
AU and European diplomats say Taha had in private agreed last year to a UN takeover in Darfur
Reuters' Opheera McDoom report 26 Aug 2006 - Pressure Mounts on Sudan to Accept UN Force [via CFD] excerpt:
"... any reported divisions between Bashir and his deputy on a UN presence in Darfur have disappeared with Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha's first direct and public rebuke of the international community.
"Dialogue is maintained with the international community and it is one of the principles of the foreign policy of Sudan, but it does not mean surrender and cancellation of the national identity and the national will," the state news agency SUNA quoted Taha as saying on Thursday.
AU and European diplomats say Taha had in private agreed last year to a UN takeover in Darfur once a peace deal was reached. Since the AU-brokered deal was signed in May, Taha had kept largely quiet on the issue.
In contrast Bashir has made speeches almost daily for the past few weeks, on each occasion making sure to repeat his rejection of the force.
One Western diplomat who declined to be named said: "I think there is little to be positive about at this stage." [edit]
Bashir depicts a U.N. presence in Darfur as a Western attempt to colonise Sudan. But other politicians say his party is worried the troops would be used to arrest officials likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigating alleged war crimes in the region.
"(There are some who) don't want to accept the U.N. forces if this at the end will mean the signature of their own death certificates," said Ghazi Suleiman, a member of parliament for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which formed a coalition government with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in 2005.
He said the SPLM would not be part of any confrontation with the international community and said privately Bashir's only worry was about the mandate of the U.N. troops.
"There are reactionary statements but when it comes to real diplomacy real decision-making, the president just wants to be satisfied about the mandate of these forces," Suleiman added.
Sudan's implementing Darfur Peace Agreement with no need for permission or input from UN or anyone else (Polgreen)
Copy of commentary by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times 26 Aug 2006 [US to press Sudan's leader to accept UN Force - hat tip POTP] Excerpt:
Sudan's foreign minister, Lam Akol, said in an interview here [Khartoum] that the plan to use troops to pacify Darfur is already in motion.
"With this plan, we are implementing the Darfur Peace Agreement," Mr Akol said. "We do not need the permission or the input of the United Nations or anyone else." [ ...]
Mr Morrison, who proposed the blueprint that led to United States engagement with Sudan to end its war in the south even before Sept 11, said with little leverage left, the United States should focus on preventing the total collapse of the vast aid effort in Darfur, a lifeline to millions, and on stopping the bloodbath of that the impending onslaught by the Sudanese Army would surely cause.
"I don't mean to pretend there is any fix here," Mr. Morrison said. "What is an option is to face up to a fact that we are in a slide right now and we need to push back and contain the slide to prevent a catastrophe."
Sudanese protesters mob US envoy's car
Angry demonstrators mobbed the car of US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer after she arrived in Sudan, and demanded that she return home.
Photo: Dozens of protesters, chanting slogans and raising banners reading "Go Back Home", "You Want War" and "We Want Peace" showed up at the airport, covered her car with banners and blocked her way before police intervened. (AFP) Full story Sudan Tribune 26 Aug 2006.
Photo: Sudanese demonstrators cover the windshield of the official vehicle of U.S. diplomat to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, with placards as she leaves the airport in Khartoum, August 26, 2006. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdalah)
Photo: U.S. diplomat to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, smiles as she arrives in Khartoum, August 26, 2006. As pressure mounts on Sudan to accept UN troops in Darfur, the Khartoum government is closing ranks in defiance, rising fears of a deadlock that could hasten Darfur's descent into chaos. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdalah)
Photo: Dozens of protesters, chanting slogans and raising banners reading "Go Back Home", "You Want War" and "We Want Peace" showed up at the airport, covered her car with banners and blocked her way before police intervened. (AFP) Full story Sudan Tribune 26 Aug 2006.
Photo: Sudanese demonstrators cover the windshield of the official vehicle of U.S. diplomat to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, with placards as she leaves the airport in Khartoum, August 26, 2006. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdalah)
Photo: U.S. diplomat to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, smiles as she arrives in Khartoum, August 26, 2006. As pressure mounts on Sudan to accept UN troops in Darfur, the Khartoum government is closing ranks in defiance, rising fears of a deadlock that could hasten Darfur's descent into chaos. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdalah)
Friday, August 25, 2006
US warns of security crisis in Darfur unless UN force deploys
Note the last line of this excerpt (from VOA report 25 Aug 2006) tells us Frazer said she does not expect a Chinese veto of the resolution enabling the new UN force, despite reservations expressed by Beijing:
Photo: Assistant Secretary Frazer (Aug. 24): "I will stress the United States commitment to ending the suffering of the people of Darfur. We cannot let the violence and atrocities continue. We cannot let humanitarian workers and peacekeepers continue to come under attack and we cannot let the DPA (Darfur Peace Agreement) fail." [Hat tip POTP]
Aug 25 2006 U.S. Department of State report on Assistant Secretary Frazer: Travel to Khartoum, Sudan.
See Remarks by Frazer 24 Aug 2006.
Aug 25 2006 Reuter's Sue Fleming report: US Says Darfur Is Getting Worse, U.N. Must Go In- "We believe that the time to act is now and that there can't be further delay," Frazer told reporters. "The security environment is deteriorating and deteriorating very quickly."
The U.S. State Department's Africa policy chief warned Friday of a severe deterioration in security conditions in Sudan's western Darfur region, unless a proposed United Nations force is allowed to deploy. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer is heading to Sudan for a new effort to persuade authorities to accept an upgraded peacekeeping presence.
Assistant Secretary Frazer gave the grim assessment as she prepared to depart for Khartoum to deliver a message from President Bush to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, urging him to end delaying tactics and accept a revamped Darfur security force.
She said that with Sudan threatening a new military offensive in Darfur, and local rebel groups apparently making similar plans, the security situation could lurch out of control unless the proposed upgrade of the current African Union monitoring mission into a full-scale U.N. peacekeeping force goes forward:
"We're very concerned. It's not just the government of Sudan that's preparing for an offensive. We also have heard reports that the non-signatories to the Darfur Peace Agreement, the National Resistance Movement and others, are also preparing and rearming themselves and preparing for an offensive. So we think the security environment is deteriorating and deteriorating very quickly and we're extremely concerned about this," she said.
When they signed the Darfur peace accord in Nigeria in May, leaders of the Khartoum government signaled acceptance of the plan to upgrade the current seven-thousand member A.U. mission into a much larger United Nations force.
But they have since reneged, with President Bashir even suggesting that Sudan might forcibly resist the introduction of U.N. soldiers.
Assistant Secretary Frazer said one reason for her hastily arranged mission will be to brief the Sudanese leader on details of the peacekeeping plan, and counter complaints by the Sudanese government that it has not been adequately consulted. "We believe that we have consulted them. But we will go the last mile to make sure that we have been able to directly talk to them about the re-hatting (converting) of this force and what U.S. intentions are. This is, of course coordinated with other international actors who I think are delivering a very similar message. But I think that the key to success in Darfur in terms of getting a credible, non-partisan, as such, peacekeeping force there, is for the international community to act together," she said.
The African Union mission has suffered from logistical and budget problems and its mandate expires at the end of September.
Frazer said the United States and its allies want a Security Council resolution enacted by the end of this month that will authorize the force upgrade.
The State Department official said more than five thousand of the best-trained A.U. troops would form the nucleus of the United Nations force on October first, and at least 12,000 more U.N. soldiers would be phased in later.
She said if the transformation was not to occur until the beginning of next year, as some U.N. officials have proposed, the situation in Darfur could slide back to the level of violence that prevailed in 2004, which the United States termed genocide.
In the talk with reporters which immediately preceded her departure for Khartoum, Frazer said she did not expect a Chinese veto of the resolution enabling the new force, despite reservations expressed by Beijing.
Photo: Assistant Secretary Frazer (Aug. 24): "I will stress the United States commitment to ending the suffering of the people of Darfur. We cannot let the violence and atrocities continue. We cannot let humanitarian workers and peacekeepers continue to come under attack and we cannot let the DPA (Darfur Peace Agreement) fail." [Hat tip POTP]
Aug 25 2006 U.S. Department of State report on Assistant Secretary Frazer: Travel to Khartoum, Sudan.
See Remarks by Frazer 24 Aug 2006.
Aug 25 2006 Reuter's Sue Fleming report: US Says Darfur Is Getting Worse, U.N. Must Go In- "We believe that the time to act is now and that there can't be further delay," Frazer told reporters. "The security environment is deteriorating and deteriorating very quickly."
US says UN force needed to stop Sudan offensive in Darfur
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer spoke to reporters hours before leaving for Sudan to exhort Sudanese officials to accept the presence of a UN peacekeeping force, Sudan Tribune reported Aug 25, 2006. Excerpt:
Frazer said the people of Darfur wouldn't regard government troops as a neutral force because of Khartoum's record of supporting Janjaweed militias who have terrorized the region.
At the same time, she said, the abuses of anti-government rebel forces in Darfur shouldn't be ignored.
Frazer, who will meet with el-Bashir in the coming days, said she is willing to go the "last mile" to overcome his opposition to a UN force.
The financially strapped 7,000-strong AU force now deployed in Darfur is to cease to exist on Sept. 30. Under a proposal that Frazer says has broad backing in the UN Security Council, the Africans would be "rehatted" as a U.N. force the next day and eventually be joined by other soldiers.
Unless the UN force can be created, there will be no force in place in Darfur "to stop this government from carrying out what has been the genocide," Frazer said.
She predicted that her mission to Khartoum will be successful.
"I'm fully confident there will be a transition to a UN force," she said.
Vatican Radio: Keeping Peace in Darfur
Vatican Radio news report 25 Aug 2006:
Hopes for peace in Darfur have suffered after Sudan rejected a proposal for peacekeepers from the United Nations. Tens of thousands of people have died and 2.5 million been driven from their homes by violence in Darfur since early 2003. Marina Peter is the director of Sudan Focal Point Europe, an international network of mainly church-based organisations working in the region. She said the chances of reaching agreement over a peacekeeping force were bleak...
PHR condemns Sudanese gov't plan
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) strongly condemns the Government of Sudan's plans to send 10,500 of its own troops to quell continuing violence in Darfur, and calls on the UN Security Council instead to pass the resolution expediting the deployment of a robust UN force to the region. Full report via Coalition for Darfur.
I wonder if it could be possible for the proposed 10,500 Sudanese troops being deployed to Darfur to act as a peackeeping force and operate under the same mandate (not Chapter 6 or 7) as that of the African Union mission in Darfur.
I wonder if it could be possible for the proposed 10,500 Sudanese troops being deployed to Darfur to act as a peackeeping force and operate under the same mandate (not Chapter 6 or 7) as that of the African Union mission in Darfur.
Sudanese Islamists threaten to fight UN Darfur force
Reuters' Opheera McDoom report 25 Aug 2006 via ReliefWeb - excerpt:
Khartoum's many Islamic groups have delivered a clear message.
"We categorically refuse U.N. troops in Darfur," said Abdel Wahhab Mohamed Ali Ahmed, head of the Sudanese higher council for the coordination of Islamic groups, formed last year.
"And if they come we will fight them until they leave."
The council is composed of representatives from Sudan's main Islamist movements, including Ansar al-Sunna and the Hizb ut-Tahrir group, outlawed in neighbouring Egypt.
"The colonialists have united all the Muslim groups in Sudan ... and we support the government in this position," said Ahmed Malik, another member of the higher council.
University professor and respected Islamist preacher Sadiq al-Hajj Abu Dafirah said any U.N. troops had to be given the choice to convert to Islam or leave the country.
"We will use dialogue but finally we would be obliged to fight them if they don't see the validity of our arguments," he said. He added talks could last years.
"A Muslim, when he is forced to fight, does so with sorrow."
Al Qaeda's statements on Sudan raise the spectre of a wider conflict, that could draw in foreign fighters. Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri have said their movement would fight in Darfur if U.N. troops deploy.
While Sudan hosted bin Laden in the 1990s, relations soured and under U.S. and regional pressure Khartoum asked him to leave in 1996. In April this year, Bin Laden criticised Sudan for agreeing the U.S.-backed peace deal for the north-south war.
Sudan's Islamists say they are not entirely in agreement with Al Qaeda's methods but Ahmed said they would happily take help from anyone to prevent U.N. troops deploying.
"We have camps here and we are training. We are ready."
Others, like preacher Abu Dafirah, were more circumspect.
"I'm sorry to say that yes (Al Qaeda) would find some support here," he said.
The United Nations is aware of the hostility.
It recently raised its security level in Khartoum, where hundreds of U.N. staff live and work, because of what officials called "credible threats to their security."
Islamist leaders said even Bashir would have cause to fear them if he gave in to international pressure on a Darfur force.
"Bashir cannot give in now, his people would not respect him, even his wife would not respect him if he did," said Malik.
Ahmed sai if Bashir's government agreed to allow U.N. troops in Darfur, "Then we will fight them too."
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Bush sends envoy to Sudan to push for 2,000 UN troops in Darfur by Oct 1
The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, announced Thursday that she will travel to Sudan on Friday.
The secretary said she would carry a letter from US President GW Bush stating the need for urgent action to halt the violence in Darfur. She said the goal would be to get the first few thousand troops on the ground by October 1. - VOA 24 Aug 2006.
The secretary said she would carry a letter from US President GW Bush stating the need for urgent action to halt the violence in Darfur. She said the goal would be to get the first few thousand troops on the ground by October 1. - VOA 24 Aug 2006.
UN Security Council to meet Monday on Darfur without Khartoum attendance
The UN Security Council will hold a meeting next week to discuss Darfur despite Khartoum's refusal to participate, the council president said Thursday.
The meeting on Monday will discuss further a draft resolution by the US and Britain to transfer the AU peacekeeping operation in Darfur to the UN, a move opposed by Khartoum.
Full report by DPA 24 Aug 2006 via M&C.
The meeting on Monday will discuss further a draft resolution by the US and Britain to transfer the AU peacekeeping operation in Darfur to the UN, a move opposed by Khartoum.
Full report by DPA 24 Aug 2006 via M&C.
Sudan's leader postpones UN meeting on Darfur
Sudanese President Bashir on Wednesday declined an invitation to attend a UN Security Council next week to explain his plan to deploy more than 10,000 Sudanese troops to Darfur instead of a UN peacekeeping operation, DPA/M&C reported today - excerpt:
Al-Bashir said such a meeting was welcome to consolidate the peace process in Darfur.
But he added, 'In view of having a fruitful discussion of the council on the matter, with the effective participation of regional organizations strongly engaged in the situation in Darfur, we deem it appropriate to postpone the meeting to enable better preparations.'
There was no immediate response from Effah-Apenteng as the council had no formal meeting on Wednesday. The three organizations invited [the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Conference and African Union] did not respond.
Sudan rejects draft UN Security Council resolution on Darfur
Sudan's ruling party has rejected a US-UK draft Security Council resolution to deploy UN peacekeepers in Darfur, saying it would violate national sovereignty, the official media reported Thursday: Aug 24 2006 AP report via Sudan Tribune Sudan rejects draft UN Security Council resolution on Darfur - excerpt:
Photo: Members of the Sudanese Popular Defence Forces, hold knifes and guns while another carries a banner with Arabic writing reading 'Death to America' during a demonstration, in Kartoum, Sudan, Mar 8, 2006. (AP)
Aug 24 2006 Sapa/AFP report by Mohammed Ali Saeed in Khartoum via Mail & Guardian: Sudan reiterates rejection of UN peacekeepers
"We request the Security Council to be patient and not to be in a hurry to adopt a new resolution on the matter, and to allow the government of the Sudan sufficient time to resolve the situation in Darfur," according to the August 21 letter to Council President, Ghanian Ambassador Nana Effah-Apentang.
According to Radio Omdurman and the SUNA news agency, the draft was discussed by the National Congress Party's ruling council and a parliamentary group chaired by President Omar al-Bashir at a meeting Wednesday night.
"The draft resolution is worse than the previous ones because it constitutes an attempt to impose complete guardianship on the Sudan," lawmaker Ghazi Salah Eldin Atabani said after the meeting.
"It did not pay any consideration to the bodies set up for implementation of the Darfur peace agreement and was not presented to the Sudanese authorities."
He said any council member who supported the draft would be considered an enemy of Sudan.
Photo: Members of the Sudanese Popular Defence Forces, hold knifes and guns while another carries a banner with Arabic writing reading 'Death to America' during a demonstration, in Kartoum, Sudan, Mar 8, 2006. (AP)
Aug 24 2006 Sapa/AFP report by Mohammed Ali Saeed in Khartoum via Mail & Guardian: Sudan reiterates rejection of UN peacekeepers
"The draft resolution is worse than previous ones as it is an attempt to impose complete tutelage on the Sudan," National Congress Party chairperson Ghazi Salah Eldin Atabani was quoted as saying after a meeting on Wednesday.UPDATE: Aug 24 2006 IRIN via ReliefWeb: Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir has called on the United Nations Security Council to "be patient" in resolving the conflict in Darfur and indicated, in a letter to the Council President earlier this week, that the UK-US draft resolution for a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur was unacceptable to Khartoum.
"Any state that sponsors this draft resolution will be regarded as assuming a hostile attitude against the Sudan," said the official, describing the draft as "unacceptable and not negotiable under any sort of pressure".
"We request the Security Council to be patient and not to be in a hurry to adopt a new resolution on the matter, and to allow the government of the Sudan sufficient time to resolve the situation in Darfur," according to the August 21 letter to Council President, Ghanian Ambassador Nana Effah-Apentang.
Sudan's leader asks UNSC to delay UN force to give him time to bring peace to Darfur
My take on the following excerpt from today's AP report by Edith Lederer is that Sudanese President Bashir has explained in writing to the UN Security Council that Sudan's six-month plan for Darfur is to implement the Darfur Peace Agreement calling for GoS/AU/UN to "return security and humanitarian situation in Darfur to normal", that he wants to be given time to succeed in this within six months, and urges the Council to delay transferring peacekeeping duties to a UN force because such a force would lead to violence and UNMANAGEABLE CONFRONTATIONS among all parties in Darfur, including the UN forces. Also, I take the President's letter to mean Sudan won't be explaining its plan further to an open UN Security Council next week. Ball appears now to be in Arab League court. Everyone has to pull together to fund the AU in Darfur for 6 months from Sep 30 and ensure it receives the right equipment asap.
Excerpt from AP report Aug 23, 2006 (via Forbes.com):
Excerpt from AP report Aug 23, 2006 (via Forbes.com):
Sudan's president asked the UN Security Council to give him time to bring peace to conflict-wracked Darfur and urged it to delay action on transferring peacekeeping duties to a UN force, according to a letter circulated Wednesday.
Omar al-Bashir said there was strong opposition from residents and leaders in Darfur to the UN force and warned that deployment would lead "to acts of violence and unmanageable confrontations among all parties in Darfur, including the United Nations forces."
Al-Bashir's letter seeking more time to restore peace appeared to be a response to an invitation from the current Security Council president to the Sudanese government and other key players in Darfur to a meeting Monday to discuss the draft resolution.
The Security Council was scheduled to meet Thursday morning to discuss Al-Bashir's letter.
In the letter, Al-Bashir said he wants to concentrate on implementing the peace agreement under a six-month plan he already submitted to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He said it calls for the government, in cooperation with the African Union and U.N. agencies, to "return the security and humanitarian situation in Darfur to normal."
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Floods kill 27, damage 10,000 houses in Sudan - AU soldiers battle sand, rain, mud
The Blue and White Nile rivers, which meet in Khartoum, are threatening government ministries and the Republican Palace as the water in the capital rose to less than a metre below Nile street, home to the government's main buildings, Reuters' Opheera McDoom reported today:
A boy washes rickshaw
Aug 22, 2006: A boy washes a rickshaw in the overflowing Nile river in Omdurman, near Khartoum Aug 22, 2006. (Reuters/Candace Feit)
Rain storm
Aug 22, 2006: Yesterday morning we had a very large rain storm that lasted about ten to twenty minutes. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Alotta water
Aug 22, 2006: As you can see from this photo a lot of water flowed off in a very short time. For some reason water in Darfur stays on the surface for hours and does not sink into the earth like in South Africa. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Well stuck
Aug 20, 2006: This APC deviated just slightly from the road and this was the result. These vehicles are armoured so they weigh many tonnes. Not only do they sink away easily, but if we are not careful we may damage certain areas of road like drifts and cause major problems for the local population. Under the surface of a drift an APC may leave very deep furrows, which can trap the vehicles of the local population passing through. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Stuck in the mud
Aug 15, 2006: Being stuck in the sand has just changed to being stuck in the mud. George, one of the EU reps, from Slovakia managed to drive into this wadi. I pulled him out with my vehicle. The guy in white is our interpreter. He used to be the headmaster of one of the local schools. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Mud
Aug 15, 2006: Another photo to show where George got stuck. The harder road was about ten metres further to the left, where we crossed. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Green day
Aug 15, 2006: Hard to imagine that less than two months ago this was all just sand, now it is green. We were on our way to Ushara Hadahid, a very small village for a confidence building patrol this morning. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Start of a Sandstorm
Aug 14, 2006: Yesterday afternoon we had another sandstorm and as usual afterwards a lot of rain. This photo does not do it justice. The wind was so strong I held onto the hardboard door in my tent lest it be blown off. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Inaugural meeting of Sector 3 Cease Fire Commission (CFC)
Aug 15, 2006: Yesterday afternoon we had the inaugural meeting of the new Sector 3 Cease Fire Commission (CFC). Hopefully we will have success as they monitor the implementation of the DPA (Darfur Peace Agreement). (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
New MILOB in Darfur
Aug 23, 2006: Capt Modipa is a new MILOB [military observer] from Pretoria. He arrived here yesterday. Good luck with your deployment. Poor guy. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Tens of thousands of square kilometres of farmland, in a country where most people depend on agriculture as a way of life, have been engulfed by the water.
A boy washes rickshaw
Aug 22, 2006: A boy washes a rickshaw in the overflowing Nile river in Omdurman, near Khartoum Aug 22, 2006. (Reuters/Candace Feit)
Rain storm
Aug 22, 2006: Yesterday morning we had a very large rain storm that lasted about ten to twenty minutes. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Alotta water
Aug 22, 2006: As you can see from this photo a lot of water flowed off in a very short time. For some reason water in Darfur stays on the surface for hours and does not sink into the earth like in South Africa. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Well stuck
Aug 20, 2006: This APC deviated just slightly from the road and this was the result. These vehicles are armoured so they weigh many tonnes. Not only do they sink away easily, but if we are not careful we may damage certain areas of road like drifts and cause major problems for the local population. Under the surface of a drift an APC may leave very deep furrows, which can trap the vehicles of the local population passing through. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Stuck in the mud
Aug 15, 2006: Being stuck in the sand has just changed to being stuck in the mud. George, one of the EU reps, from Slovakia managed to drive into this wadi. I pulled him out with my vehicle. The guy in white is our interpreter. He used to be the headmaster of one of the local schools. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Mud
Aug 15, 2006: Another photo to show where George got stuck. The harder road was about ten metres further to the left, where we crossed. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Green day
Aug 15, 2006: Hard to imagine that less than two months ago this was all just sand, now it is green. We were on our way to Ushara Hadahid, a very small village for a confidence building patrol this morning. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Start of a Sandstorm
Aug 14, 2006: Yesterday afternoon we had another sandstorm and as usual afterwards a lot of rain. This photo does not do it justice. The wind was so strong I held onto the hardboard door in my tent lest it be blown off. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Inaugural meeting of Sector 3 Cease Fire Commission (CFC)
Aug 15, 2006: Yesterday afternoon we had the inaugural meeting of the new Sector 3 Cease Fire Commission (CFC). Hopefully we will have success as they monitor the implementation of the DPA (Darfur Peace Agreement). (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
New MILOB in Darfur
Aug 23, 2006: Capt Modipa is a new MILOB [military observer] from Pretoria. He arrived here yesterday. Good luck with your deployment. Poor guy. (Soldier of Africa in Darfur, W Sudan)
Detention of Sudanese journalists in Khartoum and Marawi
SOAT Human Rights Alert: 23 August 2006 - excerpt:
On 16 August 2006 at 02:30am, approximately twenty police officers arrested Naser Eldien Ahmed Altayeb, (26 yrs), journalist working for the Arabic daily, Alayam newspaper. Following his arrest, Mr. Naser Eldien was taken to a nearby police vehicle. Inside the car, Mr. Naser Eldien was beaten with sticks by two of the arresting officers.
Mr. Naser Eldien was arrested whilst reporting on the forced relocation of residents at Dar al Salaam, situated 20 miles South of Khartoum in Algazera province following a Court Order to evict the residents. The residents of Dar al Salaam, mainly IDPs from Southern Sudan and Darfur have resided in the area for over two decades and have refused to move pending a suitable alternative, which they were negotiating with the government. The land in Dar al Salaam has been sold to an Egyptian businessperson who planned to develop the land as a Theme Park.
In a separate incident, on 15 August 2006, at 02:00am, four journalists were detained and prevented from entering Amri, Marawi, Northern Sudan. The journalists had travelled to Marawi to report on the plight of thousands of people made homeless following flood caused by heavy rains on 10 August 2006, which destroyed all the homes constructed by the government to house the displaced population in the region. The details of the journalists are as follows:
1. Mougahed Abdalla; Ray Alshab Daily Newspaper
2. Aboulgasiem Farahna; Alowan Daily Newspaper
3. Moutaz Mahjoob; Al Adwaa Daily Newspaper
4. Mouheb Maher; Al Sudani Daily newspaper
Kalma Camp, S Darfur: Resuming AU firewood patrols is vital
More than 200 women have been sexually assaulted in the last five weeks alone around Darfur's largest displaced camp, Kalma, IRC reported today via Reuters. Excerpt:
"We are not in safety where is the international forces" photo released by the United Nations shows refugees at the Kalma Camp in south Darfur, in 2005. (AFP/UN-HO/Aug 17, 2006/Evan Schneider)
The situation is so dire that about 300 women convened a meeting in Kalma on Aug 7 to plead for more help from the outside world -- particularly from African Union troops mandated to protect civilians.Note the report points out that resuming regular African Union firewood patrols is vital to the women's immediate security needs.
"This is a massive spike in figures. We are used to hearing of 2 to 4 incidents of sexual assault per month in Kalma camp," said Kurt Tjossem of the International Rescue Committee, which collected the figures.
"We are not in safety where is the international forces" photo released by the United Nations shows refugees at the Kalma Camp in south Darfur, in 2005. (AFP/UN-HO/Aug 17, 2006/Evan Schneider)
JEM leaders detained by Chad for handover to AU?
Yesterday, I noted here that the leader of the JEM was in Paris, France. Now, a Reuters report says Chad's Foreign Minister told Reuters today, the leaders of JEM, which did not sign the DPA, have been detained by Chad and would be handed over to the AU.
One could take this to mean Ibrahim is now barred from entering Chad. Why he is not behind bars is beyond me.
One could take this to mean Ibrahim is now barred from entering Chad. Why he is not behind bars is beyond me.
NRF press release says it is the main rebel group in Darfur
National Redemption Front (NRF) says it does not constitute a minority in Darfur while forces of Minni Minnawi, the newly appointed Senior Assistant to President Albashir enjoys a dominant position in the region.
See NRF Press Release signed by Dr Abdullahi Osman El-Tom for JEM/NRF 20 August 2006 (via Sudan Tribune).
See NRF Press Release signed by Dr Abdullahi Osman El-Tom for JEM/NRF 20 August 2006 (via Sudan Tribune).
Voluntary disarmament succeeds in Jonglei, S Sudan
More than 1,200 rusted Kalashnikovs and machine guns were laid out on a football pitch in Akobo, southeast Sudan on Monday, raising hopes that clashes that killed hundreds of people earlier this year will end, Sudan Tribune reported 21 Aug 2006.
Photo: A UN peacekeeper takes pictures during the first peaceful civilian disarmament in Akobo, Jonglei state, August 21, 2006. (Reuters) Via Sudan Man blog entry - excerpt:
Rob's blog entry at Sudan Man re Darfur Peace Keeping Force says:
Photo: A UN peacekeeper takes pictures during the first peaceful civilian disarmament in Akobo, Jonglei state, August 21, 2006. (Reuters) Via Sudan Man blog entry - excerpt:
Young men eyed the 1,300 guns laid out in a field in the southern Sudanese town of Akobo. The rifles would once have been worth a fortune to these members of the Lou Nuer, who typically used weapons to defend themselves or to raid neighbouring villages.Proponent of AU peacekeepers
Arms were once considered integral to life in this region. But in July, more than 1,000 men and boys in Akobo County relinquished their weapons to local authorities, asking nothing in return. See full report.
Rob's blog entry at Sudan Man re Darfur Peace Keeping Force says:
"I'm a proponent of keeping the AU forces in control, and ensuring that there is adequate funding to expand and equip them. Even then there needs to be seriousness on the part of the rebel movements and the government to broker a peace agreement on the lines of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement now implemented in Southern Sudan. Without that the chances of any peacekeeping force - UN or AU - being able to protect the IDP's."
Sudan invited to brief UN Security Council on Darfur
Reuters' Irwin Arieff report 23 Aug 2006 - excerpt:
Arab League UN Observer Yahya Mahmassani said he had pressed [UN Security Council President] Effah-Apenteng to hold the planned council meeting [scheduled for next Monday] behind closed doors, so that participants could speak frankly.One wonders what he means by "guarantees". For a UN force not to arrest any of the 51 people on UN/ICC list of suspected Darfur war criminals?
"An open meeting is very bad. If they want to do something, let's have a closed meeting (or) everyone speaks to the media, to the street," he said.
The goal of such a meeting should be to convince Khartoum to accept a UN force, he said. "If you can, give them some guarantees, give them some explanation, don't give them a diktat," he said.
NRF/JEM's 'peace lover' Ibrahim in Paris calls for a large front, says Sudan unity best choice
Khalil Ibrahim, leader of JEM rebel group opposed to the Darfur Peace Agreement called upon Sudanese political forces to form a large front for the marginalised region in the country, affirming that the safeguard of the Sudanese unity still best option, Sudan Tribune reported 21 Aug 2006. Excerpt:
Ibrahim, invited all the political forces form the different Sudanese regions to constitute a large front to defeat the ruling National Congress Party in the future elections.
Khalil, who was speaking Sunday in a political meeting with Sudanese community in Paris, said all the political regional forces have to unify their efforts to break the domination of northern forces represented today by the National Congress Party. He added that marginalized northern Sudanese have also to join us.
He further said the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) should join us with the Eastern Sudan Front, the Nouba Mountains and any marginalized people in the country. He underscored that the objective of this front is to realize a just repartition of wealth and to assure political representation of all regions in the central government.
The JEM leader insisted that the unity of the Sudan is the best solution for the benefit of all the Sudanese. He added that some southern Sudanese think they have oil and they can choose the independence. "Actually oil is everywhere in the Sudan, and all of us have great benefit to establish a big internal market, because great states are countries that have big internal market. So, we have no interest to establish a small state".
Last June during a visit to Slovenia, the JEM leader said "Now as the next step that means that we will ask for self-determination - we're going to have our own country".
In Paris, Khalil told the young Darurians refugees that Darfur people have no interest to plaid for such orientation.
JEM AND NRF CONTROL DARFUR MILITARILY
On the political situation in Darfur, Khalil said "we peace lovers" and we want to negotiate peaceful settlement with the Sudanese government. Now three months after the signing of the peace deal, international community understands better why we are opposed to the DPA.
The JEM leader said that the demand of one Darfur region and the fair compensations for the refugees and IDPs are the main points in the regional level.
He said that JEM and its allies in the NRF are now the first military force and the Sudanese army can't defeat them militarily.
He announced that the first NRF conference will be held in Darfur at the end of the current month to adopt the structures of the movement.
On 30 June, the Sudan Liberation Movement of Khamis Abdalla Abakr; Justice & Equality Movement of Khalil Ibrahim and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance of Ahmed Ibrahim Diraig and Sharif Harir founded from Asmara the NRF. Since, most of Minni Minawi troops rejoined the newly formed group.
Darfur rebels JEM/NRMD attack Sudan gov't soldiers in Goz Mino, W Darfur killing 3, injuring 2
"On 18 August a SAF camp has been attacked in Goz Mino by rebel group believed to be JEM and NRMD*, killing one officer, two soldiers and injuring other two. The situation in Jabel Moon remains tense. The SAF is preparing to clear the rebel from the area", UN Country Team in Sudan reported 21 Aug 2006 via ReliefWeb. Note further excerpts and mention of green uniforms:
- - -
NMRD and NRF
Darfur rebels broke away from the JEM group and called themselves the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD).
Excerpt from The Sudanese Thinker 15 Aug 2006 - Darfur Rebels: Who's Who?:
Sudan Tribune report 21 Aug 2006 claims JEM & NRF control Darfur militarily. Excerpt:
South Darfur Security:[*Could this be NRF? - see links here below]
On 17 August a commercial truck loaded with goods and passengers from Graida to Salamala village was attacked by some armed men dressed in green uniform. A man was shot dead while four others sustained injuries. Goods worth several thousands of dinars were looted by the attackers.
West Darfur Security:
On 19 August it was reported that a group of Chadian army ran away from their barrack and entered Sudan. A group from the Chadian army who pursued to capture the deserter soldiers met with SAF and clashed on the border near Kulbus. No information of casualties or killed has been reported. After a brief exchange of fire, the Chadian army went back to the Chadian side.
- - -
NMRD and NRF
Darfur rebels broke away from the JEM group and called themselves the National Movement for Reform and Development (NMRD).
Excerpt from The Sudanese Thinker 15 Aug 2006 - Darfur Rebels: Who's Who?:
National Redemption Front (NRF): The recently formed NRF is a coalition of rebels opposed to the peace deal, including JEM, former commanders from both SLA factions (al-Nur has disassociated himself from the group) and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance.JEM/NRF CONTROL DARFUR MILITARILY?
The Sudan Tribune's website has a copy of NRF's founding declaration, including its objectives. It calls for "a just system of sharing wealth and power between the various regions of Sudan", "regional self rule" and "fair participation" in national politics.
The NRF now holds sway in much of north Darfur. It has reportedly been involved in offensive actions, such as an attack on a town in North Kordofan and a military base belonging to Minnawi's faction in Sayah. This week it said it had shot down a Sudanese government bomber, but the government denied the report.
Sudan Tribune report 21 Aug 2006 claims JEM & NRF control Darfur militarily. Excerpt:
On 30 June, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) of Khamis Abdalla Abakr; Justice & Equality Movement (JEM) of Khalil Ibrahim and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA) of Ahmed Ibrahim Diraig and Sharif Harir founded from Asmara the National Redemption Fron (NRF). Since, most of Minni Minawi troops rejoined the newly formed group.I wonder how and why Ibrahim gains entry to France and Sudan whenever he pleases. Immigration rules seem bent in favour of criminals.
U.S. says UN deployment in Darfur should be immediate
The State Department called Tuesday for deployment of a U.N. force in Darfur without delay.
"Only a large, mobile, fast-reacting and robust U.N. peacekeeping force is capable of confronting the multiple, complex challenges that currently exist in Darfur," State Department press officer Curtis Cooper said. - AP Aug 22, 2006 via ST.
"Only a large, mobile, fast-reacting and robust U.N. peacekeeping force is capable of confronting the multiple, complex challenges that currently exist in Darfur," State Department press officer Curtis Cooper said. - AP Aug 22, 2006 via ST.
U.S. opposes Sudan plan to send troops to Darfur
The United States on Tuesday strongly criticized Sudan's plan to send more of its own troops into Darfur and said a "credible and legitimate" U.N. force was needed to stop the carnage, Reuters reported Aug 22, 2006 (via ST). Excerpt:
State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the United States was very concerned about the plan and urged Sudan's government to allow a U.N. force into Darfur without delay to stop what the United States say is genocide.Why don't the Government of Sudan order its forces (if as it says it has control over its forces) to act as if it has the mandate of African Union peacekeepers in Darfur?
"Only a large, mobile, fast-reacting and robust (U.N.) force is capable of confronting the military challenges that exist in Darfur," Gallegos told Reuters.
"This credible and legitimate U.N. force, with African forces forming its core, should include Africans in key leadership positions," he said.
Gallegos said the goal of a U.N. force would be to help those displaced by the conflict and to stop increasing attacks on humanitarian workers as well as get life-saving humanitarian aid to those who needed it most.
"The Sudanese government must do its part to enable this transition to move forward immediately," he said.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
AMZAR Trading & Services Ltd., in Khartoum provides disgusting $3,60 meals to African soldiers in Sudan's Darfur
Here below is a photo from Soldier of Africa showing what AMZAR food services and catering company in Khartoum feed to young fit African soldiers in Darfur. Disgusting.
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen this photo with my own eyes. Werner says the beans had sand in them and no bread was provided. Why no bread?
The AU mission in Darfur costs $17m per month. You'd think it could take better care of its troops and employ cooks to at least bake fresh bread. In war zones, mealtimes are the highlight of any soldiers day and can be a morale booster. Here's what Werner wrote to accompany the photo:
Photo: AMZAR's Khartoum Office. Blurb from its website:
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen this photo with my own eyes. Werner says the beans had sand in them and no bread was provided. Why no bread?
The AU mission in Darfur costs $17m per month. You'd think it could take better care of its troops and employ cooks to at least bake fresh bread. In war zones, mealtimes are the highlight of any soldiers day and can be a morale booster. Here's what Werner wrote to accompany the photo:
My $3,60 MealAMZAR Trading & Services Ltd., Khartoum
"This is what we had to eat today. I could not eat the beans because it had too much sand in. Guess who is hungry. AMZAR, the company who is supposed to cater for us regularly surprises with little food, terrible quality meat with more bones than the actual meat and no bread. The Sudanese people are eating better than us, which is actually good, but AMZAR gets millions of dollars to give us reasonable standard food and as you can see it is not happening. At least the potato salad was very good, but for seconds I would have had to give another meal coupon, which would have cost me another $3,60."
Photo: AMZAR's Khartoum Office. Blurb from its website:
AMZAR Trading and Services Ltd., was established in 1988 by its two founders and sole shareholders, Mr Amin Ahmed Hassab El Rasoul and Mr Nazar El Sammani Yacoub.Amzar contact details says "if you have any query, require further information or wish to use our services, please get in touch with us and we will be delighted to help you." I might send them a link to this post and ask them if they think the meal in the photo is fit for young soldiers on active service in a war zone.
The Company, (registration No. C/6427) was set up in order to meet the demand for
- a professional food services and catering company in the Sudan to operate at the highest levels in terms of professionalism, customer service and food hygiene
- a trading services company that could source and supply both locally and for export a wide range of Sudanese produce of consistently high quality at competitive prices.
Amzar Trading & Services Ltd. PO Box 2506 Khartoum, Sudan. Tel: (+249 1) 83 472508 Fax:(+249 1) 83 474990
Wear a blue (or green!) hat on September 17th
Following on from previous Sudan Watch entry - Activists' Global Day for Darfur campaign Sep 17 calls for world leaders to push for UN force in Darfur - here is a copy of a blog entry by Abbas at 3quarksdaily.
WHAT OTHER BLOGGERS ARE SAYING
Aug 22 2006 Pinko Feminist Hellcat: Global Day for Darfur
Wear a blue hat on September 17thHey, those in favour of African Union peacekeepers ought to wear green AU hats in protest of the misguided activists wearing blue UN hats!
Despite the signing of a Darfur peace agreement on 5 May 2006, the violence in western Sudan has not stopped; in fact, in some parts of Darfur, the violence has grown worse.
People are still being killed and raped and displaced - every single day.
On September 17 people around the world will take part in the Global Day for Darfur to show world-wide support for the Darfuri people and to put pressure on our Governments to protect the civilians.
We hope that you will be able to join us on the Global Day for Darfur.
More here. [Thanks to Veronica V. Mittnacht.]
And more info available here.
WHAT OTHER BLOGGERS ARE SAYING
Aug 22 2006 Pinko Feminist Hellcat: Global Day for Darfur
On May 5, a peace agreement was signed in the hopes that it would stop the bloodshed in Sudan. This has not happened yet.
September 17 is the Global Day for Darfur. The day will feature candle light vigils, rallies, exhibitions, and performances.
Go to the site and sign the petition to strenghten efforts to keep the peace and stop the genocide.
Activists' "Global Day for Darfur" campaign Sep 17 calls for world leaders to push for UN force in Darfur
Click onto the flags at Global Day for Darfur and see events taking place in those countries on Sep 17. Here's some of what you see when you click onto the UK flag at the site:
Sudanese Embassy Demonstration
What: Demonstration outside the Sudanese Embassy in London.
When: Sunday 17th September, 11:00 am to 12:00 pm.
Organiser: David Brown, Aegis Trust, +00 44 (0)1623 836 627, and Ishag Mekki, Darfur Union.
Supported by: Aegis Trust, Darfur Union
Further information: www.aegistrust.org - Genocide Prevention Charity the Aegis Trust is organising a demonstration outside the Sudanese Embassy to protest against the continued opposition to UN deployment in Sudan. The people of Darfur desperately need a UN force that can bring peace and stability to this troubled region of Sudan. The Government of Sudan has so far blocked efforts to put a UN peace keeping mission on the ground. This must stop.
Day for Darfur UK Rally and Darfur Exhibition launch
What: Indoor Rally with political speaker and supporters
When: Sunday 17th September, 12:30 am to 2:30 pm.
Where: TBC
Organiser: Hratche Koundarjian, Aegis Trust, +44 207 735 3154 (for Rally) and David Brown, Aegis Trust, +00 44 (0)1623 836 627 (for exhibition).
Supported by:
Further information: www.aegistrust.org - Genocide Prevention Charity the Aegis Trust is organising a indoor rally at a central London location to include speakers from the world of politics, film and music. A preview of a new mobile exhibition on genocide and the responsibility to protect, with reference to Darfur as well as to past genocides including the Holocaust and Rwanda, will also be unveiled at the event. The event will aim raise the profile of the Darfur crisis and call on world leaders to push for a deployment of UN peacekeepers.
A Prayer for Darfur
What: Active Faith: A Prayer for Darfur
When: Sunday 17th September, Time TBC
Where: Gates of Downing Street, Whitehall, SW1A
Organiser: Christa Bennett, 0207 243 0300
Supported by: Waging Peace
Further information: www.wagingpeace.info - We welcome this opportunity to remind the Prime Minister of his moral obligation. We ask that:
- Britain push the UN to enforce its resolutions on Darfur and put genuine pressure on the government of Sudan;
- to strengthen the African Union force;
- and to provide a well-equipped UN peacekeeping force a mandate to protect civilians and disarm those who terrorise, rape, and kill them.
Sudanese Embassy Demonstration
What: Demonstration outside the Sudanese Embassy in London.
When: Sunday 17th September, 11:00 am to 12:00 pm.
Organiser: David Brown, Aegis Trust, +00 44 (0)1623 836 627, and Ishag Mekki, Darfur Union.
Supported by: Aegis Trust, Darfur Union
Further information: www.aegistrust.org - Genocide Prevention Charity the Aegis Trust is organising a demonstration outside the Sudanese Embassy to protest against the continued opposition to UN deployment in Sudan. The people of Darfur desperately need a UN force that can bring peace and stability to this troubled region of Sudan. The Government of Sudan has so far blocked efforts to put a UN peace keeping mission on the ground. This must stop.
Day for Darfur UK Rally and Darfur Exhibition launch
What: Indoor Rally with political speaker and supporters
When: Sunday 17th September, 12:30 am to 2:30 pm.
Where: TBC
Organiser: Hratche Koundarjian, Aegis Trust, +44 207 735 3154 (for Rally) and David Brown, Aegis Trust, +00 44 (0)1623 836 627 (for exhibition).
Supported by:
Further information: www.aegistrust.org - Genocide Prevention Charity the Aegis Trust is organising a indoor rally at a central London location to include speakers from the world of politics, film and music. A preview of a new mobile exhibition on genocide and the responsibility to protect, with reference to Darfur as well as to past genocides including the Holocaust and Rwanda, will also be unveiled at the event. The event will aim raise the profile of the Darfur crisis and call on world leaders to push for a deployment of UN peacekeepers.
A Prayer for Darfur
What: Active Faith: A Prayer for Darfur
When: Sunday 17th September, Time TBC
Where: Gates of Downing Street, Whitehall, SW1A
Organiser: Christa Bennett, 0207 243 0300
Supported by: Waging Peace
Further information: www.wagingpeace.info - We welcome this opportunity to remind the Prime Minister of his moral obligation. We ask that:
- Britain push the UN to enforce its resolutions on Darfur and put genuine pressure on the government of Sudan;
- to strengthen the African Union force;
- and to provide a well-equipped UN peacekeeping force a mandate to protect civilians and disarm those who terrorise, rape, and kill them.
Sudan's plan for Darfur involves its own force, not the UN's
In her commentary in the New York Times Aug 22, 2006, Lydia Polgreen notes that Sudan's Darfur protection plan, delivered to the UN Aug 2, does not explicitly reject a UN force. Fellow blogger Ed posted a copy of the commentary before it slipped into NYT archive. Not sure if this is an excerpt or copy in full:
Sudan's Plan for Darfur Involves Its Own Force, Not the U.N.'s
By LYDIA POLGREEN KHARTOUM, Sudan, Aug. 21 2006
Sudan's government has proposed using more than 10,000 of its own troops to quell the violence in the troubled region of Darfur instead of the United Nations peacekeeping force that it has repeatedly refused.
The Sudanese plan was presented to the United Nations Security Council last week, but whether it is a serious blueprint or another tactic in the country's efforts to stall or thwart a United Nations peacekeeping force remains to be seen. Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has been engaged in an escalating war of words over the proposed United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur, declaring that Sudan would "defeat any forces entering the country just as Hezbollah has defeated the Israeli forces," according to the state-run news agency, Suna.
Under the plan, the Sudanese government would use the troops to "gain control of the security situation and achieve stability in Darfur" and to "deal with the threats posed by the activities of groups that have rejected the Darfur peace agreement," which was signed on May 5.
The plan does not explicitly reject a United Nations force, which the United States and others have advocated to secure the shaky peace agreement. But it makes clear that Sudan believes it should be responsible for stabilizing the worsening crisis in Darfur.
Sudan's Plan for Darfur Involves Its Own Force, Not the U.N.'s
By LYDIA POLGREEN KHARTOUM, Sudan, Aug. 21 2006
Sudan's government has proposed using more than 10,000 of its own troops to quell the violence in the troubled region of Darfur instead of the United Nations peacekeeping force that it has repeatedly refused.
The Sudanese plan was presented to the United Nations Security Council last week, but whether it is a serious blueprint or another tactic in the country's efforts to stall or thwart a United Nations peacekeeping force remains to be seen. Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has been engaged in an escalating war of words over the proposed United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur, declaring that Sudan would "defeat any forces entering the country just as Hezbollah has defeated the Israeli forces," according to the state-run news agency, Suna.
Under the plan, the Sudanese government would use the troops to "gain control of the security situation and achieve stability in Darfur" and to "deal with the threats posed by the activities of groups that have rejected the Darfur peace agreement," which was signed on May 5.
The plan does not explicitly reject a United Nations force, which the United States and others have advocated to secure the shaky peace agreement. But it makes clear that Sudan believes it should be responsible for stabilizing the worsening crisis in Darfur.
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